sign in sign up
<<
Home , Brent Schaeffer, Ed Orgeron, John David Booty, Karl Dorrell, Les Miles, Lloyd Carr

CoSIDA NEWS

Intercollegiate Athletics News from Around the Nation

August 24, 2007 Page 1 of 9

Twenty-five things to watch this season

Aug. 22, 2007 By Dennis Dodd CBSSports.com Senior Writer Tell Dennis your opinion!

1. Bring it on!

Or, as that great philosopher Spongebob Squarepants once said: No, people, let's bring it off.

Something collegial was lost in the past year. Our sport got uglier, more personal. Certainly more public.

Jim Delany posted an "open letter" on the Big Ten website basically blasting the SEC, its culture and, I think, the way it dresses.

All because Ohio State's offensive tackles had a bad day against Florida in the BCS title game.

Pac-10 commish Tom Hansen said last month that his league would secede from the BCS if a seeded playoff was instituted.

Stanford coach trashed Michigan, his alma mater, and its admissions policy.

LSU's took a shot at Southern California and its so-called weak schedule. That was after he dropped an F-bomb while referring to Alabama.

Jim Harbaugh has made He'll never say it, but former Big 12 commissioner Kevin Weiberg resigned himself heard before even basically because he couldn't put up with the intra-conference bickering anymore. coaching a game at Stanford. (US Presswire) We haven't even gotten to the strung-out replay fiasco that was the Oregon- Oklahoma game.

These people all need better media handlers or a lesson in good manners. The past 12 months seemed to be the year when decorum died. Like U.S. News and World Report turning into US Weekly.

Hey, we're media, it's great for us. We can't wait for the next fuel tank to explode in our sport. Who knows what all these people were thinking. Maybe it's the stress, the pressure, the chase for wins, bucks, TV contracts.

Whatever it is, bring it on. Public mudslinging is always fun.

2. We're No. 1

It's hard to pick against USC. Only Karl Dorrell disagrees.

Pete Carroll has built a tank-of-gas recruiting machine similar to Miami in its heyday. He can jump in his luxury sled and scare up a world-class recruiting class within a 100-mile radius.

John David Booty is the latest USC senior seemingly destined for a Heisman. Only the Pacific is deeper than the depth at running back. Ten starters are back on defense.

http://www.cbs.sportsline.com/print/collegefootball/story/10313220 8/23/2007 Page 2 of 9

Buuuut ... if something does go wrong -- and there are pesky road trips to Notre Dame, Cal, Arizona State and Oregon -- who might be the dark-horse No. 1 on Dec. 2?

Try the Big East champion. Any of the top three teams (West , Louisville and Rutgers) could run the table. All three go in highly ranked (No. 3 West Virginia, No. 10 Louisville, No. 16 Rutgers).

That, and there is no conference championship game, an annual possible stumble in the Big 12, ACC and SEC.

USC should run the table, but if it doesn't, get thee to a legal betting parlor and take the Big East champ against the field.

3. The Big Hard USC's (US Presswire) Less than 2½ years after the horror of Hurricane Katrina, will attempt to host two major-college bowl games in a week.

The Superdome is the site of the second double-hosting format for the BCS. The traditional Sugar Bowl will be played Jan. 1. The national championship game is scheduled for six days later.

It will look good on TV, but otherwise we're talking about the long-term future of the Sugar in the BCS rotation. It's no secret that the Sugar has the smallest volunteer base of the major bowls. Bowls in , Orlando and Dallas are wanting in to the BCS if the Sugar does or doesn't make the cut in the future.

Yes, NOLA has been able to stage the Jazzfest and Mardi Gras since the disaster. But those events aren't competing against other cities.

The Sugar is tied to the heart of the city, which is trying to get back on its feet. Louisiana Superdome (US Will there be enough taxis? Police? Workers to man the hotels? It has to say Presswire) something that Hyatt hasn't gotten its signature property near the Superdome back online yet.

Sugar Bowl director Paul Hoolahan has been grilled by his peers about whether he can pull it off not only this season, but also going forward.

For a city trying to recover, losing the Sugar in the BCS rotation would be a critical blow.

4. The 30-yard-line solution

Kentucky's calls it "one of the most significant rules changes to come about in recent years."

He's right. When the NCAA rules committee moved kickoffs back to the 30 yard line, it was the equivalent of basketball instituting the 3-point line.

Say goodbye to touchbacks (for the most part). Say hello to more returns, which translates to better field position, which translates to more scoring.

Putting it in terms of home improvement: Coverage teams will have to account for an additional 2,398.5 square feet of space.

Kickers were beginning to dominate the game. Last season, only 3.1 kickoffs per team were returned. That's the fewest since 1985, the year before kickoffs were moved from the 40 to the 35.

http://www.cbs.sportsline.com/print/collegefootball/story/10313220 8/23/2007 Page 3 of 9

The percentage of kicks returned hasn't risen above 80 percent since 2000. Expect that number now to rise to about 90 percent. Most teams don't have kickers who can boot it the more than 70 yards on the fly it will take to cause a touchback.

Florida's said the average kick will now land at about the 9. Factor in his opponents' 2006 return average of 19.4 yards and that suggests an average starting field position of the 28.4 yard line.

That's right on the edge of a possible scoring explosion. According to Florida's 2006 stats, the odds of scoring (touchdown or field goal) go from 9.8 percent (between the 21 to 30 yard line) to 30 percent (31-40).

Instead of attempting to boot it deep, expect more pooch kicks and line drives to keep Florida coach Urban return teams off balance. Meyer (US Presswire) Also, expect teams like Kansas State and Air Force to adjust accordingly. The Wildcats led the nation last season in kickoff returns. Air Force was first in kickoff return defense.

5. BCS bowls

BCS championship game: USC vs. West Virginia Sugar Bowl: LSU vs. Oklahoma : Texas vs. Wisconsin Rose: Michigan vs. Cal Orange: vs. Florida

6. Upsets of the year

Georgia Tech over Notre Dame (Sept. 1): Lost in the hype over, well, everything at ND is that is the better team going into the game. Significantly better. The Yellow Jackets are more solid at running back, quarterback, linebacker and defensive line. That's a good way to start the season in South Bend. Yes, ND is only a slight favorite but let's see if its fans remember that when Georgia Tech wins.

Vanderbilt over Alabama (Sept. 8): Vandy is getting close, real close, to breaking that 25-year bowl-less streak. This is where it begins. While is going to do great things in Tuscaloosa, the first road test for his defense will not go well.

Kentucky over Louisville (Sept. 15): The best quarterback in the SEC (André Woodson) faces off against the best quarterback in the country (Brian Brohm). At Commonwealth Stadium, the Cats break Louisville's four-game (including seven of the past eight) winning streak.

South Florida over West Virginia (Sept. 28): The Bulls repeat their 2006 upset in Morgantown. This time Matt Grothe goes nuts in Ray-Jay against the nation's 109th- ranked passing defense.

Illinois over Penn State (Sept. 29): The young but improving Illini are going to beat someone they shouldn't this season. This is where 's turnaround begins.

San Jose State over Boise State (Nov. 3): The Spartans will get beat up playing UK QB Andre' Woodson paycheck games at Arizona State, Kansas and Stanford to start the season. By (US Presswire) November they will have had enough -- and Boise's number. After the Fiesta Bowl, Boise's closest win last season was by three at San Jose.

Alabama over Auburn (Nov. 24): It's usually an insult to say that 'Bama fans can't count to six. This time 'Bama ends the Auburn winning streak at one hand.

http://www.cbs.sportsline.com/print/collegefootball/story/10313220 8/23/2007 Page 4 of 9

7. Heisman Watch

1. Darren McFadden, Arkansas: So good that the Hogs could go 8-4 and D-Mac could still win it. 2. Steve Slaton, West Virginia: 4.3-something speed in a spread offense? Deadly. 3. John David Booty, USC: A lock if USC runs the table. 4. Brian Brohm, Louisville: If he stays healthy, forget the Heisman. Louisville could be in the national championship hunt. 5. Patrick White, West Virginia: 1,000/1,000 guy who can beat you with his feet and arm.

8. Defensive Player of the Year

Glenn Dorsey, DT, LSU, Sr.: A mysterious sore shin last season didn't diminish his play, but it might turn out to be the most significant development in the SEC, and the nation. Because of the shin, Dorsey concluded he wasn't quite ready for the NFL. Healed up, he is the most destructive front-four force in the nation.

9. All-Name Team

OL: Trinton Sturdivant, Georgia OL: Gurminder Thind, South Carolina OL: Nerraw McCormack, Penn State OL: Nedward Tavale, Minnesota OL: Yemi Babalola, Texas A&M RB: Jorvorskie Lane, Texas A&M RB: Knowshon Moreno, Georgia WR: Euseph Messiah, Iowa State WR: Rodgeriqus Smith, Auburn QB: John David Weed, Baylor TE: Bear Pascoe, Fresno State

DL: Ladi Ajiboye, South Carolina DL: Sirod Williams, Illinois DL: Ndamukong Suh, Nebraska DL: Tonga Tea, Oklahoma State LB: Ellix Wilson, Tennessee LB: Ashlee Palmer, Mississippi LB: Culmer St. Jean, Wisconsin DB: Captain Munnerlyn, South Carolina DB: Tang Bacheyie, Kansas DB: Wopamo Osaisai, Stanford DB: Boogie Allen, West Virginia

10. Winning streaks

1. Boise State, 13 (best chance to broken, Nov. 24 at Hawaii) 2. Brigham Young, 10 (at UCLA, Sept. 8) 3. Wisconsin, 9 (at Penn State, Oct. 13) 4. TCU, 8 (at Texas, Sept. 8) (Two tied with seven)

11. Losing streaks

1. Duke, 20 (Never. OK, OK, Sept. 1 vs. Connecticut) 2. Florida International, 12 (Nov. 24 vs. Florida Atlantic) (Three tied with seven)

12. Just plain streaking

z First-year North Texas coach Todd Dodge has won his past 48 games as a . All of them with

http://www.cbs.sportsline.com/print/collegefootball/story/10313220 8/23/2007 Page 5 of 9

the nation's preseason No. 1 high school program in 2007, Southlake (Texas) Carroll High School. Dodge's teams were 79-1 in their past 80 games. The only loss was in the 2003 state championship game. Dodge's first game as a I-A head coach is at Oklahoma on Sept. 1. Look out Sooners? z USC has won 33 consecutive home games. That's tied for the 11th most in history. That's also the longest streak since Florida State's 37-game streak was ended in 2001. z Georgia Tech's Tashard Choice has rushed for at least 100 yards in seven consecutive games. z Michigan has scored in 275 consecutive games. That's the longest active streak and a mere 86 games behind BYU's all-time record of 361 games. z Michigan also has the longest consecutive bowl streak at 32 years. z Michigan senior tailback Mike Hart enters 2007 with 768 consecutive touches without a lost fumble. His only lost fumble came in the Big Ten opener against Iowa three years ago. z Boston College has the longest current bowl winning streak, seven. z Virginia Tech has won its past 14 road openers (not counting neutral sites). The Hokies open on the road Sept. 2 at LSU. z The Hokies have led the nation in total defense each of the past two seasons. z Florida State has 30 consecutive winning seasons. z Rice's Jarett Dillard (CBSSports.com preseason All-American) has caught a touchdown pass in 15 consecutive games, three short of Larry Fitzgerald's NCAA record of 18. z Kentucky's Andre Woodson goes into the season with 162 consecutive throws without an interception.

13. Danny Woodhead

Most of the NCAA career records are safe for now. It's just one of those seasons. Except in Chadron, Neb.

A little tailback for Division II Chadron State already shattered Barry Sanders' single- season rushing record in 2006 with 2,756 yards.

That puts Danny Woodhead less than 1,000 yards away from R.J. Bower's all-division career rushing record (7,353 yards at Division III Grove City College in Pennsylvania from 1997-2000). Woodhead came to Chadron as a 5-foot-8, 175-pound freshman, essentially the same size as former Nebraska coach .

The difference is Solich played 40 years ago. Nebraska likes its backs a tad bigger these days. That's why the Huskers barely paid attention to Woodhead coming out of high school.

Now NFL scouts have found their way to Chadron to scout the now 5-9, 200-pound Danny Woodhead (AP) Woodhead as a returner.

14. ... and he found a Russian mail order bride too

The Stanford band has nothing on Jim Harbaugh. The Cardinal's first-year coach is eccentric in a Seth Rogen/Johnny Knoxville/slacker kind of way.

No, he isn't into backyard wrestling -- yet. But Captain Comeback has been known to ride his mountain bike to work wearing his old Colts warmup jacket. The Michigan Man has bootleg discs of firing up the Wolverines before games.

Call him Jimmy The Speak. You can't shut him up. Harbaugh first hit the national radar in March when he revealed is leaving for the NFL after this season. It's true. Harbaugh has it from someone on the USC staff.

None of that compares to how Harbaugh found his defensive coordinator: surfing the Internet.

Hey, who wouldn't hire a staff that way? Harbaugh was looking at NCAA statistics when he found Western Michigan at No. 11 in total defense. Scott Shafer happened to be the coordinator.

"I just felt you don't have to know a guy to hire him," Harbaugh told the San Jose Mercury News.

http://www.cbs.sportsline.com/print/collegefootball/story/10313220 8/23/2007 Page 6 of 9

The Internet will come in handy if Harbaugh and Shafer don't work out. It has replaced the need to browse for job openings in newspaper classifieds.

Ever hear of craigslist.com?

15. Hot Seat

Top five coaches most likely to be fired:

1. Al Groh, Virginia: For the money he's making ($1.8 million), Groh has not delivered. In six seasons he is nine games over .500. With 18 starters back there are no excuses this season.

2. , Mississippi State: Must get off the three-win sled. That's why you play Tulane, Gardner-Webb and Alabama-Birmingham in the non-conference.

3. , Duke: This has nothing to do with Roof, a fine man and fine coach. It's about Duke, which just doesn't want to be competitive in football.

4. Guy Morriss, Baylor: Buried at the bottom of the Big 12 South is no fun. Baylor hasn't been to a bowl since 1994.

Al Groh (US Presswire) 5. , Ole Miss: The experiment failed. The one-time quarterback savior has moved to receiver. Another 4-8 and Coach O is in trouble.

16. Honeymoons

Top five new coaches in the best situations:

1. Steve Kragthorpe, Louisville: Half the country didn't even notice Bobby Petrino left. A seamless transition.

2. Nick Saban, Alabama: He'd be No. 1 but who knows how long Saban will stay? If Sabes does put down roots, 'Bama will eventually win the SEC and maybe even a national championship.

3. Tom O'Brien, N.C. State: The Wolfpack need wins, not red shoes. O'Brien brings discipline and proven success.

4. , Miami: Who knows if he can coach, but like Butch Davis before him, Shannon will bring respect back to Coral Gables.

Steve Kragthorpe (AP) 5. Butch Davis, North Carolina: The perfect guy at the perfect time. Davis made this the right job when he took it. Carolina will win, soon, with this proven veteran.

17. Nobody's talking about ...

... The Nebraska linebackers: Bo Ruud, Corey McKeon and Steve Octavien have Nebraska's defense back up to Blackshirt standards.

... . The mad-man Tulsa coach will try anything to win. He convinced the shackled to leave Arkansas to run his offense. You're going to see things this season you've never seen before. The Golden Hurricane will light up the Oklahoma sky.

... Adrian Arrington. The Michigan receiver almost screwed up big time.

http://www.cbs.sportsline.com/print/collegefootball/story/10313220 8/23/2007 Page 7 of 9

suspended him during the spring for off-field problems. Back on the team, and with an All-American on the other side of the field (Mario Manningham), Arrington is going to have a big year if he gets his head straight. Sixty straight days of running steps at 6 a.m. should have helped.

... Florida fullback Eric Rutledge. Urban Meyer loves his blocking backs, especially since he figured out that he couldn't win in the SEC without one. Rutledge, a converted linebacker, takes over for the legendary Billy Latsko. If Florida improves that struggling rushing attack the 240-pound Rutledge deserves a pat on his massive back.

18. FBSucks

Please join me in an honorable and noble quest. Defy the NCAA. It is still trying to ram Nebraska's Corey McKeon down our throats that Division I-A has been renamed the Football Bowl Subdivision (US Presswire) (FBS).

It will now and always be I-A in this space, if only because the change was made because the I-AAs were upset at the "image" being portrayed. So now the Nicholls States of the world are in the Football Championship Subdivision.

As if that's going to be the marketing cure for I-AA drawing an average of 8,916 per game. I spit in your general direction, politically correctors.

I-AA was created by the NCAA in the 1970s as a way of promoting the small schools. At the time, they were even promised more television coverage. So don't ask us, NCAA, to clean up your mess with a sanitized, corporate label for second-tier football.

Using the current logic, humans are Carbon-Based Life Forms; janitors are Sanitation Engineers and that teenager pouring you coffee at the local Starbucks with a ring in her lip is a Caffeine Facilitator.

Can't wait until the oblong, leather object is propelled into the atmosphere marking the first contest of the season.

"Are ya ready for some football?" sounds so much better.

19. Down goes Stagg!

Amos Alonzo Stagg just couldn't hold on much past four decades at the University of Chicago. What a nancy boy.

You have to question the fortitude of a coach who lasted only 41 years at one school. To illuminate Stagg's lack of staying power, will make it 42 years when he steps on the field against Florida International on Sept. 1. That will break Stagg's record for most years spent by a head coach at one school.

Now that's longevity.

20. Boise State did it, why not us?

Boise's miracle season gave hope to all the mid-majors.

Unfortunately for them there won't be any outsiders crashing the party this season. TCU goes to Texas in the second week. Hawaii's schedule is so laughably weak (two I-AAs!) that no self-respecting voter or computer would put it high enough in the rankings, even if the Warriors go undefeated.

Boise? The Broncos aren't even favored to win the WAC this season. They'll have to be satisfied with memories -- a documentary on the 2006 season that debuts this month.

One intriguing possibility is Southern Miss. Coach Jeff Bower has been toughing it out for a quarter century at the school. He always produces nails defenses. This year's offense features a pounding running game. Damion

http://www.cbs.sportsline.com/print/collegefootball/story/10313220 8/23/2007 Page 8 of 9

Fletcher led the league in rushing as a freshman.

Although the Eagles go into the season unranked, they've got a chance to get in the polls during the first month. They take trips to Tennessee (Sept. 8) and Boise State (Sept. 27). Don't be surprised if they win both.

21. YouTube

The cultural Internet phenomenon has taken over as the best highlight show in existence.

You don't have to wait until SportsCenter to get an almost immediate look at the day's biggest plays. Anyone with a video cam watching TV in their living room can upload stuff to the Internet. The quality might suffer but at least you don't get Stuart Scott.

Type in the words "Rutgers", "Louisville" and "Jeremy Ito" and you get five different looks at Ito's game-winning field goal against the Cardinals last November.

There are countless ways to see how Oklahoma got jobbed at Oregon.

In a Big Brother-type way this holds conferences and officials more accountable when calls are screwed up. We will know right away -- from every angle.

22. Who says the NCAA is slow to act?

Seventeen years after the fact, the NCAA rules committee has decided to address the infamous Fifth Down game.

That's not altogether accurate, but additions to reviewable plays will (hopefully) make a repeat of that 1990 Missouri-Colorado outcome impossible.

What, you don't remember? Colorado was allowed a fifth down at Missouri that allowed it to score the game- winning touchdown. You should know because the Buffs shared the national championship that year.

This year, there are three additions to situations that can be reviewed by replay:

1. Determining if three or five downs were given. That's huge because in 1990, even though everyone agreed (after the fact) that Colorado had five downs, once the sequence was over, the game was over.

2. Interference from the bench that goes undetected can now be reviewed. A touchdown can be awarded, say, if a player comes off the bench to make a tackle.

In the 1954 Cotton Bowl, Rice's Dickey Moegle was tackled by Alabama's Tommy Lewis, who had come off the bench. Moegle was awarded a touchdown. Under the old rules, if that play had somehow gone undetected by officials, Moegle would have been "down" at the 42.

3. Reviews will be allowed to determine if a kick is fumbled (which can be returned by the defense) or muffed (which cannot).

23. Power outages at powerhouses

Their have won a combined 10 Heisman trophies, but as of this writing Notre Dame, Florida State, Ohio State and Miami are just trying to find a capable starter.

In other words it's not every day you find quarterback battles (controversies?) at schools that are in the top 14 all- time in winning percentage.

ND is waiting to see how soon celebrated freshman Jimmy Clausen can take over. Florida State is trying to get some consistency out of Xavier Lee or . Same at Miami between Kirby Freeman and Kyle

http://www.cbs.sportsline.com/print/collegefootball/story/10313220 8/23/2007 Page 9 of 9

Wright. Oklahoma is deciding between three inexperienced players.

Jim Tressel says no matter what, Ohio State will go into the season unsettled at quarterback. That's another way of saying Heisman winner Troy Smith cannot be adequately replaced by any of three candidates.

Out of all those quarterbacks, the highest rated in pass efficiency last season was Wright (64th).

24. In and Out

In: Banning guns Out: Curfew

In: Coach Saban Out: Coach Satan

In: Face-to-face human contact Out: Texting

In: Booty calls (at the line) Out: Booty calls (at midnight)

In: Kick returns Out: Touchbacks

In: Michigan Out: Ohio State

In: Boise Out: Oklahoma

In: Statue of Liberty Out: Kicking the extra point

In: Heisman Curse Out: Troy Smith

25. Overrated, underrated

Overrated: Taking a scythe to the coaching staff at Florida State. They're still the same players, right? I'm missing how , in the short term, is going to make Drew Weatherford significantly better. The pollsters seem to love FSU. The numbers say that Virginia Tech, Miami and Boston College have more victories than the 'Noles the past five years.

Underrated: The WAC. Ten years ago the league almost folded when the Mountain West schools broke away. Now it is flourishing, thanks in part to Boise State. It goes into the season with two ranked teams (Hawaii, Boise State), the nation's longest winning streak (Boise, 13) and two Heisman candidates (Ian Johnson, Colt Brennan). Oh, and the best bowl winning percentage in I-A the past five years (.611). Great scenery. Cool cities.

© © MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. CBS Sports is a registered trademark of CBS Broadcasting Inc. SportsLine is a registered service mark of SportsLine.com, Inc. CBS "eye device" is a registered trademark of CBS Broadcasting Inc.

http://www.cbs.sportsline.com/print/collegefootball/story/10313220 8/23/2007 On the basketball court and in the classroom, Methuen's Ryan Middlemiss has his prioriti... Page 1 of 2

On the basketball court and in the classroom, Methuen's Ryan Middlemiss has his priorities in order

Bob Albright

— "He gets it." Of all the sound bites the irrepressible Bill Parcells was fond of bombarding the assembled press with, that one always seemed to resonate above the rest. It was usually used to describe that late drafted rookie who may have put the scouts asleep at the combine, but nevertheless still had a shot at making the team simply due to an innate knowledge of the game, his surroundings and what was at stake. Give the Tuna a few moments with Methuen's Ryan Middlemiss and you get the feeling he might go to the well one more time with the phrase. The senior point guard and newly elected captain of the Daniel Webster College men's basketball team recently was named to the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Honor Court. The award recognizes the top collegiate academic achievers at all levels and Middlemiss is the first DWC men's hoop player to earn it. Ask Middlemiss about the award and Parcells' phrase pop immediately to mind. "When you are playing Division 3 basketball, you have to keep your priorities straight and be looking ahead to what is next," said the sports management student, who posted a 3.6 GPA while also finishing second in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference in assists at 4.0 a contest. "I love basketball, but I realized from a young age that when you're a 5-foot-8 point guard, you probably are not going to the NBA. You need to be looking towards your future." Middlemiss will also be the first to admit that there was a time that he didn't quite get it. Never a bad student while starring at Methuen High, he's also quick to admit that his picture probably is not going to jog the memory of the Methuen library staff anytime soon. "In high school, I really didn't apply myself as much as I could," said Middlemiss, who added 5.7 points and 3.1 rebounds a game. "There's just so much going on and the last thing you're thinking about is your future. But it's definitely a maturing process. You look at how much college costs these days and books become the most important thing. I want to get the most out of it as possible." Middlemiss says that maturing process has not been solely confined to the classroom, but the hardwood as well. While he looks back at his eventful career with the Rangers fondly, he wishes that he was remembered more for his play than his sometimes tempestuous nature. "We had some tough years and I think I got a bad rap because I got T'ed up (received technical fouls) a lot," said Middlemiss, who was an Eagle-Tribune All-Star in 2003. "I think a lot of people probably thought I was this loud punk out there, but it was just that I was so competitive and hated losing. But that's high school. It's all part of the maturing process." Out of high school, he had a brief stay at Springfield College, then starred at Northern Essex. Middlemiss, 22, says he would like to stay involved in basketball after graduation either as a coach or in a marketing capacity. First-year Daniel Webster coach Jeremy Currier says he can see Middlemiss doing the former and is hopeful that he might have him right next to him on the bench a year from now as a graduate assistant. "There's no question that it would be a great fit for him," said the former Pinkerton Academy and Endicott College standout, who became one of the youngest college basketball coaches in the country when he took over the DWC program in March at the age of 25. "There's no question that he's a natural leader and the type of person that people respond to." That type of leadership will be invaluable this year in Nashua. Forced to play last year with as little as nine players, Currier and his equally young staff went into recruiting overdrive and netted a plethora of talented

http://www.eagletribune.com/pusports/local_story_236011053.html/resources_printstory 8/24/2007 On the basketball court and in the classroom, Methuen's Ryan Middlemiss has his prioriti... Page 2 of 2

freshmen including Eagle-Tribune Player of the Year Stephen Savage of Salem as well as his teammate with the Class L champion Blue Devils, Chris Voukides. Middlemiss recently helped guide a group of those freshman all the way to the Adidas College Summer League finals in Nashua, where he was the only upperclassmen on the team. He looks forward to guiding them through the inevitable pitfalls that come during your first year away from home as well. "Absolutely. We're going to have study halls three times a week anyway," says the team's lone captain. "I'll be the first to tell them that I was just like them, but once again they're not at a Division 1 school. They're here to get an education." The Tuna couldn't have said it better himself.

Copyright © 1999-2006 cnhi, inc.

http://www.eagletribune.com/pusports/local_story_236011053.html/resources_printstory 8/24/2007 Los Angeles Times: The WAC is making waves Page 1 of 3

http://www.latimes.com/sports/printedition/la-sp-wac24aug24,0,7489716.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-sports From the Los Angeles Times

The WAC is making waves The conference is at an all-time high thanks to Boise State's stunning win over Oklahoma last season. And this year, Hawaii could very well make its own history. By Chris Dufresne Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

August 24, 2007

The Western Athletic Conference's original charter wasn't formalized in pencil, but South America has almost been more stable since 1962.

None of the WAC's six original members is still in the league . . . but Louisiana Tech eventually worked its way in?

The WAC would come to symbolize what the east thought of west-region football: it was lightweight, the Coors Field of conferences in that you couldn't trust its data.

There are fewer jokes now, though, especially in Oklahoma.

The conference that almost shut down a decade ago is now shutting people up.

"It's been a journey, for sure," Karl Benson, WAC commissioner since 1994, said.

"A political journey; a legal journey. And the WAC is still standing. And some people are still surprised that I'm standing."

Welcome back to the fall season for a conference that:

* Returns two players who finished in the top eight of last year's balloting.

* Boasts the only school to finish last season with a 13-0 record.

* Has the best chance, possibly, to roll out another perfect-record team in 2007.

* Defeated two schools in bowl games and nearly toppled a third.

Never in its many incarnations has the WAC entered a fall campaign with more visibility.

"It's not a one-hit wonder," Boise State tailback Ian Johnson said of the conference. "It's not a gimmick show."

The WAC is excited. Overnight guests attending July media days in San Jose received hotel room key cards with WAC football information stenciled next to the magnetic stripe.

The WAC is opening doors.

Boise State's win over Oklahoma in last season's Fiesta Bowl still reverberates. The Broncos didn't win the national title despite finishing as the nation's only 13-0 team, but their performance gave the WAC credibility you can only win, not buy.

"What's good for the conference is good for us," Hawaii Coach June Jones said of the ripple effect. "Boise kind of set a standard that everyone's shooting for. . . . I think much of the preseason hype is because of their success."

The WAC has not one Heisman candidate, but two!

Hawaii quarterback Colt Brennan and Boise State's Johnson finished sixth and eighth, respectively, in last year's Heisman balloting.

Brennan opted not to turn pro and returns for his senior season after setting the NCAA single-season record for touchdown passes with 58. He has thrown 93 touchdown passes the last two years.

Johnson, a junior, may be the most famous college player in the game after his Fiesta Bowl heroics and postgame marriage proposal.

He led the nation last year in scoring, 12.67 points a game, and his 25 touchdowns also topped all.

Ty Detmer, in 1990, remains the only WAC player to win the Heisman Trophy, but his school, Brigham Young, ditched the WAC for the Mountain West.

Another WAC Heisman is still no cinch, given that Brennan and Johnson reside in locales more famous for pineapples and potatoes.

"You've got to assume it's going to be harder for us," Brennan said. "I remember hearing how hard it was for people in the Pac-10 to get into the Heisman race."

http://www.latimes.com/sports/printedition/la-sp-wac24aug24,0,1007593,print.story?coll=... 8/24/2007 Los Angeles Times: The WAC is making waves Page 2 of 3

But to be even talking about it?

The WAC also isn't a one-team league. The conference last year posted bowl wins against the Big 12 (Boise State over Oklahoma) and the Pac-10 (Hawaii over Arizona State) while Nevada nearly upset five-time national champion Miami.

San Jose State, a program once on the brink of extinction, has been revived under , while Pat Hill at Fresno State continues his face-first scheduling approach in the hopes of drawing an inside straight to a major .

Boise State is the five-time defending WAC champion, but the school to watch this year is Hawaii, which won 11 games in 2006, returns Brennan, and has what Jones calls the best four-man receiver corps he's fielded.

Hawaii's comfy schedule all but eliminates it from national title consideration -- the first six games are Northern Colorado, Louisiana Tech, Nevada Las Vegas, Charleston Southern, Idaho, Utah State -- but the Warriors could be unbeaten and playing for their own major bowl bid when Boise State visits the island on Nov. 23.

As a conference member outside the Bowl Championship Series power structure, Hawaii has to finish ranked in the top 12 to earn an automatic major-bowl bid.

Thanks to the Fiesta Bowl, poll voters may see non-BCS teams in a different hue.

Brennan: "If Boise State would have lost that [Oklahoma] game, no one would be thinking we'd have a shot to go to a BCS game."

In fact, for the first time since the BCS formed in 1998, three teams from outside the six power conferences -- Texas Christian, Boise State and Hawaii -- were listed in the preseason top 25 of the USA Today coaches' poll.

TCU, a former WAC member, is now in the Mountain West.

Nothing has come easy.

It was the WAC in 1997 that took on the establishment when Benson went to Congress and claimed major was a monopoly in the wake of one-loss Brigham Young's not being invited to a major bowl game in 1996.

"I'm representing my membership, and was obligated to testify that a couple of my commissioner colleagues conspired to keep BYU out," Benson recalled. "I am standing there thinking this is career suicide I'm committing."

Benson's spearhead initiated a process, later accelerated by Tulane President Scott Cowen, that led to increased bowl access for the five conferences outside of the six-league BCS power structure. From 1998 through 2005, a non-BCS team had to finish in the top six to earn an automatic bid to a major bowl.

The automatic requirement was expanded last year to a top-12 finish.

Good thing.

Without the change, Boise State, which finished No. 8 in the BCS standings, probably would not have played in the Fiesta Bowl.

Benson calls it "rewarding" that his conference's fight a decade ago helped make college football history -- Boise State vs. Oklahoma -- a reality.

There have been plenty of low lights in WAC history.

Benson took over as commissioner in 1994 just before the WAC expanded to 16 schools and divided into "quadrants."

It wasn't a league as much as a game of WAC-a-mole.

The format soon became geographically and politically unwieldy and led to, in 1999, eight of the top football schools defecting to form the Mountain West.

Benson learned of the breakup while he was recovering at home following eye surgery. He said the mutiny "took the heart right out of the WAC, figuratively and geographically."

Had the Mountain West been able to also lure either Fresno State or Hawaii, Benson says, "I don't know if the WAC could have survived."

The WAC responded by adding Nevada in 2000 and then, a year later, Boise State and Louisiana Tech.

The league took another hit when the fallout from Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College moving from the Big East to the Atlantic Coast Conference set off a domino effect of conference realignment.

The gut-punch for Benson was Texas El Paso, a WAC member for more than three decades, bolting for Conference USA in 2005.

The WAC, once as loosely confederated as your sock drawer, has finally stabilized with its nine-school configuration of Boise State, Fresno State, Hawaii, Idaho, Louisiana Tech, Nevada, New Mexico State, San Jose State and Utah State.

Jones, who returned to Hawaii in 1999, has been a calming force after he inherited a team that went 0-12 in 1998. Hawaii has gone 64-40 since.

Boise State's arrival to the WAC in 2001 could not have been timed better.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/printedition/la-sp-wac24aug24,0,1007593,print.story?coll=... 8/24/2007 Los Angeles Times: The WAC is making waves Page 3 of 3

While Fresno State protected the league's back by picking fights with every BCS bully on the street, Benson continued to press the access and inclusion buttons.

It does not bother the commissioner today if you mention that his conference seemingly enters the season with more momentum than that splinter- group Mountain West.

After years of missteps, the WAC has hit stride. It's been a tough, confusing, school-juggling slog.

But, as they say in the WAC, what does not kill you makes you . . . Boise.

And this year, it might make you Hawaii.

[email protected]

If you want other stories on this topic, search the Archives at latimes.com/archives.

Article licensing and reprint options

Copyright 2007 Los Angeles Times | Privacy Policy | Terms of Service Home Delivery | Advertise | Archives | Contact | Site Map | Help

PARTNERS:

http://www.latimes.com/sports/printedition/la-sp-wac24aug24,0,1007593,print.story?coll=... 8/24/2007 UF's Baldry a real-life hero - 08/23/2007 - MiamiHerald.com Page 1 of 3

Posted on Thu, Aug. 23, 2007 UF's Baldry a real-life hero

BY JOSEPH GOODMAN One member of the University of Florida football team wears a bracelet to remember the life of a fallen soldier.

It's a simple thing. Metallic black in color, the band is a reminder: a memory of a friend, a memory of scouring the mountains of Afghanistan searching for al Qaeda, a glimpse into the past of the Gators' real-life hero. The story etched into that bracelet is the only reason walk-on tight end Derek Baldry, a former sergeant in the U.S. Army, is now a football player.

That story is Spc. Ryan Long.

Long was a fourth-generation soldier, and a talented soccer player who loved snowboarding in New Hampshire and fishing in Delaware. Now his name and all that it represents -- sacrifice, honor and the galvanizing strength of the Army's Ranger Regiment -- is chiseled into Baldry's memory band. It fits tightly around his muscular left wrist.

''Ryan was just the kind of person who made an impact on anyone who met him, and it really is truly a great loss not to have him any longer,'' said Donna Long, Ryan's mother, who, like Derek, never removes her son's memory band. ``Derek understands the brotherhood of the Army Rangers and has eternalized that.''

Long died less than a month before his 22nd birthday, killed by a suicide bomber northwest of Baghdad on April 3, 2003. But his spirit lives on every day during the Gators' fall training camp.

''In our downtime together, Ryan and I used to play a little football together,'' said Baldry, a 25-year- old junior. ``He said I was pretty good, and that when I got out I should try and walk-on somewhere. He's the main reason why I'm here.''

Baldry grew up in Gainesville but, according to his father, wasn't a fan of the Gators as a child. He wasn't even a football fan. Baldry says he spent his high school years either at the beach or atop a freestyle BMX.

''He was one of those kids you'd see downtown doing tricks on his bike,'' said Geo Baldry, Derek's father, who grew up in Miami and graduated from Coral Gables High in 1968. ``He was a free spirit.''

That all changed near the end of Baldry's senior year at Gainesville High. The extreme sports fad faded in the spring of 2000, replaced by a fascination with World War II history. It took one phone call from an Army recruiter for Baldry to join the military.

Military life suited Baldry. He adapted to the structure quickly. He loved jumping out of airplanes. It didn't take long for Baldry to sign up for the Ranger Indoctrination Program, the first step to becoming one of the Army's elite soldiers.

http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/colleges/uf/v-print/story/212374.html 8/23/2007 UF's Baldry a real-life hero - 08/23/2007 - MiamiHerald.com Page 2 of 3

''The toughest thing about going into the Ranger Regiment is dealing with weather and being tired and hungry to a point that you fall asleep while you're walking or you hallucinate,'' Baldry said. ``It's mental toughness vs. physical toughness.''

HANDLING THE PAIN

Baldry's Ranger peers voted him ''class hero'' after he sprained his knee during the course but still managed to carry one of the group's largest soldiers for several miles up a hill. Baldry's ability to endure pain set him apart. He once ran 12 miles carrying a 60-pound rucksack and full battle gear in 1 hour and 52 minutes.

After joining the 3rd Ranger Battalion of the 75th Ranger Regiment, he met Long in February 2001. Then came 9/11 and everything changed. Baldry was one of the first soldiers in Afghanistan, arriving in early October.

Baldry, Long and their fellow Rangers entered east Afghanistan through the Pakistan border, and began searching the region's mountainous tribal belt. The objective was simple. ''To seize them or kill them,'' Baldry said.

Baldry returned home after his rotation and later joined the 10th Mountain Division. He returned to Afghanistan and earned an Army Commendation Medal, awarded for acts of heroism. Baldry also was nominated for a Bronze Star after leading a counter offensive during an enemy ambush. He declined the medal, according to his father, because some of his fellow soldiers were wounded and Baldry was not.

''Coping with some of the losses we sustained was the hardest part,'' Baldry said. ``Yeah, there were a lot of times we would get ambushed and stuff like that, but I think the most difficult part is losing good friends.''

Baldry, a journalism major, didn't know a coach or player when he tried out for the Gators' football team in 2006. What's more, he had no knowledge of football basics like stances and positioning. He excelled, however, despite never playing football and was on the sidelines when Florida won its national championship.

RESPECT FROM MEYER

''I have real respect for the Rangers,'' said Florida coach Urban Meyer, whose father and sister served in the military. ``They protect our country and I tell you the minute I heard that story -- to be honest with you -- I gave him a little more opportunity than some of the other players.''

Baldry's size and athleticism helped. At 6-6, 259 pounds, he's no tackling dummy for the first-team Gators. Far from it. Baldry said Florida's coaches will soon award him a scholarship and he'll contribute this season on the Gators' field-goal and extra-point teams. He dressed for six games in 2006 and earned a ''Hit City'' award from the Gators' coaching staff for a devastating block against Western Carolina.

''He's really raw, but he's tough and he's big and he had a great summer,'' Meyer said.

He's a certified hero, a towering mountain peak, and Baldry is playing football for something bigger than himself.

http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/colleges/uf/v-print/story/212374.html 8/23/2007 After the horror, Hokies' football team helps with healing Page 1 of 3

Va. Tech is America's Team After the horror, Hokies' football team helps with healing

BY DICK WEISS DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER

Sunday, August 19th 2007, 4:00 AM

BLACKSBURG, Va. - In this tight-knit college town tucked deep in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains just southwest of Roanoke, they simply refer to it as "4-16," that morning in April when deranged student Seung-Hui Cho went on a horrific shooting rampage on campus. Cho killed a co-ed and male resident adviser in a West Ambler Johnston dorm room, then walked across the Drillfield to Norris Hall, where he chained the three main entrances together and used two semi-automatic handguns to kill 30 more students and faculty and wound 25 others before committing suicide.

The Blacksburg Baptist Church at Main and Turner Sts. has 32 national flags waving in front of its main entrance, to designate the countries of the deceased and serve as a constant reminder of the worst school shooting in history.

Workmen outside Burruss Hall, the school's towering stone administration building, are hustling to put the finishing touches on a permanent memorial, where the reviewing stand on the freshly mowed Drillfield used to be, before the start of classes tomorrow. For now, there is a temporary display made of 32 pieces of stone in a semi-circle arch with the names of the victims printed underneath. Mourners reverently trickle in and out all day, leaving bouquets of flowers, plants and messages of condolence and hope.

Virginia Tech football coach , who like school president Dr. Charles W. Steger came across as one of the University's caring voices during the crisis, still carries emotional scars from that day.

He met with the families of the victims shortly afterward, a meeting he will forever carry with him. "I'll never forget, I walked in the back of the room, and school officials had just had a meeting concerning their kids and their families and where they were at that particular time and they asked if I'd just say hello to them," Beamer says. "You walk to the front, and I'll never forget turning around and seeing those eyes and the hurt on those faces. It's just something you never, ever forget. You could feel it. All you can do is tell them that you love them and you'll never forget their people and you'll help them anyway you can."

It didn't take long for Beamer's sorrow to turn to outrage "That one person could cause this much harm and hurt and pain, it makes you mad," says Beamer, a parent himself. "Then, you start reading the resumes of these faculty members and kids and see how talented they were. Life shouldn't be that way."

Beamer knows Sept. 1 will be another in a long series of emotional days for the Hokie nation when Tech opens the season with a home game against East Carolina. The ESPN Game Day crew will be on-site and there will be a sellout crowd of 66,000 in attendance at Lane Stadium. Beamer is hopeful his preseason ninth-ranked team can be part of the healing process at this sports-crazed school.

"Tech people are looking for something good to rally around," he told his team the night before the start of practice.

Then he told them this: "You have a chance to be America's team. People want to root for this team."

The players showed up for media day filled with resolve and wearing school-endorsed black memorial patches on

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/2007/08/19/2007-08-19_va_tech_is_americas... 8/23/2007 After the horror, Hokies' football team helps with healing Page 2 of 3

their game uniforms with the maroon VT logo and an orange ribbon. "We're playing for not just us, but for the community and victims that died," says tackle Duane Brown. "It was a bad tragedy. We're trying to find something positive."

Beamer, the coaches and players participated in a charity car wash in the softball/track and field parking lot on Friday with donations going to the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund. So far, more than $7 million has been raised to assist the families of the victims and set up endowments in each of their names. The money was also designated for grief counseling and memorials.

Tech's story resonates everywhere, particularly for those in the New York metropolitan area who went through the personal hell of 9/11 when the Twin Towers disappeared from the landscape and nearly 3,000 died in the terror attacks.

"I hope we can have an impact like other sports teams have had in the past, like the New York Yankees after 9/11 or the after Hurricane Katrina," says starting junior quarterback Sean Glennon. "I'm a lifelong Yankees fan, just like my father, and I saw what they did and I read stories in magazines about how it put 9/11 to the side for a little bit because everybody in the city was together, cheering for the Yankees.

"I hope when we take the field, it can have a calming effect and allow people at the university and the community to temporarily escape from the tragedy."

Glennon was just 16 when the Yankees helped bring the city together with their run to the 2001 World Series. He wears an orange and white bracelet on his right wrist that says, "Team United" with the number '32' inscribed in the middle.

"I think it took 24 hours for it to set in," says Glennon. "You watch it on TV, it feels like it was far away, not just down the street. But at the convocation center the next day, it made it real because a lot of the families were there."

This peaceful 2,600-acre campus - with its 1859 frame house called Solitude located next to the Duck Pond and its War Memorial Chapel - seemed like the last place at which something like this would happen.

"We're not near an inner city," says Glennon. "It's not like downtown Atlanta or D.C. with a high crime rate. We're located in the middle of farms, agriculture. You'd think this was the safest place in the world. It just goes to prove tragedy can strike anywhere. It's not safe anywhere you go."

This has not been an easy summer for the 25,000 students or for the team's players - many of whom spent time with sports psychologist Gary Bennett trying to make sense of all this.

Glennon, and punter Brent Bowden were particularly affected. They all went to Westfield High in Chantilly, Va., where the tragedy took on a personal note.

"Just hearing we lost two people from my high school - I knew of the two girls - 18-year-old freshmen Erin Peterson and Reema Samaha - and knowing the shooter came from my high school is pretty devastating," says Royal. "It's a pretty scary thing to think about."

The tragedy has left haunting memories and sparked a national debate over gun control, mentally unstable students and university security.

"With that kid, if it hadn't happened in a classroom at Virginia Tech, it was going to happen somewhere around Blacksburg," says Beamer.

"The day it happened was surreal," says Brown. "You can't really get a grip when something like this happens. But the next day as you'd see people leaving, driving away from campus and the national media coming in, it hit home and you realize all those people died in that building. It was crazy."

The day after the shootings, Tech canceled classes for the rest of the week and closed Norris Hall for the rest of the semester. The Red Cross dispatched grief counselors, and there was an emotional convocation at Cassell Coliseum. More than 10,000 packed the basketball arena to listen to President Bush, who attended with his wife Laura; Gov. Thomas Kaine; and Professor Nikki Giovanni, the world renowned poet and author who told the audience nobody deserves a tragedy and finished her now famous speech with these simple words: "We are

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/2007/08/19/2007-08-19_va_tech_is_americas... 8/23/2007 After the horror, Hokies' football team helps with healing Page 3 of 3

Virginia Tech. We will prevail. We will prevail. We will prevail. We are Virginia Tech."

"I can still remember the people rising up together after that and chanting, 'Let's Go Hokies,'" says Beamer. "That just said it all. It said, 'We got something terrible here but we're going to hang in there together and get through this.' That's no denying it's awful, but in the end, we're going to be stronger."

That night there was a candle-light vigil at the Drillfield. In the weeks that followed, the university received a constant flow of support in the form of flowers and letters.

Nine days after the massacre, Tech AD Jim Weaver was driving to a luncheon honoring Tech's senior athletes when he passed by a local cemetery where a canopy and chairs had been set up for a funeral. "I thought it was for a faculty member," says Weaver. "At the luncheon, I found out it was for Matthew La Porte - a member of the corp of cadets. His mom and dad decided to bury him in Blacksburg because he loved the university so much.

"That got me. I go by there every day when I go to work and I look at his grave every day."

When Weaver got back to his office, he received a call out of the blue telling him the Yankees wanted to give the university $1 million. "I started crying like a baby," says Weaver. "It was the most touching thing, but it was something George Steinbrenner felt he wanted to do."

The Yankees also have talked about playing Virginia Tech in an exhibition game on the way back from spring training next spring. Maybe by then, the university will have taken the first steps toward waking up from this nightmare.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/2007/08/19/2007-08-19_va_tech_is_americas... 8/23/2007 Odd Jobs Help College Teams Stay Afloat - New York Times Page 1 of 3

August 24, 2007 Odd Jobs Help College Teams Stay Afloat

By TEDDY KIDER

One Sunday morning every fall, members of the Penn State fencing team spend hours scraping nacho cheese, chewing tobacco, peanut shells and cigarette butts off the floor of the university’s 107,000-seat football stadium.

Cleaning after a home game is an annual fund-raising ritual for the team, a coed varsity program that is one of the most successful in national competition. Unfortunately for Division I athletes in sports like fencing, winning championships does not guarantee financial stability.

The cash cow of college athletics returns next week, when multimillion-dollar television programming begins with college football and continues through the end of the N.C.A.A. men’s college basketball tournament in April. But for many athletes who compete in sports that do not produce revenue — the sports other than football and basketball — the arrival of the college football season means the return to working for the programs they see on television in order to support their own teams.

At N.C.A.A. Division I universities, football and basketball generate most of the revenue that comes from teams, and even some of those programs cannot make ends meet. For other sports, universities often leave it up to players and coaches to find other sources of funding.

For Butler softball players, that has meant working the gates at football games and cleaning the basketball arena. At Utah, that has led to having swimmers serve as hospitality workers in the suites at football games. And in the case of Penn State’s fencing program, that has involved cleaning the trash left behind by the crowds that attend home football games at Beaver Stadium.

“It’s one of the grossest things I’ll ever have to do — hopefully — in my life,” said the Penn State senior Megan Luteran, a captain of the fencing team, which last season won its 10th national title in 18 years.

Joe Paterno, Penn State’s football coach, only underscored the uncomfortable nature of the fencers’ job when he said his team would help clean Beaver Stadium on Sundays this season without compensation. The decision was a punishment for several football players’ suspected connection to an off-campus fight.

Some coaches and administrators insist that it is unreasonable to ask Division I athletes to participate in small moneymaking projects, especially those that involve working for more profitable programs.

Billy Martin, the coach of U.C.L.A.’s men’s tennis team, a perennial national championship contender, acknowledged that his program could not make any money for the athletic department, but he called some of the small projects “high schoolish.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/24/sports/24teams.html?_r=1&hp=&oref=slogin&page... 8/24/2007 Odd Jobs Help College Teams Stay Afloat - New York Times Page 2 of 3

Bob Reasso, the men’s soccer coach at Rutgers, said: “You’re not going to ask a major Division I football or basketball athlete to do a car wash. We have the same caliber athletes.”

At Butler, a university that recently cut its men’s lacrosse and men’s swimming programs, the softball coach Jeanne Rayman raises about 15 percent of her program’s annual budget through fund-raisers. Her team has sold cookie sheets and held a beanbag-tossing tournament.

“I’m always looking to find something unique, where people don’t just say, Oh, this is just another fund- raiser,” said Rayman, who says she discloses her team’s efforts when recruiting players.

Butler softball teams have also worked the gates at football games, sold concessions at men’s basketball games, cleaned the basketball arena and helped direct cars at Indiana Pacers and games.

“The reality of where we are today is that we need to find a way to supplement budgets,” said Barry Collier, Butler’s athletic director. “This is part of it.”

Andrew Brown, a senior on the men’s swimming team at Utah, said that male and female swimmers at his university have had to stock suite refrigerators before football games, then hand out marketing materials at the stadium gates and make sure guests in the suites and the press box have enough food and drinks.

“I’m just happy we still have a swimming team, because a lot of Division I teams are being cut,” said Brown, who has an athletic scholarship that pays for his tuition and books.

Other programs choose to avoid small-scale, time-consuming fund-raising work in favor of relying entirely on other sources of funding, like donations. Doug Smith, the associate athletic director for development at Baylor, said he did not believe in “project-oriented programs,” which he said involve too much work and time and produce an inadequate financial return. Penn State’s fencing team sells university merchandise at football games, and the money they gather from stadium cleaning — several thousand dollars a year — enables them to take an overseas trip once every four years.

Jimmy Moody, a junior on the fencing team, said he found the stadium cleaning experience humbling and understood that Penn State’s football team brought in money that benefited his team. But he was also interested in finding out how the football players would react to the dirty work.

“I’m glad for once that they’ll have to do it,” Moody said. “They’ll get a taste of it. They get to see what we do every year.”

N.C.A.A. bylaws limit the number of hours student-athletes can spend on “athletically related activities.” But those activities do not include fund-raising, said Stacey Osburn, a spokeswoman for the N.C.A.A. Osburn said most rules about fund-raising were left up to individual universities.

At Butler, Rayman said, the continual projects can seem like a burden for some of her players.

“They have so much going on in their college lives, trying to be the best athletes they can be and trying to have somewhat of a social life,” Rayman said. “It just becomes a daily grind. It’s more of a drain on them than a morale booster.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/24/sports/24teams.html?_r=1&hp=&oref=slogin&page... 8/24/2007 Odd Jobs Help College Teams Stay Afloat - New York Times Page 3 of 3

For many student-athletes, including Brown, the Utah swimmer, the choice between working for high-profile teams and abandoning the sports they love is easy to make.

“It’s unfair that we have to put in extra work because our sport might not be as much fun to watch,” Brown said. “But it is fair that the school is giving us a chance to work to keep the program around.”

Emmanuil Kaidanov, Penn State’s fencing coach, said he thought cleaning the stadium, however unpleasant it might be, was a good team-building effort. He emphasized his 10 national titles and asked how anybody could question him.

“We bond through our misery,” Moody said.

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

Privacy Policy Search Corrections RSS First Look Help Contact Us Work for Us Site Map

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/24/sports/24teams.html?_r=1&hp=&oref=slogin&page... 8/24/2007 Bob Smizik: Big East gets last laugh Page 1 of 2

Bob Smizik: Big East gets last laugh '03 defections to ACC just a bad memory as conference rivals the best

Friday, August 24, 2007 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

FROM LEFT, Louisville's Brian Brohm, West Virginia's Steve Slaton and Rutgers' Ray Rice have made the Big East an elite football conference that rivals the other power conferences. You read it here, there and just about everywhere. It was a near-universal verdict: With the defections to the Atlantic Coast Conference of perennial powerhouses Virginia Tech and Miami, the Big East was finished as a football league. When Boston College followed about a year later, it only cemented the issue. The subsequent invitations that went out to Louisville, South Florida and Cincinnati bordered on the laughable. The Big East was crippled and possibly dying.

That was 2003.

With the '07 college football season set to open, the Big East is not on life support, not struggling, not mediocre, not just rising but near the top.

Those of us who were quick to pronounce the death sentence didn't take into account how quickly the fortunes of college programs can change. Who would have possibly dreamed in '03 or even '05 that on the eve of this season Louisville would be a national power and Miami an afterthought.

Evaluating conferences is an impossible task, although it's widely believed the Southeastern is the best. We won't argue with that. As for second best, that could be an argument, and the Big East would be in the middle of it.

At the completion of last season, the Big East, the smallest of the major AP Top 25: The Conferences conferences with eight members, had three of the top 12 teams in the country -- Louisville (6th), West Virginia (10th) and Rutgers (12th). This year, it has three of the top 16: West Virginia third, Louisville 10th and Rutgers 16th. Here's a look at the number of schools each conference has in The Top 25 poll Not only are there highly ranked teams, but there also are outstanding this year and at the end of last

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07236/811763-13.stm 8/24/2007 Bob Smizik: Big East gets last laugh Page 2 of 2

individual players. The league is not only awash in All-Americans but also legitimate Heisman Trophy candidates: running backs Steve Slaton of West Virginia and Ray Rice of Rutgers, and quarterbacks Brian Brohm of Louisville season. and Patrick White of West Virginia.

Out of the ashes of the shameless abandonment by Miami, Virginia Tech and 2007 2006 Boston College has come a new league that rivals the strength of the old one. What is just as startling as the resurrection of the Big East has been the Conference preseason final crumbling of the ACC. It must give Big East members a laugh to look at the plundering ACC and see one team in the Top 10 (Virginia Tech) and the once- SEC 6 6 mighty Miami Hurricanes unranked and no longer among the nation's elite. Big Ten 4 4 Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has long maintained West Virginia's surprising win against SEC power Georgia in the 2006 Sugar Bowl was the Big 12 4 2 "single most important game in the history of the league." No question that Pac-10 3 3 game legitimized the conference in the eyes of many skeptics. Big East 3 3 But a series of events in the off season did just as much to raise the profile and prestige of the league. The outstanding seasons of Louisville (12-1), West ACC 2 3 Virginia (11-2) and Rutgers (11-2) did not go unnoticed. As is often the case when somewhat unheralded programs rise to the top, other teams want those WAC 2 1 coaches. In the Big East's case, that would be Louisville's Bobby Petrino, West Mountain Virginia's and Rutgers' . 1 2 West

Petrino was lost to the big money of the and the lure of Independent 0 1 coaching at football's highest level. But Rodriguez and Schiano stayed put, despite persuasive attempts to get them to change jobs. Alabama was unsuccessful in luring Rodriguez away from West Virginia and Miami could not get Schiano away from Rutgers. The thought that the coach of until-recently hapless Rutgers would turn down Miami, where he once was defensive coordinator, is another event no one could possibly have imagined.

"We had two coaches courted by Alabama and Miami," Tranghese said. "If anyone had asked me three years ago that we could have held on to those guys, I don't know if anyone would have said yes. Our coaches and administrators are feeling pretty good."

Tranghese makes no claims for his conference. He knows how fast things can change. "We have to keep winning , and we have to keep our coaches. If we can't, we have to replace them well."

Tranghese knows there's room to grow and it needs to start at -- among other places -- Pitt, where the team has struggled the past two seasons.

"For us to reach our full potential our two tradition-laden programs have to get back to competing at the upper tier," he said.

He was talking about Pitt, which finished third or higher four times in five years from 2000-04, and Syracuse, which was league champion in 1997 and '98 and runner-up in 2001.

With West Virginia, Louisville and Rutgers showing little signs of falling, and with South Florida definitely an upward- bound program, there's no quick path to the top for Pitt and Syracuse.

But as we've seen, all things are possible in the Big East.

First published at PG NOW on August 23, 2007 at 11:34 pm

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07236/811763-13.stm 8/24/2007 Linebacker, 59, to Play College Ball Page 1 of 3

Linebacker, 59, to Play College Ball By JAIME ARON, AP Sports Writer Thursday, August 23, 2007

(08-23) 01:25 PDT Alpine, Texas (AP) --

Mike Flynt was drinking beer and swapping stories with some old football buddies a few months ago when he brought up the biggest regret of his life: Getting kicked off the college team before his senior year. So, one of his pals said, why not do something about it?

Most 59-year-olds would have laughed. Flynt's only concern was if he was eligible.

Finding out he was, Flynt returned to Sul Ross State this month, 37 years after he left and six years before he goes on Medicare. His comeback peaked Wednesday with the coach saying he's made the Division III team's roster. He could be in action as soon as Sept. 1.

Flynt is giving new meaning to being a college senior. After all, he's a grandfather and a card- carrying member of AARP. He's eight years older than his coach and has two kids older than any of his teammates.

"I think it was Carl Yastrzemski who used to say, `How old would you be if you didn't know how old you were?' I'd be in my late 20s or early 30s, because that's how I feel," said Flynt, who has made a living out of physical fitness. "That's been my approach to this whole thing. I feel that good. I'm just going to find out if I can perform and make a contribution to the team."

A longtime strength and conditioning coach at Nebraska, Oregon and Texas A&M, he's spent the last several years selling the Powerbase training system he invented. Clients include school systems and the military. His colorful life story includes being the son of a Battle of the Bulge survivor and having dabbled in gold mines and oil wells — successfully.

Flynt's life was supposed to be slowing down this fall. With his youngest child starting at the , he and Eileen, his wife of 35 years, are planning to take advantage of being empty-nesters for the first time.

Instead, they've moved to this remote patch of West Texas so Flynt can mend an old wound and, he hopes, inspire others.

He became emotional discussing his goal of "helping a bunch of young men to make up for those

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2007/08/22/sports/s130310D71.DTL&t... 8/24/2007 Linebacker, 59, to Play College Ball Page 2 of 3

guys that I let down." Then he laughed about the reality that fellow Baby Boomers are getting the most out of his comeback.

"People are kind of in awe. They keep comparing me to themselves and where they are physically," he said. "If I can help anyone out by what I'm doing, then it's all worth it."

Flynt's position is still being determined, but he used to play linebacker. Wherever he lines up, he'll likely become the oldest player in college football history. Neither the NCAA or NAIA keeps such a statistic, but research hasn't turned up anyone older than their mid-40s. And even those are rare, for obvious reasons.

"I told him he's an idiot," said Jerry Larned, who coached Flynt at Sul Ross in 1969 and counseled him at the start of his comeback. "I said, `Gosh, dang, Mike, you're not 20 years old any more. You're liable to cripple yourself.' He understands all of that. But he has a burning desire to play. ... He is in great physical condition. He still runs a 5-flat 40 and bench presses I-don't-know-what. He's a specimen for 59 years old."

Back in the day, Flynt was quite a player.

In 1965, he was on the first state championship team at Odessa Permian, the high school featured in "Friday Night Lights." He was offered a partial scholarship at Arkansas when the Razorbacks were among the top teams in the land, but instead went to Ranger Junior College.

He wound up at Sul Ross in 1969. An NAIA school then, the Lobos were in the Lone Star Conference with East Texas State, which at the time had future NFL stars Harvey Martin and Dwight White, and Texas A&I, which was starting a two-year run as national champs. The highlight of Flynt's two years at Sul Ross was sticking A&I with its only loss in '69.

Flynt was going into his senior year in 1971 when he got into a fight that was far from his first. School officials decided they'd had enough and threw him out of school. He earned his degree from Sul Ross by taking his remaining classes elsewhere.

"I actually grieved for more years than I can remember the loss of that senior year," said Flynt, who'd been a team captain and the leading tackler as a junior. "What really got me was I felt that was MY football team and I had let them down. ... I don't know if I ever got over it, but I finally learned to live with it."

Then came word of a reunion of former Sul Ross students from the 1960s and '70s. Randy Wilson, who has been best friends with Flynt since they met as college roommates in 1969, talked a bunch of his former teammates into using that event as an excuse to get back together.

During several days of reminiscing, Flynt's pain became fresh as ever, especially when one of the

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2007/08/22/sports/s130310D71.DTL&t... 8/24/2007 Linebacker, 59, to Play College Ball Page 3 of 3

guys said their '71 season went down the drain without Flynt.

That's when he told them of his remorse. And, he added, "What really gets me is that I feel like I can still play."

"You might as well give it a shot," Wilson told him. "The worst thing that can happen is you get your head knocked off and come home."

When Flynt returned home to Franklin, Tenn., his wife wasn't as fired up by the idea.

"I feel like I'm married to Peter Pan," she said.

It took time to accept that instead of joining their daughter at Tennessee's home opener she would be watching her husband hit kids one-third his age.

Eventually she came around. They've sold their suburban Nashville home and are now living in Alpine, a town of about 6,000 residents near the Big Bend National Park, a three-hour drive from the nearest major airport.

"I told her, for me to know that I can do it and not do it would be worse than losing out the first time," he said.

A devout Christian, Flynt sees many religious undertones to his story. He also believes it touts the benefits of strength training.

"People have asked me, `Mike, what is the fountain of youth?' Well, it's strength training that builds muscle, increases bone density and burns calories," he said. "It's the one thing you can do in your 90s and benefit from."

Just to be clear, Flynt won't be playing football in his 90s.

He'll be out of eligibility then.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/08/22/sports/s130310D71.DTL

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2007/08/22/sports/s130310D71.DTL&t... 8/24/2007 STLtoday.com - Printer friendly - Vick's saga presents an opportunity to learn Page 1 of 2

PRINTER FRIENDLY [Print] [Close]

Vick's saga presents an opportunity to learn By Bryan Burwell ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH Wednesday, Aug. 22 2007

Michael Vick's American dream is ruined now. His rags-to-riches joy ride from the slums of Newport News, Va., to the high life of NFL celebrity has been buried so deeply under a mind-numbing avalanche of bad choices, criminal stupidity and overwhelming disgrace that his best choice for salvation — maybe his only saving grace — might be to serve as the ultimate cautionary tale in locker rooms all over America.

Somehow, if there is any good to come from the disturbing rise and fall of a young man with so many brilliant athletic gifts and so many odious personality flaws, it has to come from legions of others who must be willing to admit that Vick is no victim, that his own foolish behavior has led him into a career-wrecking prison term, not some misguided theory of shadowy establishment conspiracies.

On Tuesday afternoon just outside the sweltering hotbox of the Rams Park indoor practice field, the most pressing affairs of the day were absorbing the game plans for Friday night's exhibition game at Oakland, and finding ways to earn a spot on the 53-man regular season roster. But behind those large wood double doors that lead into the locker room, the players were not oblivious to the world outside these walls. The subject of the rapid decline of may not be constantly on the tip of their lips, but it is clearly part of their conversations.

Very few Rams players or coaches felt comfortable talking about the Vick situation on the record. On the record, most chose to keep their opinions private. But off the record, one player said the greatest lesson learned had to be about choosing your friends wisely.

"Let me see now, who was it that turned on him to (the government)?" the player asked, counting off the usual suspects on his fingers. "Hmmm, friend, friend, friend, cousin. Oh yeah, you can bet that we talked about that a lot."

The old "boys will be boys" wink-and-a-smile attitude that allowed talented but foolish athletes to think they could get away with bad behavior is a distant relic. No one is looking the other way any more, and it's about time that athletes figured that out.

Michael Vick chose his friends poorly, surrounding himself with men who used their lifelong bond as a twisted obligation and guilt trip to persuade Vick to bankroll their criminal aspirations. Vick, who played the ultimate position of leadership in American male society — starting quarterback in the — failed to lead those so-called friends in the right direction, and instead followed them down the wrong path.

Rams linebacker Chris Draft played four years in Atlanta with Vick and probably saw all the warning signs. He was part of a group of strong-willed veterans who probably did more than their fair share of carefully guiding Vick out of harm's way. Draft knows all about the lure of bad friends and wrong influences, and he

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/emaf.nsf/Popup?ReadForm&db=stltoday%5Csports%5C... 8/24/2007 STLtoday.com - Printer friendly - Vick's saga presents an opportunity to learn Page 2 of 2

never hesitates to tell any young player who will listen about those dangers. It didn't take Michael Vick to make Draft aware of those pitfalls.

A few months ago, Draft was invited by the NFL to speak at the league's annual rookie symposium to offer words of advice to the league's next generation. His advice ought to be plastered over every wall of every locker room from boys club all the way to the pros.

"You can go into that locker room right now and there are more than 80 men in that room," Draft said, "and they could all tell you that they know plenty of guys they grew up with who were better than them, but never made it. In almost every case, the reason those guys aren't here isn't because they didn't have the talent. They didn't make it because they made the wrong choices, took the wrong turns, associated with the wrong folks, and it destroyed them.

"I keep trying to tell these guys that they've worked too hard to get here. They need to constantly remember how hard they worked to earn their place here, but how much harder they have to work to keep earning their right to stay here. They can't let friends destroy that.

"The other day, it was 105 degrees out there on the practice field, and I was out there sweating and hitting and banging in all that heat, and you know I looked around a couple of times and I never saw any of my friends out there sweating with me. It was just me and my teammates out there."

Tragically, Vick never learned that lesson. He blew a $130 million contract over some $10,000 hustle and now all his "boys" have turned on their meal ticket to save their own hides.

"The biggest lesson you can learn from all of this is that there are some things that just aren't right," Draft said. "You might get away with it for a while, but just because you haven't gotten caught doesn't mean it's right. Eventually, you will get caught."

______If you enjoy reading about interesting news, you might like the 3 O'Clock Stir from STLtoday.com. Sign up and you'll receive an email with unique stories of the day, every Monday-Friday, at no charge. Sign up at http://newsletters.stltoday.com ______

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/emaf.nsf/Popup?ReadForm&db=stltoday%5Csports%5C... 8/24/2007 Page 1 of 2

A master of PR who also spoke truth

By LOU CANNON, Special to the Washington Post Published August 23, 2007

Michael Deaver will be remembered as Ronald Reagan's magic man, the impresario who orchestrated presidential performances, ordered up the backdrops (usually blue) and carefully staged historical remembrances such as the splendid observance of the D-day anniversary on the beaches of Normandy in 1984. All of that is well and good, but Deaver's importance transcended stagecraft.

Deaver was one of a handful of aides who joined Reagan early in his California governorship and stayed with him through most of his presidency. His adoration, though, was not automatic: Deaver spoke truth to power at crucial moments.

Late in 1986, for example, after disclosures that Reagan had secretly approved arms sales to Iran and that national security aides had diverted some of the proceeds to the Nicaraguan Contras, Reagan fired the mastermind of this diversion and the national security adviser who had known of it. He accepted the resignation of CIA director William Casey. But Reagan refused to fire his chief of staff, Donald T. Regan, who a board of inquiry would later say bore "primary responsibility for the chaos that descended upon the White House" after the Iran-Contra disclosures.

Deaver confronted the president, urging him to rid himself of Regan. They had the following exchange:

Reagan: "I'll be goddamned if I'll throw somebody else out to save my own ass."

Deaver: "It's not your ass I'm talking about. You stood up on the steps of the Capitol and took an oath to defend the Constitution and this office. You've got to think of the country first."

Reagan: "I've always thought of the country." He then threw his pen so hard it bounced off the carpet.

Political strategist Stuart Spencer, the only other person present, confirmed this exchange. Spencer said nothing during the meeting, knowing that Reagan didn't change his mind when he was angry. He expected that Nancy Reagan and Deaver would wear him down over time, as they did.

Deaver was running Republican campaigns in central California when William Clark, Cabinet secretary to then-Gov. Reagan, brought him to Sacramento in 1967. He was assigned "the Mommy Watch," which meant looking after Mrs. Reagan. Many staff members were afraid of her, but Deaver realized at once that she was a tremendous political asset who needed help implementing her ideas. They became allies and then friends. Reagan appreciated what Deaver had done and over time formed a bond with him that bordered on the filial.

Reagan was normally sanguine about changes in his supporting cast as he climbed the political ladder. Deaver was an exception. In 1980, Deaver became involved in a power struggle with strategist John Sears, who had gradually forced most of the Californians out of Reagan's presidential campaign. Tired of the infighting, Deaver resigned during a meeting at the Reagan home in Pacific Palisades. Reagan followed him to the front door, urging him to stay, then

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/08/23/news_pf/Opinion/A_master_of_PR_who_al.shtml 8/23/2007 Page 2 of 2

returned in a fury to the living room.

"The biggest man here just left this room," Reagan said. "He was willing to accommodate and compromise, and you bastards wouldn't." That marked the beginning of the end for Sears. Within a few months he was gone, the Californians were back and Deaver would be at Reagan's side until May 1985.

That meeting was also a wake-up call for Deaver. He had been accessible to reporters in Sacramento but became a bit lordly during Reagan's presidential campaigns. After I wrote a pre-convention story in the Washington Post in 1976 saying that Reagan didn't have enough delegates to wrest the Republican nomination from President Gerald Ford, neither Sears nor Deaver would return my calls. Deaver called shortly after he walked out of the Reagans' living room, and I asked if we were on speaking terms again. "I'm on the outs now, just like you were," he said honestly.

We had a close but prickly relationship during much of the Reagan presidency. Deaver was an excellent source, but what I wrote for the Washington Post often contradicted his gauzy portrayals of an all-wise and resourceful president. Deaver took this in stride - "my job is to make a good president look even better," he once told me - and much of his spinning was at the margins, often translating earthy Reagan phrases into drawing room prose. On essential questions, Iran-Contra for example, he told the truth - to the president as well as to the media.

The strains of White House service took a toll that was exacerbated by Deaver's private battle with alcoholism. Against Mrs. Reagan's advice, Deaver left the White House and immediately proved successful in public relations. In 1986, he posed for a Time magazine cover (again despite Mrs. Reagan's advice) that made him a poster child for a story on influence peddling. A special counsel indicted Deaver, and he was convicted of perjury after putting up a minimal legal defense and saying that his memory was clouded - as it doubtless was - by alcoholism. Stripped of his assets, Deaver performed community service and entered an alcoholic rehabilitation program before returning to public relations.

Deaver's wisdom - and his decency - were demonstrated in his refusal to accept a pardon from President Reagan for his transgressions. He thought a pardon might tarnish Reagan's image. That was something Deaver always protected, even at the cost of his own.

Lou Cannon, who covered the White House for the Washington Post, is the author of five books on Reagan and co- author of the forthcoming Reagan's Disciple: What George W. Bush Did to the Reagan Revolution.

© 2007 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times 490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 Contact the Times | Privacy Policy | Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/08/23/news_pf/Opinion/A_master_of_PR_who_al.shtml 8/23/2007 Jacksonville.com: Print this story Page 1 of 3

Most popular stories: Most viewed | Most printed | Most e-mailed

The Florida Times-Union

August 23, 2007

Gottfried breaks down Gottfried

By JEFF ELLIOTT, The Times-Union

Mike Gottfried has been involved with college football for 30 years, the past 18 years with ESPN as a game analyst. He served as head coach at Murray State, Cincinnati, Kansas and Pittsburgh. ------

He was unceremoniously dumped as head coach of the Panthers following the 1989 season after posting a 7-3-1 record.

The following season, he was hired by ESPN, where he's teamed with various play-by-play announcers over the years.

Gottfried is a sought-after inspirational and motivational speaker, traveling throughout the country.

He has a book coming out next month called Coach's Challenge - Faith, Football and Filling the Father Gap.

In 2000, Gottfried founded Team Focus, designed specifically to assist youngsters growing up without fathers.

Gottfried was in Jacksonville on Wednesday night speaking to the Jacksonville Quarterback Club.

Before his appearance, Gottfried visited with Times-Union sports writer Jeff Elliott to talk about the transition from coaching to the TV booth, his mission in creating Team Focus and helping to start a college bowl game.

Q. Why did you join ESPN?

Well, I signed a lifetime contract with Pittsburgh in 1988, and then they declared me legally dead in 1989 and fired me (laughing). We were 7-3-1, and I never saw it coming. When I got fired, it was a shock. The next day, I got five different calls from ESPN, saying they would like to audition me. I got the job and got five games that first year in 1990. I always thought I would go back to coaching. We moved to Mobile (Ala.), and I told my wife, we'll buy a house here, but only for one year when I get another job. We've been there 17 years now.

http://cgi.jacksonville.com/cgi-bin/printit.cgi?story=ZZNOSTORYZZ 8/23/2007 Jacksonville.com: Print this story Page 2 of 3

Q. What is your approach on the telecasts that you work?

I try to teach rather than coach or criticize a player or coach. I want to tell people what a coach is thinking and why he's doing what he did. You can't always do it. When I was coaching, sometimes I did some things I don't even know why I did them. I like to say why something happened and here's what the coach or player was thinking. I'm not in favor of calling someone out or second-guessing people.

Q. Did you have a desire to get back into coaching?

I did for a while. Over the years, I was approached by a number of schools - Kentucky (several times), Louisville, UAB, Purdue, LSU, South Carolina and Temple. Each time, my wife and I would pray about it, and we'd say 'If this is supposed to be the job, open the door, Lord, if not, close the door.' Each time, either we closed the door or they [schools] did. I always wanted to be a coach and thought I was going to go back into it. I was waiting to go back into it, but I really think it worked out for the better this way.

Q. In 2000, you started an organization called Team Focus. What's that about?

It's for boys who do not have a father. We put on camps for young men and try to teach them things like good manners, how to act in public, how to speak to a girl, how to dress, how to be a good teammate at home, how to get a job. I grew up without a dad. My dad died when I was 11. I didn't know any of those things, and I wanted to help some boys figure some of those things out. Team Focus was born at that time, and now we have boys in 28 states and over 1,000 boys as part of the program. The first lady, Laura Bush, came to Mobile and saw what we're doing and was very impressed. We'd like to form a group here in Jacksonville.

Q. You helped form the GMAC Bowl game in Mobile. How did that come about?

The editor of the local paper called me and asked why can't we have a bowl game here in Mobile? Then the mayor got behind it. So I went to Michigan and talked to George Perles, who was running the Cherry Bowl up there. I went back and told them I thought Mobile could do this. We're now in our eighth year of putting this game on. I'm still involved but not as much. Team Focus takes up a lot of my time now.

Q. You make a lot of appearances to groups each year. How hectic is your schedule?

Last year, I was gone 199 days from home. When I speak to groups, I speak about boys. My speeches used to focus on college football, but now it's more on how to raise boys. How to bless them, give them attention, accountability, good advice and be there for them. There's so many young men in this country that are growing up without fathers that are looking for guidance and assistance.

Q. Who do you like for the college football season?

A. If I had to pick a team right now, I'd pick USC. Of the 50 best players in America right now that the pros are looking at, they have six. That's hard to believe. They are loaded. The second-best team is harder to pick. It could be Texas, could be Michigan, West Virginia or Louisville. I don't think it's LSU. It could be Tennessee.

Q. Where do you see Florida and Florida State?

Florida has lost so many guys on defense, I wouldn't pick them to be back in the championship game. They have a tough schedule, like that road game with LSU. I think Florida State will get back to running

http://cgi.jacksonville.com/cgi-bin/printit.cgi?story=ZZNOSTORYZZ 8/23/2007 Jacksonville.com: Print this story Page 3 of 3

the football and that will open up their passing game.

Q. Do you foresee the day there will be a college playoff?

No. I don't think it will come about. And I like the playoff concept. I was in I-AA, and I saw it work. But I think what they'll do at the Division I level is to add just one game, where you take the two best games from the BCS games and take the two best teams. That game will be for the national championship. [email protected],

(904) 359-4292

This story can be found on Jacksonville.com at http://www.jacksonville.com/tu- online/stories/082307/spl_193776477.shtml.

Home | News | Business | Entertainment | Sports | Community | Resources

This site, and all its content, © The Florida Times-Union

http://cgi.jacksonville.com/cgi-bin/printit.cgi?story=ZZNOSTORYZZ 8/23/2007 Saban's move one of eight ways 2007 will deliver - USATODAY.com Page 1 of 5

Powered by

Saban's move one of eight ways 2007 will Advertisement deliver By Kelly Whiteside, USA TODAY

Nick Saban would rather not talk about the number of zeros and commas on his paycheck. After all, the nation's highest-paid college football coach, the $4 million man, took a pay cut when he left the for Alabama in January.

"It's not about money for me," Saban said twice for emphasis. Fair or not, the money puts him in his profession's toughest tax bracket: most scrutinized coach in the country.

SEVEN MORE:The other reasons for a great season

Take the fat paycheck. Add the Crimson Tide's storied tradition and the expectations of their fired-up fans. Factor in Saban's brusque exit from Miami, plus his uneasy relationship with the media. Include his Bowl Championship Series national title as coach at rival LSU four seasons ago. The result? An intensely examined life, from every dollar made to every Little Debbie oatmeal creme pie cookie devoured (two each morning).

This fall, not a week will go by without "highest-paid coach" mentioned after his name. "I think it makes you the easiest target in college football," says , considered the most influential sports radio host in Alabama.

Saban's situation is no different from say, Alex Rodriguez's. The biggest contract usually results in the most pressure. "People look at you in a different light, but that's in any sport, whether player or a coach," Auburn coach says. "Obviously there's a lot of expectations when you're paid that much. Some people are going to look at you as someone who's going to wave a magic wand, and that's not going to happen.

"Nick's a good football coach. He's won a lot of games, he's won a national championship, but patience is a virtue when you're at a new school," Tuberville says.

For NCAA President Myles Brand, it is about money. A month before Alabama raised the bar, Brand called escalating salaries the most important issue for 2007 in college athletics. A few months later, he explained how the market reached this point. "What happened is Nick Saban," Brand said. "The market between the NFL and the college coaches has collapsed. … We're seeing more and more movement back and forth."

Is it fair that Saban is the poster child for excess in college sports? "I don't feel like I'm totally responsible for where this whole salary thing has gone," Saban said last month at the SEC media days. "I think it will continue to go there in the future relative to what happens in the NFL and how the trickle effect comes down into college football."

This makes little sense to Andrew Zimbalist, an economics professor at Smith College. "If a typical NFL team has $200 million in revenue and if Alabama's football team makes about $40 million," he says, "how could a head coach of a football team that makes $40 million make the same amount as a head coach of a team that generates $200 million?"

Even though most of the big money paid to college coaches is from schools' lucrative television and apparel contracts and multimedia and marketing-rights deals, "I think you have to ask the hard questions," Brand has said. "Is this the appropriate thing to do within the context of college sports?"

http://usatoday.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Saban%27s+move+one+... 8/24/2007 Saban's move one of eight ways 2007 will deliver - USATODAY.com Page 2 of 5

College officials have expressed concern that Saban's eight-year, $32 million guaranteed contract will lead to continuing increases in salaries and additional congressional scrutiny.

Last fall, the House Ways and Means Committee asked the NCAA to explain why coaches are paid so much and whether athletics departments that generate millions deserved tax-exempt status.

Lots of extras in contract

Beyond what's guaranteed, Saban can earn much more. According to a copy of his contract obtained by USA TODAY through a Freedom of Information request, he would pocket an additional $400,000 for a BCS title, plus another $200,000 if he wins the SEC championship game, SEC coach of the year and national coach of the year honors. If Saban's players reach certain academic standards, add another $100,000 to the pot.

Then there are the other perks — two cars, a skybox, country club membership and personal use of a private plane. However, unlike most highly compensated coaches' contracts, Saban's doesn't have a buyout clause.

Head coaches at the NCAA's top-level schools earned an average of $950,000 last year, not counting benefits, incentives, subsidized housing or any of the perks they routinely receive, according to a study of 107 coaches for whom USA TODAY could obtain a contract or other official document showing compensation.

Saban says it's not about money because he still sees himself as a "country boy who grew up in West Virginia and pumped gas from the time he was 10 years old until he graduated from high school." Making millions wasn't even a remote idea when he first started coaching and earned $8,000 a year. His love of teaching and his desire to work with college players brought him back to campus. Plus, Saban and his wife of 35 years, Terry, have been very generous with their time and money for their Nick's Kids Fund, which helps children around the state.

Alabama cornerback Simeon Castille says he rarely thinks about Saban's salary. He's too busy learning his coach's 3-4 defense.

"I'm around him all the time," Castille says. "Really, the only time I think of (Saban's salary) is when I see him hop into his Mercedes."

For Alabama fans, it's not about money. At least not yet. "People here don't think of it in terms of (salary) numbers," says Cecil Hurt, the sports editor and columnist for The Tuscaloosa News. "People don't see Nick holding up a big basketful of money. They see him holding up a BCS trophy."

Plenty of challenges ahead

Even the most demanding fans will understand if Saban doesn't win 10 games this year. After a 6-7 season in 2006, the Tide enter the fall unranked. They must replace six defensive starters and their running back. A brutal September stretch includes consecutive games against No. 20 Arkansas and No. 13 Georgia in Tuscaloosa and No. 21 Florida State in Jacksonville.

Saban's players aren't making it any easier. Four have been arrested in the last two months, including Castille last Sunday on a disorderly conduct charge, according to Tuscaloosa police.

Fans dreaming of the school's first national title since 1992 might be uncharacteristically patient because they believe a dynasty is in the making.

"Some people think this is the dawning of the next 25-year Paul Bryant millennium," says Hurt, who has covered the Crimson Tide for a quarter-century. Bryant won or shared six national titles and 14 SEC crowns from 1958 to 1982.

Finebaum, who also covered the end of the Bryant era, has reached the same conclusion: "I think there are young people out there who are thinking this is their ."

The man who was called "Satan" in Miami (after he repeatedly said he had no interest in the Alabama job and then changed his mind) has become "St. Nick" in Tuscaloosa. A popular T-shirt has Saban in a Santa outfit holding a bag with a national championship in it.

Saban was hired to win championships, beat Auburn and put an end to the tumult of the past decade. In recent years, the numbers the university proudly trumpets — its 12 national championships from wire services and other organizations; the 21 SEC titles, more than any other school in the league; the 54 bowl games, an NCAA record — have been overshadowed by far different numbers.

Since 2000, Alabama has had five head coaches. Last year coach Mike Shula was fired after going 26-24 in four seasons, including four losses to Auburn. Under Mike DuBose, Dennis Franchione and then , there was enough drama to launch a reality TV show, including an affair with a secretary (DuBose), a quickie divorce (Franchione bolted for Texas A&M after two seasons) and a much-publicized trip to a strip club (Price). The subsequent coaching searches have been melodramatic as well. (First West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez was coming, then he wasn't.)

http://usatoday.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Saban%27s+move+one+... 8/24/2007 Saban's move one of eight ways 2007 will deliver - USATODAY.com Page 3 of 5

No major-college program can match the turmoil Alabama has experienced in recent years. Since the last national title in 1992, the school has been hit with NCAA sanctions twice, including three years of bowl bans and the loss of 34 scholarships. Last month at the SEC media days, after Arkansas coach detailed the Razorbacks' saga of the past few months, Hurt, the longtime Tuscaloosa writer, cracked, "A tough offseason? How about a tough decade? See how that works for you."

Trust in St. Nick

Given Saban's five-year run at LSU in which he won a national title and two SEC championships, it's easy to see why Tide fans have ample faith in St. Nick. Even Finebaum, the radio host whose show is billed as the place where "coaches are fired," says he's been nothing but "Pollyannaish" about Saban.

But what if Saban struggles? Will his paycheck suddenly matter to the fans now proudly wearing "Member of Sabanation" T-shirts?

"There's not a lot of guys walking down the street making $4 million a year," Finebaum says. "This isn't West Virginia, but it's still a poor state, and (if Saban doesn't win) the average guy is going to go, 'We're paying a guy $4 million a year and we've lost to Auburn two or three years in a row?'

"I think that's eventually going to be how he's judged at the end of the day. … Can he battle that number?"

The rest of the eight reasons

No. 2: Conference

After slumping last season, the Atlantic Coast Conference hopes to be as strong as the Big East, the league it raided. Last year, two of the ACC's powerhouse programs, Florida State and Miami, combined to lose 12 games. Three head coaches were fired. The conference lost another BCS game (1-8 all-time). This isn't what the ACC had in mind when it added Miami and Virginia Tech in 2004 and Boston College in 2005.

ACC coaches attribute last year's slide to depth and parity. Besides, most leagues have an off year every once in a while. Will the league rebound? Expectations are modest, with only two teams in the preseason coaches' poll, the same number as the Western Athletic Conference. The ACC also doesn't have a preseason Heisman candidate.

What to watch: Wake Forest's improbable title run was one of the best stories in college football last year. Can the Demon Deacons sustain their success? The ACC hasn't had a team in the BCS title game since 2000. Can No. 9 Virginia Tech, a team easy to root for after the tragedy of the spring, contend for the BCS title? Will No. 21 Florida State, with its revamped coaching staff, and Miami, with new head coach Randy Shannon, become relevant again?

No. 3: Assistant coach

The last chapter of 's historic career is in your hands, Jimbo Fisher. Bowden, who turns 78 in November, said he plans to remain at Florida State until he wins a third national championship or it seems clear to him another title is not in sight. Which is why Bowden hired four new offensive coaches. Fisher, the , replaces Bowden's son Jeff, who resigned after unrelenting criticism.

During his seven years as LSU's offensive coordinator, Fisher, 41, won a national championship and coached five quarterbacks who were NFL draft picks (including this year's No. 1, JaMarcus Russell). Fisher must turn around a Seminoles offense that ranked 70th in the country in total offense and 45th in scoring last year. He must work his magic on junior QBs Drew Weatherford and Xavier Lee after both struggled during last year's 7-6 season, the worst since Bowden's first year at Florida State in 1976.

If the new offensive coordinator helps get the winningest coach (366-113-4) in major-college football closer to 400 wins, a national championship and a happy retirement, Fisher could be next in line for the top job.

No. 4: Schedule

Big East bashing is soooo 2004. Still, if No. 6 West Virginia proves to be a BCS title contender as expected, its schedule will face plenty of scrutiny. The strength of a team's schedule influences the BCS' six computer ratings. Entering the season, Jeff Sagarin has WVU's schedule ranked No. 56, the lowest among the top 10 teams in the preseason USA TODAY Coaches' Poll.

According to Sagarin, a team can mitigate a weak schedule by going undefeated, but if the Mountaineers lose, it will be hard to stay in the title mix. The Mountaineers' toughest game, against No. 11 Louisville, is at home after a bye week. But their other major Big East tests come on the road against South Florida (Sept. 28) and No. 16 Rutgers (Oct. 27). Last season the Bulls upset the Mountaineers and the Scarlet Knights lost to WVU in triple overtime.

The Mountaineers don't have any I-AA teams on their schedule like other highly ranked teams. Four of their first five opponents (Western

http://usatoday.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Saban%27s+move+one+... 8/24/2007 Saban's move one of eight ways 2007 will deliver - USATODAY.com Page 4 of 5

Michigan, Maryland, East Carolina and South Florida) went to bowl games last season. The other game is at Marshall (Sept. 8), their first trip to Huntington since 1915.

No. 5: Team

No. 5 Michigan is favored to win the Big Ten. The Wolverines have two Heisman candidates in running back Mike Hart, who finished fifth in the voting last year, and quarterback , a four-year starter who should hold the school's career passing records by season's end. Left tackle , the team's best pro prospect, returned for his senior season. So Big Blue Nation is bursting with giddy optimism, right?

Not entirely. After winning its first 11 games last year, Michigan lost to Ohio State for the third consecutive year and was routed by Southern California in the . The Wolverines haven't won a big game late in the season since 2003, which doesn't sit well with their demanding fans. The first question coach Lloyd Carr answered at Big Ten media days this summer was about the team's 0-6 record vs. Ohio State and bowl opponents.

Carr has won 76% of his games, including a national title in 1997 and five Big Ten titles, but his recent record against Michigan's biggest rival (1-5 vs. Ohio State's ) has increased the heat. Also, the lingering questions about Carr's health (he says he's fine) and possible retirement (no timetable announced) have added to the win-now atmosphere in Ann Arbor.

No. 6: Team (hype division)

Move over, 1971 Nebraska. Take a back seat, 1945 Army. Not even close, 1947 Notre Dame. The greatest team in college football history might be 2007 Southern California, says Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh.

Perhaps Harbaugh wanted to pile on the pressure with his hyperbole. He certainly created more hype. If No. 1 USC beats Nebraska in Lincoln on Sept. 15 and doesn't stumble through its Pacific-10 schedule, the hype will only intensify. Two seasons ago, ESPN breathlessly aired a series that ranked the 2005 Trojans among the greatest teams of the last half-century. Then Texas beat USC in the Rose Bowl.

USC has nine returning starters on defense, a leading Heisman candidate at quarterback in John David Booty and preposterous depth at running back. Before anyone puts USC among the pantheon of all-time greats, the Trojans should at least play a down against Idaho in their season opener.

How will the Trojans handle the hype? Usually they take the lead from their be-in-the-moment coach. After Harbaugh made his comment during Pac-10 media day, coach Pete Carroll smiled as he said, "Gotta love Jim, don't ya?" Then he added, "I'm glad he thinks that."

No. 7: Freshman

Notre Dame quarterback Jimmy Clausen won't be able to go about his freshman year quietly, even if he begins the season on the bench. Clausen thrust himself into the spotlight when he announced his college choice at the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend. He arrived at the news conference in a stretch Hummer limousine and talked about winning national championships. Though coach said the "dog-and-pony show" gave people the wrong impression of the freshman's hardworking demeanor, Clausen faces expectations as over-the- top as that Hummer. The intense glare grew last week with a report he received a misdemeanor citation for transporting alcohol as a minor this summer.

There hasn't been a more heralded, or hyped, freshman at Notre Dame since Ron Powlus, the Irish's new QB coach, stepped on campus in 1993. Before Clausen even took a snap at Westlake Village (Calif.) Oaks Christian High, he was dubbed "the LeBron James of ." The nation's No. 1 recruit hopes to be the Irish's No. 1 quarterback. Following Brady Quinn won't be easy, especially on an offense that lost eight starters and facing an opening stretch against Georgia Tech and then at Penn State and Michigan.

No. 8: Player

Now that it's Year 4 of the Bill Callahan era, there's a growing sense it's time for Nebraska to do more than win the Big 12 North. No. 19 Nebraska has its highest preseason ranking under Callahan, but the 'Huskers' hope of a return to glory rests heavily in the hands of their new quarterback.

Callahan named that starter Monday, and it was hardly a surprise. Arizona State transfer had already been selected as the preseason Big 12 newcomer of the year. At ASU, Keller passed for 3,018 yards and 26 TDs in 19 games, including seven starts in 2005. Before he suffered a season-ending hand injury, he was on pace to break several school and league records.

Entering last fall, Keller, then a senior, was named ASU's starting quarterback. Two days later, Sun Devils coach switched to sophomore Rudy Carpenter. The next week, Keller transferred to Nebraska. After the Sun Devils stumbled to a 7-5 season, Koetter was fired.

At Nebraska, Keller will have five top returning receivers to throw to but not much time to ease into the job. No. 1 USC comes to Memorial Stadium on Sept. 15.

http://usatoday.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Saban%27s+move+one+... 8/24/2007 Sports Spending Priorities Challenged - WRAL.com Page 1 of 3

Sports Spending Priorities Challenged

William Friday is working back to ambulatory status following knee surgery that nearly coincided with his 87th birthday last month. But wear and tear has dulled neither his interest in promoting restraint in funding college athletics, nor his outrage when new borders of excess are crossed.

It’s tempting to shrug and move on, recognizing business-as-usual as the merger tightens between college athletics, the entertainment industry, and government. Fortunately, Friday and others outside the athletic mainstream have not succumbed to such cynical acceptance.

Friday, president emeritus of the University of North Carolina system, had barely returned from the hospital to his Chapel Hill home before learning Rep. Charlie Dannelly of Mecklenburg County had inserted into the recently adopted state budget a half-million dollar subsidy for athletic scholarships to 10 historically black universities. The bill included minimal academic requirements.

This on top of, or in reaction to, the $8 million in taxpayer funds spent this year alone to subsidize out- of-state athletes at in-state rates for the benefit of sports programs at higher-profile North Carolina universities. That escalating sum derives from a 2005 bill for “nonresident scholarships,” with less than a third of the funding going to support academic scholarships.

Portrayed as a tool for attracting budding scholars, this legislative legerdemain neatly reduced fundraising pressure on booster clubs and athletics departments that proudly – and falsely – boast they do not require public funding.

“There’s got to be some sense of order about our spending on athletics in North Carolina,” Friday said. “I don’t want to be a prophet of doom, because I’ve been an optimistic person all my life, but I don’t think we’re facing reality here.”

That reality, Friday said, included nascent plans to spend approximately $100 million on expanding Kenan Stadium at the University of North Carolina. The former 30-year president of the UNC system objected to the Kenan expansion on fiscal and, if you will, moral grounds.

Friday cited a recent report that fewer than 10 percent of athletic programs break even financially in the so-called Football Bowl Subdivision. Yet that barely slows the train as more schools incur massive debt, and seek ever more problematic revenue streams, in order to muscle to the top of the competitive heap.

“It’s the power of money, and it’s the insatiable appetite: this isn’t enough, let’s do more,” Friday said. Referring to ACC expansion, he added, “What you’re seeing here with the stadium is the natural evolution of that merger. You’ve got to keep up with Clemson and Florida State.” Not to mention Virginia Tech and Miami, the latter school where UNC coach Butch Davis earned his coaching stripes.

Friday also lamented the possibility that an expanded Kenan Stadium would be an enclosed bowl, eliminating the open end where the fieldhouse currently sits amidst a grove of trees. The Tar Heel football media guide calls Kenan “one of the most scenic athletic venues in America” due largely to “its majestic setting among the Carolina pines.” Chances are, that boast will require rewriting.

Over the years Kenan family sources have contributed $100 million to UNC, including the funds to build the football stadium in 1927, and to support subsequent expansions. Given that largesse, Friday voiced a sense of betrayal, of trust broken, should new plans obliterate the facility’s original design and purpose as a memorial to William Rand Kenan’s parents. “If they tear it down, it will be the last part of

http://www.wral.com/news/local/blogpost/1736429/?print_friendly=1 8/24/2007 Sports Spending Priorities Challenged - WRAL.com Page 2 of 3

his plan to go,” Friday said of Kenan Fieldhouse. “I wish that they would remember what his wishes were somewhere along the line.”

Lissa Broome, chair of Carolina’s Faculty Athletics Committee, said discussions of stadium expansion are so preliminary she had not studied the issues “in great detail at this point.” But she saw more gray areas than did Friday in the ever-increasing demand for funds and facilities to support big-time athletics.

“It’s a tough issue. You have to be fiscally conservative and still go forward, and sometimes you have to spend money to make money,” said Broome, Wachovia Professor of Banking Law and director of the school’s Center for Banking and Finance. “The world moves on and changes, and we don’t need to be stuck in the mud just because we did it that way 30 years ago.”

Retired Tar Heel basketball coach Dean Smith was fond of noting that new arenas, and the attendant rise in expectations, often resulted in the firing of perfectly capable coaches. Broome conceded similar risk in lavish Kenan Stadium expansion, pointing out “you add pressure to win and keep people in the seats when you’ve got something like that to pay for.”

Broome hastened to note that the so-called arms race in collegiate athletics is mirrored by similar competitive races “on other parts of the campus.” Certainly the desire to keep up with Duke and N.C. State in attracting research funds is a key motivating factor in UNC’s quest to build Carolina North, a research and teaching campus planned for a site in northcentral Chapel Hill.

Point taken. But, to restate in contemporary terms a concern almost as old as college sports, where does the athletic arms race end when members of the University of North Carolina system such as Winston- Salem State and N.C. Central rush head-long to embrace high-profile athletics, and news of upgraded athletic facilities is almost constant at the state’s ACC schools?

“Good question,” Broome said. “In our whole society, our expectations keep going up on everything.”

At least, Broome noted with a pride common within the circles of big-time sports, no state monies go to supporting college athletic enterprises.

This will come as news to Pricey Harrison, a representative from Guilford County who co-sponsored legislation with Onslow’s George Cleveland to repeal what she called “the Ram’s Club subsidy” for out- of-state athletes. “I don’t see how you could justify the taxpayers subsidizing the booster clubs at these institutions,” Harrison said, mentioning UNC, N.C. State, and East Carolina in particular. “It bugs me no end. There are so many other priorities in the state, I can’t justify it.”

So, Harrison and Cleveland forced a vote on their bill in late July, breaking Democratic party discipline to do so. (Harrison, a second-term member, “was a little bit chastised” for her effrontery, she said, and felt properly abashed.) But the upstart legislators succeeded; their effort to repeal subsidized athletic scholarships for nonresident students passed the House on a 93-13 vote. The measure now sits in the state senate, where it may never see the light of day.

The recent round of scholarship aid is the tip of a taypayer-funded iceberg. Public support for college sports already includes direct appropriations to construct arenas, subsidies for grounds and building maintenance, incentives to secure tournaments, providing infrastructure such as roads to service facilities, and making up for income tax deductions claimed by booster contributions dubiously related to educational purposes.

http://www.wral.com/news/local/blogpost/1736429/?print_friendly=1 8/24/2007 Sports Spending Priorities Challenged - WRAL.com Page 3 of 3

“It’s a question of where your priorities are,” Friday said. “That’s the ultimate issue that we have to be accountable for.”

Copyright 2007 by WRAL.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

http://www.wral.com/news/local/blogpost/1736429/?print_friendly=1 8/24/2007