February 13th - Old News

Waking up in America, Olympic events are just wrapping up. Some events happen just as most Americans are getting up, but the majority are taking place while we sleep. To help keep us in the loop, NBC and its affiliates have been compiling the best of the competitions to be put on the air during the domestic primetime spot. This allows fans to get in on the action and catch up on what they may have missed.

This would be great if it weren’t for one problem: anyone who actually cares about the games already knows what happened. ESPN is well ahead on that issue, sending alerts and updates on most major Olympic events as they happen. Before I even have time to turn on the TV, I’ve already been updated on the night’s festivities.

The 24-hour news cycle that has become the standard no longer allows for the notion of “primetime television,” at least not in terms of rebroadcasting. If something is happening, the public wants to know about it as soon as it happens, not on a delay or after it has been compiled in a neat presentation afterward. What could be a neater package than 140 characters?

If you’ve ever watched a sporting event with real significance, though, you don’t need to be told what 140 characters fail to get across. You don’t get the pit in your stomach from the anxiety of seeing your team or favorite athlete put themselves on the line. You don’t feel the rush of joy when that athlete or team pulls away with the win. You don’t feel the confusion of a loss, and the disappointment that ensues. We might want to know what happened, but we live to see how it happened.

With that in mind, we’re pretty much stuck. How do we feel all of the excitement that comes with the Olympics, yet also get all the information as its happening on the other side of the globe?

There isn’t really a good answer. Nobody faults ESPN and the sporting world for getting us the news quickly. Quite the opposite. We would be upset if they didn’t. Yet NBC is also doing the best they can to get us the full package of the Olympic experience, and do it in the context of American life.

The reality is that the way different countries interact with the Olympics will have to change not only based on the location but also in conjunction with the technologies available. The days of watching suspenseful events on an American timeframe are over, leaving a few options.

One is, of course, to stay up late into the night or wake up ridiculously early to catch things as they happen. Nocturnal behavior isn’t usually recommended, but I’m sure your friends and colleagues would understand if you explained that you simply couldn’t miss the curling champions of the world (ok, maybe they’d judge you a little)

Short of that, though, some form of adaptation is going to have to happen, either by the consumer or by the producer. This year is one of the first where technologies are as easily accessible as they ever have been. Twitter and Facebook were hardly around in 2010, let alone as widely used as they are now. Maybe the change will come in the form of a new technology. Maybe we will find new ways of broadcasting to meet the changed expectations. Maybe the notion of “primetime” will change to reflect the new “news cycle.” This is still a young system, and one that has some work to do in working out the kinks. But, when all is said and done, the Olympics will hold our attention, and ESPN and NBC will find ways to keep it that way.

January 31st: Northwestern Union

The world of college sports was changed forever on Tuesday. For the first time in history, members of the Northwestern University football team filed to join a workers’ union.

Led by quarterback Kain Colter, the movement attempts to get the players recognized as school employees and receive certain benefits that have, to this point, been unattainable for most college athletes. Colter cited healthcare for injuries beyond an athlete’s playing days as one such benefit the players were pursuing.

In their response, the NCAA declared their disappointment at the action, stating that playing college sports doesn’t make someone an employee and that the experience is meant to be about learning, something Colter and the group are failing to understand.

This is, though, quite the opposite of what is happening. Colter and his group are making an incredible education for themselves. They are looking at the way things are and critically thinking about what can be done to make things better.

In addition to better medical care, Colter’s action for unionization includes 10 additional goals, ranging from better graduation rates and more scholarship money for players. In each of the goals, the focus moves drastically from treating these people as athletic resources and instead treating them as students, employees, and valued individuals in the school community.

This all comes at a culminating moment in the growing movement to protect the rights of college athletes. For several years, analysts have argued the merits of paying college players for the use of their name. Why, after all, should the school rake in dollars because of the fame and respect brought in by an individual, while leaving that person out in the cold.

At the beginning of this college season, reining Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel was accused of being paid to sign autographs which would have violated NCAA rules. After a long investigation, it became pretty clear that there was a problem. If Manziel was suspended, his school would suffer huge losses, both athletic and financial. If they didn’t suspend him, the NCAA would come away looking totally impotent, incapable of policing their policies as necessary. In the end, the half-game suspension Manziel served was seen as a copout, and the issue only gained intensity.

All things considered, the Northwestern representatives are demanding action in a way that is constructive, rather than simply defying authority. They are attempting to find a spot at the table, rather than ignore the structure of leadership altogether.

It doesn’t really matter if you agree that college players should unionize or not. That isn’t the point. This isn’t meant to be an answer, it’s meant to get the ball rolling on the discussion. Northwestern University’s players took the action they deemed necessary to defend their rights as student-athletes, not with the attitude of defiance but focusing on debate.

While the NCAA may not like it, accusing the students of failing to see the learning opportunities in the situation is downright ludicrous. There is a lot of learning that happens on a college campus. If Kain Colter and his teammates can walk away from NU knowing how to stand up for what they believe in a respectful yet decisive way, then the school and NCAA have done their jobs.