ACC
1. Clemson
2. Virginia Tech
3. Wake Forest
4. Florida St.
5. Boston College
6. North Carolina
7. Miami
8. Marlyand
9. Virginia
10. Georgia Tech
11. NC State
12. Duke
Big East
1. West Virginia
2. South Florida
3. Pittsburgh
4. Connecticut
5. Cincinnati
6. Rutgers
7. Louisville
8. Syracuse
Big Ten
1. Ohio St.
2. Wisconsin
3. Penn St.
4. Illinois
5. Michigan St.
6. Michigan
7. Iowa
8. Purdue
9. Indiana
10. Minnesota
11. Northwestern
Big 12
1. Oklahoma
2. Missouri
3. Texas
4. Texas Tech
5. Kansas
6. Colorado
7. Nebraska
8. Kansas St.
9. Texas A&M
10. Oklahoma St.
11. Baylor
12. Iowa St.
Pac-10
1. USC
2. Oregon
3. Arizona St.
4. California
5. Oregon St.
6. Arizona
7. UCLA
8. Washington
9. Stanford
10. Washington St.
SEC
1. Florida
2. Georgia
3. Auburn
4. LSU
5. Tennessee
6. Alabama
7. South Carolina
8. Mississippi St.
9. Mississippi
10. Arkansas
11. Kentucky
12. Vanderbilt
Top Non-BCS
1. BYU
2. Fresno St.
3. Utah
4. Tulsa
5. TCU
6. Boise St.
7. East Carolina
8. Bowling Green
9. Nevada
10. Central Michigan
I am Wesley Robinson and I approve this message.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Saturday, August 23, 2008
2008 College Football Pre-Season Poll
My Pre-season rankings...
1. Florida
2. Georgia
3. USC
4. Ohio St.
5. Oklahoma
6. Missouri
7. Texas
8. Auburn
9. Clemson
10. West Virginia
11. LSU
12. Virginia Tech
13. BYU
14. Wisconsin
15. Texas Tech
16. Oregon
17. Kansas
18. Fresno St.
19. Tennessee
20. Arizona St.
21. Wake Forest
22. Penn St.
23. Alabama
24. South Carolina
25. California
I am Wesley Robinson and I approve this message.
1. Florida
2. Georgia
3. USC
4. Ohio St.
5. Oklahoma
6. Missouri
7. Texas
8. Auburn
9. Clemson
10. West Virginia
11. LSU
12. Virginia Tech
13. BYU
14. Wisconsin
15. Texas Tech
16. Oregon
17. Kansas
18. Fresno St.
19. Tennessee
20. Arizona St.
21. Wake Forest
22. Penn St.
23. Alabama
24. South Carolina
25. California
I am Wesley Robinson and I approve this message.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
I Hate Ticketmaster
To put it simply and amateurishly: Fuck Ticketmaster! Every time I want to go to a concert, sporting event, or almost anything else involving tickets, I have to endure the frustration of Ticketmaster. I do realize that some of my statements about Ticketmaster may be factually off a bit and that some of my hate may at the same time be slightly misdirected, but I do hate having to deal with what I call the "Ticketmaster experience." Here are the four main reasons I hate this dreaded company...
1. Ticketmaster controls virtually all tickets that are initially sold. There are usually only two ways to get tickets for an event. Ticketmaster or on-line ticketing sites such as "StubHub" or "Razorgator". If you want first crack at a ticket you are essentially stuck with Ticketmaster. This apparently gives them the authority to excessively overcharge because a) that's what they do and b) they really aren't competing with anyone. If you don't buy tickets through Ticketmaster you then are relegated to on-line ticketing sites where people charge way over face value for tickets then the site adds commission and shipping charges. Sadly these sites are worse than the Ticketmaster experience. My main complaint here is that there is no real competition for Ticketmaster when tickets initially come on sale. They control almost all tickets and all other ticket companies are trumped by the one big superpower that gets the responsibility of selling tickets.
2. Another problem I have with the "Ticketmaster experience" is with the tack on fees. Recently I was interested in buying tickets for a concert on the Internet where the ticket price (face value) was $54.50. After a "convenience charge" of 11.35, a "building facility" for another $3.00, and an "order processing charge" of $4.10 my ticket price was now over $70.00; over $15.00 in tack on fees for this concert. Are you kidding me? What is "convenient" about me buying a ticket? I would love to know the justification for tacking on these fees because what it does is price me right out of going to events that I want to go to. A ticket that was $30 becomes $45, $40 becomes $55, and so on. My best guess is that I tried to buy it over the Internet rather than physically waiting in line somewhere else (do they even do that at all anymore?). At this point ticket buying is almost exclusively done on the Internet and we all know that; the Internet is the present and the future. If Ticketmaster is going to put these fees in they should just give all of us the harsh news from the start instead of having us hope the tack on fees are only $10 instead of $20. Just tell me that the final ticket price is going to be $70 instead of having your ridiculous price breakdown that I don't care about one bit. Showing me the tack on fees does not comfort me in any way.
3. I hope that everyone who is in the market for buying tickets through Ticketmaster or on-line ticketing sites knows about the scam that Ticketmaster runs with the site "TicketsNow". In case you didn't know Ticketmaster owns the site "TicketsNow". Here's an example of how the scam works....Ticketmaster sells someone a ticket through Ticketmaster. Ticketmaster has done their business and walks away with whatever profit they get. Let's say this person than decides to sell the ticket they got on Ticketmaster for a profit over the Internet. They put the ticket up on "TicketsNow" (which Ticketmaster recommends to you in the case that you wish to sell your ticket). The person then sells the ticket on "TicketsNow". That person gets their profit for spinning the ticket for a higher price, but "TicketsNow" is also going to do themselves a favor (just like any other on-line ticketing site) and hit the person who bought the tickets off their site with a commission/service charge and a shipping fee which are more expensive than the tack on fees that Ticketmaster adds on. At the end of the day the money from "TicketsNow" and Ticketmaster are going to the same company. Let me know if I am crazy, but Ticketmaster has now sold the ticket twice! They get to charge two different people for the same damn ticket! They essentially get double the fees! I suppose this is good business on Tickemaster's part as they get profits for two tickets even though they have sold the same one only twice, but it does make ticket buying more expensive as Ticketmaster gets to screw everyone in a different way.
4. The Ticketmaster system does not let the common person such as me get any chance of getting good seats for the more sought after events. At the same time I think a lot of people get priced out of going to a lot of events because of the way Ticketmaster functions. The way the whole ticketing system works makes it tougher for the common person or the common family to go to an event that is affordable. I think this is especially the case for sporting events. Companies/corporations are classically known for having much of the best seats for the more sought after sporting events. I realize that Ticketmaster has to do their business too and companies/corporations use sporting events as a way to do their business. That doesn't mean that I have to be happy that those tickets are basically gone before they are officially on-sale and even if I had a chance at getting good seats I wouldn't be able to afford them anyways. This is a complaint at the teams/artists that charge as much as they do just as much as a complaint leveled against Ticketmaster. The way Ticketmaster and those putting on the events do business has strictly become business and commoners have suffered. It just seems to me that there is a trend forming in which going to events is becoming much less affordable while at the same time one can't even get a decent seat. The value of the ticket no longer comes close to the actual seat you are buying.
This whole thing reminds of how when I was growing my dad and I used to go to about five to seven Los Angeles Dodgers games a year. We would buy the tickets before the season started and have relatively decent seats for each game. The ticket prices along with the decent seat allowed us to go to multiple games per year. Through the years ticket prices have gone up and seat availability has diminished. This year I have been to one Dodger game with my dad. It's kind of sad in a way. Tickets that used to be $25 now are well over $50. Than Ticketmaster adds $15 in fees and you are looking at over $65 for one damn seat for a baseball game. Oh and by the way the $65 seat doesn't include the $15 parking fee. If you want to pay less than you get a much worse seat that feels like a rip-off. The entire situation has become one big rip-off.
Because of the ticket system, there is no longer any value in buying tickets.
Ticketmaster simply has too much power in the ticket market.
I am Wesley Robinson and I approve this message.
1. Ticketmaster controls virtually all tickets that are initially sold. There are usually only two ways to get tickets for an event. Ticketmaster or on-line ticketing sites such as "StubHub" or "Razorgator". If you want first crack at a ticket you are essentially stuck with Ticketmaster. This apparently gives them the authority to excessively overcharge because a) that's what they do and b) they really aren't competing with anyone. If you don't buy tickets through Ticketmaster you then are relegated to on-line ticketing sites where people charge way over face value for tickets then the site adds commission and shipping charges. Sadly these sites are worse than the Ticketmaster experience. My main complaint here is that there is no real competition for Ticketmaster when tickets initially come on sale. They control almost all tickets and all other ticket companies are trumped by the one big superpower that gets the responsibility of selling tickets.
2. Another problem I have with the "Ticketmaster experience" is with the tack on fees. Recently I was interested in buying tickets for a concert on the Internet where the ticket price (face value) was $54.50. After a "convenience charge" of 11.35, a "building facility" for another $3.00, and an "order processing charge" of $4.10 my ticket price was now over $70.00; over $15.00 in tack on fees for this concert. Are you kidding me? What is "convenient" about me buying a ticket? I would love to know the justification for tacking on these fees because what it does is price me right out of going to events that I want to go to. A ticket that was $30 becomes $45, $40 becomes $55, and so on. My best guess is that I tried to buy it over the Internet rather than physically waiting in line somewhere else (do they even do that at all anymore?). At this point ticket buying is almost exclusively done on the Internet and we all know that; the Internet is the present and the future. If Ticketmaster is going to put these fees in they should just give all of us the harsh news from the start instead of having us hope the tack on fees are only $10 instead of $20. Just tell me that the final ticket price is going to be $70 instead of having your ridiculous price breakdown that I don't care about one bit. Showing me the tack on fees does not comfort me in any way.
3. I hope that everyone who is in the market for buying tickets through Ticketmaster or on-line ticketing sites knows about the scam that Ticketmaster runs with the site "TicketsNow". In case you didn't know Ticketmaster owns the site "TicketsNow". Here's an example of how the scam works....Ticketmaster sells someone a ticket through Ticketmaster. Ticketmaster has done their business and walks away with whatever profit they get. Let's say this person than decides to sell the ticket they got on Ticketmaster for a profit over the Internet. They put the ticket up on "TicketsNow" (which Ticketmaster recommends to you in the case that you wish to sell your ticket). The person then sells the ticket on "TicketsNow". That person gets their profit for spinning the ticket for a higher price, but "TicketsNow" is also going to do themselves a favor (just like any other on-line ticketing site) and hit the person who bought the tickets off their site with a commission/service charge and a shipping fee which are more expensive than the tack on fees that Ticketmaster adds on. At the end of the day the money from "TicketsNow" and Ticketmaster are going to the same company. Let me know if I am crazy, but Ticketmaster has now sold the ticket twice! They get to charge two different people for the same damn ticket! They essentially get double the fees! I suppose this is good business on Tickemaster's part as they get profits for two tickets even though they have sold the same one only twice, but it does make ticket buying more expensive as Ticketmaster gets to screw everyone in a different way.
4. The Ticketmaster system does not let the common person such as me get any chance of getting good seats for the more sought after events. At the same time I think a lot of people get priced out of going to a lot of events because of the way Ticketmaster functions. The way the whole ticketing system works makes it tougher for the common person or the common family to go to an event that is affordable. I think this is especially the case for sporting events. Companies/corporations are classically known for having much of the best seats for the more sought after sporting events. I realize that Ticketmaster has to do their business too and companies/corporations use sporting events as a way to do their business. That doesn't mean that I have to be happy that those tickets are basically gone before they are officially on-sale and even if I had a chance at getting good seats I wouldn't be able to afford them anyways. This is a complaint at the teams/artists that charge as much as they do just as much as a complaint leveled against Ticketmaster. The way Ticketmaster and those putting on the events do business has strictly become business and commoners have suffered. It just seems to me that there is a trend forming in which going to events is becoming much less affordable while at the same time one can't even get a decent seat. The value of the ticket no longer comes close to the actual seat you are buying.
This whole thing reminds of how when I was growing my dad and I used to go to about five to seven Los Angeles Dodgers games a year. We would buy the tickets before the season started and have relatively decent seats for each game. The ticket prices along with the decent seat allowed us to go to multiple games per year. Through the years ticket prices have gone up and seat availability has diminished. This year I have been to one Dodger game with my dad. It's kind of sad in a way. Tickets that used to be $25 now are well over $50. Than Ticketmaster adds $15 in fees and you are looking at over $65 for one damn seat for a baseball game. Oh and by the way the $65 seat doesn't include the $15 parking fee. If you want to pay less than you get a much worse seat that feels like a rip-off. The entire situation has become one big rip-off.
Because of the ticket system, there is no longer any value in buying tickets.
Ticketmaster simply has too much power in the ticket market.
I am Wesley Robinson and I approve this message.
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