Times' "The Quad" Down to Final Four in College Football Preview

The New York Times' The Quad is down to its four final schools for its annual college football preview.  For the past several weeks the blog has been counting down the top teams that will take the field this week. 

Yesterday's featured team was their #5 prediction, the University of Florida.  (By far the most prevalent conference in virtually every sportswriter's coverage of preseason predictions has been the Southeastern Conference.)

"Though Tim Tebow is the face of Florida football, and deservedly so, college players come and ago, leaving only the head coach and his assistants as the constants," Paul Myerberg writes. "In that case, Florida must feel very confident in the future of their program, as Urban Meyer, now entering his fourth season at the helm, has piloted the Gators back into the enviable position of competing yearly for national championships. Now two years removed from his title, Meyer broke in a number of inexperienced underclassmen a season ago, making the Gators a logical favorite to win the SEC and play for another national title."

As the Gators weigh in at #5, the remaining four teams will be unveiled during this last week of preseason coverage for the nation's cadre of reporters covering college football.   

Olympic Coverage Underway: Various Takes on Stirring Team USA Swimming Comeback

Led by American Jason Lezak in last night's 4 x 100m relay in men's swimming, the United States took gold in the first compelling Olympic event to draw attention from the nation's sportswriters.

The Detroit Free Press' coverage remarked that Lezak’s leg of 46.06 seconds was the fastest time in the final race by more than 0:00.05, and relegated Michael Phelps to the role of cheerleader, Michael Rosenberg wrote.

On ESPN.com, Pat Forde has been updating.Phelps' quest for a record number of gold medals on an ongoing basis.

And sportswriting legend Sally Jenkins of the Washington Post filed a story on Sunday's victory as well, calling it possibly "the greatest swimming relay ever.” Her column in the Post recounts how Phelps wasn't the hero, but that his urging his teammates on was one of the more emotional moments the Games will likely see.

New Programs Added to National Convention Slate

As the days continue to count down until this year's Convention & National Journalism Conference for SPJ, the schedule of professional development programs offered to attendees is being finalized.  New topics and speakers were added to the schedule last week, bringing the grand total to more than 55 different topics for you to choose from.

Among the recent additions is the breakout session "Reinventing Journalism."  The program directors state that the session will challenge fundamental ideas about what is and isn't journalism as the form is constantly changing and in flux.  The program guide encourages attendees to "keep an open mind and walk away with 10 suggestions for improving your own work from Howard Owens, director of digital publishing at Gatehouse Media."

For a full list of programs and featured speakers, head to http://spj.org/c-programs.asp .

National Convention Offers "Covering China," Other Informative Sessions

The SPJ Annual Convention & National Journalism Conference will be taking place in Atlanta, Sept. 4-7, and there's still time left to register to get in on the action.

Among other breakout sessions, "Covering China" will be led by David Lynch, former China correspondent, USA Today; Richard Lui, anchor, CNN; and Will Wong, former reporter, The New York Times. The session, according to convention materials, will cover topics of great interest to anyone writing about China today, and there may be some crossover into Olympic beat writers who find themselves in Beijing next month.  The planned topics include issues that have been covered in international media lately such as toy recalls, spying scandals, the environment, and its emerging economy and dramatic social changes.  So for those who are looking to continue their coverage of news from China after the Olympics are over, this might be a good one to seek out.

There are many other substantive breakout sessions as well.  You can view the full array of activities and programs by visiting SPJ's home page. 

Williams, Fainaru-Wada Speak at Sunshine State Awards

The San Francisco Chronicle's Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada spoke at the 14th annual Sunshine State Awards banquet for the South Florida chapter of SPJ that were held recently. 

The duo had exposed the BALCO steroid scandal for the Chronicle and then wrote about it in-depth in their book "Game of Shadows:  Barry Bonds, BALCO, and the Steroids Scandal that Rocked Professional Sports."  Their work led to an investigation into steroid use in Major League Baseball.  When the reporters were called before a grand jury in May 2006 to reveal their sources or face 18 months in prison, they opted for prison.  The tandem successfully appealed and the government dropped the subpoena in February.

The Sunshine State Awards honors the best online, print and broadcast journalism in Florida and is the largest journalism contest in the state.

New York Times Offers Season Two of "The Quad"

On August 24 of last year, the Times launched "The Quad," a blog dedicated to college sports.  Additions this week to the site include an basketball report on some of the off-season activities of some of the top coaches in the game, "Basketball Notes from Le Land of LeBron," and the Quad's college football preview countdown (currently they're on #53, which happens to be UCLA).

Not to be outdone by the Times, other scribes have offered up their own collection of previews on the upcoming pigskin season, even though opening kickoff is still almost two full months away.  D3 Football offers reporting exclusively devoted to NCAA Division III competition, so for those who write about smaller teams in their market, this is a good site to keep an eye on as well. 

Tools for Journalists Filing from China

The 2008 Beijing Olympics are only one month away, and this year's games will be even more memorable than usual, particularly for journalists. For the first time in recent history, foreign journalists have been promised the right to work freely without interference from Chinese authorities.

Because of this privilege, Play the Game for Open Journalism has put together a package of tools to help journalists paint a clear and detailed picture of China and the Olympics. Learn how to find the information you'll need in China, get the number for Play the Game's Olympics journalist helpline and much more here.

Wall St. Journal: 2008 the Best Sports Year Ever?

Adam Thompson penned this piece for the Wall Street Journal that posits the question:  is 2008 the best year for sports so far?  He points out a number of stories that have been covered by the nation's sportswriters (and devoured by fans across the country across a variety of sports) to illustrate his point. 

"For sports fans, the first six months of this year have been like a meal in a world-class restaurant, where one course repeatedly tops the previous one," Thompson writes.  "First course in February: the Patriots miss out on perfection in a major upset involving a ball caught one-handed on a Giants receiver's helmet. Second course in March: an NCAA basketball championship by Kansas features a nine-point comeback in the final 2:12 of regulation. The feast has continued with a pair of wonderful playoffs in the NBA and NHL.

"A Coyotes-Lightning Stanley Cup could be fantastic, producing lifelong memories for fans of those teams. But a sport's health, arguably, depends on periodic tilts between storied franchises with long histories, encounters that come with built-in storylines for national consumption.  This year, we've gotten that in bushels. We've seen almost uniformly iconic teams, the ones we grew up watching, playing for it all. Lakers-Celtics. Red Wings-Penguins. Even a less spectacular finale like the BCS championship featured LSU and Ohio State. And that's not even mentioning Danica Patrick's historic IndyCar victory or Jon Lester's inspirational no-hitter."

ESPN Breaks a Story: Marc Stein on top of Baron Davis Contract Negotiations

Marc Stein broke the story on ESPN.com that Baron Davis had signed a 5-year, $65 million deal with the Los Angeles Clippers, leaving approximately $18M on the table had he decided to stay in Oakland with the Golden State Warriors.  This is significant in that the Clippers are constantly playing under the shadow of the city's more regular headline-grabbing franchise, the Lakers.

The Clippers won a mere 23 games last season, but now they bring in a talented backcourt of Davis, a 29-year old veteran, and rookie Eric Gordon from Indiana University, who will join the multi-dimensional Elton Brand.  This could be an interesting story to cover when the NBA season kicks off in a few months.

Janny Hu of the San Francisco Chronicle has the first in-depth report on this, reporting that perhaps the Bay Area franchise will now try to woo a new NBA All-Star to replace the hole that Davis will fill. 

Austin Hockey Team to Fold Up Tents, Zamboni

Michael Brick filed this story in the New York Times about the peculiar Austin Ice Bats, a hockey team who finds itself without a home this coming season.

"...I)t is also a rough, tough world, and time can do a number on novelty," he writes. "This month, after years of declining attendance, the Ice Bats announced plans to shut down, at least for the 2008-9 season. The team has failed to find an arena suitable for rebuilding its fan base, said Randy G. Sanders, its owner and president.

"With the players released to free agency, some have gone home to Canada or points slightly less far north. Others have cast about for manual labor to pass the time while Sanders seeks an arena for future seasons."

St. Petersburg Times's Romano: Pennant Fever Catches on in Tampa Bay Area

John Romano of the St. Petersburg Times reports on an American League East pennant race heating up in Tampa Bay, with his account of Carl Crawford’s grand slam that sealed the deal on the Devil Rays' sweep of the Cubs.

“The Rays may not be on top of the division this morning, but it kind of feels like they are on top of the world,” he writes. “Somewhere along the line, the Rays have evolved from curiosity to phenomenon. They have reached the point where a pennant race is not just a possibility, but an expectation.”