The past two weeks of college football have been incredible but this Saturday it appears things will be coming back down to Earth. Just two games involved top 25 teams and three of those four schools are outside the top 15. Still, the games are important as someone is probably going down. Ohio State is one such candidate as it could falter at Penn State. In terms of conference races, watch USC at Utah as it will make an impact on the PAC-12 South.
A couple of volleyball games to watch includes UC-Davis at Cal State-Northridge Friday night in Big West play. The big one though is Nebraska at Wisconsin on ESPN2 Sunday. The Badgers are currently on top in the Big Ten and it’s rare for ESPN2 to air a regular season game in volleyball.
Making fun of how schools, conferences, and media personalities operate on social media is what sports bloggers that are not credentialed do best. Now that we have hit the doldrums of the college sports calendar it’s time unveil best and the worst from the past year. Note there is no way anyone can see every tweet and Facebook video that made it online. Well, unless you’re Lt. Commander Data. This is about the stuff I actually saw and that you may have missed.
Best School to Follow on Twitter: Morehead State
When it comes to Twitter I want a school that gives me the stats and updates from a game yet still have passion and humor. Morehead State does that during every basketball game. Take a look at their “Blackout.”
Big crowd on hand already for the “Blackout Belmont” men’s basketball game tonight at Johnson Arena. Go Eagles! pic.twitter.com/5Kxsf4jRCW
Helping the Eagles out though is men’s basketball coach Sean Woods. He is an emotional guy and props to Morehead for posting his postgame comments on You Tube. Just looking at his eyes you can tell he wants to tell the world how he truly feels but is holding himself back.
Worst School to Follow on Twitter: Grambling State
Manhattan, Kansas: where romance and college sports social media collide.
Most Impatient School in Social Media: Western Kentucky
It only snows in Bowling Green, Kentucky a few times a year so I you have to make the most of it when you can. The Hilltoppers though took it a little far and went full football countdown in January. Instead of witty joke it came across as a depressing reminder that the season is far, far away.
Worst Promotion in Social Media: Texas Christian University
The Horn Frogs have been cannon fodder out on the basketball court since joining the Big-12. So how does TCU fill seats in its gym? FRIED PICKLES! Yuck.
School with the Most Swagger on Social Media: North Dakota State
The Bison won the FCS title and won a game in the NCAA Tournament this past year. Throw in this jab at the SEC schools during a blizzard in the South and you have one school ready to flaunt itself all over the web.
The only time I think I’ve seen an athletic department engage in a Twitter war with a fan. Thought it was impossible but I was proven wrong. Please tell the Georgia State athletic department to never use the phrase “Boo You” again.
Best Conference to Follow in Social Media: Big West Conference
The Big West is great at having large photo galleries of their events and athletes of the week. They are also the most patriotic placing their All-Americans in front of a computer generated American flag.
The Big West Conference is more American than the American (AAC).
The Big West is also one of the few leagues that celebrate holidays and special events.
That’s right, the Big West celebrated Easter and Groundhog Day by changing their profile pictures. You would think some league in the nation’s heartland would do that but nope. A league based in Hawaii and California did instead.
Best Campaign in Social Media: Atlantic-10
The A-10 is tired of being treated as a Cinderella and did a pretty good job of shedding that perception in their Who Wants Next Campaign. You can read my previous post about it here.
Would still be a great episode on “Once Upon a Time” though.
Best Video Made by a Conference: Missouri Valley
The MVC made a video hosted by Teryn Schaefer to meet all of the fan bases as they came to St. Louis for the Conference Tournament. While I’m tired of “Happy” the song worked well here and it captured the awesomeness of “Arch Madness.”
Most Creative Conference in Social Media: Conference USA
Conference USA is a league that is constantly changing. Members of the league joined the Big East to play BCS ball only to see that league split off into the American. Whoops. Now, Conference USA is filled with teams that were once in the Sun Belt, so educating people on who is a member is a challenge. Conference USA tackled that with this awesome graphic on their Facebook banner that showed who was playing where in the bowl season. Conference USA, the more you know.
To non football fans it looks like Captain Jack Sparrow and a green “T” are going deep.
Best Interview on Social Media: Marist Red Fox Mascot “Shooter”
Elizabeth Sim had the honor of showcasing the excitement around the women’s basketball team at Marist and did that and then some with her interview of the school’s mascot. If you can watch her interview starting at 1:35 mark just once then you’re since of humor needs checking.
Best Selfie in College Sports Social Media: Nicole Auerbach @NicoleAuerbach
As a writer for USA Today, Auerbach enjoys the pleasure of sitting courtside to some of the biggest games in college basketball. That is great in every venue except at Cameron Indoor as she snapped this selfie at a Duke game.
Shows the passion of college basketball for Duke fans and some of the pitfalls of being a college basketball writer for a national publication.
Best Female Sports Personality to Follow on Twitter: Samantha Ponder @sam_ponder
Auerbach was close but I had to give it to Ponder. Ponder replaced Erin Andrews on College Gameday a few years back and has been an internet darling ever since but that’s not why I find her to be the best follow on Twitter.
While listening to a Christian radio station in my car I almost had to pull over once the disc jockey started quoting Samantha Ponder’s blog post on being happy with yourself.
Name another female sports media personality that was quoted on Christian radio? She’s like the Tim Tebow of female sideline reporters at this point.
Ponder is also great at poking fun of herself or her husband, NFL quarterback Christian Ponder, on Twitter. She was able to tie M.A.S.H with marital counseling for this funny.
My husband just said he doesn’t know who Alan Alda is & he’s never seen MASH. How do we go on? Pre-marriage counseling didn’t address this.
Best Male Sports Personality to Follow on Twitter: Pat Forde @YahooForde
Pat Forde is the only guy that’s covering college football and college basketball equally. Most others focus on one. This makes him a must follow for anyone that loves both sports. Plus, he is amazing at making fun of life in the press box. Take a look at this tweet during the BCS National Championship Game.
They just announced something in press box about terminating cell hot spots. Think they said BCS reserves the right to kill us if we don’t
The Duke women’s golf team took to the air to celebrate their national championship.
While most celebration photos are basic team huddles behind a banner and the trophy, this photo of the Duke women is hard to forget. Who cares if they took 10 shots to get it right?
Wait, are the Blue Devils are reaching out to heaven?
Tweet of the Year: Stanford Press Conference
Anytime a college sports team tries to act like a nerd after a big win it is awesome in my book. Congratulations to the Stanford football team for making nerds everywhere proud and for David Lombardi for his tweet.
South Florida should be praised for retweeting a lot of its fans during games but I’m afraid USF should have checked the user name before retweeting this one. I blocked out the third letter myself for the kids out there.
Never retweet without thinking, unless it’s my account.
The retweet was deleted but not before I got the screen shot. Go Bulls! I guess?
Unlike Thanksgiving and Christmas, few athletic departments did much for Easter in social media. The lack of team photos with “Happy Easter” written underneath them was surprising.
The only exception I saw was the Big West Conference.
That’s right folks, the only league to really wish its followers a happy Easter was far from the Bible belt. Instead it was league based in liberal California. Go figure. Wichita State did get creative by having an Easter egg hunt during a baseball game. Each egg contained team memorabilia and goodies. Now that’s sports marketing at its finest.
NC2A Nerd 