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By Zach Wagner | @zachwagner22 Sports Capital Journalism Program SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.– Brad Wright, Board Co-Chairman of the Arizona Organizing Committee, discussed topics ranging from the preparation for the second College Football Playoff National Championship, the role the Phoenix area plays as a host for large-scale events, and the anticipated economic impact. The game between No. …

By Frank Gogola | @FrankGogola Sports Capital Journalism Program PHOENIX – Ryan Norton, a fifth-year senior offensive lineman for the Clemson Tigers, has seen it more times than he can count. A pass play is called. The team lines up in shotgun. The ball is snapped. Norton and the other offensive linemen engage their blocks. They’re …

By Frank Gogola | @FrankGogola Sports Capital Journalism Program SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Iowa Hawkeyes head coach Kirk Ferentz remembered the phone call like it was yesterday. Ferentz called Grambling State’s athletic department on the night of April 23, 1993. He was the Cleveland Browns offensive line coach at the time and was hoping someone, anyone would …

Sixty minutes isn’t a long time. It’s a mere hour. That’s how long – short? – each team’s media session was during Saturday’s Media Day leading up to the College Football Playoff National Championship. That’s 3,600 seconds for Clemson. And 3,600 seconds for Alabama. Sounds like a long time. It isn’t. There are so many …

By Frank Gogola | @FrankGogola Sports Capital Journalism Program PHOENIX – Clemson safety T.J. Green hated everything Alabama as a kid. The team, the colors, the houndstooth hats. Didn’t like the Crimson Tide one bit. Green grew up in Sylacauga, Alabama, a pro-Crimson Tide town despite being located a nearly equal distance between Tuscaloosa and Auburn, …

By Zach Wagner | @zachwagner22 Sports Capital Journalism Program SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – College Football Playoff executive director Bill Hancock said that the schedule at the end of the next two seasons will go on as planned as organizers analyze the decline in television ratings for the recent semifinal games played on New Year’s Eve. “I don’t …

By Frank Gogola | @FrankGogola Sports Capital Journalism Program Clemson defensive end Shaq Lawson said after the Orange Bowl that he expected to play in the College Football Playoff National Championship despite a left knee injury. During a conference call four days later, Clemson coach Dabo Swinney sounded just as optimistic about his standout defensive …

Entering the College Football Playoff Semifinal as a student media member covering a national event, I didn’t know what to expect. While I have always been treated well as a member of student media, the ‘student’ title has often meant I didn’t get quite all the bells and whistles that professional media members are accustomed …

The Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic was still several hours away when colleague Jessica Wimsatt and I headed from the press box at the top of AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, to the artificial surface for a pre-game video analysis. When we were finished, we returned to the elevator to make the discovery that here was …

By Jessica Wimsatt | @Jessica_Wimsatt Sports Capital Journalism Program ARLINGTON, Texas — After Alabama’s overwhelming victory in the 80th annual Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic, a tractor-trailer with a defining message sat parked in a corridor in AT&T Stadium just outside the Alabama locker room. The back doors were open, ready for loading for the trip …