Since gas prices are the topic du jour these days, I guess we're bound to find articles like these where a couple struggles with all-important decisions about ... their expenditures towards college football.
That could be particularly problematic for K-State, a school with no major population base nearby. Wildcat fans are scattered from Garden City to Kansas City, and all will be paying a much higher price for weekend road trips.
"Any school that has a relatively small population and is not on the cusp of a metropolitan area, it's bound to have an impact," [Kansas State Deputy Athletic Director Jim] Epps said.
The greatest impact might be yet to come. While many fans seem willing to bite the bullet this season, that could change if gas prices climb even higher next summer.
For Zack McNett, it might mean giving up the football road trips altogether.
"It's a legitimate possibility," he said. "I'd probably just pay $50 to get all the channels and try to pick up as many games as I could on television."
How much of this is just water cooler talk about the economy and how much will actually be realized at the stadium and at the cash register I don't know. I have a feeling that unless gas prices really soar (like, $10/gallon soar), the impact won't match the worry generated by scary headlines. That isn't to say the impact of rising gas prices isn't being felt.
The Big 12's annual meetings are currently taking place in Colorado Springs and league commissioner Dan Beebe has a lot on his plate. But one agenda item that he is pushing strongly is a fifth year of eligibility for football players. He hopes the proposed change will get some attention from the NCAA rules committee.
The proposal for a fifth year of eligibility would eliminate redshirting, instead giving college football players five years to compete on the field. Under current rules, players have a five-year window in which to complete four years of playing time. This isn't the first time this change has come up, but opponents have argued that eligibility rules need to standard across sports. Big 12 commissioner Beebe, disagrees.
Beebe, however, said he thinks football should be seen as unique because it has a high rate of redshirts and injuries.
"Injuries happen and coaches have players who could contribute, but they don't want to play someone on a limited basis and burn a redshirt year," Beebe said. "And you have kids during their redshirt year who are getting the heck beat out of them in practice every day with no hope of playing."
The rule change would certainly eliminate the need for coaches to agonize about redshirting decisions. In addition, it would seemingly end the need for athletes and schools to file medical hardships in the wake of injuries. Lastly, given that the average college football player takes around 4.7 years to graduate, the five-year eligibility window could help improve graduation rates.
The Watch List for the 2008 Bronko Nagurski Trophy has been released by the Football Writers Association of America. The Nagurski Trophy is presented annually to the best defensive player in college football and is sponsored by the Charlotte Touchdown Club.
According to the press release:
"The Charlotte Touchdown Club will hold the 2008 banquet on Sunday, Dec. 7, at the Westin Hotel in Charlotte. For the eighth straight season, the FWAA will also pick a Bronko Nagurski Defensive Player of the Week beginning with games on Aug. 30 and running through the middle of November. And a Bronko Nagurski Legends Award winner will also be selected from the FWAA's 1967 All-America team.
The Bronko Nagurski Trophy has been presented since 1993 and is awarded in memory of the legendary Nagurski, a former All-America lineman at Minnesota in 1927-29 and a star for professional football's Chicago Bears in the 1930s."
This year's watch list includes eight players from Big 12 schools, led by Oklahoma, which places three Sooners on the list. The Big 12 players on the Nagurski Watch List are:
George Hypolite, Colorado
Joe Mortensen, Kansas
Ian Campbell, Kansas State (pictured at right)
William Moore, Missouri
Sean Weatherspoon, Missouri
Auston English, Oklahoma
DeMarcus Granger, Oklahoma
Nic Harris, Oklahoma
Since its inception in 1993, three Big 12 players have won the Nagurski Trophy. Oklahoma defensive back Roy Williams took home the award in 2001. The Big 12 then had back-to-back winners in 2003 and 2004 in Oklahoma's Derrick Strait and Derrick Johnson from Texas.
Davyon McGhee a sophomore linebacker for Kansas State has been suspended indefinitely following his arrest on Thursday night. McGhee was first identified by a liquor store employee as a suspect in the theft of $300 worth of alcohol. When police stopped his vehicle a short time later, they also found four laptop computers that had been stolen from the university.
That's a rough day, already, but according to the official police report the charges for McGhee weren't over yet:
"McGhee was arrested for theft, possession of stolen property, minor in possession of alcohol and possession of marijuana. He was released on $3,000 bond."
Not bad for one night's work. McGhee appeared in three games and made four tackles as a redshirt freshman, but was expected to contribute more in 2008. The site KstateFootball.com notes that:
"[McGhee] Closed his spring as one of the leaders on the Purple defense in the spring game, i.e., tied for most in solo tackles (4) and total tackles (5)."
It started with the Power Towel Anthem. And now, Kansas State fans have added another YouTube beauty to the school's video anthology. This one is ripe with the freshest synthesizer sounds and the latest in computer graphics. But the highlight has to be the robotic Josh Freeman, complete with an ice cream cone(?)
I really hope this is just the beginning. I demand more!
After years of pressure from academics and university presidents, the NCAA began to increase penalties for failing to meet academic standards with the Academic Progress Rate (APR). The fallout from such standards, just might be trickling down to coaches, especially in the Big 12.
"It's a big deal now," said Nebraska senior linebacker Tyler Wortman. "We have people checking on everybody, making sure you're in class."
It's common to see members of Nebraska's academic support staff -- and sometimes even Pelini himself -- making the rounds on campus to make sure players are in class.
Academics have always been important at Nebraska, which boasts a nation-leading total of 255 CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine Academic All-Americans. Pelini, however, appears to be ramping up the accountability for student-athletes. And it's hard to argue with Pelini's bottom-line:
"It's not up for debate," Pelini said. "If you don't want to go to class, turn pro."
Not the no-huddle in Manhattan as well? It appears so, as the Wildcats recently announced their own intentions to utilize a hurry-up attack in 2008.
"We're practicing no-huddle," wide receiver Ernie Pierce said. "As far as the offense, it's the same. We just gave it a new name and a different type of feel to it. I would say either 100 or 95 percent, we'll be no-huddle."
"We want to play fast," Pierce said. "We want to put teams in a panic."
I guess I underestimated the speed with which this type of offensive system would spread. As it stands right now, six teams in the Big 12 - Colorado, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Texas Tech and Oklahoma - will be using some type of no-huddle system this season. Given that, one has to begin to wonder about the law of diminishing returns. Especially when Big 12 defensive coordinators will essentially be preparing for the speedier offensive approaches on a weekly basis. At some point, it would seem, that advantage would be lost.
You can't mention Kansas State move to the no-huddle without mentioning the success their rival Kansas had a year ago. Head coach Ron Prince thinks he has players with similar abilities, especially at the quarterback position.
"I think Josh [Freeman] is capable of expanding his package once again," Prince said. "The scheme is largely quarterback-driven. The kid over at KU, Todd Reesing, it's the same way - it's quarterback driven.
Right, because the only differences between Josh Freeman (pictured at right) and Reesing are about eight inches of height and a good 50 pounds. And speaking of which, if the Wildcats no-huddle attack is going to flourish fans better hope Freeman's off-season conditioning habits have improved.
It's been a long time coming, but Tuesday Kansas State fans got the official word. KSU has dropped Fresno State from its 2008 schedule and replaced it with powerhouse Montana State. Kansas State will pay Fresno State $250,000 as part of a buyout agreement.
This is a quick reversal in philosophies for Prince and Kansas State. A year ago at this time, Prince was championing the tough schedules facing KSU in the future and encouraging a move away from previous head coach Bill Snyder's cupcake-laden slates. At that time, he was quoted as saying:
"Where we are in the development of our team and our program, I think having the opportunity to go play those kind of opponents [Auburn and Fresno State] will do nothing but benefit us," coach Ron Prince said Monday.
I suppose the fact that the Wildcats finished 5-7 a year ago, while Fresno State was 9-4 in 2007 might have had something to do with Prince's flip-flop.
On the other end of the deal, Fresno State has added Rutgers to their schedule to replace Kansas State. That move should surprise few. Pat Hill and the Bulldogs have always had the attitude of "any team, any time, anywhere." In fact this isn't the first time that an opponent has backed out of a game against Fresno State.
Hill is used to foes dropping him. Earlier this decade, he saw Oklahoma State and Texas Tech duck out of visits to Fresno. The inability to get opponents to come to his turf has led to Hill's team getting just five home games this fall.
I'm not sure how much of a Heisman Trophy candidate you are when half the public adds an "S" to your last name, but Chase Daniel (not Daniels) is trying to change things.
Daniel tossed four touchdowns in a breezy effort against Kansas State in what lined up as something of a trap game before kickoff. Overall his numbers were in line with most other performances this year. He connected on 28 of 41 passes (.683) for 284 yards. Happiest for his coaches, it was mistake-free football as Daniel did not fumble or toss an interception.
Daniel's highlight show play will be his scrambling, broken-play 44-yard touchdown pass to frosh star Jeremy Maclin who snuck behind the defense and was wide open in the back of the end zone.
And as for that Maclin guy? He's special. Special enough to be a Heisman Trophy candidate starting next year after breaking the NCAA freshman all-purpose yardage mark in the first quarter today. On the day he was no slouch in recording 361 all-purpose yards (8 rushing, 144 receiving, 16 punt returns and 193 kick returns) and three touchdowns (8 yards, 44 yards, 99 yards).
Maybe it's just a game between these coaches. I don't know.
After last week's amazing 76-39 thrashing at the hands of Kansas, the Nebraska Cornhuskers returned home to Lincoln today to take out their frustrations on Kansas State.
And boy did they ever take out their frustrations.
Joe Ganz threw for 510 yards and seven touchdowns today as Nebraska thrashed Kansas State 73-31 in Lincoln.
I noted last week that Kansas coach Mark Mangino didn't shy away from driving the score up a little bit in last week's game. Well, Bill Callahan didn't call off the dogs, so to speak, in today's game.
Ganz was in the game throwing passes on four consecutive plays in the fourth quarter of a 59-17 game. He ended up throwing his seventh score of the game to make it 66-17 before he left the game.
In this case, it's a bit less ridiculous to leave a starter in. Nebraska is not likely to end up bowl-eligible, and it's certainly not going to be a major bowl trip if they are. Callahan is probably out of a job after the season no matter what.
But I wouldn't want to be Missouri. The Tigers visit Manhattan next week to play Kansas State. We'll see if K-State can keep the pattern going.
Since gas prices are the topic du jour these days, I guess we're bound to find articles like these where a couple struggles with all-important decisions about ... their expenditures towards college football.
The Big 12's annual meetings are currently taking place in Colorado Springs and league commissioner Dan Beebe has a lot on his plate. But one agenda item that he is pushing strongly is 
The Watch List for the 2008 Bronko Nagurski Trophy 
Davyon McGhee a sophomore linebacker for Kansas State has been 
After years of pressure from academics and university presidents, the NCAA began to increase penalties for failing to meet academic standards 
Not the no-huddle in Manhattan as well? It appears so, as the Wildcats recently announced their own intentions to 
Maybe it's just a game between these coaches. I don't know.
