Montana Grizzlies Sports, Football and Basketball : Grizzoulian

The posts haven't been as frequent as we sink into the offseason and the Missoula weather starts to change but here's something new: the first ever Grizzoulian podcast. I hope to do one more this month then make it a more consistent feature in the fall.

My guest on the first one is University of Montana Athletic Director Jim O'Day. We start by talking about next years hoops team then move onto football scheduling, the draft, the expansion and more.

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For the reporters out there who think they can endlessly update their live blogs on NCAA bowling, watch out. Your days of giving up-to-the-minute, detailed reports on strikes and spares are over. The NCAA has set a limit on the number of updates that can be given in a live blog on an NCAA event. If the reporter exceeds the limit, they'll lose their press credentials.

Deadspin has the complete .pdf and a list of just how many updates you can give per sport:

Fall Sports
Soccer: Five times per half; one at halftime
Field Hockey: Five times per half; one at halftime
Volleyball: Three per Competition; one in between Competitions
Football: Three per quarter; one at halftime
Cross Country: Ten per day/session
Men's Water Polo: Three per quarter; one at the halftime

Winter Sports
Ice Hockey: Three per period - one in between (includes overtime)
Basketball: Five times per half; one at halftime; two times per overtime period
Wrestling: Ten per session
Indoor Track and Field: Ten per day/session
Swimming and Diving: Ten per day/session
Bowling: Ten per day/session
Gymnastics: Ten per session

The best response I've seen to this comes from a commenter on Deadspin:

Help Wanted: NCAA Blog Wrangler

Must have prior experience looking over other people's shoulders. Abacus provided for counting, but applicant must procure own horse-and-buggy ride to/from athletic facility.

The reason behind the regulation: the NCAA is worried fans will go to a live blog instead of getting their updates from media who paid for the writes to broadcast the game. Yeah, right. I read a lot of live blogs and I've never thought of reading one instead of watching or listening to a game. Who would? Well, I could watch this game on tv... or I could read a sarcastic and satirical post on it without any play-by-play. Right.

The NCAA needs to wake up. Not only does this have little effect seeing as most live blogs are done by people who themselves are at home watching games watching TV, but it also negatively affects college sports. More coverage means more exposure and attention for athletes. It means more information for fans. Why limit that when, realistically, it isn't hurting anyone? On top of limiting the big time sports, they limit posts on other, non-revenue, ones as well. If a member of the press wants to provide an endless stream of updates to a cross country or a track meet that otherwise has no media exposure, why stop them?

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The Montana Grizzlies track & field team competed Friday at the 36th Pelluer Invitational at Cheney, Wash and continued on the success they had last week here in Missoula.

The Griz added ten new qualifiers for the Big Sky championships, with eight of them being on the men's side. The tally on qualifiers is now at 18 men in 21 events and nine women in 14 events. The Griz also had seven improved qualifying performances.

The Griz compete next on Saturday in Bozeman at the Montana State Open.

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Class resumed as normal yesterday as students returned from exotic trips to places like Cabo, Cancun, San Diego and Boise. Just about every sport had games/events over break but if you look at the results, they went on a mental trip of their own.

• The men's tennis team went 1-4 over the break as they went 1-2 in at the Red Lion Spring Break Tournament at Boise State. They also lost to Nevada and Sac State in the opening weekend of Spring Break.
• The women's tennis team did manage to end a 6-match losing streak with a win over Lewis and Clark State. No Griz team should ever lose to a team with a school name like that. Well, unless it's in chess or scrabble or maybe slack-lining. They couldn't keep it going though, as the ladies lost to Idaho on Friday. They are now 2-12. Ouch.
  
• The Griz golf team traveled down to Cali for the UC-Davis hosted Anteater Invitational. Anyone know if there was an actual anteater on hand? Or is that their mascost? Had there been an anteater there it would've been the most interesting thing for a Griz fan as our team finished last out of 15 teams.
• Last week, I touted the Griz lacrosse team a bit and told Griz fans to head to Wash-Griz to check out our solid squad in a few matches. There Griz went 0-2 in those matches with losses to Montana State (come on) and Utah Valley State College. Another school we shouldn't lose to due to a name that just makes them sound bad. I know they were #4, but we were ranked higher and we're University of Montana. Named for a whole state... without a 'state' attached.
• The Griz track team, who I also touted before taking my own break, did manage to meet my expectations as they kept their eyes on the prize instead of the wet t-shirt contests they might be missing by staying in Missoula. The runners, throwers and whoever else dominated at the Al Manuel Invitation held here in Missoula. The Griz swept the weekend as both the men and women each won duel meets over Easter Washington and Montana State. Sixteen individuals qualified for the Big Sky Championship — yeah, it's kind of odd you can do that in the first meet of that season — and thirteen won their events.
  

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Well, this marks the very first entry on this blog regarding track and field. How that happened, I don't know considering I ran track for two years in high school and had a great time. Nevertheless, here it is.

The Griz track teams are picked to finish fifth and seventh in the Big Sky Conference. The women are seventh while the men are fifth. Weber State came in first in both polls.

The interesting thing about track is that it's scored as a team sport when in all actuality, there isn't a sport that focuses more on individual efforts. What I'm getting at is that even though the team as a whole may not be best in the conference you still can come out and watch some great individual performances.

I may be wrong because I don't know a ton about the track team but I think the women's distance team has to be the best the Griz have to offer. The stars of this group are junior Allie Brosh and true frosh Megan O'Reilly (right). Brosh's cross country and track careers have been phenomenal while O'Reilly may best female high school runner ever to come out of the state of Washington.

From what I've from a friend, O'Reilly's runs are stuff of legend. She supposedly had the crowd at the state meet in Pasco, Washington on its feet during her mile. She won the 3,200 and the mile three times each. This is incredible considering many runners pick just focus on as it's pretty tough to go all out in each on consecutive days. Oh, and no high school female has ever run a faster 5,000 meter indoor time; she's third outdoors. She ran the fasted high school 3,200 in the nation last year. However, injury — stress fractures I think — did force her to redshirt her freshman cross country season. I really hope she won't be missing track season as well.

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