Author Archives: mikeray

Apr 18 2013
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College Football, Oklahoma State University, Recruiting, Social Media

NCAA RECRUITING & SOCIAL MEDIA – 04.18.2013

(written for The Daily O’Collegian in April 2013)

In January, former Oklahoma State All-American Thurman Thomas used Twitter to reach out to prep phenom Laquon Treadwell encouraging the nation’s consensus top high school wide receiver to attend OSU. The NFL Hall of Fame running back thought his actions were harmless. They were not.

Thomas had committed a recruiting violation without even knowing it. Albeit a minor infraction, the OSU compliance department had to self-report the improper contact to the National Collegiate Athletics Association, because Thomas didn’t know that his status prohibited him from contacting prospective athletic prospects urging them to consider Oklahoma State.

But is that really his fault? Continue reading →

Dec 05 2012
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College Football, Oklahoma State University

The Ongoing Saga that is Collegiate Athletics

It’s been an interesting last few days for fans of Oklahoma State football. For the second time in as many seasons, OSU fans have dealt with rumors that head coach Mike Gundy was interviewing with other programs. Just a year after signing a contract extension at OSU, news broke on Monday that  Gundy was a candidate for head coaching vacancies at both Tennessee and Arkansas.

It even got so crazy that at one point yesterday two different reporters for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette wrote that Gundy was the new coach at Arkansas and that Gundy was out of the running within minutes of each other. Bret Bielema of Wisconsin was eventually announced as the new coach of the Razorbacks, but Tennessee still needed a coach. Reports surfaced today that Tennessee had officially made an offer to Gundy and Cowboy fans were left holding their breath for a few hours until it was announced that Gundy had turned down the job and would remain in Stillwater.

Even with Gundy remaining at OSU, the unsettling part of all of this is the fact that Gundy was even considering leaving what he has repeatedly called his “New York Yankees job” and his “last stop.” Things began to make more sense when word came out that the relationship between Gundy and Athletic Director Mike Holder is “fractured.” Through it all, one thing has become clear: something needs to change. When egos come into play (as they often do in business), it’s hard for people to compromise, but if Gundy and Holder both want what’s best for their alma mater, they’ll get together, smooth things over and keep Oklahoma State headed to the top of collegiate athletics.

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Nov 26 2012
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Music

Is This Really What The Music Industry Has Become?

As someone who spent the greater part of five years of their life touring the country and playing music for a living, the state of the music industry today is embarrassing. Almost every song is about sex, there’s seemingly no depth or effort put into the song-writing, and it seems like just about every top 10 pop song is written by some combination of Max Martin, Dr. Luke and Benny Blanco.

Couple that with the fact that records aren’t selling as well as they once were, and I’m not surprised that labels are going to such outlandish extremes to promote the few artists that DO still move records. But does anyone really want to go to concerts where the artist is making the crowd chant the names of the tour sponsors while giving out free (sponsored) phones? Is that really what this industry has come to?

Sure, SOME records are still selling. Taylor Swift’s “Red” sold more in a week than any album in a decade. But with the virtually uncontrollable piracy of music on the Internet today, it’s amazing to me that record companies still put so much archaic importance on the number of records sold. But the record industry has never been one to adapt to change. And that may well be their ultimate demise.

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Nov 19 2012
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Oklahoma State University Video

Game Day Profiles: Tailgating at OSU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijWj2uk2El8

I took some time talking to football fans around Stillwater and asked them what it was that kept them coming back week after week.

Nov 12 2012
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Basketball

A THUNDEROUS DECISION

With no other major league competitors in the state, the Oklahoma City Thunder quickly worked their way into the hearts of all Oklahoma residents upon their arrival in 2008. That much was expected. What wasn’t expected was how quickly they worked their way into hearts around the NATION. It was truly a sports fairy tale. Through great management, savvy drafting and unselfish play, the Thunder quickly went from the one of the worst team in the NBA (2008) to the NBA Finals (2011).

The team that made the finals last year was built around three core stars: 3-time defending scoring champion Kevin Durant, all-star point guard Russell Westbrook & sixth man of the year James Harden. All cam to the Thunder through the draft, and all were on team-friendly deals–for a while. With Durant & Westbrook already signed to long-term deals,  the Thunder quickly had to decide who was most important to their franchise going forward: Harden or defensive standout Serge Ibaka–who has been referred to as “the most important player in the NBA.”

The Thunder eventually decided that Ibaka’s defensive presence was (at least slightly) more difficult to replace than Harden’s offensive game, and decided to hold onto the big man and let one of their stars go. While it’s hard for fans in OKC to deal with, most people around the league still project them as contenders for an NBA title. That doesn’t make the trade any easier to swallow, though. But with big time sports come big time decisions, and Oklahoma City has finally been exposed tot he cruel nature of professional sports that it was so lucky to avoid for its first four years.

Oct 29 2012
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Basketball

The New King (and His Subjects)

It took nine years, but basketball fans finally got an answer last season to the question that’s been on the back of their minds for a decade. “What’s it going to be like if (or when) LeBron James finally puts all of the pieces together?” That answer? Scary. At least for everyone outside Miami.

After nine years, LeBron is finally making the transition from a great PLAYER to a great LEADER. On top of that, in 2012, he finally made significant (and deadly) changes to his offensive game. Seemingly out of nowhere, he has emerged as a mid-range master that at times — MOST of the time — is virtually unguardable. And while the number three point shots is down, the percentage is up. LeBron as MORE efficient as a scorer? Again: SCARY.

As a Thunder fan, all of this is even scarier with the events of last week that led to James Harden being shipped to Houston. The Thunder and Harden couldn’t come to terms on money — the difference was reportedly just over $1 million per year — and now “The Beard” is a Rocket. But at least he’s getting paid. The worst thing about all of this, though? When faced with similar choices, the enemies down in Miami gave up the bigger contracts for chances to win titles. And with this new LeBron running the show, who knows how many titles that might become.

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Oct 24 2012
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Oklahoma State University, Podcast

SOUNDSLIDES: DAVE HUNZIKER

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQy5FNOmgOI

Dave Hunziker, the radio voice of the OSU Cowboys, shares his knowledge with students at the university by teaching a sports announcing class. The students aren’t the only one who are learning, however. Interactions he’s encountered while teaching the class has changed the way he approaches his job.

Oct 08 2012
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Baseball, Politics

2012: CHANGE In Washington (No, Not That Kind)

As Election Day nears on November 6, people all over Washington are out campaigning and fighting for their jobs. Washington Nationals manager Davey Johnson isn’t one of them. He took a team that had never so much as finished with winning record since their arrival in 2005 and, with an unconventional approach, led them to the best record in Major League Baseball and their first playoff appearance in team history (and first in Washington in nearly 80 years).

Johnson and the Nationals front office have built their team mainly with the use of sabermetrics (the analysis of baseball using statistics pioneered by Bill James and popularized by Billy Beane and the Oakland A’s in the film Moneyball and the book of the same name). Holding firm to their beliefs in their research hasn’t always been popular among the fans, however. Earlier this year, the team shut down their ace, Stephen Strasburg, after a set number of innings after consulting studies and statistics that led them to believe it would help protect his future health.

Even without their top pitcher, the Nationals took the top seed on the National League and have already taken a 1-0 advantage in the best-of-five Division Series against the Cardinals. With the success Johnson and the Nationals have found making decisions based on statistics AND intangibles–facts AND analysis–Ben Bernanke opines, “Many of us in Washington could learn a thing or two from the Nationals’ approach.” He might just be right.

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Oct 03 2012
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Podcast

PODCAST: ELECTRIC BEATDOWN

This week’s blog comes to you in the form of a podcast. Today I present to you, Stillwater’s oldest outdoor dance party: ELECTRIC BEATDOWN.

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Sep 24 2012
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Education

Paying (a little something extra) for an Education

As long as there has been graded education, there has been cheating. It’s part of human nature. And as long as there has been the internet, cheating has gotten a whole lot easier. But the old days of paying for an essay or a paper? Forget about those. How about paying for an entire class grade?

Many sites across the internet offer many similar options. But how much do they cost? One site quotes prices ranging from $95 for a simple paper up to $695 for graduate level courses. Most other sites don’t list prices, but provide quotes (which have been reported at almost $1,000). The people running these sites justify their actions in a number of ways, but most say its to save time or help students with classes they just can’t grasp (such as accounting and other number-related courses).

While the internet has brought us many wonderful things, including online classes and the ability to study on your own time at your own pace, it has also brought a much darker side. And with reviews of these sites mixed at best and some people are calling them an outright scam, an important question is raised for perspective clients. Would you rather do the work yourself or pay for the class AND the service, wind up failing anyway and having to do it all over again?

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