Month: May 2019

Home / Month: May 2019

Disney Takes Control Of Hulu in Comcast Streaming Service Deal

May 15, 2019 | News | No Comments

(NEW YORK) — Disney is taking full control of Hulu from Comcast, as both companies prepare to launch their own streaming services in response to declining audiences for traditional TV.

The companies said Tuesday that Comcast, which owns a third of Hulu, can sell its stake to Disney starting in 2024, for a minimum of $5.8 billion. Until then, Comcast will be a silent investor.

Hulu launched more than a decade ago as the major entertainment companies dealt with the rise of digital media. While YouTube became a home for digital video, Netflix built up a streaming library of back seasons of popular TV shows and movies, and Hulu made TV episodes from its parent companies available online after they aired on TV.

Hulu today still shows network TV episodes and original series for $6 a month. It has a newer, cable-like service with live TV channels for $45 a month.

In the past few years, many other streaming services have emerged, helping more people drop their cable subscriptions. These include ones from AT&T and Google that, like Hulu’s live-TV service, compete with the traditional cable bundle. Others are more focused, like HBO Now.

Meanwhile, big media companies that own TV networks are looking to launch still more streaming services as a way to make up for revenue lost from fewer cable subscriptions.

Disney’s deal with Comcast isn’t surprising. Disney had already become the majority owner of Hulu when it absorbed Fox’s stake as part of its purchase of Fox’s entertainment businesses.

Having total control of Hulu gives Disney more power to support its own streaming efforts. The company is launching a new kids-focused streaming service called Disney Plus this year for $7 a month and is likely to offer discounted bundles with Hulu and its sports service, ESPN Plus.

Meanwhile, Comcast’s NBCUniversal will debut a streaming service in 2020. And AT&T’s WarnerMedia is launching its own streaming service, with a focus on HBO and other shows and movies owned by the company. There’s also a new one from Apple, with original content.

An aftereffect of all these new services could be the fragmentation of content. You may have to pay for more streaming services to keep watching the same stuff.

Disney is planning to take back its library, which includes Pixar, Marvel and “Star Wars” movies, from Netflix for its own services. Other popular shows on Netflix, including “Friends” and “The Office,” are owned by the big entertainment companies, and they may want to have them back for their own services. By doing that, however, the companies would miss out on lucrative licensing revenue — a hard decision to make when their own fledging service has to compete with so many others.

“I’m not firmly convinced that everyone going to pull all their content off Netflix and put it behind their walled garden,” said Brett Sappington, analyst for research firm Parks Associates.

Doing so is risky, he said, because companies lose out on another service marketing shows on their behalf, as well as that guaranteed money.

While Comcast has agreed to keep its NBCUniversal shows and networks on Hulu until late 2024, it can cut much of that deal off early, moving shows to its own streaming service in three years. In a year, its streaming service can also start offering video that’s currently exclusive on Hulu, sharing the shows with Hulu for the time being.

“It’s a good hedge in terms of them being able to gauge whether their own service needs its content,” Sappington said.

He added that the deal gives Comcast flexibility to figure out the best way to make money off the video it owns.

Hulu’s ownership has contracted as a wave of mergers consolidated the industry: The Walt Disney Co. absorbed 21st Century Fox’s stake as it bought up Fox’s studio and many of its networks, while AT&T sold off the share it inherited with the purchase of Time Warner, now renamed WarnerMedia.

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AT&T’s sale valued the unprofitable Hulu at $15 billion. The agreement with Disney and Comcast values Hulu at a minimum of $27.5 billion in 2024. Disney has forecast that Hulu will turn a profit around then.

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Top 10 USA Softball Collegiate Player of Year announced

May 14, 2019 | News | No Comments

OKLAHOMA CITY — Only 10 finalists remain in the hunt for the 2019 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year. The USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award recognizes the outstanding athletic achievement by Division I female players across the country.

Previous recipients of the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award are Stacey Nuveman (UCLA, 2002), Cat Osterman (Texas, 2003, 2005 and 2006), Jessica Van der Linden (Florida State, 2004), Monica Abbott (Tennessee, 2007), Angela Tincher (Virginia Tech, 2008), Danielle Lawrie (Washington, 2009 and 2010), Ashley Hansen (Stanford, 2011), Keilani Ricketts (Oklahoma, 2012 and 2013), Lacey Waldrop (Florida State, 2014), Lauren Haeger (Florida, 2015), Sierra Romero (Michigan, 2016), Kelly Barnhill (Florida, 2017) and Rachel Garcia (UCLA, 2018).

Click here for the list of Finalists for USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year

The finalists include six seniors, three juniors and one sophomore representing nine NCAA Division I universities and six athletic conferences. Among the universities, the No. 1 Oklahoma Sooners have two student-athletes among the list of finalists while Drake, Florida, Georgia, James Madison, Kentucky, Mississippi State, UCLA and Wisconsin are represented by one student-athlete. 

The three finalists will be announced on May 22 before the 2019 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year will be announced on May 28. 

The USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year is voted on by coaching representatives of 10 Division I Conferences in the 10 USA Softball Regions, members of the media who consistently cover Division I Softball across the country as well as past winners of the award.

— Courtesy of USA Softball

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Top 10 USA Softball Collegiate Player of Year announced

May 14, 2019 | News | No Comments

OKLAHOMA CITY — Only 10 finalists remain in the hunt for the 2019 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year. The USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award recognizes the outstanding athletic achievement by Division I female players across the country.

Previous recipients of the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award are Stacey Nuveman (UCLA, 2002), Cat Osterman (Texas, 2003, 2005 and 2006), Jessica Van der Linden (Florida State, 2004), Monica Abbott (Tennessee, 2007), Angela Tincher (Virginia Tech, 2008), Danielle Lawrie (Washington, 2009 and 2010), Ashley Hansen (Stanford, 2011), Keilani Ricketts (Oklahoma, 2012 and 2013), Lacey Waldrop (Florida State, 2014), Lauren Haeger (Florida, 2015), Sierra Romero (Michigan, 2016), Kelly Barnhill (Florida, 2017) and Rachel Garcia (UCLA, 2018).

Click here for the list of Finalists for USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year

The finalists include six seniors, three juniors and one sophomore representing nine NCAA Division I universities and six athletic conferences. Among the universities, the No. 1 Oklahoma Sooners have two student-athletes among the list of finalists while Drake, Florida, Georgia, James Madison, Kentucky, Mississippi State, UCLA and Wisconsin are represented by one student-athlete. 

The three finalists will be announced on May 22 before the 2019 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year will be announced on May 28. 

The USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year is voted on by coaching representatives of 10 Division I Conferences in the 10 USA Softball Regions, members of the media who consistently cover Division I Softball across the country as well as past winners of the award.

— Courtesy of USA Softball

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Helium Shortage Is Hurting Parties and the Pharmaceutical Industry

May 12, 2019 | News | No Comments

Helium is not only used for balloons. It’s a critical material in the pharmaceutical industry — a field that’s taking a hit with the ongoing shortage of this non-renewable element.

The shortage has already hurt the party industry. Party City announced last Thursday it was closing 45 stores, citing in part the increasing scarcity of helium. It has “negatively impacted our latex and metallic balloon categories,” CEO James M. Harrison said in a statement. Harrison said his company expects a new source of helium starting this summer.

For hospitals, that can’t come soon enough. Helium is used for the production of superconducting magnets used in NMR — Nuclear Magnetic Resonance — devices. These identify the substances in a chemical mixture and are critical for the production and research of medicine.

“An NMEi a magnifying glass that lets you know what is in a mixture,” Sophia E. Hayes, a professor of chemistry at the University of Washington in St. Louis, said in an interview.

MRIs also use superconducting magnets. Although they rely on helium, MRI magnets don’t consume helium like superconducting NMR magnets. MRI magnets only need an initial helium fill and a 15% top-off once it is delivered and installed. This makes the medical industry able to weather the shortage “a bit better,” according to Hayes.

There are currently about 13,000 active MRI machines in the U.S., and around 50,000 worldwide. The global growth rate is predicted to be about 4% through 2023.

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What the Strike Ahead of Uber’s IPO Exposes About American Inequality

May 11, 2019 | News | No Comments

The instant Uber shares start trading on the New York Stock Exchange Friday, lots of people and groups are going to make millions—and in some cases billions—of dollars. They include Travis Kalanick, the company’s co-founder and ex-CEO, who owns 117 million shares of Uber, the venture capitalist Matt Cohler, who has 150 million shares, and the government of Saudi Arabia, whose sovereign wealth fund owns 72 million shares. In all, Uber’s IPO is expected to raise as much as $90 billion for the company, one of the frothiest offerings in an era full of froth.

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One group who won’t benefit much from Uber’s IPO: its drivers, who numbered 3.9 million at the end of last year. In fact, they are likely to see their pay worsen over the upcoming year as the company strives to become more profitable while facing public shareholder pressure for the first time. Driver incentives, like higher pay for working certain hours, could be on the chopping block. Frustrated with what they say have been worsening conditions even ahead of the offering, some Uber drivers are calling for a 24-strike ahead of the IPO, starting midnight on May 8.

“I’m not against people making money if they invested,” one San Francisco driver, Derrick Baker, told TIME. “But even if they don’t give us a piece of the pie, at least give back the money they took from us.” Baker estimates he now makes $200 in a 10-hour shift before expenses, like gas and insurance. But when he started driving two years ago, he made 50 percent more in the same time period. He’s joining the strike Wednesday and plans to protest outside Uber’s San Francisco headquarters.

Uber pays drivers a base fare that varies among locations, plus payment for how long and far they drive on each ride. It also offers drivers bonus money for completing a certain number of trips during times of heavy demand. Ahead of the IPO and before the strike was announced, Uber said it would offer long-time drivers a “one-time cash driver appreciation” of between $100 and $10,000, depending on how many trips they have completed. The company says it plans to give out a total of about $300 million to 1.1 million qualifying drivers worldwide. (Uber has not said how many people have ever earned money driving for the company, but turnover is extremely high, so 1.1 million likely represents a small fraction of total drivers.)

Un-mollified, drivers across the United States as well as in Chile, Scotland, London, France, Kenya, Australia and elsewhere have said they, too, plan to shut off their Uber apps. Some are going offline for as little as two hours, others for as many as 24 hours.

This kind of driver discontent could threaten Uber’s future. The company admitted in pre-IPO documents that, if it’s unable to continue attracting drivers, the platforms will become less appealing to customers and the company will post worse financial results. A few sentences later, the company said that it is already experiencing driver dissatisfaction, and that as it reduces driver incentives to improve its financial performance, “we expect driver dissatisfaction will generally increase.”

That Uber’s IPO will make some people billionaires while potentially driving down pay for others is symptomatic of the growing inequality in today’s American economy. In Uber’s IPO, as in the wider economy, people with full-time jobs stand to do better and better financially, while everyone else does worse. An over-supply of people competing for jobs in the gig economy has made it difficult for workers to hold out for higher wages or benefits. “We live in this time of increasing inequality, and Uber is in this odd and difficult position of having a lot of that within the company itself,” says Paul Oyer, an economics professor at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.

These disparities are especially stark in big cities like San Francisco, where tech IPOs are minting new millionaires every month, making the price of housing and other necessities skyrocket. Software employees represented more than 50 percent of the people buying properties in San Francisco in 2018, according to real estate firm Compass. While workers in the highest-income households in San Francisco have seen income increase 48 percent since 1989, those in the lowest-income households have experienced a five percent decrease in income, according to the California Budget and Policy Center.

That’s made it harder for lower-income residents such as Uber drivers to stay in the area. Lauren Swiger, who will also be protesting on Wednesday, has been driving for Uber for more than four years. Her rent has tripled in that time; she now pays $4,150 for a three-bedroom Oakland house. When Swiger first started driving, she made about $30 an hour before expenses. Now she struggles to clear $15 an hour before expenses, she said. She supplements her Uber income by working as a massage therapist, but says she wants Uber to guarantee drivers a minimum wage and pay transparency. “Their whole business model is based on worker exploitation,” she says. Swiger wants to stay in the Bay Area because her daughter is about to graduate from high school and she doesn’t want to disrupt her life by moving again, but she wonders how long she’ll be able to stay. Uber and other technology companies are also pouring billions into self-driving car technology that could render humans obsolete, though this will probably not be implemented for a long time.

But Uber drivers like Baker and Swiger have limited collective power compared to more traditional workers. They are considered contractors, not employees, and thus aren’t protected by unions. And despite the country’s historically low unemployment rate, Uber enjoys a seemingly bottomless pool of potential drivers, further reducing their bargaining power. About seven percent of the labor force is either unemployed, working part-time for economic reasons, or is only marginally attached to the labor force. The number of people who are working part-time but would rather be working full-time is about 40 percent higher than would normally be expected at this point in an economic expansion, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco has estimated. Some people are working part-time involuntarily because automation and globalization have eradicated many middle-class jobs, pushing those workers down into part-time service employment, according to Mark Muro, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Others are working part-time involuntarily because wage growth has been stubbornly slow in this economic recovery, and people need more income to supplement their other jobs. “There is a pretty big pool of people who are either voluntarily or involuntarily part of the Uber labor pool,” says Muro.

Despite that access to labor, some Wall Street analysts are skeptical that a public Uber can reach profitability. In terms of rides, the company has grown exponentially, with drivers completing 10 billion trips by September 2018, twice as many as a year before. But Uber lost a whopping $1.8 billion in 2018, spending money to expand to new countries, buy rival companies, and add new lines of business, including Uber Eats and Uber Freight, which matches truck drivers with loads of goods that need to be moved. It has also offered hefty incentives to lure users away from competitors like Lyft, and to drivers to keep them on the platform. But Friday’s IPO may require a new strategy. “Once Uber is public, it’s going to have to demonstrate some sort of path to profitability,” says Tom White, an analyst at D.A. Davidson. “It’s going to be a tricky issue to navigate, since one of the biggest levers is to reduce incentives.”

Sensing the bumpy road ahead, Uber has been taking new measures to satisfy drivers in the post-Kalanick era. In June 2017, it launched a campaign called “180 Days of Change” that sought to improve driving conditions by allowing drivers to earn tips in the app, access 24/7 phone support, and get notifications if they are about to embark on a long trip. Drivers have earned $1.2 billion in tips alone since the company introduced in-app tipping, Uber said. “Drivers are at the heart of our service─we can’t succeed without them─and thousands of people come into work at Uber every day focused on how to make their experience better, on and off the road,” Uber said in a statement. But some drivers clearly remain angry — and more than a little nervous about their futures. “In my mind, big tech needs to pay for the big tech boom,” Swiger says. “It has just been an economic cleanse.”

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Central Oklahoma enters postseason nearly unanimous No. 1 in NFCA DII Top 25 Coaches Poll

May 11, 2019 | News | No Comments

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Central Oklahoma, the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) regular season and tournament champions, enter the NCAA postseason nearly unanimous in this week’s NFCA Division II Top 25 Coaches Poll. The Bronchos (45-5) collected 15 of 16 first-place votes and 399 points in the final poll of the 2019 regular season. 

In all, the top six spots remained the same and no team moved in out of the top ten this week with Great Lake Valley Conference (GLVC) co-regular season and tournament champion Missouri-St. Louis entering at No. 24 for the first time in 2019.

With the MIAA double, UCO will stay home as the Central Region’s top seed. The Bronchos won their first conference tournament title since 2014, sweeping the competition over four days by a 37-7 margin. UCO will open with Minnesota Duluth and also No. 12 Arkansas Tech and No. 18 Southern Arkansas to Edmond, Okla.

No. 2 West Florida, with one first-place vote, and No. 3 Texas A&M-Kingsville also swept through their respective conference tournaments and will be the top seeds in the South and South Central Regions. The Argos (47-8) dispatched Delta State, West Alabama, then-No. 18 Valdosta State and West Georgia to win their fourth Gulf South championship and earn the right to host Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference champion Spring Hill in the first round of the NCAA Regionals.

Following a first-round bye, the Javelinas (43-8) knocked off No. 19 Tarleton State and then-No. 7 Texas A&M-Commerce to win their second Lone Star Conference (LSC) tournament title, the first since 2002. In their first NCAA Regional since 2007, TAMUK will host Heartland Conference champion Oklahoma Christian.

No. 4 Florida Tech, No. 5 North Georgia, No. 6 Winona State and No. 9 Concordia Irvine are top regional seeds for the NCAA Championships. The Panthers’ (39-10) and Eagles’ (44-6) respective Sunshine State and PacWest Conferences enjoyed a week off as their conferences do not have a league postseason tournament.

The fifth-ranked NightHawks (42-11) and seventh-ranked Lakers (44-8) captured their conference tournament titles. North Georgia had to rally from deficits in the opener against UNC Pembroke and the title game against Flagler to win their sixth consecutive Peach Belt Conference championship. Grand Valley cruised to its first three wins by a combined score of 28-4, before edging Northwood, 2-1 for the Lakers’ second straight championship. UNG, in the Southeast Regional, hosts Conference Carolinas’ champion Lees-McRae, while Grand Valley, in the Midwest, hosts Great Midwest Athletic Conference tournament winners Hillsdale.

No. 6 Winona State finished runner-up in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Tournament. The Warriors (50-7) had their 31-game winning streak snapped by Minnesota State, but managed to win four straight elimination games before falling to No. 15 Augustana in the final. They join the Vikings (51-9) as the only 50-win programs in NCAA Division II. Winona earned the No. 2 seed and will be the host of the No. 2 Central Regional, which will also feature Augustana and their first-round opponents St. Cloud State.

No. 8 Texas A&M-Commerce finished as the LSC tournament runner up and is the South Central Region’s No. 2 team, hosting Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference champion Dixie State. 

No. 10 West Texas A&M dropped a spot after bowing out of the LSC tournament in the first round. The Lady Buffs (31-13) will head to Kingsville as the South Central’s fourth seed.

Poll newcomer No. 24 UMSL will be the Midwest’s second seed and host an all-GLVC regional with No. 12 Indianapolis, Truman State and Illinois Springfield. 

The final No. 1 NCAA Regional seed is No. 20 Saint Anselm, which captured the Northeast-10 tournament championship, knocking off New Haven, 5-1, and Adelphi, 4-3 in 10 innings. Last year’s national runner-up, the Hawks host East Coast Conference champions Bridgeport, Georgian Court and Southern New Hampshire in the first round.

NCAA Regional play kicks off on Thursday, May 9 and will conclude on Saturday, May 11.

The 2019 NFCA Division II Top 25 Poll is voted on by 16 NCAA Division II head coaches with two representing each of the eight NCAA regions. Records reflect games played through May 5, 2019.

 

2019 NFCA Division II
Top 25 Coaches Poll – May 8 (Week 12)

Rank

School

Totals

2019 Record

Previous Week

1

Central Oklahoma (15)

399

45-5

1

2

West Florida (1)

385

47-8

2

3

Texas A&M Kingsville

369

43-8

3

4

Florida Tech

348

39-10

4

5

North Georgia

338

42-11

5

6

Winona State

307

50-7

6

7

Grand Valley State

302

44-8

8

8

Texas A&M-Commerce

300

38-12

7

9

Concordia Irvine

269

44-6

10

10

West Texas A&M

250

31-13

9

11

Colorado Mesa

222

45-9

11

12

Arkansas Tech

215

44-13

14

13

Indianapolis

212

45-14

12

14

UC San Diego

181

31-14

13

15

Augustana

177

51-9

16

16

UAH

171

38-15

15

17

Valdosta State

130

35-16

18

18

Southern Arkansas

120

45-11

17

19

Tarleton State

113

39-13

19

20

Saint Anselm

88

37-8

24

21

Carson-Newman

75

28-10

23

22

Chico State

62

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29-15

21

23

LIU Post

52

46-10

20

24

UMSL

50

35-17

RV

25

Mississippi College

19

38-14

25

 

New to Poll: No. 24 UMSL

Dropped Out: No. 22 Southern Indiana

Receiving Votes: Southern Indiana (13),Lincoln Memorial (11), Missouri Western (9), Tampa (7), Wilmington (5), Cameron (1), West Virginia State (1).

The 2019 NFCA Division II Top 25 Coaches Poll is voted on by 16 NCAA Division II head coaches with two representing each of the NCAA’s eight regions. Records reflect games played through May 5.

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NMSU’s Felder, Washington’s Alvelo, Minnesota’s Fiser garner final Louisville Slugger/NFCA Division I weekly honors of 2019

May 11, 2019 | News | No Comments

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LOUISVILLE, Ky. – New Mexico State’s Mya Felder was selected the Louisville/Slugger NFCA Division I National Player of the Week, while Washington’s Taran Alvelo and Minnesota’s Amber Fiser shared the Pitcher of the Week recognition as the Association’s final weekly honors of 2019 were announced. It marks the third honor for Fiser, her second of 2019, and it is the second time Alvelo has received the plaudit with her first coming in 2017.

Felder had a big week for the Aggies as she hit .706 (12-for-17) with four multiple-hit contests and 11 RBI,  helping her squad to a three-game sweep of Cal State Bakersfield and a win over then-No. 17 Texas Tech. The rookie third baseman poked three doubles and two home runs, slugged 1.235 and was perfect defensively at the hot corner in 15 chances. In the WAC series opener versus the ‘Runners, Felder doubled twice, homered and drove in six runs. She was 3-for-4 with a longball, and two runs scored in an upset win over the Red Raiders. Felder also doubled and registered two RBI in game one against Texas Tech.

Avelo and Fiser played pivotal roles in their programs’ key conference series against top-ranked squads. 

Avelo played a part in all three of the second-ranked Huskies’ wins at No. 6 Arizona. She was 2-0 with a 0.57 ERA and a save. The Carroll, Ohio native surrendered one run, scattered nine hits and struck out 18, holding the Wildcats to a .196 batting average. She struck out the only batter she faced to earn a save in the series-opening 2-1 victory. The senior hurler came back with a complete-game performance in game two (W, 3-1) in which Alvelo allowed a run on eight hits with 11 strikeouts and one walk. She capped off her weekend with five innings of one-hit shutout relief, allowing Washington to secure a 7-4 win. 

Fiser, who hails from Van Horne, Iowa, allowed just three hits and struck out 25 in 16.2 innings of work to help the 12th-ranked Gophers take two-of-three from then-No. 19 Northwestern in Big Ten play. The junior righty limited the Wildcats to a miniscule .059 batting average, which included a near no-hitter in the rubber match. On May 5, Fiser took a no-hitter into the seventh and finished with a one-hit shutout, striking out eight. She fanned seven straight, including two when she entered with the bases loaded, in 2.2 innings of relief work during a game two win. Despite suffering a 1-0 loss in the opener on a seventh-inning wild pitch, the Big Ten Pitcher of the Week fanned 10 and allowed just two hits in the complete-game effort.

2019 Players & Pitcher of the Week

Selected Top Performances

Andrea Scali, Kent State– Perfect game versus Bowling Green (14 K), finished week 1-0, 0.00 ERA, 15 K, 8 IP; Anna Shelnutt, Florida State– .800, 2 2B, 3 HR, 8 RBI, 1.900 SLG; Maddie McMahon, Siena College– 2-0, 0.60 ERA, 14 K, 3 BB, R, 15 IP; Giselle Juarez, Oklahoma– 1-0, CG SHO, 13 K, 2 BB, 1 H vs. No. 12 Oklahoma State; Autumn Storms, Arkansas– 2-0, 1.08 ERA, 8 K, 0 BB, SHO, .118 opp. BA; Nicole Newman, Drake– 3-0, 0.46 ERA, 35 K, 2 BB, perfect game versus Evansville; Anyssa Iliopoulos, Rutgers– .429, 4 HR, 9 RBI, 5 R, 1.286 SLG; Morgan Johnson, Montana– .727, 8 H, 3 HR, 1.545 SLG, 6 R, 6 RBI.

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Central Oklahoma enters postseason nearly unanimous No. 1 in NFCA DII Top 25 Coaches Poll

May 11, 2019 | News | No Comments

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Central Oklahoma, the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) regular season and tournament champions, enter the NCAA postseason nearly unanimous in this week’s NFCA Division II Top 25 Coaches Poll. The Bronchos (45-5) collected 15 of 16 first-place votes and 399 points in the final poll of the 2019 regular season. 

In all, the top six spots remained the same and no team moved in out of the top ten this week with Great Lake Valley Conference (GLVC) co-regular season and tournament champion Missouri-St. Louis entering at No. 24 for the first time in 2019.

With the MIAA double, UCO will stay home as the Central Region’s top seed. The Bronchos won their first conference tournament title since 2014, sweeping the competition over four days by a 37-7 margin. UCO will open with Minnesota Duluth and also No. 12 Arkansas Tech and No. 18 Southern Arkansas to Edmond, Okla.

No. 2 West Florida, with one first-place vote, and No. 3 Texas A&M-Kingsville also swept through their respective conference tournaments and will be the top seeds in the South and South Central Regions. The Argos (47-8) dispatched Delta State, West Alabama, then-No. 18 Valdosta State and West Georgia to win their fourth Gulf South championship and earn the right to host Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference champion Spring Hill in the first round of the NCAA Regionals.

Following a first-round bye, the Javelinas (43-8) knocked off No. 19 Tarleton State and then-No. 7 Texas A&M-Commerce to win their second Lone Star Conference (LSC) tournament title, the first since 2002. In their first NCAA Regional since 2007, TAMUK will host Heartland Conference champion Oklahoma Christian.

No. 4 Florida Tech, No. 5 North Georgia, No. 6 Winona State and No. 9 Concordia Irvine are top regional seeds for the NCAA Championships. The Panthers’ (39-10) and Eagles’ (44-6) respective Sunshine State and PacWest Conferences enjoyed a week off as their conferences do not have a league postseason tournament.

The fifth-ranked NightHawks (42-11) and seventh-ranked Lakers (44-8) captured their conference tournament titles. North Georgia had to rally from deficits in the opener against UNC Pembroke and the title game against Flagler to win their sixth consecutive Peach Belt Conference championship. Grand Valley cruised to its first three wins by a combined score of 28-4, before edging Northwood, 2-1 for the Lakers’ second straight championship. UNG, in the Southeast Regional, hosts Conference Carolinas’ champion Lees-McRae, while Grand Valley, in the Midwest, hosts Great Midwest Athletic Conference tournament winners Hillsdale.

No. 6 Winona State finished runner-up in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Tournament. The Warriors (50-7) had their 31-game winning streak snapped by Minnesota State, but managed to win four straight elimination games before falling to No. 15 Augustana in the final. They join the Vikings (51-9) as the only 50-win programs in NCAA Division II. Winona earned the No. 2 seed and will be the host of the No. 2 Central Regional, which will also feature Augustana and their first-round opponents St. Cloud State.

No. 8 Texas A&M-Commerce finished as the LSC tournament runner up and is the South Central Region’s No. 2 team, hosting Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference champion Dixie State. 

No. 10 West Texas A&M dropped a spot after bowing out of the LSC tournament in the first round. The Lady Buffs (31-13) will head to Kingsville as the South Central’s fourth seed.

Poll newcomer No. 24 UMSL will be the Midwest’s second seed and host an all-GLVC regional with No. 12 Indianapolis, Truman State and Illinois Springfield. 

The final No. 1 NCAA Regional seed is No. 20 Saint Anselm, which captured the Northeast-10 tournament championship, knocking off New Haven, 5-1, and Adelphi, 4-3 in 10 innings. Last year’s national runner-up, the Hawks host East Coast Conference champions Bridgeport, Georgian Court and Southern New Hampshire in the first round.

NCAA Regional play kicks off on Thursday, May 9 and will conclude on Saturday, May 11.

The 2019 NFCA Division II Top 25 Poll is voted on by 16 NCAA Division II head coaches with two representing each of the eight NCAA regions. Records reflect games played through May 5, 2019.

 

2019 NFCA Division II
Top 25 Coaches Poll – May 8 (Week 12)

Rank

School

Totals

2019 Record

Previous Week

1

Central Oklahoma (15)

399

45-5

1

2

West Florida (1)

385

47-8

2

3

Texas A&M Kingsville

369

43-8

3

4

Florida Tech

348

39-10

4

5

North Georgia

338

42-11

5

6

Winona State

307

50-7

6

7

Grand Valley State

302

44-8

8

8

Texas A&M-Commerce

300

38-12

7

9

Concordia Irvine

269

44-6

10

10

West Texas A&M

250

31-13

9

11

Colorado Mesa

222

45-9

11

12

Arkansas Tech

215

44-13

14

13

Indianapolis

212

45-14

12

14

UC San Diego

181

31-14

13

15

Augustana

177

51-9

16

16

UAH

171

38-15

15

17

Valdosta State

130

35-16

18

18

Southern Arkansas

120

45-11

17

19

Tarleton State

113

39-13

19

20

Saint Anselm

88

37-8

24

21

Carson-Newman

75

28-10

23

22

Chico State

62

29-15

21

23

LIU Post

52

46-10

20

24

UMSL

50

35-17

RV

25

Mississippi College

19

38-14

25

 

New to Poll: No. 24 UMSL

Dropped Out: No. 22 Southern Indiana

Receiving Votes: Southern Indiana (13),Lincoln Memorial (11), Missouri Western (9), Tampa (7), Wilmington (5), Cameron (1), West Virginia State (1).

The 2019 NFCA Division II Top 25 Coaches Poll is voted on by 16 NCAA Division II head coaches with two representing each of the NCAA’s eight regions. Records reflect games played through May 5.

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What the Strike Ahead of Uber’s IPO Exposes About American Inequality

May 11, 2019 | News | No Comments

The instant Uber shares start trading on the New York Stock Exchange Friday, lots of people and groups are going to make millions—and in some cases billions—of dollars. They include Travis Kalanick, the company’s co-founder and ex-CEO, who owns 117 million shares of Uber, the venture capitalist Matt Cohler, who has 150 million shares, and the government of Saudi Arabia, whose sovereign wealth fund owns 72 million shares. In all, Uber’s IPO is expected to raise as much as $90 billion for the company, one of the frothiest offerings in an era full of froth.

One group who won’t benefit much from Uber’s IPO: its drivers, who numbered 3.9 million at the end of last year. In fact, they are likely to see their pay worsen over the upcoming year as the company strives to become more profitable while facing public shareholder pressure for the first time. Driver incentives, like higher pay for working certain hours, could be on the chopping block. Frustrated with what they say have been worsening conditions even ahead of the offering, some Uber drivers are calling for a 24-strike ahead of the IPO, starting midnight on May 8.

“I’m not against people making money if they invested,” one San Francisco driver, Derrick Baker, told TIME. “But even if they don’t give us a piece of the pie, at least give back the money they took from us.” Baker estimates he now makes $200 in a 10-hour shift before expenses, like gas and insurance. But when he started driving two years ago, he made 50 percent more in the same time period. He’s joining the strike Wednesday and plans to protest outside Uber’s San Francisco headquarters.

Uber pays drivers a base fare that varies among locations, plus payment for how long and far they drive on each ride. It also offers drivers bonus money for completing a certain number of trips during times of heavy demand. Ahead of the IPO and before the strike was announced, Uber said it would offer long-time drivers a “one-time cash driver appreciation” of between $100 and $10,000, depending on how many trips they have completed. The company says it plans to give out a total of about $300 million to 1.1 million qualifying drivers worldwide. (Uber has not said how many people have ever earned money driving for the company, but turnover is extremely high, so 1.1 million likely represents a small fraction of total drivers.)

Un-mollified, drivers across the United States as well as in Chile, Scotland, London, France, Kenya, Australia and elsewhere have said they, too, plan to shut off their Uber apps. Some are going offline for as little as two hours, others for as many as 24 hours.

This kind of driver discontent could threaten Uber’s future. The company admitted in pre-IPO documents that, if it’s unable to continue attracting drivers, the platforms will become less appealing to customers and the company will post worse financial results. A few sentences later, the company said that it is already experiencing driver dissatisfaction, and that as it reduces driver incentives to improve its financial performance, “we expect driver dissatisfaction will generally increase.”

That Uber’s IPO will make some people billionaires while potentially driving down pay for others is symptomatic of the growing inequality in today’s American economy. In Uber’s IPO, as in the wider economy, people with full-time jobs stand to do better and better financially, while everyone else does worse. An over-supply of people competing for jobs in the gig economy has made it difficult for workers to hold out for higher wages or benefits. “We live in this time of increasing inequality, and Uber is in this odd and difficult position of having a lot of that within the company itself,” says Paul Oyer, an economics professor at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.

These disparities are especially stark in big cities like San Francisco, where tech IPOs are minting new millionaires every month, making the price of housing and other necessities skyrocket. Software employees represented more than 50 percent of the people buying properties in San Francisco in 2018, according to real estate firm Compass. While workers in the highest-income households in San Francisco have seen income increase 48 percent since 1989, those in the lowest-income households have experienced a five percent decrease in income, according to the California Budget and Policy Center.

That’s made it harder for lower-income residents such as Uber drivers to stay in the area. Lauren Swiger, who will also be protesting on Wednesday, has been driving for Uber for more than four years. Her rent has tripled in that time; she now pays $4,150 for a three-bedroom Oakland house. When Swiger first started driving, she made about $30 an hour before expenses. Now she struggles to clear $15 an hour before expenses, she said. She supplements her Uber income by working as a massage therapist, but says she wants Uber to guarantee drivers a minimum wage and pay transparency. “Their whole business model is based on worker exploitation,” she says. Swiger wants to stay in the Bay Area because her daughter is about to graduate from high school and she doesn’t want to disrupt her life by moving again, but she wonders how long she’ll be able to stay. Uber and other technology companies are also pouring billions into self-driving car technology that could render humans obsolete, though this will probably not be implemented for a long time.

But Uber drivers like Baker and Swiger have limited collective power compared to more traditional workers. They are considered contractors, not employees, and thus aren’t protected by unions. And despite the country’s historically low unemployment rate, Uber enjoys a seemingly bottomless pool of potential drivers, further reducing their bargaining power. About seven percent of the labor force is either unemployed, working part-time for economic reasons, or is only marginally attached to the labor force. The number of people who are working part-time but would rather be working full-time is about 40 percent higher than would normally be expected at this point in an economic expansion, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco has estimated. Some people are working part-time involuntarily because automation and globalization have eradicated many middle-class jobs, pushing those workers down into part-time service employment, according to Mark Muro, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Others are working part-time involuntarily because wage growth has been stubbornly slow in this economic recovery, and people need more income to supplement their other jobs. “There is a pretty big pool of people who are either voluntarily or involuntarily part of the Uber labor pool,” says Muro.

Despite that access to labor, some Wall Street analysts are skeptical that a public Uber can reach profitability. In terms of rides, the company has grown exponentially, with drivers completing 10 billion trips by September 2018, twice as many as a year before. But Uber lost a whopping $1.8 billion in 2018, spending money to expand to new countries, buy rival companies, and add new lines of business, including Uber Eats and Uber Freight, which matches truck drivers with loads of goods that need to be moved. It has also offered hefty incentives to lure users away from competitors like Lyft, and to drivers to keep them on the platform. But Friday’s IPO may require a new strategy. “Once Uber is public, it’s going to have to demonstrate some sort of path to profitability,” says Tom White, an analyst at D.A. Davidson. “It’s going to be a tricky issue to navigate, since one of the biggest levers is to reduce incentives.”

Sensing the bumpy road ahead, Uber has been taking new measures to satisfy drivers in the post-Kalanick era. In June 2017, it launched a campaign called “180 Days of Change” that sought to improve driving conditions by allowing drivers to earn tips in the app, access 24/7 phone support, and get notifications if they are about to embark on a long trip. Drivers have earned $1.2 billion in tips alone since the company introduced in-app tipping, Uber said. “Drivers are at the heart of our service─we can’t succeed without them─and thousands of people come into work at Uber every day focused on how to make their experience better, on and off the road,” Uber said in a statement. But some drivers clearly remain angry — and more than a little nervous about their futures. “In my mind, big tech needs to pay for the big tech boom,” Swiger says. “It has just been an economic cleanse.”

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Schaffer, Fourre claim Louisville Slugger/NFCA Division III National Pitcher, Player of Week honors

May 10, 2019 | News | No Comments

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Eastern Nazarene College right-hander Elisabeth Schaffer and College of Saint Scholastica third baseman Josie Fourre claimed Louisville Slugger/NFCA Division III National Pitcher and Player of the Week honors on Wednesday.

Junior Schaffer tossed four complete-game shutouts, including an 1-0, 10-inning shutout of Becker on Sunday, in which she struck out 16. For the week, the Benton, Pa., native was 4-0 with a 0.00 earned-run average, just two walks and 38 strikeouts over 27 innings in the circle.

Fourre, meanwhile, hit .650 (13-for-20) with 13 runs scored, two triples, six homers, and 17 runs batted in, as the Saints went 7-1 for the week. The sophomore from Albany, Minn., hit the six homers over a four-game stretch against Northland, and her four homers in four straight at-bats tied for second-most consecutive homers in NCAA Division III history.

Other Top Performances

Rowan senior shortstop Carly Anderson recorded the three-run double that tied the score in the bottom of the seventh, then scored the winning run in a 9-8 victory over Montclair State. …  Eastern Nazarene senior catcher Lauren Clements hit .563 (9-for-16) with four runs, two doubles, two homers and nine RBI, while collecting a hit in all six games she played. … Wesley junior utility player Brandi Dalious helped her team knock off the second and third seeds in their conference tournament, batting .545 with two doubles, three homers, and six RBI. … Lesley sophomore designated player Jordan Day hit .786 with seven runs, two doubles, a triple, and two steals. She also was 1-0 in the circle, with a complete-game, five-hitter and nine strikeouts. … St. Olaf junior pitcher Julie Graf went 3-0 with a 0.39 ERA, and allowed just six hits and two total runs over 18 innings, while striking out 42 and walking only six. She broke her own conference record for strikeouts with 19 last Wednesday against Carleton. … Calvin junior second baseman Hannah Horvath collected seven runs and 11 hits while batting .524 with five RBI, and had four multi-hit games. … Virginia Wesleyan junior pitcher Hanna Hull was 4-1 with a save, four runs allowed, a 0.43 ERA, and 48 strikeouts over 32.2 innings. She twice registered 12 strikeouts, had seven in a 3-2 loss to Randolph-Macon, and eight while winning a rematch with the Yellow Jackets the following day. … Washington and Jefferson senior shortstop Rachel Johnson was 17-for-22 (.773) with seven runs, two doubles, and eight RBI. … East Texas Baptist freshman pitcher Beatriz Lara allowed just two hits over 13.1 innings for the week. She fanned 11 and allowed her lone hit in the seventh in a 6-0 series-opening win over McMurry, then threw 6.1 innings of one-hit relief in the second game against the War Hawks. … Bethany Lutheran sophomore center fielder Morgan Mashlan hit .500 over a six-game stretch and helped lead her team to its first-ever conference crown. … Central (Iowa) sophomore shortstop Darla Parchert had four hits, including three doubles, as the Dutch swept then-No. 13 Luther to claim their first regular-season conference title since 2013. For the week, she hit .562 with six runs, four doubles, a homer and six RBI. … Emmanuel (Mass.) junior outfielder Yuleska Ramirez-Tejeda set a school record for homers in a season (10) and threw out a runner at the plate to help the Saints lock up the top seed for their conference tournament. For the week, she batted .611 (11-for-18) with four homers and 14 RBI. … Kean senior outfielder Caroline Ratti hit .429 with five runs, a double, four homers, three steals and seven RBI. …  Bethany Lutheran junior shortstop Haylee Sobrero batted .526 with a triple and homer as her team set a record for wins and won its conference for the first time. … Calvin sophomore catcher Grace Stock delivered the go-ahead run with a 3-2, two-out double, and hit .500 with three runs, three doubles and 10 RBI for the week.

Winners are selected by the NFCA Division III Top 25 Committee, which has a representative for each of the eight NCAA regions.

2019 Louisville Slugger/NFCA Division III National Pitcher of the Week

May 1 — Elisabeth Schaffer, Eastern Nazarene College, Jr., RHP, Benton, Pa.

April 24 — Kierstin Anderson-Glass, University of St. Thomas, Jr., RHP, Inver Grove Heights, Minn.

April 17 — Haley Crumpton, Birmingham-Southern, Sr., LHP, Alabaster, Ala.

April 10 — Ravenne Nasser, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sr., RHP, Methuen, Mass.

April 3 — Ally Wiegand, Illinois Wesleyan University, Jr., RHP, Downs, Ill.

March 27 — Hadley Decker, Anderson (Ind.) University, Jr., RHP, New Haven, Ind.

March 20 — Candace Whittemore, Randolph-Macon College, Sr., RHP, Montpelier, Va.

March 13 — Alyssa Olson, Coe College, Sr., RHP, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

March 6 — Hanna Hull, Virginia Wesleyan University, Jr., LHP, Chesterfield, Va.

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Feb. 27 — Beatriz Lara, East Texas Baptist University, Fr., RHP, Orange Grove, Texas

2019 Louisville Slugger/NFCA Division III National Player of the Week

May 1 — Josie Fourre, College of Saint Scholastica, So., 3B, Albany, Minn.

April 24 — Caroline Ratti, Kean University, Sr., OF, South Plainfield, N.J.

April 17 — Brittany Attaway, Whittier College, Sr., C, Claremont, Calif.

April 10 — Jill Healy, Rhodes College, Sr., SS, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

April 3 — Paige Smotherman, Linfield College, Sr., 2B, Hillsboro, Ore.

March 27 — Krissy Hughes, Muskingum University, Sr., CF, Newark, Ohio

March 20 — Kaitlyn Hasty, Christopher Newport University, Fr., UTIL, Chesapeake, Va.

March 13 — Kendall Marinesi, California Lutheran University, Jr., 3B, Santee, Calif.

March 6 — Kelsey Hora, Coe College, So., CF, Ainsworth, Iowa

Feb. 27 — Chase Shortly, University of St. Thomas, Sr., C/INF, Forest Lake, Minn.

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