KANSAN.COM / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29. 2010 / SPORTS
9A
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"I play real sports. I'm not trying to be the best at exercising."
FACT OF THE DAY
Season Two of HBO's "Eastbound & Down" premiered this Sunday.
— imdb.com
TRIVIA OF THE DAY
Q: Which two characters have appeared in all seven episodes of "Eastbound & Down?"
A: Kenny Powers, played by Danny McBride, and Stevie Janowski, played by Steve Little
imdb.com
Being an AD? Not that difficult
MORNING BREW
always thought being an athletics director would be pretty difficult.
It seemed like a taxing gig working long hours and keeping track of an entire university's worth of football, basketball, soccer, volleyball and other teams.
But I never assumed I'd get the chance to head up a major collegiate sports program — until now.
Facebook and ESPN have finally allowed this mediocre dream come true. This week, I discovered the new ESPNU College Town game on Facebook, which allows users to build their very own university along with an athletics program from scratch.
An extremely chipper two-dimensional cheerleader kept firing instructions at me as soon as I arrived at my virtual campus. Needless to say, it was very unnerving. This cheerleader apparently expected me to singlehandedly guide this fledgling university to glory without any training at all.
Simple curiosity, along with serious boredom, drew me into the game at first. But during my first night of playing this fascinating, realistic and purely academic simulation, I gained invaluable knowledge about how university athletics departments are run. I realized I was no Lew Perkins.
Facebook gave me an awful campus, too. Unlike Kansas' interim athletics director, Sean Lester, I didn't inherit state-of-the art facilities and well-established teams. From my professional assessment, the entire campus consisted of three academic buildings, a junky football field and a basketball court that looked like a converted
BY JOEL PETTERSON jpetterson@kansan.com
parking lot. The football team was an embarrassment as it only had "JV" status, which I didn't know was even possible at the college level.
But I quickly gathered myself and set out building a Facebook College Town dynasty. As it turns out, running an entire college and its athletics department isn't difficult at all.
Just a single hour after arriving on campus, the school had blossomed from zero to more than 200 students. We built a respectable football stadium and basketball court with bleachers and everything. The on-campus sandwich shop and student café were pumping funds into the athletics program. The school even gained enough notoriety to start a math department.
When it came to actual athletics competitions, things went rough for a while. But once I realized wed been forfeiting every game because we hadn't started any players, the football team starting piling up the W's.
I learned plenty about recruiting, too. College Town allowed me to experience the thrill of pursuing a top high school football player and woo him to the school.
All in all, Facebook has taught me plenty about athletics administration at a major university. For example, monster truck rallies and theater productions at the football stadium can earn much more money than an actual game. And make sure you build a new basketball stadium before an English department, because a university can't grow without a solid foundation of big arenas.
According to this scientific simulation, you can "buy" a top quarterback recruit for only 11,000 silver pieces. Who knew a fat check would go so far in sweetening a college roster? (This may have been slightly unrealistic; after all, tempting a high schooler with cash would never happen in reality, right? Right?)
Finally, I don't want to brag, but I became a Level 5 athletics director in about 90 minutes. I never saw THAT on Perkins' résumé.
Edited by Tim Dwyer
USA BASKETBALL
Women's Team USA to face rival Australians
ASSOCIATED PRESS
OSTRAVA, Czech Republic — Usually when the U.S. women's
basketball team faces Australia in the world championship, a medal is at stake.
When the rivals play Wednesday
night, only the top seed in the quarterfinals will be at risk. Still, the Americans plan to play to win their group.
The University of Kansas University Theatre Presents the winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Drama Desk and Tony Award
Reserved seat tickets are on sale in the KU ticket offices: University Theatre, 864-3982; Lied Center, 864-ARTS, and online at www.ku theatre.com. Tickets are $18 for the public, $17 for senior citizens and KU faculty and staff, and $10 for all students. All major credit cards are accepted. The University Theatre is partially funded by the KU Student Senate Activity Fee; funding is also provided by the Kansas Arts Commission, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a national agency. The University Theatre's 2010-11 season is sponsored by the KU Credit Union.
7:30 p.m.
October 7,8,9,12,2010
2:30 p.m.
October 10,2010
Crafton-Preyer Theatre
KU UNIVERSITY THEATRE
The University of Kansas
a different take on Wednesday's matchup of unbeaten teams. They see it as a chance to evaluate where they stack up against the Americans when both teams are at full strength.
"There are some teams that play one way when the game means something and play another way when the game doesn't mean something. I think tomorrow, you got two teams that really want to win and really want to beat each other."
"Tomorrow is going to be like a gold-medal game. I know it is on our end," U.S. coach Geno Auriemma said. "It's important to
us. There's no guarantee that either the U.S. or Australia will be in the gold-medal game.
The Aussies seemed to have
"It is weird, it's a different format having us crossover," said Jackson. "It's weird playing them earlier. It's a good thing as well. America is a powerhouse and it's a test to see where we are, what we need to work on."
KU CREDIT UNION
A DIVISION OF 84 FEDERAL CREDIT UNION
THIS WEEK IN KANSAS ATHLETICS
TODAY
Softball
Baker
6:00 PM
Lawrence, Kan.
Volleyball
Missouri
6:30 PM
Lawrence, Kan
Soccer
Texas A&M
5:00 PM
Lawrence, Kan
FRIDAY
Tennis
Notre Dame Tournament
All Day
South Bend, Ind.
Football
Baylor
11:00 AM
Waco, Texas
SATURDAY
Volleyball
Texas Tech
6:30 PM
Lubbock, Texas
Cross Country
Wisconsin Adidas Invitational
TBA
Madison, Wis.
Tennis All-American Championships All Day Pacific Palisades, Calif.
Tennis
Notre Dame Tournament
All Day
South Bend, Ind.
SUNDAY
Tennis All-American Championships All Day Pacific Palisades, Calif.
Tennis
Notre Dame Tournament
All Day
South Bend, Ind.
Tennis
Soccer
Texas
1:00 PM
Lawrence, Kan.
MONDAY
Women's Golf
2010 Johnie Imes Tournament
All Day
Columbia, Mo.
Tennis
All-American Champion
ships
All Day
Pacific Palisades, Calif.
TUESDAY
Women's Golf
2010 Johnie Imes Tour-
nament
All Day
Columbia, Mo.