We live in a different sports world today than we did even a few years ago. Even though I have only been around for two decades, I know it. In fact, unless you have been living under a rock for the past week, you know it too.
And what effect does this have on Dartmouth? Well, I will get into that later. For now, let's look at the changes.
We'll start with an easy one: Twitter. Let's be honest this is a 24/7 way for athletes to mess up and say something stupid. Twitter is to ESPN what Valentine's Day is to Hallmark a made-for-profit gold mine. The rationale that it is a way for athletes to connect to their fans falls flat when you have guys tweeting about what bars they are going to after games and how their teammates suck. Or of course you could go the Mark Cuban route: Complain via Twitter about officiating, and then promptly tell the world you were fined $25,000 as a result.
Even though I don't have a Twitter, I love the ripple effects that the new social media outlet has had in the sports sphere. Just imagine the entertainment value if Muhammad Ali, the best trash talker in history, had been given another forum for mentally beating his opponents into the ground. Think of the possibilities.
Dartmouth needs more of this. It would bring Dartmouth sports up a notch or two. Say, for example, if an Ivy League Championship were decided as a tie, it would be totally anti-climatic, right? Now add from-the-bench live tweeting. Think of how easy it would be to get into the opposition's head with tweeting. New position on the field: designated tweeter.
Speaking of social media and entertainment taken to new levels, do you realize that there is now a TV show based entirely on fantasy football? (A very good TV show, actually.) It's called "The League," check it out.
Fantasy sports have permeated our society in a number of new and different ways. There are now leagues sprouting up for every conceivable reason. My friends from home and I actually have a league for betting on which NFL quarterback is going to perform the worst each week. (Thank you, Curtis Painter and the Colts.)
What would be the Big Green's sport fantasy game? Creating a traditional sports league would be too easy. We would have to create a "loser" league (read: the worse things go, the more points you get). So, say you get eight friends together. Pick out 24 of the most disappointing things on campus (examples: Greek Letter Organizations and Societies, the frisbee team, new FoCo, new blitz the list goes on). Make a point system say, a failed stab at a meal plan earns you 10 points, or blitz being randomly offline for hours at a time earns you four points. Everyone gets three teams and goes from there.
Then, of course, there is the looming increase in scholarship funding for college athletes and the slew of recent work stoppages in professional sports. Of course there have been strikes before, and talk of increasing pay to college athletes is nothing new. But the prevalence of both issues seems to be larger now than ever before.
And what's the effect on Dartmouth? Nada. As I have pointed out time and again, Dartmouth athletes compete because they love their sports. They don't get paid but they won't stop playing. Hot-shot members of the sports world crying out to national media outlets? For them, it's about the cash. The varsity athletes doing their thing here at Dartmouth? Well, I don't think it's about the green Nike kicks.
The above examples simply tie into the sad truth about sports and the athletes we idolize: They will never be the same. Proof of the forever-changing sports landscape ranges from Pennsylvania State University to new and illuminating views of sports legends, such as Lebron James.
After letting himself get tangled up in the media spectacle known as "the decision," the man who was once "the King" has become one of the most hated sports figures in America. Would this have happened to the legends our parents tell us about? It is very possible.
The sports world is not and will never again be just about the sports. Nothing reflects that more than the horror story that is Penn State.
It may turn out that the Ivy League will become one of the last bastions of purely amateur athletics. No money and, like it or not, no fame. The changing sports landscape can boost the conference to another place of prominence so that it does not just cherish its academics, but its athletics.
And if that fails well, maybe I'll make a Twitter account to occupy all my spare time.
