SOAR Blog

As I sit roughly 100 miles south of the Utah State University campus, I believe I can clearly hear Coach Ray Guy’s screams of anguish as he realizes that his all-everything sophomore quarterback has just dumped the hapless Aggies in favor of Brigham Young University.

Elder Riley Nelson, a full-time proselyting missionary in Spain for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, apparently decided over the weekend that he will transfer to BYU after he completes his mission in March 2009.

As an All-American QB out of Logan who opted to join his hometown Aggies’s squad, the left-handed, 6-foot-1 Nelson was a coveted passing and running QB who set all types of records for Logan High, while also leading the Grizzlies to the 3A state championship in 2005 during his senior season.

But as reported today by multiple local media outlets, including the Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret News, Nelson will don the Cougar-blue uniform in 2009 versus the midnight blue uniform of the Utah State Aggies.

So while this is a sad day in Aggie-town, you can bet that Cougar fans around the world are rejoicing today. 

So it’s that fantastically fun time for college basketball fans everywhere: March Madness.

That time of year when the top 64 65 Division I teams in the United States get tapped for a weeks-long, single-elimination tournament to determine the top D-I, B-Ball team in all of collegedom.

And in case you were not sure, understand that March Madness is BIG BUSINESS spelled with two capital Bs!

How big you ask? Rumors and reports on the ‘Net state that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has pegged annual March Madness betting at $2.5 billion. Nevertheless, a recent story from KHOU-TV in Houston, Texas says the FBI has never made such a claim.

Maybe not; but I’m sure there’s a TON of money sitting in office pools all around the country right now.

As for us within the POLITIS universe of agencies, we take a non-gambling (yet still serious) approach to March Madness.

Specifically, the top two March Madness prognosticators in our firms will each win a $25 gift card to a local eatery (provided by the company):

• One for the top “point getter” (we assign escalating points for each win within each round of the tourney; ergo, the most points wins); and
• One for the top predictor of wins (pretty simple: the person who predicts more wins within the entire tournament than everyone else comes out on top).

This year we’ve also instituted what is affectionately known as the Bacon Equation, which means that if one person comes out on top in both categories, the second place finishers in both categories will pick-up $25 gift cards/certificates. [Yes, the Bacon Equation is named after Jonathan "Canadian" Bacon who nailed both categories in 2007.]

So . . . although we’re having fun while not gambling on March Madness, don’t think we’re not into this annual B-Ball lovefest in a big way.

In fact, everyone at SOAR Communications, Politis Communicationsand the other Politis entities takes the competition pretty seriously.

How seriously? Enough so, that although I’m banking on the No. 8-seeded BYU Cougars winning their first round match-up with the No. 9-seeded Texas A&M Aggies (which is nowhere close to being a sure thing), I had no compunction notching a loss for BYU in the second round to the No. 1-seeded UCLA Bruins. Sorry, Cougs!

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For the record, I have all four No. 1 seeds making the Final Four (North Carolina, Memphis, Kansas and the aforementioned UCLA), with Memphis winning it all.

Go Tigers!

Rivalry week is over, and what a fun week it was.

The Brigham Young University Cougars defeated the University of Utah Runnin’ Utes 17-10 on a last-minute, come-from-behind, touchdown-scoring drive late in the fourth quarter of what had primarily been a defensive struggle.

Much has been written about the game itself, so as I write this post Sunday afternoon (11/25/07) I will not elaborate here about the ins and outs of the contest. (Those interested in additional info should check out the sports sections in the Salt Lake Tribune, Deseret Morning News or the Provo, Utah-based Daily Herald.)

The win elevates BYU to a season record of 9-2, with eight straight wins and a likely move upward within the national polls of two to four spots from their current consensus ranking of 23 in the nation in both the USA Today and Associated Press polls.

While driving back home to Sandy from Provo and listening to “the most interactive and uncensored post-game BYU talk show” 1280 the Zone, I was shocked by some of the comments from Cougar fans who felt that BYU wasn’t getting the national respect or attention it deserved. Some felt that BYU and the rest of the teams in the Mountain West Conference were being unfairly slighted. Continue Reading »

I’m a huge fan of college football! But there’s no week I love better than the week of Thanksgiving. It’s when almost every college football team plays their own rivals.

In Utah, it’s no different. The rivalry game between No. 23 BYU and Utah has come to be known as “The Holy War” for the connection BYU has with the LDS Church (Mormon). With the schools located only 40 miles apart, pranks from each school have heated up the rivalry to fever pitch for years. Last year’s late-game heroics by now-NFL quarterback John Beck has only added fuel to the fire. There’s been nothing but trash talk between SLC and Provo for almost 12 full months now.

Here’s the clip that fueled the fire:

This year’s game should be even better. Each team is riding a seven-game win streak, with BYU looking to secure the top spot in the Mountain West Conference with a win, and the Utes looking to share a piece of the top spot with a win and a BYU loss at San Diego State.

If this year’s game is anything like last year’s, it will be awesome! Go Cougs!

(This game will be televised live on CSTV at noon MT.)