Allison's Sports Corner

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 regulat...

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...

 This was a huge weekend for college sports, with the ending of the NCAA basketball regular season and the shift into the conference tournaments, March Madness hopes are as alive as ever. Oklahoma softball losing to Louisiana (Ragin Cagun) softball to snapped a 71-game win streak. Not to be left out, but Caitlin Clark becomes the leading scorer in NCAA history (men's and women's). All of these sum up the crazy world of sports.  OKLAHOMA SOFTBALL STREAK SNAPPED The Oklahoma Sooners softball program is one of the most prolific and winningest teams in the 21st century. The Sooners have won three back-to-back-to-back national championships, while maintaining a 71-game win streak, which was broken  against Louisiana. The Sooners committed a season-high three errors in the 7-5 loss to the Ragin Cajun. The Sooners stuck to their roots on offense and outhit Louisiana 11-10. Oklahoma snaps their 71-game win streak, which was highlighted by 46 wins against PowerFive opponents, 40 ...

 In one of the most emotional homecoming's in sports history, Patrick Kane made his inevitable return to the United Center as the Blackhawks took on the Red Wings, Sunday night. The final week of the NCAA regular season is upon us and MLB spring training has started. The crossover of sporting seasons has begun and therefore, we will have a lot to discuss in following blogs!  PATRICK KANE HOMECOMING You can never say that Chicago doesn't love Patrick Kane. In his return back to the United Center, fans embraced Kaner like he never left. It was an emotional night for Blackhawks fans as they honored Chris Chelios prior to the game and during the first media timeout, shared a heartfelt tribute video . Fans remained on their feet for a 7-minute standing ovation for the man who changed the face of hockey in the city of Chicago. I brought tears to my eyes watching the recognition to my all time favorite player.  The game itself was written like poetry for a Patrick Kane homecomin...

This week was a rather slow for professional sports, however the overlap of spring and winter seasons within the NCAA has commenced. In sporting news, Caitlin Clark became the all-time leading point scorer in women's NCAA basketball, the NBA had their all-star weekend, and the return of Connor Bedard for the Chicago Blackhawks.  CAITLIN CLARK The current face of women's basketball just broke the 7 year old scoring record to etch her name into history. Caitlin Clark scored her 3,527th point of her career to pass Kelsey Plum's original record set in 2017. On the same night, Caitlin Clark broke the single game point record for Iowa basketball with 49 points. Clark is currently chasing the NCAA men's record by 98 points set by Pete Maravich in the 1970s. Caitlin Clark is changing the face of basketball for women and enabling little girls to believe that they can do anything that they set their mind to. Not only is Clark a sensational basketball player but she is changing ...

In one of the most highly anticipated events of the year, the Kansas City Chiefs took home the NFL's top honors to cap off the 2023-24 NFL season.  Now with the NFL out of the way, we are going to focus on other sports of my choosing and this weekend was the Opening Weekend for College Softball.  SUPER BOWL In a defensive battle between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers, the Chiefs came out victorious. The 49ers dominated for a majority of the game, Brock Purdy threw 23-28 with 255 yds and 1 TD. Mr. Irrelevant was able to do his part for the 49ers but came up short. Christian McCaffrey also had 22 carries for 80 yards with an additional 80 yards receiving. It wasn't until the third quarter that the Chiefs were able to break through to the end zone where Mahomes was able to find former Packer receiver, Marquez Valdes-Scantling. At the end of regulation, the game was all tied up. In the end the 49ers were able to take their drive down the field for a field goal....