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Duquesne hires Dayton VP of Advancement Harper as its new AD, will begin his tenure in Pittsburgh next month & previously served as Assoc. VP for Athletics for the Flyers where we worked hand-in-hand with MBB & the fundraising team, plus a stop as Asst. AD at Michigan from 2003-05, "I think if you look at my background, I've always been a part of things that have had a genesis of success because I've had a great team around me, and I sense that here." - link
UCF Interim AD & FB HC O'Leary is seriously interested in hanging up his whistle after the conclusion of the season & becoming permanent AD for the Knights, USA Today's Wolken reports a traditional search has been put on the back burner as the school considers O'Leary's push, potential hurdles seem to be O'Leary's lack of overall administrative experience & the fact that former AD Stansbury took a handful of high-level admins with him to Oregon State - link
Sun Belt Commish Benson on the addition of Coastal Carolina to his league, "The Sun Belt is a growing conference with a bright future and Coastal Carolina makes a perfect fit as they too have seen a tremendous amount of growth and have all the tools necessary to move forward at the highest level of college athletics." AD Hogue, "By this invitation, we have been recognized for our excellence on and off the field." Big South Commish Kallander's response includes disappointment, but confidence his league will continue to perform at a high level - link, link
USA Today's Auerbach looks at how some FB HCs are working with their student-athletes on the topic of domestic violence, each time Colorado State team members meet with a position coach five to ten minutes of dialogue is dedicated solely to what's happening in off-the-field headlines across the nation, HC Bobo calls it 'character ed,' Arkansas & UNLV HCs Bielema & Sanchez also make their teams aware of critical situations, Virginia HC London looks for little cues in recruiting to see if a prospective student-athlete fits his program, lots more - link
The Pac-12 will consider adding a 'Rooney Rule' to hiring processes within the league that would potentially diversify candidate pools, back in July Commish Scott said he would support such a move, civil rights activist Sachs leading the charge, Oregon & Oregon State already have similar measures in place for their vacancies, Atlantic 10 Commish McGlade also generally in favor, "Not to have a minority or multiple minorities on your list of potential finalists, that's a sad commentary" - link
Part 1 of a look at Kentucky AD Barnhart's tenure in Lexington also serves as a good visual review of the Wildcats newly renovated Commonwealth Stadium, Barnhart also details the success of his department's previous '15 by 15 by 15 Plan' & the transition to '1-3-5 Elite' that aims for every program to win a championship, maintain a department-wide 3.0 GPA, be a Top 5 overall program by the end the year & generally perform in an elite category, more - link
The Big East set to roll-out the inaugural 'Freshmen Fundamentals Program' later this month as selected MBB scholarship & walk-on Frosh will head to New York City for two days of media training & personal branding courses, former NBA HC O'Brien will address the group on what pro coaches look for in college players, panels also include an etiquette review & how to create a positive image on campus & in a variety of social settings - link
No surprise, but the debate around full cost of attendance continues in a Boston Globe piece, ACC Commish Swofford, "It's not perfect, but I think it's the right thing to do in today's world," Northeastern's Roby says the 'Big 5' is not reflective of what's really happening around the industry, Vermont Prez Sullivan calls the subset a "classic antitrust cartel," Harvard AD Scalise, "Our philosophy has been that financial aid covers the full cost of attendance, and we have been doing that for a long, long time," lots more - link
Michigan State in the spotlight as the Department of Education has found the school didn't operate appropriately under Title IX statutes that created a "sexually hostile environment," specific issues include grievance procedures for student complaints didn't satisfy Title IX standards, school responds with a list of immediate improvement steps, MSU was one of 130 institutions under investigation by the Office of Civil Rights - link
With all the focus on concussions & head injuries, Stanford bioengineers have found that most sensors used to monitor head impact transmit less than accurate data, mouthguard option that is actually currently used by Cardinal FB were one of three tested & produced the most reliable results, movement of the sensors themselves can throw-off readings by up to 500% making an already difficult-to-measure topic even that much more gray - link
You've likely already heard about the plan at Illinois to broadcast FB games in mandarin Chinese on the radio this season as the school has 4,500 students from the country (link) & Texas A&M returns its Spanish Radio Network for the upcoming season in what is believed to be the largest of its kind, 112 games will be carried over the the network as 38% of the state's 26.4m residents are of Hispanic descent (link)
Illinois Board of Trustees Chairman McMillan comments on issues around Illini athletics, disappointed with what he's hearing, but trying not to be accusatory or definitive about anything yet, "I don't know anything that's going to happen next. Hopefully things will be quiet." Notes that a "summary of observations" from outside investigators was presented to the Board prior to the exit of FB HC Beckman last week, more - link
Idaho Statesman reports on a situation at Boise State back in 2013 that cost Track & Field HC Hardy his job after he didn't properly handle claims of sexual assault against one of his student-athletes, emails uncovered show a note to Prez Kustra started the focus, a concerned parent wrote to Kustra, "It is my understanding that he (student-athlete in question) has also threatened, harassed and inappropriately touched other females right on your campus," details have come to light as two former student-athletes have filed suit against the school last year - link
An ESPN survey to MBB HCs shows the desire for a single officiating body to achieve consistency & improve accountability, of the 140 coaches who responded, moving to a four-quarter game format, increasing individual player fouls to six & advancing an in-bounds to half-court after a timeout were also strongly supported, a number of critical comments on the officiating situation includes, "I think our business model is broke in terms of officiating" - link
I obviously didn't dig enough yesterday on the new Temple-Under Armour pact as a Philly.com article noted the financials behind the deal, sources indicate the 10-year extension is worth $30m for the Owls, a previous 5-year agreement was valued at $1.5m making the new parameters a 10x increase, - link
Montana State has sold a record 9,000 season FB tix for its upcoming campaign that kicks-off tomorrow night, last year the Bobcats averaged 17,777 per home game, a figure good for third largest in all of FCS behind North Dakota State & Montana, all 4,100 student ticket for the season opener were claimed in a mere two hours & a sell-out of 20,767 is a real possibility as only 600 tix remain - link
North Dakota State certainly isn't standing pat even though FB has won back-to-back FCS National Championships, adds Director of Recruiting position that is the first non-coaching support position in the Missouri Valley, HC Klieman, "Recruiting is changing so much, you all know the number of commitments already (12)," Klieman also says the Bison offering COA matches up with who they are recruiting against - link
Rice & Experience have partnered on a 'Fluid Ticket' for season holders that is a 100% mobile option & gives the fan access to the best available premium seat upgrade options for each Owls home game, also comes with 'Sit with Friends' benefits that allows for blocks of seats to be held for a group & 'Not Going' gives a full value credit back to an individual's account in the event they can't make a match-up, VIP opportunities include leading the team onto the field to being the 2nd half - link
New England Patriots VP of Customer Marketing & Strategy Gelman covers some good ground on how analytics help to dictate how the organization engages with its fans, argues for the value of having a single view of all customers, a practice put in place back around 2005 to leverage behavioral data, retention & revenue generation are two key drivers, has 4.5m names in main database & executes a number of different market research efforts, more - link
More future implications on the Sun Belt adding Coastal Carolina includes the FB-only league status of Idaho & New Mexico State, both signed two-year extensions in 2014 that will expire at the same time as the Chanticleers come fully on-board, Commish Benson says a review of the situation won't occur until after this season, "That will then kind of set the course of action in terms of whether we can conduct the game whether we're a 12-, 11-, or 10-team league." - link
South Alabama AD Erdmann gets the nod as Chair of the NCAA Baseball Committee for 2015-16, entering his fourth year representing the south for the group, "The committee is made up of highly capable professionals who understand the core of our duty is to provide the best championship field and experience for our student-athletes, coaches and fans." Has previous committee experience on the DII FB version back when he was AD at North Alabama - link
Virginia Tech has renamed its Baseball hitting facility in honor of late AD Weaver who helped to pour $220m into facilities during his tenure with the Hokies, Weaver will also now have a FB scholarship in his name, wife Traci & son Craig will serve as honorary team captains for the high-profile FB home-opener against Ohio State this weekend - link
The big news for Coastal Carolina yesterday was obviously the official announcement of its move to the Sun Belt, but a bit of a sour sub-story is probation for its Men's Golf program that includes a $5,000 fine, vacating some records & a one year show-cause for former HC Terrell who previously gave private lessons to a prospective student-athlete for free in addition to other discretions, Prez DeCenzo, "Two years on this matter was way too long and I'm just happy that it's now behind us." - link
Texas Volleyball HC Elliott urges his sport to implement full instant replay to get more calls correct as technology has caught up to reality with the added coverage of many matches, the Big 12, Pac-12 & Big Ten are experimenting this season in trials that should help the NCAA decide what to do, article points to improvements in Baseball, one of the most tradition-filled sports around, as an example of moving forward - link
One more day until FB kicks into full gear, so some good reading from Yahoo! Sports columnist Forde who rolls-out his debut Forde-Yard Dash on the season, among many other topics reviews the trend of opening season neutral site games as Chick-fil-A Bowl Prez & CEO Stokan says he's already been contacted by someone wanting to play in a 2025 game, lots more (link); CBSSports.com's Solomon also writes on preparing for the campaign properly & not overreacting to results in the first month (link)
Also appropriate before FB begins, author Burke lays out reasoning why highly-paid HCs are actually worth every penny in a Wall Street Journal piece, argues the financial return because of these leaders makes the investment more than fair (link); Forbes contributor Belzer takes a look at the school getting the most of their HC pay based on Sagarin win percentage & the coach's share of overall FB expenses, topped by Florida State's Fisher, Oregon's Helfrich & Northern Illinois boss Carey (link)
