MeanGreen61

UH Signs Agreement With Under Armour For Football Program Release Date: 02/25/08 HONOLULU - The University of Hawai`i at Manoa Athletics Department and Under Armour have signed an eight-year apparel, footwear, and marketing partnership that will provide UH with more than $4.1 million in cash and trade. Under Armour will become the "Outfitter of Hawai`i Football" and will provide the team with $2,424,000 in product for the student-athletes, coaches, and staff during the term of the agreement. Under Armour will also pay UH $1,680,000 in cash, including $1,140,000 in rights fees and a minimum of $540,000 in marketing support as a member of the UH Corporate Partner Program. "We're thrilled to add Hawai`i to the very selective list of football programs we're outfitting," Kevin Plank, Under Armour founder and CEO, said. "We identified UH as a team we wanted to outfit with our state-of-the-art performance apparel, uniforms and footwear, and look forward to giving their student athletes an advantage on field while also using the relationship to try our latest innovations in designs, fabrics and textiles." "Under Armour offers a quality line of football products and our players will be thrilled to wear its apparel," Greg McMackin, head coach, said. "Additionally, they have successfully positioned themselves as the aggressive new brand in this field, so we will benefit from having them as an apparel and footwear supplier, as well as a marketing partner." "This is certainly a landmark deal for UH Athletics," Carl Clapp, interim athletics director, said. "It will provide our football student-athletes with quality game and practice products, while also providing UH with an outstanding marketing partner. The revenue that Under Armour has committed will enhance our financial situation and we are thrilled to be aligned with such an exciting and progressive company." Other universities that Under Armour has apparel deals with include: Auburn, Maryland, South Carolina, and Texas Tech. Under Armour has incorporated coaches, facilities and former players from some of its other partnerships in its previous marketing and advertising campaigns, including "Protect This Housetm" and "Click-Clacktm." Past commercials have featured coaches Steve Spurrier (South Carolina), Ralph Friedgen (Maryland) and Tommy Tuberville (Auburn). Under Armour, the originators of performance apparel, has transitioned athletes into moisture-wicking apparel since 1996. About Under Armour, Inc. Under Armour® (NYSE: UA) is a leading developer, marketer, and distributor of branded performance apparel, footwear, and accessories. The brand's moisture-wicking synthetic fabrications are engineered in many different designs and styles for wear in nearly every climate to provide a performance alternative to traditional natural fiber products. The Company's products are sold worldwide and worn by athletes at all levels, from youth to professional, on playing fields around the globe. The Under Armour global headquarters is in Baltimore, Maryland, with European headquarters in Amsterdam's Olympic Stadium, and additional offices in Denver, Hong Kong, Toronto, and Guangzhou, China. For further information, please visit the Company's website at www.underarmour.com. ARTICLE http://www.hawaiiathletics.com/pr.html?prid=15010&p=3

Competition for Arlington guard Babb heating up As is usually the case, it’s tough to tell exactly what North Texas is up to when it comes to recruiting on the men’s basketball front. But this much is certain – the Mean Green would like to land Arlington Oakridge shooting guard Chris Babb, and the competition is getting tougher by the day. UNT is just one of nine teams that have offered a scholarship to Babb, a group that also includes Penn State, Iowa and Iowa State. Babb has a visit to Iowa scheduled for this weekend. UNT has one player in the fold in Arlington Grace Prep power forward Ben Knox, has offers out to Dallas Kimball guard Darian Thibodeaux and Maine prep school point guard Cardell McFarland. UNT also might have an interest in power forward Andrew Davis of Garland Christian. UNT’s coaches were spotted watching one of Davis’ games. The Mean Green pulled in most of its class just before signing day last year and appears to be headed down the same path this season. What could be interesting to see is how this will all play out if UNT head coach Johnny Jones becomes a serious candidate for the LSU job in the coming weeks. The late signing period is coming up and LSU is probably going to wait until the end of the regular season and possibly the NCAA Tournament to interview and hire its new coach. If Jones were to interview or get the job, it could leave UNT with some obstacles to overcome in terms of putting together a class by signing day. Players don’t want to commit to a school with a coach who might be on his way out of town. It’s far from time to hit the panic button, though. Jones put together a great class late in the process last season and LSU will have its choice of just about any mid-major head coach or Division I assistant it wants. Jones could very well still be at UNT by signing day. It should be interesting to see if he has another few aces up his sleeve when UNT announces its class. Feel free to post your thoughts on the blog.

Looking at the various accounting systems used, it's akin to comparing apples to oranges. Donations, student fees and other income are credited differently by reporting institutions. There is not a standardized reporting system. A numbers cruncher can easily make it come out to fit his/her agenda. There is no reason to not use the numbers reported by various universities on the Gender Equity site.

A good nine team conference without any snooty private schools. 1. North Texas 2. New Mexico State 3. UTEP 4. Houston 5. Southern Miss 6. Louisiana Tech 7. Arkansas State 8. Memphis or Muts 9. Louisiana-Lafayette

Why do so many here want to be in a conference with SMU ? You can bet the vast majority of their folks would laugh, look down their nose and say "no thanks". Do you really want to be in a conference with them, or just happen to want into the conference they are in ? IMHO a big difference. Play 'um on OC games, but not great conference mates.

I'd like a conference WITHOUT a bunch of snooty private schools. One maybe, Tulsa, but no more. Here's my choice of a conference, not listed in any order of preference. If we want to play 'um, do it in OC games. WEST North Texas New Mexico State UTEP Houston Louisiana Tech Tulsa EAST Southern Miss Memphis Arkansas State Troy Middle Tennessee Louisiana Lafayette

Not exactly the whole story. Revenue does not include unallocated income (donations, student fees,etc)......Here's the total athletics income/expenses, including unallocated income, for the period. Grand Total Revenues $16,787,101 Grand Total Expenses $15,873,899 http://ope.ed.gov/athletics/InstDetail.asp?CRITERIA=3

Solid sales for new stadium's suites spur Dallas Cowboys to build more 12:24 PM CST on Saturday, February 23, 2008 By JEFF MOSIER / The Dallas Morning News jmosier@dallasnews.com ARLINGTON – The suites at the new $1.1 billion Dallas Cowboys stadium in Arlington have sold so quickly that the team is building more. The Cowboys plan to sell 300 suites instead of 200 as previously announced. The team has already sold about 200 suites, which range in price from $100,000 to $500,000 annually. Greg McElroy, a Cowboys executive vice president, said the suites will go just above the Hall of Fame Level in an area that could have had a variety of uses. "There was flex space built into the plans so we could have club seats or suites there," Mr. McElroy said. The less expensive and most expensive suites have already sold out. The average suite is about 16 feet wide and 40 feet deep. Owner Jerry Jones' suite is about double that size. On Monday, the Cowboys also opened up sales of club seats in the new stadium to all Texas Stadium season ticket holders. About half the 15,000 seats were sold to existing season ticket holders with comparable seats in Texas Stadium. For the first four days of this week, the team sold about 300 club seats to people or companies that have season tickets elsewhere in Texas Stadium. The club seats cost $340 per game and require a seat option ranging from $16,000 to $150,000. Eventually, the club seats — if any remain — will go on sale to people who paid $100 to be placed on a waiting list. Mr. McElroy said he's not sure when they'll get a chance to buy club seats. "If it continues at this pace, we don't see a need to cut off the sales for while," Mr. McElroy said. The Cowboys still haven't announced the ticket or seat option prices for the upper decks. Mr. McElroy said should be released to the public soon, but no date has been set. However, the Cowboys have a major event scheduled for this weekend. About 7 a.m. Sunday, construction workers will install the keystone piece of the second arch in the stadium. The stadium will have two quarter-mile-long arches that will act as support structures. The arches will also hold up the 600-ton, 60-yard long scoreboard. The stadium is scheduled to open for the 2009 season and will host the 2011 Super Bowl.

FROM ESPN http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3246237

Interesting article off the Frog board. The current state of college football (i.e. chaos, anarchy, fear) is all Boise State's fault. Sorry, BCS conference teams. Apologies to you, Myles Brand. Deepest condolences, LSU, USC, and especially, Oklahoma. But the world you all live in now has no caste system, pecking order, or hierarchy thanks to the heroics of the Broncos. The 2007 college football season was one of the wildest in recent memory. Starting with Appalachian State's win over Michigan and not stopping until Pittsburgh was through with West Virginia, no team was safe from an unexpected loss. National champion LSU had two such encounters: overtime L's to Kentucky and Arkansas. Runner-up Ohio State stumbled at home against Illinois. Across the country big-name schools felt the bite of underdogs, and the results were telling: College football has changed…for the better. All of this upheaval created palpable excitement every week of the season as fans couldn't wait to see which Goliath was next to fall. The Davids were not necessarily small-conference schools, but they might as well have been considering how much respect and opportunity they were given beforehand. Sure, Stanford plays in the Pac-10, but not even some Mountain West schools would have been 41-point underdogs. The results screamed for equality, and the mounting losses of BCS schools only seemed to have increased the inevitable march toward a fairer championship system. If a team like Hawaii—having defeated everyone who had the guts to play them in the regular season—was not given a chance to play for a national title, in a year when a national champion participant came in with two losses, then it will never happen. But with enough wins like App State over Michigan and Louisiana-Monroe over Alabama, things are bound to change.This seismic shift would not have been possible without the Boise State Broncos. A little more than a year ago, they changed college football's landscape for good with an improbable victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. No one took small conference schools seriously before the game, but afterwards, everyone saw the Boise States of the world differently. They were dangerous. They were plucky. But most importantly, they were equals.Several months later, as the 2007 college football season was just underway, the changing atmosphere was evident when the Broncos traveled to play the Washington Huskies. In years past, Husky fans would have considered the game a warm-up to the Pac-10 schedule, believing BSU to be nothing more than a speed bump on the way to an easy win. But last year, winning was far from a sure thing in the minds of many.The Broncos carried respect and admiration for what they had done and what they were capable of doing, and Washington was wise not to take them lightly. The same scene played out across college campuses all year. There were no more "easy" games for big schools. Each week was a battle. The pride of the bigger programs raised the stakes because they did not want to become the next Oklahoma or let their opponent walk out of town as the next BSU. Now, this is the reality that we live in. When Appalachian State opens the season against LSU, the fact that the two schools don't even play in the same division will hardly matter. In previous years, BCS conferences considered the non-conference schedule to be largely a preseason affair, assuming victory over opponents was in the bag. Not anymore.Boise State opened the door for the little guy, but it also kicked in the door for progress. College football needed shaking up. The excitement and unpredictability of amateur athletics is part of the beauty of the sport, but too much of those attributes were lost amidst boosters and money and success. The rules have changed thanks to the Broncos, and they left behind a blueprint that any school can follow to success: 1. Great Coaching Having the right staff can make up for a lot of insufficiencies elsewhere, and the right gameplans and preparations can turn the tide in a game. Any school can find a young, eager coach to lead a program, and there are many great minds out there who just need a chance. 2. Hungry Athletes Small schools cannot recruit the biggest, fastest, strongest athletes, but they will always have a chance to grab kids who have something to prove. Many Boise State athletes were passed over by bigger programs, and their success on the field is due in large part to their motivation to prove their worth. 3. Belief in a System Teams like Boise State often have to turn to within for inspiration when outsiders are not giving them a chance. Therefore, belief in what the team is setting out to do is important, and if everyone buys in, a unified group can go places they never thought possible. 4. Fan Culture Boise State's success has created quite the fan following, both from locals and from outsiders. The support of the team helps immensely at home games, and a large traveling group can make quite a difference on the road. There is no doubt that the upset trend in college football will continue for years to come. Hopefully it will bring much-needed changes to a system that could use them, but in the meantime, enjoying the unpredictability of it all is reward enough. Week in and week out, analysts and fans will look forward to discovering who will pull the big upset, who will wreak havoc on the polls, who will come from nowhere to surprise the country… Who will be the next Boise State.

According to posts on the ULM Delphi board, it was their largest margin of defeat in the history of Fant-Ewing (their arena).

Post by SpaceRaider on the Muts board. excerpt from BGDN: ...Two Western Kentucky football players were arrested early Sunday morning for their alleged involvement in an altercation at a concert at the Garrett Conference Center on the WKU campus. Tim Nelson, a redshirt freshman linebacker from Wrens, Ga., and Derrius Brooks, a redshirt freshman wide receiver from Forston, Ga., were both arrested at 12:31 a.m. Sunday, according to a WKU police report. According to the report, Brooks was charged with second-degree disorderly conduct, while Nelson was charged with disorderly conduct. The report claimed that Brooks was “involved in a fight” and “caused a large disturbance,” which resulted in the concert being called off. The report claimed Nelson approached WKU police officers while they were making an arrest and was “demanding to know why they were arresting his friend.” Nelson was ordered to back away, which he allegedly failed to do. The report also said Nelson “commenced cursing the officers and yelling at them. Again he was ordered to back away and he continued his disorderly conduct. Nelson was finally arrested for disorderly conduct.”..... Link: Two Toppers arrested at campus rap concert

A little humor & change of pace A biker is riding by the zoo, when he sees a little girl leaning into the lion's cage. Suddenly, the lion grabs her by the cuff of her jacket and tries to pull her inside to slaughter her under the eyes of her screaming parents. He jumps off his bike, runs to the cage and hits the lion square on the nose with a powerful punch. Whimpering from the pain, the lion jumps back letting go of the girl, and the biker brings her to her terrified parents, who thank him endlessly. A reporter has seen the whole thing, and addressing the biker, says "Sir, this was the most gallant and brave thing I saw a man do in my whole life." "Why, it was nothing, really, the lion was behind bars. I just saw this little kid in danger and acted as I felt right." "Well, I'll make sure this won't go unnoticed. I'm a journalist, you know, and tomorrow's papers will have this on the first page. What motorcycle do you ride?" "A Harley Davidson." The journalist leaves. The following morning the biker buys the paper to see if it indeed brings news of his actions, and reads the first page headline: BIKER GANG MEMBER ASSAULTS AFRICAN IMMIGRANT AND STEALS HIS LUNCH.

2008 FIU Football Schedule Date Opponent 2007 Record Aug. 30 at Kansas 12-1 Sept. 6 at Iowa 6-6 Sept. 20 SOUTH FLORIDA 9-4 Sept. 27 at Toledo 5-7 Oct. 4 at North Texas 2-10 Oct. 11 MIDDLE TENNESSEE 5-7 Oct. 18 at Troy 8-4 Nov. 1 at Louisiana-Lafayette 3-9 Nov. 8 ARKANSAS STATE - Homecoming 5-7 Nov. 22 LOUISIANA-MONROE 6-6 Nov. 29 at Florida Atlantic 8-5 Dec. 6 WESTERN KENTUCKY 7-5 FIU ANNOUNCES 2008 SCHEDULE http://www.fiusports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?...;ATCLID=1390478

Plumm, did you know that before she became a personality on Hee Haw, Lulu appeared as a comic stripper at the old Club Athena on Greenville Avenue ? So maybe we're close to gettin' rid of Fouts !

Post from the MWC board by a Frog poster. Players from California, Texas and Florida accounted for 1055 of the 2572 players who signed LOI, or 41% (this excludes the academies since they don't report classes). Some interesting trends I found between the three states (did this by hand from the links below so may be some inadvertant errors): California- 373 players signed. 23% stayed in state 46% went to a school in an AQ conference (PAC10- 125, B12- 26, ACC- 6, BE- 4, B10-4, SEC-4, ND-3). All in all, 29 of 66 schools from AQ conferences signed a player from Cali (43%). http://www.mapgameday.com/recruit/state/CA/ Texas- 370 players signed. 43% stayed in state 53% went to a school in an AQ conference (B12- 125, SEC- 20, PAC10- 19, B10- 17, ACC-10, BE-3, ND-1). All in all, 45 of 66 schools from AQ conferences signed a player from Texas (68%). http://www.mapgameday.com/recruit/state/TX/ Florida- 312 players signed. 36% stayed in state 59% went to a school in an AQ conference (ACC-66, SEC-46, BE-34, B10-22, B12-12, PAC10- 3, ND-0). All in all 44 of 66 schools from AQ conferences signed a player from Florida (67%). http://www.mapgameday.com/recruit/state/FL/ Some observations- Although all three states have similar numbers of D-1 prospects, Texas and Florida have more schools from AQ conferences competing for more players than Cali does. This allows leagues like the WAC and MWC to get higher caliber players from talent rich states because there is less competition. Florida in particular is a tough sell. The 13% difference between Cali and Fla in terms of % going to a team from an AQ conference equates to about 50 Cali players that are ending up in the MWC and WAC instead of an AQ conference. Texas has a higher % of kids staying in state, because there are so many D1 schools, but does get a lot of action from other AQ conferences as well; Its much more difficult for non-Texas non-AQ teams to recruit Texas- you have to compete against both in state schools and lots of schools from AQ conferences.

North Texas center Kelvin Drake will undergo surgery to repair torn tendons in his ankle today, his mother Jeanetta Jones confirmed Thursday. “They thought it was a sprained ankle,” Jones said. “Kelvin had an MRI earlier this week. They decided he needed surgery then.” His mother made a simple statement, not any type of allegation.

Hopefully McCalebb will finally graduate in the next 2 or 3 years.

And some posters have their particular vision of what's goin' on.

Possibly Phillips knew TD & during his SLC days & has a longer term reporter/coach relationship ?

Off the muts board. Finally, The Search is Over! By Doug Konkel Posted Feb 13, 2008 After dozens of applications, months of interviews and several "false positives," the University of South Alabama has reportedly found it's first NCAA football coach. Former Murphy High School and Alabama star Joey Jones has reportedly agreed in principal to become the new coach at South Alabama. The offer was formally extended on Wednesday afternoon and Jones has given a tentative "yes" to Athletic Director Joe Gottfried. A final, official answer is expected at some point on Thursday. There a few hurdles still to be worked out before everything is finalized. The length of the contract and the salary is, of course, high on the list, but also to be decided is the amount of money available for assistant salaries and the number of assistants the staff will contain. Supposedly USA wanted the initial staff to be three assistant coaches but Jones is holding out for five. After being passed over two or perhaps three times for this offer, Jones will probably demand more than he would have had he been given this opportunity a few weeks ago. And really, who is to blame him? At this point he deserves a few extra perks or maybe a larger staff, considering what he has had to go through to get this job. If nothing else Jones has shown the one thing that everyone has wanted to see from the new coach: The desire to be the man who founds this program. I'm sure every USA fan, no matter who their personal preference may have been during the search, will unite behind Joey Jones as he takes the reins for the University of South Alabama Football Jaguars

Many on this board do donate more than $300 a year to athletics.

A student vote IS NOT required to raise fees and/or tuition.

One of the biggest mistakes made around here in the past few years was allowing the students to have a yes or no vote on raising fees for athletics.