Ready or not, here we go!

Welcome to RacerBasketball.com!

I can’t believe its been 13 months since I sniffled my way through my final broadcast at WPSD. With its fair share of highs and lows, the way life usually goes, the last year has simply flown by.

People have asked me countless times over the last 13 months some variation of the same question: “Do you miss TV?” Without fail, I’ve answered with some variation of the same answer: “Heck no.” I had no clue how life-altering it would be to go to bed before midnight five nights a week.

With all that said, if there’s one thing I miss throwing my heart and soul into, it has been Murray State basketball. I adored covering the program, and having to walk away from my official capacity was honestly like having to mourn the loss of a loved one.

But in the immortal words of George Costanza: “I’m back, baby, I’m back!”

Now that I’m contractually untethered from any other media companies, I decided it was time to officially open my own. The main difference with my media company is it will be solely dedicated to the Murray State men’s and women’s basketball programs.

As the media landscape has changed, and resources have been reduced or even eliminated, covering sports in any capacity has taken a hit. In my two decades at the TV station, I did my best to cover Murray State as well as we possibly could (with the arguable exception of the ‘He’s an #SIUGuy’ era. If you know, you know.)

During my TV career, I had a vision in my head of how I wanted to cover the Racer program. Unfortunately, TV can pull you in a lot of directions. From November to March, we threw as much weight at the Racers as we could, but we still had to deal with covering other colleges, not to mention so many high schools around the area. So even when we could cover Murray State, there was a level of “surface” to it as we’d do the best we could in the two or three minutes we could allot to them.

Today is the day I turn my vision into a reality.

RacerBasketball.com will be your only home for daily coverage of the Murray State men’s and women’s basketball programs all year long. My goal is to have new content on this site every single day of the year. There is so much that goes into these programs besides the 30 games each winter. I’m going to cover these teams inside and out the way I always felt like they needed to be covered. That is my pledge to you, and I will do everything I can to hold up my end of the bargain.

If you’re waiting for the catch, I guess this is it.

I’m needing to make this site subscription-based to keep it alive. I don’t have the time/interest to go sell advertising, and I’d hate to see the site bogged down and overrun with ads.

The monthly cost will be $7.99, or $79.99 if you purchase a whole year (which breaks down to about $0.21 a day). I want to be able to travel to games with the team and go on recruiting trips with coaches. Obviously, none of that is free, so I’m hoping you’ll be able to help me offset the costs with your purchase.

We’re also adding a “Hanging Banners” membership level for you true diehards. It’ll cost $199.99 a year. You’ll get all the benefits of the monthly member subscription, but you’ll also get: To take part in weekly Zooms with me and special guests during the season; monthly zooms with me and special guests during the offseason; invitations to an exclusive after-party at Arch Madness; and free merchandise. I wholly understand this membership level isn’t for everybody, but if you want to be a part of it, I’m going to do my best to make it worth your while.

The site will be free for everybody for the next couple of days. Starting Wednesday, I will begin moving everything behind the paywall. When you first sign up, you’ll get the chance to take advantage of a free seven-day trial. If you don’t like the value you’re getting in that week, you can cancel your subscription and you won’t be charged. Hopefully I can win you over enough in that time so you’ll stick around. I’ll also post periodic free articles to hopefully entice you to come back.

As I wrap up this manifesto, I just want to say thank you to all of you who have been so supportive of me over the years. This project is a bit of a leap of faith, and I’m somewhere between ‘excited beyond belief’ and ‘terrified’. In the end, I’m ready to roll, and I hope you’re ready to roll with me.

Go Racers!

Jeff