Battle of I-75 Helmet Unboxing

Ryan of Cincy Fan Zone unboxes an Alexander Global Promotions Battle of I-75 helmet.

Follow Alexander Global Promotions on Twitter: @AGPBobbleheads

Big Game Weekends

I love sports. I love weekends. The two seemingly go hand in hand. My free time is limited to weekends, and I enjoy spending my weekends at sporting events. I feel like most sports fans feel this way. So why have big games on Sunday nights and during the work week?

The Super Bowl is on Sunday, and the College Football Playoff National Championship and the NCAA Championship basketball games are on Monday. Why? Most people work Monday through Friday and have to get up early for work. I am one of those people. I try not to stay up too late Sundays through Thursdays, but the sports fan in me requires that I watch these games. As a result, I am more groggy than usual the following day. 

The easy solution is to just record it or read about it the next day, but true sports fans know that is an impossible task as the desire to watch the event to see who will win will keep you up at night and render not watching the event in order to sleep meaningless. It’s not just sports who are guilty of making fans stay up late when they have to work the next day. Professional wrestling does this as well. Every WWE pay-per-view is on a Sunday, and if it is a big show such as Wrestlemania, prepare to make yourself a cup of coffee or chug a soda. You’ll need the caffeine in the morning as most WWE pay-per-views end after 11 pm.

Aside from the lack of sleep, there is also a lack of festivities that come from having these events on non-weekend days. If your team wins, you will want to go crazy and party and celebrate the victory! Party too hard, and you’ll have a rough morning the following day. Party too soft, and you aren’t really celebrating the win. 

The exception to this is championships that are decided by a series. The World Series, the NBA Finals, and the Stanley Cup require winning 4 out of 7 games in order to be crowned champion, so it is necessary to have these games on non-weekend days. The Super Bowl though? It is one game played after a two-week layoff. Just move it to Saturday! In fact, just move all championship games and wrestling pay-per-views to Fridays and Saturdays! Or better yet, make the days of the games as well as the days after national holidays! 

Okay, I’m finished ranting. I apologize for my cranky post. I stayed up to late watching the National Championship.

An NIT Suggestion

The goal of every college basketball team is to play in March Madness and compete for the NCAA National Championship. Out of every college team in the country, only 68 qualify and get to go dancing in what is perhaps the best tournament in college sports. So what about the bubble teams that were left on the outside looking in and the team's from mid major conferences that did not win their conference tournament? They still get to dance, but it will be in a tournament with less national attention and far less people watching watching. Of course, I'm talking about the National Invitational Tournament.

After once being regarded as more prestigious than March Madness, the NIT has since declined in popularity and is widely seen as a consolation prize for teams that do not qualify for the NCAA National Championship Tournament. Unless the team you specifically root for is in the NIT, odds are you will not be watching. I can honestly say the only reason I watched any of this year's NIT was to see how the Xavier Musketeers did as they are one of the college basketball teams of which I am a fan. Had Xavier not been in it, I would have not been watching.

So how can the NIT make itself more interesting? Grant the winner of the NIT an automatic bid into next year's NCAA National Championship Tournament. If the two NIT finalists were playing for a shot at dancing in March Madness the following year, you'll have more people watching to see who will be the first to punch their ticket to the big dance. It will make the NIT more meaningful to the players and coaches, and fans will see it as more than a consolation prize. You can even move the NIT Championship game to the Sunday between the Final Four and national title game. Put it in the same arena as the Final Four and championship game and make it a weekend long March Madness event.

That's my idea of how to make the NIT more interesting. As I said earlier, it is now thought of a consolation prize and is the most well known tournament that nobody really cares about unless your school is participating in it. If you put a spot in March Madness the following year up for grabs and move it to the Sunday in between the Final Four and the championship game, then I think more people will watch and help make the NIT feel as prestigious as it did in years past.

The Norse are Dancing

March is here and that means spring has sprung and the madness is about to start! I love March Madness and try to watch every game that I can by using a combination of various screens. I fill out a few brackets and root for teams that I'm a fan of and also ones that I have going deep into the tournament. This year will be a little different though as for only the second time in history, I will be cheering for my Alma mater.

Last Tuesday, the Northern Kentucky University Norse won the Horizon League Conference Tournament and earned an automatic bid to the big dance. I couldn't be happier. After seemingly coming from out of nowhere to win the conference tournament two years ago to make their first March Madness appearance, the team was upset in last year's Horizon League Tournament and had to settle for the National Invitation Tournament despite being crowned Horizon League Regular Season Champions. For those of you who do not know, the Horizon League is a small mid major conference and only the conference tournament champs get to go dancing in March. That is why winning the conference championship is so important for schools in smaller leagues.

For NKU, the 2018-19 season has easily been the best in school history. The team won a share of the Horizon League Regular Season Championship, Drew McDonald was named Horizon League Player of the Year, and the Norse defeated the Oakland Golden Grizzlies in thrilling fashion when McDonald drilled a game winning three pointer 1.6 seconds left in the game before cruising past the Wright State Raiders to win the Horizon League Conference Tournament Championship. Hopefully the momentum the Norse have captured continues into the NCAA tournament. Cinderella teams usually make their mark in March, and the Norse just might be wearing some glass slippers.

Norse up!

Loyola University Ramblers Sister Jean Bobblehead Unboxing

Ryan of Cincy Fan Zone unboxes a Loyola University Ramblers Sister Jean bobblehead.

Xavier University Musketeers Byron Larkin and Joe Sunderman Bobblehead Unboxing

Ryan of Cincy Fan Zone unboxes a a Xavier University Musketeers double bobblehead of Byron Larkin and Joe Sunderman. 

Erasing the Past

As a result of its multiple violations, the NCAA denied the University of Louisville’s appeal and vacated numerous men’s college basketball victories from 2011-2015. Among those vacated victories are Louisville’s 2012 Final Four appearance and their 2013 NCAA Championship. In essence, the Louisville Cardinals basketball team was nonexistent.

I find the NCAA’s ruling completely ridiculous. Vacating wins is one of the stupidest sanctions in collegiate sports. Despite the NCAA’s best efforts, everybody knows who won the games and who was one of the better teams in the nation during that span of time. I am in no way defending the actions of the university. They were in blatant violation of the NCAA’s rules and had to face the music as a result. Vacating wins was not the right way of going about the situation though.

I feel like the NCAA should have banned the Cardinals from postseason play for a long time, fine them, and take away multiple scholarships. That would hurt the university financially and from a recruiting standpoint. Vacating wins, however, does nothing. In my opinion, it does more harm than good. It punishes the fans who support the team. It punishes the players, coaches, and team officials who had nothing to do with the scandal. It also makes the NCAA look ignorant by ignoring what is on record.

The university had to take down its 2012 Final Four banner and its 2013 National Championship banner as well as return the 2013 National Championship trophy. The players will still have their rings. Rick Pitino will still have his championship tattoo (unless he decides to get it removed.) Fans will still have championship memorabilia from that season. Despite the NCAA’s best efforts, everybody who does not live under a rock will always know that the University of Louisville won those basketball games, made it to the Final Four in 2012, and had their one shining moment in 2013. As I write this post, a new NCAA scandal is on the verge of taking down some of the biggest names in college basketball. What will the NCAA do? If I had to guess, it’ll try to rewrite history.

NKU Norse Regular Season Conference Championship Shirt Unboxing

Ryan of Cincy Fan Zone unboxes a Northern Kentucky University Horizon League regular season conference championship shirt. 

Victor E. Viking Bobblehead Unboxing

Ryan of Cincy Fan Zone unboxes a Northern Kentucky University Norse bobblehead of Victor E. Viking.

Hey U Bobblehead Unboxing

Ryan of Cincy Fan Zone unboxes a bobblehead of the former mascot of the Northern Kentucky University Norse, Hey U.

Bobblehead Page Update

#Bobblehead Page Update @ https://t.co/f6kg2Fon2e with a new #Norse Bobblehead#bobbleheadaddicts #bobblehof #NKU #NorseUp #ontherise #ncaa pic.twitter.com/UvHFs5I4uy

— Cincy Fan Zone (@CincyFanZone) July 3, 2017

MLS or NCAA?

Decisions, decisions. Will Cincinnati furnish an soccer specific stadium or pay to renovate U.S. Bank Arena? That is the question that the city could potentially face as FC Cincinnati seeks to move up to Major League Soccer and U.S. Bank Arena tries to uphold its end of the bargain with the NCAA to host the first two rounds of March Madness in 2022 in exchange for remodeling the arena. Odds are both of these projects will need to be funded by tax dollars, but which project will the city be willing to fund?

Let’s start with U.S. Bank Arena. It currently serves as the home to the Cincinnati Cyclones of the ECHL and also hosts various events such as the circus, concerts and WWE events. While not a physically attractive building, it does manage to house a decent amount of people. The inside of the arena could definitely use an upgrade, as the jumbotron is quite dated and the seats could be swapped out for nicer ones.

Now let’s discuss FC Cincinnati. The soccer team currently plays at Nippert Stadium and manages to draw in impressive crowds of 10,000 or more for nearly every home match. They are currently in the running to move up from the USL to MLS and become the third major professional sports team in the Queen City. A major requirement that MLS has for its teams is a soccer specific stadium. With FC Cincinnati playing on UC’s campus, Nippert probably will not cut the mustard for MLS. Should they move up, a stadium will need to be built.

So which project should the city fund? In my opinion, I think the soccer specific stadium is more important. Don’t get me wrong. U.S. Bank Arena needs to be renovated, and I would love to see the NCAA Tournament come back to Cincinnati. However, the possibility of FC Cincinnati moving up to MLS is very real, and I would rather have new major professional team to root for than one weekend of college basketball. If the NHL or the NBA were knocking on the door and saying that they would establish a new franchise in Cincinnati in exchange for the renovations of U.S. Bank Arena, then I might consider switching my vote. That is not happening though, and I already have a deep love for FC Cincinnati. Hopefully the city can find a way to finance both projects should FC Cincinnati be promoted to MLS, and the Queen City can be the home to three professional sports team and the first round of the 2022 NCAA tournament.

NKU Norse Championship Shirts Unobxing

Ryan of Cincy Fan Zone unboxes two Northern Kentucky University Norse basketball championship shirts. 

Norse Up

With March Madness finally here, college basketball fans across the nation will be glued to their television sets as the best teams in the country battle it out for the right to be called national champions. I love March Madness and am a tournament junkie. I will try to watch every game simultaneously in order to make sure I do not miss a single second of the action. In the past, I have watched merely as a fan as the Louisville Cardinals, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, the Xavier Musketeers, and the Cincinnati Bearcats took to the hardwood in the national tournament. I root for all of those teams as a fan without any ties of my own to the universities that they represent. The college I attended had never qualified for the “big dance.”

I went to Northern Kentucky University from 2010 to 2014. During my freshman and sophomore years as an undergraduate, the athletic teams competed at the Division II level of the NCAA. They had some success as a D-II university as they won a few national titles in women’s basketball and a men’s soccer national championship my freshman year. Despite the successes, the fandom among students and those who lived around the university was not that great. The logos of other universities were a common sight, and the attendance at sporting events was usually pretty low.

That began to change toward the end of my sophomore year. The university announced that they would be moving up to Division I. They joined the Atlantic Sun conference and even qualified for the conference championship tournament in men’s basketball in their first year at the D-I level. They eventually moved to the Horizon League conference and qualified for that conference championship tournament as well. Even though they participated in conference tournaments, they were not allowed to participate in the national championship tournament for four years per NCAA rules after moving up to D-I. Any chance I had of seeing the Norse play for the national title in March would be as an alum and not a student.

So here we are in 2017 and it is NKU’s first season of national championship eligibility. Under the leadership of second year coach John Brannen, the Norse qualified for the Horizon League Conference Championship tournament as a 3 seed and went on a run that culminated in the school winning its first ever D-I conference championship for men’s basketball as well as qualifying for the national championship tournament. Words cannot describe how proud I am of my alma mater. As a student, nobody cared about Norse athletics. As an alum, Norse athletics are the current talk of the town.

Everybody wants an NKU conference championship shirt and finding one in stores is no easy task. The shirts hit stores last Thursday and sold out in hours. I had to order mine online form the NKU bookstore. Despite this minor inconvenience, I am still very excited to cheer on the Norse as they enter their first ever national championship tournament. I will be glued to a television screen hoping that the Norse become the 2017 Cinderella team. Maybe their magical season can culminate with them cutting down the net on April 3.

Norse up!

Autograph Page Update

#Autograph Page Update @ https://t.co/ULDHSOD1kG With a New #Xavier Autograph#letsgox #LetsMarch #marchmadness #ncaa #BIGEAST #tourney17 pic.twitter.com/MukYzcODta

— Cincy Fan Zone (@CincyFanZone) March 5, 2017

Photo Page Update

Photo Page Update @ https://t.co/JzwEdxiFEu With New #louisville basketball pics#GoCards #L1C4 #ncaa #basketball #UofL #CardNation pic.twitter.com/F5hJVwY8UB

— Cincy Fan Zone (@CincyFanZone) January 18, 2017

D'Artagnan Bobblehead Unboxing

Ryan of Cincy Fan Zone unboxes an SGA bobblehead of D'Artagnan the Xavier University Musketeer.

Bobblehead Page Update

#BOBBLEHEAD PAGE UPDATE @ https://t.co/7szAEAxyiu WITH NEW #XAVIER NODDER #LetsGoX #Sweet16 #NCAA #MarchMadness #NBA pic.twitter.com/Aglez0j2ul

— Cincy Fan Zone (@CincyFanZone) March 23, 2016

Rick Pitino Bobblehead Unboxing

Ryan of Cincy Fan Zone unboxes a Louisville Cardinals Rick Pitino bobblehead.

Bobblehead Page Update

#BOBBLEHEAD PAGE UPDATE @ https://t.co/7szAEAxyiu WITH #LOUISVILLE NODDER #GoCards #NCAA #MarchMadness #ACC #Reds pic.twitter.com/uq1UMleswU

— Cincy Fan Zone (@CincyFanZone) March 9, 2016