Introducing Athletic Director Simulator 3000

Good morning, and thanks for spending part of your day with Extra Points.

Extra Points will always be a newsletter, but I'm game to try other formats if I think they can help tell a good story. Bryan and I have been podcasting for over a year, for example. I shoot video all the time and am not above occasionally involving my kids. I've even dabbled in using computer code to land a good gag.

Today, I'd like to share with you another attempt to try and make Extra Points a Truly Multimedia Experience. I made a little computer game for you all to play. It's called Athletic Director Simulator 3000.

I really enjoy sports video games, particularly the modes where you get to be a GM, trying to juggle salary caps, business needs, various egos and more as you try to build a championship-caliber team. There's an entire online subculture around these games, including the wildly popular Football Manager series.

There isn't really one of these games for college sports, at least not yet. I do not have the free time, budget, or anywhere close to the programming skills to build one myself. But I do have enough to make a teensy-tiny version.

So that's what I did.

In Athletic Director Simulator 3000, you are given five situations that a college athletic director could potentially face. You're given a few different options to address those situations, and while some choices have much better odds of being successful, how successful you'll be is randomized...just like in real life.

Do you try to take the most sensible choice every time, giving you the best chances of modest success? Or do you swing wildly, hoping to catch lightning in a bottle? Or will a randomized NCAA investigation blow the entire thing up before you can even get started?

Who knows. Better play the game a few dozen times, just to make sure.

I'm still learning Python, so by all means, if you run into any bugs, or know of a better way to do anything, I am all ears. If there is interest, I hope to continue to plug away at the game over the week, adding quality-of-life improvements (like....graphics?!?), additional scenarios and more complexity, as my schedule and skills allow.

For now, I'd love to hear about your high scores and your experience with Athletic Director Simulator 3000.

This edition of Extra Points is brought to you in part by Baylor University Faith + Sport Institute

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