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Chris Knight's avatar

“No Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or TwitPic!” That’s the dictate being sent to sports fans and students of Southeastern Conference member schools if they want to attend athletic events. Under its newly adopted media policy, the SEC has informed its schools that “Ticketed fans can’t produce or disseminate (or aid in producing or disseminating) any material or information about the Event, including, but not limited to, any account, description, picture, video, audio, reproduction or other information concerning the Event.”

It’s effectively a ban on all so-called “social media”. Per the new regs, a fan could get ejected from the premises simply for using his iPhone to take a picture of himself at a Gators football game and sending it to his friends on Facebook.

So what’s behind this boneheaded move? The $3 billion contact with CBS for the next 15 years, giving that network exclusive media rights to cover SEC ...

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…are the most screwed-up brackets that I’ve seen in a way long time.

I’m beginning to see some merit to Dad’s suggestion: take the top 64 teams, and apart from the teams that deserve to be #1 seeds, pick numbers out of a hat and pair ’em up randomly.

I still haven’t given up hope that someday, I’ll live long enough to see Elon University go to the Big Dance. Along with witnessing firsthand a real tornado, it’s one of my aspirations in life 🙂...

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Mario Chalmers (now and forever a Kansas folk hero after his 3-pointer that sent the game into overtime) and Darrell Arthur of the Jayhawks have their one shining moment…

Kansas 75, Memphis 68 in overtime. That was the most thrilling and pure crazy NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship I’ve seen in a way long time! Kudos to Bill Self and his team on a spectacular win.

Congrats also to the Tigers of Memphis for coming this far and driving to deliver what will go down in history as one of the all-time greatest NCAA finals ever played.

And after that game I think we all need a good drink…...

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A longtime friend was banned for life from a sports restaurant last night after breaking-bad on UNC-Chapel Hill, which lost bigtime against Kansas in the semifinal of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. The Jayhawks won 84 to 66. Not once did Carolina take the lead, and at one time they were down by 28 points. Apparently my friend could not contain his relish at the Tarheels going down so hard.

Another friend is reportedly going to burn his “lucky underwear”, which he had worn during every UNC game for the past few seasons.

I’ve already warned Lisa to expect some long, sad faces tomorrow at school. Whether there will be more depression among the students or her colleagues, remains an open question.

And after reviewing both semifinals last night, I’ve my own guess as to who’ll win between Kansas and Memphis tomorrow night. But at this point, it doesn’t really ...

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9:31 p.m. EST: One of the announcers has just said that this game “is over” already, with 7 and a half minutes left in just the first half! Kansas 38 and UNC 12.

Someone who shall remain anonymous has told me that Davidson did better against Kansas than the Tarheels are doing tonight.

9:44 p.m. EST: 40-19, Jayhawks still in the lead with just over 3 and a half minutes in the first half. Carolina is starting to show some pepper here.

9:51 p.m. EST: Kansas 44, UNC 27 at the half. Kansas might have burned much of their juice too early in this game and Carolina is still gaining some traction. All the same, I’d love to be a fly on the wall in the Tarheels locker room right now.

10:20 p.m. EST: 15:54 in the second half, Kansas with 54 and 40 for Carolina. If both teams stay ...

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“Trees will tap dance, elephants will ride in the Indianapolis 500, and Orson Wells will skip breakfast, lunch, and dinner before State finds a way to beat Houston.”

— Dave Kindred
writer for The Washington Post
April 4th, 1983

It became, and remains to this day, the defining sports moment of the modern era.

It was twenty-five years ago tonight, on April 4th, 1983, that North Carolina State won the NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Championship, in what has become regarded by many as the single greatest basketball game ever played and one of the biggest upsets in the history of athletics.

It also produced some of the most memorable sports images to be ever televised or photographed.

What can be said about that game that hasn’t already over a quarter-century? Nobody was expecting the Wolfpack of NC State to take down Houston. Guy Lewis’s Cougars – dubbed “Phi Slamma ...

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Oh yeah, this is the weekend of Easter too, right? And tomorrow is Good Friday. So it really is the High Holy Days, isn’t it?

Okay “High Holy Days” is my own personal nickname for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. It kicks into high gear today and here are the brackets for it courtesy of CBS Sports.

It ain’t looking good for the Knight household though: this year the NCAA honchos have put the three teams we have the most affection for in the same region! Duke (my longtime favorite Atlantic Coast Conference team along with N.C. State), Georgia (Lisa’s alma mater) and Baylor (where Lisa’s brother is attending) are all playing in the West. In fact, if they both come out of their first games intact it’s going to be Baylor and Georgia playing each other! And then of course whoever wins that will be sent home ...

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This may be the dumbest thing that I’ve ever heard from the world of sports journalism: a few weeks ago the National Collegiate Athletic Association implemented new rules for live blogging at NCAA-sponsored sporting events. The whole thing got started when a sports writer was thrown out of a college baseball game for providing an online chronicle of the action as it happened. The NCAA screamed about “infringing” on the rights of the broadcast partners.

In the wake of the uproar, last month the NCAA established some… strange… regulations for live blogging by professional sports reporters at college athletic events:

Football
– Three posts per quarter and one post at halftime

Baseball
– One post per inning, including extra innings

Basketball
– Five posts per half, two posts in halftime, two posts per each overtime

Not only that, but each blog must display the NCAA logo (what the… %@#&?!?!?) and ...

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