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Posted: Jul 03, 2009 9:37PM By Terrance Harris (RSS feed)
Filed Under: Texas A&M, Big 12
It's no secret the economy has had an adverse effect on most industries.
Initially athletics seemed like they might be insulated from the strife. But more and more we've heard of professional teams struggling, big-time donors having to give less and athletic departments having to monitor copy machines.
Texas A&M, one of the premiere schools in the Big 12, announced Friday that it's having to
cut 17 positions from its athletic department in order to balance the budget. Facilities director Billy Pickard, 75, apparently is one of the casualties although he is the lone remaining link in the department to legendary football coach Paul "Bear" Bryant from the 1950s.
Posted: Jul 03, 2009 2:30PM By Jim Henry (RSS feed)
Filed Under: Boise State, WAC
Kellen Moore exceeded expectations last year when he became the first freshman quarterback to ever start a season opener at quarterback for Boise State.
Moore's poise and production also were off the charts, helping the Broncos come within two points of an undefeated season. He was named Western Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year and second-team all conference in addition to being named Boise State's Most Valuable Offensive Player by a vote of teammates.
That's plenty of praise and hardware, but don't think for a second Moore is blinded by his success.
"We have high expectations here," Moore told FanHouse. "We go into each week with a game plan and I am expected to do what I do, whether it's throwing a certain route or whatever. We prepare in practice and nothing really happens brand new out on the field during the game."
Posted: Jul 02, 2009 4:30PM By Clay Travis (RSS feed)
Filed Under: International Olympics
Caleb Campbell, the 6-foot-1, 230-pound
Army safety who the
Detroit Lions selected in the seventh round of the 2008 NFL Draft, is currently training with the U.S. bobsled team in an effort to make the
2010 Winter Olympics team. It's quite the change of careers for Campbell, who had his NFL dream yanked out from under him at
the last possible moment in July of 2008.
The Army's decision to reverse course and require Campbell to report for service, despite having implemented a 2005 exemption penalty, ignited a firestorm of debate. Now Campbell is training in Lake Placid, N.Y., while stationed at West Point. He has a new dream -- making the Olympic team.
While the military won't allow Campbell to pursue a career in the NFL until late 2010, they do have a policy in place that allows would-be Olympians to pursue their training as part of their military commitment. After being contacted by a member of the U.S. bobsledding team in July of 2008, Campbell has thrown himself into the training and pronounces himself in the best shape of his life. "Some days, it hurts to get out of bed," he says.
Posted: Jul 01, 2009 2:23PM By Jim Henry (RSS feed)
Filed Under: Florida State

Florida State has returned the NCAA's volley.
FSU administrators released their rebuttal Wednesday morning to the NCAA in the latest step in the school's appeal of sanctions stemming from an academic misconduct case. The university is appealing just one of the original sanctions imposed by the NCAA earlier this year -- the order to vacate wins in as many as 10 sports.
The NCAA has not moved from its position that FSU must vacate victories in multiple sports, a ruling that would cost Seminoles football coach
Bobby Bowden 14 victories and essentially end his bid to become college football's all-time winningest coach.
Posted: Jun 30, 2009 11:16PM By Mark Hasty (RSS feed)
Filed Under: Tennessee, Media Watch, Recruiting, Prospects

In case you're wondering, here is the complete list of outrageous things
Lane Kiffin has
not done since becoming head coach at Tennessee:
1. Paint himself orange and skydive naked into Bryant-Denny Stadium.
2. Ask what Urban Meyer has done that's so great.
3. Consult with the UT astronomy department to see whether the universe would be annihilated if his ego was ever in the same room as Bruce Pearl's.
4. Coach in, and win, a football game.
For a moment, I had to cross off "make an outrageous scholarship offer to a middle schooler" because, well, there were reports that he just did that. Evan Berry, 13-year-old son of former Vol running back James Berry and brother of current Vol Eric Berry, has officially committed to the Vols. Or so said Rivals.com and ESPN, sort of.
Posted: Jun 30, 2009 1:34PM By Terrance Harris (RSS feed)
Filed Under: Texas, Big 12

It's hard to argue with much when a team goes 12-1 and comes within a lucky last-second play of going undefeated during the regular season as well as having a chance to play for the national title.
That is unless you play in the backfield at the University of Texas, where high production at running back is an expectation. The Longhorns, relying heavily on a group of inexperienced running backs, didn't put up the kind of running numbers that have become commonplace in Austin, where immortals like
Earl Campbell and
Ricky Williams once did their work.
Junior running back
Vondrell McGee knows that this season the running back corps will have to make considerable strides to quiet detractors who insist the Longhorns ground attack has fallen off.
Posted: Jun 29, 2009 8:30PM By Clay Travis (RSS feed)
Filed Under: NBA Prospects, Campus
Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal published an investigation that found just
26 major league baseball players and managers have college degrees. Twenty-six! That's out of a pool of a potential 1,042 players and managers. You want that in percentage terms, that's 2.5 percent. A staggeringly low percentage, even if you pull out all Latin American players (who don't have the same collegiate opportunities) from the equation. Yet, I defy you to find an article that utilizes this fact to make an argument that baseball players need better educations.
The same would hold true for tennis, hockey and golf. As a society, we don't care about the education of our athletes in those sports. In fact, what are the only two sports that we seem to care about when it comes to the education of athletes? Football and basketball. Which just so happen to also have the largest percentage of minority athletes. That's got me wondering, isn't our society guilty of racial paternalism when it comes to sports?
Posted: Jun 29, 2009 3:53PM By Jim Henry (RSS feed)
Filed Under: Arkansas, SEC

Bobby Petrino's offense is not easy to learn. In fact, it is complicated.
It's not uncommon for a Petrino team to be able to run the same play out of as many 10 different formations, creating confusion for the defense. That's why Arkansas tailback
Michael Smith, a 1,000-yard rusher in 2008, viewed spring drills as a blessing. Sure, Smith would rather have practiced but he was sidelined with a hamstring injury.
So Smith studied practice from a new vantage point.
Posted: Jun 29, 2009 1:15PM By Mark Hasty (RSS feed)

If there's a recession in college football, it has yet to reach the coaching ranks. Well, not the head-coaching ranks, anyway. In the past week, three head coaches, Bob Stoops, Pat Fitzgerald, and Brian Kelly, have signed contract extensions that ...
Posted: Jun 26, 2009 5:00PM By Mark Hasty (RSS feed)

The University of Minnesota's Board of Regents has decided to go dry. The Board acted Wednesday to ban alcohol sales at all its on-campus venues, including the soon-to-open TCF Bank Stadium. "Acted" might be a bit of stretch, actually. "Reacted" is ...
Posted: Jun 26, 2009 2:30PM By Clay Travis (RSS feed)

Recently, Stanford University unveiled its imaginative new slogan for the upcoming football season. Are you ready? Hold your breath. It's astounding, it's going to rock your world. "We work." That's it. The sum total of Stanford's distilled ...
Posted: Jun 25, 2009 4:50PM By Mark Hasty (RSS feed)

Barry Alvarez (pictured right), the former head football coach and current athletic director at the University of Wisconsin, is definitely a glass-half-full guy. Most athletic directors would be sweating if their season ticket renewals fell from 99% ...
Posted: Jun 24, 2009 10:00PM By Mark Hasty (RSS feed)

It's 111 miles from Iowa City to Parkersburg, Iowa, but sometimes the two places seem a lot closer. Today there's no distance whatsoever. Ed Thomas, legendary coach of the Aplington-Parkersburg High School Falcons, was shot and killed by one of his ...