Did you notice something different about the first week of September this year — perhaps a noticeable lack of wing sauce covering your fingers? Sports eatery Buffalo Wild Wings wasn’t able to score as much in the third quarter, blaming its lack of customers on the late start to the NFL season. [More]
college football
AT&T, Uber Team Up To Stream College Football Games On Your Next Ride Across Town
By 10.16.15
The next time you have to trek across down during the big game, you might not have to worry about missing any extraordinary plays: Uber and AT&T have struck a deal to stream college football games in some of the vehicles operated through the ride-hailing service. [More]
Ashley Furniture Franchisee To Hand Out $1.5M In Refunds After Ohio State Win
By 1.13.15
Ohio State surprised a lot of people last night by blowing out the University of Oregon 42-20 in the NCAA football championship game, but while many people in the Buckeye State were overjoyed by the resounding win, one furniture company was probably hoping that the game would have been closer. [More]
Companies Profit Off College Football Players’ Names Without Having To Mention Players’ Names
By 8.6.13
Manufacturers of licensed NCAA jerseys are not allowed to produce items with players’ names on the back, allegedly to maintain the “amateur” image of college athletics and allow apparel companies to claim they aren’t making truckloads of cash on the shoulders of scholar/athletes who receive no direct money for all the tickets and merchandise sold each year. But search results on the NCAA’s own e-commerce site shows that the organization and apparel companies make money off players’ names without having to actually mention those names. [More]
EA Makes Case That It Shouldn’t Be Part Of Lawsuit Over NCAA Games
By 7.31.13
Even though reigning, two-time Worst Company In America Electronic Arts is no longer in the video game business with the folks at the NCAA, the once-inseparable couple are both defendants in an antitrust lawsuit brought by former college athletes who allege that NCAA-branded games illegally made money from the players’ likenesses. Now EA is distancing itself even further from NCAA, claiming it was just doing what NCAA told it to do. [More]
EA Definitely Moving On With NCAA-Less College Football Video Games
By 7.19.13
Two days after the NCAA announced it would not be renewing its football video game partnership with reigning two-time Worst Company In America champ Electronic Arts comes confirmation that the gaming giant will indeed continue to make college football games, but they simply won’t carry the “NCAA” brand. [More]
NCAA: EA Won’t Be Making Our Football Titles Anymore (But It May Continue To Make College Games)
By 7.17.13
While we know in our heart that winning a second consecutive Worst Company In America title was the most heartbreaking moment for video game publisher Electronic Arts, this news has to come a pretty close second. The NCAA, which had an exclusive arrangement with EA to produce the wildly popular NCAA-branded college football game, has decided it won’t be signing a new contract with EA. However, it doesn’t look like it’s the end for EA’s association with college football. [More]
Rutgers Becomes Latest School To Sell Football Stadium Naming Rights
By 6.22.11
In contrast to the ubiquity of corporate-named stadiums in the NFL, the vast majority of college football stadiums have stuck with their traditional names. The dominoes may be starting to fall, though, after Rutgers sold the Rutgers Stadium naming rights to High Point Solutions for a reported $6.5 million over 10 years. [More]
College Football Bowl System Apparently Warrants DOJ's Attention
By 5.4.11
Because antitrust investigators at the Justice Department made such quick work of their investigations into the United/Continental and NBC/Universal mergers, they apparently have plenty of free time to wonder why there are no playoffs in the Bowl Championship Series. [More]
Mark Cuban Tries To Shut Down Bowl Championship Series
By 12.17.10
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is attempting to bankroll a college football playoff system with $500 million. Trying to gather support from university presidents and state senators, his goal is to undermine the Bowl Championship Series. The legally scrutinized entity pits the champions of six conferences, as well as four at-large teams selected by computer and human rankings, into a series of meaningless exhibition games that concludes with a national championship. [More]
ESPN Doesn't Black Out HD College Football Games, It Just Withholds Them
By 10.8.10
Responding to a post earlier this week in which college football fan Matt complained about not being able to watch certain college football games in HD on an ESPN channel due to programming decisions, Mike from ESPN’s communications department wrote in to clear the air: [More]
ESPN Drives Football Fans Crazy With Arbitrary HD Blackouts
By 10.4.10
Once you become addicted to watching football in HD, it’s tough to go back to standard definition. And when you realize that people in other parts of the country are getting to watch the game in dazzling HD while you suffer through your grainy, small-screen 1985 version thanks to a nonsensical decision by ESPN, it’s darn near maddening. [More]
Pro-Playoff Groups Blitz Bowl Championship Series With Corruption Allegations
By 9.23.10
Most college football fans agree that the method the NCAA decides who gets to play for its football championship is competitively abhorrent, and now a political action committee is claiming that the system is buried in financial malfeasance as well. [More]
Comcast Forces Illini Fans To Suffer Through Northwestern Game
By 9.16.08
Except for those of you in the Chicagoland area, the entire state of Illinois should have been able to tune in to the Big Ten Network to see the Illini take on Louisiana-Lafayette. Unfortunately, Comcast didn’t get the memo.
Charter And Big Ten Network Decide To Play Nice
By 8.27.08
Reader Jon tells us that he got a call from Charter Cable letting him know that they’d just inked a deal to offer the Big Ten Network and sure enough, the AP is reporting what may be considered “peace in our time.”
Time Warner Adds Big Ten Network, College Football Fans Rejoice
By 8.26.08
Time Warner Cable has reached a deal to offer the Big Ten Network on expanded basic cable in Big Ten states, says the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.
