The Future of Confessions of a Sportscaster

Okay, I know this is kind of a cryptic post title. But let me set your minds at ease: Confessions of a Sportscaster is not going anywhere.

I started this in the fall of 2011, mainly as a way of branching myself out and getting some writing experience in an attempt to market myself. It helped get me a gig writing for UKEndzone for a couple seasons, but as far as professionally, that's been about it. For the most part, it's just something I write on the side for fun that gets read by friends and family. And for me, that's enough.

I wondered with each new full time job whether Confessions of a Sportscaster would survive. But it thrived at my last job, and I don't see it going away at my current one.

But here's what I'm looking at for the future of this blog. There are a number of recurring features on here: annual previews of the MLB and NFL seasons, sometimes NHL postseason series by series previews (that I may not even continue this year with the Blackhawks being as bad as they are), the recurring Pigskin Pick 'Em series with Adam that I enjoy every fall, and following North Central's men's and women's basketball teams. I have no reason not to continue these; I should have the time to get to them and I enjoy them all.

But there's one feature that, while I enjoy it, I don't know that it will continue in 2018. And that is my annual following of college football and the Death to the BCS Playoffs.

Last season proceeded as any other might. I followed the college football campaign for its entirety. I started doing mock brackets when the situation arose where no undefeated teams would be left out. Then after championship weekend, I set up the 2017 bracket.

But then a curious thing happened. In the first several years I ran the simulations for those playoffs, WhatIfSports would have the current year's teams ready to go in its simulators in time for bowl season, which lined up perfectly with the first round of the Death to the BCS Playoffs. Last December, I pre-wrote the first round post with the framework around the games and waited for the teams to drop into the simulator on cue. The opening weekend of bowl season began... and the teams never showed up. No matter; I adjusted my post to account for what I figured was a slight delay with the site and prepared to post. Christmas came and went, and we entered 2018... and the 2017 teams still never entered into the simulator. It is March 19th, and those teams are still not in the system.

Now in August of 2017, WhatIfSports was bought by a company called Sportshub. The initial promise was for updates to a lot of the paid games that I don't play, but reading through that thread I linked to, it sure seems like Sportshub doesn't seem to care about the site at all. Many users who have poured years and lots of money into the site are complaining and fully expect the site to shut down.

What's relevant here is that from what I can tell, all future attempts at the Death to the BCS Playoffs won't work because the simulator I relied on won't bother to update. As such, I've cancelled the 2017 Death to the BCS Playoffs, something I should have done a couple months ago when it became apparent the teams weren't coming. It probably also means that I won't bother covering the 2018 college football season. I enjoy doing it and crunching the numbers, but what's the point if there's no playoff to simulate at the end of it? I'm putting in a lot of work for nothing.

Again, Confessions of a Sportscaster isn't going anywhere. But all future projects that would require a simulator, meaning the Death to the BCS Playoffs and all future Tournaments of Champions, are off the table unless I can find another alternative. In the meantime, you'll have to settle for COAS content that's limited to me and Adam trading barbs during the NFL season, stories of Division III women's basketball referees on power trips with unnecessary play stoppages, and the Grey Giovanine Jacket Watch.