Craig Rentmeester's Blog

Blogger banned, Web 2.0 in the courts?

Getting people to change is tough and apparently the NCAA rules are even tougher. Here is a link to an interesting article that I saw on ESPN.com.

The Scoop: A reporter was kicked out the NCAA baseball tournament for blogging game updates during play.

The Big Deal: Blogging, as a tool to spread ideas and information, should not be controversial. If this case does go to trial it could have a significant impact on the first amendment and the future of internet tools.

Ricky Williams' behavior recap

After failing the NFL's substance abuse policy four times, Ricky Williams has violated the NFL's substance abuse policy  for the fifth time.  Williams' agent, Leigh Steinberg, has yet to comment on the situation. However, I think everyone can assume he is at least one of three things a) disappointed, b) stoned with Ricky, or c) trying to figure what five percent of Ricky's contract would have been.

Williams is someone who had evrything going for him. He won the Heisman trophy, rushed for over 1,800 yards in 2002 and had plenty of money (see Williams' career stats). Now, his reputation is tarnished forever and he'll fall by the wayside. While Cam Cameron, the Miami Dolphins new head coach, declined to comment on the matter, it seems to be a blessing in disguise for him that he drafted Lorenzo Booker from Florida State.

The Big Deal: Ricky Williams represents the ignorance and stupidity that a few athletes have. When people complain about athletes getting paid huge contracts, they complain because there are guys like Ricky Williams who are ungrateful of their situation.

Fantasy Sports and why Yahoo! doesn't get it.

After playing fantasy football for more than eight years I was talked into joining a fantasy baseball league. At first I was skeptical, because I don't watch baseball often during the regular season. However, it has proved to be a fun, yet, time-consuming hobby.

The fantasy baseball league that I joined is hosted by Yahoo!. In the past, I've played fantasy football on Yahoo! and had problems. The worst problem is that players are listed in the wrong positions, which gives someone in the league an unfair advantage (ex. Marques Colston listed as a TE in '06). On Yahoo!'s fantasy baseball, it has players listed in positions based on where they played last year. For example, Adam Wainwright, of the St. Louis Cardinals, is listed a relief pitcher rather than a starter. I wouldn't mind this at all, but he is on my team and I can only start him as a reliever.

I understand that Yahoo!'s business model and livelihood do not rest on fantasy sportsl offerings. However, with slumping search numbers and Google's dominance, these are the types of basic services that Yahoo! can't afford to mess up. Free services, like fantasy football, drive repeat traffic through Yahoo!, which helps them get more searches through their site versus their competitors. Now, I won't play another league on Yahoo!, won't refer friends to other fantasy sites and won't do any searching on Yahoo unless it has to do with my fantasy baseball league.

Big Deal: Companies should realize that marketing is in the details. There is not a better way to market products than to deliver them well to people. When a company is providing a run-of-the-mill service, in hopes of gaining money by selling additional services, the basic service should be great. Otherwise, consumers will move to companies that provide it better, for less money.