NCAA Football FanHouse

The NCAA Is Unnecessarily Worried About Your Child's Obesity

Brian Grummell — Mon, 05 May 2008 14:46:00 EST

Filed under: NCAA FB Fans, College Sports

Be sure to check out the link and see their theme picture: cheeseburger guy. Among the range of topics addressed at the "NCAA Gender Equity and Issues Forum" this week was childhood obesity. How so?

[NCAA] administrators are wondering whether increased obesity rates may have an adverse effect on the quality of prospective student-athletes in years to come.

Somehow I doubt the NCAA needs to worry about this. Youth sports are seemingly endless in number and yearlong in availability. The pool of quality athletes talented enough to compete at an NCAA level is more likely determined by young people's interest in those sports than obesity factors. It's a self-selecting phenomena. Obese kids truly passionate about sports and who have talent should and will generally find a way to be fit and compete.

Plus, at least with football, bigger kids are always in demand. Healthy kids are an important issue, but the NCAA is both over-extending itself considering this topic and is making much ado about nothing as far as future pools of quality athletes. High-level athletics requires fitness, and if kids are truly passionate about competing at the NCAA level, they'll be fit. The NCAA's focus should be on directing passion and energy into these sports which leads to able bodies, not hand-wringing over the larger obesity issue.

The NCAA Is Unnecessarily Worried About Your Child's Obesity originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Mon, 05 May 2008 14:46:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sub-.500 Wisconsin Men's Hockey Team Will Make NCAA Tournament

Bruce Ciskie — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 23:00:00 EST

Filed under: Michigan, Wisconsin, College Sports

I covered some of the scenarios in Saturday's Ice Sheet, but we know more now.

The field for the 2008 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Championship won't be official until Sunday afternoon's selection show. However, thanks to a transparent mathematical system being used to rank the teams in Division I and select the at-large teams, we know now who will make the tournament.

With this year's selections will come a lot of controversy, as a Wisconsin team (pictured to the right celebrating their 2006 NCAA title) that finished the season under .500 overall will make the field of 16 as an at-large team. It's not unprecedented for sub-.500 clubs to win a conference tournament to get an automatic bid (Alabama-Huntsville did it just last year). However, it's crazy to think that a team that couldn't even win half its games is good enough to earn an at-large bid to a national tournament.

It might be crazy, but it's happening. The folks at College Hockey News and U.S. College Hockey Online have both updated their "Pairwise" rankings. These rankings are a replica of the mathematical formula the selection committee will use to pick the field as they gather this weekend.

After the jump, we'll tell you who's in the field, and also reveal another crazy fact about this tournament that works heavily in Wisconsin's favor (as if their mere inclusion in the field wasn't a crazy-enough circumstance).

The field of 16 includes six automatic entries, which go to the tournament champions of each Division I conference. Those teams are Niagara (College Hockey America), Air Force (Atlantic Hockey), Princeton (ECAC), Boston College (Hockey East), Denver (WCHA), and Michigan (CCHA).

The other ten spots go to the highest-rated teams in the "Pairwise" who aren't already in the field. Five of the ten at-large bids will go WCHA teams, as North Dakota, Colorado College, St. Cloud State, Minnesota, and Wisconsin are all in the field. Miami, Michigan State (the 2007 champion) and Notre Dame are in out of the CCHA. Clarkson makes it from the ECAC, and New Hampshire earns an at-large out of Hockey East.

The seeds and pairings will be made official Sunday, and some teams will have to be moved a seed line or two to avoid conference matchups in the first round. But it appears pretty certain that Michigan will be the top overall seed, and Miami, New Hampshire, and North Dakota will be regional top seeds.

That's where it gets crazier for Wisconsin. Not only are they in the tournament, but they'll play their first-round game next weekend at the Kohl Center in Madison, site of the Midwest Regional. NCAA guidelines stipulate that a team that hosts a regional must play in that regional if they make the tournament. Colorado College will also play at home, as they host the West Regional. Designated hosts for the Northeast Regional in Worcester (Holy Cross) and the East Regional in Albany (RPI) didn't qualify for the tournament.

Regionals are held next Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, with the Frozen Four April 10 and 12 at Pepsi Center in Denver.

Sub-.500 Wisconsin Men's Hockey Team Will Make NCAA Tournament originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Sat, 22 Mar 2008 23:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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That Isn't Scarlet Coming Out of Rutgers

Charles Rich — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 17:22:00 EST

Filed under: Big East, Rutgers Football, College Sports

It's red ink from a lack of money at the Rutgers Athletic Department. Barely noted in the euphoria of last season and that Rutgers football was actually making money for the first time, was the fact that Rutgers was cutting 6 Olympic or non-revenue sports from the Athletic Department for budgetary reasons.

Athletic Departments cutting the non-revenue sports is nothing new. Schools have been doing it for years. They usually blame it on Title IX and/or budget issues. Still, it's all new area for Rutgers and after all the positive attention they had been receiving it can be a bit jarring to read as efforts to save the sports failed.

It was a rare defeat in Rutgers' magical sports season. The football team upset No. 3 Louisville en route to its 11-2 record; and the women's basketball team made it to the championship game of the NCAA tournament, an event marred by shock jock Don Imus's on-air ridicule of the women's appearance, leading to his dismissal.

The glow of athletic successes made cutting six teams all the darker. Men's swimming and diving, and tennis, men's and women's fencing, and men's lightweight and heavyweight crew have all ended their tenures at Rutgers as varsity sports. They will continue as club sports, a change not unlike going from baseball's majors to Little League.

The coaches, students and parents affected had organized to try and save the sports. They had received pledges totaling nearly $1 million and had the New Jersey Legislature ready to offer the same.

The efforts failed and offers rebuffed.

Legislative efforts -- led by state Sen. Bob Smith and Assemblymen Patrick Diegnan and Peter Barnes -- failed, at least partly, according to Sen. Smith, because of strong messages from Rutgers that the money would be refused.

"If the legislature passes money for one year, what are you going to do next year, or the year after that," says Rutgers Athletic Director Bob Mulcahy. "As far as all those pledges, nobody ever said here is a list of money that they had in hand."

The Athletic Department now operates 24 sports, but the main focus is on continuing to grow the football program as Mulcahy envisions for the future. Waaayyyyy into the future.

"Football is a separate issue -- I look at it differently from the rest of the sports. It raises far more money, and ultimately the success of football can carry the rest of our programs."

Ultimately is the key word. Football does not now pay its own way, but Mr. Mulcahy is betting that it will. He says he was charged when he was appointed in 1998 to "fix football" after years of losing. His model, he says, were the "big, good" programs of the Big 10, and calls his legacy tied to Mr. Schiano's success.

"You look at schools where football has been successful for 30 or 40 years, and it can carry an athletics program," says Mr. Mulcahy, adding that the last two years of football success head Rutgers in that direction.

That means Rutgers still needs 28 more successful years of football in the next 30 years to get to that point.

That Isn't Scarlet Coming Out of Rutgers originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Sat, 11 Aug 2007 17:22:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Did Duke Case Impact Jones Investigators?

Bruce Ciskie — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 20:25:00 EST

Filed under: Minnesota Football, Big 10, NCAA FB Police Blotter, College Sports

Back in April, an 18-year-old college student from the Twin Cities area alleged that she was sexually assaulted by a group of men, later found to all be members of the Minnesota Gopher football team.

Three players were arrested in early April, and were detained for a weekend while authorities tried to piece together what happened. When charges weren't ready to be filed by the following Monday, the players were released without being charged. At that point, officials said the investigation would continue.

As we pointed out earlier this week, the Sunday night arrest of another player, cornerback Dominic Jones, is related to the case. Jones was charged with third-degree criminal sexual conduct on Monday, and the rather graphic charging document alleges Jones engaged in a sex act with a drunk woman described as "physically helpless".

At his initial court appearance Tuesday, Jones did not enter a plea (he was not obligated to do so). He said nothing besides "Yes, sir" and "No, sir" to the judge and bail was set at $25,000. Jones has since been released on bail. Attorney Earl Gray, representing Jones, said Jones intends to fight the charges, and he would like to play football again if he is acquitted.

While Jones was charged, the three players originally arrested in the case have still not been charged. Alex Daniels, Keith Massey, and E.J. Jones are all named in the charging document, and Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said Monday that the three were still suspects. Freeman noted that only one of the three has given a statement, and he said the other two haven't been cooperative.

Without getting into speculation about the particulars surrounding the case, I did find one quote from Freeman to be quite interesting.

"Everything done in this case was subject to intense scrutiny. Because of that, we want to make sure we do it right."

I'm not a mind-reader, but my brain automatically turned to the Duke lacrosse case when I read this quote from Freeman. I did speculate about the Duke lacrosse case making these investigators a little more careful and thorough than they may normally have been, but I didn't think too seriously about it at the time. The more I think about it now, the more sense it makes. The bottom line is that no prosecutor or detective wants to be compared to Mike Nifong or anyone involved in that botched case ... certainly not when the story is still fresh in everyone's minds.

In the end, the meticulous nature of this investigation might lead some folks to believe that there isn't much to the case, and that it simply took the authorities this long to put anything together that could make charges stick.

The reality is that the authorities did what they felt was right. Freeman and the investigators were stuck dealing with the evidence they could collect, and they didn't want to get their names in the paper for the wrong reasons.

Previously at FanHouse
Dominic Jones Is So Going To Jail
Gopher Starting CB Jones Arrested
Three Gophers Arrested in Sexual Assault Case

Did Duke Case Impact Jones Investigators? originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Tue, 17 Jul 2007 20:25:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wisconsin Hockey Players Busted for Cow Tipping -- But the Cow Was a Sculpture

Michael David Smith — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 14:27:00 EST

Filed under: Wisconsin, College Sports

University of Wisconsin hockey player Kyle Klubertanz and former hockey player Jeffrey Slinde were each fined $200 for tipping over a cow last August in front of the Kohl Center, where the Badgers play their home games. But Wisconsin's hockey program need not worry about being targeted by animal activists, the way the Atlanta Falcons will be this year. The cow these players tipped was a sculpture.

The cow they tipped was one of the more than 100 sculpted cows in Madison last summer for the Wisconsin CowParade.

Both Slinde and Klubertanz were charged with a misdemeanor count of criminal damage to property, but those charges were lowered today to county disorderly conduct, a forfeiture action which leaves the pair with no criminal record. Along with the fine and court costs, each has already finished 30 hours of community service by volunteering at youth hockey camps, said attorney John Hyland, who represented Klubertanz.

As Randball notes, when police asked the players why they did it, they gave the oldest explanation in the book: "We were stupid."

Wisconsin Hockey Players Busted for Cow Tipping -- But the Cow Was a Sculpture originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Fri, 22 Jun 2007 14:27:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Louisville's Chris Cates: The Shortest Player in the College World Series

Michael David Smith — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 13:14:00 EST

Filed under: Louisville, College Sports

I know I'm not supposed to blog about Louisville in the College World Series, but Louisville shortstop Chris Cates is worth seeing:

At just under 5-foot-3, Cates is the shortest player in Division I baseball. Cates was 1-for-5 with an RBI in the Cardinals' 15-10 loss to Rice in their first College World Series appearance Friday. He also committed two errors. If the Cardinals come back to win the College World Series and Cates gets a couple of "clutch" hits, I have a feeling he'll be named the MVP. And I know someone who's going to puke.

Louisville's Chris Cates: The Shortest Player in the College World Series originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Tue, 19 Jun 2007 13:14:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Louisville Baseball Coach Tells Players: Stop Trying to Impress Erin Andrews

Michael David Smith — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 08:58:00 EST

Filed under: Louisville, College Sports

There's a good chance you've seen this video of ESPN sideline reporter Erin Andrews before, but it's important to get a good look at her to understand why Louisville's baseball coach has some concerns:

Aaron Fitt of Baseball America reports that Andrews is one of the many potential distractions to players in the College World Series:

"I don't want to hide from the fact that the kids are going to be excited, I don't want them to try to act too macho," Cardinals coach Dan McDonnell said. "The coolest they tried to act was when they met (ESPN's) Erin Andrews in the lobby. I told them, 'guys, stop acting like you're so cool and macho.' This is a kids' game, and they should be excited."

Sounds like they are excited. Hat tip: Relentless Grace.

Louisville Baseball Coach Tells Players: Stop Trying to Impress Erin Andrews originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Sun, 17 Jun 2007 08:58:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Louisville Courier-Journal Considers Suing NCAA Over Ejected Blogger

Michael David Smith — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 13:57:00 EST

Filed under: Louisville, College Sports

Four days after the NCAA kicked sports writer Brian Bennett out of a baseball game for live blogging about the game, a lawyer for Bennett's employer, the Louisville Courier-Journal, says the paper will consider filing a lawsuit.

the newspaper is weighing a legal challenge on First Amendment grounds - the right to free speech as it applies to reporting news in a public place.
Jon Fleischaker, a lawyer representing The Courier-Journal, said yesterday that such a challenge might be made, within the next 10 days, because the event took place at a public facility and because the eviction was enforced by the University of Louisville, a public institution that was the host university.

The NCAA's lawyer says there is no First Amendment issue because it has the right to determine who is and is not entitled to press credentials. It seems unlikely that this dispute could be resolved before Louisville begins play in the College World Series.

Louisville Courier-Journal Considers Suing NCAA Over Ejected Blogger originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Thu, 14 Jun 2007 13:57:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NCAA Violating Common Sense, if Not First Amendment

Michael David Smith — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 09:36:00 EST

Filed under: Louisville, College Sports

The case of the Louisville Courier-Journal reporter who got kicked out of an NCAA baseball game because he was live-blogging it is getting a lot of attention, and there are two basic arguments.

The first is whether the NCAA had the right to throw reporter Brian Bennett out of the game. And most people think the NCAA did have that authority. The Courier-Journal's story today quotes two attorneys who say this is not a First Amendment issue because the NCAA has the right to issue or deny press credentials to whomever it chooses. So a lawsuit probably wouldn't do the paper much good, as long as the NCAA doesn't also take steps to try to stop someone from live blogging a game by watching it on TV.

But the second issue is whether the NCAA was smart to eject Bennett from the game, and the results are just about unanimous that the NCAA's decision was stupid. Even ESPN, which was televising the game and was presumably the entity that the NCAA thought it was protecting, says it had nothing to do with the NCAA's move.

And that makes sense, because a reporter blogging about the game wouldn't draw any fans away from the TV broadcast. I've never asked a friend to get together to watch a game, only to have him say, "No, I'm going to sit in front of my computer and read a live blog instead."

So what the NCAA is guilty of here is making a really stupid decision. As Peter Schmuck notes today, college baseball would benefit greatly from more media attention, and the NCAA is standing in the way of that.

Previously at FanHouse:
When Dealing With Online Rights, Bloggers Are in a Gray Area
NCAA Clashes With Louisville Paper on Baseball Blog
NCAA Kicks Blogger Out of Baseball Game

NCAA Violating Common Sense, if Not First Amendment originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Tue, 12 Jun 2007 09:36:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When Dealing With Online Rights, Bloggers Are in a Gray Area

Eric McErlain — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 16:10:00 EST

Filed under: Louisville, College Sports, General NHL, Capitals, NHL Live Blogging, NHL Media Watch

Earlier today at the Fanhouse, Michael David Smith pointed to the story about how Louisville Courier-Journal reporter Brian Bennett was tossed out of the press box at an NCAA regional baseball playoff game for blogging about it in real time -- something he had done without incident through the rest of his coverage of Louisville's playoff run to the College World Series.

When I first read about this story, I was disappointed but not surprised. After all, I covered 35 NHL games this past season from the press box at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. and I never intentionally liveblogged a word. Most nights, I would start off with a few pre-game posts during warmups before going dark with the drop of the puck. For the rest of the game, I would continue to live blog, but wouldn't publish anything until after the game was over -- most nights, if there wasn't any trouble with the arena's Wi-Fi connection, that meant we had the first account of the game available on the Web.

Meanwhile, down at ice level, one of my photographers would take a break from shooting in between periods to post photos to the Web, just like any other photo agency does through Yahoo Sports. In addition, I'd also publish a post game update if I was able to get anything interesting out of the locker room or the coach's press conference, and maybe insert a couple of photos directly into the text.

Why did I go to all that trouble? Because before I ever climbed in the press box, I was well aware of the restrictions that the NHL, like other sports leagues, places on real-time accounts of games in progress. After all, what red-blooded American kid can't recite the following line from memory:

Any rebroadcast, reproduction, or other use of the pictures and accounts of this game without the express written consent of Major League Baseball is prohibited.

I've been hearing that standard disclaimer for as long as I can remember, and it's funny how it's still covers all the bases today even with all the changes in technology in the decades since then. So why does the NCAA have its undies in a bunch about this? After all, what could the harm be of allowing somebody to liveblog from the press box the same way any other pajama-clad blogger could from home?The simple answer is cash, and lots of it. Both television and radio rights holders pay big money in order to broadcast sports. And in turn, they expect something of an exclusive when it comes to the money they pay. In addition, leagues are also getting big money out of online rights -- and that includes the "virtual" real-time scoring updates you get from the Web, even the play-by-play updates you see at places like AOL Sports and ESPN.com.

So when you see somebody write that this is a first amendment question, color me skeptical. It's really a commercial question, and when the NCAA or any other similar organization decides to get heavy handed, that's the real impulse we're dealing with here.

Last time I checked there's no constitutional right to a press pass, no matter how many of my fellow bloggers I'd like to see get inside the wire to cover a game.

And now that we're living in a world where every single MSM outlet has some sort of online presence, it's easy to see how something as innocent as a live blog of a college baseball game could cause so much agita.

When you look at it that way, the Louisville Courier-Journal is just another online outlet like ESPN.com and can rightly be considered a competitor by any traditional rights holder. Then again, after reading Bennett's account of the incident at his blog, it's pretty clear that the NCAA didn't handle this well.

First off, instead of contacting Bennett individually and explaining the rule to him, the NCAA took the coward's way out and issued a memo to the press box:

The College World Series Media Coordination staff along with the NCAA Broadcasting group needs to remind all media coordinators that any statistical or other live representation of the Super Regional games falls under the exclusive broadcasting and Internet rights granted to the NCAA's official rights holders and therefore is not allowed by any other entity. Since blogs are considered a live representation of the game, any blog that has action photos or game reports, including play-by-play, scores or any in-game updates, is specifically prohibited. In essence, no blog entries are permitted between the first pitch and the final out of each game.

They did this even though it was clear that Bennett was the only reporter doing any live blogging in the first place. Which is why we shouldn't be surprised that when he advised his editors of this rule, they decided to provoke a confrontation which resulted in his expulsion. Here's more from Bennett:

It will be interesting to see if the NCAA can enforce such a policy. What strikes me as really strange is that someone watching ESPN across the street could have blogged every single pitch without a problem. Also, I seriously doubt anyone was reading my blog instead of watching ESPN. I believe my blog served those readers who for some reason or another couldn't be at the game or get access to a TV (I know this because quite a few emailed me to say just that, and to thank me for my efforts). We got more than 10,000 hits on my blog from the Columbia Regional final last Monday. And college baseball, especially in this area, could use all the publicity it can get.

I don't have any arguments there, but there are some other issues to consider. At all the Washington Caps and D.C. United Games I cover, there's always a reporter from WTOP Radio within a few feet of me, usually Jonathan Warner. When he goes on the air live, he keeps his reports to events that have already taken place in the past.

With that in mind, one could make the argument that the NCAA is simply asking all non-right holders, no matter what medium they might be practicing in, to live with the same restrictions.

Believe me, if I had my druthers, I'd let a thousand live blogs bloom, as I don't believe they could do anything but help promote whatever sport gets covered. Then again, that's a conclusion one can only come to after some considered thought, and it's hardly a slam dunk.

Remember: When you accept a credential, you also accept the conditions that go with it. And when it comes to adjusting to new technologies, it's up to individual bloggers, whether we work independently or for a larger organization to explain to the party who issues the credential that they ought to make some sort of allowance.

Here's hoping the NCAA, along with all the other major professional sports, takes a harder look at how they treat all online outlets, not just ones run by MSM outlets like the Louisville Courier-Journal, and gets a little smarter about how to handle things.

When Dealing With Online Rights, Bloggers Are in a Gray Area originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Mon, 11 Jun 2007 16:10:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NCAA Clashes With Louisville Paper on Baseball Blog

Michael David Smith — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 22:34:00 EST

Filed under: Louisville, College Sports

Brian Bennett, the Louisville Courier-Journal sports writer who was kicked out of an NCAA baseball game today for live blogging from press row, says his paper's lawyer thinks the NCAA overstepped its bounds. The lawyer, Jon Fleschaker, is a first amendment and media law expert, and he says the paper's live blog was protected speech:

"It's a real question that we're being deprived our right to report within the first amendment from a public facility. Once a player hits a home run, that's a fact. It's on TV, everybody sees it. They (the NCAA) can't copyright that fact. The blog wasn't a simulcast or a recreation of the game. It was an analysis."

As Bennett notes, he could have just as easily been live blogging the game from watching it on ESPN, and the NCAA wouldn't have been able to do a thing to him. But the NCAA pulled his media credential in an attempt to prevent fans from getting information from a media company that didn't pay rights fees to the NCAA.

And as Bennett further notes, no one is going to choose to read his blog rather than watch the game on ESPN. The people who followed along with Bennett's live blog were either stuck in an office with internet access but no cable TV, or hard-core fans who like to read analysis of the game online while they're watching it on ESPN. In either case, the NCAA should be glad such fans are being served by the Courier-Journal's web site, and that means the NCAA's policy is misguided.

NCAA Clashes With Louisville Paper on Baseball Blog originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Sun, 10 Jun 2007 22:34:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NCAA Kicks Blogger Out of Baseball Game

Michael David Smith — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 19:50:00 EST

Filed under: Louisville, College Sports

Brian Bennett is a sports writer for the Louisville Courier-Journal who's blogging about the University of Louisville's march to the College World Series for the paper's web site, live from the games in real time.

Check that. He was blogging live from the games. Now he's gone, as the NCAA has kicked him out. At 7:06 p.m., Bennett posted the following:

I have been ejected from U of L's Super Regional game against Oklahoma State by the NCAA for blogging live during the event. I won't be providing any more live updates.

If the NCAA has a policy against members of the media blogging live during an event, then it's a ridiculous policy that the NCAA needs to reconsider. The NCAA should be thrilled that a talented sports writer like Bennett is providing college baseball fans with information, not scared that Bennett and the Courier-Journal are trying a new way of reaching readers.

UPDATE: The NCAA's radio/internet policy includes a clause stating, "Live description of any game in progress is prohibited." But does the NCAA have the authority to prevent a newspaper from posting an account of the game by one of its writers?

Although a sports organization won a similar dispute in the case of Morris Communications v. PGA Tour, the NCAA's policy here seems, at first glance, to go beyond what the PGA won in that case. The Courier-Journal's lawyers should challenge the NCAA on this.

NCAA Kicks Blogger Out of Baseball Game originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Sun, 10 Jun 2007 19:50:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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College Footballers Shine At Track Championships

Brian Grummell — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 14:38:00 EST

Filed under: Clemson Football, Florida State Football, LSU Football, ACC, Pac 10, SEC, LSU, College Sports, Track and Field, Clemson, Florida State

At least four college football players competed at this weekend's NCAA outdoor track championships. This is a high honor for those players as they are true two-sport stars which is rare nowadays. I wrote earlier about LSU's Trindon Holliday being college football's fastest man. Well, he and his second-place 10.06 times in the 100 meters happen to share some fast company.

Florida State cornerback Michael Ray Garvin placed sixth in the 100 meter finals, completing the race in 10.30 seconds.

The other event to feature a quartet of football players was the final of the 4x100 meter relay. Michael Ray garvin ran the #3 leg for Florida State. He and his teammates won the event in 38.60 seconds. Holliday ran the anchor leg for second-place LSU as they came in at 38.85 seconds.

Clemson tailback C.J. Spiller ran the anchor leg for his Tigers who clocked in at 40.07 seconds to finish seventh in the event. Finally there was Arizona cornerback Antoine Cason who ran the third leg for his eigth-place Wildcats who finished the race in 40.13 seconds.

There are many more college football players who compete in track during the spring, but few reach the NCAA Championships. Congratulations to Holliday, Garvin, Spiller and Cason for representing their programs well in Sacramento.

(Photo Credits L-R: Streeter Lecka, Grant Halverson and Harry How, Getty Images)

College Footballers Shine At Track Championships originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Sun, 10 Jun 2007 14:38:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LSU's Trindon Holliday Is College Football's Fastest Man

Brian Grummell — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 23:13:00 EST

Filed under: LSU Football, SEC, LSU, College Sports, Track and Field

Our apologies to the many other fast and talented college football players out there, but this honor is going to LSU's diminuitive Trindon Holliday. Holliday finished second in the 100 meters to the immortal Walter Dix at this weekend's NCAA outdoor track championships. In placing second, Holliday finished in a sizzling 10.06 seconds. That time probably wins him the championship in any other year but Dix clocked in at 9.93 which very nearly eclipsed the collegiate record of 9.90 held by UCLA's Ato Boldon.

Holliday's fast time isn't a flash in the pan either, as he bested his blazing 10.08 effort at the SEC Championships in May. If Dix turns pro as expected and Holliday returns for another track season (and especially if he ditches football) he will become the early favorite to claim next year's NCAA 100 meter outdoor sprint title.

So, who is Trindon Holliday? Well, he's a smurfish (5'-5")rising freshman receiver and returnman for the LSU Tiger football team. He did not record any receptions last year, but carried the ball 14 times for 172 yards (14.3 average) and a touchdown, returned one punt for six yards and returned five kicks for 162 yards (32.4 average) and a touchdown.

LSU's Trindon Holliday Is College Football's Fastest Man originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Sat, 09 Jun 2007 23:13:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Florida State Wins Second Consecutive NCAA Track Title

Brian Grummell — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 22:21:00 EST

Filed under: College Sports, Track and Field, Florida State

Sending just seven male athletes to the NCAA outdoor track championships in Sacramento, California, the Florida State Seminoles overcame the numbers challenge and repeated as champs behind a memorable effort from star sprinter Walter Dix.

Dix won the 100, the 200 and the 4x100 relay to earn three titles. He is the first male athlete to win all three races since San Jose State's John Carlos in 1969. His 9.93 in the 100 was just a hundredth of a second of Ato Boldon's NCAA championship-best time of 9.92.

Dix must now decide between running another year for the Seminoles or turning pro and focusing on international and Olympic-level competition as one of America's best sprinters.

Other NCAA Championship Notables

Arizona State won the women's championship behind a strong field effort.

The day's best race was the 400 meters as Florida State's Ricardo Chambers beat USC's Lionel Larry by .02 after matching strides down the final 100 meters.

Cal's Alysia Johnson almost set a collegiate record, winning the 800 meters in 1.59.29, just fractions away from Suzy Favor's 1:59.11 in 1990.

Other NCAA or championship best marks set

South Carolina's Natasha Hastings in the women's 400 at 50.15, North Carolina's Brie Felnagle in the women's 1,500 at 4:09.93, LSU's Isa Phillips in the men's 400 hurdles at 48.51, Michigan's Anna Willard in the women's 3,000 meter steeplechase in 9:38.08, Wake Forest's Michelle Sikes in the women's 5,000 meters at 15:16.76 and Georgia's Jenny Dahlgren set the collegiate women's hammer record with a throw of 232 feet.

Florida State Wins Second Consecutive NCAA Track Title originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Sat, 09 Jun 2007 22:21:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Temple's Athletic Department on the Brink

Charles Rich — Sun, 13 May 2007 01:08:00 EST

Filed under: MAC, A-10 Basketball, Tennis, College Sports, Temple Football

Temple may be right there for the worst athletic department with a (sort of) division 1-A football team. Their latest APR report card (PDF) has the football team headed for scholarship reductions by next season. The baseball, basketball and even the golf teams got passes this season with the "squad-sized" adjustments.

Still, that's just a couple programs that are having academic issues. It's not like the entire athletic department is in trouble with the NCAA.

The NCAA announced yesterday that it has put the entire Temple athletic program on probation for two years and handed down other penalties for two violations that occurred in the Owls' sports program in the 2004-05 and 2005-06 school years.

Oh.

The big screw-up involved an apparently desperate tennis coach. He purposefully used an ineligible player for 9 matches in 2005.

The athlete, a midyear transfer, was allowed to compete under the name of an eligible player who had left the team. The NCAA reported that Hoehne, who had coached at Temple for seven seasons, even went so far as to mumble the player's name during pre-match introductions so as to not obviously identify him and requested that opponents skip the introductions.

Hoehne, to no one's surprise was fired after this came to light and the NCAA has effectively declared him unhireable by colleges for the the next seven years with a "show of cause" penalty. The Tennis team's sparkling 3-9 record for the season has been changed by the NCAA to 0-12.

The athletic department also didn't do much in the way of oversight in its financial aid distribution in 2004-05 and 2005-06. It turns out that 36 student-athletes were found to have used the money for book purchases to purchase books not needed for their classes. The purchases were generally for a girlfriend, other interests, or just to resell for cash.

Temple's president has issued a press release accepting the penalties and saying that it will never happen again. After his first season at Temple, basketball Coach Fran Dunphy (pictured right) has to wonder why he left Penn.

Temple's Athletic Department on the Brink originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Sun, 13 May 2007 01:08:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Virginia Tech Tragedy and Why Sports Matter

Michael David Smith — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 11:51:00 EST

Filed under: Virginia Tech Football, ACC, NCAA FB Campus, ACC Basketball, NCAA Basketball Campus, College Sports

When I hear the words "Virginia Tech," sports immediately come to mind. I think of Michael Vick nearly leading the Hokies to the national championship and Marcus Vick falling far short of the expectations that came with his famous name. I think of the breakout season for Seth Greenberg's basketball team and the way they knocked my Illini out of the Big Dance this year.

I think of things that don't really matter, not compared to the tragic loss of life that happened on the Virginia Tech campus yesterday.

And then I see what other sports fans have to say about yesterday's events, and I'm reminded that sports do matter. They give us a sense of community with our fellow sports fans. None of us can imagine what my colleague Nick Dallamora, who's a student at Virginia Tech, went through yesterday. But I've been struck by how many sports bloggers have shown that sense of a community of fans today.

Dan Shanoff began today's column with the headline, "Today We Are All Hokie Fans." Every Day Should Be Saturday had a poignant post simply titled, "Moment of Silence," with a Hokie flag at half staff. We Are The Postmen reflected what I think a lot of people were thinking, which is that we want to say something but don't know what. With Leather noted the difficulty of being funny and The Big Picture said "no jokes today." Larry Brown Sports and Chris' Sports Blog and My Sports Talk all set sports aside.

That's the immediate reaction, but in five months we'll be watching the Hokies on the football field again. When we do, we'll no doubt see black stickers on the players' helmets, and our first response might be to think a football game doesn't mean a damn thing. But then we'll get a look at the student section, and the young people that game is bringing together, and we'll be reminded that sports matter.

The Virginia Tech Tragedy and Why Sports Matter originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Tue, 17 Apr 2007 11:51:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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All Sporting Events Postponed After Virginia Tech Shooting

Michael David Smith — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 14:02:00 EST

Filed under: Virginia Tech Football, College Sports

Sports are the last thing on the minds of the people affected by the tragic shooting at Virginia Tech, and the university's athletic department has announced that all sporting events are canceled.

Two shootings have left at least 22 people dead in the deadliest campus shooting in American history. Football coach Frank Beamer spoke to ESPN today:

"How could one person cause so many senseless deaths? I'm in shock," Beamer told ESPN's Joe Schad. "This is such a caring, friendly place. This is a college town. And now one person has an impact like this?"

All Sporting Events Postponed After Virginia Tech Shooting originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Mon, 16 Apr 2007 14:02:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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$100 Million For Rivals.com?

Nathan Fowler — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 22:45:00 EST

Filed under: NCAA FB Fans, NCAA FB Recruiting, NCAA Basketball Fans, NCAA Basketball Recruiting, College Sports

College recruiting is big business, we already knew that - but THIS big? Fox paid $60 million for the recruiting network Scout.com about a year and a half ago, and now it appears that Yahoo! is preparing to pay up to $100 million for their competitor Rivals.com. It's amazing to think there's enough guys sitting around paying monthly fees to follow the latest news about 17 year old kids and their future college choices to support two separate companies worth over $150 million combined, but that's evidently the level we've reached.

Rivals has an interesting history, as the first incarnation of the site blew through $75 million during the original dot com boom, but the new version seems to be built much more solidly and is very heavy on the multimedia side. Rivals has also aggressively signed deals to provide content for other sites such SI.com, USAToday.com and here at AOLSports.com. There is no word on how a potential deal with Yahoo! would effect those deals, but you can assume that they would want to keep the content at Yahoo! Sports and those other deals would slowly be eliminated.

$100 Million For Rivals.com? originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Thu, 12 Apr 2007 22:45:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NCAA Could Take Huge Hit in Antitrust Suit

Michael David Smith — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 08:38:00 EST

Filed under: NCAA FB Gossip, NCAA Basketball Gossip, College Sports

Lester Munson, the legal analyst for Sports Illustrated, has a fascinating look at a class action antitrust lawsuit that is scheduled to go to trial in June and could cost the NCAA a huge amount of money.

At issue is the NCAA's policy of not including school supplies, recommended text books, laundry expenses, health and disability insurance, travel expenses and incidental expenses in its athletic scholarships. The lawsuit says that unfairly costs athletes an average of $2,500 a year, and since the suit represents all 11,500 Division I athletes, encompasses four years of school and antitrust suits allow for triple damages, we could be looking at the NCAA losing $344 million. The NCAA's annual budget is $465 million.

The NCAA's lawyer, of course, says schools can't afford to pay for all those extra things the lawsuit is saying should be covered by athletic scholarships, but I get kind of tired of hearing what the schools can't afford when I read about the dozens of coaches making seven-figure salaries. This is an important case to keep an eye on.

Hat tip: Signal to Noise.

NCAA Could Take Huge Hit in Antitrust Suit originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Wed, 28 Mar 2007 08:38:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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