Greg Crawford On Small College Hoops+Sports Biz

Sunday, December 2nd 2012

By Greg Crawford @wchoops

It was really a big week for small college hoops in the Pacific Northwest.

CCC----What a league this could be this year, as all teams opened league play this past weekend. It does not appear you can ever take a night off, top to bottom is pretty darn good.

Interesting to note that on Saturday night, Northwest Christian at home knocked off defending national champion OIT.

Eastern Oregon continued its winning ways, remaining undefeated for the year by polishing off Concordia and Warner Pacific at home.

Also winning twice on the weekend was Southern Oregon, beating Corban and Northwest Christian on the road.  This was after,  this season already beating Oregon Tech in a non-league game at home.

The next league action for most teams, comes on the weekend of December 21st/22nd, even though most teams will play non-league games before that time and Warner Pacific does visit Concordia for a counter on the 15th of December.

Fasten your seat belts, it is going to be one great season for the Cascade Collegiate Conference.

NWC---The Northwest Conference appears like the CCC to have some really nice balance. Linfield contributed to that balance by defeating Lewis Clark at home on Friday night and then the Pioneers came home, only to lose to the George Fox Bruins on Saturday night.

The Northwest Conference gets back into league play the first week of January, with the exception of a Tuesday night game when Linfield visits Willamette, a key early season match-up.

Multnomah University---It was a tough three days for Curt Bickley's Lions, as they hosted a wonderful tournament that featured Portland Bible, Central Bible College and Valley Forge Christian College. (You can read more about Central Bible College and their unique situation in the December 3rd edition of Crawford's Court, www.csnnw.com/pages/ncaabasbetball)

Even though the Lions lost all three games in the tournament, they battle as well as any team and are exciting to watch with their many 3-point attempts.

The Lions are back in action this week, with two 4:00 pm games, an easy time to attend a game. Tuesday night they face Adelaide from Australia and on Friday, the powerful California Maritime.

Clackamas Community College---The Cougars, led by coach Clif Wegner easily defeated the Concordia JVs on Friday, as they tune-up for league play which starts the first week in January.

This Tuesday, at 7:00 pm, the Cougars take on Linfield JVs, which should be an up and down affair, so get out and see this game, as well as just see a game period.

And speaking of taking on, I am going to take on any league that plays league games and then takes anywhere from 3-4 weeks before they play league contests again. It is stupid, it makes no sense and I hope someday it changes. Too long to wait between league games, end of story.

In the next 90 days, Greg Crawford will see 100 college basketball games live, which he is really looking forward too. You can check his progress every Monday in Crawford's Court, www.csnnw.com/pages/ncaabasketball and please follow him on twitter @wchoops. It will be called "100 in 90".

Greg Crawford On Sports Biz +Small College Hoops

Greg Crawford covers D-1 college basketball for Comcast SportsNet, CSNNW.com (www.csnnw.com/pages/ncaabasketball, but he never forgets the "little guys" of college basketball and that is why each Sunday he covers small college hoops and another love of his, sports business.

ADOPTED TEAM---- Much the same as I do for CSNNW.com, where I have adopted the Cal State University Bakersfield Roadrunners for the entire season, in my blog here I have adopted the Oregon Tech Hustlin Owls.

The Owls did not have the best week in their storied basketball program, shocking they lost twice. Losses came at the hands of Southern Oregon (non-league game) and Lewis-Clark State. Not all of bad however, as they defeated a really good New Hope Christian team, 77-72.

But today, I would like to once again talk about the iconic Coach of the Owls, Danny Miles. First off, I really appreciate the fact that Coach Miles often writes to me on various subjects, way beyond basketball and I appreciate that very much. But more importantly, once again, I have to mention, why in the world is Danny Miles not in the Basketball Hall of Fame.

To everyone's credit, Coach Miles is in every other Hall of Fame you can think of, as it relates to his profession.  It truly is a crime that he is not in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. And in case you question my thoughts on this, just go ahead and look at who is in the Basketball Hall of Fame, that states my case the best.

The good part about all of this, I am sure the quality of person Coach Miles is and what you hear about him everyday, he probably could care less about this subject and never even thinks about it. That is why I, along with many other people need to keep reminding the basketball world and beyond, that it is a joke that Coach Miles is not in the Basketball Hall of Fame, the gold standard for basketball hall of fames.

And for people reading this, I have no horse in this race, except doing the RIGHT THING. Despite the fact that Coach Miles writes to me, we really are not friends, we have spoken personally twice. So in conclusion, I am a humble person, ask anyone that knows me, but also I am powerful figure in the world of basketball and I am not going to stop writing about or talking about this subject, until it happens.

Eastern Oregon---Don't look now, but Mountaineers are 12-0, coming off a great sweep this weekend of the Tacoma schools, members of the Northwest Conference, Puget Sound and Pacific Lutheran. Both of those schools are so tough to beat on the road, so there is no disputing this is a wonderful Eastern Oregon team and I can hardly wait to see them in person.

It also once again proves how great the Cascade Collegiate Conference is, when it comes to men's basketball. Outstanding coaches, up and down, make for good basketball teams and that is what the CCS is all about, not to discount great student/athletes.

Multnomah University----Curt Bickley has his team playing their best basketball of the season as they go into a stretch this week that sees them play three consecutive nights, starting Thursday against Portland Bible, Central Bible and Valley Forge Christian. 

The Lions are exciting to watch, so get out there this week if you are in the Portland, Oregon. Game time each night is 7:00 pm

Clackamas CC Cougars---As I write this on Sunday, November 25th, after I am done, I will be heading over to watch the championship game of the CCC Cougars annual Thanksgiving women's tournament, which starts at 3:00. It should be a wild, high scoring affair, as the host Cougars take on Umpqua. Looking at what has happened so far, both teams easily could score in the 100s. I love up and down basketball, always have.

Pacific U (Forest Grove)---When Pacific University hired Tim Cleary to be their basketball coach in 2010, I said to myself, watch out, he will bring a winner to a school that for many years has not had good basketball.

My thoughts are proving out, as the Boxers just completed a sweep in Hawaii, over two tough opponents. Of course, it does not hurt that the Boxers have one of the most exciting players in the state of Oregon, no matter what the level, in Danny Brakebush, who is showing why many schools wanted the Central Catholic product to play for them.

Northwest Conference better watch out for Pacific, if they don't, well.......

In addition to his many duties bringing you news about basketball, Greg Crawford writes a Today's WORD and narrative each morning, to help people make their lives better personally and/or professionally. As of today, over 16,000 people receive Today's WORD. If you would like to get Today's WORD free of charge each morning, just email gregorycrawfordspeaks@gmail.com and put WORD in subject line.

Please follow Greg on twitter @wchoops and he will also respond to all questions and comments, you can reach him at either gregorycrawfordspeaks@gmail.com and crawscorner@gmail.com

Greg Crawford On Sports BIz + Small College Hoops

OIT----My adopted small college team for this season in Craw's Corner, the Oregon Tech Hustlin Owls, had the proverbial good and bad week.

Traveling to Reno, to play D-1 Nevada-Reno, OIT hung in the game almost all the way, finally losing by 11 points 86-75. This game was another snapshot of just how great college basketball is on all levels in the United States. Even though there are basically seven different levels in college basketball, it is fair to say on any given night, any team can beat their big brothers in men's basketball.

The Nevada-Reno game was an exhibition, so does not count on the win-loss record, but a tough loss in Rocklin, California on Saturday night did count. After winning on the opening night of the Willam Jessup tournament, beating the hosts, Saturday night was a different story as the Owls lost by nine points to Cal State-Maritime.

The Owls hope to get back on track Tuesday night the 13th, when they face Multnomah University of Portland, Oregon in Klamath Falls.

NWC---Sticking with the team of just how good college basketball is, Pacific University (Forest Grove) played a great game on Friday night against D-1 Portland State, losing by 19 points, but getting a great performance from Danny Brakebush, who will be one of the star's of the Northwest Conference this year.

It should also be noted, not only is Pacific greatly improved, but Linfield and Lewis Clark both have excellent teams, so get out and watch some basketball in the NWC.

Clackamas Community College---It will be a big week for Clif Wegner's Cougars, as they play two good opponents at home, one Friday night, against NW Indian School at 7:00 pm and then come back and play Sunday afternoon against Bellvue CC, at 2:00. These are must see games.

Multnomah---The Lions got back to winning on Saturday night, thrashing Reed College, 94-39. It is expected that a much more competitive game will take place Saturday afternoon, the 17th, when the Lions host Simpson 3:00 pm. Great chance to take the kids to watch some great basketball, with a tremendous family atmosphere.

Concordia----After a brutal opening to the season, playing Oregon, Portland State, U of Portland and Eastern Washingon, all D-1 teams, Concordia was able to defeat Multnomah this past Tuesday. They face a real challenge on Tuesday night the 13th, as New Hope Christian comes to the NE Portland campus. New Hope has one its best teams ever, so a good test for the CAVS.

Now for some sports business.

ESPN---For a network that many said in 1979 would only last for a couple of months, now into its 34th year, the latest estimate is that ESPN's value is 40 billion.

Owned by the Walt Disney company, it is estimated that 57 percent of Disney's operating budget comes from its cable companies, which of course is led by ESPN and a distant second Disney Channel.

Bottom Line---If you have an idea, never give up on it, until you have exhausted all possibilities.

The McCourts----Jamie and Frank McCourt use to own the Dodgers. The they got a divorce, Jamie received out of the settlement a paltry $131 million. Little did she know at the time the Dodgers would sell for $ 2 billion.

Now, we are all sure not out of greed, she wants the divorce settlement re-opened, says she got cheated and deserves more. Actually taking all the greed out of this, plus the sickness, she probably is right, when you just look at the financial aspects and the numbers.

Bottom Line----More to come on this one, more drama and hatred as well, sadly.

AEG----Were the braintrust at AEG, led by Phl Anshcutz happy to see Mike Brown go as the Lakers coach. Probably so, considering AEG owns a share of the Lakers, not to mention they own and operate the Staples Center. 

A failing Laker team is bad for business, in the still competitive LA sports market, let alone AEG is for sale at present, at an estimated price of asking price of 8-10 billion.

Bottom Line----The 10 billion is in play, with a successful Laker team.

This Blog is brought to you by Greg Crawford. Greg is the COO of Greg Crawford Speaks (http://gregcrawfordspeaks.weebly.com and Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management (http://kiyokawacrawfordsportsmanagement.weebly.com)

To reach Greg Crawford, please email gregorycrawfordspeaks@gamil.com. If you would like to receive Greg Crawford's now famous today's WORD, just email him and put subscribe in the subject line. The today's WORD is a hit with business leaders, sports execs and many people wanting to improve their professional and personal lives.

Greg Crawford On Sports Biz + Small College Hoops

ATTENTION READERS: Starting and each and every Sunday, throughout the college basketball season, I am going to write the first half of my blog on sports business and the second half on small college basketball.

This blog is brought to you by Greg Crawford Speaks. To learn more about Greg Crawford Speaks, please go to http://gregcrawfordspeaks.weebly.com. We can help you become a better public speaker/presenter quite easily and at very reasonable fees. Also if you are looking for a great speaker for a lunch, dinner or conference, legendary voice of the Blazers Brian Wheeler is your person. His message is powerful, informative and will have you on the edge of your seat.

The Great Debate----With the so tragic and painful to many from the results of hurricane sandy (i do not capitalize hurricanes, they do not deserve it) of course it started the great debate, "When do we play and how will playing sports have either a negative or positive impact".

I will say after September 11th, sports seemed to do its small part to bring us together. It is a tough call, what to do in these situations and it is one time I think politicians get beat up unfairly. Of course the biggest sports play or not play with hurricane sandy was the playing of Nets, Knicks and running the NYC Marathon.

The debate is two fold, the phycological issue of a tragedy and the economic impact, which often means needing many city resources to spend money to make money. In this case, I would have played the all games, but would not have held the marathon, as it was cancelled correctly. Just too many needed resources in other parts of NYC were needed for clean-up and security, that would have had to be taken away for the marathon. Despite the fact it would have meant huge dollars for the city, plus many people working that will now not be, it appeared to be a correct move.

What do you think, would love your opinion in the comment section below, or you can always email me with your thoughts of any subject either to crawscorner@gmail.com or gregorycrawfordspeaks@gmail.com

James Dolan---Sticking with the tragedy in NYC, I hope this changes. The Dolan family, run mostly by James Dolan, that owns the world's greatest arena, at least they say so, Madison Square Garden and the second richest team in the NBA, the New York Knicks, estimated to be worth $800 million, issued a memo to all employees last week saying they would need to take a vacation day if they were not able to make it to the Knicks/Heat game on Friday night. Is it called insensitive.

Baseball Ratings----For my money, Fox does a terrific job with covering baseball and especially the World Series. Joe Buck and Tim McCarver have sustained the test of time, but what has not sustained the test of time is the TV ratings and number of viewers.

Do you realize that to this day, the highest number of viewers ever to watch a World Series game was in 1980, it was the sixth game of the World Series between the Phllies and Royals, that attracted an audience of 54.9 million.

Sadly, the opening game of this year's World Series, had an audience of 12.2 million. Even sadder, that game was only the fourth time in World Series history that two present or former Cy Young winners were the starting pitchers. Of course the match-up was Zito vs Verelander.

High School Football---You know it had to happen and will continue to happen. The Ohio High School Athletic Association was issued a restraining order this past week by Judge Richard McMongagle not to start the playoffs, because of a dispute from teams, as to if a forfeited win during the season, would actually count as a win for any team.

The Judge has not rescinded the order and the playoffs will continue and go on. Point here, rightly or wrongly, we have seen the courts involved in all areas of sports, because it is such a big business, but now it has reached the high school level.

NOW For Small College Hoops

OIT---Much like I have started doing in my blog for CSNNW.com, adopting a team to follow each year on the D-1 level, which is the Cal State U Bakersfield Roadrunners, in this blog each Sunday, I have now adopted the OIT Hustling Owls.

And why not, they are the defending NAIA Division 2 national champions and they have a coach in Danny Miles that it is a joke he is not in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. This is not to mention they have a legendary state of Oregon broadcaster in Bobby Thompson and the school has the best college president in the country in Chris Maples.

So each Sunday, starting next week watch for some great tidbits and info on OIT basketball.

Concordia---Hats off to Brad Barbarick, Concordia head coach for taking on as tough a pre-league schedule as an NAIA team and member of the Cascade Collegiate Conference will ever do. In order, after today, the Cavaliers will have played, U of Portland, Oregon, Portland State and Eastern Washington. Wow. And I think people on both sides of the ball this past Friday night would have to admit, Concordia should have beaten Portland State, losing by three 96-93, in probably one of the greatest games ever in Portland State's Stott Center.

Attendance---You are really missing something in California, Washington or Oregon, if you do not go out and see a small college basketball game. Whether it be D-3, NAIA, Community or Junior College, plus the great Christian leagues that have teams like Multnomah and Portland Bible that I watch often. The games are family friendly, great admission and concession prices, so just get out and go please.

Clif Wegner---Congrats to Clif, the award winning coach of Clackamas Community College Cougars men's team for putting on another great Clackamas Community College basketball jamboree this past Saturday. Great teams, lots of fun and what players they have in the NWAACC.

Not to mention you never know who you might see at Clackamas Community College. Saturday it was great to see Professional Bowlers Association Hall of Famer Dave Husted and his wife Michelle, who will be following the Cougars all year long. Of course it is a complete joke Dave Husted is not in the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame, 21 careers wins, plus four US Opens.

For more Greg Crawford's blogs on CSNNW.com, please go to:

www.csnnw.com/pages/ncaabasketball-------Crawford's Court
www.csnnw.com/pages/golf------Crawford's Clubhouse

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Greg Crawford On Sports Biz, Edition 8

Into the 8th week of doing Greg Crawford On Sports Biz, really appreciate the many emails and feedback that you have sent to me. Plan to keep doing this as long as I can on either Saturday or Sunday for your reading enjoyment.

Please also do not forget to read Crawford's Court, www.csnnw.com/pages/ncaabasketball and Crawford's Clubhouse, www.csnnw.com/pages/golf each week at CSNNW.com. On to today's sports biz column.

More Sports---Several people with lots of money are starting to make waves that they want to start sports networks. Of course the leaders now are Comcast/NBC, Fox and ESPN. One of most vocal about having his own sports network is Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corp and of course the person that stirs the pot greatly with all of his Fox networks.

One of the driving forces behind people creating new networks beyond the financial aspects is that there is not a hotter property in the world right now than the NFL and soon the NFL Thursday night package will be up for grabs at an estimated $1 billion per year. And to think that is just for eight games.

Maybe someday, someone will explain the fascination of the NFL, but you can't buck the trend. Fans are fanatic about it, fueled by fantasy football and gambling of course, two things gladly I am not involved with.

In reality for next 25 years, I see nothing stopping the NFL from becoming even more popular, with the exception of former players pursuing legal action in regards to concussion injuries which could have a huge impact on the financial picture of every team and it is something everyone should keep their eye on for the near future.

Monday Night---Speaking of the power of the NFL, nothing ever tops Monday night, not to mention the continued powerful force of the Green Bay Packer name. A perfect example of this is the Monday night game on September 24th. Per STUBHUB, the average ticket price for the Seattle Seahawks who are hosting the Packers is $67.26. For this games, the average price people are purchasing tickets on STUBHUB is $241.00, a mark up of 258 percent.

Monday night football and the Green Bay Packers cache continues and probably forever.

SEC---The most powerful college football conference, the Southeast Conference, is set to to debut their own network in 2014-15, which you have to bet will be modeled similar to the Big Ten and Pac-12 networks.

At present the SEC has TV deals with the CBS and ESPN which were set to end in 2024, but now have to be renegotiated because of expansion by the league of adding Texas A&M and Missouri. The current payout from these contracts is 55 million per year, divided equally among all schools, but that number is expected to jump close to 70 million in the next couple of years.

It is interesting to note that during the 2011-12 season, the average viewership for each SEC football game was 4.4 million, compared the average for the Pac-12, of 2.1 million. Surprisingly basketball viewership does really well in the SEC with an average viewership of 1.2 million per game, once again compared to the Pac-12 of 783.000 for the 2011-12 season. The Pac-12 number will obviously climb this season with the Pac-12 network coming onboard.

NHL---The impact of the lockout is wide and varied throughout the entire National Hockey League. Some teams are standing pat, not doing any layoffs and trying to use their employees with other properties that have ownership in varied other sports interests.

The same can't be said for every team, as a few teams have laid off employees, cut salaries for some staff, including coaches and senior executives by 50 percent and support staff by 15 percent.

Teams are also offering up to 5 percent interest for fans that have already paid their season ticket monies, rather than refunding, although every game missed will be refunded or credited by all teams in total.

It is safe to say that NO one wins in a lockout or strike, documentation and history can prove that over and over.

ATTENTION: If you are looking for a great speaker for lunch, dinner or conference engagement, please think about Portland Trail Blazer broadcaster Brian Wheeler. Brian has a powerful message to deliver and will have everyone on the edge of their seat. For more information, please visit, http://gregcrawfordspeaks.weebly.com

Emails on today's column to crawscorner@gmail.com or twitter @wchoops

Greg Crawford On Sports Biz, Edition 7

About Greg Crawford: Greg Crawford loves sports business, that is why he loves writing this column and most important wants readers to totally enjoy this.

Greg Crawford is the COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management, http://kiyokawacrawfordsportsmanagement.weebly.com , which also includes Greg Crawford Speaks, http://gregcrawfordspeaks.weebly.com.

Greg Crawford also writes three blogs each week for CSNNW.com, Crawford's Clubhouse, www.csnnw.com/pages/golf and Crawford's Court, www.csnnw.com/pages/ncaabasketball. Greg also works part time in the cancer unit of Adventist Medical Center.

Greg strongly encourages everyone to read, "Marketing Outrageously, Redux" by Jon Spoelstra, a book he reads at least once per month.

Boston Red Sox---It is rumored, but also denied by the Fenway Sports Management, owners of the Boston Red Sox that the team is for sale. Of course it is for sale, every sports property is for sale for the right price. And as we all know, sports teams are not valued realistically as they for the most part are emotional buys.

And since the Dodgers were purchased earlier this year for slightly over $2 Billion, you have to think the iconic Red Sox franchise could easily garner close to $1.5 billion.

For the real facts, Fenway Sports Group owns not only the Red Sox, but also the underperforming elite soccer franchise, Liverpool FC. In addtion, FSG owns 80 percent of the New England Sports Network, which the two largest franchises shown on the network are Boston Red Sox and Boston Bruins.

With the dumping of major salaries last month by the Red Sox, a lackluster season, it might be time to buy for the right person. My question to you, would the Red Sox be a franchise that you would like to own? Obviously, the team does not want to continue a backward slide on the field, going back to the years when the Red Sox, were the Cubs of Boston.

My hunch here is the Red Sox will sell in the next six months to a group that has strong ties to New England sports.

Chris Hansen---Hansen, the well known fund manager who wants to bring both hockey and basketball back to Seattle, really has to be given some credit for the job he has done in navigating his plan through the politicos in Seattle and getting approval to build a brand new arena.

Now, he has to have teams to play in the a brand new, expensive building. It will not be hard for many hockey teams to move to Seattle. There are plenty who would want to make that move today. It will be a little more difficult for a basketball team, but someone will. Quietly, the NBA insiders will tell you, that Seattle is important to the NBA, which a team in Seattle ended in 2008 after a 41 year run, of course moving to Oklahoma City.

While the common thinking is that the Sacramento Kings will move to Seattle, do not be shocked if it is the Milwaukee Bucks.

Milwaukee by most accounts is the LEAST valuable franchise in the NBA, estimated to be worth somewhere around $300 million. The Bucks are owned by United States Senator Herb Kohl, who bought the franchise in 1985 for $85 million.

Of course at one point if Kohl sold the franchise, he would have faced serious political consequences from his constituents in Wisconsin. But that is more than likely a mute point at this time, as Kohl has announced he will not seek re-election.

If Hansen dangled even close to $400 million in front of the Bucks, I would think that they have to bite and bite in a hurry. One other important issue here is that the Bucks are on a year to year arena lease, making it even easier for them to leave. Right now I put Milwaukee way ahead of Sacramento for being the next Seattle............

Biz Bites----Of course it was a great move for Notre Dame to move to the ACC, for all sports except football and hockey. It will increase revenue greatly and in my mind will also help Notre Dame win an NCAA basketball championship in the next five years, write it down, it is going to happen.

Top sellling MLS jerseys, of course number one is David Beckham, followed by Thierry Henry, Landon Donovan and Fredy Montero. Represented there is LA, New York and Seattle. Have you ever bought an MLS jersey? In most cases they retail for $99.00, but do have higher prices in some markets.

Under the radar this week, was the resignation of MSG sports head Scott O'Neil. Scott gets a lot of credit for overseeing so far what has been a successful $1 billion renovation of Madison Square Garden, adding value to MSG properties through some heavy duty sponsorship agreements with companies like Chase and Coca Cola and bringing Knicks and Ranger tickets prices into the 21st century. Look for O'Neil to land a big time job soon, with an NBA team, he will be a much sought after executive.

emails to crawscorner@gmail.com or follow on twitter @wchoops

Greg Crawford On Sports Biz, Edition 6

About the writer: Greg Crawford has been studying sports business ever since his father Don took him to play golf when he was 8 years old. Now 54 years later, he still loves sports business and studies it all the time. He is often asked to speak to groups on the subject in his hometown of Portland, Oregon. Greg follows one and one person only in the world of sports business, Jon Spoelstra and he strongly encourages everyone to read Jon's best seller, "Marketing Outrageously, Redux".

But as Greg often says to groups, his most important work is done in his part time job in the cancer unit of Adventist Medical Center, in Portland, Oregon.

Greg is the the COO of http://kiyokawacrawfordsportsmanagement.weebly.com and also writes columns three times per week for Comcast SportsNet and CSNNW.com, www.csnnw.com/pages/ncaabasketball and www.csnnw.com/pages/golf.

Greg always encourages people to comment on his writings and loves reader involvement, whether it be pro or con. Enjoy today's column please.

Stephen Strasburg---I really have no opinion on the decision to shut Stephen Strasburg down by the Washington Nationals as they prepare for the MLB play-offs. Strasburg is a super-star, has a bright future and is one person that seems to captivate everyone in the ballpark when he pitches. Of course the Nationals say they are looking to the future and want to keep the sometimes fragile right arm of Strasburg healthy. Actually only they know what should be done here, for my money.

But what I do know is the impact that Strasburg has on attendance when he pitches in the any major league ballpark. Since 2010, the average attendance when Strasburg has been the starter, is 33,214. That comes from 45 starts. Out of those 45 starts,  only one game attracted less than 30,000 people, that was in 2011 at Chase Field, home of the Diamonbacks when just over 29,000 showed up.

Surprisingly in his 25 starts since 2010 in his home ballpark, the average attendance for those starts has been 31,142, below his league wide average.

This we do know, Strasburg is important to major league baseball and its future, so everything possible should be done to keep him healthy.

Sad Attendance---How in the world can you have a first place ball club in major league baseball and your home attendance average is so pathetic. Such is the case of both the Washington Nationals and Baltimore Orioles, who both play in magnificent ballparks.

So far this year the Orioles have averaged 25,2000 and the Nationals 29,700. In a recent home series that the Orioles had with another first place team, the Chicago White Sox, the average attendance for the four game series was 11,000.

It is also fair to say, there are probably 10 cities in the United States, Canada or Mexico, who do not have major league baseball,  that would sell out every night with first place teams. 

Looking over all of these numbers, it now appears it is legitimate to at least say, did Major League Baseball make huge mistake putting the game back in Washington, D.C.? Not only is the Washington Nationals attendance figures a disgrace, they obviously have also saturated the baseball market in the D.C. /Baltimore corridor.

The Shoe Battle---Rumors are flying all over the place that Dwayne Wade will make a big move soon and leave Nike (Jordan Brand), for Chinese Sportswear Company Li-Ning.

The obvious here is that it would give Wade some separation from LeBron James, who has his own Nike brand and a chance to work with a fairly new company that is struggling at present.

Wade and James have become great friends, but this is just one more example of friendship in most cases means nothing when it comes to money and Wade is going to get a bundle for signing on with Li-Ning as its top athlete.

There is going to be many more sportswear companies coming out of China, who are going to go after American athletes as endorsers, but it is going to be a long, long time before anyone can challenge the superiority of Nike. Nike is so strong, they may never be over taken in the market place.

$$$$$$---It is an interesting year in Major League Baseball and especially when it comes to the business side. Only one team in the league's seven teams with the highest payrolls is guaranteed to make the playoffs, that is the Texas Rangers.

The Yankees with the highest payroll in Major League Baseball at $197 million per year, are for sure on the bubble to make the postseason. Other top seven payroll teams are getting ready for next season, including Philadelphia, LA Angels, Miami and Boston Red Sox.

Funny how sports works. The payroll of the contending Orioles, Rays and Oakland,  combined is only 3 million over the Yankees total of $197 million.

You make the call, perhaps it is people and not always money that can bring out a winner.

NFL---I was slightly amused this past week about a subject that is so not funny. The NFL will be donating $30 million to advance the cause of player safety, the largest single donation the league has ever made.

But the league can't get their act together to bring back their regular officials, which also heavily involves players safety and is the most single important issue that the GMs, coaches and players are complaining about with the substitute officials on the field.

It should also be noted something has to give here, some NFL sources I have been talking with have told me the league is so bitter over the attitude of the regular officials, they are convinced in their own mind they can go with the substitute officials for the rest of the season.

As much as I side with the regular officials, there has to be a point in time when they have to start worrying about are we going to have job in the future. The NFL under Goodell has been pretty heavy handed as is obvious, I do not see them budging much on this issue, unless about five games on one weekend could decided by poor officiating, as could happen. Never underestimate the opponent, otherwise you will come out on the short end of the business side.

crawscorner@gmail.com or twitter @wchoops

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If you need help with your public speaking or presenting, either on the personal or professional level, we can help. Please contact us at http://gregcrawfordspeaks.weebly.com for more info. We have some large discounts through the end of September, even if services are provided after that time. twitter @crawfordspeaks

Greg Crawford On Sports Biz, Edition 5

About Greg Crawford---At the age of 62, I am trying to slowly build my own Greg Crawford Brand. I write this sports business blog because I have loved sports business since I was 10 years old. As for building my own brand from scratch, in the last year:
1. I have become the COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management, working with my best friend Gordon Kiykokawa---http://kiyokawacrawfordsportsmanagement.weebly.com
2. I have started Greg Crawford Speaks and work closely with Portland Trail Blazer broadcaster Brian Wheeler, check us out, http://gregcrawfordspeaks.weebly.com and contact us please.
3. I write three times per week for CSNNW.com, Crawford's Clubhouse and Crawford's Court and alos appear 20 times per year on Comcast SportsNet TV.
4. But perhaps the most important thing I do without question is work part time in the cancer unit of Adventist Medical Center, a major hospital in Portland, Oregon.

So perhaps you can start over at 62 and I really appreciate you taking your time to read this blog.

Jon Spoelstra---Really appreciate the feedback from readers who have gone out and purchased "Marketing Outrageously, Redux" by Jon Spoesltra. It you want to improve your life either professionally or personally,  or both, reading this book is a must. Make the move today and buy it.

USC Trojans---Lots of people love to beat up on USC, but they probably might be laughing at all of us. Not only do they have a great chance to win the national championship in football this year, but for the record they are going to sellout every home game. Yes, pretty big, considering capacity of the Memorial Coliseum in LA is 93,607.

Of course the big draw is Oregon on November 3rd, but the Trojans have a following and they are putting up big bucks to watch the team.

It is also worth noting, as they openly admit to keep up with the Oregon Ducks, the Trojans have opened the $70 million John McKay Center, which is 11,000 square feet of meeting rooms, weight rooms, academic centers and a tribute to many past Trojan athletes.

USC has been playing football at Memorial Coliseum since 1923 and in talking with school officials their hope is to be there for the next 90 years, with no plans to build a new stadium. USC athletics is truly a brand of its own, no question about it, think what you want, but they are going to be a force in athletics for many years to come.

PAC-12 Network---In an open letter to all Pac-12 fans and beyond, the Pac-12 network has said to all its fans that if they want to watch the network and they have DirecTV, they should change providers.

Unless, I am totally being fooled and it is strictly a bargaining ploy, by saying this the Pac-12 network says they will not be able to work out an agreement with DirecTV anytime soon.

For this coming season alone, the Pac-12 network will be broadcasting 12 non-conference football games, 20 league games and 135 men's and women's basketball games.

Before leaving this item, the Pac-12 Network has hired Bill Walton to do analyst work on their basketball games, why in world are they not hiring Dan Belluomini, who is the best college basketball analyst in the country and also the true historian of west coast college basketball.

ESPN---I work for their major competitor, but it does not mean I can't admire and respect what ESPN does and has accomplished.

Since its first day in 1979, the network has grown as fast as any business in the United States. Revenues in 2012 are expected to exceed $8 billion (yes that is with a b) and the number of employees will exceed 7,000.

The Bristol Campus is located on 123 acres and currently has 18 buildings, with plenty of room for growth.

Andy Roddick---Naturally everyone should retire at the ripe old age of 31 years, so good for Andy Roddick. Speaking of building a brand, Roddick's earnings from tennis over his career are just over $20 miilion. His earnings from endorsement deals, triples that.

Roddick has a great career of winning events, 32 ATP World Tour Titles and 33 David Cup matches, but shockingly, he won only one Grand Slam event, the 2003 U.S. Open.

Bottom line here, you can build a brand by winning often, even if you don't win the big ones.

Nevada---Cary Groth, athletic director at Nevada since 2004 announced her retirement this week. Two candidates that I would hope Nevada would look at and people I have grown to respect greatly are Torre Chisholm, AD at Portland State University and Dave Haglund, Commissioner of the powerful GNAC Conference, both of these men are good people and without question great administrators.

Hopefully you can also read each week: www.csnnw.com/pages/golf and www.csnnw.com/pages/ncaabasketall

Hopefully you can also listen every Sunday night on Blog Talk Radio: All times PDT.

East West Hoops Loop, Greg Crawford and Jovan Alford, 8:00 pm
CO Golf Show, Greg Crawford and David Ogrin, 9:00 pm
Jesse Henry BBQ Show, starring Jesse Henry, 10:00 pm

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please email me at crawscorner@gmail.com and please follow on twitter @wchoops

Greg Crawford On Sports Biz, Edition 4

Lance Armstrong---In case you would like to know the numbers on Lance Armstrong, they are pretty staggering all across the board.

His foundation since 1997 has raised $470 million and has helped over 2.5 million people get free services for their post cancer treatment.

On the personal side, Armstrong makes north of $10 million dollars per year from speeches and his endorsement deals with 11 sponsors. Now how those sponsors react to the recent events of the past few days remain to be seen. As expected, one of his key sponsors Nike, is sticking with him, but it is expected also that some of his other key sponsors will probably pull the plug.

Just a few of his sponsors,  all powerful companies like Oakley, Radio Shack, Trek and Michelob Ultra. It didn't take long for people to choose sides and almost every poll conducted is split, on how people feel about Armstrong. Of course they would be much more anti, if it weren't for his work with cancer and raising money to fight it.

We are a nation that forgives easily, actually Armstrong in the long run might come out of this stronger than he is at present, but there will be some pain along the way.

Pay To Play---I have been saying for quite sometime that around 2020, I personally think that you will no longer see high school sports. Everything on that level will be private club sports and you will not see athletics in high schools as we know them today.

To back up my opinion around the country you are starting to see more "pay to play" every year. The average cost involved in "pay to play" nationwide is anywhere from $75.00-$100 per sport. With this economy as bad as it has ever been in everyone's lifetime, that is a big hurdle for many families and that is why nationwide there is a 14 percent decline in high school students playing sports.

One district in Ohio starting this fall will be charging each athlete some really hight costs. If a student wants to participate in these sports they will pay-----Cross Country $521.00, Golf $715.00, Football $783.00 and if they dare to play tennis, the cost will be $933.00. Gee, I hope if a student is a multi sports athlete they at least get a discount.

Despite my last sentence's attempt at humor, this is not a funny situation. Independent study after study tells us that exercise and participation in sports for students in high school, makes them a better student and makes them more prepared for the future.

You can dispute this all you want, but once again it is all about the money. The business side of sports goes all the way down to grade school, so we just better get use to it and we as well, are all going to feel the pain when it comes to lack of physical education and fitness.

NFL---Business wise the NFL continues to dominate. Ad space on all games is sold out for this year and new sponsors are scrambling to get into the market place alongside the old stand-bys.

Just one quick example, for Sunday Night Football on NBC, a 30 second ad is valued at $540,000. The average viewership last year of Sunday Night Football was 21.5 million fans per each Sunday. That comes out to be roughly $25.00 a sponsor is spending on each viewer. Now that if you ask me is a bargain, a real bargain.

NBA---In 1988, Micky Arison bought the Miami Heat for $32 million. The estimated value of the Heat after winning the NBA title this past season is $457 million. Since LeBron has arrived, the value of the team has increased by 23 percent.

At the same time, since James left the Cleveland Cavs, their estimated value has dropped by 26 percent, to a value of $355 million.

Most of the time in professional sports, if you get the right super star you are going to have to pay outrageous sums, but you often will get an outrageous gain. Knock LeBron all you want, but the guy is moving the needle right now more than anyone in sports.

Social Media---My good friend and colleague at CSNNW.com, Chris Haynes continually compliments me on my use of social media and the fact that despite I am an old man, I have not resisted it, but instead embraced social media. Thanks, I think Chris.

But, speaking of social media and its power, when the recent baseball all-star game was in Kansas City in July, the always progressive politicos of Kansas City set up their own social media "war room" to help promote the city and answer questions from visitors. It was a huge success, so much so that three businesses have indicated they were so impressed, they plan on moving a division or their entire company to Kansas City.

As much as it is easy to resist social media, if you want your business, or your employment to succeed, you better learn it and get use to using it. Technology should never be ignored, even when it comes to sports, so Chris, even though I am old, I am going to continue to learn everything I can about social media and how it can help me business wise.

Please if you get a chance and as you know, I appreciate it so much,  read my other blogs on CSNNW.com

http://www.csnnw.com/pages/golf
http://www.csnnw.com/pages/ncaabasketball

Also, if you need help with public speaking/presenting or if you would like a great speaker for an event, lunch or dinner engagement, please contact us http://gregcrawfordspeaks.weebly.com and we can for sure help.

Finally, but equally important, if you really want to improve your life, business skills and sports business, then it is simple. Just read, "Marketing Outrageously, Redux" by Jon Spoelstra. I recommend this book to everyone and 100 percent, people come back and say thank you, wish I would have read this book sooner.

emails to crawscorner@gmail.com or twitter @wchoops

Greg Crawford On Sports Biz, Edition 3

Thanks for all the great feedback on me writing this sports business column. It is great to have so many readers and I love doing this and also love hearing from all of you.

It is also very rewarding to hear from many of you, who went out and bought Jon Spoelstra's book, "Marketing Outrageously, Redux". of which I highly recommend not only for people interested in sports business, but for anyone in business, or anyone who just plain wants to improve your life. It is fun to recommend something that people really appreciate, which helps people either personally or professionally,  so get out there and buy the book if you have not already.

Not A Pioneer---There is no league at present that is as popular or has as much power as the National Football League. They have done so many things correctly, but when it comes right down to it, the game sells itself. (How is that coming from a basketball guy, who could care less about the NFL games).

As much as I don't care who wins and loses NFL games, I do pay attention to the business model, especially because of its success. What baffles me presently about the NFL is that the league is going through a lockout/strike with their officials. How in the world can this happen, even though I think the regular officials will be back come regular season. Actually who can blame them from not wanting to be on the field in these horrid exhibition games.

A league with this kind of resources should never worry about paying their officials, outside of the fact if they asked for $1 million per game, which obviously is not the case. NFL officials work hard, as do officials in all sports and for them to not have a contract in a wildly financially successful league is a "shame on you NFL". Take care of your people, it is a basic fact in American business.

And while I am at it, shame on Shannon Eastin. She is scheduled to work the Thursday night, August 9th game, Green Bay at San Diego. By doing so she will be the first woman to ever  officiate an NFL game. But does this really count? For years, many top women officials have been held back and have deserved better, but to make this out as some people have done that she is a pioneer is crazy. The circumstances she is doing this under do not qualify Shannon to become a pioneer, in any way shape or form. She is taking someone's place and if not for a lockout, she would not be working in the NFL. Plus, I do not like the fact that Shannon has also been doing interviews. The NFL should have never made her available.

Yes, by now the NFL should have had more than one woman official, but in no way under these circumstances and also the fact many who know much more about this than I do, tell me Shannon Eastin is in no way ready to officiate in the NFL, as compared to many other women football officials around the country.

Sorry if I offended any women in my rant, but ask the women I work with and they will tell you about my total respect for women in the work place. This just happens to be the wrong time for the NFL to move on something that has been way too long in coming.

Pageviews---Why are we still the greatest country and will be forever?  It is our people and it is our technology and the development of new ways to connect. Actually in the next five years, mark my words, your website and you twitter handle will be on your driver's license and will be as big a part of your name as your middle initial. Twitter has done so much to promote sports, but we still love our sports websites. So much that we continue to see every major sports website evolve frequently, trying to get better.

Shameless plug, I know, I am awful, but speaking of change, just today, my golf blog for CSNNW.com got much better, just because it is part of a new sparkling golf page that Comcast SportsNet launched this morning. www.csnnw.com/pages/golf

Of course I have a long way to go to catch the pageviews of the Olympics page by NBC. After the first week in London, the NBC web page, received over 1 billion views. Comparison, in the 2008 Olympics from Beijing, NBC had just under 1 billion views for the entire Olympics.

Lesson here, ladies and gentlemen, keep your websites fresh and websites are not going away for a long time to come.

Coaching Pay----College football is here and the list of highest paid coaches in college football is always available, of course usually as I have found out quickly over the years, only for public schools, for private schools the information is hard to attain.

So here is the public list of top three highest paid coaches, along with what the most colorful coach in the Pac-12, Chip Kelly makes. All figures are yearly and can vary slightly.

1. Mack Brown, Texas----$5.1 million
2. Nick Saban, Alabama---$4.8 million
3. Bob Stoops, Oklahoma---$4.075 million

Out of the top 20 highest paid coaches at public universities, Chip Kelly ranks 13th. $2.8 million. It is estimated at USC, a private institution, Lane Kiffin is making $4 million.

Overdue---I have talked a little about the success of the NFL earlier, every third grader can tell you the NFL is successful actually, but what about football expansion in the United States.

A great brand of football is the Canadian Football League. I think it is time for the CFL business model to expand back to the United States, especially in some areas where it is almost certain there will never be any NFL team for a long time to come. And where am I thinking? Portland, Oregon, San Antonio, Sacramento and Syracuse. And yes, I do know this was tried in 1993 and 94, but that was different time and different media world. So much time is available to broadcast on many different networks, this would be an easy sell in my mind.

The Canadian game is fast paced and exciting, Americans love that style and I think they would embrace the game in total. Football fans are starved for more, but it takes an established league and format like the CFL to succeed.

What do you think? Since this is a sports biz column, would you be an investor if asked, even for $100.00 in a Canadian Football League team? Let us know in the comment section below.

Emails welcome to crawscorner@gmail.com and twitter @wchoops

Please feel free to read my other blogs on college basketball and golf at CSNNW.com
www.csnnw.com/pages/golf  and www.csnnw.com/pages/ncaabasketball

Finally today, little less than 2 months left to take advantage of our huge discounted offers for Crawford Speaks, with our senior consultant Brian Wheeler. Please contact us at gregorycrawfordspeaks@gmail.com and visit our website to find out more, http://gregcrawfordspeaks.weebly.com

Greg Crawford On Sports Biz, Edition 2

Thanks for the all the great feedback from my first sports business column last Sunday. I am kind of shocked by the large number of readers the column of July 22nd achieved, so thank you and hoping this will continue to get bigger and better every Sunday from now on out. Here we go for this week and please as always let me know what you think.

Proctor and Gamble---As we see more and more advertising each and everyday when it comes to sports, occasionally we are going to see someone hit a home run with their ad campaign. Proctor and Gamble has done just that with their "Thank You Moms Campaign" they are tying into their Olympic sponsorship.

The program is geared towards highlighting the contributions of moms around the world and it is working. Proctor and Gamble also stepped up and gave all 800 moms of U.S. Olympians and Paralympians, a $1,000 stipend to help offset their costs of traveling to London to see their sons and daughters.

Proctor and Gamble has 22 brands, their annual sales worldwide exceed 1 billion dollars. As to being an Olympic sponsor, they have signed on through 2020, which means they will be sponsoring three summer games and two winter games. It is estimated that an Olympic sponsors pays 25 million per four year period to the International Olympic Committee, for the use of the Olympic logo on all products. Because of the outside the box thinking here of Proctor and Gamble, it would certainly appear they will come out a big winner and congrats to them, for creating a sponsorship storyline that is working and is unique.

Penn State---The horrific crimes at Penn State, will no doubt hurt the school for years image wise, but the financial impact is going to sting as well. Not only the 60 million fine levied by the NCAA, but also the fact for the next four years, the Big Ten has announced that the share of the league's bowl money that would have normally gone to Penn State, will instead be donated to charity. It is estimated that amount of money will be close to 13 million. Penn State closed out the last fiscal year with a surplus of 31 million in their athletic budget, so they can afford a little bit of a hit financially. Of course, money means nothing in the overall picture here. I might also add, once again the NCAA missed the mark here, there are so many innocent people that are going to feel the effects of this, who had nothing to do with the crimes and will suffer greatly because of other people's actions. Go after the criminals, always, which did not seem to be on the minds of the NCAA when they handed down their penalties.

Parking Meters---The city of San Francisco, who over the years has often been late to the party when making decisions, once again has lived up to its reputation. It seems they are just now figuring out how successful the San Francisco Giants are, both on the field and from a business standpoint. Starting soon, the city will be putting in new parking meters around AT&T ballpark, which will be in operation seven days a week and you will have to plug the meter until 10:00 pm. It is estimated to use these meters it will cost a person $7.00 per hour. And to think, the city just now figured out this cash cow?

Erin Andrews---Perhaps I will get my man card taken away for this one, but is Erin Andrews really worth the estimated 5 million dollars per year that Fox will be paying her, as she left ESPN to join Fox this past June. I know, I know, it is all about eye candy in some cases, but quite frankly, Erin Andrews is not that good, she often struggles with her reports and she has a horrible voice. Of course, there are lots of people in this country who are horribly overpaid and she joins the list.

TNT---With the NBA schedule just announced, it is interesting to note who will be making the most appearances on the network this coming season. Appearing 10 times will be the Heat, Knicks and Thunder. The Lakers and Clippers get nine appearances and the Mavericks and Celts eight. Overall TNT will televise 52 regular season games. Of course many of the choices were simple, but the Knicks 10 times? I don't care if it is the largest city, just does not make sense to put that pathetic team on 10 times. Then again, who can argue with the success of TNT when it comes to televising the NBA. For the last four years, their ratings for NBA games have been up each year dramatically and last year was their most productive year ever, as per ratings and viewership.

Pac-12 Network---The Pac-12 got off to slow start, when it came to putting their new TV network together, but you have to give them big plaudits for the people they hired as play by play announcers for football.  Three veteran people in the broadcast booth, who are extremely talented, Kevin Calabro, Dave Fleming and Ted Robinson. Of course one person missing is the great Barry Tompkins, how you can leave him out is beyond me, he is the voice of the Pac-12/Pac-10/Pac-8. Also, I would have hoped the Pac-12  would have at least approached Keith Jackson about doing a game or two. How great would that have been.

It is also nice to see that Brooke Olzendam will be doing sideline reporting for the Pac-12 network. Brooke  left Comcast SportsNet before I arrived on the scene, but I thought she was so talented and of course, the pain she went through recently, having her husband die in a hotel workout room after the couple was only married for 10 days, has to be something no one should ever have to go through. So congrats Brooke.

Jon Spoelstra----I get asked all the time by young people and now with this horrific economy, all ages, "how can I get in the sports business". And of course, I give them one stock answer,  go out and buy every book that Jon Spoeslstra has ever written. His latest, "Marketing Outrageously, Redux", has been a huge hit, going into its third year since first being published. Not only for sports people, anyone who wants to improve their life, should read Jon's books, they will improve your life both professionally and personally and the proof is in the pudding, so many I have said this too, have comeback and thanked me for the great recommendation.

Please take a look at my other columns and blogs, www.csnnw.com/pages/golf and www.csnnw.com/pages/ncaabasketball and let me know what you think.

emails to crawscorner@gmail.com and twitter @wchoops


NOTE: If you are looking to improve yourself as a public speaker/presenter either in your professional or person life or both, please contact me at http://gregcrawfordspeaks.weebly.com or gregorycrawfordspeaks@gmail.com. Not only myself, but Brian Wheeler, voice of the Portland Trail Blazers is our senior consultant, we are here to help and Brian is available to speak at any event you have, dinner, conference or lunch and can deliver a great message to your group. 25 percent off all services through the month of September, act now and thank you.

craw's corner: Greg Crawford On Sports Biz, Edition 1

craw's corner: Greg Crawford On Sports Biz, Edition 1: Well, here goes with my first edition of Greg Crawford On Sports Biz. Ever since I was a young person, I have been fascinated with Sports ...

Greg Crawford On Sports Biz, Edition 1

Well, here goes with my first edition of Greg Crawford On Sports Biz.

Ever since I was a young person, I have been fascinated with Sports Business. It now has evolved into my favorite thing in sports, followed closely by basketball and golf. Of course, this does not mean the end of Crawford's Clubhouse and Crawford's Court on CSNNW.com. Greg Crawford On Sports Business  column will come out every Sunday and I hope you enjoy the little tidbits.

A book that I read at least every month, yes over and over and get so much out of, "Marketing Outrageously, Redux" by Jon Spoelstra will also be featured in this column, with excerpts each Sunday. If you love life, love sports, want to become a better person, better business person or just love good reading, you must get Jon's book, it is absolutely marvelous. So here we go and I hope you enjoy, if not, just ignore each time I send this out and I will not be offended in the least. Thank you,

Franchises---Really interesting last week when Forbes magazine came out with their 50 most valuable sports franchises. We sometimes forget that sports is universal, just not contained to the United States, so it is not shocking that the two most valuable sports franchises come from the  world of soccer. 1) Manchester United, worth 2.33 billion and 2) Real Madrid, worth 1.88 billion.

The most important part of the 50 is the fact that all 32 NFL teams were in the top 50. It is totally amazing what the NFL has done with their game and its popularity. And despite the recent huge sale of the LA Dodgers, the Yankees still retain the top spot in baseball when it comes to value.

Not surprising that the there are no MLS or NHL teams in the top 50. Also not surprising is that the highest ranked NBA team is the Lakers, coming in at 35th. Unless your the Sacramento Kings, it pays, despite the economic woes of California to have a professional sports franchise in California. You buy it and it grows, not just a small amount, but huge over time.

North Dakota---Obviously, North Dakota is serious about joining the Big Sky Conference. They have just gone out and signed a deal with Front Row Marketing Services to sell their sports sponsorships. Front Row in one of the best and largest companies in the world when it comes to sports sponsorships.

North Dakota has a nice athletic department and in joining the Big Sky, that is a big boost for them and for the Big Sky. Of course it still seems odd to me that the Big Sky continues with the name Big Sky, it just does not fit the league anymore when you have teams in California, Arizona, Utah, Washington, Oregon and North Dakota. With the recent unveiling of the league's new logo, what a golden opportunity was missed to rebrand the entire league, with a new name. Big Sky should be out and write me with your suggestions, what should be in. Thank you.

Jamie Zaninovich---If Zaninovich leaves as Commissioner of the West Coast Conference to become the new athletic director at Stanford, it will be a big loss for the WCC. Zaninovich has done wonderful job of moving the league forward since taking over in 2009, especially bringing in the new teams, BYU and of course Pacific in 2014. Basketball drives the bus in the WCC and it appears to be thriving, with this coming season, predicted to be one of the most competitive of all time.

Of course, the big blank on the Zaninovich's record if he leaves will be the fact he could not convince enough people to bring Seattle into the WCC. I know a little about sports, mainly cause I am old, but for Seattle U., not to be in the WCC is totally sad. The school's profile fits perfectly with the WCC and why would you ever not want the the 14th largest TV market to be part of your league. I guess Stockton, California was a better choice.

So if Zaninovich does leave, I love to offer free advice. The WCC should go after Torre Chisholm, who has done a wonderful job, which is not an easy job, as the athletic director at Portland State.

Anthony Davis---To no one's surprise the number one draft choice in the 2012 NBA draft, has signed a multi-year deal with Nike. Nike gets almost every top athlete in the world, as we all know. What I did learn this week, was surprising to me, Nike is responsible for sales of 96 percent of the basketball sports shoe market worldwide. No matter how you cut it, that is power and sports business dominance at the highest level.

Marketing Outrageously, Redux---In case you have not read this book by Jon Spoelstra, you must, no matter what your interest in life or your profession. Each Sunday, will give you just a little excerpt, which I really hope causes you to read the book.

If you wish to ramp up revenue, here are some thoughts from Spoelstra on sales, the salesperson and the sales manager all working together for the same results.

"The toughest part of a sales call is not making the sale, but everything leading up to it. Making the appointment, juggling the schedule and preparing the material".

"The sales manager should do all of the following things, for the same reason the company president or marketing director should do them", go on calls with sales people and constant communication.

1. Work with sales people, it reenforces why the sales manager is there, to raise revenues.

2. It tells the sales people how important revenue is to the company.

3. It keep the sales manager in touch with the market.

4. It stimulates the creation of new ideas.

5. It generates sales.

Emails to crawscorner@gmail.com and twitter at wchoops.

NOTE: If you are looking to improve you public speaking or presentations, either professionally or personally, please contact us gregorycrawfordspeaks@gmail.com. If you mention you saw this on Greg Crawford On Sports Business, automatic 20 percent off of our fees. Thanks.

Small College Basketball Coverage, Coming Soon

I write this on the address, in which I first started writing a blog, but have not written one here for sometime. I have some interesting and exciting news, which I wish to share with you.

Starting this fall, I will be creating a website which will be dedicated to covering at this time eight teams and hopefully, once I connect with one more basketball team and its coach, it will be nine teams,  which will include eight teams from the metro area and Oregon Tech. 

Of course it might seem funny to some that I would do eight metro teams and Oregon Tech, but since I have started writing I have a huge following in Klamath Falls, so I appreciate it very much and that is why they will be included in this basketball website.

I also want to make perfectly that this is in no way an effort to interfere with with the school's athletic website or any coverage the teams receive from other media locally or regionally. I am just a basketball fan and I love "Small College Basketball", so I would hope everyone would endorse what I  will be doing, as I will take a different approach and it will be lots of fun, informative and in-depth.

The teams I will be covering for sure are Multnomah University, Concordia, Warner Pacific, Portland Bible, Lewis and Clark, Pacific (Forest Grove) Clackamas Community College and Oregon Tech. Once I am able to make contact with people, I might be adding another NWAACC school.

And since the question has been asked, no, I am not leaving CSNNW.com. I will continue to write Crawford's Court and Crawford's Clubhouse, hopefully for a long period to come.

As for this web address, starting this weekend, I will be writing a sports business blog, which I will be going in-depth into the business of sports, both locally, regionally and nationally, which is kind of exciting to say the least.

If you have any questions please get back to me, crawscorner@gmail.com or twitter @wchoops and most important always, thanks for being loyal readers, you have no idea how much I appreciate you.

A Big Huge Thank You

Basketball season is just about over, of course I will continue to cover the NCAA tournament for CSNNW.com, www.csnnw.com/pages/ncaabasketball/  all the way through the final four, but it is time to say thank you to many people and I am sure I might leave somebody out, who have been there from the beginning for Craw's Corner, but I do need to mention many people. And little did I think I would be writing a blog post on March 23rd with a pile of snow on the ground in Oregon.

Many of you have asked if I will be writing about "small college" basketball next year on this blog and the answer is a big fat YES, but I am not stopping there, as we are gearing up to have a major website that directly talks about small college basketball, if that is even a good term to use. Until basketball starts again for me in September, I will be writing on Crawscorner about various subjects in sports.

So here is a big huge thank you and please would love to hear back from you always. Most importantly, I want to thank all of you who read this blog, the amount might  surprise you and I am proud of that fact and appreciate all of you for making it something that you want to read and special.

1. Danny Miles and Bobby Thompson--- They always get back to me, congrats on wonderful year at OIT and another national championship. Danny Miles, basketball hall of fame soon.

2. Curt Bickley---Coach at Multnomah University, class act and very supportive of my work, always willing to help me anyway possible.

3. Brad Barbarick and Larry Black---Two basketball people who always have time for everyone and do such an outstanding job at Concordia with their program, Brad the head coach and Larry the assistant. Thanks also to Andy Jobanek for his big help when I attend Concordia games.

4. Clif Wegner---Head coach at Clackamas Community College, I have known Clif for over 30 years and even when I officiated games for him, he always treated me with so much respect. Clif was one of the first people who stepped up to help me and get the word out on my blog, I am forever grateful.

5. Cody Harrod---SID at Warner Pacific, great person, does such fine work and big help to me.

6. Brady Bergeson and Jamie Stevens---Two rising stars in the coaching business, who it has been a pleasure to communicate with and one day I can say I know those guys, when they are named national coach of the year.

7. Chris Maples----OIT president, nothing but class once again, great supporter of my work and education is in great hands at OIT.

8. Klamath Falls---To everyone of you in K-Falls who constantly read my blog and allow me to send it to you, both for Crawscorner and CSNNW.com, thank you.

9. Blake Timm and Tim Cleary----SID and head coach at Pacific, what wonderful people and Blake you are big time in the SID world, tireless worker and great person.

10. Mark Warkentien---Mark is big time, heck if you are an executive with the New York Knicks, you are big, but he always takes time to write to me and read my blogs. Mark, thank you.

11. Terry Durham---One of my closest friend who has been there with me through thick and thin, who gives so much of himself to other people and never asks anything in return.

12. Mike Trimboli, Marv French, Gordon Kiyokawa, Bob Senseman, Russ Vandehey, Steve Scott, Mitch Copp, Bruce Hubbard, Lanny Bennett, Mike Noonan---Friends everyone should be honored to have, I am humbled each day by these great and awesome people. If everyone had friends like these, the world would be a much better place.

13. Gordon Kiyokawa---He gets mentioned twice, after all he is a terrific business partner, Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management. But more important he is a wonderful human being, who cares so much about other people and just think, I am lucky enough to know him, let alone be in business with him.

14. Tim Marsh---This blog would not exist if it were not for Tim. He set it up, I have known Tim for over 40 years and he does nothing but help people and asks nothing in return. Always there in tough times.

15. Mike Lund and Andy McClouskey---Both at Portland State and both big time supporters of this blog. You guys are awesome and thanks to you forever and thanks for the great friendship. Never forgotten.

16. Dave Haglund---The new commissioner of the GNAC, formerly of the CCC, big help and awesome work he does.

17. Jon Reed and Kevin McCarthy---Both run superior blogs, but always promote mine, thank you guys always.

18. Chris Haynes, Dwight Jaynes, Terry Gierke, Dale Scott, Dr. Steve Brenner---Thanks for your great support in life and Chris and Dwight, you are wonderful colleagues at CSNNW.com

19. Dr. Dan Beeson, Mike Smithey and John Melonas--They have never forgotten my wonderful parents and our days of much fun in College. Thank you for always thinking of me and my family.

20. Jim Jorgensen---A great, wonderful friend for 32 years and the King of Sacramento Sports.

21.Jack Garrsion and Jon Spoelstra---Such wonderful friends, who were there in tough times, the true sign of friends, thanks to both of you.

22. Dan Belluomini, Jim Clair,Jonathan Heins, Mark Sanchez, Phil Beard, Jim Simms, Ron Callan, Tom Hewitt, Ryan Orton, Ivan Kafoury, Rob Closs, Gavin Amato, Steve Brandon,Ken Kuzmaak---Wonderful friends and wonderful supporters of my writing and big help always. Thank you always and not forgotten.

21. Last but most important always, I am so lucky to have had off the charts parents and a great sister. Some people are not as fortunate, I hit the jackpot with all three.

If I forgot someone, anyone who knows me, it was not intentional and I will correct it. Also, if you are traveling to Eugene in the near future, great new place, "Inn At The 5th", which just happens to be managed by Raandi Ward, wife of Tom Ward, legendary sporstcaster at KVAL and a supporter of mine.

And do not forget for all you medical care, Adventist Medical Center is superb. I am lucky to work there in the Cancer Unit and I work with superior medical people and it is the true definition of teamwork.

emails always welcome, crawscorner@gmail.com or on twitter bark at me on @wchoops

This is not going away, it is just going to get better with the new website and your continued support.

Week 7, The Other College Basketball People

For all info on D-1 basketball please go to Crawford's Court, every Monday and Thursday at CSNNW.com.

Here is a little info on D-3, NAIA, Community College and Multnomah University. Next week I will cover the GNAC playoffs in depth.

Cascade Conference---The regular season is over and the playoffs begin on Wednesday night. Once again it was a great year for Oregon Tech, but also a great year for Northwest University. Both teams tied for the regular season title, but OIT got the number 1 seed.

Here are the first round of the playoffs, which begin on February 22nd. College of Idaho at OIT, Concordia at Northwest, Southern Oregon at Warner Pacific and Corban at Eastern Oregon. If you are in the area of any of these schools please go out and watch some good basketball.

Congrats also to Scott Meredith on the women's side for having an outstanding year, his team will play at Warner Pacific on Tuesday, February 21st in the first round of the women playoffs. Good year for Warner Pacific in both the men and women, being able to finish high enough to host first round playoff games.

Community College---A very good week for Clackamas Community College. Knocking off league leading Mt. Hood on Wednesday and defeating a good Lane team on Saturday night. The play of Taylor  Dunn continues to be outstanding, along with some great help of many teammates including in the Lane game, terrific work by Brett Ball and Alex Lou.

Next Saturday will be the final home game for Clackamas, so I encourage all in the area to go out and watch as well. Clif Wegner has done an outstanding job once again of coaching the Cougars.

Northwest Conference----Congrats to the four teams that made the playoffs, which will be this Thursday when Lewis and Clark travels to league regular season winner Whitworth and Whitman comes across the state to battle Puget Sound.

Dinari Foreman has done a great job in his first year at Lewis and Clark, after replacing retired coaching legend Bob Gaillard, in getting the Pioneers into the playoffs.

It was a tough year for both Linfield and Pacific, but both teams are really young and will be much better next year. Congrats to seniors on Linfield, Zach Anderson and David Lee. Likewise to seniors at Pacific, Robb Babek and Carson Bartlett. Sadly, Bartlett missed the entire season with an injury, but I am sure the experience of being a graduate of Pacific will overcome that.

Multnomah University---A great win for Curt Bickley's Lions on Saturday over New Hope Chrisitan, securing the number one seed in the NCCAA regional this next week in Lancaster, California. It was great atmosphere at Multnomah for their final home game, which was homecoming.

Congrats also to the five seniors playing their last home game for the Lions, Brent Looyenga, Jared Reando, Gian Cook, Tyler Yates and Willey Yates.

Thanks for reading and also do not forget to go to CSNNW.com for Crawford's Court, but we always have the best Blazer and NBA coverage as well, with Chris Haynes and Dwight Jaynes.

Next year, I plan to really be the go to person for all D-2, D-3, NAIA, Community College and Multnomah basketball. We will be rolling out some surprises in the fall, which will be terrific and the coverage will be the best in basketball for these levels.

Emails always welcome at crawscorner@gmail.com and please go to twitter and follow me @wchoops and I will follow you back.

Week 6, The Other College Basketball People

In case you are reading this column for the first time today or you are a regular reader, this my attempt to bring some small attention to the schools in the Northwest who play basketball below the D-1 level. Of course I love all basketball, so not only this column, but I hope you will go often to CSNNW.com for my Crawford's Court blog, which appears there on Monday and Thursday. As many of you have done and I appreciate it very much, please feel free to send me after getting their permission, the email of anyone who might want to receive this.

Cascade Conference---It was another great week of basketball in what many think is the best basketball league in the NAIA. In order to be the champ, you have to beat the champ. It did not happen and with one week to go, Oregon Tech has a one game lead on the men's side, after a key victory on Saturday night over Northwest, who was tied with Oregon Tech for the league lead going into the game.

It was also a nice weekend for Warner Pacific as they swept at home defeating Northwest Christian University and Corban, to move into a second place tie with Northwest. Next week I will have all the seedings for postseason play.

On kind of sad note, you have to feel for Concordia coach Brad Barbarick, whose team has been decimated by injuries. Brad is truly one of the wonderful people in basketball coaching, has as one of his assistant's Larry Black, another true gentleman. Next week I will be listing several of the seniors on his team that will be going out in this world and making a major contribution to society after graduation, as will so many of these young men and women who play basketball in the Cascade Conference, who are student/athletes in the greatest form.

Northwest Conference---One week to go and all you can say is that once again Whitworth has dominated the league, hats off to them. It has been a tough year for the fans of Pacific and Linfield, many of them who are regular readers of this column. I also want to thank Blake Timm, the superb SID of Pacific University who often writes to me and puts out such a great professional product, which is a big help to myself.

GNAC---Another great basketball conference that plays on the D-2 level. With two weeks to go, the huge edge to win the GNAC title goes to Western Washington, after they beat second place Alaska Anchorage Thursday night 59-50. It should be lots of fun when the GNAC holds it postseason tournament at St. Martin's in Lacey Washington, starting on February 29th.

Community Colleges---It was fun game to see on Saturday night at Clackamas Community College, when the Cougars defeated Linn-Benton is a game that close the entire way. Clif Wegner has his team playing some great basketball, actually should have won both games this past week, but in something you rarely see in basketball they lost at Chemeketa on Wednesday night because of a scoring error. The Cougars actually won the game, 73-72, but in the first half, Chemeketa was credited with a basket they did not score and at the time the final score was 74-73. Sadly this should not happen in this day and age, but it did and tough loss for Clackamas and is not correctable.

One final note on the Saturday game, I am really puzzled why Joseph Vance did not start either half for Linn-Benton, which might have meant the difference in the game. Vance in my mind is the best player on Linn-Benton and one of the top ten players in the South Division, so to not play him all the time seems rather a mystery.

Multnomah University----Hey, let's pack the gym next Saturday for the final home game of the regular season for the Lions. The game starts at 3:00 p.m. and is a critical game for the number one seed against New Hope Christian College.

Multnomah is such an exciting team to watch and Curt Bickley does a great job of coaching his team each and every game.

Please do not forget to go to CSNNW.com often for all the latest in sports news and please feel free to email me crawscorner@gmail.com or on twitter @wchoops

Week 5, The Other College Basketball People

This is once again my continuing efforts to get some small recognition for teams in the Northwest that play basketball on the D-2, D-3, NAIA and Community College level. Of course for all the news on D-1 basketball, I hope you will continue read Crawford's Court, which comes out every Monday and Thursday on CSNNW.com, the best sports website on the entire west coast.

Also please note, that this is just the tip of the iceberg as we finish out the 2011-12 basketball season. I already have a team in place to go big time with more information and the best website, radio interviews and much more when we get to the 2012-13 season when it comes to D-2, D-3, NAIA and Community College basketball in the Northwest. No one will be able to match what we are going to bring you for coverage of the people that have often been forgotten by many media outlets. We will be the go to people for basketball, without question.

Ok, here we go as we get down to crunch time in all of college basketball.

Multnomah University----Curt Bickley's Lions went 1-1 this past weekend, defeating Walla Walla University on Friday and then traveling to Eugene on Saturday and getting beat by New Hope Christian. Good battle this Tuesday as Multnomah travels to play their arch rival, Portland Bible College.

Multnomah has only two home games left, so I urge you to go to their website, check the schedule and go and watch an exciting team that loves the 3-ball and is so much fun to watch. I was raised on up-tempo basketball and will never ever not be a fan of teams of that score in the 100s as Multnomah does often.

Northwest Conference---It was great to see Tim Cleary's Pacific Boxers break their eight game slide and defeat Willamette on Saturday night. The Boxers have been plauged by injuries this year, so a win was just what the Doctor ordered. I still wish the Boxers would pull one of the greatest marketing moves the Northwest Conference has seen and change their nickname back to the Badgers. So Blake Timm, one of the best Sports Information Directors in the country, get going on my suggestion please.

It is no surprise that Whitworth will once again win the regular season championship in the NWC. Depsite losing their great coach Jim Hayford who left to over the head coaching job at Eastern Washington, the Pirates have not missed a beat this season and have lost only one league game so far, that being to Whitman.

Lastly on the NWC, congrats to longtime Linfield coach Larry Doty for surpassing Ted Wilson as the leader of all time wins at Linfield with 325. You can probably congratulate Larry in person as he is constantly out scouting and recruiting in the state of Oregon. Quite an accomplishment at a school with such a rich athletic tradition and I might add, my alma mater.

Community College---Clif Wegner's Clackamas Community College Cougars continue to surge as they won again on Saturday night, defeating SW Community College on the road. Wegner's team is playing the best ball they have played all year and face a tough week as they travel to Chemeketa on Wednesday and they return home on Saturday night to battle Linn-Benton, which is led by terrific player Joseph Vance.

It is worth noting about the Saturday night victory, seldom in basketball do you ever see a player score more points than minutes played, but the Cougar's Taylor Dunn accomplished that fete this past Saturday as he posted 34 points in just 32 minutes. No matter where Dunn goes to school next year, he is going to help whoever he plays for, it is really hard in this day and age to find a shooter like Dunn is.

CCC---Coaches never like to look ahead, but basketball writers have to and should. That is why the CCC championship just more than likely will come down to the February 11th match-up of Northwest traveling to Klamath Falls to meet OIT. The teams are tied atop the CCC at present and the showdown on Danny Miles court should be something. I also might add, I watch as much basketball as anyone in the country and I have not seen a player on any level play as hard this year as Bobby Hunter for OIT. He does not take one play off, either on the defensive or offensive end.

I am personally looking forward to seeing in person the Corban @Concordia game this coming Friday night on the Cavaliers campus. Brad Barbarick's Concordia team is fighting for playoff positioning and this game will be a key contest for Concordia. Of course the next night, Corban will travel to Warner Pacific to meet the Knights, in what is always a fun place to watch basketball, much like Concordia.

Before I leave the CCC, I would be remiss if I did not congratulate OIT women's coach Scott Meredith on winning 20 games so far this season. Anytime a college basketball team wins 20 games that is an accomplishment in itself.

GNAC---This is quite a league and is headed to a great finish, before the league goes to St Martin's later this month for their postseason tournament. It certainly is no surprise to see a Brad Jackson coached team on top of the league at this point in the season, as Western Washington leads Alaska Anchorage by one game, in an exciting race.

Worth noting as well, two new coaches in the league have had really good seasons thus far. Jamie Stevens is doing a wonderful job at Montana State University Billings as is Brady Bergeson  at Western Oregon. Both of these coaches have really turned the programs around at their respective schools and deserve lots of credit.

So there you have another week of my covering "the other guys". If you have someone who would like to get this column by email, check with them first and then send me their email and they will get it automatically each week. Big things as mentioned before are coming from this column next year, but this year you still will get plenty of info. And please do not forget to go to CSNNW.com often to check not only Crawford's Court, but all the other great info on the website, the best as stated on the west coast.

I am always open to suggestions, comments, criticism, you name it by emailing me at crawscorner@gmail.com or you can follow me on twitter @wchoops.

Week 4, The Other College Basketball

Of course this is my continuing efforts to bring you some information about basketball teams that play on the D-2, D-3, NAIA and Community College level. For all the D-1 action and coverage, please always read Crawford's Court at CSNNW.com

If you know someone who would like to read this, please after asking them, send them my email and I will make sure they get the information. Sometimes up to 10,000 people read this, so I plan to keep it up and make it even better in weeks to come and you will see some exciting things happen. If you have a team you like or follow, request they send me information to crawscorner@gmail.com and I will make sure they are mentioned in this blog. Thank you. Here we go.

Community College----Cliff Wegner really has his Cougars playing well at Clackamas Community College. After a blowing out Portland Community College on this past Wednesday night, they went to Roseburg on Saturday night and easily defeated Umpqua. Of course no coach is ever going to say a victory is easy, so leave that up to me. Taylor Dunn is a terrific player for the Cougars and it was a pleasure to meet his father this past Friday night.

It is also worth noting the academics that are being achieved by the Cougar team. Committing 30 hours per week and still producing in the classroom is not always easy, but the Cougars achieved an overall grade point average of 3.33 and three players had a perfect 4.0 GPA, Taylor Dunn, Brett Ball and Jake Dewitt. Hats off to the entire team.

NAIA---It was nice to go to two sellout games this past weekend in the Cascade Conference, Friday night at Concordia and Saturday night at Warner Pacific. Of course it never hurts attendance to have legendary program Oregon Tech in town, bringing a number one ranking.

Facing a number one team did not seem to phase Brad Barbarick's Concordia Cavaliers. In a game that was never even close from the opening tap, Concordia defeated OIT easily on Friday night,  before as previously mentioned a packed house. For anyone who loves basketball and lives near Portland, Oregon, Concordia is one of those must see places to watch a game, always great atmosphere and always competitive, but friendly people.

Of course with the OIT Owls in town, the next night they traveled to Warner Pacific to face the first place Knights. Another packed house greeted the Owls,  with the Warner Pacific fans almost being outnumbered by OIT fans, it was a tense atmosphere for sure. You had to think OIT would not play as poorly as they did on Friday night and they did not, beating the Knights and forcing what should be a great race down the stretch in the Cascade Conference.

It was also fun to watch the women's games each night before the men and I had never met OIT coach Scott Meredith, who lived up to his billing of being a class individual and someone all of the people in Klamath Falls should be proud of, just like they are of iconic coach Danny Miles.

Multnomah University---A must place to watch a game and what a thriller I was able to witness last Monday, as the Lions lost to Arizona Christian, 128-125 in double overtime. Curt Bickley coach of Multnomah, loves the up-tempo games, as do I, so Multnomah will produce excitement no matter who the opponent is. The Lions are another must see team, if you live around Portland, Oregon.

That is it for this week, but starting next week, you will see expanded coverage of this blog when it comes to all levels below D-1. Of course once again please keep reading Crawford's Court, www.csnnw.com/pages/ncaabasketball.

You can always email me at crawscorner@gmail.com or please follow myself on twitter @wchoops.

This first four weeks are just the tip of the iceberg, more and better coverage coming in February, so please pass this on to as many people as you can, I write it so people can enjoy it, it is that simple.

Week 3, The Other College Basketball People

Here we go my third week of trying to bring some attention to "small college" basketball. Of course I sure do want you also read Crawford's Court, every Monday and Thursday on CSNNW.com and I thank you for reading all of my basketball columns. If you know of anyone who would like to receive this, or Crawford's Court, please send me their email. Thank you.

NAIA---Tremendous battle on Saturday night at Concordia in the Cascade Conference as the Cavaliers answered almost every challenge that league leading Warner Pacific threw at them, only to come up short at the end in overtime, 90-89.

Kind of special to see the game played before standing room only crowd, there was no trash talking, great student section excitement and one heck of a game for sure.

It might get even more challenging for both Concordia and Warner Pacific this coming weekend as Southern Oregon and OIT, led by their iconic coach Danny Miles visit the Rose City for their annual Portland stop. For any basketball fan, this is must see games, no excuses please.

And before I leave the Cascade Conference, I have a bit of free advice for the new commissioner, which will be selected this coming spring to early summer, replacing Dave Haglund. It is a must you spend some money to have your officials evaluated, if not every game, at least several times a year. It is a rarity for this writer to ever say anything negative about officiating, but in my view the Cascade Conference needs to at least have some sort of person at games to evaluate officials. Both the men's and women's program have some work to do when it comes to the people calling the games, no better example was Warner Pacific and Concordia, a horribly officiated game. Cascade Conference, you can do better and you must do better.

Shameless plug, but on Friday night, looking forward to being the halftime guest on the OIT radio network with Bobby Thompson

Northwest Conference---It looks like the winner of the league might come down to the next battle between Whitworth and Whitman, five years past you would have thought I was nuts for saying so, but Eric Bridgeland has done one great job at Whitman, building a winning basketball program, that was totally non-existent until he arrived on the scene. Both Whitman and Whitworth have some work to do before they meet again of course, both teams visit the Portland metro area this weekend as they play Lewis and Clark and George Fox, Friday and Saturday.

No excuse for not getting out to these games, on Saturday night the games at Lewis and Clark and George Fox will start at 6:00 p.m.

The Northwest Conference plays a great brand of basketball and it is always a league that has surprises week in and week out.

Community Colleges----Really happy to see Joseph Vance play so well for Linn-Benton, in the south division of the NWAACC. Vance had another big night on Saturday, as he led his team to a victory in over previously undefeated Chemeketa.

Wednesday night of last also saw a great game at Clackamas Community College, when the Mt. Hood Saints rolled into the Oregon City campus and beat the Cougars, in a thrilling game that went right down to the wire. Mt. Hood continued their great league play Saturday and ran their southern division record to 5-0, gaining a one game lead over Linn-Benton and Chemeketa.

Community College basketball is exciting, you can usually see plenty of D-1, D-2 coaches in attendance and I might just pay another visit to Clackamas this Wednesday when they play host to Portland Community College.

GNAC---What an exciting league the GNAC is this year and once again, no surprise to see legendary Brad Jackson's team at Western Washington on top with a one game lead over Alaska Anchorage and Western Oregon.

Of course Jackson is in his 28th year  as coach at Western Washington, who turns out great teams each season, in what is an extremely good league.

On personal note it was also very nice this week to meet Alaska Anchorage assistant coach Ryan Orton. What a nice person and what a good basketball mind and always fun to meet someone you can just tell someday will be a head coach and highly successful when he is.

Multnomah University---Curt Bickley's Lions will have a rare back to back games this week, on Monday playing Arizona Christian at 3:00 p.m (yes correct time) and on Tuesday night meeting rival Portland Bible, both games on the NE Portland campus.

Of course if you have never seen Bickley's teams, you are in for a treat, as per usual the basketball will be fired up lots from behind the 3-point line, my kind of game, exciting and entertaining always.

I urge everyone to follow all of the league above, in the very near future Craw's Corner is going to have some HUGE announcements about this blog and its future. Also once again, please do not forget Crawford's Court, which comes out every Monday and Thursday, all the way through the Final Four, covering lots of interesting stories and news on D-1 basketball on CSNNW.com

Emails always welcome, crawscorner@gmail.com or please go to twitter and follow me @wchoops and I will quickly follow you back.