Football Gazette's Small College Football Blog

Don Hansen's Football Gazette Blog of information, comments, notes, and tidebits on Small College Football. NCAA 1-AA & Mid Major, Division II & Mid Major, Division III, NAIA, and NCCAA

Monday, July 31, 2006

News and Notes From Around College Football for July 31, 2006

The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame, Inc.
Monday's Chalktalk

http://www.footballfoundation.com/news.php?id=922

BCS Standings to Release on Sundays; Formula Remains Same for 2006

The Bowl Championship Series Standings, tabulated each season to select the entrants into college football's national championship game, will be released on Sundays this year rather than on Mondays, BCS and Southeastern Conference commissioner Mike Slive announced last week. The move comes as the BCS enters into a new agreement this year with Fox Sports to be the television home of three BCS bowls (Allstate Sugar, FedEx Orange and Tostitos Fiesta) as well as the BCS National Championship Game beginning in 2007. Fox will broadcast the standings to the public on Sunday nights just after the conclusion of their NFL Sunday doubleheader, usually around 7:30 p.m. EST. The BCS will maintain the same formula this year that produced the thrilling Rose Bowl match-up between Texas and Southern California in 2005. The standings will average the USA Today Coaches Poll, the Harris Interactive Poll and the sum total of the middle four of six computer rankings together to determine the weekly Top 25. The top two teams in the final standings, released this year on Sunday, December 3, will square off in the newly created BCS National Championship Game in Glendale, Ariz., on January 8. The addition of a fifth BCS game this year also allows greater access to a spot in a BCS game from one of the Division I-A conferences whose champions do not earn automatic berths (Conference USA, Mid-American, Mountain West, Sun Belt and Western Athletic). The National Football Foundation will continue to serve as the impartial arbiter of the standings, tabulating and releasing them to the public this year for the seventh consecutive season.

ACC Enacts Hurricane Policy, Bowl Selection Changes During Annual Media Meetings

The ACC formally implemented a football rescheduling policy for games postponed by hurricanes or other factors as well as reworked their bowl lineup for the 2006 season in changes announced during their media days last week. The conference also agreed to four-year deal with the Orange Bowl to continue sending their conference champion to the BCS game unless it qualifies for the National Championship Game. The league's hurricane policy, enacted in response to more than a dozen games rescheduled due to hurricanes throughout college football each of the last two years, allows for the game to be replayed at the original site on any date throughout the season provided it gives each team a sufficient amount of days off between games. Any postponed games may also be played at a neutral site or at the visiting school, with proceeds going to the original host team, or may be played on the date of the ACC Championship Game if it does not affect who qualifies to play in the title contest. The new bowl policy states that any bowl affiliated with the ACC must choose the team with a higher conference standing or a team within one game of the higher ranked team. Last season, the Meineke Car Care Bowl passed over Boston College, who finished with five conference victories, in favor of local North Carolina State, who finished with three.

Two-Minute Drill

The Division I board of directors will meet next week to decide whether to change the names of Division I-A and Division I-AA to "Football Bowl Subdivision" and "NCAA Football Championship Subdivision", respectively... The Nassau County Sports Commission named 30 players to the 2006 watch list for the John Mackey Award, annually presented since 2000 to the nation's top tight end... Former Ole Miss footballer Chucky Mullins, who was paralyzed in 1989 while making a tackle in a game against Vanderbilt and died two years later from complications resulting from a blood clot, will have his #38 jersey retired by the team during the Rebels opener on September 3 against Memphis. Mullins joins 1989 College Football Hall of Fame inductee Archie Manning as the only two Rebels with their jerseys retired...

Training will take place this week for academic coaches involved in the National Football Foundation's Play It Smart program at the NFF Center for Youth Development Through Sport at Springfield College in Massachusetts. More than 150 graduates of the program are expected to play Division I-A college football this year... Arkansas Baptist announced plans to add football in time for the 2007 season, as announced by school president and former San Jose State head coach Fitz Hill... Kirk Tuck, a former walk-on and All-Conference center at UAB, died last week after battling leukemia at the age of 27. The school will host an annual golf tournament in his honor, beginning with one this Saturday... The cover of the 2006 Texas Longhorns media guide features 3-D images on both the front and back cover... Sports Byline Radio Network and Sirius Satellite Radio will broadcast a Division I-AA game of the week each week throughout 2006, the first ever nationally syndicated series for I-AA football... Former Texas All-Conference defensive tackle Ray Dowdy died of a heart attack last week at age 56... Special Spectators, an organization that creates opportunities for seriously ill children at college football games throughout the season, will hold a fundraiser on August 15 in Chicago. More information on the event, emceed by ESPN.com senior college football writer Ivan Maisel, can be found at www.specialspectators.org...

WAC commissioner Karl Benson announced last week that the league has no expansion plans for the foreseeable future... Conference USA sent a contingent of eight league football coaches to New Orleans last week to tour areas affected by last August's Hurricane Katrina... SEC media days in Birmingham, Ala., last week drew over 600 members of the media to the Wynfrey Hotel... The new network formed through an agreement with the Mountain West Conference and CSTV, called The mtn., will initially launch in Utah, Colorado and New Mexico and will be available throughout the nation on numerous cable and satellite providers...

Coaches from the Western Athletic Conference as well as media covering the league chose Boise State as the favorite to win the conference title this season during the WAC's annual football media days last week... The 12 Conference USA head coaches predicted Central Florida and Tulsa will successfully defend their division titles and meet in the conference championship game for the second consecutive season in a poll compiled last week... Louisiana-Lafayette edged out defending champion Arkansas State as the Sun Belt Conference's coaches' favorite to win the 2006 conference title in a poll taken last week during the league's media days. The coaches also tabbed Ragin' Cajuns QB Jerry Babb as preseason offensive player of the year and Florida International senior linebacker Keyonvis Bouie as the preseason defensive player of the year... Media covering teams in the SEC selected Auburn and Florida as the West and East Division favorites, respectively, for 2006...

Texas head coach Mack Brown talked about the Longhorns run to the national title last year and his plans to defend it this year during his speech as part of the KeyBank Gridiron Legends Luncheon Series last week at the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, Ind. NCAA President Myles Brand will serve as the final guest of the summer speaker series on August 29... Tennessee head coach Phillip Fulmer and Vanderbilt head coach Bobby Johnson served as guest speakers for the Nashville Sports Council's Comcast College Football Kickoff Luncheon last week... Florida Citrus Sports, in partnership with Cingular Wireless, will host a roundtable discussion featuring ACC Commissioner John Swofford, Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delaney and SEC Commissioner Mike Slive on August 29 in Orlando...

Virginia sold out their season-ticket allotment in record time this year, the third year in which they've sold all 39,000-plus season ticket packages... Washington extended their agreement with FSN Northwest for six years to locally televise all Huskies football games not broadcast through a national carrier... Arkansas State installed a new drainage system in Indian Stadium this offseason to coincide with their new artificial ProGreen turf that will cover the playing field this year...

The FedEx Orange Bowl will officially be branded as the "Home of the ACC Champions" at each conference school through an agreement with the league and ISP Sports marketing firm... San Diego County Credit Union extended their title sponsorship agreement with the Poinsettia Bowl, which has seen 70% of last year's ticket sales already renewed for this year... The New Orleans Bowl will return to the Superdome this year after playing the 2005 edition in Lafayette, La., due to damage caused from Hurricane Katrina...

Florida State and Miami will meet for the final time on Labor Day this year as the two teams will explore their options of moving the game back later in the season after this year... Colorado and Miami (OH) will play a home-and-home series in 2007 and 2009... NC State and South Carolina agreed to a home-and-home series beginning in 2008... Nebraska will play Washington in a home-and-home series in 2010 and 2011... The September 1 game between Fresno State and Nevada will be the inaugural College Colors Day Classic, a nationwide promotion created by The Collegiate Licensing Company to encourage alumni, students and fans to wear apparel of their favorite college team on designated days throughout the season...

Georgia Tech will sport 1970s-era throwback jerseys during their September 21 game against Virginia... Georgetown hosted more than 100 potential football prospects for their annual "Prospect Day" last weekend... Players and coaches from South Carolina hosted their ninth annual Pigskin Poets event last Thursday that emphasizes the importance of summer reading to community youngsters... Middle Tennessee will hold their annual Football Fan Day on August 19 on campus... The annual "Meet the Team Day" at Virginia will take place on August 17 in Charlottesville... SMU's Football Kickoff Luncheon on August 16 will feature former player and coach Forrest Gregg as keynote speaker...

Purdue reached a 10-year marketing agreement with Action Sports Media, Inc., to construct and manage new video boards and sideline advertising panels inside Ross-Ade Stadium... The AT&T Cotton Bowl hired Colvin Sports Network to explore future marketing opportunities and a potential move from their current site at Fair Park in Dallas, Texas... Akron agreed to a partnership with Premiere Sports Travel to be the team's preferred travel provider...

Longtime Big 12 sports information director Bo Carter, who held a similar position with the Southwest Conference for many years, will be leaving his post to pursue other interests... Campbell University, which will be adding football for the 2008 season, named Dale Steele as their head coach... LSU head coach Les Miles received a five-year contract extension last week that runs through the 2010 season and pays him $1.65 million this year and $1.8 million beginning in 2007... Steve Kragthorpe, the head coach at Tulsa, received a six-year contract extension through 2011... New Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald hired Randy Bates as linebackers coach... Virginia added Devin Crosby and Corbin Hunt to their athletics administration staff... The Big 12 Conference named Nebraska Chancellor Harvey Perlman as the 2006-07 Chairman of its Board of Directors... Rice hired David Sayler as senior executive athletic director and Russ Dean as associate athletic director...Fred Jacoby, former Southwest Conference commissioner and the National Football Foundation's 1995 Outstanding Contribution to Amateur Football Award winner, retired from his position as commissioner of the Lone Star Conference and the American Southwest Conference... Tim Cass accepted a position as senior associate athletics director at New Mexico... Northern Illinois hired former Tulane administrator Donna Turner as their new associate athletics director for communications... Mark Meadows left his marketing position at Middle Tennessee State to take a similar post with the newly formed Birmingham Bowl.

Schedule Spotlight: Pre-New Year's Day Bowl Games

Bowl - Date - Television Partner

San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia - December 19 - ESPN2

Pioneer PureVision Las Vegas - December 21 - ESPN

New Orleans - December 22 - ESPN2

Alltel Wireless (formerly Fort Worth) - December 23 - ESPN

Birmingham - December 23 - ESPN2

New Mexico - December 23 - ESPN

Sheraton Hawaii - December 24 - ESPN

Motor City - December 26 - ESPN

Emerald - December 27 - ESPN

Independence - December 27 - ESPN

Pacific Life Holiday - December 28 - ESPN

AutoZone Liberty - December 29 - ESPN

Champs Sports - December 29 - ESPN

Gaylord Hotels Music City - December 29 - ESPN

Insight - December 29 - NFL Network

Vitalis Sun - December 29 - CBS

Chick-Fil-A - December 30 - ESPN

MasterCard Alamo - December 30 - ESPN

Meineke Car Care - December 30 - ESPN

MPC Computers - December 31 - ESPN

* Unnamed bowl game in Houston, to be televised this year by the NFL Network, will take place at a yet-to-be-determined date in December


With 120 chapters and 12,000 members nationwide, The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame, a non-profit educational organization, runs programs designed to use the power of amateur football in developing scholarship, citizenship and athletic achievement in young people. The NFF presents the MacArthur Trophy, the Draddy Trophy presented by HealthSouth and releases the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) Standings. NFF programs include the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, Ind., Play It Smart, the NFF Center for Youth Development Through Sport at Springfield College (Mass.), the NFL-NFF Coaching Academy, and scholarships of over $1 million for college and high school scholar-athletes.

For more information, please visit www.footballfoundation.org


NFF Contacts

Phil Marwill.......................Director of Communications

Chris Caputo.....................Communications Assistant

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Morristown, NJ 07960

973.829.1933 (phone)