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News Nuggets, 08.26.05
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Compiled from staff reports and electronic dispatches

ECU's Moore sole Carolinas player on Butkus list

East Carolina senior linebacker Chris Moore is the only player among schools in the Carolinas and one of only five from Conference USA to be selected to the 65-man preseason watch list for the Butkus Award.

The award, in its 21st season, is presented to the nation's best college linebacker by the Downtown Athletic Club of Orlando, Inc.

The other C-USA players named to the list were Nick Bunting of Tulsa, Anthony Cannon of Tulane, James Cook of Central Florida and Thomas Howard of Texas-El Paso.

Moore, a three-time All-Conference USA selection, led the Pirates with 99 total tackles and 21 tackles for lost yardage a year ago. He ranked 22nd nationally in solo stops (63) and 23rd in tackles for loss while starting all 11 games.

A Havelock native, Moore has been projected as a preseason first-team All C-USA selection by The Sporting News, Lindy's, Athlon and Phil Steele's magazine.

The Butkus Award Watch List will be trimmed to 10 semi-finalists on Oct. 20 and will be cut to three finalists on Nov. 10.

The winner will be announced Saturday, Dec. 10, at the Butkus Award Gala in Orlando, FL, and presented by the award's namesake, former University of Illinois All-American and Chicago Bears NFL Hall of Famer Dick Butkus.

2005 BUTKUS AWARD PRESEASON WATCH LIST

[Players from C-USA teams denoted in bold.]

Rufus Alexander, Oklahoma
Jon Alston, Stanford
Brandon Archer, Kansas State
H.B. Blades, Pittsburgh
Trent Bray, Oregon State
Ahmad Brooks, Virginia
Abe Brown, Louisville
Nick Bunting, Tulsa
Anthony Cannon, Tulane
James Cook, UCF
Bernard Davis, Troy
Will Derting, Washington State
Tim Dobbins, Iowa State
Shomari Earls, Florida Atlantic
Lee Foliaki, Texas A&M
Omar Gaither, Tennessee
Chad Greenway, Iowa
George Hall, Purdue
Korey Hall, Boise State
James Hargrave, Connecticut
Aaron Harris, Texas
Spencer Havner, UCLA
A.J. Hawk, Ohio State
Ray Henderson, Boston College
Abdul Hodge, Iowa
Thomas Howard, UTEP
Brandon Hoyte, Notre Dame
Clint Ingram, Oklahoma
Brian Iwuh, Colorado
Cameron Jensen, BYU
Brandon Johnson, Louisville
Leverne Johnson, Troy
Anthony Jordan, Toledo
Javan Lee, Northern Illinois
Joe Lobendahn, Washington
Tim McGarigle, Northwestern
Kevin McLee, West Virginia
J.J. Milan, Nevada
Chris Moore, East Carolina
Mike Mohoric, New Mexico
Terna Nande, Miami (OH)
Stephen Nicholas, USF
A.J. Nicholson, Florida State
Moses Osemwegie, Vanderbilt
Justin Parrish, Kent State
Teddy Piepkow, Bowling Green
Paul Posluszny, Penn State
Nick Reid, Kansas
Dontez Sanders, Wisconsin
Byron Santiago, Louisiana Tech
Dallas Sartz, USC
Brandon Siler, Florida
Kevin Simon, Tennessee
Ernie Sims, Florida State
Kelvin Smith, Syracuse
Tony Taylor, Georgia
Brian Toal, Boston College
Spencer Toone, Utah
Cameron Vaughn, LSU
Justin Warren, Texas A&M
Thaddeus Washington, Colorado
Gerris Wilkinson, Georgia Tech
Travis Williams, Auburn
LaMarr Woodley, Michigan

From staff reports and an ECU Athletics release.

New BCS voters panel already in for shakeup

NEW YORK — The new college football poll being used by the Bowl Championship Series will have to replace five voters on its recently unveiled panel, four who work for ESPN and one whose only connection to college football is his father-in-law.

Lou Holtz, Gerry DiNardo, John Congemi and Sam Smith are not permitted by ESPN to vote in the Harris Interactive College Football Poll because it is being used by the BCS to determine which teams play for the national championship.

Jason Rash, the son-in-law of Troy coach Larry Blakeney, has withdrawn from the 114-member Harris voter panel after the BCS informed the Sun Belt Conference that he did not meet its voter criteria.

Congemi, the former Pittsburgh quarterback, is a game analyst for ESPN's regional college football coverage. Holtz, who retired as South Carolina coach last year, recently signed on as a studio analyst. DiNardo, fired as Indiana coach after last season, will work for ESPN Radio.

Smith, who does play-by-play for ESPN's regional coverage of Sun Belt Conference games, was asked by the network on Thursday to give up his spot on the Harris poll and agreed, according to ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz.

``When the Harris poll was announced, we went on record saying our commentators wouldn't participate for journalistic reasons,'' Krulewitz said. ``That decision is consistent given our decision to pull out of the coaches' poll.''

ESPN said it removed its name from the USA Today coaches' poll earlier this year because all ballots are not being made public. The coaches agreed this season to release only their final ballots for the first time.

The Harris poll is being used by the BCS to replace The Associated Press media poll after the AP asked college football officials to stop using the Top 25 in their formula for picking teams to play in the four major bowls.

Nancy Wong, a spokeswoman for Harris Interactive Inc., said Congemi has confirmed his withdrawal, but Holtz, DiNardo and Smith had not yet informed Harris by Thursday afternoon that they will not be participating.

The 11 Division I-A conferences and Notre Dame provided Harris with a pool of about 300 possible poll voters. The panel was randomly selected with the only consideration being equal representation for all conferences.

Wong said Harris will randomly select replacements for Harris and Rash out of the remaining pool of voters, and is prepared to do the same for Holtz and DiNardo when their withdrawals are confirmed.

There were no women among the 114 original voters. Wong said there are female candidates in the voter pool, so the possibility exists that a woman could be selected as a replacement. But no special accommodation will be made to put a woman on the panel, she said.

News Nuggets are compiled periodically based on material supplied by staff members; data published by ECU, Conference USA and its member schools; and reports from Associated Press and other sources. Copyright 2005 Bonesville.net and other publishers. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Page Updated: 02/23/2007 12:27 PM