"As long as I'm learning something, I figure I'm OK  - it's a decent day" -Hunter S. Thompson

Twitter: @BenShumate_

Hometown: Casper, WY

Favorite Sports Media Journalist: Ryen Russillo

Favorite Athlete: Michael Phelps

Favorite Team: Colorado Rockies

If you could cover any sporting event in the world, what would it be: The World Series

Best tradition at your college: The Harvard-Brown football game tailgate

The restaurant you most frequent in your college town: Baja's Tex-Mex

Best class you’ve ever taken: Introduction to Public Policy

Mountain West Hoops Roundup – 1/2 -1/8

Welcome to the Mountain West, the strangest conference in basketball. This week, there was a second-half comeback of historic proportions, a coach meltdown that potentially cost a team a game in the final minutes, and on the women’s side, a bench-clearing brawl that resulted in eight ejections. Let’s get to it. Power Rankings 1. Boise […]

Mountain West Hoops Roundup — 1/9 – 1/15

The past week in Mountain West basketball was another eventful one. A statement from the league office is forthcoming on another ugly incident in Fort Collins, while a logjam of epic proportions is setting up in the conference standings. Power Rankings 1. Nevada (4-1, 15-3, last week: 2) They look like the best team in […]

Leave Grayson Allen Alone

First, a disclaimer: I am not a Duke fan. In fact, like many people, Duke basketball is a team I love to hate. I enjoy watching them choke in the NCAA tournament and probably always will. With that out of the way, I believe it’s time for everyone to stop obsessing about Grayson Allen. In […]

Mountain West Hoops Roundup — 1/16 – 1/22

I know some may be starting to think that I’m just saying this every week to hype up the league, but I’ll say it again anyway: the Mountain West is straight up bananas. The power rankings are an absolute mess, and I’m more sure than ever that this is a one-bid league. Predicting who that […]

Mountain West Hoops Roundup — 1/23 – 1/29

It was only a matter of time before we would start to see some separation in the Mountain West. It’s safe to say that the league now has a clear frontrunner, and that other teams who may have had a claim to that title before the season were obviously over-hyped. Granted, it is only the […]

Mountain West Hoops Roundup — 1/30-2/4

I thought I had this figured out, at least to a reasonable degree. Saturday in college basketball was complete anarchy; the Big 12 alone was enough to make a for wild weekend. Maybe we’re at the point in the season where teams thought to be contenders are hitting bumps in the road against bubble teams […]

5 Mid-Majors You Should Start Paying Attention To

College basketball’s classic programs have never been healthier: UCLA, Kentucky, Kansas, North Carolina and Duke are all legit contenders, and will get plenty of respect come March. But anyone serious about winning their bracket pool knows that the real money is made by knowing the small-conference teams seeded 11-14, and not being caught of guard […]

Mountiain West Hoops Roundup — 2/5 – 2/12

Outside of a quadruple-overtime marathon in Laramie and UNLV continuing a record streak, it was a fairly uneventful week in the Mountain West, as the power rankings come out looking pretty similar to last week’s. The teams at the top took care of business and held steady for another week, although it still feels like […]

Mountain West Hoops Roundup — 2/13 – 2/19

Well, it looks like we’ve got ourselves a three-team race to the finish. Or is it 4? 5? One thing is for sure, we haven’t seen the end of the surprises from this league. What was it this week? Just as his Colorado State team momentarily took over first place in the league standings and […]

Maine Brawled in the Locker Room Over Music

It was reported Wednesday by Larry Mahoney of the Bangor Daily News that five University of Maine basketball players were suspended after a locker room brawl that resulted in a broken jaw for forward Marko Pirovic. You might be wondering why Maine players would be throwing hands in the locker room a week before the […]

Mountain West Hoops Roundup — 2/20 – 2/26

It seems fitting that, even with just one week of games remaining, we’ve still yet to decide a regular season champion in the Mountain West. Luckily for us, a showdown in Reno Saturday will provide us with just that, a regular season champion, before MW Madness convenes in Sin City next week. Power Rankings 1. […]

Should You Storm the Court? A Comprehensive Guide

You’re in the student section, watching the final seconds of a win for your school run off the clock. Rushing the court/field after a big win is an unforgettable experience as a sports fan; I speak from experience. I’m generally pro-rush-the-court, even when conferences have started handing out bogus fines for fanbases doing so. But […]

Mountain West hoops roundup — Tying up loose ends

The calendar has turned to March, and I couldn’t be happier. The highlights of early conference tournaments already have me itching for Madness. The Mountain West and a majority of other leagues finished up this weekend; the Mountain West treated us with a regular season championship game on the season’s final day. Behind 29 points […]

Student Union Study Hall: Episode 5

Student Union Study Hall is a weekly College Basketball recap produced by college students for college students. Each week Student Union writers Ben Shumate, Austin Brown and Luke “Big Takes” Maiers will provide a “College Perspective” on the hottest basketball topics of the week.   This Week’s Topics 1. Josh Jackson Suspension 2. Favorite Moment […]

Luke Maye Was At His 8 AM Class This Morning

Luke Maye, this hero of North Carolina’s Elite 8 win over Kentucky Sunday, made the rest of us look bad by showing up to his 8 AM class this morning, where he received a standing ovation from his classmates. (video c/o Jack Sewell — @JackSewell_) There’s a lot going on here. First, check out the […]

Nevada’s Rollercoaster March

It’s hard to imagine what the past 28 days were like for a Nevada fan. On the one hand, the Wolf Pack won a de facto regular season championship game in front of their home crowd on the last day of the season, and ran through the Mountain West tournament for their first title, securing […]

A Mountain West Basketball Autopsy

In the few weeks since North Carolina celebrated as national champs, the college basketball landscape has shuffled dramatically, as is custom, while coaches leave or are fired, star players declare their intent to leave school for the draft, while others transfer for one reason or another. After a strange, down year for the Mountain West, […]

All Aboard the Josh Allen Hype Train

With the 2017 NFL draft in the books, it’s only natural to start speculating wildly about how things will turn out a year from now at the 2018 Draft. Draft nerds like Mel Kiper Jr. and Todd McShay have already started talking about big boards and mock drafts for next April. While a lot is […]

James Franklin has already pulled off the rebuild of the century

After he took the Penn State head coaching job in 2014, it was easy to feel pity for James Franklin. What’s clear from the job he’s done since then, is that he never pitied himself. Taking over a program just beginning to feel the full effect of NCAA sanctions handed down over the Jerry Sandusky […]

Mountain West Preview

Week three of conference previews is here, and it’s time to turn the spotlight on the Mountain West, an entertaining league last year that should be just as wide open this season. With all-due respect to the American, the Mountain West looks like the best G5 conference in the country, at least when looking at […]

James Franklin Inks Long-Term Deal at Penn State

After his rebuild of Penn State football exceeded all expectations, James Franklin got his payday. The school announced a new six-year contract for Franklin on Friday, with an average yearly payout of $5.73 million that puts him among the top five highest-paid coaches in college football. Just last year, many Penn State fans (including some […]

UCONN Needs Big Comeback, Practice Kneeldowns to Put Away Holy Cross

While you were watching the sadly predictable second half of Ohio State-Indiana, UConn was mounting a furious second half comeback against FCS Holy Cross. We didn’t get to see the upset we deserved, but the SNY camera crew gave us this gem instead. It's been awhile for UCONN pic.twitter.com/ndQD013k61 — Chris Hassel (@Hassel_Chris) September 1, […]

Penn State-Pitt is the champion of dumb rivalries

There are enough good rivalries in college football that fans can get them as a treat starting early on in the season. Iowa-Iowa State this weekend won’t be a competitive game in all likelihood, but the beauty of rivalry games is that they don’t always need to be competitive to be intriguing. Wanting to get […]

Allow me to say a nice thing about Colorado State

*clearing vomit from throat* As an always good and unbiased sports fan, I can give credit where credit is due. I’ve ripped Colorado State on this very site before and now I’m going to bury my pride and say something good about them. #CSURams football reveals Colorado Flag themed uniforms for its Nov. 11 home […]

Texas A&M thinks they can “make a run” at James Franklin

A report surfaced Thursday that Texas A&M is gearing up to try and lure James Franklin away from Penn State if/when they fire Kevin Sumlin. From @dennisdoddcbs: Penn State is preparing for Texas A&M to make a run at James Franklinhttps://t.co/OK7AfSawJv pic.twitter.com/mQyVI29aV4 — CBS Sports CFB (@CBSSportsCFB) October 12, 2017 Write it down and put […]

College puck for dummies, because this is a hockey website now

It was a big week for Student Union Sports. Not only did we pick up a handful of new contributors in the span of a few days, the executives up top made the decision to expand into college hockey just as the 2017-18 season is ramping up. With the PMT guys from Barstool cutting big […]

Does Eric Dungey have a death wish?

This past weekend, we were treated to the most stupidly-fearless man in college football, Syracuse quarterback Eric Dungey, doing stupidly fearless things. Hurdling defenders is the cool thing to do for all the kids these days and clearly Dungey wants a piece of that action. It’s 2nd and 10, his team his trailing late in […]

What was Penn State’s plan on its final possession?

Driving down the field to score the go-ahead touchdown Saturday, Ohio State was faced with a typical dilemma: Can you score too quickly and give the ball back to your opponent with too much time? Should you even worry about that? Urban Meyer did not, and the Buckeyes scored with 1:48 left on the clock […]

If undefeated, Wisconsin cannot be left out of the CFP

Many have begun to question whether Wisconsin would deserve one of the four spots in the College Football Playoff even if they finish the season at 13-0 and win the Big 10. The day that an undefeated Power 5 conference champion is left out of the CFP is the day that the current 4-team system […]

Beautiful club hockey uniforms, for your viewing pleasure

Here at Student Union, our hockey crew has decided definitively that club hockey IS college hockey. One of the many factors that makes club hockey fun is the uniforms, especially for schools without a Division I program who can get creative with their designs. Many of these concepts come from Rebirth Sports, who was featured […]

Introducing the Student Union 64 team CFP

Here at Student Union, we are big thinkers. Your vanilla sports blog is probably debating who should be in the four team playoff as we speak, or maybe even getting wild and crazy with a six-team or eight-team format. Spare me those warm takes, please. If you buy the theory that the NCAA is acting […]

SU64: Selection Monday

With the conclusion of conference championship games and the selection of the actual 4-team College Football Playoff, today is the day — the Student Union 64-team bracket is here. For those who missed the explanation of how the SU64 tournament will work and the criteria used to determine the field/seedings, read through my explanation article […]

SU64: West region first round

The only real college football this weekend is Army-Navy and some FCS playoff action. But fear not, because the first round of the Student Union 64 team playoff is here. If you’ve missed previous articles explaining the tournament, you can find links to past articles at the end of this article. We’ll be starting things […]

SU64: Midwest region first round

Moving right along with the Student Union 64-team College Football Playoff, let’s travel to the Midwest region, headlined by top seeds Alabama, Wisconsin, Penn State and Stanford. If you’ve missed any of the previous articles in this series, including an explanation of how the tournament works, you can find links in the schedule at the […]

SU64: East region first round

With the first round completed for one side of the Student Union 64-team CFP, we move to the east region. This bracket is led by Georgia, Ohio State, UCF and Michigan State. So far, there’s been just a pair of significant upsets, with Michigan and TCU going down in the first round. For previous results, […]

SU64: South region first round

As Student Union continues on with our unprecedented 64-team CFP experiment, it is time to tie up the first round with the South region first round. This bracket is headlined by Clemson, Auburn, Miami and Notre Dame. After wrapping up the games, I’ll break down the overall numbers from the first round and the remaining […]

Josh Allen declares for 2018 NFL Draft after bowl victory

The much-hyped 2018 NFL Draft quarterback class just gained another member as Josh Allen announced that he will be skipping his final year of eligibility at Wyoming. Allen made the announcement in front of teammates and fans after accepting the MVP award of the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, which the Cowboys won in dominant fashion. […]

SU64: South/East regions second round

The second round of the Student Union 64-team College Football Playoff has already seen some surprising upsets and a few other close calls for top teams. In the left side of the 64-team bracket, second-seed Wisconsin went down and two Group of 5 teams advanced into the Sweet 16. Today, we wrap up the second […]

NFL Draft Twitter makes college football less fun for everyone

Especially if you root for a smaller school, there’s really no way to prepare yourself for a sudden rush of NFL Draft hype surrounding your team’s favorite player. As a Wyoming fan, Josh Allen-mania still feels surreal to me. And when a Wyoming Cowboy walks across the stage at the NFL Draft this spring as […]

SU64: Sweet 16

Forty-eight teams have already seen their seasons cut short in the Student Union 64-team playoff and we’re getting down to the blue bloods versus the bracket busters. This round will probably say a lot about whether the outcome of this tournament will be something easily predictable from the start or completely stupid. Without further delay, […]

SU64: Elite Eight

With most major upsets averted up to this point, the Elite Eight of the Student Union 64-team playoff is down to the big boys. The SEC has a chance at three spots in the Final Four, which would in real life make a lot of people #MadOnline. Notre Dame is the biggest underdog left remaining, […]

Separating reality from fantasy on UCF

It’s a little weird to attach a label of “sore loser” to the only undefeated team in college football, but that’s where we are at. Central Florida, now claiming themselves to be “national champions” and trolling on Twitter, has become the most obnoxious entity in any competition — the one who sticks their fingers in their ears […]

SU64: Semifinals

We’re coming down to the wire with the Student Union 64-team College Football Playoff and college football in general. Today we’ll narrow down our championship game so the winner can be revealed before you watch Alabama and Georgia Monday night. In case you missed it, while the SEC is flexing over the semifinal results of […]

SU64: National Championship

The end of the road is finally here for college football fans. After today, the Student Union 64-team College Football Playoff is no more. Oh, and there’s also an apparently-important SEC game going on tonight. It’s been a long journey but a fun one, despite the fact that 62 simulated games across four regions has […]

Stanford’s Bryce Love to return for senior season

In the final hours before last night’s midnight deadline for college players to declare for the NFL draft, Stanford running back Bryce Love announced his intention to return to school for the 2018 season. After bursting on to the scene and finishing second in the Heisman Trophy voting behind Baker Mayfield, the move may come […]

Dallas Goedert ruled out of Senior Bowl due to injury

It was reported Wednesday that South Dakota State’s Dallas Goedert, considered by most to be the top small-school player and best tight end prospect for April’s NFL Draft, will miss Saturday’s senior bowl with a hamstring injury. Several mock drafts, dating back to December, have Goedert coming off the board in the mid to late […]

Farewell to Larry Eustachy, America’s most problematic basketball coach

The Denver Post reported Thursday afternoon that a source inside the Colorado State basketball program has indicated that head coach Larry Eustachy will be fired. Eustachy is currently on administrative leave while the Athletic Department conducts its second investigation into his conduct as coach in the past five years. Eustachy’s firing most likely marks the […]

College hockey makes a big impression at the Olympics

For American hockey fans, the men’s hockey tournament at the 2018 Winter Olympics became a disappointment long before any teams took the ice. When it was announced that no NHL players would be participating, any hopes for an American medal, let alone our first gold since the Miracle on Ice, took a huge hit. With […]

College hockey bubble watch: conference tourneys in sight

It’s the most wonderful time of the year — bubble season. While college basketball pundits are debating whether or not to let Nebraska into a legitimate post season tournament, college hockey will only be punching 16 tickets to its tournament, which begins in late March. That means the bubble debates on who’s in and who’s out […]