The column to the right lists only 97 previously but that's because there are two "drafts" that are the "lost blog entries" and were never posted to the open blog....more on that later...
Anyway....it's actually hard for me to know how many people are watching the BU Braves Blog, but from what I can tell, at least 40-50 people check it daily...and up to 100 different people check over any given week.....
I enjoy doing the blog, and one of the main reasons beyond supplying good news to BU fans, it that I've even been told by some on the hilltop, that they check it for interesting Bradley news!
Let me know if there are any ideas/suggestions...like more on recruiting or more on ISU (yeah, right...)
So - on to the interesting topic of the day--
-
-
-
-
As you may have seen, Sports Illustrated has yet another list of "Best Sports Cities".
http://www.sportingnews.com/general/article/2009-10-06/best-sports-city-list
If you click on the other links provided there you'll see some of the criteria....obviously the top criteria is whether the city has top professional and sports teams. The co-top criteria is whether those teams are at the top of their sports or have won championships. Pittsburgh is ranked #1 and they say it's because of their hockey team and football team. But then inexplicably they fail to note that Pittsburgh has the worst baseball team and NO pro basketball team at all!
So, personally I feel those criteria are used quite selectively.
Getting back to the actual list...Most of the cities at the top belong there, but then just outside the top 10, we start to see cities like Nashville, Salt Lake City, and San Jose...ranked ahead of tremendous sports cities like Baltimore, St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Cleveland!
And Storrs, Connecticut ahead of San Francisco!! Gimme a break..Storrs doesn't have a thing at least 7 months out of the year when they are not playing college basketball!! Sorry, I think a brief look at this list might be interesting, but it's obviously filed with someone else's severe east coast bias....and someone with a bias against the cities in the Missouri Valley, that's for sure!
BTW-- one trivia question on UConn basketball, basically the only sports related activity anywhere near Storrs, CT...
We all know they have one of the top mens AND womens basketball programs...so just how does their attendance check out....because if Storrs is such a great town for sports, then surely hundreds of thousands of fans must be packing their arena to see the basketball....
Well - answer...the men's basketball draws 12,000 or so per game, but many games are NOT even close to sellouts!! Seriously, they drew only 9820 and 9734 for non-conference games!
Women's basketball....10K per game, but football (bet some of you didn't even know UConn had a football team!) draws as few as 24K in a stadium that seats over 40K.
-
-
Anyway...lets look at the Missouri Valley cities and see where they fall in the rankings...
I know St. Louis is not a Valley city, but it is where we play our tourney, so I thought I'd throw it in. And the SIU folks like to always bring up how close Carbondale is to St. Louis, although Google maps say it is 130 mi. and 2 hours, 16 min...not too different than the distance from BU to Chicago.
84. Champaign-Urbana -
just for reference (Bloomington, IN is way, way down at 129)
111. Omaha -
but can you believe the weirdos making up this list have Omaha sitting 3 spots behind Ruston, LA and four spots behind Moraga, CA. Seriously, I had to google those towns to even find out what's there!!(the only thing in Ruston is Louisiana Tech, and the only thing in Moraga is St. Mary's College)
139. Normal, IL -
(NOT Bloomington - so all you Bloomington people don't even make the list!)
144. Cedar Falls, IA
146. Peoria, IL -
(seriously? having pro baseball, AFL, and pro hockey still puts Peoria behind Cedar Falls, Normal, and Moscow, Idaho??)
148. Des Moines, IA -
(Des Moines is as close to Ames as Chicago is to Evanston, so I think this is a rip.
154. Wichita, KS -
(I'd be a little ticked if I were a Shocker!)
155. Evansville, IN
167. Carbondale, IL -
(thank heaven these guys didn't beat out Peoria, I'd have punched my computer!)
180. Springfield, MO
186. Terre Haute, IN
--Well...on the good side, every single one of the Valley cities ranks within the top 186 cities...on the bad side....cities as alluring as Orem, UT (home of Utah Valley Univ.) and Radford, VA are in some insane person's opinion, better sports cities than some of the Valley cities!
So-- the next time you contemplate a move...maybe you are looking to move to a city with better access to top notch sports than you can get in Peoria...here's a short list of cities to start with that rank higher than Peoria--West Point, NY, DeKalb, IL, Jonesboro, AR, and Mt. Pleasant, MI!
-
-
-
-
Here's another Top 10 ranking....and I enjoyed this one...
"The Top 10 Teams With the Most Annoying Fans"
http://www.spike.com/blog/top-ten-teams-with/87671?spike=6501#
Bruce Pearl alone should have placed Tennessee at #1, but these guys didn't think so.
And Duke basketball at only #8 simply doesn't give those Cameron idiots enough credit!
And really, Vancouver Canucks at #5? How can they be annoying to anyone when nobody cares and nobody even knows where Vancouver is??
But the true proof of this guy" horrible New York bias...is that he puts the truly great fans of the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs at #1 and #3. Surely if even one of you reading this has ever met a single New York Yankee or even New York Mets fan, then you know how I feel.
They are as obnoxious as they come...so here would be MY LIST!!
#10- ICC -
hey, actually I like ICC and root for them every year, just because they are mostly local guys. But I decided to give them the #10 slot solely because one of their guys stalked one of our guys for the pure, petty reasons of provoking an altercation, then calling the cops whining about a miniscule cut on his fat lip.
Since all the rest of the list has some pics of interest, I found one for ICC as well, but I really think they need to get some new uniforms!
http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/object3/905/44/n115617871563_7947.jpg
#9- SIU -
certainly the fans are better than ISU, but their spoiled having lucked into a couple good years with Bruce Weber and Matt Painter.
Now they've fallen on harder times, so they've chosen to embrace and hope for every felon who can dunk transferring to SIU.
http://wcca.wicourts.gov/caseDetails.do;jsessionid=6936266FA95ADA489756550C4B4EDFB0.render6?countyNo=13&caseNo=2009CF001521&cacheId=0A6469E99F4B0C9407573BD34BCBDBBC&recordCount=1&offset=0&mode=charges
#8- Any team from New Jersey
http://news.rutgers.edu/focus/issue.2006-12-13.1988901585/photofeature.2006-12-13.6468880264/featurephoto
#7- UNC and Duke (tied) -
both are pretty childish and immature.
http://i.ehow.com/images/GlobalPhoto/Articles/5283497/314491_Full.jpg
http://cdn.bleacherreport.com/images_root/image_pictures/0363/3449/49365_feature.jpg
#6- ISU-
I respect virtually all Valley fans, but there are a couple Valley teams whose fans sure like to trash talk and boast. Even during a one-and-done NIT season, the ISU fans act like they are NCAA champs!
It took a little while before they could get all their roster pics up on the ISU basketball web site, since they had to wait quite a while to find a day when half the team weren't required to be at their mandated court dates.
Only the fact that I cut them a break just for being in the same conference as Bradley, because ISU is the only place I have ever been to for a basketball game where the fans regularly chant profane, juvenile potty chants and spit on opponents, while the game management staff stand by and encourage it.
They even posted the words and the instructions for the ISU "...youuuuu suck d***" chant onto one of their fan websites!
http://cache2.asset-cache.net/xc/81432052.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=17A4AD9FDB9CF1934B869679A269F9CC24CF7708006181E926FD13ED7B73D4BC
#5- Kansas -
The fine fans of Kansas that came onto BradleyFans and trashtalked in March of 2006, then who completely left the building when BU spanked them and sent them home from the NCAA Tourney.
http://cache2.asset-cache.net/xc/81432052.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=17A4AD9FDB9CF1934B869679A269F9CC24CF7708006181E926FD13ED7B73D4BC
#4- Indiana Hoosiers fans -
they are as bad, as obnoxious and arrogant, and as crooked as they come. They loved Bobby Knight and love Kelvin Sampson even more. They cheer for cheaters, thugs, and bullies, and value winning above integrity and common decency. It is a wonder there are any chairs left in Bloomington, IN to sit on.
http://www.midwestsportsfans.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/knight-chair-toss.jpg
#3- New York Mets
http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2007/10/01/alg_mets-paper-bags.jpg
#2- New York Yankees
http://www.lennysyankees.com/2009/06/video-yankees-marlins-fans-fight-in.html
#1- University of Tennessee basketball -
I told you Bruce Pearl alone carries this team to #1.
http://blogs.ajc.com/atlanta-georgia-sports/files/2009/04/031245_duke_tennessee_baske.jpg
Loved this post. Thanks for sharing your day!
ReplyDeleteSports Bets