Boston College Men’s basketball team went from being on top of the world to being on the bottom of the barrel in just three quick days. On Sunday January 4^th, BC beat number one nationally ranked UNC, to gain a spot in the top 25 ranks, and all in one fell swoop BC lost its thunder on Wednesday January 7^th when they were upset by Harvard. Harvard trounced BC 82-70 on BC’s home court!

It’s amazing how a team can play so physical and intense one night and then the next be so flat. BC matched and overcame the intensity and physical play of the Tar heels in the “Dean Dome” on Sunday, but then couldn’t get it together to beat Harvard. This marks the first time Harvard has ever beaten a nationally ranked team! Harvard held Tyrese Rice, who came up big with twenty five points against UNC just three nights earlier, to a mere three points until the last four minutes of the game. Also BC’s Josh Southern, who had a twenty two point game against UNC, scored only six points against the Crimson. The fact that Josh Southern only scored six points is a major problem for BC’s offense. As for BC’s defense, they didn’t have an answer for Harvard’s Jeremy Lin, who dished out eight assists, scored twenty seven points, and came up with six steals!

This turn of events, BC beating UNC, and then losing to Harvard, goes to show you that on any given night anyone can win. A lot of times what you see in sports are teams playing down to the level of competition and that’s why they lose, but Harvard just plain old out worked and out hustled the Eagles to capture the win. BC has the talent to play at the physical and intensity level they played at when they beat UNC; it’s just a matter of how bad they want it. Now some of you may be thinking well if BC beat UNC and Harvard beat BC, can Harvard beat UNC? Absolutely not! If Harvard was to play UNC, the tar heels would run the crimson off the court.

As for now Harvard holds an eight and six record, while BC stands thirteen and three, and UNC is fourteen and one on the season. It will be interesting to see which teams finish where in the standings because as always in sports nothing is etched in stone. It’s just like BC coach, Al Skinner, told his team, “I told them it’s a short trip from the main house to the big house to the outhouse.”

At the beginning of professional sports, players never used agents.  Players worked on their own when it came to signing with a team or working on a contract.  Money was still an issue in sports at this time, but it was never the issue.  One of the reasons athletes became professionals was to earn a living, but that wasn’t their main purpose.  Athletes like Bill Russell and Ted Williams played because they loved the games, the competition, and the joy of playing their specific sport everyday.  There were no labor disputes between the unions and owners, and no holdouts for players wanting to get played more.  Players acted on their own agenda, not based on an agenda of a greedy agent who is whispering in their ear (see Manny Ramirez and Scott Boras).

Contracts are dealt with differently now than they were before.  Agents act as a translator between a team and a player.  This creates multiple problems.  First, it creates a lack of communication between the player and team.  This could eventually harm the relationship between the two if the player actually signed with the team.  Another problem with this is that the agent is working for one goal only, to make more money.  This could alter the athletes decision because instead of picking a team because they actually like the team or the city, they would make their decision based on how much money they are given.  Obviously you cannot fault someone for trying to get paid as much as they can for their career, but it begins to get a little overboard when a person makes a decision on a team because one is paying 1.5 million more a year than the other (even though you would be getting 165 million with that team, Mark Teixeira).  Am I blaming the players for this? No, as I believe the agents are the reasoning for this.  They are working for their own interest, not the interest of the players.  They are the driving force behind pro sports being completely controlled by money.  They claim they are working for the players by getting them the most money that they can get, but they are really just working for their own interest and wealth.  That is the reason why contracts in sports are breaking through the roof, even with the economy plummeting.  Sports would return to the days of people playing to just play the game, not to make millions, if agents were eliminated from the picture.

Photo credit: Tracy O

The players on the collegiate level are trying to either move on the NFL or they know that these are their last years playing football. They also are a part of the community at their school. They live with everyone at the college, and they are more involved in the community because of this. The players also have pride in their schools. Their involvement causes them to truly care about where they are. The NFL players are not involved as intimately with their communities, and the players do not play with the same heart as they did in college. The players lose a bit of motivation because they have reached the NFL and they do not have a lot of goals that they can reach. Not all NFL players are like this, but their truly is a bit of change that occurs when a players leaves college and joins the NFL.
The atmosphere of college football is like no other. The fans are involved in the games and are usually cheering from start to finish. Only in college will the stadium participate in “insert team color here-outs.” The whole stadium is one color and loud for the whole game. The display of emotion is more upfront. To me, I feel like the fans in college are more relatable to the common public. The NFL stadium is lined with luxury boxes, filled with rich owners, and wealthy business men. The cameras focus on these people to during the games. You always get at least one screenshot a game of some owner or celebrity in an owner’s box. The coverage of the college games are not focused on the famous fans like the NFL can make themselves out to be. College fans are usually students or alumni. They are closer to the school then NFL fans are to their teams.

The NFL does not compare to the NCAA. The NCAA has more games against more evenly match teams then the NFL ever will. The weirdest thing to me is that a college game compared to NFL game on TV is that the College game always seems more colorful. It’s more excited and just looks better. The NFL gives me this grey feeling and does not get me as involved as a college game does. College football has so much more life and excitement then the NFL. The Top 25 teams can knock off one another at any week. Texas Tech vs. Texas was one of the most exciting games I have ever seen, and I was only able to watch the last few minutes of the game. However, even though it was on TV you could get the feel of the stadium and got the same feelings as the fans. The NCAA also offers more games a week for a fan to see. These games are often more competitive. The games are more often evenly matched and any team can win them. In the NFL if you are a top team, you will not lose to a mid-level team. Last week, number 1 ranked Alabama was tested by number 16 LSU in overtime. Even though Alabama won, the game was unlike any NFL game I have watched in a while, including playoffs and Super Bowls. For me, every weekend there is a Super Bowl type game. It is usually between two ranked opponents or bitter rivals, but these games are the most memorable and entertaining.

Photo Credit: Ed from Ohio