Clark Francis has had it with Rivalnet. He pretty clearly sees them as
a force which can end his business, and acknowledges that their plan is trumping
his, and that the subscription model isn't' going to get it any more.
So what does he do?
Raises prices - by 150%! He admits it will shut out a lot of potential
readers, but figures that 300 coaches, at 250 a pop, that he can pull 75,000 a
year. Not bad if it works, but here are a couple of things to consider: 1)
what's to prevent a rivalnet guru from subscribing under an assumed name and
posting his info right after he posts it, and 2) what if coaches decide the info
on free sites is just as compelling?
We have a suggestion for Clark if he wants to make his site more appealing:
make it easier to read. The site looks like it was designed in the early
days of Mosaic, and the gray background and the small type make it almost
impossible to read. So Clark: get a white background, make your font larger, and
your readers will be much happier, even if you're not. Plus that ugly basketball
logo will blend in.
In other news, Quotin' Bob continues to register his displeasure with the
McDonald's selection process. As he points out, not long after Jerome
Harper was named to the McDonald's Team - the same day, in fact,
Monday - he
was arrested for assaulting his aunt's boyfriend. Bob uses this as a
way to say the McDonald's selection process is screwed up. He says, in a
nutshell, they shouldn't take people who have legal problems (or poor academics)
and cites the articles linked above as sources.
What he doesn't tell you is Harper's side of the story: Jerome says that the
man, who accused his aunt of stealing $200.00 dollars, was asked to leave the
house and refused - and ended up, according to Harper's version, with his hand's
around Jerome's throat.
Now, in the words of Malcolm X, non-violence ends when your fist hits my
nose. If someone puts his hands around your throat, you can reasonably
assume he is trying to hurt you, if not kill you. We don't know what happened in
the house, and both sides are merely allegations at this point, but we do know,
just from reading the article, that there are clearly two sides to the story -
the police said the assault was mutual.
Now if Jerome's version is correct, what would you expect someone to do when
he is throttled? If that is in fact what happened, then of course he
defended himself and that's precisely what he should do and what anyone who
didn't want to be maimed or killed would do.
At any rate, since the McDonald's team was announced on Monday (here
are the ACC representatives), and Harper was arrested on Monday, it's
perhaps understandable that they didn't know that there was an issue, and as we
said, there is a strong chance that the kid acted in self-defense. Bob has
a point about academics, but the legal stuff, to us, is nonsense. The kid
clearly has an argument, and past academic problems, or even past legal
problems, shouldn't be a factor if he was defending himself.
Speaking of academics, it's fair to ask this question: what's the difference
between Jerome Harper's academics and Tony Bobbitt's? Recently Bob said this:
"Quite frankly, one reason I am so disliked by the folks at Fastbreak and Sports America, is that last year Joseph Forte, Damien Wilkins, and some who were 'shunned' by the McDonald's selection group, including Travis Watson, Jason Parker, Chuck
Eidson, Ezra Bender,Tony Bobbitt, Tony Robertson, and Matt Bonner, all chose to play in our inaugural ACC/SEC
Hoops Challenge All-Star Game, and not in their Capital Classic. They apparently still have that 'stuck in their craw.'"
Bobbitt, as you may remember, committed to FSU, but didn't make the grade,
and was apparently booted out of Hargrave, though of course that happened after
the ACC/SEC Challenge. Jason Parker is currently at Fork Union, where he
may or may not have achieved his SAT score.
Ok, now the quoted items from this story!
- "timing."
- "All-American way,"
- "over-cooked burger,"
- "possible early entry"
- "Big Mac"
- "Did somebody say McDonald's?"