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News Nuggets, 10.08.03
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Compiled from staff reports and electronic dispatches

Emergency fund for ECU athletes needs your pocket change

East Carolina hopes to supercharge the balance of a newly-created account for student-athletes' medical emergencies by collecting spare coins from the sellout crowd for Saturday's home football game with North Carolina.

The Pirate Club is sponsoring the game-day campaign, which is predicated upon the bottom-line concept that the spare change of one fan multiplied by the 45,000-plus fans expected to attend the game can make a big difference in the beginning balance of an account with a specific and special purpose.

Monies collected will go to establish a fund to provide assistance to ECU student-athletes who face medical emergencies in the future.

Plastic change bags for loose change can be picked up at the ECU Athletics Ticket Office and Pirate Club offices all this week.

Read the entire release on ECUPirates.com...

Attendance on the rise for C-USA football

Through the first five weeks of the 2003 season, nine of Conference USA's 11 schools are showing an increased average attendance from the 2002 season.

UAB, Houston and Texas Christian are showing the largest increases, while only Army and Cincinnati have seen their average crowds fall off from last season.

Collectively, the league's 11 football playing members have an average increase in attendance of more than 5,000 fans per game.

Following is the recap of attendance year-to-date:

School         2003 Avg    2002 Avg   Inc/Dec
UAB             30,108      16,447    +13,661
Houston         25,794      14,986    +10,808
Texas Christian 37,837      27,813    +10,024
Memphis         38,366      29,257    + 9,109
Southern Miss   32,679      29,961    + 5,718
East Carolina   34,669      29,629    + 5,040
South Florida   31,252      26,403    + 4,849
Louisville      39,347      36,743    + 2,876
Tulane          29,268      27,901    + 1,367
Cincinnati      27,646      28,071    -   425
Army            29,523      32,606    - 3,083
C-USA Overall   32,408      27,256    + 5,152

Longer-range three-point line on the way

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The 3-point line in college basketball is about to be moved 9 inches farther from the basket beginning in the 2004-05 season. Barring unexpected dissent by the NCAA's two smallest divisions, the new line will be set at 20 feet, 6 inches.

The championships committees of all three divisions decided to keep the rectangular free throw lane, rejecting a switch to the trapezoidal lane used internationally.

``In Division I, it's essentially done,'' Marty Benson, the NCAA liaison to the basketball rules committee, said Tuesday. ``In Division II and III, the management councils have to look at it and either approve what the championships committee did or change what the championships committee did.''

Earlier this year, South Carolina coach Dave Odom, a rules committee member, said the extra 9 inches might discourage marginal shooters from taking longer shots. ``That would make the shot more meaningful,'' he said.

The management councils meet Oct. 21-22. If they agree, the changes in all three divisions will take effect in the 2004-05 season. If they don't, the matter will be decided by the NCAA executive committee Oct. 31.

That committee's options include approving the change for only the divisions that passed it, approving it for all three divisions or rejecting it for all three, Benson said. It's unlikely Divisions II and III will not go along, he said.

Another proposal would cut from 16 to eight the number of predetermined sites for the first two rounds of the women's Division I tournament. If approved by the Division I management council and the executive committee, that change would take effect for the 2005 tournament.

``It's just the evolution of the championship. It creates more neutral sites for the championship,'' said Scotty Rogers, assistant director of the Division I women's basketball championship committee. ``You have a little more neutrality when only one of those teams could potentially play at home.'

The men's first and second rounds already are played at eight sites. ``The only difference, and it's a major difference, is that the women's proposal is for predetermined sites, meaning the host institution could play at home,'' Rogers said. ``The men's tournament does not allow that.''

News Nuggets are compiled periodically from staff, ECU, Conference USA and its member schools, and from Associated Press and other reports. Copyright 2003 Bonesville.net and other publishers. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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