Emerging Media in Sports
 
The NCAA is sitting on a gold mine.

Recently, college sports' governing entity made many postseason games in various sports available on DVD through its NCAA On Demand store. In addition, an ongoing project is digitizing some events for free online viewing in the NCAA Vault. Currently, the Vault features NCAA Basketball tournaments, from the Sweet 16 round through the championship, from 2000 to the present.

The ability to track down that special game and relive the glory is a great notion. I have my own collection of about 75 Marquette games, primarily from the past ten seasons, and at certain times, a classing MU game is just the ticket.

The NCAA would be wise to expand this offering to include as much of its archive as possible. While having free access to Marquette's 2003 tournament run is nice, I'd love to be able to call up games from "before my time," and I'd willingly pay a nominal fee to do so.

As for DVD's, there are certain games that I would love to acquire on DVD. The 1974 NCAA Final Four, Doc Rivers' buzzer beater against Notre Dame in 1981, and the 1994 NCAA tournament win over Kentucky come to mind quickly. I'm sure there are similar fans to me at virtually every school in the country that would love to see their classic basketball, football, baseball, and other sporting events as well.

Turner Broadcasting's new contract with the NCAA includes the digital rights management of NCAA content. Hopefully, having an experienced broadcasting company at the helm will lead to this expansion, and we can revel in the glory of our scho