Friday, February 25, 2011
Aztec Madness on the Mesa
[Originally published on SDSU NewsCenter]
Just before 2 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 24, Frank Reed was the last person in line for a student ticket to Saturday’s SDSU-BYU men’s basketball showdown at Viejas Arena.
“I hope (I get a ticket),” said the philosophy and political science senior, who estimated there were approximately 1,200 students camping out ahead of him at the time.
“It’s just pandemonium,” he added.
And so it begins
More than 60 hours before Reed resided in line, Samantha Bearman and her 12-person group started camping out. They were the first students in line.
“DJ Gay called us crazy,” said the psychology senior, who set up shop to the left of the Viejas Arena ticket office Wednesday, Feb. 23, at 1:30 a.m.
Since then, students have formed a line that wraps around the arena and is now at the top of Campanile Walkway.
“You have to be here to experience it,” public health senior Ronnee Brown said. “It’s like a little community.”
From playing cards to reading for classes, students are trying to make the most out of the campout as they await ticket distribution, which began Friday at 7:30 a.m.
“Everyone is into it now,” journalism junior Matt Salwasser said. “And that’s the coolest part about it.”
From one line to the next
For many students, waiting in the ticket line is just the first step.
“We’re going to be moving our stuff over (on Friday) to the (entrance) gate to get in line for our seats,” Salwasser said.
That line began forming when Bret Price arrived Tuesday, Feb. 22, at 11 a.m.
“I’m waiting to get into (Viejas Arena) to get good seats,” said the business junior, who purchased a general admission ticket in December.
Fisherville
To celebrate the campout, Associated Students, the Intra-Fraternity Council and Aztec Nights hosted Fisherville, a two-hour festival from 10 p.m. to midnight, Thursday, Feb. 24, in front of Viejas Arena, Gate 1.
The festivities included a live DJ, a photo booth, a regulation basketball hoop for the game knockout, two miniature hoops and a replay of the SDSU-New Mexico game from Feb. 16 on a projector screen. Alumni volunteers also delivered complimentary pizza, coffee, water and Gatorade to camped-out students.
“It was unlike anything I’ve ever seen,” said communication senior Jessica Ruderman.
Members of the team, including DJ Gay, Tim Shelton, Malcolm Thomas, Billy White, Brian Carlwell and Jamaal Franklin, appeared at the event, where they took pictures with fans and autographed memorabilia.
The game
Saturday’s sold-out game will pit the sixth-ranked Aztecs (27-1) against the No. 7 Cougars (26-2).
SDSU’s only loss this season came to BYU on Jan. 26, when the Cougars upended the Aztecs, 71-58, in Provo, Utah. SDSU has since won seven straight games en route to its Mountain West-best 12-1 conference record.
The nationally televised game is set for 11 a.m. on CBS.
Just before 2 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 24, Frank Reed was the last person in line for a student ticket to Saturday’s SDSU-BYU men’s basketball showdown at Viejas Arena.
“I hope (I get a ticket),” said the philosophy and political science senior, who estimated there were approximately 1,200 students camping out ahead of him at the time.
“It’s just pandemonium,” he added.
And so it begins
More than 60 hours before Reed resided in line, Samantha Bearman and her 12-person group started camping out. They were the first students in line.
“DJ Gay called us crazy,” said the psychology senior, who set up shop to the left of the Viejas Arena ticket office Wednesday, Feb. 23, at 1:30 a.m.
Since then, students have formed a line that wraps around the arena and is now at the top of Campanile Walkway.
“You have to be here to experience it,” public health senior Ronnee Brown said. “It’s like a little community.”
From playing cards to reading for classes, students are trying to make the most out of the campout as they await ticket distribution, which began Friday at 7:30 a.m.
“Everyone is into it now,” journalism junior Matt Salwasser said. “And that’s the coolest part about it.”
From one line to the next
For many students, waiting in the ticket line is just the first step.
“We’re going to be moving our stuff over (on Friday) to the (entrance) gate to get in line for our seats,” Salwasser said.
That line began forming when Bret Price arrived Tuesday, Feb. 22, at 11 a.m.
“I’m waiting to get into (Viejas Arena) to get good seats,” said the business junior, who purchased a general admission ticket in December.
Fisherville
To celebrate the campout, Associated Students, the Intra-Fraternity Council and Aztec Nights hosted Fisherville, a two-hour festival from 10 p.m. to midnight, Thursday, Feb. 24, in front of Viejas Arena, Gate 1.
The festivities included a live DJ, a photo booth, a regulation basketball hoop for the game knockout, two miniature hoops and a replay of the SDSU-New Mexico game from Feb. 16 on a projector screen. Alumni volunteers also delivered complimentary pizza, coffee, water and Gatorade to camped-out students.
“It was unlike anything I’ve ever seen,” said communication senior Jessica Ruderman.
Members of the team, including DJ Gay, Tim Shelton, Malcolm Thomas, Billy White, Brian Carlwell and Jamaal Franklin, appeared at the event, where they took pictures with fans and autographed memorabilia.
The game
Saturday’s sold-out game will pit the sixth-ranked Aztecs (27-1) against the No. 7 Cougars (26-2).
SDSU’s only loss this season came to BYU on Jan. 26, when the Cougars upended the Aztecs, 71-58, in Provo, Utah. SDSU has since won seven straight games en route to its Mountain West-best 12-1 conference record.
The nationally televised game is set for 11 a.m. on CBS.
SDSU's Sister Act
[Originally published on SDSU NewsCenter]
Roxanne and Sierra Ellison each stand nearly six-foot tall and have long, blond hair. The SDSU juniors share the same major, and up until this semester, they have taken the same courses since arriving on campus in 2008. The two student-athletes also comprise the top doubles pairs on the SDSU women's tennis team.
Roxanne and Sierra look and act like twins, but they are very different breeds.
Roxanne, who is one year older than her sister, is right-handed; Sierra’s dominant hand is her left. Roxanne plays tennis with finesse; Sierra is a power player. Roxanne would rather do homework; Sierra prefers tests. Roxanne is calm and collected; Sierra is wired with excitement. Roxanne likes structure, whereas Sierra has a spur-of-the-moment mentality. Roxanne uses yoga to relax; Sierra unwinds by reading or writing.
These differences have molded Roxanne and Sierra into a dynamic duo, not just as sisters, but as best friends, teammates, entertainment associates and business partners.
“We just fit together,” Sierra said. “We’re two completely different pieces that happen to fit together.”
A match made at SDSU
In 2003, Roxanne and Sierra participated in a 14-and-under national tennis tournament in San Diego. After an early exit to the tournament — “We played terribly,” Sierra recalled — they decided to make good use of their time in San Diego by visiting SDSU, where they coincidentally ran into SDSU women’s tennis head coach Peter Mattera.
“There was just a connection,” Sierra said of their first meeting with Mattera.
According to Mattera, “They were certainly on my radar screen pretty early on.”
After visiting the campus and discovering the university’s up-and-coming television, film and new media program, the decision to attend SDSU was a no-brainer.
“We fell in love,” Roxanne said.
“There was no other school we wanted to go to,” Sierra added.
A sacrifice for Sierra
Growing up, Roxanne and Sierra always participated in activities as a pair. They performed in both musical and theatrical productions together. They took dance classes together. They volunteered at charities together. And they played tennis together.
Roxanne and Sierra became a potent doubles pair and won several tournaments throughout California. In 2006, they became the number-one ranked junior doubles team in the nation.
The next year, Roxanne — who was one grade above Sierra at the time — graduated from Tesoro High School in Las Flores, Calif. Rather than take her tennis talents to the collegiate level right away, Roxanne went another route: She took a year off school and waited for Sierra to graduate so they could attend SDSU together for the full four years.
“She wasn’t necessarily just doing it for her — she was doing it for us,” Sierra said. “And that meant a lot to me.”
Added Roxanne, “We’ve always been an inspiration to one another.”
Modern-day renaissance women
Roxanne and Sierra are the 27th-ranked doubles team in Division-I women’s tennis, according to the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s most recent rankings. Off the tennis court, the student-athletes serve aces as well.
In the classroom, Roxanne and Sierra are near-4.0 GPA students. And the two-woman band recently started their own online interview program dubbed “An Overnight Success,” which they produce, direct, edit, write and host together.
“They work remarkably well in film production because one of them gravitates toward the planning (and) preparation (stages) while the other excels in the actual production arena — the execution phase of the creative process,” said SDSU television and film professor Bob Jordan, who has developed a close relationship with the sisters. “It’s like they are two machines in perfect sync.”
Roxanne and Sierra are also the national teen spokespeople for two of Kathy Ireland’s charities, and they created a fashion line for young girls.
“We’re making the most of life right now,” Roxanne said. “And for us, that’s what makes us happy.”
Making a Case for College Football Reform
[Originally published on SDSU NewsCenter]
Since its inception in 2006, the SDSU International Sports MBA Case Competition has focused on a variety of sports issues. This year, the sixth annual event invited 10 MBA student teams from universities around the world to tackle the highly political National Collegiate Athletic Association Football Bowl Championship Series.
Instituted in 1998, the BCS is a computer-driven system that selects the top five bowl match-ups each postseason, including two NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision teams for the national championship. The BCS heavily favors universities in the 11 major Division I Football Bowl Subdivision conferences, six of which receive automatic berths to participate in bowl games.
University administrators, coaches, players and fans in those six conferences reap consistent benefits, including national exposure, institutional prestige and significant financial rewards. For instance, each conference represented in a BCS bowl game received $18.9 million per qualifying member team in 2010.
BCS opponents argue the system is unfair because nearly half of the 120 teams do not receive automatic berths. This puts these teams at a disadvantage since they can only participate in a bowl game if they secure one of four at-large bids awarded to teams with the best records and most challenging schedules.
With this in mind, the case competition prompted each team to propose a solution to the current BCS system that would be endorsed by both reform proponents and opponents.
“This year, I think, (was) the event that is going to put us on the map … in terms of the national prowess of the case (and) the field of teams that competed, all with some kind of relevant stake in the collegiate football landscape,” said Scott Minto, director of the SDSU Sports MBA program and creator of the competition.
This year’s competition
Last Thursday, the teams arrived at the San Diego Yacht Club in Point Loma where they received the previously confidential prompt. Each team had 24 hours to develop a strategy that would produce the best possible results for university administrators, coaches, players and fans.
“This competition was meant to … have students spend 24 hours looking at an issue from many different angles and propose new ideas that may be able to shake up the system,” Minto said.
On Friday, each team gave a 30-minute presentation to the panel of judges, including:
- SDSU President Stephen Weber
- Mountain West Conference Commissioner Craig Thompson
- SDSU Athletic Director Jim Sterk
- San Diego Chargers Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Jim Steeg
- Radical Football LLC representative Brett Morris
At stake was the opportunity to present its proposal to Mark Cuban — a successful entrepreneur, owner of the Dallas Mavericks NBA team and an outspoken proponent of BCS reform — and his company, Radical Football LLC.
“It (was) fun to see what (the teams) came up with,” Sterk said. “I was impressed with the knowledge that they gathered in a short amount of time and (how they) presented it in a professional way.”
According to Weber, “It (was) all about giving a great opportunity for some wonderful MBA teams in sports management to compete with one another and to develop real solutions to pressing problems, in this case in intercollegiate athletics.”
Oxford University claims the grand prize
Although eight of the 10 teams that participated in the case competition were from American universities, many of which directly profit from the current system, the MBA students from Oxford University took home first place. Their ideas, research and proposed solutions for a Division I college football playoff system included:
- A 16-team playoff, with the higher-seeded teams hosting each game at their respective home stadium, as football is the only NCAA sport without a play-off system.
- Guaranteed money to automatic qualifier conferences, which would be greater than the current maximum revenue they earn from the BCS.
- The development of an in-house college sports broadcast network to air the play-off games, as opposed to the NCAA’s policy of selling its BCS bowl game broadcast rights to independent networks.
- Those most negatively impacted by this proposal would be existing bowls and bowl directors.
“The Oxford team had very strong comparisons between NCAA basketball and football … and pointed out that (there are) a lot of options that hinge upon a lot of (the) stakeholders,” Minto said.
The University of Florida’s team notched second place, while Duke University’s students placed third, and teams from SDSU and the University of Texas tied for fourth place. Other participating teams included:
- Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
- Georgetown University
- University of Notre Dame
- University of California, Los Angeles
- University of Southern California
History of the competition
Minto created the SDSU International Sports MBA Case Competition when he was still a student in the SDSU program. Today, it is one of the most distinguished sports MBA competitions in the world.
Previous SDSU sports MBA case competitions include:
Dream Job Becomes Ethical Dilemma for Alumna
[Originally published on SDSU NewsCenter]
For as long as she can remember, Reem Nour wanted to be a reporter.
For as long as she can remember, Reem Nour wanted to be a reporter.
After graduating last spring, the political science and journalism double-major moved to Egypt, where she was born. A month after moving, she landed a job as a reporter for Cairo-based Nile TV International. It was a dream come true.
But, when she was assigned to cover a pro-Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak protest last week, she refused.
“It was part of my journalism ethics … because (the station was being) biased,” the SDSU alumna said.
Nour took herself off the air from Nile TV International after the state government-owned station constrained its reporters to cover only pro-Mubarak protests. She has since returned to work, but refuses to report on the protests until the newscast covers both sides of embattled Egypt.
“I kind of have had to test myself,” she said. “Do I really want to keep working (for Nile TV International) and do whatever the state wants me to do, even though it goes against my beliefs, or do I want to stand up to the station that pays my bills because I believe in ethical journalism?
“I mean, here I am not wanting to work (for) a biased station because I was taught ethical journalism,” Nour added. “And so now I feel like it’s my duty as a reporter to use what I was taught in political science and in journalism to kind of do my (job) the right way.”
Getting her start at State
Nour worked as a senior staff writer for the Daily Aztec, and during her final semester on Montezuma Mesa, the honors student interned at San Diego’s ABC affiliate as part of the investigative team. Then, it was off to Egypt.
“I wanted to experience something new,” Nour said. “I wanted to get more acquainted with the culture and the people and find out a lot more about the country.
“I thought it was the perfect opportunity to give it a try and see if I can get a job here.”
Today, the Egyptian native is covering a revolution for the history books.
“It’s crazy!” Nour said in near-disbelief.
“I never thought I would live (through) this right now, eight months after I graduated from college.”
Experiencing the Egyptian revolution
On Jan. 25, the rest of the world watched as Egypt started to unravel. Nour, who studied the history of revolutions in the political science courses she took at SDSU, was in the heart of history in the making.
“I always said that Egypt (needed) a revolution, and I knew this was going to happen one day or another because (the Egyptian) people are fed up,” she said. “I just never thought it was going to happen right now, so soon.
“To see this happening — to see Egyptians with so much courage and so much persistence and determination, and just to see them be so revolutionary — is amazing,” Nour added.
Despite the dangers, she promptly jumped on every opportunity to report on the protests. Nour did not want to miss out on covering the historical events.
“Even though it’s risky and it’s dangerous, it’s the perfect place to be for a reporter,” she said.
“I’m living history.”
Returning to her red and black roots
Last week, Nour was interviewed via Skype by two SDSU journalism classes about her experiences in Egypt, which was an experience in itself.
“I’ve never been interviewed before,” Nour said, laughing. “I was always the one doing the interviewing.”
She also talked about digital technology and how it has played an important role in performing her job.
For Nour, it was nice to know people back in her home-away-from-home were interested in her story.
“I’ve been through so much here and it’s really good to know that there are people who want to know and want to find out what I’ve been through,” she said.
To track her updates and experiences, follow Nour on Twitter. To read more about Nour, visit the SDSU School of Journalism and Media Studies website.
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