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Conference USA Commish Banowsky set to exit the league to become Executive Director of the College FB Playoff Foundation, list of accomplishments during his 13-year tenure for the league & its members is long & impressive, "My time with Conference USA has been an experience of a lifetime...The landscape has settled and these universities are all on the rise. They work very well together and the conference has tremendous leadership on each campus and within the conference office." More - link
The Dallas Morning News continues its look at developments around Texas AD Patterson, columnist Sherrington writes on why peers such as Texas A&M's Hyman, TCU's Del Conte, Baylor's McCaw, Oklahoma's Castiglione & SMU's Hart are never in the news for the reasons surrounding Patterson, "for the most part...his colleagues go about their business professionally, quietly and, apparently, without malice," Suggests Patterson tone it down long enough to at least see if his hires of FB HC Strong & MBB HC Smart pan out - link
All files have been released in the Todd McNair case, email correspondence to & from those involved in the review & penalty decisions in the case contain a number of eye-openers, such as committee liaison Cooper's & member Howard's sharp feelings toward USC based on their handling of the situation & if McNair should be permitted to coach at any level, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Shaller ruled back in 2012 that some emails showed "ill will or hatred" by the NCAA - link
More from SEC Media Days with a trio of reads starting with Yahoo!'s Forde noting why the league needs to tackle the Conference Flag issue in a proactive manner, though he also sees how HCs are in a tough spot when asked about it (link); Ole Miss boss Freeze thinks early season CFB Playoff rankings can go to the heads of student-athletes, confident in the manner the school is handling the Laremy Tunsil situation (link); Arkansas HC Bielema questioned why his team is the only one with two instances of back-to-back road games (link)
U.S. District Court Judge Wilken gives her final approval on the $60m combined settlement with student-athletes on the video game front, also extends the deadline for claims to the end of this month, may also end up deciding to reduce attorney fees from 33% to 30% of the total pay-out, over 20k former student-athletes applied by the original July 2nd last-call date, legal counsel Berman calls it a landmark day for student-athletes - link
The Wall Street Journal searches for answers on the elusive question of "What Do College Football Fans Want Today?" Covers research conducted by NACMA that found students actually aren't as concerned with ubiquitous mobile connectivity as many believe, Mississippi State AD Sticklin says his team has found that parking, concessions & restrooms are the three most important things to his fans, Ole Miss AD Bjork notes the Rebels investment in a new cellular network is getting in front of the curve, more - link
Michigan cuts off FB season ticket sales as nearly 90k have been moved, represents the largest total in the past three years for the Wolverines as excitement grows for the first campaign under new HC Harbaugh, 89,975 season tickets sold represents a total larger than the entire stadium capacity for all but 11 other institutions, students are in the number & are up from 11,597 last year to 17,899 now, no details on revenue increase, some single game tix still remain - link
Illinois is closing in on a five-year, $10m deal with Sodexo to handle all concessions at Illini athletic venues, Senior Assoc. AD for Business Affairs Young doesn't detail how much athletics made on the vertical previously when handled in-house, simply says the Sodexo relationship would bring a higher return, timing of move is right with the renovation to the State Farm Center & new NCAA meals legislation, Sodexo's offer accepted as it was the best value, more - link
Tennessee AD Hart the only source that matters as he announces the hire of Robinson as Senior Assoc. AD for Communications, heads to Knoxville after a 10-year stint with the Jacksonville Jaguars public relations team, will have oversight of media & public relations, internet operations & creative services with a direct reporting line to Hart, plenty familiar with the Vols from a 2001-05 stint as Executive Director of Peyton Manning's PeyBack Foundation - link
St. Louis partners with Learfield Sports on the multimedia rights front with an agreement that stretches through 2020, marks the first time the Billikens have gone out of house with a third party partner, Learfield Licensing Partners also gets in the mix, AD May calls it "an important step for our program," Billiken Sports Properties will be led by Sartorius who previously served as Assoc. GM on the Missouri team - link
There are international trips & then there are expeditions to Cuba, like the one Vanderbilt AD Williams & 10 Commodore student-athletes will embark upon tomorrow in conjunction with Soles4Souls to deliver shoes to the needy, third consecutive year VU has assisted with past two destinations being Tanzania & Costa Rica, group may attend the opening of the U.S. Embassy as full diplomatic relations between the U.S. & Cuba are set to resume for the first time since 1961 - link
Fox 8 in Cleveland indicates more changes could be afoot for Akron that could include the Zips FB program, apparently one option that is being batted around is moving FB out of FBS competition, stadium finance bill of $4m annually one big issue, that's in addition to the $8m university subsidy the program receives, Interim AD Mortimer talks about finding a balance & getting return on investment - link
Penn State set to remove names from the back of its FB jerseys for the upcoming season in a return to tradition, HC Franklin says only one name matters & that's "Penn State," Nittany Lions went with this look for 125 years before former HC O'Brien added player names in 2012 as tribute to student-athletes who stayed in Happy Valley despite the Sandusky saga - link
UConn's FB home will now be called Pratt & Whitney Stadium at Rentschler Field as the Huskies have also picked up 25 acres of land around the facility for parking purposes in a deal that involved a couple of players, announcement made as Pratt & Whitney broke ground on a new 425k square-foot global headquarters & engineering building just a few hundred yards away from the stadium - link
Michigan gets the green light from its Board of Regents to build a new $15m golf clubhouse, as well as make some needed renovations to the UM Golf Course, Interim AD Hackett says the new digs will benefit more than just his Golf programs as the course is a place for community interaction, all monies will come from athletics & the new facility will be named after the Postma family who donated $4m - link
New Florida A&M AD Overton plans to implement GradesFirst for the Rattlers before the first day of school next month that allows for athletic department officials & professors to track the progress of student-athletes in a clean format, reflects back on his previous stops at TCU & Oklahoma when academic staffs were much leaner than they are today & says the situation at FAMU is similar, GradesFirst is one starting piece to a larger academic center - link
Arkansas Little Rock AD Conque makes some moves on his staff as longtime Trojan Hogan is now Senior Assoc. AD for Corporate Relations & Special Projects, also hires Whipple as Asst. AD for External Operations who has a varied background of fundraising & administrative stops including a high school in Minnesota, Illinois-Springfield (DII) & the Lone Star Conference (DII) - link (scroll down a touch)
There are interesting tech developments every day & then there's plain-old science that leads to breakthroughs, such as findings at Virginia that over-hydrating can be an issue for athletes & result in exercise-associated hyponatremia (EAH) when the body has too much water compared to salt levels & can impact neurological functions, endurance athletes are commonly most affected, but researchers are seeing more cases in a variety of sports, suggests letting your body tell you when to intake fluids - link
Arizona State & Adidas have launched their new partnership as Sun Devils AD Anderson was the featured speaker at the company's national sales meeting in Palm Springs last month, Adidas' NCAA sports marketing director Murphy says it indicates how important college relationships are for Adidas, deal is $33.8 over eight years, new retail products are expected to hit by mid-August & Three Stripe staffers have been spending significant time with ASU leaders to further understand the narrative, more - link
Deseret News continues its series on the state of college athletics, Utah CFO Smith says his team is already researching how the Utes would offer additional stipends to student-athletes if the O'Bannon case ends with such a ruling, Utes AD Hill calculates simply having a scholarships that covers all academic needs as getting paid $15 an hour, former Utah State AD Barnes thinks stipends could be too far from the core mission of athletics connected to the academics of higher education, more - link
Eastern Kentucky is the latest to commit to full cost of attendance awards for MBB & WBB student-athletes in 2015-16, exact amount will be somewhere between $2,800 to $4,600, AD Lochmueller says it would be challenging for his Colonels not to take advantage of new COA rules; Lochmueller also covers some ground in an interview including how his first few months on the job have gone (hectic) & how his strong business background will translate well to college athletics, more - link, link
UNC-Wilmington brass have yet to make a decision on cost of attendance awards as Chancellor Sartarelli calls it "a chaotic situation," wants the Seahawks to balance its commitments with student-athletes, competitiveness & ability to pay for the upgrades as part of the decision-making process, AD Bass is due to deliver a recommendation to the Chancellor's cabinet next week, no indication on what options are on the table - link
Learfield also announced SMU's Mustang Sports Property deal with Block Party Suites (BPS) as the niche of custom tailgate setups & hosting continues to grow, BPS will use spruced-up 20' shipping containers to transform Brinkley Ave. "into the ultimate tailgate village," individual spaces can host 30 to 40 & include a roof top deck, two flat-screen HC TVs, nice furniture & private bathrooms, AD Hart likes the addition of luxury - link
Sports media move that's not quite to the level of the Bill Simmons departure from ESPN, but close as notable radio voice Cowherd is also set to leave the Worldwide Leader with a likely landing spot at FOX Sports, another in a line of notable personality exits from ESPN; Also more context on subscriber attrition for ESPN as national writer Fischer notes the network's loss of 3.2m subs in the last year compared to Netflix's addition of 3.3m in the last three month - link, link
Another 'First 4 Out' feature on Twitter, click the link to see four more developments from yesterday that didn't quite make today's email. Enjoy & feedback is welcome! - link
