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Michael Smith
Staff writer Michael Smith covers colleges, golf and lacrosse.
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Agency seeking sponsors for Pac-12 rec departments06 / 17 / 13A Los Angeles agency has agreed to represent all of the Pac-12 Conference recreation departments in sponsorship sales. Entertainment Management Group, the same firm hired to sell naming rights to UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion, will take the lead on sales for the conference’s recreation direc... Tags: Colleges |
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Mal Moore's Alabama legacy
When radio personality Paul Finebaum introduced Mal Moore to a group of Alabama fans back in January, he said that Moore will forever be remembered as the man who hired football coach Nick Saban. As legacies go, that’s not a bad one. Whenever he heard it, which was fairly often the last few ...
New AD Battle settles in
Bill Battle, who succeeded Mal Moore as Alabama AD, recently spoke with SportsBusiness Journal college writer Michael Smith about the work ahead. ■ On facility projects: We’ve got a few things on the front burner. One is the baseball stadium. It’s a pretty good-looking sta ...
Simpson puts priority on home life
Webb Simpson heard all the talk that winning a major championship would change his life. A year after claiming the U.S. Open at Olympic Club, Simpson might be the exception. “My life hasn’t really changed,” Simpson said. “It’s made me a more confident golfer, but ...
Cozy Merion creates hospitality squeeze
The Merion Golf Club has all the characteristics of a classic U.S. Open venue, from its tight fairways and thick rough to its tradition-steeped course. What it doesn’t have is a lot of space. Last year’s U.S. Open at Olympic Club was played on a nearly 300-acre footprint, compared wit ...
Tags: Events and Attractions
Colleges seek the Disney experience
The SEC, during last week’s spring meetings, put together a committee to study the fan experience at football games. Among the things they’ll look at are Wi-Fi in and around the stadium, enhanced replays on the video board and better scheduling. For Jeff James, vice president and gene ...
Tags: Colleges
ESPN, NBC on the clock for golf rights
The U.S. Golf Association started its exclusive negotiating window with incumbents ESPN and NBC Sports Group over the weekend, a year and a half before its current deal ends. NBC holds the broadcast rights to USGA’s biggest prize, the U.S. Open. NBC also televises the U.S. Women’s Ope ...
Tags: Media
Apparel partners dress up athletic complexes
A walk through the University of Southern California’s John McKay Center reveals more than the Trojans’ rich athletic history. It also tells the visitor a lot about USC’s association with Nike. The same holds at Maryland, where photos of former Terrapin basketball greats share w ...
Tags: Colleges
Paciolan, Ballena assist reseating efforts
More colleges are reseating their fans annually or every few years to ensure that the best donors are sitting in the best seats. It can be time-consuming and labor intensive for schools that don’t have the personnel to quickly move through the seating adjustments. Paciolan, the ticketing so ...
Tags: Colleges
New bid format for NCAA sites
The NCAA has completed an overhaul of the bid process for 84 of its championships across all three divisions, including the Final Four, and will award close to 500 sites this year. It’s easily the largest bid process in the history of college sports’ governing body, and the selections ...
Tags: Colleges
ACC network may stall over rights issues
Don’t expect an ACC-branded TV channel to be launched any time soon. The biggest problem so far is a rights issue. ESPN needs to control the conference’s syndicated rights to launch a channel. But those rights are tied up until 2027 through deals with Raycom and Fox Sports Net. &ld ...
Tags: Media
