News Nuggets, 09.19.04
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NOTES FROM ECU AND BEYOND...
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Compiled from staff reports
and electronic dispatches
Frogs to collaborate with
European reality TV show
PREVIOUS NUGGETS |
09.18.04: Diamond
Pirates post 'Help Wanted' notice ... Stanford band's satire
finally goes too far ... Cincinnati vs. Syracuse: Preview of
the future ... Bulls poised for taste of BCS football ...
Wolfpack, Buckeyes try to live up to 2003 classic
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09.17.04: Storm
refugees invited to FSU-UAB game on the house ... Coaches
ditch plan for 5th year of eligibility ... CSU cracks down
on alcohol in wake of death
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09.16.04: Marshall
coach navigates hot water over remark ... Air Force locks in
DeBerry through 2009 ... Bowling Green football player dies
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09.15.04: USM's
Bower blasts Cal handling of postponement ... More Ivan:
Tulane-Louisville game postponed ... Big bucks lure Hawaii
to Alabama in 2006
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09.14.04: Ivan blows Southern Miss-Cal showdown off track ... Happy
days in Memphis over national ranking ... SMU, Texas A&M
agree to three-game series
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09.13.04: C-USA
standings, scoreboard, schedule & TV ... AP Top 25: Memphis,
Louisville make the cut ... College football weekend: stars
& storylines
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09.12.04: Southern
Miss bags big prey in Big 12 country ... Pitcher sues over
weight-training injury
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09.11.04: Tulane football crisis turns into boon for program ...
Sooners licking chops over visiting Houston?
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09.10.04: ECU
boomer Dougherty nominated for punting award ... Army's Ross
still fired up about coaching
...
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09.09.04: Golden
Eagles in countdown mode for Nebraska ... ESPN branching out
with new ventures ... Tar Heels book trip to Maui
Invitational
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09.08.04: It's
official: Holland the chosen one ... AP agrees: Holland the
chosen one ... Delayed start an unforgiving one for USM ...
Old skeptic Holtz goes positive
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09.07.04: Storm-related
tragedy slams Bowden family ... Army AD Greenspan enlists
with Hoosiers
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09.06.04: Backup
back bids for start after bulldozing Pirates ... Last-second
boot decides Aggie-Eagle Classic ... Frances blows Pitt-USF
game into December ... C-USA standings, scoreboard &
schedule ... Associated Press college football poll ...
College football weekend: Stars and storylines
...
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FORT WORTH — The Texas Christian
football program has been selected to be part of a new European reality
television show entitled "Wedding Bells in America," the TCU Athletics
Department announced last week.
The show, which is being produced by
Sultan Sushi in Belgium, will feature eight soon-to-be married European
couples who travel to the United States to learn American culture while
competing for the ultimate American wedding and honeymoon in Las Vegas.
While in Fort Worth, the couples will
learn American football from TCU football staff members and former players,
and then will face off in a game of flag football. TCU cheerleaders,
showgirls and SuperFrog will be on hand at the game.
The public is encouraged to attend the
taping in Amon Carter Stadium on Monday, Sept. 20, noted the announcement.
On-field taping is slated to begin at 3:00 p.m. and conclude at
approximately 5:00 p.m.
Other challenges for the couples in the
show include cooking a meal in New Orleans and singing the blues in Memphis.
More information about the Fort Worth
taping can be obtained by contacting Jeff Crane, TCU Athletics Marketing
Director, at (817) 257-6928.
Texas Christian Media
Relations
Historically black schools get
showcase game
NEW ORLEANS — A nationally televised
all-star game over the Martin Luther King holiday will feature athletes from
the nation's 43 historically black colleges and universities with NCAA
football teams.
Organizers said the HBCU All-Star
Classic will provide an NFL scout showcase for the schools, which send only
about 3 percent of the players in the four major all-star games, and will
bring people to New Orleans during a slow season.
"Traditionally, HBCUs have a huge
following for football," said Toni Rice, president of the New Orleans
Multicultural Tourism Network, a sponsor of the game.
ESPN2 has a two-year agreement to
broadcast the game from Tad Gormley Stadium in New Orleans' City Park, said
the game's executive director, Richard Harvey, who played in the NFL from
1989-2000.
Tad Gormley was chosen because it is
less expensive than the 70,000-seat Superdome, because its 26,500 seats are
more likely to sell out, and because the park is better for tailgating than
downtown New Orleans, said Harvey, who played with the New Orleans Saints.
The budget for most college all-star
games is about $1.5 million. "We're well below that," Harvey said, though he
wouldn't provide specifics.
The coaches and 16 current and former
NFL players will donate their time, with the bowl covering travel and
hotels, Harvey said. He said he is looking for a $400,000 title sponsor.
Amtrak will provide free tickets for
players, as it did for last year's HBCU football camp in New Orleans.
The game will be modeled on the Shrine
game, with an East and a West team. A selection committee will choose 96
seniors who are eligible for the NFL draft from the 38 HBCU schools in four
conferences, plus five independents.
The East team will be made up from
players from the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, the Central
Intercollegiate Athletic Association and three independents: West Virginia
State, Cheyney, and Savannah State.
The West team will be chosen from the
Southwestern Athletic Conference, the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic
Conference, and independents Tennessee State and Stillman College.
Rice said she believes the game, which
includes almost a week of lead-in activities, will eventually become as big
a black tourism destination as the Essence Festival and the Bayou Classic
football game. Each of those brings in more than 100,000 people.
Cal under the gun to fund stadium upgrades
BERKELEY — California has a promising football
program, but could be in danger of losing coach Jeff Tedford unless the
school's cramped and aging stadium is improved.
Tedford, who has led the Bears to two winning
seasons, has a buyout clause in his contract that drops from $1 million to
$500,000 if ground isn't broken by the end of the year. The amount would be
zero if the same situation exists at the end of next year.
Sweeping changes have been proposed to upgrade the
1920s-era Memorial Stadium, but the San Francisco Chronicle reported that
the proposal is unlikely to move forward unless a donor willing to give
something in the range of $20 million or more steps forward.
The upgrades were originally projected to cost $140
million but could go as high as $175 million.
The athletic department has raised some money, but
isn't close to the 40 percent the university requires before going ahead
with detailed plans.
In 1997, UC regents approved seismic upgrades at the
stadium, which sits on an earthquake fault. However, not much has happened
except for the dismantling of a seismically dangerous press box in 2002 and
the construction of a temporary facility.
Along with the earthquake retrofit, proposed
improvements include a new locker room, offices, weight room and meeting
rooms. Improvements aimed at drawing fans include chair backs in stadium
seating and better restrooms, along with possible luxury suites or club
seating.
The present weight room is so small only one-quarter
of the team can lift at one time. Some players share lockers and meeting
space is so tight the offense and defense can't meet at the same time.
The program needs the upgrades to retain Tedford,
boost recruiting and draw enough fans to offset an annual deficit.
Tedford is in the second year of a five-year
contract renegotiated after his first year. In addition to the buyout
clauses, if ground is not broken on the stadium project by the end of this
year, a clause prohibiting him from going to another Pac-10 school would be
dropped.
School officials say they're confident the project
will be successful, although the improvements are not going to be completed
before Tedford's contract deadlines. However, officials are hoping the coach
will stay so long as progress is being made.
Legislation takes aim at sleazy sports agents
Congress has moved to impose tougher
penalties on unethical sports agents who lure student athletes into
contracts that compromise their amateur standing and damage the reputations
of their schools.
The legislation, which passed by voice
vote in the Senate and was sent to the president for his signature, was
promoted by Rep. Tom Osborne, R-Neb., the former Nebraska football coach.
"As a former coach, I witnessed time
and again sports agents illegally using cash and gifts to recruit
student-athletes," Osborne said in a statement Friday. "This unethical
behavior on behalf of the sports agents threatens the athletes' eligibility
and harms the integrity of college sports."
The NCAA has rules, and some states
have standards, for sports agents, but Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., principal
author of the bill, said that hasn't stopped some unscrupulous agents from
"aggressively pursuing these kids anyway, possibly ruining a chance to
compete on the college level and get a degree."
The legislation would bar agents from
recruiting student athletes by giving false or misleading information or
providing anything of value to the athlete or his family before entering
into a contract.
The agent must also disclose in writing
that the athlete may lose NCAA eligibility after signing an agency contract
and requires the athlete and the agent to notify the school's athletic
director that the athlete has signed a contract so the school does not play
a now-ineligible athlete in a game.
Violators would face civil actions by
the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general and fines of up to
$11,000 a day could be levied for each offense.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said the
legislation would provide a federal backstop for NCAA efforts on behalf of
the Uniform Athlete's Agent Act, which requires sports agents to be
registered with the states in which they operate and provides uniform laws
addressing their conduct. He said the legislatures of 29 states have passed
the act.
News Nuggets are
compiled periodically from staff, ECU, Conference USA and its member
schools, and from Associated Press and
other reports. Copyright 2004
Bonesville.net and other publishers. All rights reserved. This material may not be
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