Allison's Sports Corner

With the end of the NHL regular season coming soon, the end of college basketball and hockey, the rise of baseball and softball are inevitable. Much to be said about the season of winter sports in the United States marked by successes in NCAA Women's Basketball, for the first time posting more views in the Final Four than the Men's tournament, Caitlin Clark taking the World by storm and Connor Bedard marking his mark as the highly anticipated first overall draft pick for the Blackhawks. Pictured: All 32 NHL team logos NHL FINAL STRETCH From today, there are only 5 more days of regular season NHL games. With only five days left, the Western Conference is all tied up with the Central Division sending the Dallas Stars, Winnipeg Jets, and the Colorado Avalanche. On the other side of the Western Conference, the Pacific Division will send Vancouver Canucks, Edmonton Oilers, and Los Angeles Kings. The wild card spots are solidified by the Nashville Predators and the Vegas Golden Knig

After one of the most highly anticipated March Madness tournaments in the history of its existence, South Carolina of the Women's and UConn of the Men's were able to remain victorious throughout the tournament. In addition to that, the NHL is wrapping up the regular season and looking towards the Stanley Cup finals as the wild card team look for every point possible. The MLB season is also underway with the regular season. Pictured: Finalized Brackets (Men's & Women's) MARCH MADNESS  On the men's side of March Madness, the overall No. 1 seed in the UConn Huskies took home the NCAA title. In a back and forth game the Huskies were able to separate themselves from the Purdue Boilermakers to win back-to-back March Madness titles for the first time since Florida in 2006-07. UConn dominated the entire season having a record of 37-3, while routing Purdue 75-60. On the other side of the bracket challenge, South Carolina finished their season perfectly as they beat the I

With the success of Caitlin Clark and the NCAA Women's tournament, there has been an emphatic push for women in sports. Whether that be from advertisements, the growth of coverage on women's sports OR the following of individuals players itself, these past 2 years have seen and exponential growth in women's sport. The coverage of women's sports has tripled  since 2019, which also includes the success of NCAA sports. Women belong in sports and they are finally being given the opportunity to prove that. There is no longer the debate of if women sports should be covered because there has been proven stats that show that if covered, there will be viewers.  As a women who has grown up watching and participating in sports, I have always looked up to male athletes because that is all that I was accustomed to and all that was shown on television. Young girls are now able to look at the television and see people that reflect them and their journey, and that is the beauty of the

With the continuation of March Madness and nearing the end of the NHL and NBA seasons- there seems to be a lull in sports dramatics. Taking that as a note, I have decided that I am going to talk about the Steiner Symposium that took place at the Charley Steiner School of Sports Communications and the panel on NIL and the transfer portal. Since I have been talking a lot about NCAA basketball and the growth of the portal- I felt this would be interesting and tie into my earlier posts.  CHANGING SPORTS LANDSCAPE Panelists: Janna Blais, Dr. Kenon Brown, Dr. Joshua Dickhaus, Dr. Paul Gullifor Moderator: Dr. Sitong Guo  This panel talked about the overarching themes of NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) and the transfer portal. Janna Blais, who is the Deputy Director of Athletics and Senior Woman Administrator at Northwestern, talked in depth about how the ruling in NCAA v. Alston has taken away the student in student-athlete. There was much discussion on how there needs to be regulations on t

With the upcoming March Madness about to begin, I want to dive into the tournament field tell you my personal picks, the biggest snubs, and the teams with the best chances of winning the entire time. Obviously all of my words mean nothing at the end of the day because March is pure Madness.  MARCH MADNESS The first thing that I would love to point out is how 3 out of the 4 number one seeds did not win their tournament. Purdue, who was looking to be a lock at the number one seed, potentially overall, lost to No. 5 Wisconsin in the semifinals of the Big 10 tournament. Houston, who was ranked No. 1 & 2 a majority of the season lost to Iowa State in the Big 12 Championship game and is still ranked No. 1. North Carolina took the No. 1 seed after losing to NC State in the ACC championship game and reaching the No. 3 spot at times during the season. UCONN, who is the reigning champions, outright won the Atlantic 10 and was given the No. 1 seed. For me, I just don't understand how if

A rather slow week in the sporting community, so I thought I would take this opportunity to highlight the success of the Missouri Valley Conference men's basketball this season. In addition, highlighting the conference tournaments that took place for men's and women's NCAA around the nation.  MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE To start, this was a fun season of basketball to watch. I had the opportunity to attend and work every single home Bradley Men's Basketball game and night in and night out, there was always a competitive game from the Valley teams. Seeing players who are ranked among the best in the nation every night was very special.  This season the MVC as a whole jumped from the 15th best conference in the nation to 9th best (based on NET ranking). And for the first time 2021, there should be two teams from the Valley selected on Selection Sunday to dance.  This season in Arch Madness, we saw an upset in the final game for the second year in a row with the Drake Bulld