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Indiana Prez McRobbie & Butler Prez Danko both release statements on the State of Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act, McRobbie hopes the negative public push-back leads to state government reconsidering the legislation, notes the reputation damage already done, Danko, "No matter your opinion of the law, it is hard to argue with the fact it has done significant damage to our state." - link, link
Alabama dismissed troubled FB student-athlete Taylor after his second domestic violence arrest in a year, HC Saban, "This will still need to go through the legal process, but when he was given an opportunity here, it was under strict guidelines & we made it clear there was a zero tolerance policy," AD Battle also comments on the situation, says he still believes in second chances, but that they require responsibility & accountability - link
Southern Illinois Interim AD Bardo says he won't make any decisions on the financial challenges faced by the department as a result of potential major state funding cuts to the university, instead will leave that up to the new AD, does not believe cutting sports is the right approach, SIU Prez Dunn notes Athletics won't be able to avoid the situation & will have to "take their share along with every other unit on campus" - link
Minnesota AD Teague on a couple of items, says it's not uncommon to hear rumors about coaches making moves, in this case it's MBB HC Pitino, "(Richard) & I are doing things together that make him very encouraged about being here," having a lot of success with fundraising toward the Gophers $150m facilities project upgrades, new deal could be in the works for FB HC Kill - link (scroll down)
IPFW will drop their Men's & Women's Tennis programs at the end of the current academic year in an effort to save $450k annually, AD Hartley Hutton, "We have some of our best student athletes in terms of athletic & academic achievement (on the two teams), & it's a sad day for our department," AC Recht calls the move "a travesty" while pointing to record of the Women's team (17-6) against that of Softball (0-24) - link
StubHub files a lawsuit against the Golden State Warriors on the grounds that the team & Ticketmaster told fans to resell tix on their platforms only or risk having their ticket privileges revoked including for playoff games already purchased, Stubhub says listings for the Warriors are down 80% this year, company believes Ticketmaster will attempt to do the same with other teams if allowed, which creates a secondary ticket monopoly, more - link
As the drum beats for legalized sports gambling in the States, eleven El Salvador Men's Soccer national team members were acquitted on charges of match-fixing from games back in 2010 & 2011, interestingly the presiding judge ruled the alleged conduct was not enough to warrant criminal charges, but was a matter of morality & conscience, two intermediaries were involved in paying the players - link
MBB HC moves: DePaul brings back former HC Leitao to lead the Blue Demons program, went 58-34 in three seasons from 2002-2005 before departing for Virginia; St. John's is reportedly close to announcing alum & Hall of Famer Mullins as their new HC; Utah State is expected to hire longtime AC Duryea to replace recently retired HC Morrill, Duryea has been with the Aggies since 2001 - link, link, link
Kentucky v. Notre Dame on Saturday night recorded the highest rating ever for a college hoops game on cable, nationally did a 9.0 (rating)/16 (share), peaked near the end of the game at 11.9/21, not surprisingly Louisville had the highest market rating of 28.5, through Saturday the Tourney averaged a 7.1/14, tops since the current format started in 1991, the Derby City continues to out-pace all other markets - link
Louisiana Tech MBB HC White talks recruiting success despite the smallest budget in Conference USA, staff is extremely thorough on gathering academic, athletic & social information on a prospective student-athlete before they spend money on the recruiting process, notes AD McClelland has always helped in key spots if the Bulldogs need a bit more money, relationships center to program-building, lots more - link
East Tennessee State's use of a local high school stadium for their 2015 FB games has hit a speed bump, Bucs were planning to use Kermit Tipton Stadium for their home games, but how their rental of $26,600 could impact prospective student-athletes is a major question, Johnson City Manager Peterson says the NCAA informed of an additional clause that needs to be added to the agreement which may take some time - link
Belmont MBB HC Byrd discusses his role as chair of the game's rules committee at a time of high scrutiny, not a personal fan of reducing the shot clock, but says all data on the change thus far shows an increase in scoring, notes the difficult job referees have, thinks physical play needs to be cleaned up, knows any changes will be met with healthy support & probably equal push-back - link
Sports Illustrated's Deitsch profiles one of the most powerful people at ESPN that you may not have heard of, Erik Rydholm is the executive producer of Highly Questionable, Around the Horn & Pardon the Interruption, Rydholm takes exception with the label & notes that he's not even technically employed by the Worldwide Leader, but ratings tell the story as his timeslots have continued to grow as lead-ins to the early SportsCenter, lots more - link
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Outgoing Texas MBB HC Barnes holds a final presser, says AD Patterson told him last week he would be back for another season, but "some things changed," shocked by leaks from inside the athletic department on development that he was given an opportunity to change out his staff in order to stay, wants to coach again, gives his student-athletes credit for building the program - link
Old Dominion AD Selig says his department will be lucky to break-even on the Monarchs MBB post-season NIT run, but the exposure value has been strong as the squad heads to New York City for a semifinal date with Stanford, Selig points to the 35' bank shot winner over Murray State, "This will have a long ripple effect. That one shot, that one moment, that one game will have an incredibly long shelf life." - link
Check-out the entire transcript from last night's #sbchat that involved professionals from all corners of the sports industry, led by former New England Patriots CMO @LouImbriano, topics covered included effective promotions, the art of selling tickets, how dynamic pricing is being adopted by the marketplace & sponsorship relationships that are excellent examples of synergy, lots more - link
Former Ticketmaster CEO & current Head of Commerce at Twitter@NathanCHubbard notes the 'Buy Now' integration on the platform & it's growing influence, points to an offering from music group Fifth Harmony who pushed a customized snap-back hat to fans that was only available through the tweet, got over 4k re-tweets & 4k favorites, Hubbard calls Twitter a "direct-to-fan platform for content & commerce" - link, link
College & University Professional Association of Human Resources releases more salary information from 2014 on a number of campus-wide positions, including roughly a dozen in athletics, overall median base salaries rose by 2.2% last year across the board, privates showed a 2.3% uptick, publics had 2.1% growth, breaks-down each position by type of school, along with the level of education for job holders - link
From early in the month & a pretty interesting read on the Los Angeles Dodgers looking for a competitive advantage through the food menu created for their players as new Director of Player Development Kapler notes the team wants to become the healthiest in pro sports, part of Kapler's overall approach of "mining value at the margins," some players have tried to smuggle stuff into the locker room, Kapler committed to the move - link
