Bleacher Report - Articles by Bill Jordan

Examining Fox's Advertising During Super Bowl XLII

Bill Jordan — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 23:29:13 -0500

Asides from hearing Joe Buck say, “And we want to remind you that House is coming up next,” every so often, the actual broadcast of the game had very little sponsorship involved compared to most regular-season games.

The thing that caught me offguard the most was the Red Carpet show before the pregame show before the pre-kick show before the coin toss. The entire to-do was basically an advertisement for American Idol, as Ryan Seacrest asked football “experts” such as Jay Leno their picks for the night’s contest.

Every other minute, Seacrest would spin Fox to a break where the same American Idol commercial was playing in a seemingly perpetual loop.

This got me thinking because the usual audience for a football game would not be one who would want to tune in to watch a show like American Idol, which shows how different the audience of the Super Bowl is from other games. Usually, there are tough guy commercials about beer, trucks, and changing one’s own oil (something I have never done nor will I ever try).

This, however, is something that would be targeted probably more towards females, if I had to pick a gender, and a group of people who have the mindset only to turn into the Super Bowl because of the commercials (forget the possibility that the Patriots had of joining the 1948 Browns, oh, and the 1972 Dolphins of going undefeated).

As the game went on, the American Idol commercials became even more prominent than I could imagine. While most of their commercials could be in the same category as the paint in dorm rooms: boring, they did have one commercial featuring Pittsburgh Steelers’ quarterback Ben Roethlisberger singing in the locker room in full uniform.

I know that the commercials are supposed to make you want to watch what they are for, but as the game wore on, I had a great urge to push the fast forward button on my life to skip this decade and see if that show is still on the air in 2018.

The stakeholders involved would have been the members of American Idol, Fox, and the viewers. Fox definitely got the message about their new season out there (and with the writer’s strike at the time, I have to imagine that ratings are going to be higher than ever).

I also wonder why they have to advertise a show that is already more popular than any other show on television right now. Does Fox really need to waste their precious advertising space on one of their own shows that already does extremely well? Perhaps the makers of the show had to pay the network something, even though the rights are owned by Fox, to put it on TV, but one has to imagine they got it at a discount rate.

By my unofficial account, that is at least $22.5 million that Fox is missing out on ($2.5 million per 30 seconds of commercial for nine commercials).

I guess if I was a fan of the show, I would have liked the previews they showed, although, I don’t think I would have wanted to see the same one five times. It would have served them much better to make a couple more creative commercials like the Roethlisberger clip so that big rough and tumble oil changers would have some way to relate to what they were trying to sell.

Also, at this point in the show’s existence, I’m pretty sure that everyone knows what it is about and most have decided whether or not they are going to watch it.

Overall, I would say it was a bad move by Fox to show so many of these commercials since, not only could they have made more money, but they also could have advertised something that people may have been persuaded into doing or buying.

While House was brought up many times, there weren’t nearly as many commercials for that as there were for American Idol, and that’s a show that actually has a story line. I guess this all just shows that the companies will always focus on their big product.

Pepsi advertises even though they probably don’t need to. The same for Pizza Hut or Wal-Mart, but this just shows how the business world works. A great emphasis is placed on the biggest and best of what is available and everything else is left behind.

Except for American Idol and House, I have no idea what else there is to watch on Fox (besides football of course).

This writer can be reached by e-mail at billjordaniv@yahoo.com.

Cardinal May Not Be Sleeper Pick Much Longer

Bill Jordan — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 13:28:05 -0400

Stanford has about as good a shot at being a surprise this year as any other team not currently on the national radar. They opened the season with an eight-point win against Oregon State, a game in which they were the underdog.

Although their schedule is not easy, they only have four games against ranked opponents left on the schedule, but after last year’s win over USC—called the “biggest upset ever” in Palo Alto—there’s no telling who they could upset next.

They probably have the best chance of any unranked team to upset a ranked opponent when they take on conference opponent Arizona State this weekend.

After their game against the Sun Devils, the Cardinal play five unranked opponents before they take on the current No. 23 ranked team in the country, UCLA.

They could realistically win four of those five games, with their most likely trip-up being on September 27 when they face former Cardinal head coach, Ty Willingham, and University of Washington.

The end or their schedule is rough though with three of their last five games against ranked opponents and their last game away against hated-rival Cal.

With confident sophomore quarterback Tavita Pritchard starting for the Cardinal, the offense can only get better throughout the season. Pritchard did not have a great start to the season, but he should not be blamed for his minuscule 91 yards through the air against the Beavers since he only attempted 17 passes (with 10 completions).

It looks as though head coach Jim Harbaugh is going to rely on the rushing attack this season with the team amassing 210 yards on the ground during the first contest, giving them better than a two-to-one ratio on rushing to passing yards.

Junior running back Toby Gerhart showed he was ready to carry the offensive load during the first game of the season. Even though he has just over 600 yards in his career, he ran for 147 during the team’s first game, but the most amazing statistic is his 7.7 yards per carry (not to mention his two touchdowns). If Gerhart can continue to produce somewhere close to that rate for the rest of the season, the Stanford running game will be in the top of the Pac Ten.

This is a team that is also building for the future. With a sophomore quarterback and five players already committed for the 2009 season with a grade of 78 or higher, the Cardinal may not be able to be a sleeper pick much longer.

Coming off the team’s biggest win in at least a decade last season, Harbaugh has the Cardinal faithful believing something big can happen this year and in the seasons to come.

The Cardinal may not end the season ranked, but they will make a bowl game for the first time in a while. They could finish 8-4, although 7-5 is more realistic, making them a lock for a bowl game.

NCAA Must Come Down Hard on USC

Bill Jordan — Tue, 13 May 2008 03:02:16 -0400

Obviously, whatever the NCAA is doing to stop athletes from receiving money from boosters or agents is not enough.

One has to admit that big-time college athletes on scholarship have it great. At the very least, they avoid going thousands of dollars in debt, while everyone else their age goes ever more deeply into debt, and at best, they are about to become multi-millionaires because they are good at playing a game.

The problem with the current system is that it is too lenient. There is a huge aura of, “That’s just how it’s done,” surrounding college athletics, and that has to stop.

There was an interesting piece on Outside the Lines last year about how some college football players were using their living stipend for video game systems because they were living in public, or provided, housing. These types of stories make one want to drop the first word from the “student-athlete” label.

Since this incident with OJ Mayo is the second major violation at USC, they should be given a huge penalty since they didn’t get the hint the first time.

Schools are not going to start watching these acts as closely as they should if they are not going to be penalized for their actions.

For the NCAA to be taken seriously, what should happen is:

The basketball team loses three scholarships for three years and two for the next two.
The football team loses five scholarships for the next five years.
The basketball team has to sit out the postseason for the next two years and the football team has to sit out bowl season for one.

Obviously, USC fans are going to hate this because of what it will do to their program. Pete Carroll is probably not going to spend any time at a place that cannot compete with other schools, and will probably leave, even though he may have been able to prevent the problem.

If that happens however, it will show other college administrators that they had better stay on top of things to make sure there’s no illegal business going on off of the field.

The athletes involved in these money schemes are almost always ones who are going to be high draft picks in their respective leagues, and because of that, instant millionaires.

Their life is already going to be so much better financially than their peers, and with

their free education, they have absolutely no right to be receiving other benefits simply because they are talented on the sports field.

Not only does this harm the university, but the kids who are involved similar incidents always get off completely free of punishment since they are usually out of college and getting paid legally by the time the news comes out.

In Reggie Bush’s case, there is an outside possibility that he will have to return his Heisman Trophy, but the Trojans are not going to have any conference or national championships taken away because of his, or his family’s, actions.

If the NCAA does not come down hard on USC for this case, the rest of the agents, boosters, and even sports administrators around the country are going to see how this case was handled and think that they can at least loosen the reigns on their program.

If schools learn that the winning is so much more of a positive than the punishment is a negative, they are going to choose to win 100 percent of the time.

(Of course this should only happen if the NCAA finds there is truth in the allegations during their investigation.)

This writer can be contacted by e-mail at BJordan@BusinessofSportsNetwork.com.

Comments Not Overheard During the First Round of NBA Playoffs

Bill Jordan — Mon, 05 May 2008 07:31:12 -0400

The following are quotes that were not overheard during the first round of the NBA playoffs.

(Hit: Use your imagination.)

“The Wizards sure shut down LeBron with their hard nosed fouling technique.”

“It’s a good thing Steve Kerr pulled the trigger on that Shaq trade as he was the difference in their series against the Spurs.”

“Chris Paul has never really lived up to the hype.”

“The Nuggets reliance on defense is the only reason they got as far as they did.”

“Dirk would have been a great addition to the Bad Boy Pistons teams of the early nineties.”

“Whoever said a team from Canada couldn’t hold their own in the playoffs didn’t know basketball.”

“Rasheed Wallace is all business when he is on the court 100 percent of the time.”

“As we thought, the Celtics easily took care of the Hawks in four games.”

“Utah will never be a power in the west without Stockton and Malone.”

“The Knicks’ recent off season moves have them poised for a run through the Eastern Conference next season.”

“Larry Brown will now start his lengthy tenure as the Bobcats’ head coach.”

“Jason Kidd proved he is still one of the best point guards in the NBA.”

“Making fun of the other team’s superstar will always turn the series in your favor.”

“If there’s one thing that can be said about Mark Cuban, it’s that he’s a hands off owner.”

“The Spurs and Pistons really do play an exciting brand of basketball.”

“That round of the playoffs sure flew by in a hurry.”

“Tracy McGrady will never be thought of as the player who failed to get out of the first round.”

“I’m tired of Utah getting so much attention from the national media.”

“These games really can’t stack up against the NHL playoffs.”

“It’s going to take the Sixers a while to get back to the playoffs after trading Allen Iverson.”

This writer can be reached by e-mail at BJordan@BusinessofSportsNetwork.com.

Numbers Reversed: Due to BCS Error, Hiram to Play OSU for National Championship

Bill Jordan — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 06:11:07 -0400

(This article was written last year before Florida beat OSU in the 2007 National Championship game. Since I just joined BleacherReport.com, I thought I would share it.)

There were three teams in the conversation for the national championship, but after USC was upset by UCLA in a defensive thriller, the competition was stiff between Florida and Michigan to see who would play against the Buckeyes in the title game. Florida bested Arkansas and continued the whole debate at an all new level. Ann Arbor and Gainesville were all waiting Sunday night when OSU’s competition would be revealed. Would it be Wolverines or Gators fighting for the right to claim the glass football on January eighth? That was the question.

As the BCS selection show neared, television cameras were in place in all of the major campuses in the top fifteen of the BCS standings from the week before to see who would get the bowl bids.

The announcer for FOX was ready to announce it; knees were shaking all over the country. Who would it be? He said, “Now is the time to learn whether it will be Michigan or Florida against Ohio State in the national championship. And it will be…Hiram?” He wasn’t the only person who was surprised. The other two announcers had not even heard of the mighty Terriers from Northeast Ohio and were about to ridicule their partner for reading the script wrong when he pointed a finger to the teleprompter to show that indeed, Hiram, a school of less than 1,000 students was headed to Arizona.

Shots of the other campuses who had earned a right to a BCS bowl had been shown full of energetic students and coaches ready to get their game plans set to face their opponent. All that was there for Hiram was a quick shot in the coach’s office where recently resigned Coach Mike Luzusky filling a box with his possessions to head out and start a job search. The reporter asked, “How does it feel to be headed to the big game? Your team came out of no where.” Coach looked straight at the camera and glared, “This is not funny, you college students are always playing some game.” What a quote from a coach about to embark on the biggest game of his life.

When the numbers were delved into, it was seen that Hiram’s 0-10 record had actually been reversed to 10-0. The strength of schedule you ask? Well some how the NCAC had been confused with the ACC. Both having one A and two C’s it seemed as easy a mistake as any. Margin of victory had also been reversed. Showing that Hiram had handedly beat their opponents by an average score of 43-9, they now ranked first in the country in that category.

Originally their best game of the season, a 24-16 loss to Earlham, was now the game that statistically hurt them the most in the standings. It was their games against the College of Wooster and Ohio Wesleyan that helped them gain the confidence of coaches and computers across the country.

Earlier, OSU had complained about only getting 1,000 tickets to sell to their students. When Hiram President Tom Chema was asked about the dilemma, he looked at the reporter confused and claimed, “What dilemma? With this amount of tickets all of our students will be able to go.”

Sports journalists all across America wanted to learn about the rich football history that must exist in a town such as Hiram. All they could find was that the Cleveland Browns used to use the campus for their mini camps and that one day Hall of Fame Running Back Leroy Kelly got a wiffle ball stuck on the roof of one of the dorms, Centennial Hall.

With all of the hype over Hiram’s emergence, the school has decided to cancel the spring 12 week semester and give everyone straight A’s for being in such good support of the football program.

So the game is set, Heisman Candidate Troy Smith and his Ohio State Buckeyes (not to mention their cool helmet stickers) against the ferocious Terriers of Hiram College with their explosive offense headed by Trevor Henderson, who just happens to have the same number as Buckeye wide out Ted Ginn Jr., Hiram hopes the similarities don’t end there.

Whether it was because Garrettsville sounds so similar to Gainesville or because Hiram’s third string place kicker Clint Blackberry is a spitting image of Michiganrunning back Mike Hart, the Terriers snuck by Florida and Michigan to claim the number two spot.

Now the question: Who will win? Let the country start its debate.

Hiram’s number one fan who is known as “Little Dogg” on campus claims that Hiram’s chances can be summed up in these words, “No way in Hell.”

What confidence this mighty team has to run on. Tune in on January 8^th to see the much anticipated result. No one will be disappointed. Many experts from ESPN claim that this match up should be even bigger than last year’s Texas, USC game.

The author of this article can be reached by e-mail at BJordan@BusinessofSportsNetwork.com.

Future NBA Moves That Make As Much Sense As Moving the Sonics to Oklahoma City

Bill Jordan — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 06:42:44 -0400

From a pure financial standpoint, moving the Sonics to Oklahoma City does not make much sense. It makes even less sense when the history of the NBA is taken into account, but if there is one thing fans of the league have learned, nothing has to make any sense to the league unless THEY believe it will benefit them in a monetary sense.

The Sonics are a storied franchise with a 40-year history and many successful teams from separate eras. How does moving them to an arena, that is not brand new, simply because the tax payers of Seattle will not build a new one make any sense?

Now that it seems inevitable that the Sonics will move to Oklahoma City, it feels appropriate to go over a list of things that may happen during the next decade in the NBA that will make at least as much sense as moving a team from a television market ranked in the teens to one that is ranked in the 40s.

-The NBDL will get a major television deal to broadcast its games nationally.

-After the league finishes visiting Asia and Europe, they will branch out to every other continent, eventually playing a game in Antarctica to truly achieve their global reach.

-The league will consist of 82 teams in different countries across the world. In order to compete with the cold weather events of playoff football and the NHL’s new annual outdoor game, the NBA will plan its own outside game during the winter in a football stadium (players will still have to wear their traditional uniforms).

-After drafting UNC’s Tyler Hansbrough with the first-overall pick in the NBA draft, Michael Jordan will make his third comeback with the Bobcats.

-Players from the San Antonio Spurs and Detroit Pistons will be dispersed equally around the league so every team will have the same amount of boring, fundamentally sound players who complain about every foul called against them.

-LeBron James gets so fed up with head coach Mike Brown’s offense that he tells general manager Danny Ferry to fire Brown and hire James as a player/coach.

-All new stadiums will be built to seat at least 40,000 people to maximize profitability. The playoffs will go until the beginning of September.

-The Globetrotters will become an official NBA team, but will not have a home stadium. They will truly be globe trotters and play one game against all of the 82 teams from all over the world.

How is all of this going to happen you ask?

-Isiah Thomas is going to be commissioner of the NBA.

By now the league has to realize that moving the Hornets to New Orleans because they couldn’t get a deal done in Charlotte was a bad idea. Moving a team and then putting an expansion team in its place does not make any sense at all. If there has to be a team in Oklahoma City, why not put an expansion team there? (Although I don’t believe the league is ready for another one of those.)

From the standpoint of what is going to make the money, which is the only thing that the league truly cares about, moving a team to a city that is the size of Oklahoma City would not be the most profitable thing to do. Obviously the NBA is mad because the city of Seattle paid for a new baseball and football stadium, but won't pay for a new basketball arena. Yet, packing up and leaving is not the answer and is a disgrace to the league.

(Since the city of Seattle is petitioning to keep their name and colors, the move will be almost exactly like the Cleveland Browns’ move to Baltimore in the mid-90s, something that many still look down upon the league for allowing it to happen.)

This author can be reached by e-mail at BJordan@BusinessofSportsNetwork.com.

NFL Mock Draft: If Al Davis Owned Every Team...

Bill Jordan — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:55:08 -0400

The Top Ten

1. Miami Dolphins select Colt Brennan, quarterback from Hawaii.

The Fins have tried an array of young, skinny, semi-accurate, college quarterbacks, but they figure they have the right formula, just the wrong players and Bill Parcells firmly believes Brennan may just be the next draft jewel and is too excited to wait until day two to take him.

2. St. Louis Rams select Local Grocery Store Employee.

The Rams have only gone down hill since their last former shelf stacker left. This would bring them back to the days of being the best show on turf. Surely there are grocery store workers in the greater St. Louis area with more muscle than Marc Bulger.

3. Atlanta Falcons select Adam Sandler, quarterback from the Longest Yard.

Their last experiment with a quarterback who broke the law worked well for half a decade. The Birds figure Sandler looked better on film than any of the quarterbacks on their roster looked during the entire 2007 regular season.

4. Oakland Raiders select Rashard Mendenhall, running back from Illinois.

Everyone expects Al Davis to take a running back at this pick; they just have the wrong one in mind. Davis claims he has power runners and thus has no need for Darren McFadden. He further states that Mendenhall will be added to the team as a change of pace back to compete with the 19 other running backs already on the roster.

5. Kansas City Chiefs select Ray Rice, running back from Rutgers.

Sure they already have Larry Johnson, but the coaching staff has beat up on him so much over the past couple seasons that they need someone new to pound on. The Chief brass figures Rice was durable while in college and will last at least two seasons for them.

6. New York Jets select Cooper Manning.

The Jets were at home eating chips and dip as the other New York team took home the big trophy last year. The J-E-T-S figure if the other two Manning brothers can win Super Bowls, it must be Cooper’s turn.

7. New England Patriots select Jake Long, offensive tackle from Michigan.

During the Super Bowl, Tom Brady realized he needed an eighth level of protection and Prince Charles always gets what he wants.

8. Baltimore Ravens select Keith Rivers, linebacker from USC.

The Ravens see that Ray Lewis is getting older and figure he needs someone to compete with at the linebacker position. Lewis does not take this kindly and quickly does his best Lance Briggs impersonation; holding out until he is given gobs of money or traded.

9. The Cincinnati Bengals trade their selection to the Tennessee Titans along with Chad

Johnson for Adam “Pacman” Jones and the Titans seventh round draft pick.

The Titans select Steve Slaton, running back from West Virginia.

Head coach Jeff Fisher and company figure they are safe taking a WVU player since Pacman and Chris Henry turned out so badly for the two teams involved in the trade. Their thinking: Slaton is due to be the most moral player in the history of the NFL.

10. New Orleans Saints select Darren McFadden, running back from Arkansas.

Earlier this week, the Saints announced they were going to be able to keep Deuce McAllister for at least once more season. This means that they are going to have to draft a running back for the future to make sure that people keep forgetting what a bust Reggie Bush has turned out to be.

Other Notable Picks in the Draft

12. Denver Broncos select Felix Jones, running back from Arkansas.

Apparently Mike Shanahan was tired of molding non-first round backs into stars. He figured his job will be made easier with this pick and another trade with the Cleveland Browns for half of their defense.

14. Chicago Bears select Kevin Smith, running back from Central Florida.

The Bears have all but given up on Cedric Benson, but they make it well known that this is just a pick that will provide Benson with competition as Smith is not there to take his job. Benson is still the Bears’ franchise back.

15. Detroit Lions select DeSean Jackson, wide receiver from California.

Does this really need an explanation?

22. Dallas Cowboys select the latest version of the Pacman video game.

Hurt by the Titans not sending the person version of Pacman their way, they figure the next best thing is to get the original. They state that he could cover yellow dots like nobody’s business and they hope it will translate to on the field performance.

30. Green Bay Packers select Brett Favre’s male relative who is closest in age to play professional football.

Don’t let the Cheese Heads fool you. They don’t really believe in Aaron Rogers.

This author can be reached by e-mail at BJordan@businessofsportsnetwork.com.