Coach Bill Lewis

And that decision was a big mistake IMHO.

Is the West wide open now with Tulsa's loss? Tulsa has the same problems that any returning champ does in this league, young replacements taking the place of veterans. Look at any Conf Champ in Conf USA for the past 10 years and you will find a team heavy laden with Seniors and Juniors. I looked at Tulsa's O line, and they are young and inexperienced. I am sure they still have talent on the team, but without solid and experienced play on the O-Line, no team is going to win championships in this league or any other league. A 5th year Senior is a grown man, a red shirt Sophomore is still a teenager. It's not as if Blankenship has suddenly forgotten how to coach. Give most coach's an experienced team and they can make magic happen. You can't replace age, strength and experience with youth and inexperience. One thing is for sure, the West is now open for a spoiler team to take control. How about North Texas? or LA Tech? We will see if Rice can live up to the hype as well. Should make for an interesting race. Thoughts? View the full article

How about this?

When the Cowboys drafted Oklahoma State running back Joseph Randle in the fifth round of the 2013 NFL Draft, they saw DeMarco Murray 2.0. There are some similarities between the two players, too. Both are tall, upright runners who found success in college as pass-catching backs. Randle hauled in 108 passes in his three seasons at Oklahoma State, a large number for a collegiate running back, and averaged 5.5 yards per carry (YPC) in a competitive conference. The primary difference between Randle and Murray, however, is that Randle doesnt have outstanding straight-line speed. At just 198 pounds, he ran a 4.63 40-yard dash. Meanwhile, Murray checked in at 213 pounds and ran a 4.41, putting him in elite company. Weve had this talk before, and yes, there are slower running backs who have found success some guy named Emmitt comes to mind. But when we use any stat, were not looking for perfection. Rather, we want to tilt the odds in our favor. And using the 40 time as one of the tools to grade rookie running backs is a smart move. Since 2005, the most successful backs in the NFL in terms of approximate value have been the fastest, and it isnt even close. Read more: http://www.dallascowboys.com/news/article-JonathanBales/RTN-Why-Lance-Dunbar-Is-the-Right-Choice-as-the-No-2-RB/3a0afc34-b849-4dfb-a35b-7e82c774942b

Shortly after Johnny Manziel won the Heisman, Texas A&M AD Eric Hyman convened a Johnny Football summit in his office. Everyone who mattered was there -- Manziel's parents, compliance, coaches, marketing, SIDs, even the celebu-quarterback himself. The tone from the head of the athletic department: Everything has changed. Here's how we're going to handle it. The 62-year-old Hyman knows a little bit about handling hype. The man who hired game-changer Gary Patterson at TCU, inherited Steve Spurrier at South Carolina and was run over by two-time Heisman winner Archie Griffin as a North Carolina defender, was going to set the ground rules. Hyman went so far as to consult with Florida external relations guy Mike Hill, who helped oversee the Tim Tebow phenomena. MANZIEL'S FUTURE IN DOUBT? Report: NCAA investigating Johnny Manziel Hyman at least attempted to get out in front of the Johnny Football parade before it ran over him and his department. "The meeting that Eric Hyman had wasn't a get-after-you, tell-you-what-to-do meeting [for Manziel]," Aggies coach Kevin Sumlin told me earlier this year. "[it was] 'We're here for you. You don't have to handle this on your own.' " We now know in one, long tortuous offseason that Manziel has spit on those who have tried to help him. Advice has been discarded like a linebacker trying to wrap up. When news broke Sunday that Manziel may have taken money for signing autographs and memorabilia, it was a reminder of how far the parade had veered off the prescribed route. Read more: http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/blog/dennis-dodd/23015877/johnny-football-has-spit-on-all-the-help-texas-am-offered-him

Workers from AstroTurf, a Dalton Ga. company, began the process of planting the seal of Old Dominions new conference on the turf at Foreman Field Sunday afternoon. Workers are tearing out the Colonial Athletic Association logo and replacing it with one from Conference USA. AstroTurf employees should complete the task late Monday. But that is merely a symbolic change. The real change begins Monday at 6:15 a.m., when ODUs football team holds its first practice. This is a season of transition for ODU. The Monarchs left the CAA and joined Conference USA on July 1. However, because of NCAA rules, ODUs football team cant begin playing a Conference USA schedule until 2014. ODU plays as an independent this season, one that will present major challenges that the Monarchs have never faced before. ODU is moving from the Football Championship Subdivision to the Football Bowl Subdivision, and that's a huge step up, especially for a program that has played just four seasons of football. ODU has never played an FBS team, yet will play two in its first two games. The Monarchs open at East Carolina Aug. 31, and ECU is the consensus pick to the C-USAs East Division. ODU then plays at Maryland on Sept. 7. It will be ODUs first game ever against an ACC school. ODUs coaching staff has worked hard to prepare the Monarchs for the transition. They had what recruiting services say was a good FBS recruiting class - remarkable when you consider ODU wasn't yet at the FBS level. Regardless, it was one of the nations largest recruiting classes. There will be 37 new players in ODU blue and silver Monday, including 12 junior college and 25 high school players. All 12 juco transfers will play this season. So, likely, will at least a handful of the freshmen. Read more: http://hamptonroads.com/2013/08/sizing-who-may-back-heinicke-odu-opens-practice

The days of cross-country travel for Louisiana Tech athletics are over after the Bulldogs left the Western Athletic Conference in favor of the more regional Conference USA. Student-athletes and fans rejoice about most games being in the same or adjacent time zone as opposed to the multiple time zone trips to the West Coast. But does fewer miles traveled mean more dollars in the Tech athletics budget? Yes and no, says Marie Gilbert, an associate athletics director and chief financial officer for Louisiana Tech. Gilbert said the football team is making the same number of chartered flights (five), as they did in 2012, but the shorter distance of those flights amounts to an estimated 10 percent savings in football travel expenses. (The trips) just arent to Hawaii and San Jose State, Gilbert said. Were still making three flights for conference games and then the two additional flights in non-conference (North Carolina State and Kansas). Next year depending on the non-conference schedule, the (savings) might be even more. The Bulldogs will fly to Florida International, UTEP and UTSA in conference play. Other road or neutral games include Army (in Dallas) and Rice (Houston). Techs mileage is significantly less in 2013 than its previous 12 years in the WAC. The Bulldogs will travel 3,965 miles total in seven road games, averaging 566 miles per trip. The 2012 Dogs averaged 774 miles per trip while the highest average trip came in 2008 1,616 miles per trip. That included a flight to Hawaii, which hosted Tech four times in the last 12 seasons. For all sports, Gilbert estimates a total savings of about $150,000 for 2013-14 although cost estimates arent finalized for the coming season. Read more: http://www.thenewsstar.com/article/20130805/SPORTS/308050026/Tech-trips-shorter-spending-less-C-USA?nclick_check=1

Per twitter. Every game will be a sellout. I hope we add a couple thousand temporary seats. Have little doubt we'd be able to sell them. Have plenty of space for it. It's unlikely to happen though from what the AD has said. View the full article

So, fireworks or dud? The moves aren't "Dawg Dazzle" quality, but they are better than the fireworks we let off in our backyards. And they certainly aren't duds. The emphasis was on growth and television markets. FIU (48,000 students), North Texas (36,305) UT-San Antonio (30,474), FAU (30,000), Charlotte (26,232) and Old Dominion (24,753) are up and coming schools with growing enrollments. Among the departing members, only UCF (59,490), Houston (40,747) and East Carolina (26,900) had larger enrollments. As for television markets, six of the eight largest markets in C-USA will belong to first-year members. Besides, although conference reconfiguration was football-driven, the updated Conference USA will be stronger in basketball than the old version. Overall, C-USA leadership did as well as reasonably could be expected. That's worthy of at least Camden Park-quality fireworks. AAC: Even the acronym sounds like someone gagging. Everyone that mattered has bailed, including Syracuse, Pittsburgh, the Catholic Seven basketball schools, Louisville and Rutgers (2014), while TCU, Boise State and San Diego State became no-shows. Read more: http://www.herald-dispatch.com/sports/x1489432505/A-look-at-changes-to-college-athletics

OFF WR - Carlos Harris (so.)/Darius Terrell (jr.) WR - Darnell Smith (sr.)/Lynrick Pleasant (sr.) WR - Brelan Chancellor (sr.)/Carl Caldwell (sr.) LT - Antonio Johnson (jr.)/Ryan Retnfro (rs fr.) LG - Mason Y'Barbo (jr.)/Travis Ellard (so.) C - Kaydon Kirby (rs fr.)/Shawn McKinney (jr.) RG - Cyril Lemon (jr.)/Micah Thompson (so.) RT - LaChris Anyiem (sr.)/Justin Manu (jr.) TE - Drew Miller (sr.)/Daniel Prior (sr.) QB - Derek Thompson (sr.)/Andrew McNulty (so.) RB - Brandin Byrd (sr.)/Antoinne Jimmerson (so.) DEF DE - Chad Polk (so)/Brandon McCoy (sr) DT - Richard Abbe (sr)./Sir Calvin Wallace (fr.) DT - Alexander Lincoln (jr.)/Austin Orr (so.) DE - Aaron Bellazin (sr.)/Malik Dilonga (fr.) OLB - Derek Akunne (jr)/LaJaylin Smith (so.) MLB - Zachary Orr (sr.)/Robert Lewis (jr.) OLB - Will Wright (sr.)/Jamal Marshall (so) CB - Hilbert Jackson (sr.)/James Jones (jr.) CB - Zac Whitfield (so.)/Kenny Buyers (so.) SS - Laramie Lee (jr.)/Zed Evans (sr.) FS - Marcus Trice (sr)/Andrew Tucker (rsfr.) Special Teams K - Zach Olen (sr.) P - Blake Macek (fr.) KR - Brelan Chancellor (sr.) PR - Brelan Chancellor (sr.) Returning leaders Passing - Derek Thompson, 372-214-2649-14-14 TD's Rushing - Brandin Byrd 205 att, 860 yards, 2 TD's Receiving - Darnell Smith, 28 receptions, 379 yards, 2 TD's Tackles - Zachary Orr - 108 Sacks - Aaron Bellazin - 5 Interceptions Zac Whitfield - 3 Returning starters in bold To get more info and to order the magazine please visit: http://www.AthlonSport.com

https://twitter.com/radioinsight/status/...0896007169 Let me note that this site is very good at mining domain registrations for making predictions on radio station changes (format, name/branding, dial position, etc.). So unless this law firm is being thorough enough to register several domains to throw people off...

The oBE is having a fit on their board trying to come up with a new name for their conference. Any marketing majors know what the branding/rebranding process is and what $250k will get you. I'm sure it has something to do with location, mission and make-up of the conference [Cincy, USF, Temple, UConn, UCF, Houston, SMU, ECU, Tulane, *Memphis and perhaps a couple of others]. Connect the dots here and you see they don't have a whole lot in common. Most are in larger cities and public though you probably don't want to slight the privates with new name. What has now happened is probably a good thing for the Go5 as the playing field has been leveled yet again. Sooner or later we're going to see the need to work together to avoid the appearence of irrelevance. p.s. good luck to the (fill in the blank) conference, they're going to need it.

Feb. 28, 2013 2013FBCompositeSchedule Conference USA has announced date changes to three football games this fall. All three date changes are to accommodate national television. Game times and networks will be announced at a later date. The first game is a non-conference contest between Iowa State and Tulsa, a rematch of last season's AutoZone Liberty Bowl won by the Golden Hurricane, 31-17. The 2013 game will now be played Thursday, September 26, in Tulsa. The initial conference meeting between Marshall and Middle Tennessee has also changed dates. The Thundering Herd and Blue Raiders will now face each other on Thursday, October 24 in Murfreesboro, Tenn. The late season meeting between Marshall and Tulsa has been moved up two days and will now be played Thursday, November 14, in Tulsa. One other date change that has been announced involving a Conference USA team is Florida Atlantic's season opener at Miami (Fla.). That contest will now be played Friday, August 30, in Miami Gardens, Fla. A game time and any television details have not yet been announced. Additional date changes to accommodate television do remain a possibility, and details of such games will be announced as soon as possible. C-USA's 17th football season will begin on Thursday, August 29. The league's ninth annual football championship game is scheduled for Saturday, December 7. View the full article

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/unc-...33849.html If this is how the school operates, I say burn it to the ground. View the full article

AND they're staying with ESPN it appears although it's not voted on yet by the members. As I said previously, they should have signed a deal no longer than three years. The rights fees are going to increase significantly in coming years as Fox and NBC come to the realization that they're going to need more content. They're really going to be scratching their head when C-USA gets a deal equivalent or better than the Big East in three years. I just can't understand why they don't understand this. They're going to give up at least four years of much better money by signing such a long term deal. View the full article

Here is what I am hearing and if so it will take quiet awhile for the newbies to see any significant monetary distribution. Simply speaking, there will be four sets of books. The first book will include exit fees and other penalties or assessments payable by the departing schools that is on hand now and collected in the future. The ONLY members collecting from that fund will be those who remain from the following group AFTER 6-01-2913. This includes UAB, USM, Tulsa, UTEP, Marshall and Rice if there are no other defections before then. Any one of those defecting later will forfeit any undistributed amounts. The second set will include current years ncaa bb unit payout, tv revenue, current years bowl and BCS payout, and any other current years tourney revenue. All current members will receive their normal payouts from those funds. Departing schools will leave their earned ncaa bb units with the league. These, along with any earned and unused in the upcoming tourney, will go into a separate pool from which ONLY the remaining schools from the above group will participate until exhausted in 5yr. June 2013 will basically start a new league with new set of books. Funds from THAT years tv contract, bcs bowl payouts, other bowl payouts earned during the year, and any ncaa basketball units earned in the 2014 tourney will be distributed among MEMBERS at the time. New members will share ONLY in funds accruing to the league after the jump start date. Edit note: funds EARNED after jump start date, not funds accruing. View the full article

Q: Are the UTEP Miners going to stay in Conference USA? Certainly for the next year. I've learned in athletics that one doesn't really make predictions. Again, it's a distraction. But the instability of conferences really does trouble me, because it's really destabilized intercollegiate athletics in a serious way. We thought for a time there was going to be a merger between Conference USA and Mountain West, and that looked like a very promising strategy. That would have been a very good arrangement for us. Every time you leave a conference, you pay a penalty and when you join a new conference, you have to pay an entry fee, so careless conference changes are very expensive. If you make a mistake I'm not sure I would have been all that excited about joining the Big East conference. We didn't really make a big press for that, and if you look at what the Big East was and what it is today and how they are reconstituting themselves, you have to say, "Gee, was it worth it?" Unfortunately, there's just so much money in intercollegiate athletics. We're very, very happy to be in Conference USA. We have some great new schools in Conference USA, and it has managed the instability about as well as any conference has. ------------------------------- She couldn't be more right and I respect her statements. Good to see someone using judgment like this at a time when knee jerk reaction and grab before researching. http://www.elpasoinc.com/news/q_and_a/ar...f6878.html View the full article

It appears the Big East is about to get smaller. Again. A source confirmed to CBSSports.com's Jeremy Fowler that the Big East and San Diego State are preparing to announce that San Diego State will be leaving the conference before it ever officially joined. The source told Fowler the deal is "close" but there's no timetable because lawyers are involved. And as was the case when Boise State left the Big East in late December, San Diego State will be leaving the Big East in order to remain with the Mountain West. However, unlike Boise State, San Diego State will not have to pay the Big East an exit fee. The school negotiated a clause in its deal with the conference that if Boise State backed out it would be able to do so as well at no cost. read more: http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball...separation

University of Tulsa officials report that the university still has not received an invitation to switch membership from Conference USA to the Big East or the Mountain West Conference. However, sources indicate that TU's conference options - if there are options - soon may be clarified. If San Diego State decides to stay in the Mountain West instead of becoming a football-only member of the Big East, there seems to exist the possibility that TU would be invited to join the Big East as an all-sports member. Boise State already executed an about-face, deciding to stay in the Mountain West instead of proceeding with a plan to join the Big East. San Diego State also accepted a Big East invitation, but reportedly now is wavering. Jan. 31 is the decision deadline. If San Diego State stays in the Mountain West, the Big East could extend to TU a membership opportunity. And if SDSU remains committed to a Big East move, the Mountain West might stand pat at 11 schools - or could be in the market for an additional member. During a period of at least the past two months - and again last week, it is believed - TU President Steadman Upham and interim athletic director Kevan Buck had discussions with officials from the Mountain West, Big East and Conference USA (the Golden Hurricane's conference since 2005). Read more: TULSA WORLD: Tulsa's conference future may clear up soon

This Old Dominion student has been doing a series of pranks, but this one takes the prize. Worth a watch, the reactions are great. http://www.wavy.com/dpp/news/local_news/...goes-viral View the full article

http://voices.idahostatesman.com/2013/01..._exit_fees View the full article

All over Twitter View the full article

This is not the Big East that Bob Kustra bought into a year ago. Forget that, it's not the same Big East it was yesterday. It's strange, then, that the Boise State University that Kustra oversees wields more power than ever in its 80-year history. If it bolts the Big East -- and it could, easily, today if it wanted to -- the reconfigured league falls apart. Unless Cincinnati or the catholic basketball schools beat Boise State to it. But as long as the Big East's continued existence is based on football, that existence is based on Boise staying firm. Kustra is the 69-year-old Boise president who was once a staunch anti-BCS crusader. Now he is one of the more powerful CEOs in college athletics. Here's why ... • He oversees the best football program currently below the BCS level. When Boise announced it was going to the Big East (last Dec. 7) that gave the fractured, rebuilding league credibility. The Big East had to go cross-country to do it, but it got the best football fruit left on the tree. Kustra's reasons for leaving his school's natural region: 1) Fair access to the new playoff system. That was decided last month; 2) East Coast exposure for his program; 3) TV revenue. Actually, 3) is still to be determined. That's what is holding up the continued existence of the Big East. Boise State holds a lot of the cards to realignment below college athletics' Mendoza Line. Beginning in 2014, the Big East will go from BCS conference to a Group of Five (with Conference USA, the Sun Belt, MAC and Mountain West) participant competing for a guaranteed spot among the playoff bowls. Long before we get there, though, the Big East has to transition from BCS league to that cross-country conference just trying to hang on. That's where Boise State comes in. A school that has played FBS football for all of 17 years is the key to the whole deal. A quaint state school on the banks of the Boise River is the Big East's football flagship. "There isn't another, other anchor team [in the Big East]," one college administrator said. • Big East credibility has been damaged but no matter what happens, Boise is going to be OK. At the BCS level, conference brands sell. At the mid-tier level, individual schools give value to a conference. CBSSports.com has learned that there was interest from a rights-holder in televising Boise State's home games only, similar to Notre Dame. That's not to say Boise would go independent, but it is a sign that the football program alone has television value no matter where it ends up. http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball...aky-future

What’s the next move for the Big East Catholic schools who are weighing the options of breaking completely away from the conference? Several sources say it is a complicated process with numerous details that must be worked out. But if they do decide to leave as a group, they will not have to pay an exit fee. A rule that was put in place almost a decade ago when the Big East lost Virginia Tech, Miami and then Boston College to the ACC, stipulates that should the football or basketball segments of the league want to break away as a group no exit fees will be imposed. Schools leaving the Big East on an individual basis have had to pay between $5 and $17 million. With the seven Catholic schools talking about leaving the Big East as a group, the no exit fee clause would apply. In addition, the Catholic schools would most likely be able to retain the Big East name as a conference, they would also be likely to retain the automatic NCAA tournament bid given to the Big East since they would be a group of schools who have established a long history of competition against each other. And this “”new”" group would most likely still be able to collect the financially valuable units the NCAA gives to conference schools who perform well in the NCAA tournament. Everyone involved concedes it is a complicated process, involving not only configuration, but revenue distribution. http://ajerseyguy.com/?p=4202

Not a great time for this, with all the talk of changing conferences going on ... View the full article