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ACC Commish Swofford again says his league has no intention of moving to a three-division setup if deregulation comes for FB conference championship games, indicates his intention of sponsoring the change in legislation was more about principle & not about specific changes for his membership, believes there is support for the move & that it will be in place by 2016 - link
Pittsburgh Interim AD Juhl touches on the Panthers search, "If you're paying a search firm, you're paying them to know the insights or what skeletons are out there. You want the firm to do the background that you don't have time or resources to do." Points to alumni relations & the ability to raise money from that group as a key skill for the new leader, former Drew (DIII) AD Zotos details the changes to the AD role over the years - link
Wisconsin AD Alvarez comments on the Badgers apparel status, says his team let a January 1 renewal deadline with adidas pass in order to see what was available in the market, calls adidas a "good partner," has had conversations with the three major players, deal with adidas concludes after 2015-16 in which the department will receive $3.55m, $2.75m in merchandise & $800k in cash - link
Mississippi State AD Stricklin takes to Twitter to apologize for uniforms worn by his Baseball team that featured jerseys with Las Vegas-style neon lights that spelled out messages, one of which was highly derogatory toward Ole Miss, front of the jerseys prominently displayed 'Viva Starkvegas,' Adidas also releases a statement apologizing for the mishap - link
Chronicle of Higher Education's Wolverton takes his turn on the issue of African-American HCs, notes Merritt J. Norvell Jr.'s organization of the new National Association for Coaching Equity & Development that counts Texas Tech MBB HC Smith & Georgetown MBB HC Thompson as early adopters, Virginia AD Littlepage on the decline of black HCs, "Everyone is talking about it, & nobody seems to have a bona fide answer to why this may be happening," lots more - link
Eastern Kentucky AD Lochmueller has been busy in his first couple of weeks on the job, releases statement on video making its rounds that shows FB student-athlete Graffree, a former Kentucky-signee, violently punch Kentucky FB student-athlete Barker in the side of the head in the lobby of an EKU dorm, notes the suspension of Graffree & others with the full discipline process in the hands of the Office of Student Rights & Responsibilities - link, link, link (video)
East Carolina the latest to commit to cost of attendance coverage for all student-athletes to be phased-in over a two year period, FB, MBB & WBB will be fully covered as of August 1 with other sports to be incrementally funded temporarily before receiving blanket support by 2016, AD Compher calls it "uncharted territory," believes the Pirates have set the bar for 'Group of 5' schools - link
In an effort to drive attendance, the Wall Street Journal writes on the Big 12's rule changes that allow for heckling at Men's Tennis matches just like you'd hear at FB or Basketball games, except with the major difference that participating student-athletes & coaches can actually hear the majority of comments, TCU HC Roditi pushed the measure within the league & the Horned Frogs now have a 'Purple Rain' cheering section, pretty interesting read - link
Attorneys for former USC FB AC McNair continue to battle the NCAA to get more documents unsealed in their client's court case, file a motion to have all documents released after only about 200 were made public two weeks ago, "Nowhere in its opinion did this Court give the NCAA permission to cherry pick just those portions of the trial record it believed should be made public" - link
eBay names Cutler Prez of StubHub, moves over from the New York Stock Exchange where he was Head of Global Listings, enters at an important time for StubHub as they face stiff competition from a number of other players & a potentially precedent-setting lawsuit with Ticketmaster & the Golden State Warriors, believes the company can be even more transformative for fans - link
The Mountain West Conference, along with Global Sports Management & Caymax Sports LTD announces a partnership for a new eight-team MBB event to begin in November of 2017 in the western Caribbean, a new arena will play host to the event & one MWC team will make the trip each season, Global Sports CEO Hanks points to beautiful beaches as a major draw - link
With major renovations coming for Clemson's Littlejohn Coliseum, the Tigers will take their 2015-16 MBB home slate to Greenville's Bon Secours Wellness Arena, Prez Clements notes the more than 14k alumni in the city & 3k more students who call Greenville home, AD Radakovich believes the one-year stay will increase affinity & lead to more fans making the trip to campus once Littlejohn is revamped, economic impact for Greenville around $12m - link
The NBA recorded its highest overall attendance ever for a regular season as almost 22m went through turnstiles, number of sellouts also at an all-time high with 700, average attendance per game at 17,826 with arenas at 94% to capacity, reports also have the league close to a deal with Nike to take over their apparel rights though there are still "a million I's to dot & T's to cross," more on that front - link, link
On the heels of its record-breaking season, the NBA also launched a fan engagement play via Facebook,Twitter & Weibo yesterday morning that saw 20 current & former players take to the social space to engage with fans, included Jeremy Lin, Andrew Wiggins & Dikembe Mutumbo, aim was to push the upcoming playoffs, Snapchat's 'Our Story' will be used for the fist time in the post-season, overall social footprint for league is at astounding 811m followers - link
Google launched a new version of internet browser Chrome yesterday, Chrome 42, that comes with updates including phasing out Java & Silverlight extension capabilities in a couple of months, a number of sports entities including the NBA & MLB still use the extensions on their current websites, change could directly impact the ability to stream games through the new browser - link
UCLA Senior Assoc. AD for External Relations Rebholz tweets out details from results of a survey the Bruins pushed to their MBB supporters, includes 15 pages of questions & responses mainly on the fan experience in Pauley Pavilion, ticket prices, as well as concessions & food are the two main items that need improvement according to fans, UCLA band mentioned most as the best in-game entertainment piece, lots more - link
Former USC AD Garrett will step-away from his AD role at Langston (NAIA) after an almost three-year stint, will move his family to Kansas City so his two ten year-old sons can be closer to his wife's family, notably hired former Trojan stand-out Miller as the school's WBB HC, "I know I did a great job at Langston...We just think it's time to move on." - link
Texas gets commitments from former Baseball student-athletes & current pros Street & Stubbs to fully endow a scholarship for the Longhorns, total pledge is $386,693, overall goal for the former players is $775,000, AD Patterson has been vocal about the need for increased support from all those associated with UT as full cost of attendance & other measures could see expenses per student-athlete rise by $10k - link
Montana AD Haslam says his department is not close to offering full cost of attendance coverage for student-athletes, notes it would add over $600k to the Grizzlies budget & the cutting of programs would have to be considered, believes the model of picking & choosing sports or individual student-athletes for the extra benefit is really dangerous, anxious to see how the development plays out at the FCS level - link
Watch: Oakland AD Konya sits down to talk about the new black-top basketball court for the Grizzlies, over 10k supporters voted on the new court design, says he was skeptical going into the installation process, interview includes time-lapse video of the floor being resurfaced, already had full black inside each three-point arch, strategic about messaging around the move, more - link
Is this normal? Texas A&M System Chancellor Sharp has asked all university VPs to submit letters of resignation in advance of the arrival of new Prez Young in a move that would give Young flexibility on building his own leadership team, VPs advised to submit request to return to teaching if Young chooses not to keep them in place, recognizes that many who will be impacted have done excellent jobs - link
Quick read from the NCAA on the talent that comes out of the state of Texas, yet only one school, DII Texas Women's University, sponsors Women's Gymnastics, Georgia HC Durante believes a number of student-athletes would love to stay home to compete, Alabama HC Duckworth says just one DI program in the state would have access to enough talent to challenge for a National Championship - link
Nike announces a major women's-centric campaign dubbed #betterforit that kicked off last Sunday night with a 60-second commercial in the MTV Movie Awards, aims to inspire women to be active, series of short films are part of the campaign as well as TV & other executables, VP/GM of NikeWomen & Global Women's Training Montagne, "Every athlete has goals. And Nike is the link between you & your aspirations." - link
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