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D1 College Football News
6-26-06
Source: www.footballfoundation.com
Big
Ten Reaches Landmark Deals for Television Coverage
The Big Ten Conference secured two new agreements
last week that will redefine future television coverage
for their 11 member institutions. On the same day
the league reached a new 10-year rights contract
with ABC/ESPN that will allow the networks to broadcast
up to 41 football games a year, the conference announced
it will partner with Fox Cable Networks to create
a Big Ten Channel that plans to showcase conference
programming 24 hours a day year-round. The new channel,
scheduled to launch in August 2007, will air a minimum
of 35 football games a year, at least two games
of each team, in addition to hundreds of other Big
Ten athletic events. The channel also gives each
school the opportunity to annually produce 60 hours
of content to be shown on the new station. The conference
plans to make the new channel available through
DIRECTV, satellite and cable television distribution
as well as through emerging technology platforms
such as iPods, cell phones and the Internet. Both
Fox Cable Networks and the Big Ten entered into
a 20-year partnership.
Watch List Released for 61st Annual Outland Trophy
Fifty-four players from across Division I-A comprise
the watch list for the 2006 Outland Trophy, given
each year by the Football Writers Association of
America to the nation's top interior lineman. Eight
schools (Boise State, Colorado, Louisville, Maryland,
Ohio State, Southern Cal, Utah and West Virginia)
placed multiple nominees on the 2006 watch list,
which includes 45 seniors and 44 offensive players.
Greg Eslinger, a 2005 Draddy Trophy presented by
HealthSouth finalist from Minnesota, received the
trophy last year. Presented since 1946, the award
bears the name of former Kansas and Pennsylvania
All-America John Outland, who starred as a tackle
and halfback in the last decade of the 19th century
and who earned induction into the College Football
Hall of Fame in 2001. Thirty former Outland winners
also are members of the College Football Hall of
Fame, while three others, Washington's Steve Emtman,
Virginia Tech's Bruce Smith, and Chad Hennings of
Air Force, will be inducted this December at the
National Football Foundation's 49th Annual Awards
Dinner in New York City.
Two-Minute Drill
The Blue Ribbon College Football Yearbook, entering
its sixth year of publication, will begin shipping
on Monday, July 3. More information about ordering
the book can be found at www.blueribbonyearbook.com...
A section of Interstate 68 in West Virginia will
be renamed after longtime WVU broadcaster Jack Fleming,
the 1999 Chris Schenkel Award winner who passed
away in 2001... Theopolis Bell, a former Arizona
Wildcat standout and member of the Arizona Sports
Hall of Fame, died at age 52 following a long battle
with kidney disease... Texas A&M head coach Dennis
Franchione and his Coach Fran Charities, which focus
on after-school programs for children with special
needs, have awarded over $43,000 to 13 different
charities this year... Grambling renamed the press
box at Robinson Stadium after former longtime SID
Collie Nicholson...
Nittany Lions linebacker Paul Posluszny, the 2005
Bednarik and Butkus Award winner, was named the
2005-06 Penn State male student-athlete of the year...
A.J. Hawk, the 2005 Lombardi Award recipient, was
named Ohio State's 2006 Men's Athlete of the Year,
the eighth such football player honored by the school
in the award's 25-year history... Trey Waldrep,
the son of former TCU tailback Kent Waldrep, became
the first child of a player who competed against
the Crimson Tide to receive a Paul Bryant Scholarship.
Kent suffered a broken neck and paralysis during
a game against Alabama in 1974... LSU wide receiver
Xavier Carter was named SEC male athlete of the
year... Among the 11 male student-athletes recognized
as 2006 Medal of Honor winners by the Big Ten for
proficiency in scholarship and athletics include
Michigan State's Drew Stanton, Northwestern's Brett
Basanez and Minnesota's Greg Eslinger, a 2005 Draddy
Trophy Finalist...
Tennessee and Nebraska agreed to a two-game series
for the 2016 and 2017 seasons... Miami (Fla.) and
Kansas State will play a two-game series beginning
in 2011... Nebraska and UCLA will play a home-and-home
series against one another in 2012 and 2013... Iowa
exhausted their 2006 season-ticket sales to the
general public following a fifth consecutive year
of increasing ticket sales... The cover of the Colorado
football media guide will feature current coach
Dan Hawkins with CU coaching legends Eddie Crowder
and Bill McCartney...
The University at Buffalo's 2006 Football Kickoff
Luncheon, featuring new head coach Turner Gill,
will take place on August 4, with longtime play-by-play
announcer Don Criqui as the keynote speaker... Players
from the Naval Academy football team manned an informational
table about their upcoming season at Camden Yards
during the Baltimore Orioles-Washington Nationals
three-game series this past weekend... Michigan
will reach a record number of fans over the radio
this year thanks to a new agreement signed with
CBS Radio, the Chum Radio Group of Canada and Radio
One... Central Florida has already added 2,600 new
season-ticket holders for this season... Oregon
will sport four different jerseys this year as a
result of a two-year redesign effort by the school
and Nike...
Florida Citrus Sports raised over $3,000 for their
Foundation during their annual Member-Guest Golf
Tournament last Friday... The West Virginia Coal
Association will sponsor the upcoming seven-year
series between Marshall and West Virginia, which
will begin this September 2 in Morgantown... Nike
signed a five-year agreement with East Carolina
to be the Pirates' exclusive athletic apparel and
footwear partner...
Former Red Raider All-Americas Zach Thomas and Don
Rives will join five others as members of Texas
Tech's athletic Hall of Honor class of 2006 during
ceremonies in late October... The University of
Minnesota's 2006 "M" Club Hall of Fame class includes
former gridiron greats Sheldon Beise, Williams Arnold
Bevan and Bob Fitch, all of whom starred for the
Golden Gophers in the 1930s and 1940s...
Washington head coach Tyrone Willingham threw out
the ceremonial first pitch prior to a recent Seattle
Mariners home game against the San Francisco Giants...
Colorado head coach Dan Hawkins, Air Force coach
Fisher DeBerry and Colorado College coach Bob Bodor
all spoke at the 2006 Sports Corp Football Kickoff
Luncheon in Colorado Springs last week... Former
Penn State legend Franco Harris will be the Guest
of Honor at the 2006 Directed Electronics Charity
Golf Tournament in August... Former Texas coach
Darrell Royal joined UT associate athletics director
for football operations Cleve Bryant as guest speakers
at the San Antonio Quarterback Club luncheon last
Monday... Pat Dye, the former Auburn head coach
who received induction into the College Football
Hall of Fame last December, is the keynote speaker
for the University of West Alabama's 2006-07 Athletic
Kickoff Dinner in August...
Athletics Directors Laing Kennedy (Kent State),
Jim Livengood (Arizona), Terry Don Phillips (Clemson)
and Kevin White (Notre Dame) were honored as Division
I-A regional Athletics Directors of the Year by
NACDA at their annual meetings last week... South
Carolina strength and conditioning coach Pat Moorer
received Master certification from the Collegiate
Strength & Conditioning Coaches Association...
Dirk Koetter and the rest of his staff at Arizona
State recently participated in the Future for KIDS
All-Star Football Camp on campus... Former Princeton
quarterback Jason Garrett and his Starfish Charities
hosted their fourth annual Play It Smart clinic
on Saturday for 200 kids in the National Football
Foundation's academic-mentoring program... Indiana
head coach Terry Hoeppner hosted a Youth Football
Camp last week, which ran children of all ages through
basic drills on both offense and defense... Penn
State's 32nd annual summer football camps are expected
to draw close to 3,000 high school players...
Phase I of the renovations taking place on Tennessee's
Neyland Stadium, which include the addition of an
East Club and infrastructure improvements, are scheduled
to be completed in time for the Vols season opener
against California... Alabama will partner with
Action Sports Media to manage new video boards and
LED signage equipment to be installed at Bryant-Denny
Stadium this season... Renovations at Western Kentucky's
L.T. Smith Stadium will begin this month after more
than a year of planning... FieldTurf will be installed
at Washington State's Martin Stadium well in advance
of the Cougars home opener against Idaho this year...
Iowa State's Board of Regents approved a renovation
plan of Jack Trice Stadium that includes a bowled
in south end zone and additional seating and concession
stands... Jones AT&T Stadium, on the campus of Texas
Tech University, will sport FieldTurf this year,
the first time Red Raiders home games will not be
played on AstroTurf in more than 35 years... The
Marshall athletics department hosted a "Choose a
Seat" day at Joan Edwards Stadium last Saturday
to assist with sales for tickets to the general
public... Texas is auctioning off the set of burnt
orange Longhorn lights that appeared atop their
north end zone scoreboard for the last 20 years...
Rice hired Chris Del Conte as the school's new director
of athletics... West Virginia extended the contract
of head coach Rich Rodriguez through the 2012 season...
Iowa State football coach Dan McCarney received
a salary increase this past week that boosts his
salary $175,000 a season to $1.1 million through
2010... South Carolina hired former Gamecock offensive
lineman Cedric Williams as a graduate assistant...
Paul Troth will return to his alma mater East Carolina
this year to serve as an offensive assistant...
Arizona State hired Lyla Clery as their assistant
athletic director for compliance... Ohio State hired
Eric Lichter as their new director of football performance.
Schedule Spotlight: The SEC
Team - Date - First Opponent (Home/Away)
Alabama - September 2 - Hawaii (H)
Arkansas - September 2 - Southern California (H)
Auburn - September 2 - Washington State (H)
Florida - September 2 - Southern Miss (H)
Georgia - September 2 - Western Kentucky (H)
Kentucky - September 3 - Louisville (A)
LSU - September 2 - Louisiana-Lafayette (H)
Mississippi - September 3 - Memphis (H)
Mississippi State - August 31 - South Carolina (H)
South Carolina - August 31 - Mississippi State (A)
Tennessee - September 2 - California (H)
Vanderbilt - September 2 - Michigan (A)
With 120 chapters and 12,000 members nationwide,
The National Football Foundation & College Hall
of Fame, a non-profit educational organization,
runs programs designed to use the power of amateur
football in developing scholarship, citizenship
and athletic achievement in young people. The NFF
presents the MacArthur Trophy, the Draddy Trophy
and releases the Bowl Championship Series (BCS)
Standings. NFF programs include the College Football
Hall of Fame in South Bend, Ind., Play It Smart,
the NFF Center for Youth Development Through Sport
at Springfield College (Mass.), the NFL-NFF Coaching
Academy, and scholarships of over $1 million for
college and high school scholar-athletes.
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