Madden Madness is kicking into full gear

The NCAA March Madness tournament has whittled itself down to a select few and there's been no shortage of surprises or excitement in this year's edition with VCU making a surprise run to the Final Four and tiny Butler making their second consecutive appearance. Just in case you haven't had your fill of brackets, there's a new game in town. Literally!

ESPN and EA Sports are teaming up to allow fans to vote for their choice of athlete to appear on this year's Madden video game, bracket-style! Round one is already in the books and there were little in the way of upsets. There's still found rounds to go however and the current round, wrapping up on April 3rd, features a bevy of titanic matchups.

Football on Sundays - No NFL, No Problem?

As we get closer and closer to football season with no resolution in sight to the NFL labor woes, it's natural to sit and think about just what the fall will be like without NFL programming dominating our Sundays. You wouldn't be the only one! Already the idea of bringing NCAA football to Sunday is being kicked around by figures involved in collegiate athletic programs and while it may just be idle speculation for now, who knows what the future could bring?

In an interview with Rivals, some of those thoughts were made public. Take PAC-12 commish Larry Scott, "We certainly are monitoring the situation. We have no plans in place at this time, but you want to be prepared and consider all options."

Amidst uncertainty, O-D Alum Newton shows wares

Cam Newton - 2007 O-D Bowl

With NFL players and team owners feuding the only thing certain about the 2011 NFL schedule is that the Draft will go forward as planned on April 28th. No one knows this or is preparing any more than 2010 Heisman winner, NCAA National Champion, and 2007 Offense-Defense All-American Bowl MVP Cam Newton.

Newton is visiting the Buffalo Bills today, owners of the 3rd pick in this year's Draft, in order to get a better feel for one of the potential future organizations he could be a part whenever it is that the NFL gets back to business as usual. It's merely the first stop on a multi-team tour that will see the electrifying prospect, quoted this past year as saying the Offense-Defense experience "kick-started (his) career," make visits to eight more organizations picking early in the Draft: Carolina and Denver with the first two picks, and Cincinnati, Cleveland, Tennessee, Washington, Minnesota, and Miami all picking afterward.

NCAA hints it's never too early to prepare

The high school and youth sports world has gotten increasingly more competitive in a surprisingly short amount of time. We're not just talking about on competition on the field of play, though that gets better every year, too! Just two short years ago, the NCAA made the edict that boys' basketball players as early as the 7th grade were being considered college prospects for the purposes of collegiate recruiters.

While this drastic proclamation hasn't been made about football just yet, the writing is on the wall: college recruiters are preparing earlier and earlier, evaluating young athletes at younger ages than they ever have before in order to get the jump on the competition.

The Soccer Side of Chad Ochocinco

#85 coaching at our
Cincinnati Camp

So you've been locked out of your job. If you never earned another penny for the rest of your days, you'd still be financially secure for the rest of your life ten times over. You have nothing but free time on your hands. What do you do? If you're anything like professional controversy vortex - and O-D Pro - Chad Ochocinco, you might just be inclined to pick up your childhood passion.

In Chad's case, that would be football. No, not that one. The OTHER football. That's right, Ochocinco's got himself a tryout with Sporting KC of the MLS and he insists it's not so much a publicity stunt as it is taking the opportunity that presented itself to play his favorite sport in the world. Yup, soccer. Chad even displayed an uncharacteristic humble side when recounting the experiences of his first day on the job:

Did NFL owners overreact?

Right Here

No, this isn't another cutesy story about ongoing labor discussions between millionaires and their slightly more fortunate billionaire bosses. At the NFL's annual owners' meeting, team owners voted by a 26 to 6 margin to move kickoffs from the 30 to the 35-yard line and to only allow the coverage team to line up a maximum of 5 yards behind the kick. The reasoning? The 5-yard bump should increase touchbacks and reduce the speed with which the coverage team gets to the ball carrier, respectively.

The overall goal, it seems, is to reduce player injury. Let it never be stated that this is something we at O-D would ever blindly argue against. Player health and safety remains our top priority at every level of the game. In fact, the attention we give to preventing injury is a big part of why we've been able to run contact camps for over four decades. The fact is, as the rules stood, kickers were already able to kick the ball out of the endzone on kickoffs and last season more than one kick out of every seven wound up being brought back out to the 20 without the need for contact of any sort.

Preview: O-D Player Visibility Platform

Offense-Defense Sports is proud to announce today the ongoing development and impending release of our latest top-secret project aimed at getting college-minded athletes as early as the 7th grade the visibility and attention they need from every college program in the country. Dubbed the Player Visibility Platform, or PVP by our nerdy R&D types, the performance scientists at Offense-Defense have created the ultimate weapon of mass exposure!

The PVP program marries O-D's heralded on-field instructional product with our state-of-the-art web technology and unparalleled coaching and college network to create the most comprehensive player profile and portfolio imaginable. Information from camp performances gets input into a player's profile by certified coaching and analysis experts along with personal profile information the athlete themselves enter about themselves. The athlete tells us what schools they want their profile sent to and we do the rest! The colleges of the athlete's choice get a comprehensive, official dossier detailing everything from the player's 40-time, height, and weight to whatever personal information the subject feels like sharing.

Business as usual in 2011 as O-D ducks labor woes

Owner Rick Whittier (left) VP Matt Whittier (right)

Offense-Defense Sports ownership reached an amicable agreement after meeting with company employees today assuring a 44th consecutive year of high-quality, top-flight, unparalleled football instruction to take place through the Spring, Summer, and even Winter of 2011. The agreement capped off a whirlwind series of negotiation sessions that rarely involved any raised voices or frayed nerves.

"It was really a pretty easy process," noted Offense-Defense Sports Vice President Matt Whittier. "Everyone was on board the whole way with moving forward with another great year of football and life skills instruction. We're pleased all of our fine employees felt the same way: that it was imperative we hammer something out now in order to maintain our standards of excellence for generations to come and continue to cement our reputation as THE leader of youth, high school, and collegiate football in America."