A crazy fight broke out during a Basketball game, actually scratch that, an all out brawl broke out in Alabama last night. Now normally when two teams go at it, it can be pretty intense, but when you add in thousands of angry fans, it gets a little bit crazier....

Man, that was crazy. Both Schools, Carver and Valley, have since met with the board and are awaiting word, but with Carver leading the game 52-37 and a Valley player starting the melee, it seems pretty clear that Carver will get the win. Good times, Alabama....Gooood times.

Basketbrawl Breaks Out In Ala. HS Playoff Game (Sports by Brooks)

ESPN pimps everything from cell phones and clothing, to movies and film festivals, so it isn't a surprise that there will soon be an ESPN-themed High School in New York City. Wait, that actually is a surprise. I take that back. The "Leader" will be working with the city to create something called B.O.S.S., or the "Business of Sports School", and it will be opening its doors this September. Via the Associated Press....

NEW YORK (AP) — ESPN and the New York City Department of Education are teaming up to create a new high school focusing on the business side of sports.

The Business of Sports School, or BOSS, will open in September with 81 ninth grade students.

The school plans to emphasize real world skills through mandatory internships at companies like ESPN The Magazine, ABC Sports, and VitaminWater.

The school is part of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's push to modernize outdated vocational or trade schools.

Really? I was all set to make fun of this whole thing, but that actually sounds pretty darn cool. I would have killed to join a school like that when I was young, and to give kids internship opportunities like that in high school, is definitely going to help them when they get to College.

There is one problem though. How are they ever going to field a good Sports team with a school full of team managers?

ESPN to help create NYC sports-themed high school (AP)

It's hard not to be of two minds regarding the Army's annual game showcasing the nation's best high school football talent: it's kind of cool to see the teenagers who will be playing for your chosen rooting interest next season (like Terrelle Pryor in last year's game, above), but there's also the whole, "wait, these guys are still in high school factor," especially when you see the players making commitments to four-year schools during the game. This isn't the only one of its kind, as Under Armour will hold its All-American Game tomorrow.

Anyway, I'm probably going to check in on this game for a bit, especially considering that it's already on NBC, where most of us will be tuned in for the professionals after it.

Trying to complete their goal of covering every possible sport at every level ad naseum, ESPN is startomg a new "high school sports content initiative" called "ESPN Rise". Here are the details....

ESPN announced it has formally launched a high school sports content initiative that has been named ESPN RISE. ESPN RISE is a multimedia brand dedicated to growing ESPN’s 12- to 17-year-old audience, while providing ESPN fans with compelling high school sports content across all of ESPN’s platforms including programming and events, digital media and publishing.

“ESPN RISE will build upon ESPN’s more than 20-year-tradition of covering high school sports by applying our passion for sports to the creative ways we communicate with our core fan of the future,” said John Skipper, executive vice president, content. “During the past 12 months, James has worked diligently with key stakeholders across the various ESPN platforms to strategically develop the future of high school sports content at the company.”

There's a website (ESPNRise.com), four different magazines (Rise, Girl, Gridiron, Hardwood), and a Basketball tournament (The Boost Mobile Elite 24) that come with the new initiative and there's even going to be High School content on your favorite ESPN shows....

Beginning at the start of the ‘08/’09 school year, high school news and information content will be delivered across several studio shows including SportsCenter, ESPNEWS, and College Football Live.

I personally could care less about High School Sports, but there's definitely a good collection of people that are into it. This reeks of overkill, but so doesn't every other "initiative" from ESPN these days.

(Via ESPN PR)

So yesterday ESPN tore it's way through seven hours of National Signing Day coverage and people are rightfully a bit weirded out by the whole thing. Even ESPN's own employees....

“ESPN and USA Today are just all over this stuff like it’s the NBA Draft. I have always found it repulsive on some level. It's just disgusting the way they get so hyped up over this stuff and it’s just hype”- Michael Wilbon on PTI

They wanted to make it so much like the draft that they even stole the graphics from the process. It wasn't that they did a bad job covering the event, it was just that it was skeevish and downright boring. There were no real surprises and it came across as a bunch of kids not prepared for the media looking awkward and nervous. Via Patrick McManamon at Ohio.com...

ESPN actually promised seven hours of coverage of National Signing Day on ESPNU.

Now . . . ESPN is a master at hiring former players or coaches, dressing them up in a suit, teaching them to gesture with their hands and then having them sit and babble incessantly about the sport they used to play.

Evidence? Sean Salisbury.

But to sit a bunch of talking
heads up at a set for seven hours and talk about the decisions of 17- and 18-year-olds seems to have taken the ESPNization of the nation to new and ridiculous heights.

Look up ESPNization — a new word mind you — and the definition is simple: Taking any event, no matter how small, and treating it with seriousness light years beyond it's due.

Glad to see the rest of the world is catching on. Not every show is like this of course, but we're approaching dangerous territory when ESPN airs the MLS Draft and National Signing Day within a few weeks of each other.

In all seriousness I watched about 45 minutes before becoming completely confused about what was going on. At one point Mike Gottfried said something about Missouri and three other dudes jumped all over him for some reason. Just random and pointless.

(Oh and nice jab at Salisbury, Mr. McManamon...+1)

It's too early to turn teenagers into celebrities (Ohio.com)

I never thought I would live to see the day that a High School student would be on television signing a piece of paper nevermind that this practice would get 7 hours devoted to it. But alas, here we are.

Tomorrow is National signing day and ESPN is pulling out all the stops. I almost wish I had ESPNU to watch how they plan on filling those seven hours. Here are some of the highlights you can watch for if you do...

ESPNU will headline ESPN’s robust multimedia coverage of National Signing Day Wednesday, Feb. 6, with a seven-hour special, ESPNU Recruiting Insider: National Signing Day Special presented by 76 from noon to 7 p.m. ET. The show will be highlighted by exclusive live player announcements from several players ranked in the ESPN 150, including #2 Julio Jones (Foley HS, Ala.), #4 Terrell Pryor (Jeannette HS, Pa.), #9 Darrell Scott (St. Bonaventure HS, Calif.) and #28 Brandon Harris (Booker T. Washington HS, Fla.). Lowell Galindo, ESPNU’s primary anchor, will host with Mike Gottfried, Dave Ryan and ESPN’s Scouts, Inc. analysts Tom Luginbill, Todd McShay and Craig Haubert.

I love the use of the word robust in that release. I would have gone with "over-the-top", but robust works. Sounds like fun though...wait there's more?

* ESPN2 will televise a special hour-long edition of College Football Live at 2 p.m., with studio host Dari Nowkhah and analysts Jesse Palmer and Robert Smith, and will then simulcast ESPNU’s coverage from 3 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

* There will also be some elements of National Signing Day on SportsCenter and First Take.

* ESPNEWS will begin coverage Tuesday, Feb. 5, with live updates from Luginbill, who will provide analysis on the 2008 recruiting class during the HotList from 3 p.m. – 6 p.m.

* ESPN Radio will offer its listeners coverage of National Signing Day through several of its most popular franchises, including Mike & Mike in the Morning, The Herd with Colin Cowherd, The Mike Tirico Show and SportsNation.

* New to the ESPN family, RISE Magazine, one of the nation’s largest high school sports publications, will provide in-depth coverage of National Signing Day on RISEMAG.com, focusing on the top 25 recruits in each of the 25 markets that RISE publishes regionally customized issues.

....and my personal favorite....

* Mike Golic Jr., son of ESPN Radio’s Mike & Mike in the Morning co-host Mike Golic, will be in studio at 7:05 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 6, National Signing Day, to officially sign his letter of intent to play at Notre Dame.

I was just asking myself today how I could get more Notre Dame in my daily routine. This will do just fine.

(Source: ESPN PR)

I think it's safe to say that ESPN probably wasn't trying to undercut the Annual U.S. Army All-American Bowl by scheduling it an hour after it, but that's not stopping SportsLink (the company that puts the game on) to throw around some insults. According to the New York Times ABC/ESPN's Under Armour High School All-American Game will debut with no fans from the 8-year Army sponsored game....

The sudden appearance of a copycat game at almost the same time did not prompt the folks at SportsLink, the organizer of the Army game, to cheer, cheer, cheer for Old Bristol U.

“We felt a bit sandbagged,” Doug Berman, the SportsLink chairman, said in an interview.

That sentiment led Berman in June to write to Robert A. Iger, the chairman of Disney, which is the parent of ESPN and ABC. He held the Army to a higher standard as a sponsor and scorned the cable giant’s “unpatriotic undertaking” merely for the sake of staging a game. He described ESPN’s “attempt to undercut” the Army game as an “effort to undermine our Army.”

Wow. Those are pretty strong words there. I'm pretty sure if you asked the Army if they were bothered they would say that this is America and they're free to do whatever they want. I guess the bigger issue would be if ESPN is getting to players ahead of time and lobbying for them to come over to the Leader's game. That does not appear to be the case....yet. 74 of the 84 players invited have accepted to play in the Army game. I'd be a bit wary if I was the Army group though. The allure of ESPN could eventually pull some kids away from SportsLink.

ESPN Will Take on Army With Its Own High School Game (New York Times)

Via The Sporting Orange comes yet another candidate for video of the year. This folks is the 9-3, Eastside Catholic High School Football Team....

It IS time to go Kamikaze!

Be sure to check out the Devil Walk over at TSO as well....

High School Football + Explosions = AWESOME (The Sporting Orange)