NCAA Football Bowling Green Football

Michigan fans weren't the only Big Ten fans to have to suffer through an upset in their team's season opener. Golden Gophers fans had to deal with seeing their team fall behind 21-0 to Bowling Green in the first half, and as a result, it took some of the life out of their fans.

Take this guy for instance. It would seem that our friend here dabbled a bit too much in the pre-game warmups, and couldn't find the energy to root his team on.


For his sake, I hope he slept through the second half as well. Waking up to see the Gophers battle back only to lose in overtime probably would have made him puke.

After an incredibly slow start, the Minnesota Gophers were able to stage an impressive second-half rally at the Metrodome Saturday night. They trailed 21-0 to Bowling Green at halftime, but the Gophers forced overtime, thanks to 17 fourth-quarter points.

Unfortunately for Minnesota, a gutsy two-point conversion decision by Bowling Green coach Gregg Brandon and the subsequent conversion gave the Falcons a 32-31 win. The loss spoiled the head coaching debut for Minnesota's Tim Brewster.

Brewster must have been horrified by what he saw in the first half. The Falcons scored three first-half touchdowns and appeared to be on their way to an easy win. Minnesota showed quickly and decisively that they couldn't stop the Falcons' pass-happy spread offense. At the same time, freshman starting QB Adam Weber looked lost in the first half, mixing bad throws with bad reads while the running game lay dormant.

That running game, keyed by Weber and returning starter Amir Pinnix, struggled to make any big dents in the Bowling Green defense in the first half. Pinnix busted off a 58-yard run, but it was followed up on the next play by a Weber fumble inside the BG 20.

New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has issued subpoenas for 39 collegiate athletic departments in a probe of their relationships with student loan providers. At its most basic, this investigation is asking whether or not cash, kickbacks, gifts and other bribes or misleading measures were communicated between various student loan providers and the cited athletic departments.

Cuomo is investigating whether athletic departments at these universities agreed to promote SFS loans to students in exchange for kickbacks.

"Students trust their University's athletic departments because so much of campus life at Division I schools centers around supporting the home team," said Cuomo. "To betray this trust by promoting loans in exchange for money is a serious issue, especially when Division I schools already generate tremendous revenue from their student athletes. Today's action is an important new step as we continue to examine the unethical conflicts that pervade the student loan industry.

"The Attorney General's office is specifically investigating whether athletic departments evaluated UFS interest rates before recommending their federal loans, or if their endorsement of UFS was based purely on payments from the lender. Such an arrangement would constitute revenue sharing, which is a violation New York state consumer protection laws, as well as a violation of federal law.

D-IA football schools named (prominent schools in bold): Arkansas State, Auburn, Bowling Green, Central Michigan, Colorado State, East Carolina, Florida Atlantic, Georgia Tech, Ohio, Oregon State, Rutgers, TCU, Tulane, Alabama-Birmingham, UCLA, UCF, Houston, Kansas, Louisville, Oregon, Pittsburgh, USF, UTEP. See link for complete list.

Of note: USC and Texas have also been scrutinized in a similar probe, but to my knowledge it has not been linked to their athletic departments but rather the university-wide financial aid offices of the schools.

It's good that athletic departments have an awareness of and working relationship with loan providers, but obviously there's a problem when that relationship gets too cozy and bad loan options are pressed upon students and student-athletes.

(Via: Yahoo!)

In this era of cupcake scheduling (most of which is lamely blamed on the 12-game schedule), Minnesota football coach Tim Brewster should be considered a breath of fresh air.

Brewster appeared at the annual meeting of the Minnesota Associated Press Sports Editors, and he told the audience that he wants improvements made to Minnesota's non-conference scheduling.

I am sure this comes as a complete shock to most of you, but apparently Brewster doesn't see Bowling Green, Miami (Ohio), Florida Atlantic, and North Dakota State as much of a non-conference slate.

Perhaps he looked ahead to 2008 and saw that intimidating foursome of TBA (MAC team at home), Bowling Green, Montana State, and Florida Atlantic.

Don't fret, Coach. You host California in 2009. Of course, you also host South Dakota State in 2009. Washington State, Oregon State, and Colorado all appear for home-and-home series between 2010 and 2015. There's still room for North Dakota somewhere in there, too. Oh, wait. The Gophers won't play North Dakota until they change their nickname from "Fighting Sioux".