It's just not fair, they already got a freaking free education, is that not enough? I mean nobody told them they HAD to play football or basketball.

This entry is written by Michelle Brutlag Hosick, the Associate Director of The NCAA News.

The amateurism of the student-athlete is a core principle of the NCAA, a fact NCAA President Myles Brand recently illustrated with his essays on the topic, posted here on the Double-A Zone and on The Huffington Post (8/7/08 article, 8/12/08 article, 8/21/08 article). That principle is important, but difficult, to keep sacred in today's "real world" of high coach salaries, luxury suites and television contracts.

In Division I, the job of upholding the value of amateurism is assigned to a group of 23 people serving on the Amateurism Cabinet. That cabinet, with representatives from all three Division I subdivisions (Football Championship, Football Bowl and Division I), met for the first time last week in Indianapolis, and I had the opportunity to attend. The impression that I came away with was clear: Their task isn't easy.

It's complicated by a number of factors, including the current regulations governing the use of student-athletes' images and likenesses that are woefully outdated and an increase in international prospective student-athletes from countries that view athletics participation completely differently than we do in the United States.

In the coming months and years, the cabinet will be studying issues like what triggers professionalism for a prospect, the involvement of agents and advisors in intercollegiate athletics, and how to integrate international student-athletes into the NCAA's amateurism standard.

And those are just a few of the hurdles.

The group will be assisted by the Presidential Task Force on Commercial Activities in Intercollegiate Athletics, formed earlier this year by the Board of Directors and expected to develop guiding principles for the formation of commercialism legislation.

The NCAA has struggled with amateurism issues for a long time, and while the discussion will likely never come to a simple resolution that makes everyone happy, the cabinet members are committed to any change that will enhance the experience for student-athletes.

• The tough financial times are being felt all over the country, including in the sports industry. With less disposable income for most Americans, fans are being forced to make more conscious decisions about how to spend their money. In many cases, this means attending fewer sporting events. Additionally, the rising costs of fuel and travel are affecting the NCAA, especially when it comes to hosting championships. Has the difficult financial situation affected the way you spend your money on attending sports events?

• Cara Fatigati, a current Carnegie Mellon volleyball student-athlete, interned this past summer at Freddie Mac in Washington, D.C. Considering the current financial situation with Freddie Mac, Fatigati has an interesting story to tell about being at the center of the financial world this summer.

• Certain athletes are constantly labeled as "clutch" for the way they perform in pressure situations. However, some analysts argue that, based on statistics, consistent clutch performers do not exist. Keith Law, senior writer for Scouts, Inc. explains this concept to USA Today: "There's such a thing as a clutch hit. What we can't seem to find is the player who performs consistently in the clutch. I've never seen a study that shows a clear statistical difference." Do you agree? Are there certain athletes you would label as clutch on a regular basis?

• Last week, we mentioned the story of Matt Bowman, an Augsburg soccer student-athlete who is currently recovering after having open-heart surgery earlier this month. Matt recently wrote a post on Augsburg's blog, and we wish Matt the best of luck in his recovery.

• Upsets were the story in college football this past weekend. As Duke football coach David Cutcliffe tells the New York Times, "I feel sorry for people who take pride in predicting."

• Do you agree with the same New York Times article that claims the three teams that have the best chance at going undefeated this season are Penn State, BYU, or South Florida? Who will get selected for the national championship game if there is one spot for either an undefeated BYU team or a one-loss USC, Georgia or Florida squad?

In a perfect world, sportsmanship would be so prevalent, it would be impossible to tell the winners from the losers at the end of the game.

Thomas Campbell is a senior forward on the UNC Greensboro men's soccer team. This year will be different for the three-year starter, however. Campbell, UNCG's leading scorer last season, will be sitting out his redshirt season while recovering from a knee injury he suffered last spring. Each Friday, Campbell will blog about the Spartans' soccer season, his teammates, his classes and his journey back to the soccer pitch in the rehab process. Today is the fourth installment. In case you missed the first three, here they are: Sitting on the sidelines, Ready for first win, and First wins.

Welcome back.

This week has been an exciting one with some ups and some downs. As I said at the end of last week, we had a big game coming up against UNC Wilmington. We won that game, 1-0, on a great goal by Tim Masters, who actually transferred from UNCW before his junior year. It was a great out-of-conference win, especially following a great win against Campbell. The win against UNCW put us into 10th in the region in the NSCAA poll.

Monday was a full day - back to work with school, rehab, and practice. My little puppy got neutered, rehab was hard, and school was even harder. Practice was okay as we prepared for a game Wednesday night against Charlotte on the road.

We traveled to Charlotte on Wednesday for another huge out of conference game. Charlotte has some quality wins under their belt and has been in the national rankings this year for the first time in a decade. We played a great game, but fell short 1-0 on an unfortunate deflection. I think we were the better team, but we did not get the result we were looking for.

This week is a big weekend for our school and our team. It is Homecoming so it's a huge alumni weekend. We are fortunate enough to have close alumni that support the team a great deal. Unfortunately, the "sacmaster" himself, Scott Jones will not be able to make it to Homecoming as he finishes up his season down in Puerto Rico. Scotty was a huge part of the program when I came in as a freshman, an All-American and a captain. I spoke to him on Wednesday and he told me I had to "spice" the blog up a little bit. (Well, guess that means someone's reading it!)

Since I have been on the team we have always had a great time joking around on certain issues. Mustaches' have always been on the top of our list. Nothing against people who rock a stash, but it's just hilarious when someone under the age of 25 has one. It has always been a challenge on the team to see who could have the best 'stache. This season, we decided that we would make some fun with it, so we picked one person to start it. They had to grow a 'stacheand wear it for three days. After three days they have to designate someone else on the team to grow it (under the condition that they actually can grow one). After their three days they designate someone else to rock one and so on. The beginning of the week was Striney's 'stache (Matt Strine, for those outside of UNCG) followed by maybe the best one of all time, the Icelandic captain, Jokull Elisabetarson.

As the week closes to an end, it gets closer and closer to the big Homecoming game Saturday night vs. Brown. We usually have a great crowd and a great atmosphere. These are the games that make me want to just put my cleats on and run out there with no regards to a recovering injured knee.

I look forward to the festivities which begin Friday night with a little get together with some of the alumni and some people associated with the team. It's a good way to start off the weekend. Hope the alumni have a great weekend and enjoy the few days back at the good ol' G, as well as some of the older players that make an appearance. It's always nice to see some of the guys that have graduated since I have been here.

Till next time... Vamos Greensboro. Totsiens.

Thomas Campbell, #7

This weekend, I had the pleasure to attend the Purdue-Notre Dame football game in South Bend, Indiana. While I have no ties to either school, the lasting impression from the day was the rich tradition that makes Notre Dame a special place to take in an afternoon of college football.

From the moment you step on the campus, you get the feeling that you are taking part in something unique. Tens of thousands of Irish fans engulf the main quad, socializing and having a grand ole time. It is such a cool atmosphere, one where there are no worries in the world except how long you have to wait in line to get a steak sandwich, which frankly, isn't the worst problem to have.

It seems like all of the pregame traditions are like clockwork - everybody knows exactly when everything is going to happen because it's been done the same way for so long. It is an awesome sight to see the fans line up as the team walks into the stadium and then the pep rally, where thousands gather to hear the band play its familiar tunes.

While all of the pregame and in-game traditions are unique, the coolest thing for me to see was the postgame singing of the school's alma mater. If you've ever watched a home Notre Dame football game on television, you've probably seen this. Well, let me tell you, it is awesome to see in person. The team gathers in front of the massive student section in one corner of the stadium and everybody sings while linking arms and swaying back and forth. This was a tradition started by Notre Dame Coach Charlie Weis in 2006, and it's arguably the best decision that he's made in the last three years.

This tradition symbolizes what college sports are all about. While the result on the field is important, when the game is over, the things that matter the most are how you conduct yourself both on and off the field and the bonds student-athletes have with their teammates, coaches, and fellow students. I wish all schools could figure out a classy way like this to end a game, no matter if 10, 1,000, or 100,000 fans are in attendance.

While I've pumped up Notre Dame a lot here, I know that all schools have unique traditions of their own. While the publicity for these traditions range depending on the school and sport, every institution does it a little differently, which is the best thing about college sports. Traditions and passion are what make college sports unlike anything else.

So, we want to know, what are the traditions that make a game day special at your school?

• Upsets were the story this weekend in college football, where nine ranked teams went down, including three of the top four squads in the country. Eighth-ranked Alabama rolled over third-ranked Georgia, 41-30, while top-ranked Southern California and fourth-ranked Florida both lost to unranked opponents (Oregon State and Mississippi, respectively). Florida's loss was the most heartbreaking, considering it came as the result of a missed extra point with three minutes left in the game. Which of these three games surprised you the most?

• With all of the upsets in college football, Oklahoma is the new top-ranked team. This is the 96th week that the Sooners have been at the top of the AP Poll, which breaks its tie with Notre Dame for the most weeks as college football's No. 1.

• Seriously, how cool does Penn State's "white out" look on television? With the entire stadium dressed in white - aside from some scattered Illinois orange - the 12th-ranked Nittany Lions took care of 22nd-ranked Illinois, 38-24. I'm a big fan of traditions like these, although Georgia's "black out" against Alabama didn't prove to be nearly as successful on the field.

• Not everybody is happy with Penn State's "white out," however. The Phoenix Coyotes hockey team (formerly the Winnipeg Jets) says it trademarked the term after a 1987 playoff game. While the Coyotes gave Penn State permission to use the term for one game two seasons ago because it had already printed t-shirts, it is upset with Penn State for continuing to use the phrase. Before this weekend's game, Penn State was calling it a "Stadium White Out" and "Penn State White Out," phrases that technically aren't trademarked by the Coyotes. While we might need to get an intellectual property lawyer on the phone to straighten out this situation, let me ask you...what do you think about this dilemma?

• Considering the relative success of Duke's football and basketball teams in recent years, Midnight Madness on the basketball floor probably couldn't come soon enough in Durham. However, for one day at least, the football team is the talk of the town after defeating Virginia, 31-3. This was Duke's first ACC win in its last 26 conference games.

• In Division II football, ninth-ranked Northwest Missouri overwhelmed fifth-ranked Nebraska Omaha, 42-0. This was Nebraska Omaha's first regular-season loss since November 2006.

• Wake Forest, the top-ranked field hockey team in the country, was defeated by third-ranked Maryland, 4-2, on Saturday. Wake Forest and Maryland are two of the five ACC teams that are currently ranked in the top nine in the country (along with North Carolina, Virginia and Duke).

• Remember Becky Hammon, the South Dakotan basketball star who became a Russian citizen so she could compete in the Olympics? The Olympics are now in the rear-view mirror, and the former Colorado State all-american is busy leading her San Antonio Silver Stars into the WNBA Finals. Hammon scored 35 points in a decisive game three versus the Los Angeles Sparks on Sunday.

"Should coaches be held responsible for student-athlete academic performance? " - Sure. Right after the professors are held accountable for the athletic performance.

This entry is written by Gary Brown, the Director of The NCAA News and Champion Magazine.

My teenage daughter went to her part-time job the other night expecting me to tape a WNBA playoff game she wanted to see, only I stopped the machine after her team fell hopelessly behind. I spent the next 30 minutes trying to figure out how to break the news to her - do I let her watch the tape until it suddenly goes blank or do I come clean when I pick her up at the library and say, "Sorry, kiddo, the season's over."

I've been a sports fan all my life and I've never figured out how to handle losing. I don't get mad and throw stuff (well, OK, I get mad), but I'm not as graceful as a fan as most players are after a loss. We complain a lot about sportsmanship in college sports, but let me tell you, if fans played the games there might not be any sportsmanship at all - maybe that's why message boards and blogs are so popular as venting devices, since there's little to no accountability to stand by what you say.

Hats off to all the student-athletes out there who know how to lose. Sounds odd to say, but I'm as impressed by "losers" as with winners. How do you play a hard-fought contest and then look the opponent in the eye and shake his or her hand at the end? Heck, in most games, opponents hug each other. I don't see much of that at the sports bar.

So here's to all you losers out there. Ironically, you're the people who make our world better.

By the way, I came clean with my daughter. Told her right as she got in the car that Indiana got pounded by Detroit. Her response? "That's OK; they had a pretty good year." Wow, this apple seems to have fallen pretty far from the tree.

How do you all out there cope with losing?

• Wow. What a football game last night in Corvallis, where top-ranked Southern California was shocked by a two-loss Oregon State team, 27-21. Is this the beginning of the trend where highly ranked teams begin to lose nearly every week, similar to what we saw last year? Our new Double-A Zone poll question asks you to name the most shocking upset in college football over the last two seasons - Appalachian State over Michigan, Stanford over USC, Pittsburgh over West Virginia or this game?

• Our most recent poll asked which top four Division I FBS football team would lose first this season - USC, Oklahoma, Georgia or Florida? Only 18.5 percent of our respondents correctly answered USC, although the other three teams didn't even have the opportunity to play since we posted the question.

• If most college football fans were asked to name the best conference top-to-bottom, the consensus answer would most likely be the SEC, although fans of the Colonial Athletic Association might disagree. The CAA currently has six teams ranked in the Division I FCS top 25, including the top two teams in the country (Richmond and James Madison). New Hampshire, Delaware, Massachusetts and Villanova are the other four ranked teams. Which conference is more dominant in its respective division - the SEC or CAA?

• Over the last several years, many college football games lasted four hours or more. To shorten the game, the NCAA rules committee made some changes in the offseason, such as implementing a 40-second play clock. These changes have been successful considering, on average, games are 14 minutes shorter this season. Do you like the quicker game? Watch this video about the football rules changes with NCAA secretary-rules editor Rogers Redding:

• The NCAA has announced the six cities that will host multiple NCAA championships through 2012. The cities are Cleveland, Indianapolis, St. Louis, San Diego, San Antonio and Cary, North Carolina.

• Tennessee women's basketball coach Pat Summitt dislocated her shoulder while chasing a raccoon back in March. The raccoon was apparently attacking her dog, and the incident forced Summitt to have offseason surgery. Have you ever heard of a stranger cause of injury?

• The Double-A Zone now has a Fan Page on Facebook! Click here to become our fan.

But if we're not testing the choir or band for drug use, why are we testing student-athletes for things that don't enhance performance?"

It is normal to see coaches get fired when their teams struggle on the playing field. But have you ever heard of a coach getting terminated because of student-athletes not performing well in the classroom?

Well, Mississippi State might be starting a new trend. The school has revised the contracts of its football, men's basketball and baseball coaches to allow for termination if their team's Academic Progress Rate (APR) is too low. On the flip side, however, these coaches can potentially receive six figure bonuses if their student-athletes excel in the classroom.

More than five years into the NCAA's academic reform program, it is obvious that athletics departments are getting the message that academics are a crucial issue. Some schools are finally realizing that if they don't take APR seriously, then it can have a real impact on postseason eligibility and scholarships.

But should it be the responsibility of the coaches to ensure their student-athletes perform well in the classroom? Frankly, both sides of the debate have compelling arguments.

Those in favor of coaches sharing in the responsibility for academic success cite the fact that coaches are recruiting the student-athletes. Performance in the classroom should be just as important of a factor as how they compete in their sport.

So what happens when a coach is successful in competition but fails in the classroom? Can you imagine the uproar that would occur if a coach wins a national championship but is then fired because the team wasn't up to par academically? This would be a potential nightmare for any athletics director or university president.

In reality, how much control does a coach really have in the academic success of the student-athletes? The coach can try to recruit solid students and can give them standards they must follow in the classroom. But at the end of the day, many people argue the responsibility falls on the shoulders of the student-athletes themselves.

If a school is going to hold coaches accountable for the academics of their student-athletes, then shouldn't athletics directors and university presidents hold some responsibility as well?

Walt Harrison, Hartford's president and chairman of the NCAA Division I Committee on Academic Performance, shared his thoughts with the Birmingham News: "If a coach has an APR, maybe a president ought to have an APR. I think it's kind of an interesting way to track a coach's performance, but a coach is probably not solely responsible for academic success."

Where do you stand on this issue? Should coaches be held responsible for the academic success or failures of their student-athletes?

• Northwestern, Vanderbilt and Wake Forest have several things in common - they are three of the best academic schools in the country and each has the smallest student enrollment in its respective conference. This season, there is something else they all share...undefeated football teams. The three teams are a combined 11-0 this season with Vandy and Wake Forest making appearances this week in the top 25.

• Matt Bowman, an Augsburg soccer student-athlete, collapsed on the field during a scrimmage last month. It was later identified as a rare and often fatal coronary artery heart defect. Bowman had surgery earlier this month and made his return to campus to see his team defeat St. Olaf, 3-0. Bowman will rehabilitate this year and expects to play again next season. Best of luck to Matt.

• As we mentioned in yesterday's Morning Coffee, the roof of Indianapolis' RCA Dome was deflated. The dome was the site of five Men's and Women's Final Fours, including one of the tournament's more historic games in 1991 when Duke upset defending champion and heavy favorite UNLV in the national semifinal on the way to its first title.

• The American Football Coaches Association is proposing a new early signing period for football recruits, which would be moved up from February to December. Many coaches claim this will lower recruiting costs and could potentially provide better recruiting opportunities for smaller schools. The Conference Commissioners Association is currently meeting to discuss this proposal. Do you think moving up the signing date is good for potential collegiate student-athletes?

• Idaho's cheerleaders will be receiving new uniforms after school officials decided that their two-piece outfits showed too much skin. Considering that most collegiate cheerleaders around the country wear similar outfits, should all schools follow Idaho's decision or is it overreacting?

• About a dozen athletes, including several former football players, will donate their brains to the study of concussions at the time of their death. Good to see these players using their brains (sorry, it was too easy). Would you donate your brain to science?

This entry was written by David Pickle, the NCAA's Managing Director of Publishing.

I don't claim to be an expert on Division III governance, but I'm better informed today than I was before thanks to a series of "white papers" that have been developed to address the most important matters facing the division.

In retrospect, the Association may have acted out of sequence in 1997 when it vested each division with more autonomy through its membership restructuring process. Certainly Divisions I, II and III all possessed philosophy statements at the time, and they all had distinct membership requirements, as they do now. But none of them really had a plan for how they would define, promote and maintain their particular segment of college sports. Each division was loaded with autonomy, but long-term divisional direction was often unclear.

Now, both Divisions II and III have taken important steps to define what it means to be classified as one of their members - Division II through its strategic-positioning process and Division III through awareness gained from a difficult examination of membership structure.

Without comprehensive plans that focus on all elements of membership, Divisions II and III have been inaccurately defined through the years. Division II schools often were confused with smaller Division I programs, and they were too commonly assumed to be programs seeking to attain Division I status. These days, Division II members seem to be, as one athletics director said, "more comfortable in their own skin." It is, without doubt, the result of Division II's research-driving planning process.

As for Division III, outsiders have usually considered it to be the polar opposite of large Division I programs. Of course, Division III deserves credit for what it is and not for what it isn't, and that's why these white papers are so important. They push Division III down a road where members and prospective members will be able to make more informed decisions about whether they belong - or don't belong.

Helping institutions make proper classification decisions is among the Association's most important functions. Hats off to Division III for its thoughtful, comprehensive study.

• Student-athlete safety is a crucial issue for the NCAA and its member institutions. Some schools are taking preventative measures on their own, such as Stanford, which recently gave heart screenings to hundreds of student-athletes in an effort to prevent sudden cardiac death. Hopefully more schools will follow suit with this kind of testing. On a recent Mondays with Myles, NCAA President Myles Brand discussed this topic.

• You would think red-zone conversion percentage (how often a team scores when it gets inside the opponent's 20 yard line) would be a crucial statistic that would distinguish the best teams in college football from the rest of the pack. However, after the first three weeks, the results are a little surprising. Eight teams have scored every time that they have been in the red zone: Oklahoma, Northwestern, Toledo, Troy, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Hawaii and North Texas. The combined record of these eight teams is only 14-12. What do you make of this?

• The Women's Sports Foundation has recommended that Congress should grant the NCAA a limited anti-trust exemption to help corral the rising costs involved with intercollegiate athletics. Do you agree with the recommendation?

• Less than a mile from the NCAA National Office in Indianapolis, the roof of the RCA Dome is being deflated today. The RCA Dome held numerous college sporting events, including the 1991, 1997, 2000 and 2006 Men's Final Fours and the 2005 Women's Final Four. Lucas Oil Stadium was completed about a month ago, and will host a men's basketball regional in 2009, as well as the 2010 Men's Final Four.

• A panel is suggesting college admissions programs put a greater emphasis on high school academic performance and less of a focus on standardized tests like the SAT and ACT. William R. Fitzsimmons, the dean of admissions and financial aid at Harvard, is on board with this new approach: ""It would be much better for the country to have students focusing on high school courses that, based on evidence, will prepare them well for college and also prepare them well for the real world beyond college, instead of their spending enormous amounts of time trying to game the SAT." Do you agree with Mr. Fitzsimmons?

• It is no secret that Syracuse's football program has struggled over the last several years under Greg Robinson (8-31 since 2005). Yesterday, Daryl Gross, Syracuse's athletics director, had this to say about the football program: "It isn't working out. It's very disappointing ... He (Robinson) has some work to do out in front of him." I'm all for a little motivation, but is the athletics director taking it too far by publicly calling out the coach in the middle of the season?

• On this date in 1994, Colorado's Kordell Stewart connected with Michael Westbrook on a 64-yard, game-ending Hail Mary pass to beat fourth-ranked Michigan, 27-26. What people don't remember is Michigan led by 12 points with just over two minutes left in the game. The seventh-ranked Buffaloes went on to finish the season 11-1.

This entry is written by Carl Ehrlich, a football student-athlete at Harvard. Check out Carl's previous two blog entries: Summer Dogs and R.I.C.E.

"There's nothing like playing under the lights."

That was always part of my recruiting speech to the considerable number of athletes in my school district (in suburban Maryland) who were considering forgoing the public high school football experience to play at prestigious private schools (and Saturday afternoon games). "Sure, Al Gore's kid gets to wear a blazer and goes to a school with a chapel, but we have lights, dude."

Six years later, I'll still raising the lights issue to incoming recruits; only this time I use it to draw athletes towards the prestigious private school.

Any Opening Day (or Night) gets you to look back, and after the game on Friday night, my roommates and I were talking about everything that had changed since the "glory days" of high school football - and everything that had stayed the same. While this type of reflection might be more fit for a "Dazed and Confused" deleted scene than a GoCrimson.com blog, I thought I would talk about a few different areas of interest.

In high school, I thought the kids that we played against were big. Because team rosters weren't on-line, the only way to gauge before the game how big the opposing kids were was to compare them to the teams they were playing against. Often we relied on second-hand accounts from a buddy who might have seen a kid from the rival team outside the movie theatre that summer.

While no one in the count(r)y could have been bigger than my best friend on my high school team (a 6 foot 6, 320-pund Baby Hughie who's now terrorizing people at Division II powerhouse Shepherd College), we still spent much of the week speculating what the team would look like when we got onto the field.

In college, we know the kids we are playing are big. Granted, we play in the Ivy League, which is a league of smaller, faster linemen who are more geared towards zone than power football. But this isn't to say that I'm lining up against small kids. On Friday, I lined up against the Holy Cross right guard who was a roster-listed 6 foot 6, 292-punds... and he was the small guard! Teammate and captain Matt Curtis had the privilege of lining up across from their left guard who was a whopping 350 pounds! They could've put a third number on his jersey.

With the exception of the occasional "pad monster" (a player who wears pads under his shoulder pads with a big neck roll to appear bigger - the football equivalent of heel lifts), the teams we play against on Saturdays have players big enough that the imperative question is no longer if they'll be big, but how big.

The night before a game in high school, I would sit on the floor in my basement and stretch while I watched video (remember VHS?) of the other team (that I usually purloined from the coach's office). Looking back, I did this more out of superstition than practicality because the videos looked like they were filmed by the directors of "Blair Witch Project" with prehistoric camcorders. The most I could really do was add up the run/pass tally marks to look for tendencies.

The videos I watch now are so good they look like "Plant Earth: Gridirons of the Northeast" - I keep waiting for Sigourney Weaver to narrate.

Along with the DVD of the other team that I am given each week, I'm also given a scouting report that the Secretary of Defense would find mind-boggling. We have the tendencies of other teams sorted by formation, down, distance, temperature, cloud formation, favorite color, and cleat size. Naturally, we burn all of these intelligence reports after each game, except for our offensive linemen - whom eat them.

But the greatest constant throughout all of these years of football has been how sweet it is to play in your home stadium, in front of a huge crowd, and to be a part of a fourth quarter comeback that everyone who saw it will remember - all of which I got to experience last Friday night against Holy Cross.

You simply can't beat 20,000 people showing up to cheer. And during our final drive, our final defensive series, and when Chris Pizzotti knelt to end the game (an ironic way to beat Holy Cross), you could hear the 19,500 of them who came to cheer for us. Thanks to everyone for coming out to the game!

Next stop, Providence - the city, of course - for a date with Brown, my pick for the sleeper in our league.

In an era when women were not encouraged to follow this career path, she flourished. Thanks to her trail-blazing efforts, generations of women to follow will have the chance to work in sports journalism.

Josh Centor, a former baseball student-athlete at Brandeis, currently serves as an assistant athletics director at Carnegie Mellon.

A couple of weeks ago, I sat at home and watched Charlie Gibson grill vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, an hour that certainly could have been considered an event of sporting proportions for all of the advance fanfare.

I don't believe intercollegiate athletics, or the Double-A Zone, is necessarily a place for politics, but I must admit surprise that Palin's candidacy hasn't warranted any conversation on the blog. While Barack Obama's candidacy for president has been addressed as a positive for civil rights advances (and rightfully so), Palin has not been discussed at all.

Whether or not you swing on the left or right side of the political batter's box, you must admit that Palin and Hillary Clinton are both beneficiaries of Title IX. During the ABC broadcast, Title IX was referenced in a description of Palin and it was a moment for applause. To ignore the impact of the law at this time is irresponsible.

Title IX receives much of its attention for having an impact on college sports, but the legislation clearly states that equal educational opportunities must be afforded to all individuals, regardless of gender. The reach of Title IX extends far beyond the field, court or swimming pool. This year, it extends into the political arena, and that is something all Americans should celebrate, regardless of their political affiliation.

Over the last few days, I attended the second annual BlogWorld and New Media Expo in Las Vegas. While I think I have always been relatively up to speed with the latest trends in technology, let me tell you, this weekend opened up my eyes to a whole new world.

Most Internet users are aware of the Web 2.0 phenomenon that has occurred over the last several years with the rise of new communication platforms, such as with blogs, social networking, and microjournalism applications. I have always been aware of the wide reach of Web 2.0 applications...I just had no idea how huge it really is.

Blogs have created a blurred and sometimes confusing line with what is really "mainstream" media in today's society. As I heard someone say at the expo, "bloggers are transforming media." From my experience this weekend, that couldn't be more true.

The struggles of the newspaper industry have been discussed in great depth over the last several months. Even the most successful newspapers around the country have recognized the need and importance of blogs. According to Richard Jalichandra, the CEO of Technorati, 95 of the top 100 newspapers in the U.S. have established their own blogs.

There are countless examples of "mainstream" journalists who have made the transition to blogs simply because this is the direction the communication world is going. For example, I met Jay Christensen this weekend, a former writer for the Los Angeles Times. He now runs TheWizofOdds.com, a popular college football blog. Three years ago, Christensen realized he needed to adapt to these new media technologies by starting his own blog, and he has been successful with his approach.

Christensen's story is a perfect example of the transformation in sports coverage today as a result of these new communication platforms. While Christensen is obviously well qualified to write about sports, the fact is that anyone can now be a "journalist" by starting his/her own blog and developing a fan base. The Web 2.0 phenomenon has created opportunities for anyone to become a "citizen journalist," which can be viewed in both a positive and negative light.

Additionally, people are connecting with each other in a fashion that has never been seen before with the presence of Web sites like Facebook and Twitter. Trends like social networking and microjournalism will only continue to develop in the upcoming months and years. Honestly, who knows what the future has in store.

If you're a frequent reader of the Double-A Zone and other blogs, obviously you are up to date with these new communication platforms. So let me ask you...How have blogs and other new media technologies changed the way you follow your favorite college sports team? Do you feel more connected with your team today than you did 10 years ago?

Erin Mullen, a former softball student-athlete at Belmont, currently interns for the United States Olympic Committee.

I began my internship at the United States Olympic Committee, specifically U.S. Paralympics, not really knowing what all goes into being a Paralympian. I was unaware of all the hardships and adversity these world class athletes had to endure during their rise to the top. However, their stories are remarkable. They included car accidents; birth defects; wounded soldiers and medical mysteries. Each their own, full of heartbreak, realization and hope, I was truly humbled by their words. My job at U.S. Paralympics did not seem like work but just a step in raising awareness and aiding in the growth of the Paralympic Movement. I quickly made it my personal duty to help those with physical disabilities achieve their sport dreams.

Often confused with the Special Olympics dealing specifically with intellectual disabilities, U.S. Paralympics involves athletes with physical disabilities such as limb loss or limb difference, cerebral palsy and visual impairments. Each Paralympian goes through an extensive classification process before competition that includes physical evaluations by highly trained physicians. Each classification group contains athletes with similar disabilities in order to ensure fairness.

During my internship I met and worked alongside some amazing individuals all sharing the same passion for advancing the Paralympic Movement. I feel blessed to have been a part of the planning during the 2008 Summer Paralympic Games in Beijing, China. My duties mainly dealt with logistics such as setting up air and ground transportation; filing Olympic Training Center requests (when individuals want to use our facilities, we have to request approval in advance) and apparel distribution for various team members and staff.

As a collegiate softball player at Belmont University, I took for granted travel, food and hotel arrangements. I did not think much about the extensive procedures involved with setting up these necessities. Now, being on the administrative side, I realize all the time and effort it took my former coaches to arrange the aforementioned requirements. Immediately following my experience, I personally thanked my coaches for their dedication.

So what does it take to be a true Paralympian? To be a Paralympian it takes more than hard work and dedication to training. It takes passion and devotion to those that you love. It takes modesty and pride in wearing a sweet graphically designed prosthetic. It takes confidence but not arrogance. But most of all it takes the willingness to learn and awareness of your surroundings.

I leave U.S. Paralympics wiser, inspired and humbled by my experience. These athletes are truly remarkable and I wish them all the best in their future endeavors. I look forward to the future advancement of the Paralympic Movement and will continue to raise awareness throughout my prospective career.

• Yesterday, we mentioned the serious spinal injury that occurred to Ball State football student-athlete Dante Love during Saturday's game against Indiana. The school said yesterday that Love should recover and be able to "live a normal and healthy life," although his football career is likely finished. Best of luck to Dante in his recovery.

• "Miss Mary" Garber, a longtime sports writer who is the only woman to receive journalism's prestigious Red Smith Award, died Sunday at age 92. The 1938 Hollins graduate was a pioneer for female journalists and will be remembered for helping women become mainstream journalists at a time when they often were held back. According to David Kaszuba, a professor at Susquehanna, Garber "broke the mold."

• According to a study from the Chronicle of Higher Education, 21 Division I athletics departments have annual recruiting budgets of at least $1 million. NCAA President Myles Brand talked about this issue in a recent Mondays with Myles. Do you think athletics departments spend too much on recruiting?

• Boston College, the 2008 Division I men's hockey national champion, is the preseason No. 1 ranked team in the country. The Eagles are joined by Michigan, Notre Dame, North Dakota and Colorado College in the top five.

• Yankee Stadium hosted its final game Sunday night, and as you might expect, fans and players are eager to collect souvenirs from the historic stadium. For instance, Johnny Damon expressed an interest in getting the foul poles and Andy Pettitte said he would like to take the pitching rubber home. However, at this point, the Yankees are going to make all fans and players purchase these kinds of souvenirs. What memento would you want from your favorite sporting venue in the country?

• We neglected to mention this yesterday...on September 22, 1990, Illinois' Howard Griffith set a Division I FBS single-game scoring record with 48 points on eight rushing touchdowns versus Southern Illinois.

Thomas Campbell is a senior forward on the UNC Greensboro men's soccer team. This year will be different for the three-year starter, however. Campbell, UNCG's leading scorer last season, will be sitting out his redshirt season while recovering from a knee injury he suffered last spring. Each week, Campbell will blog about the Spartans' soccer season, his teammates, his classes and his journey back to the soccer pitch in the rehab process. Today is the third installment. Here are Campbell's first and second blog posts.

Hello all.

I was looking forward to this week's blog because we finally got our first win. Like I said in last week's blog, we had a very important weekend at Elon's tournament. We played East Tennessee State University on Friday. This is ETSU's first year as a Division I program so it was very important for us to get a good result.

They played us real tough but we pulled out a 3-1 win. There were some good points and some bad points but it was an important win. When you start a season with three one-goal losses like we did, a win is a win and you just want to get some momentum going.

On Sunday, we played UNC Asheville. We played from behind for most of the game but tied it up with about five minutes to go on a great goal by Michael Bonilla. We went into overtime and scored about three minutes in, but the goal was called off for offside. We ended up in a 1-1 tie - a frustrating tie after a good win against ETSU. So we ended the weekend with a 1-3-1 record overall.

Monday's rehab was not fun. Like I said in my previous blog Mondays and Thursdays are the hardest days of the week. I stepped up to 170 lbs for 2 sets of 5. I also did 45 minutes on the elliptical and I thought I was going to die. Being out of shape is the worst feeling in the world. It just makes me realize how much more work I have to do to get back into playing shape. I get to start running soon so that will be a huge step towards getting back.

We played Campbell on Wednesday back at home. It was a great out of conference game and a great game for us to win. We started off the game awesome. The first half was the best half we have played all season. We went into halftime with a 2-0 lead. We came out solid in the second half, but sat back a little too much and ended up giving up a goal midway through the second half on a PK. With about 15 minutes to go, a Campbell player missed a bicycle kick by about 1 foot. If it went in it would have tied the game 2-2 and - I have to give him credit on this - it would have been the best goal I have scene in my college career. With less than a minute to go we cleared one off the line and held on for a 2-1 win.

So overall it has been a good week for the team and for me. After the slow start, we're unbeaten in our last three. We have another big game this weekend against UNC Wilmington, so hopefully we could pull out another great out of conference win and build on the Campbell win. UNCW has had our number a little - going back to giving us our first loss when we were No. 1 in the nation the year before I came here (2004) and then beat us again in my first match as a Spartan in overtime to open the following season. We beat them down at their place last year, so I am sure they will be ready for us, too.

If you're a soccer fan it has also been a good soccer week around the world. It was the opening week for the Champions League. My favorite team Barcelona played on Tuesday along with Manchester United. There were some other games but I did not watch them.

Thursday was my roommate Matt's 21st birthday so I need to give him a shout out and say Happy Birthday.

Till next time. Ciao.

Thomas Campbell, #7

There were many interesting and exciting college football games this weekend. Here's a quick rundown:

• Perhaps the most exciting college sports contest of the weekend occurred in Harrisonburg, Virginia, where fifth-ranked James Madison defeated top-ranked Appalachian State in a key Division I FCS football matchup. The three-time defending FCS champion Appalachian State had a 21-0 halftime lead on the road, but James Madison rallied in the second half for a 35-32 win. Do you think this could be a possible preview for what we might see in the FCS playoffs?

• The marquee game on the Division I FBS level had to be sixth-ranked Louisiana State defeating 10th-ranked Auburn, 26-21. The battle of the Tigers lived up to the pregame hype, considering the game went back and forth, culminating when LSU quarterback Jarrett Lee connected with Brandon LaFell for a game-winning touchdown. What was the most enjoyable game you watched this weekend?

• Fifteenth-ranked East Carolina suffered its first loss of the season on the gridiron, as the Pirates were defeated by North Carolina State, 30-24, in overtime. After wins over Virginia Tech, West Virginia and Tulane this season, East Carolina's dream of reaching a BCS bowl game appears to be over after this loss.

• In other potential BCS-buster results, BYU continued its dominance with a 44-0 win over Wyoming. Over the last two weeks, BYU has outscored Wyoming and UCLA by a combined score of 103-0. Fellow Mountain West rival Utah came from behind to beat undefeated Air Force, 30-23. If both schools can keep up their undefeated record through Mountain West play, then they will square off on November 22nd with the winner most likely receiving a BCS bowl bid.

• Legendary St. John's (Minnesota) football coach John Gagliardi broke the Eddie Robinson's college football record on Saturday for most games coached with his 589th game on the sidelines. Gagliardi already holds the record for most coaching wins in college football history, and if you missed it a few weeks ago, he joined us on the Double-A Zone to discuss his career. On the field on Saturday, however, Gagliardi's fourth-ranked squad was stunned by Concordia-Moorhead, 9-6.

Although scary-looking injuries are fairly common in college sports, especially football, this weekend witnessed some truly terrifying moments.

• Ball State's wide receiver, Dante Love is moving his arms and legs after undergoing a five hour surgery to repair a fracture in his back that occurred in Saturday's victory over Indiana. "We were told the surgery went well," team physician Dr. Jay Matchett said in statement released by the school. "Sunday morning Dante was alert and extremely tired. His attitude and spirits are good, and we are praying for him right now." Love was injured during a collision with an Indiana running back.

• South Florida linebacker Brouce Mompremier will return home after being airlifted to Miami, following a collision with a teammate. Mompremier fell awkwardly to the turf and university medical staff worked with him on the field for more than 15 minutes before placing him on a gurney and taking him off the field.

• Washington State quarterback Gary Rogers suffered a late helmet to helmet collision. According to reports, Rogers is moving his extremities and appears to be OK.

Our best wishes to these athletes and their families.

The rules of college football are constantly being adapted to better safety conditions for student-athletes, but there is always a risk in competing. For more on recent changes to the rules to protect football student-athletes, including information on helmet-to-helmet contact, watch this video:

• In Division II field hockey, fourth-ranked Shippensburg upset the Bloomsburg, the top-ranked team in the country, 3-2. Kim Davies led Shippensburg was two goals. Coming into the contest, Bloomsburg had outscored its opponents by a margin of 62-3.

• Joe Paterno regained his title as the most winning coach in BCS history with Penn State's victory over Temple this weekend. Paterno watched most of the game from the press box, however, after complaining of a sore leg. The always tough Paterno told the AP, "My leg's OK. It's just standing on it too long, it aches. I'm probably babying myself."

• Last night, the final game was played at Yankee Stadium. There is little doubt that The Stadium is the most historic venue in all of sports. This got me thinking...What do you think is the most historic college sports venue?

The recent Olympics in Beijing were entertaining from an athletics perspective, especially with the remarkable performances of Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt.

However, outside of the sports competition, many people found it fascinating to see how China used the two week event to portray itself to the rest of the world. In a sense, these Olympics were China's international "coming out party."

In today's Mondays with Myles, NCAA President Myles Brand discusses the combination of sports and national cultures in the context of the Olympics. As Dr. Brand says in the podcast, China was able to "demonstrate through sports its new standing in the world, and frankly, it did a very good job."

Additionally, Dr. Brand talks about the NCAA's model and how he could see it eventually being implemented overseas, including in countries like China.

Listen to Mondays With Myles

Having games during the week impacts more than just the athletes. It disrupts campuses, smaller cities where game day traffic is a problem, and breaks the academic flow of the week.

Earlier this year, NCAA Division II institutions approved a program that would allow Canadian schools to apply for membership. According to an article in The Province, the University of British Columbia is thinking about making the move, although there are some mixed thoughts on the idea.

While you might think the Division II's willingness to open up its membership to Canadian schools would be well-received, it doesn't seem like British Columbia is chomping at the bit to join. There is some thought that becoming a D-II member is a lateral move as far as the competition level and the only way it should join the NCAA is if it can be a Division I school.

In the current system, the university would only be eligible for Division II membership, although one sport would be able to compete at the Division I level for both men and women.

Looking from the outside, it's difficult to compare the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) and Division II from a competition level perspective. But from a publicity standpoint, how could it be viewed as anything but an enormous opportunity for the school?

Honestly, I'm a little out of touch with the CIS, so I turned to my Canadian roommate to get some more information. He said that intercollegiate sports in Canada are not nearly as popular as college athletics in the U.S., especially outside of sports like football, basketball and hockey. From his experiences in Canada, he thought this would be an unbelievable opportunity for a school like British Columbia to gain exposure and use it as a recruiting tool in Canada since many Canadian teenagers already come to the U.S. to participate in NCAA competition.

Frankly, this argument makes sense.

If the ultimate hope is to become a Division I school, it seems the practical first step would be to join at the Division II level and get its feet wet with NCAA rules and regulations, especially on the academic side. Play a few years against D-II competition and see what happens. Like hundreds of other institutions, it might find its niche at the Division II level, and we all know there's nothing wrong with that.

What do you think? Should British Columbia be excited to become a Division II member if given the opportunity or should it only strive to become a Division I school?

• We have discussed referees in some depth on the Double-A Zone in recent days after a couple of controversial incidents occurred in both college and professional football. In order to try to standardize college football officials and clear up perceptions of favoritism toward their own conferences, the NCAA and Conference Commissioners Association jointly created the College Football Officiating, LLC. "The goal was to get more conferences under the same roof and hearing the same sermon," said former Big Ten official coordinator, David Parry, who serves as the LLC's national coordinator of officials. Do you think the LLC is working thus far in its first year of existence?

• Before coverage of the West Virginia/Colorado game last night, ESPN showed footage of a practice session with Ralphie, Colorado's real-life buffalo mascot. Ralphie always leads the football team onto the field in a relatively controlled manner, but in this practice video, Ralphie was running loose with some of his trainers dragging alongside. Apparently this is a new Ralphie and she was recruited for her speed. Eventually, the trainers were able to restore order, although the whole ordeal was pretty scary to watch. This got me thinking...do you think live, potentially dangerous animals should be allowed at college sporting events?

• USA Today ran a story about women in sports and it was filled with a lot of interesting content. My favorite line was a quote from Maryland Athletics Director Debbie Yow: "Leadership is not a gender issue. It is a reflection of education, experience and a propensity for the work."

• Will a non-BCS football school ever be able to win a national championship in the current system? This article from the American-Statesmen doesn't think so. It's a fascinating question, and perhaps someday, there will be a dominant non-BCS team with a killer schedule and the right circumstances that gets an opportunity to play for a national championship. Do you think this will ever happen?

Not surprisingly, the D-III guy is going to weigh in and say it's a bad idea. Football is ideal to play one day a week and Saturday is the perfect time for it.

This entry is written by Marta Lawrence, the Associate Director of New Media for the NCAA.

College baseball coaches will now be required to wear helmets when coaching bases. Baseball's adoption of the rule comes on the heels of Major League Baseball requiring the same of their base coaches.

In April, the Double- A Zone took up the helmet question, advocating a similar helmet mandate be adopted by the college ranks. Readers of the initial post reacted passionately. Most realized the MLB rule would likely trickle down to other levels, including college.

"Mandating helmets for MLB coaches will almost certainly help move this trend down the line to high school and college teams," wrote Max. "Baseball has for decades maintained a hidebound, traditional culture. Nostalgia is an essential part of the game's allure, probably more so than the other major sports. When did they start playing night games at Wrigley Field? It won't be immediate, but the only way to change unsafe traditions is at the top."

Not all readers were as resolute and positive as Max.

Mark Mentone wrote:

"The issue is likely not one of vanity, or even tradition, but one of comfort. The coach wants to focus on the game and anything that is the least bit uncomfortable can be a distraction. I'm a high-school umpire and I would prefer not to wear a hardhat, at least when working the bases.

"This is the knee-jerk PR move that happens after almost any tragedy. That doesn't make it a bad thing. But it's impossible to prevent everything with a .001 percent chance of occurrence from happening. Wearing helmets is a commendable idea, but I guess I don't understand the disbelief as to why some people would like to see the rule be optional. It's really not that big a deal.

"Plus the helmets worn in pro ball don't have earflaps. Will we have to go thru all of this discussion again when some guy wearing the hardhat takes a line drive in the earlobe? Where does it end?"

According to Ty Halpin, associate director of playing rules administration at the NCAA, the MLB rule brought the committee's attention to the issue, but it was the reflection of many committee members that sealed the recommendation's passage. Many members remembered close calls where a ball nearly hit them.

"The more we talked about it, the more it made sense," Halpin said. "Coaches aren't always paying attention to the pitched ball; they're often focusing on the runners."

It remains to be seen if college coaches will take issue with the rule the way many major league coaches, like Larry Bowa have. Bowa, the third-base coach for the Dodgers, initially refused to wear the helmet, telling various media outlets he'd walk to the base wearing shin guards, a chest protector and a facemask to make his point.

Regardless of the outcome, coaches will be better protected and less likely to suffer deadly consequences, and that's good news for college baseball.

Watch the 2008 baseball rules update, where Jim Paronto, the secretary-rules editor of the baseball rules committee, discusses the rules changes for this upcoming season:

• Many Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are identified by their energetic and skillful bands that perform at a school's football games. However, for Lincoln (Pennsylvania), these were elements of campus life that were missing until recently when the school decided to begin both of these programs. "Everyone knows, especially in black college football, that the presence of the marching band has as much drawing power, and in some cases more drawing power, than the presence of the football team," the school's president Ivory V. Nelson told the New York Times. "So we put those two together."

• St. Francis (New York) Athletics Director Irma Garcia is the only Division I Hispanic athletics director. A former star basketball student-athlete and head basketball coach at the school, Garcia seems motivated to turn the school of 2,300 students into a more successful program in all aspects. Most importantly, Garcia emphasizes the performance of student-athletes in the classroom and community. From reading this article, you get the feeling that Garcia will ultimately get the school's athletics department to where she wants it.

• Syracuse is unveiling a statue of Ernie Davis, the first African American to win the Heisman Trophy. However, there's a slight problem with the statue...it has him wearing modern-day Nike shoes, although Davis played in the late 1950s and early 1960s before Nike even existed. The sculptor will fix the statue, and this is definitely a lesson learned by all.

• We recently wrote about Jack Swarbrick and his untraditional path to the athletics director position at Notre Dame. In an interview with the Journal Gazette, he gave some insight into what it has been like at his new job. Additionally, Swarbrick reflected on his career and his role in bringing the NCAA to Indianapolis, which he calls his biggest achievement "from a business perspective." Do you think Swarbrick will be successful at Notre Dame?

• A new league named Women's Professional Soccer will begin its operations in April. The league will have seven teams in the U.S., and plans to add at least two more teams in 2010. The league is hoping to capitalize on the mistakes that were made by the WUSA league, which suspended its operations in 2003. Do you think the new league will be successful in the long run?

• A few days ago we wrote about Ed Hochuli's quick whistle in this past weekend's Chargers/Broncos NFL game, and how the incident could be a learning experience for officials at all levels. While some officials would go into hiding or deny any wrongdoings, you must give Hochuli credit for standing up to the criticism and admitting he made a mistake. Hochuli seems like a classy guy, and all of the Chargers fans who have sent him hate e-mails need to give it a rest. There is no place for that stuff in sports.

• Tonight, the Miner's Cup will take place between Michigan Tech and Northern Michigan. This Division II game will air live on CBS College Sports. This got us thinking about some of the great prizes that are awarded to the annual winners college football rivalry games, such as the Floyd of Rosedale pig in the Minnesota/Iowa contest and the 300-pound Monon Bell in the Wabash/DePauw rivalry. Are there any other rivalry prizes that top these?

Based upon a physician volunteer model, we have contained our cost to $15 per student. This brings this well into the "cost effective" category.

Junior Casey Garth has been instrumental in the early success of the Carnegie Mellon women's soccer program this fall. Garth, a professional writing major from Steamboat Springs, Colorado, shares some thoughts about the season in her first blog post.

After losing an all-American and top goal scorer to graduation I was worried for this season; but when I stepped on the turf the first day of preseason and saw 29 other girls, I knew this would be a special year. With a record of 3-1-1, a national ranking, and 26 teammates, I'm in a whole new playing field. Only four weeks into the season and I have come across a lot of "firsts" in my career. The first time my team has had to make cuts, the first time we have had a winning record to start the season, and the first time I have seen a number next to my team's name in the NCAA rankings. I am a junior, halfway done with my collegiate career, but this season is proving to be pretty spectacular. With each practice and game my hopes and expectations for the season climb higher and higher.

For the first time in my athletic career I experienced the stresses and pressures that come with the possibility of being "cut." I have always been one to complain about a sense of complacency that occurs within a team when no one is battling for a position; but when the possibility of losing my starting spot arose I was eating my words. I wanted competition within the team...just not for my spot. But the constant fight for positions has proven to be very rewarding for our team. The practices are more intense, people are putting in extra work outside of practice, and we finally have subs!

The change in our practice environment has provided some positive results thus far this season. The success began in Virginia Beach at the Virginia Wesleyan Tournament. Our first game was a 2-1 victory over Salisbury, a very tough team physically. On day two we took on 17th-ranked Virginia Wesleyan. The game ended in a 1-1 tie, both goals scored on penalty kicks, but our performance was not disappointing. The following weekend we came away 2-0 in our home tournament, beating 18th-ranked Elizabethtown.

But the season hasn't been perfect. Our most recent game was a hard-to-swallow 3-0 loss to Capital, a team ranked below us in our region. I'm not worried though, two days into practice this week and the team is only looking more focused and driven. The theme of this week's practices has been putting the ball in the back of the net. We play "pretty" possession soccer, but we're not scoring enough goals. If we can start finishing our opportunities we will have no problem grabbing a lot more wins this season.

Carnegie Mellon women's soccer has never been to the NCAA tournament. This has been a season of firsts thus far and I expect that trend to continue.

Beginning tonight, Big 12 Conference football teams will be participating in games in each of the next four days - Kansas State versus Louisville tonight, West Virginia at Colorado tomorrow, Baylor and Connecticut on Friday and the normal slate of games on Saturday. While having games occur throughout the week can be good for the conference's exposure, it forces student-athletes to miss unnecessary class time and places undue stress on their academics.

Honestly, this is a tricky issue. Obviously all schools want any possible exposure for their football teams, especially when it means playing on national television as the only game of the day. Theoretically, more television coverage ultimately means a more nationally-recognized program, and hopefully, better recruits down the road. For coaches, winning is obvious a priority, so it makes sense that they would do anything possible (within the rules) to get more publicity for their programs.

However, while a team's on-field performance is important, it should take a backseat to how student-athletes perform in the classroom. And, therein lies the fundamental issue with weeknight football games.

"The football coach in me also says things that get you out of your routine and things that take you away from the classroom, that's not the norm in football,'' said Kansas State Coach Ron Prince in a recent AP article.

Tonight's game for Prince's team will certainly take his student-athletes away from their normal schedules. A Wednesday night game in Louisville means the team probably left Manhattan sometime yesterday and will not return until tomorrow. Tuesday through Thursday is a big chunk of the academic week, and this goes against the student-athlete philosophy, especially when the situation is avoidable if the game were to be played on Saturday.

Additionally, there is the school of thought that college football should only be played on Saturday. "In my opinion, college football is made for Saturdays and that's the way we like to do it,'' said Kansas Coach Mark Mangino.

On the flip side, you could argue that football student-athletes miss far less class time than participants in other sports. For instance, in college basketball, it is normal for Division I teams to travel during the week. I would assume that all basketball teams miss more class than any football team.

As a Division III golf student-athlete at Carnegie Mellon over the last three years, I missed 33 total days of class. Frankly, this might be on the low end for many golf student-athletes around the country, especially compared to most Division I programs.

Taking other sports into consideration, how can anyone complain for an occasional weekday game when almost all of the school's other sports teams play frequent weekday games?

Where do you stand on the issue? Is it OK for college football teams to play throughout the week and miss additional class time or should all games take place on Saturdays?

• Last week, we mentioned an article about special admits that appeared in the Indianapolis Star. In response to an editorial written about the article, NCAA Executive Vice President Bernard Franklin wrote an op-ed of his own. Franklin's article addresses how special admission practices give chances to student-athletes that otherwise wouldn't have the opportunity to get an education. What do you think about special admits?

• Seven college basketball coaches and ESPN analyst Fran Fraschilla recently travelled to Kuwait and Iraq to visit U.S. soldiers, part of the United Service Organizations' "Operation Hardwood." Honestly, it seemed that this trip had a profound impact on each of the coaches. Hofstra Coach Tom Pecora explains: "You can't imagine what the trip is like. And I'm not talking about things like having to wear body armor or being on an active military base or that it was 110 degrees all the time. I mean getting to spend time with the soldiers is incredible."

• The NCAA's annual Corporate Champion and Corporate Partner Summit occurred the last few days in Detroit, the host city of the 2009 Men's Final Four. As part of the festivities, many summit participants and Detroit-Mercy students (the Final Four's host institution) are taking part in a community service project to clean up a city's park.

• The Mountain West Conference has enjoyed remarkable success this season on the football field. Last week, its schools went 7-1 against non-conference opponents, and so far the league is 5-0 against Pac-10 teams. One of these wins include a supposed bottom-of-the-pack UNLV team going on the road and beating a nationally-ranked Arizona State squad last weekend. Perhaps, BYU and Utah's rivalry game on November 22 will match two undefeated teams, with the winner most likely earning a spot in a BCS bowl game (although current unbeatens TCU and Air Force could have a say as well). According to the Sagarin rankings, the conference is still ranked as the seventh best behind all six BCS leagues. Are you surprised by this?

• One of the victorious Mountain West teams last weekend was Air Force, which defeated Houston, 31-28. The big news, however, was the fact Air Force won the game without completing a single pass. The Falcons had 380 total yards of offense, all on the ground. Air Force's quarterback Shea Smith attempted seven passes, but was unable to complete any of them -- the Air Force was grounded. This brings back memories of a 1993 Baylor/SMU game when the Bears rushed for 482 yards and didn't even attempt a pass. Can you recall any other one-dimensional offensive approaches in recent memory?

Thomas Campbell is a senior forward on the UNC Greensboro men's soccer team. This year will be different for the three-year starter, however. Campbell will be sitting out his redshirt season while recovering from a knee injury he suffered last spring. Each Friday, Campbell will blog about the Spartans' soccer season, his teammates, his classes and his journey back to the soccer pitch in the rehab process. Today is the second installment. Click here for Campbell's first post.

Where do I start? (Remember, I am still new to this whole blogging thing, although I am getting the hang of it and have to say that it's pretty fun.) First, I would like to thank everyone for reading my blog and returning to read week number two. In last week's blog, I started to tell you about rehab and the upcoming weekend.

The UNCG Kickoff Class - our annual tournament - began on Sept. 5 with Elon facing Old Dominion in the afternoon followed by our game against Winthrop at 7:30. We came out very sluggish and were down 1-0 at halftime. At about the 55-minute mark a Winthrop player was red carded so we were a man up. Winthrop scored again a couple minutes later to make it 2-0. With about 15 minutes left we scored two goals to tie the game, 2-2. Not even 15 seconds after the tying goal, though they scored a third goal and we lost 3-2. It was a tough loss once again.

The team took Saturday off because we had another game on Sunday against Old Dominion. I also took the day off from rehab to let my hamstring loosen up. We ended up losing to ODU as well, so we are now 0-3. It's not a very good start and it is very frustrating for me to sit and watch, knowing I can't go out there and help my teammates. I can't even sit on the bench anymore; I find myself at the end of the bench by myself thinking about what can be done to better the team.

I have started a new rehab regiment, Mondays and Thursdays are my hard days, Tuesdays and Fridays are my max out days and Wednesday and Saturday are my footwork and plyometrics day. So I am doing rehab every morning and lifting in the afternoon. Tuesday's rehab was the hardest so far. After the second exercise, I was exhausted; and by the last exercise I was about to throw up. I am also doing cardio work everyday after my afternoon lift switching from the bike, to the elliptical, to the pool.

The team has had a decent week of training and I think we are ready to get our first win this weekend. We are playing at Elon in their tournament against East Tennessee State on Friday and UNC Ashville on Sunday. It is very important that we get a win under our belt this weekend and gain some momentum as we head into conference play.

On top of all of the soccer, I have had a busy week of classes. I am taking all 300+ level marketing classes, so my work load is very tough. I had a presentation on Monday and a presentation on Wednesday, so I haven't had much sleep this week. I have been up late every night preparing for presentations or reading material for the next day's class. It gives me a sense of realization that I am almost done with school when I am working more than normal.

This past weekend was a great football weekend. I love watching the NFL and NCAA football. I am sure everyone saw that Tom Brady tore his knee up - reportedly his ACL and MCL. Seeing that just makes me realize that it can happen to anyone. It is nerve racking every time I see an athlete go in for a tackle or a someone get hit in the knee thinking about how hard the recovery is because I do not wish that upon anyone. But seeing top athletes like that getting hurt as well just gives me more motivation to get back knowing that they will, too.

I look forward to this upcoming weekend and I hope the team is ready to get our first win. I look forward to next week's blog, as well. Adios.

Thomas Campbell, #7

As a person who's rushed a court or 2 or 3 in my day, I can say there's no bigger emotion for a fan and feel they were actually there and part of something big

You frequently hear referees say a successful game in their eyes is when no one notices them.

Unfortunately, in the recent weeks, the referees have been in the spotlight at all levels of football, including a controversial play in Sunday's NFL game between the San Diego Chargers and Denver Broncos. Officials at all levels need to learn a lesson from what transpired in this game - do not blow the whistle until the play is absolutely over.

In case you missed it, the Chargers were up seven points with under a minute to go in the game. On a third and goal play, Denver's quarterback Jay Cutler rolled to his right and, as he was about to bring his arm forward to throw the ball, it slipped out of his hand. The ball was picked up by the Chargers and the San Diego defense thought it had come away with a huge road victory.

But don't celebrate so fast, San Diego. Ed Hochuli, the lead official in the game who is considered to be one of the best officials in the NFL and has worked two Super Bowls, had actually blown his whistle after Cutler fumbled the ball. He thought Cutler's arm was coming forward, which would be an incomplete pass.

Because of Hochuli's incorrect whistle, Denver retained possession of the ball. Sure enough, two plays later, the Broncos scored a touchdown and then a game-winning two-point conversion.

Last week, in the aftermath of the controversial unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in the Washington/BYU game, I said the officials should not be blamed for the game's outcome.

Similarly, in the Chargers/Broncos game, despite my hometown ties to San Diego, I have the exact same feelings. The Chargers were still in the driver's seat to win the game even after the blown call, and the Broncos converted on their extra opportunity. As painful as it is for me to say as a Chargers fan, the referees did not lose this game...the Chargers did.

A recent comment by Rick gives some insight into what it is like to be an official and have to react instantaneously to events like these: "I, however, must comment that having been a football official for 25 years (16 on the small college level) that until you have been on that field, whistle in hand, flag tucked away, observing your keys and responsibilities, as the play unfolds in front of you in full speed time (no instant replay, no frame by frame analysis with digital enhancements), you make the call based on instinct, observation, positioning and knowledge of the rules."

I think most people recognize how difficult it is to be a referee. However, this incident needs to be a learning tool for referees at all levels, including college officials.

Whenever a play is in doubt, let it play out. Do not blow the whistle until you are absolutely, positively, 110 percent certain the play is over. You can always go back and sort the play out after everything is settled on the field.

In this instance, Hochuli's incorrect judgment and subsequent whistle played a factor in the outcome of the game. Let's hope college officials learn from the play so we don't see an important game affected by the mighty quick whistle.

• One of the weekend's football games that we neglected to mention on yesterday's Morning Coffee was Auburn's 3-2 win over Mississippi State. This was not a hockey or baseball game...it was actually a 60 minute Division I college football game. Should fans blame the offenses or praise the defenses? Can you remember seeing a stranger football score?

• In other news from this past weekend, Loras' women's soccer team ended Wheaton's 48-game winning streak with a 1-0 win. Number-one ranked Wheaton won both the 2006 and 2007 Division III national championships, and had not lost a game since 2006.

• Forbes calculated each Division I FBS football team's revenue per win during the 2007 season. Notre Dame topped the list with over $21 million in revenue for each of its three wins in 2007. Minnesota, Washington and Duke were next on the list, mainly because these schools only won a combined four games during the season. What do you take away from these numbers?

• Adrian has implemented a unique approach to help attract students to attend the school. Less than three years ago, it began an athletics program and planned to drive enrollment through athletics recruiting. For instance, coaches are forced to meet a recruiting quota or else they can lose their jobs. Jeffrey R. Docking, the school's president, believes this type of recruiting practice could be "the fountain of youth for small liberal-arts colleges." Do you agree with President Docking's statement?

• An article in the Wall Street Journal discusses the potential nightmare that could occur if, at the end of the college football season, there are two undefeated teams from non-BCS conferences. If this scenario were to occur, it would most likely involve East Carolina and either BYU or Utah (since they play each other on November 22). The article states that, in this scenario, East Carolina would most likely be left out of a BCS bowl game despite an undefeated record. Obviously many things would have to happen for this to happen, but it's never too early to speculate.

• The path of Northwest Missouri State football student-athlete Jeremy Davis is far from traditional. Davis has overcome numerous obstacles off the field, including serious substance abuse problems. After going through rehab, Davis is completely sober and he is shining on the football field and in life. He is one of the team's captains and was honored as a first-team Division II all-American last season. What a great story, and best of luck to Jeremy in the future.

• Can you believe some Ohio State fans paid $180 to park their cars outside the Los Angeles Coliseum before Saturday's 35-3 loss to Southern California. As one commenter on the Los Angeles Times Web site said, "$60/point scored by OSU. What a bargain!"

I'm glad you are experiencing part of the world outside the U.S. You will bring to the people you meet in Europe an image of Americans that they may not get through newspapers or TV.

This entry was written by Greg Johnson, the Associate Director of The NCAA News and Champion magazine.

Matt Cassel's skills at quarterback will be under the watchful eye of football fans around the nation this season.

When you replace Tom Brady, the 2007 NFL most valuable player and three-time Super Bowl champion of the New England Patriots, life as you knew it no longer exists.

Cassel has backed up Brady for three full seasons, and this is after he did the same during his student-athlete days at Southern California where he backed up Heisman Trophy-winning quarterbacks Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart.

Despite limited playing opportunities, the Patriots selected Cassel in the seventh round of the 2005 NFL draft. Yesterday, he made his first start since his high school days in 1999, leading the Patriots to a 19-10 win over the New York Jets.

Besides talent to play the position, New England liked the intangibles, such as leadership, that he could bring to their team. During his college days, Cassel displayed leadership qualities that reached beyond the football field by serving as member of the NCAA Division I Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.

All three divisions in the NCAA have national SAACs. They are assembled to provide insight on the student-athlete experience. The committees also offer input on the rules, regulations and policies that affect student-athletes' lives on campuses around the nation.

NCAA legislation mandates that all member institutions have SAACs on their respective campuses and requires that all member conferences have SAACs.

The mission of national SAAC is to enhance the total student-athlete experience by promoting opportunity, protecting student-athlete welfare and fostering a positive student-athlete image.

He's hoping that some of those leadership qualities help him weather any hard times that may come his way as he tries to do his job under the spotlight.

So far, so good.

• The game that was supposed to be the marquee college sporting event of the weekend hardly was much of a contest. Top-ranked Southern California completely overwhelmed fifth-ranked Ohio State, 35-3. The Trojans looked virtually unbeatable, and looking ahead at their remaining schedule, it seems that many of their toughest games are at home. Will anyone beat USC this season?

• The "BCS-buster" watch has been compelling thus far in the college football season. East Carolina continued its winning ways with a 28-24 victory over Tulane, while Mountain West rivals BYU and Utah both won in impressive fashion - BYU blanking UCLA, 59-0, and Utah over Utah State, 58-10. Does East Carolina, BYU or Utah have the best chance to go undefeated and make a BCS bowl game?

• On Friday, we wrote about whether referees have a bias in favor of their own respective conference. Ironically, after the controversial incident that occurred late Saturday night in the Wisconsin/Fresno State game, many people are asking this exact question. If you didn't hear about what happened, it appeared a Fresno State player fumbled the ball during the third quarter, but the ruling on the field was overturned and called an incomplete pass by the WAC replay officials. Nevertheless, Wisconsin was able to overcome the adversity and win the game, 13-10. Do you think officials hold a bias toward their own conferences?

• Kansas quarterback Todd Reesing has become a household name on the football field over the last couple of seasons. Additionally, he is equally as impressive in the classroom, and he says he applies lessons he learns in school to football. He is interested in pursuing an international business program in Denmark after his graduation. Needless to say, Reesing is the epitome of a student-athlete.

• It was a busy weekend in field hockey. Seventh-ranked Syracuse handed top-ranked Maryland its first loss of the season, 2-1. Additionally, in a national championship game rematch, North Carolina defeated Penn State, 4-0. The Tar Heels won the 2007 NCAA national title.

• Remember the name Jaime Nared. The 12-year-old basketball phenom has already attracted the attention of many people in women's basketball. At six foot, one inch, she was recently in the news for getting kicked off a boys' team for being too good. Nared says she wants to grow to be six foot, seven inches, and if she does, watch out.

• Third-ranked Wesley, one of Division III football's perennial powerhouses, lost its opener on Saturday to Delaware Valley, 25-22. Delaware Valley was able to overcome a 16-0 deficit to spark the upset win.

• The most thrilling finish of the weekend had to be the last-second Hail Mary completion in Buffalo's 30-28 victory over Temple. Buffalo's Drew Willy connected with Naaman Roosevelt for the 35-yard touchdown pass and walk-off win.

In the recent weeks, NCAA President Myles Brand has written blog entries for publication on the Huffington Post, one of the world's most popular blogs. He has written three entries on "Pay for Play," and in the recent days, he gave his stance on fantasy football on the college level.

Additionally, some of the Double-A Zone's other content has been republished on the Huffington Post in the recent weeks in an effort to expand the NCAA's new media presence.

In today's podcast, Dr. Brand discusses why he decided to begin writing for the Huffington Post and what he hopes to accomplish from this partnership. Dr. Brand also addresses the culture of blogging, and how anyone in today's society can be a journalist. Finally, Dr. Brand explains how the NCAA deals with potentially controversial issues.

Listen to Mondays With Myles

"College football officials call 'em like they're paid to call 'em."

Ummm...what?

If you aren't an avid reader of OrlandoSentinel.com, you likely missed Mike Bianchi sports commentary in which he essentially accused conference officials of being on the take.

He writes, "Don't get me wrong, I'm not accusing college football refs of intentionally cheating. I'm just saying when one conference signs your paycheck, you're going to make darn sure that conference gets the benefit of the doubt. It's human nature."

Certainly, Bianchi has a right to his opinion, but his one-sided rant doesn't take into account the good work of groups like the College Football Officiating, LLC, which has made a concentrated effort to develop consistency in the interpretation and application of the NCAA football playing rules. Several conferences have combined their clinics in an effort for more officials to hear the same interpretations and clarifications regarding the rules, and some have established "hybrid" crews composed of officials from both conferences.

There isn't a ref in the country that wants to get a call wrong, regardless of what conference signs their paychecks. Bianchi's implication to the contrary is an unfair characterization of the many dedicated, hard-working and conscientious individuals who serve as college football officials.

A few months ago, Greg Johnson wrote a post on the Double-A Zone reflecting on the impact of the Tim Donaghy scandal. In the post, Johnson recounted his experience visiting the National Association of Sports Officials Summit.

"Meeting these men and women of NASO--who take it upon themselves to do what often is a thankless job--has been eye-opening," he wrote. "Not only do you see a human side of some of the top NFL, NBA and intercollegiate officials, the feeling of integrity is unmistakable."

Maybe Bianchi should spend some time with the folks of NASO, but it's probably just easier (and more fun) to criticize the officials from the comfort of his column.

Do you realize how many police it would take to stop thousands of fans from storming a football field? Financially, practically, logistically -- it's completely untenable...

• In yesterday's Morning Coffee, we touched on the impact Hurricane Ike would have on this weekend's college sports schedule. Here is a compilation of all the schools that have altered their schedules for this weekend.

• Last night in Division II football, 15th-ranked Minnesota-Duluth defeated Southwest Minnesota State, 43-21, in a game that aired nationally on CBS College Sports Television. In Division I action, North Carolina smacked Rutgers, 44-12, and claimed its first win outside the state of North Carolina since 2002. Tonight, 14th-ranked Kansas will travel to 19th-ranked South Florida for what should be a compelling non-conference game.

• It is widely known in the sports world that New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, a former California high school and Michigan student-athlete, is out for the season. With Brady's injury, Southern California graduate Matt Cassel is the new starter. Did you know Cassel served as the Pac-10 SAAC representative during his collegiate career? Additionally, the new backup quarterback is now recent San Diego State graduate, rookie Kevin O'Connell. Each of the Patriots' top three quarterbacks grew up in California and now they will try to lead New England to another Super Bowl.

• This year, there are two Division I FBS bowl games that have been added - the EagleBank Bowl in Washington D.C. and St. Petersburg Bowl. These make 34 total bowl games, which will feature 68 teams, and brings up the question about whether there will be enough bowl eligible teams to fill those slots. Do you think there are too many bowl games?

• Kansas State's men's basketball team trained and played basketball with U.S. soldiers at Fort Riley base yesterday. The unit the team was with is scheduled to leave for Iraq later this month. It seems like a very nice gesture by the coaching staff and team.

• While it is no secret that many newspapers around the country have fallen on hard times, it is interesting to see that many college newspapers have not felt the impact of a down economy.

• The American Basketball Association (ABA) is in existence, and this season, the league is changing some of basketball's most fundamental rules. Most notably, it has introduced a four-point shot from beyond the half-court line. Additionally, you can get four points if the 3-D rule is in effect, which, frankly, is so confusing you might need an advanced degree to interpret it. The moral of the story is, under these rules, a team can make a four-pointer, which could potentially alter late-game strategy. Would you like to see college basketball adopt this rule?

Sherraine Pencil is a former San Diego State track and field student-athlete and Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) representative.

Day in and day out we tend to not appreciate the things around us, the things we have. We take them for granted and don't realize how good we have it until it's gone. What I am talking about is being a college student-athlete, being part of a team for four years and only now realizing that I am no longer part of that team. It makes me appreciate my last race in my team uniform even more. It makes me appreciate the last time saying my code of honor with my team--the ten codes being the foundation of our team. It made me realize how lucky I am to say that I was an NCAA student-athlete and have had some amazing experiences that will remain with me for the rest of my life.

I am currently in my fifth year of college and my eligibility is up. I now can say I was a member of the San Diego State University (SDSU) Track and Field team. I was the captain. I was the one expected to carry the team. Now, "was" is a hard word to say. I remember my last race and feeling happy to no longer be an NCAA student-athlete--to no longer have the responsibility of carrying my team. I felt elated to know that my time was up--to know that I could train as an elite athlete and not worry about failing my team. I no longer needed to deal with team drama or worry about how to make my team better. The one thing I did not let myself feel is a hint of sadness knowing that my four years are up. I find myself saying, "wow four years really have passed? Where did the time go?" I am ready to move on and make my transition to the next level of my life.

I know that I'm going through a transition, something that I need as athlete, where I can focus on myself improving and taking what I have learned in my four years and making myself a better athlete. The idea of the transition is something that excites me. It is also very scary, but I'm ready to take the leap. It's just a bit sad to sit back and know that my NCAA career is up.

It's nice to step back and reflect on what I did and what I still am doing. Although I'm no longer part of the team, I am still on campus doing what I need to do to graduate. When I do, I will be able to say that I graduated from San Diego State with a double major in sociology and political science. I will be able to say that I have had a great deal of success in the classroom and on the track. I was a scholar-athlete two years and qualified for the NCAA championship my last three years of eligibility. I will be able to say that I was a captain of the San Diego State team for two years and was honored to be given a prestigious award from my coach that only four other track and field student-athletes from San Diego State have received in the past 10 years. I have been a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) and had the honor of serving on my conference committee, the Mountain West Conference.

I did not realize, until now, how much I have accomplished. I know that I would have never been able to have any of these accomplishments if didn't get the chance of being a San Diego State student-athlete.

Being a SDSU student-athlete was one stage in my life. I have done what I've need to do. I have no regrets from my collegiate career. I still have my team's support, they are (and will forever be) my teammates.

I just had the honor of hearing LaTanya Sheffield speak, a former SDSU student-athlete, the former NCAA recorder holder in the 400 meter hurdles. She reminded me that once an Aztec, forever an Aztec. She said "if you cut me, I will bleed red and black." She said it perfectly.

Although my NCAA career is over, I'm still growing and I will forever be an Aztec.

East Carolina has enjoyed tremendous success on the football field in the first two weeks of the season. However, after its win this past Saturday over West Virginia, numerous fans rushed the field in celebration and a controversial incident ensued between fans and police officers.

Terry Holland, the athletics director at East Carolina, was gracious enough to join us to talk about the football team's success and the culture of fans rushing the field.

Double-A Zone: In the first few weeks of the season, your football team has beaten two national powerhouses - Virginia Tech and West Virginia - and has moved into the national spotlight. How has the football team's success impacted the excitement level around campus?

Click here for Holland's response.

Double-A Zone: After the huge win on Saturday against West Virginia, most people are aware of the incident that occurred on the field with your fans rushing the field and interacting with police officers. I know you can't get into the specifics of the incident because it's an ongoing investigation, but let me ask you, as an athletics director, do you like it when your fans rush the field after a big win?

Click here for Holland's response.

Double-A Zone: Do you think an incident like this could deter students or student-athletes from potentially attending the university in the future...looking down upon the university in any way?

Click here for Holland's response.

Double-A Zone: Do you have any idea how you would handle this type of situation in the future or what advice you might give to other schools that were put in the same situation?

Click here for Holland's response.

Double-A Zone: Well, Terry, we really appreciate you taking the time to talk with us and address this recent situation. And best of luck to your football team this weekend at Tulane. It's been very exciting to watch and hopefully they keep up the success.

Click here for Holland's response.

Listen to the full interview with Terry Holland.

• Today is the seventh anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks. It's amazing how quickly time has flown by. Two years ago, NCAA President Myles Brand reflected on 9/11 on a Mondays with Myles podcast with Josh Centor.

• While the Ohio State-Southern California game will get much of the spotlight this weekend, there is another game taking place that could impact the BCS picture. Coming off a victory at Rutgers, 24th-ranked Fresno State will be hosting 10th-ranked Wisconsin in what will be its toughest challenge of the year. The Bulldogs are looking to go undefeated this season and crash the BCS party, which would be the third straight year a WAC team has accomplished the feat (Boise State in 2007 and Hawaii in 2008).

• As Hurricane Ike takes a turn toward the Texas coast, there are reports the Texas-Arkansas game that is supposed to be played in Austin on Saturday will be postponed. The storm will impact numerous other games in the region at all levels. And despite a pessimistic outlook earlier in the week about LSU's home game, it looks like its game versus North Texas will be played in Baton Rouge as originally scheduled.

• According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, basketball is the most dangerous sport based on the number of injuries treated in emergency rooms. In 2005, over 500,000 basketball injuries ended up being treated in the ER, followed closely by bicycling and football. Perhaps these results can be explained because it seems basketball is played by more people in a casual setting than most other sports. Any other theories to help explain these results?

• After a two year battle, protestors at California who disputed the environmental impact of the school's soon-to-be new athletics center finally climbed down from a 90-foot tree. The new athletics center will cost $124 million to complete, and construction should take about two and a half years.

• USA Today ran opposing articles about whether having a football program is good for an institution. While a football team can generate remarkable school spirit and bring a campus together, it can be a huge financial burden on an institution. Do the positives of having a football team outweigh the potential downfalls in your opinion?

• Notre Dame announced its building a statue of former football coach and current ESPN analyst Lou Holtz in honor of his 1988 national championship team. Holtz had a 100-30-2 career record in 11 seasons in South Bend. What do you think about this?

Armchair quarterbacking at its finest! Was the call correct? Absolutely. I applaud the official, not for effecting the outcome of the game, but for making the call.

East Carolina's football team has been impressive on the field in the first two weeks with wins over national powerhouses Virginia Tech and West Virginia. With its two toughest games already in the books, the Pirates have a legitimate chance of going undefeated this season and creating an interesting BCS situation.

However, this great story on the field has taken a backseat to an awful event that also took place during Saturday's celebration. After the school's upset win over West Virginia, many fans rushed the field to celebrate the victory -- a tradition that occurs at countless institutions around the country. As attendees pushed forward many were stopped by police and, according to some accounts, beaten. Many of the videos have appeared on YouTube and other sites.

Although the full extent of the circumstances surrounding the police actions are not yet known, the videos have many alleging police brutality. Obviously a police presence is necessary to preserve a safe atmosphere, but this seems to be a case of police using excessive force.

The brutality allegations aside, I think the bigger issue is the culture of fans rushing the field. Let me say, I have rushed the field/court on a couple of occasions, the most recent time coming in 2006. I was sitting in the student section during a George Washington basketball game after a buzzer-beater win versus Charlotte that gave the Colonials an undefeated regular season. In that celebration, I specifically remember the police monitoring the safety of the fans as we climbed down the bleachers and once we were on the floor, although they never tried to stop us. Everyone had a good time and we remained safe.

There is no question when fans rush the playing area, it can potentially become a dangerous situation. Numerous injuries have resulted from this type of behavior, such as a case in 2001 when a falling goal post struck a 21-year-old Ball State student, resulting in the student being paralyzed. There have also been deaths and countless other tragic injuries.

When injuries like this occur, schools can be held liable. Thus, it creates a tricky situation for schools when they have to decide on how to enforce the celebration.

The compromise many schools have utilized in recent years has been to heavily monitor the dangerous areas of the field, such as the goal posts in football and around the baskets in basketball. You will often see several armored police circled around the base of a goal post when on-the-field parties erupt.

Personally, I think this is the best strategy because it is nearly impossible to slow down hundreds or thousands of charging fans who are determined to get to the middle of the field. Safety to students is ultimately the greatest concern, and by protecting the potentially most dangerous part of the field, the police are doing just about all it can do.

Bringing the discussion back to what occurred at East Carolina, if you watch the video, it appears the fans were not going toward the goal posts in any way, although we don't really know exactly what happened or what was said. Nevertheless, the police should have remained buckled around the goal post instead of trying to chase down random fans.

If the police didn't intervene (besides having a presence around the goal posts), there most likely wouldn't have been any problems. There's a good chance everyone would have remained safe, and it would have been a joyous celebration.

What do you think about fans charging the playing area? What role should the police take in trying to stop fans from celebrating on the field/court?

• On Monday, former Baylor baseball student-athlete and current Houston Astros first baseman Mark Saccomanno became the 23rd player in baseball history to hit a home run on his first ever Major League pitch. The Houston native received a national scholar-athlete award in high school, and it had to be sweet to make his major league debut for his hometown team.

• NCAA President Myles Brand visited the campus of Grand Valley State over the past weekend to help present the school with the Division II Directors' Cup trophy, an award the school has won five straight years. It seemed Brand was impressed with the school's performance in athletics competition, as well as in the classroom since 56 percent of its student-athletes have GPAs of at least 3.0.

• Over the last couple of days, we have discussed the controversial unsportsmanlike conduct penalty near the end of the BYU-Washington football game on Saturday. While you might disagree with the call, one thing to remember is the NCAA's member institutions are directly responsible for making the rules. Randy Edsall, Connecticut head football coach and member of the NCAA Football Rules Committee, agreed with the official's call: "I try to tell my team, when you score, just hand the ball to the nearest official. That's all you're supposed to do. We want the officials to enforce the rules. Well, the rule's right there in the rulebook." Share your opinion about the referee's call.

• For the third consecutive weekend, LSU's football team might have to alter its schedule because of a hurricane. Ike is the culprit this time, and there is talk the school is considering moving the game to other cities, including New Orleans, Shreveport, Dallas or Atlanta. LSU's game two weekend's ago versus Appalachian State was moved up to a 10 a.m. local start to avoid the evacuation traffic, and its scheduled game last weekend against Troy was moved to November 15.

• Here's an interesting story about Brianna Raab, a freshman equestrian student-athlete at New Mexico State. Unlike NCAA sponsored sports, women's equestrian is considered emerging and is sponsored by 18 Division I schools and 36 institutions total. As soon as women's equestrian reaches 40 total teams, it will be eligible to move to a championship sport.

• Remember the double-amputee sprinter who nearly qualified for the South African Olympic team? Well, the Paralympics are currently going on in Beijing, and Oscar Pistorius has collected his first gold medal. He will run in two more events in the upcoming days.

• A store that sells Arkansas State apparel agreed to discount its merchandise by one percent for every point that the Red Wolves win by during its home football games. Well, after an 83-10 victory for Arkansas State over Texas Southern this past weekend, fans were entitled to a 73 percent discount. I have seen promotions like this before, such as at my alma mater, Carnegie Mellon, where the bookstore would give one percent off selected merchandise for every point the team scored at its home football games. However, the bookstore would cap the promotion at a maximum of 35 percent off. My question is would all of the merchandise be free if the team won by 100 points? Perhaps a maximum discount could serve the store well in the future.

This may be the lawyer in me, but there's a lot gray area in"throwing the ball high into the air." How high? Is it ok if it's straight up, or launched sideways into the crowd?

Surprisingly, the sky hasn't fallen.

I may even be disappointed it hasn't.

It's been two weeks now since the kickoff of the college football season and the kickoff of the college football fantasy season that for the first time is using real names of student-athletes. In the past, producers provided the statistics for "Florida quarterback." No name. This season, they are posting the statistics of the Florida quarterback by name.

This change - use of the student-athlete's name rather than just the position - is the result of a court decision over the summer, involving Major League Baseball players, that ruled the use of names to be a first amendment right.

Interestingly, the appeals court, while agreeing with the claim of a licensee of those players named that there was a right of publicity issue at stake, determined that because such names are "all readily available in the public domain" first amendment access to and use of the names and statistics takes precedence over the players' rights.

Newspapers, television and radio have long been using the names and statistics of athletes, including college athletes, in their coverage of teams. Professional teams and universities provide media guides, program information and Websites that highlight the stars and their accomplishments.

If all that is already in the public domain, the fantasy league producers argued, why shouldn't they be able to provide the same information in the course of helping their customers create their own fantasy leagues.

And the courts agreed.

But I don't.

I don't like it. It doesn't pass the feel and smell tests for me. There is a difference between reading about college athletes, having available their performance statistics, but then using that information and those names as commodities in a game that is completely divorced from the purpose and values of intercollegiate athletics.

The acquisition and trading of student-athletes, the substitution of their university or college standing with fantasy team names and all for the sake only of virtual competition, runs counter to some of the most important characteristics that distinguish college from professional sports. Those who participate in college sports are students, and the first purpose of intercollegiate athletics is to enhance the educational experience of those students.

Even though the vast majority of fantasy leagues are conducted for the purpose of testing a player's skills in assembling a team that then is dependent entirely on how the individual athletes perform with their real-world teams, college fantasy leagues pay no heed to the educational value of intercollegiate athletics as opposed to the entertainment value of professional sports.

College fantasy leagues conducted on a par with professional fantasy leagues supports in the minds of many that the differences between college sports and professional sports in the real world are disappearing.

That's the part I don't like the most.

Some have urged the NCAA to seek legal remedy to this poke in the eye of intercollegiate athletics. They want us to sue the producers on the grounds that the use of names of student-athletes violates the principle of amateurism.

Well, it does.

But that likely isn't good enough to bring suit. The stake in the ground is the right to control publicity by athletes of their names, likenesses and identification. Indeed, courts might very well find that student-athletes should be held apart from professional athletes in this application. The benefit that naturally comes with the publicity of names and statistics for professionals is critical enough that those athletes assign their rights to organizations to manage.

But in the case of intercollegiate athletics, the right of publicity is held by the student-athletes, not the NCAA. We would find it difficult to bring suit over the abuse of a right we don't own.

So, is there a line so critical to the principle of amateurism that when crossed we say: "Stop! Enough! Go no further!"?

The answer is that the NCAA has defended the principle of amateurism - successfully - in numerous law suits. When we've lost at the trial level, we've appealed. When we've lost at the appellant level, we've gone higher. We've fought exploitation by commercial entities even when the student-athlete argued that no exploitation was involved. We will continue to press our point that student-athletes are amateurs.

And with regard to fantasy leagues, how do we protect the principle if we stand by and just let the brave new world of fantasy leagues roll over our values?

There is no such ready and obvious answer in this instance. Where we have no standing with regard to publicity rights - as in this case - to bring legal action, we must use other means to try and protect the concept of amateurism.

In the interest of full disclosure, it should be noted that CBS - arguably the fantasy league industry leader - is an NCAA media partner. The Association and its member institutions benefit considerably from a $6 billion contract that runs through 2013. There is a pass-through process for these monies from the national office to member universities and colleges that receive 95 cents of every dollar.

If the court decision stands - and it could be challenged from various entities other than the NCAA national office, including the member institutions, the student-athletes themselves, or other third parties - our best option is to influence the industry leader and others to conduct the fantasy leagues with as much deference to the best interests of intercollegiate athletics as possible.

For that reason, CBS does not charge for its college football fantasy league, warns on its site against the use of the leagues for sports wagering purposes, offers no prizes to the winners, and does not use images of the student-athletes to support the statistical information or to promote the site. In the virtual world where edginess in content is coin of the realm, that is a lot.

Fantasy leagues are a curious thing. They operate in a kind of parallel existence, fueled by what happens in the real world and providing yet another opportunity for a competition- and sports-possessed public to engage - vicariously - in sports competition.

The college fantasy leagues have in the past operated almost exactly as they do this season except for the name thing. But that change has given a whole new meaning to the question: What's in a name?

I say again. I don't like the change. I don't like the way it has personalized and therefore commoditized the student-athlete into the fantasy league environment. I don't like the abridgement of a bed-rock principle.

And yet...the sky is not falling. College football goes on, student-athletes are still students, and there continues to be educational value in intercollegiate athletics.

Maybe these leagues are less than they seem exactly because they are fantasy.
In reality, they may be more irrelevant than irreverent.

• Legendary college basketball coach Don Haskins died Sunday at the age of 78. He is best known as the Texas Western coach who led his all-African American team to the 1966 national championship over Adolph Rupp's all-white Kentucky squad, which was portrayed in the 2006 movie "Glory Road." More than just a basketball coach, Haskins was a great man according to his friend Bob Knight: "There is no one who has ever coached that I respected and admired more than Don Haskins. I've had no better friend that I enjoyed more than Don Haskins." What will you remember about Don Haskins?

• Interesting article in the Indianapolis Star about special admits. This is obviously a big issue with the NCAA and its member institutions. What is your stance on special admits?

• Many people are unaware that Vanderbilt does not have an athletics department. Five years ago, the school got rid of the athletics department and its operations became part of the student life. While this is an unusual practice, the decision has proved to be a good one, and its teams are having more success now than ever - both on the field and in the classroom. Last year, its student-athletes averaged a 3.1 GPA and they had a remarkable 94 percent graduation rate. No Division I schools have followed Vanderbilt's strategy to this point, but do you think this practice will ever be followed by other D-I schools?

• Brad Downs, a former College of New Jersey baseball student-athlete, co-founded his own Web site called Front Rush. Downs' site specializes in helping coaches utilize new technology to recruit in a more organized and efficient manner. Downs is a 2005 graduate from the school.

• Last year's NCAA Men's Final Four in San Antonio generated more than $47 million in direct economic impact for the city. It is no wonder why 10 cities, including San Antonio, have submitted bids for the 2012-16 Final Fours. What city would you like to see host a Final Four?

Any parent that would consider holding their child back for the reason of increasing their athletic opportunities, should really check what the real motive is for doing this.

Harvard football student-athlete Carl Ehrlich applies the acronym R.I.C.E. to preseason football practice.

Over a hundred years ago, when Harvard Football was Rooseveltian, the ballers spoke softly and carried big sticks. Today, the Harvard Crimson are walking gingerly and carrying big bottles of water.

Sandals have given way to sneakers, and summer tans now dwindle away under ice bags as the Crimson has entered into full blown survival mode (outside of practice and lift).

Seeing as preseason can be a grueling test of physical endurance, I figured that it could best be described using the old rehabilitation acronym, R.I.C.E. (traditionally; rest, ice, compression, elevation).

REST:
On the field, every player aims to expend every ounce of energy he has on every play; off the field, the goal is exactly the opposite. Team members have run exhaustive tests to determine exactly which walking path minimizes time to the dining hall (discounting appropriately for time spent in the shade and adding time for portions forged in goose droppings). You'll forgive the team if they wear sleeveless shirts on the walk; they aren't showing off, just trying to rid themselves of their practice jersey farmer tans. Some of the players have been accused of walking with a certain swagger, but it's really more of a double-legged limp.

Beyond limiting unnecessary physical exertion, sleep has predictably proven to be the biggest factor in camp survival. Most grown men kiss their wives and children goodbye when they head off to work and anxiously run home to see them at the end of the day. I feel this way about my bed. I've been sticking to the system of seven and a half hours of sleep at night with a half hour nap during the day and I'm militant about this. Continuing the habit of an early bedtime from the summer, I've now trained my friends that if they call after 10 p.m., they'd better be on the way or need a ride to the hospital. If not, they will.

Just as my fan drowns out the errant screams from the basketball court below my window, fatigue has drowned out all the aches and pains in my body. While many different parts of camp have been very difficult, getting to sleep has not been an issue.

ICE:
While ice bags have been helpful in getting over the bumps and bruises of camp, the ice baths have proven to be the fountain of youth. With the exception of some freshman, almost every player on the team has been in the ice bath during camp. We joke in the locker room that Coach Hall, our defensive line coach, only asks the freshman how they are feeling because he already knows how the seniors will answer. If camp had been a couple weeks longer, we might start having our position meetings in those tubs.

COMPRESSION:
The greatest evidence of compression in this year's camp has not been ankle wraps, but rather learning the playbook in the little time that we have. Because Harvard starts school so late, we were forced to start our preseason later than nearly every team we play. Being a senior (and having been around the playbook for four years now) and a defensive tackle (arguably the easiest position to learn on the team), the meetings have been more review than anything else. The same cannot be said for the freshman linemen who were handed a nearly 200 page playbook or the freshman defensive backs, who now have nearly as many pass coverages to learn as I do freshman names.

Another example of compression is watching increasingly infamous 7'9'' Ivan Itchndakilya try and fit into the twin beds that we were given to sleep in during camp. He's not the size thing that sleeps on a twin bed, a twin bed is the size thing that sleeps on him...

Note:
What the letter "C" in R.I.C.E doesn't stand for is CAMP. Anyone who has played college football knows to refer to this time of the year as "preseason" because there is nothing very campy about it. It reminds me of how my mom tells her students that they have "opportunities" instead of tests; optimistic rhetoric will not change the gravity of the situation.

ELEMENTARY LESSONS (originally, "Elevation"):
It's amazing how preseason camp returns us to the lessons that we learned in first grade. To name a few...

Use the buddy system:
Before going to bed every night, I double check my alarm and triple check that I still am on the buddy system with at least three players on the team. With a system as simple as a grade school phone tree, it would be nearly impossible to miss breakfast.

Take your vitamins:
While I'm not taking Flintstone chewables anymore, I am taking a multi-vitamin, a fish oil and a glucosamine tablet every morning. Because 'camp' (which pays no head to things like "weekends," or "holidays") can often resemble the movie, "Groundhog Day," taking these vitamins out of my seven-day divider every morning has been my sole way to keep track of the week.

Say please and thank you:
One of the biggest differences between high school and college football is the amount of time and effort that goes into making the experience what it is. We have clean uniforms in our locker every day, trainers to treat our injuries, managers to film our practices, and secretaries to kick our butts if we get out of line (or need a kind reminder to get a haircut). The fastest way for a freshman to get in the dog house (or the dawg house) with the team is to take one of these for granted.

Take a nap every afternoon:
I didn't really have to be taught this one.

"The referees determined the outcome of the game."

This is an opinion that I heard all over the television after BYU's 28-27 win over Washington Saturday afternoon. While you might disagree with a referee's interpretation of a given rule, it is ridiculous to put the outcome of the game on the shoulders of the official in this situation.

In case you missed it, the event in question was a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that was called on Washington quarterback Jake Locker after scoring what he thought would be a game-tying touchdown with two seconds left in the game. After he crossed the goal line, Locker flicked the ball in the air, and the resulting penalty pushed the virtual-gimee extra point back to a 35-yard attempt, which was blocked by the BYU defense. Watch the video here:

The rule in question is part of Rule 9-2 in the 2008 College Football Rules and Interpretation. It reads, "After a score or any other play, the player in possession immediately must return the ball to an official or leave it near the dead-ball spot. This prohibits: Throwing the ball high into the air."

According to the letter of the law, did Locker's celebration break the rule? Absolutely. Should the referee consider the intent of the celebration and the game situation before throwing the flag? Absolutely.

There's no question that this is a difficult situation from everyone's point of view. Obviously, the NCAA wants to make sure that student-athletes act in a respectful manner on the field and don't show up their opponents, which is why the rule was put in place and is a point of emphasis this season. But on the flip side, the last thing anyone wants to do is influence the outcome of the game and be in the news on Monday morning.

No matter how you feel about the rule, for pundits on television to blame the officials or the NCAA for BYU's win is ridiculous (on a side note, the NCAA's member institutions make these kind of rules, not the NCAA itself). Television networks are in the business of providing entertainment, and in many cases, visual entertainment is created with touchdown celebrations. This conflicts with the NCAA's core mission of good sportsmanship.

Let's remember that, even with the penalty, Washington still had a 35-yard extra point attempt to send the game to overtime, which is well within the range of any Division I kicker. BYU made a play by blocking the kick, and give them credit for taking advantage of the situation.

Additionally, Washington had a second half lead at home, and had ample opportunities to put away the game in the first 59 minutes and 58 seconds. It is unfair to the officials to blame them for the game's outcome when the players on the field ultimately were the ones who decided it.

The only gripe anyone should have about the incident is the consistency of calls like this. As long as everyone knows what celebrations are legal, then this rule should be enforced. The same set of standards need to be applied to all games, whether they are taking place in Washington state or across the country in Washington D.C.

Honestly, I feel bad for Washington and its coach, Tyrone Willingham. Let's hope this loss doesn't ultimately cost the Huskies a chance at a bowl game. But if it does, the only thing that should be said is BYU made one more play than Washington...not that the official blew the game.

• Hurricane Hanna impacted college sports all over the East Coast this weekend. Many games were played in poor weather or moved to avoid the storm. It seems that schools were prepared for the weather and had contingency plans in place early on, which is something New Orleans athletics director Jim Miller talked about on the most recent edition of Campus Connection in the aftermath of Hurricane Gustav.

• Arguably the most impressive college football team in the first two weeks of the season has been East Carolina. It has defeated two national powerhouse programs - Virginia Tech last week and West Virginia this past Saturday, 24-3. With its two toughest games already in the books, do you think the Pirates have a chance to run through Conference USA undefeated and create an interesting/controversial BCS situation?

• In Division III football, three schools that haven't had much success on the field in recent years all won their opening games of the season. After 20 straight losses to begin its football program, LaGrange won its first ever game, 34-31, over Birmingham-Southern. Lewis & Clark broke a 27-game losing streak with a 43-7 win over Principia, while Hiram snapped a 26-game losing skid by defeating Gallaudet, 20-14, in overtime.

• Perhaps the craziest play of the college football weekend occurred in Colgate's 23-19 win over Coastal Carolina. Colgate's Ryan Meyers threw a 16-yard game-winning touchdown pass as time expired to cap a 20-point, fourth quarter rally. But here's the crazy thing about the play...Meyers' pass came on a botched field goal snap. I wish we had some video of this play.

• You want another wild ending...how about the only soccer goal of a game occurring with under nine seconds left? This happened in a Division II women's soccer game between top-ranked Grand Valley State and Missouri-St Louis when Grand Valley State's Irie Dennis broke the scoreless tie.

• While many conferences have now formed their own television networks, it seems the new trend could be some select schools creating their own sports channel. The first one might occur in the near future with Texas. ISP CEO Ben Sutton thinks this model could work for somewhere between four and 10 schools. Do you agree?

• On Saturday, I watched many of the day's college football games from Joe's Sports Bar in Chicago, and honestly, if you aren't attending a game in person, I can't imagine a better place to watch football. According to its Web site, Joe's is 20,000 square feet and has over 110 plasma televisions. The atmosphere in the place is electric and makes you feel like you are really at the game. Do you have a particular place where you like to watch your favorite college team?

• Remember the LPGA's recently announced policy that, starting at the end of the 2009 season, it would suspend its foreign-born golfers if they couldn't speak English well enough? After a flurry of public attention surrounding the rule - which we talked about in a recent Top Post - the tour has backed off its stance. While it will not suspend players, it seems it has left the door open to still enforce the rule by using monetary fines. What do you think about the LPGA changing its stance?

• Some people play golf their whole life with the hopes of one day getting a hole-in-one. Well, five-year-old Drew Gray accomplished the feat on a 75-yard hole. Pretty impressive stuff.

Student-athlete safety is a vitally important issue for the NCAA, especially considering that some sports like football are inherently dangerous. Unfortunately, this topic gets brought up on the heels of a few heat-related injuries and even a student-athlete death during football preseason practices.

In today's podcast, NCAA President Myles Brand explains that, in 1906, student-athlete safety was one of the founding principles of the NCAA and it remains one of the most crucial issues today.

Listen to Mondays With Myles

This post was written by Howard Smith.

The NCAA hosts 88 championships each year, although if you only paid attention to the mainstream media, you might think football and basketball were the only NCAA-sponsored sports.

We would love to be able to give equal attention on the Double-A Zone to each sport in every division. With almost 1,100 member institutions and more than 400,000 student-athletes, this can be a difficult task and we need your help.

We're not talking about sports scores here. We're after interesting stories--things that would never make the papers but shed light on our diverse student-athlete population.
We often hear about amazing football student-athletes, such as Ray Ray McElrathbey, a former Clemson football player who battled remarkable family difficulties and ended up taking custody of his 11-year-old brother. McElrathbey is currently a graduate student at Howard, and his story is truly amazing.

For every Ray Ray-like story that gets picked up by the national media, there are dozens of other student-athletes who overcome similar obstacles. There are countless student-athletes around the country who are doing great things both in the classroom and in athletics competition who should be getting national publicity. Unfortunately, many of these student-athletes never get noticed.

And it goes even further than just overlooking specific student-athletes. Team accomplishments often fail to get the credit they deserve. The best example of this is Kenyon's swimming program, which has won 29 straight NCAA Division III men's national championships. On the women's side, Kenyon has taken home 22 of the last 25 national titles. But how many people even have an idea of Kenyon's dominance? Can you imagine the attention a college basketball team would get if it had this kind of success?

In order to cover all intercollegiate sports to the best of our abilities on the Double-A Zone, we need our audience to supply us with the overlooked stories of student-athletes or teams. We want to share these stories with the world; all we ask for is a little help.

If you would like to share the story of a student-athlete or team, feel free to e-mail us at hssmith@ncaa.org or mhlawrence@ncaa.org.

The Double-A Zone is also interested in publishing guest blogs by anyone with something interesting to say about intercollegiate athletics. If you want to become a featured guest blogger on the Double-A Zone, shoot us an e-mail and let us know what type of content you'd like to cover.

Thomas Campbell is a senior forward on the UNC Greensboro men's soccer team. This year will be different for the three-year starter, however. Campbell will be sitting out his redshirt season while recovering from a knee injury he suffered last spring. Each Friday, Campbell will blog about the Spartans' soccer season, his teammates, his classes and his journey back to the soccer pitch in the rehab process. Today is the first installment.

Hi, I'm Thomas. I would like to welcome all of you to my blog. I am excited to take part in this experience and look forward to sharing my thoughts with all of you. While I write these blogs, I will give you all a brief description of my week and elaborate on some of the good times and the bad times.

Well, here we go. Let's see if I am any good at this blog stuff. :- )

I am from Middletown, New Jersey. It is located in Central Jersey about 10 miles from the beach and about 35 miles south of New York City. Its about 3 miles from the homes of some famous celebrities you might know - Bon Jovi, Queen Latifah, and Bruce Springsteen.

I'm entering my senior year at UNC Greensboro. We've been in the NCAA Tournament twice during my time here (making it to the Round of 16 both times) and played in the Southern Conference championship match all three years. Last year, I led our team in goals, but we lost in the conference title game.

I will graduate in December 2009 due to the injury I suffered this past spring. On April 13 while playing in a spring match, I tore my ACL. I decided to finish the semester out and get operated on after that. I underwent an ACL reconstruction and a lateral meniscectomy on June 6. For all you that don't know what a meniscectomy is, it is the partial removal of a torn meniscus. So, for this season, I will be a redshirt.

Returning to school this summer was a completely different experience. Following my surgery, I spent a good amount of time rehabbing and relaxing. The past three years, I spent my summers working out and getting fit for the upcoming season. But this season is a lot different. Returning as a senior and captain of the team without being able to play has been a difficult experience. Sitting on the sideline during preseason wasn't so bad (just like most players, I don't like to run), but sitting on the sidelines during a game is hard. As an athlete you can't let it bother you, though. You have to make the best of it and stay strong. I just keep telling myself that I will not let myself be one of those players that gets hurt and is never the same again. That has been my primary motivation to get back.

We started out our preseason play by beating Duke, 1-0, and Gardner-Webb, 3-2. The team has been playing well and we hope we can keep up the determination and hard work as the season starts up.

Last weekend (August 30) we opened up in Virginia at William and Mary. We know our first three matches are going to be a good challenge as we play Winthrop our second game and ranked Old Dominion third - both teams are picked to win their respective conferences. We need to take it one game at a time and play our game. If we do, I think we will get good results.

We returned early Sunday morning after a tough loss on the road, 2-1. William and Mary was a decent team, although we gave up two "so-so" goals. They scored the game-winner in the 88th minute. It was quite the heartbreaker, but we need to play better than we did.

We have had a decent week of training so far, so hopefully the team is ready for the upcoming weekend against Winthrop and Old Dominion.

This short week has been enjoyable but tough. Classes are very challenging (this is our second week back in session) and rehab is starting to get pretty intense. This week, I started weight training to go along with some light jogging and light footwork.

I appreciate all of you reading my first blog and I hope you return to read future entries. I look forward to the season getting going and the long rehab journey I have ahead of me.

Until next time...

Thomas Campbell, #7

• High school sports participation increased for the 19th consecutive year, according to a study by the National Federation of State High School Associations.

• ESPN announced it has been working with videogame developer Electronic Arts to produce a new technology that will allow sports anchors to interact with life-like videogame graphics. The move is just one more example of the evolution of new media. Videogames on TV. TV broadcasts on the Internet. Live blogging of sporting events. The lines between "traditional" and "new" media are getting increasingly blurry and it makes us wonder, how long before all media--especially sports coverage--becomes multi-platform?

• The Washington Post had an interesting article about Shun White's school-record 348 yard rushing performance last Saturday for Navy against Towson. What's unique about White's accomplishment was that he amassed his yardage in just 19 carries. The previous record holder at Navy, Eddie Meyers, had 298 yards with 42 carries. Is White's record as impressive as the Post claims?

• The Washington Post also reported on the increasing popularity of swimming after Michael Phelps' incredible Olympic run. Do you think this will have a lasting impact on the sport?

• A few weeks ago, we wrote a top post evaluating the LPGA's new policy requiring its players to speak English, and we're not the only ones raising questions about the policy. According to USA Today, "A California state senator said Thursday that he's seeking a legal opinion to determine whether the LPGA Tour's language requirement for players violates state or federal law." Former University of Arizona golf standout Lorena Ochoa has also criticized the policy, calling it a "little drastic." What do you think about the policy?

• NCAA Football - in association with Russell Athletic, Wilson Sporting Goods and Pop Warner - awarded each of more than 40 youth football leagues and teams with $3,000 in credits for football supplies, including new uniforms and equipment. To obtain the grants, leagues and teams filled out applications through Pop Warner, citing financial need and how the grant would be used. Some grant winners chose to award participation scholarships to low-income youth, while others chose to outfit young players in new jerseys.

• By now you've probably heard about Bengals receiver Chad Johnson legally changing his last name to Ocho Cinco. Johnson has long sought to have his nickname placed on the back of his jersey, but because it wasn't his legal name, the NFL refused to recognize it. After Johnson's move, however, the NFL had no choice but to allow its use. Johnson's campaign for his ridiculous surname is just another example of the self-promoting lifestyle of many high-profile professional athletes. Does this behavior have a trickle-down influence on college and youth sports?

• The Paralympics begin Saturday and the New York Times reports China isn't skimping on the opening ceremonies.

• In case you missed it, Division II Washburn beat FCS Missouri State last night, 35-27.

This entry was written by Greg Johnson, the Associate Director of The NCAA News and Champion magazine.

Last month a 14-year-old hockey player, who had yet to attend a high school class, verbally committed to play hockey at a Division I program.

Earlier this summer, the most outstanding player of the NCAA men's volleyball championship announced he was forgoing his final year of eligibility to play professionally in South Korea.

To say these stories failed to create a ripple on the national sports scene would be a massive understatement. Yet, when similar scenarios occur in men's basketball, it is big news.

Why is that?

Does it run deeper than revenue vs. nonrevenue generating sports?

Obviously, men's basketball carries a higher profile, but the scrutiny has a "sky-is-falling" tone whenever a middle school kid makes a verbal commitment or a college player decides to leave early for the draft. We tend to lose perspective on these occasions.

Making a nonbinding verbal commitment or deciding to turn professional in a sport is up to the individual. We all live with the consequences of our choices.

The fact is an infinitesimal number of individuals make these decisions. But basketball, not other sports, seems to always grab the headlines or crawl across the ticker.

The National Association of Basketball Coaches asked its membership to not accept verbal commitments from prospects before their sophomore year of high school. This is commendable stance on the issue, but the NABC can only suggest that members of their group follow this advice.

Certainly if it isn't a good idea for a 14-year-old basketball prospect to make a verbal commitment to an institution, the same should go for a hockey prospect of the same age.

No one can say for sure what a prospect's academic performance will be over the four years of high school or how the prospect's athletic skills will develop over that time.

As for those who have the opportunity to turn professional before exhausting their eligibility, more power to them. Everyone has the right to earn a living.

Still, the number of people in position to make these choices is small compared to entire endeavor.

So the next time one of these scenarios occurs, let's try to look at the big picture.

• You've likely heard the following phrase during an NCAA public service announcement: "There are over 380,000 NCAA student-athletes, and most of them will go pro in something other than sports." To prove this, here are the estimated calculations for how many student-athletes actually play professionally. Did you know only 1.2 percent of NCAA men's basketball student-athletes play professionally? Long odds like this are the reason why academics are so important for student-athletes.

• One former basketball student-athletes who is playing professionally is Zach Freeman, a 2007 graduate of Division III Illinois Wesleyan. Freeman currently plays in Germany, and he recently wrote a guest blog about his college experiences and how difficult the transition was to a foreign country. Freeman wrote about when he was 14 and was told he would never be any good. Now he is playing professionally. Congratulations to Zach and we hope to hear from him again in the near future.

• LSU has postponed its football game this Saturday versus Troy after Hurricane Gustav ripped through Baton Rouge. Frankly, this is probably the prudent move by the athletics department, especially since both Troy and LSU have a common off-date later in the season for the game to be rescheduled.

• Yesterday, we talked with Jim Miller, the athletics director at New Orleans. Ironically, we caught up with him as he was driving back to New Orleans for the first time since evacuating this weekend. Miller shared insight into the evacuation process and how his school - and the city in general - was much better prepared than for Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

• Frostburg State President Jonathan Gibralter received the first ever Presidential Leadership Award, which recognizes "success in promoting a vibrant intellectual and social climate that deemphasizes the role of alcohol." This comes at a time when 129 college presidents have signed the Amethyst Initiative - although Gibralter was not one of them - which supports a lower legal drinking age. Where do you stand on this issue?

• Hawaii has changed its campus housing policy so that same-sex couples that can prove joint responsibility are now live together in campus housing. This issue was brought to the spotlight when a same-sex couple filed a lawsuit challenging the rules that only allowed married couples to live together on campus. It would seem that this case could potentially open up the floodgates for individuals in similar situations all around the country. What do you think about Hawaii's move?

• Last night in the U.S. Open quarterfinals, fourth-seeded Serena Williams defeated her older sister, seventh-seeded Venus, in two sets, 7-6, 7-6. Here's what I have never understood about tennis draws - since it is a true bracket (and players are not reseeded each round), why aren't the quarterfinal matchups 1 vs. 8, 2 vs. 7, and so on? Instead, tennis tournaments always hold draws before tournaments, and unfortunately for the Williams sisters, they had to meet early in the tournament. Do you agree with the way tennis tournaments have a "random draw" or would you rather see a true bracket, like the NCAA Basketball Tournament?

In the aftermath of Hurricane Gustav, we were able to catch up with Jim Miller, the director of athletics at New Orleans. When we taped the interview late Wednesday afternoon, Miller was driving back to New Orleans for the first time since evacuating the city over the weekend.

The majority of the school's athletics teams stayed together at other college campuses while the hurricane passed. According to Miller, the situation is "a lot better than it was three years ago after Katrina."

In our conversation, Miller described the detailed evacuation plans that were carried out in order to keep all of its student-athletes away from danger. Miller stressed that uncertainty is always present, so no matter what part of the country a school is located, it must be ready for anything.

Get connected with Jim Miller, the athletics director at New Orleans.

Zach Freeman, a former Illinois Wesleyan basketball student-athlete, is currently playing professionally in Germany.

"Are you talking about Zach, he is NEVER going to be any good, don't even waste your time." I was crushed when I heard those words at the age of 14, but I knew it was last day in my life that I would ever feel sorry for myself. It was precisely those words that gave me the motivation, inspiration, enthusiasm, and determination that shaped my growth as a person and basketball player.

Let me first start by giving a little background about myself. My name is Zach Freeman. I am 23 years old and I grew up in Bloomington/Normal, IL, two towns with a combined population of roughly 150,000. I attended Normal Community High School and graduated with honors in 2003. Under Coach Dave Witzig, our team finished with a 24-4 record, one of the most successful teams in the school's history.

In high school, collegiate recruiting was an everyday event. With eight future collegiate players on the team, it was not uncommon to see coaches at practice and receive phone calls at home. With many options, I knew it was going to be a tough decision. In May 2003, I verbally committed to Illinois Wesleyan University, an NCAA Division III basketball powerhouse located in my hometown of Bloomington, IL.

Choosing Illinois Wesleyan was one of the best decisions I have made in my life to date. Rejecting many full and partial scholarships at other schools, I was often criticized. By choosing Illinois Wesleyan, I felt I had the chance to get a great education and be a part of a very successful program. In my four years at IWU, I helped compile a 78-33 record on the court. In 2006, Illinois Wesleyan finished in third place in the Division III National Tournament in Salem, VA. In 2007, I was honored as both an all-american and academic all-american while closing my career in the top 10 in points and rebounds in IWU's history. It was soon after the basketball season that I began seriously considering a career in basketball overseas while also interviewing for teaching jobs throughout Illinois.

The initial thought of playing overseas was a little overwhelming, taking into consideration things like language differences, cultural differences, living conditions, and leaving everything and everybody you have ever known. While I pondered this decision, I continued to workout and was invited to two different exposure camps (for NCAA Division II and III players as well as NAIA schools) to workout in front of international scouts. After sending game tapes and highlight clips out to several agents from all over the world, I signed with an agent in Duesseldorf, Germany, giving him exclusive rights to me as a player. On July 26th, 2007, I departed for Germany, with a one-year contract to play for Phoenix Hagen of the 2.Bundesliga Basketball League.

Traveling over 4,000 miles and not knowing if someone was going to pick me up took a lot of courage. The transition to life in Germany was difficult at first. Since nobody would blame me if I came back, I was tempted to quit at first. It was at this time my experiences from college helped transform my overwhelming experience into a very rewarding one. I settled in nicely and I began to adapt and thrive in the Germany culture. However, basketball in Germany was much different than I had expected.

In my opinion, collegiate athletics, within the framework of the NCAA, are athletics in its purest form. The passion, enthusiasm, and loyalty to the school and teammates are characteristics that cannot be seen anywhere else in the world. I say this because amateur athletics in Germany are all run through professional club teams. Germany's amateur athletics are inferior to the United States in structure, facilities, resources, and talent. I believe that the NCAA and other collegiate organizations are the main reason there are so many American players are playing overseas. U.S. born players have the skills, leadership, and endeavor to succeed at the professional level. These characteristics tend to be lacking in many professional European players.

In Germany, the leadership from former NCAA student-athletes is ever present. The increase in Division III athletes can also not be overlooked in Germany. When general managers are looking for players to fill their rosters, they are looking more and more for the whole package, not just the skills. I believe this trend will continue with many clubs looking for a great player that is smart and can lead a team in the toughest of situations.

I do have to say that life in Germany now is extremely satisfying. I have the opportunity everyday to help increase the popularity and develop basketball in a foreign country. Having the opportunity to mentor and coach youth players is very rewarding and integral to my growth as a future coach. My passion for teaching has also carried me to the classroom, where I teach English in several classes in Hagen. These experiences are all reasons why I wanted to be a professional basketball player. When my professional career is over, I can honestly say that I have lived the life of a professional basketball player. The experiences that I have will put me head and shoulders over my peers for a teaching job in the United States. My outlook on life is refined and ever changing.

It has been almost ten years since the day I heard those words. With basketball as my vehicle, those words have taken me all over the world. My advice is to pursue every opportunity that is available to you and follow your dreams...you never know where it might take you!

It seemed a little ridiculous at the time, but Bob Knight was on the cusp of a trend when he cited eighth grander Damon Bailey as a future top-prospect in 1986. Now, young athletes don't have to wait for a coach to set them apart, Web sites like Yahoo's Rivals.com and Fox's Scout.com have created an entire industry around athlete rankings.

In today's morning coffee, we mentioned an article in the Hartford Courant taking a critical look at these sites. According to the article, athletes (and some parents) relish the rankings while some coaches loathe the new talent arms race.

"Boy, I do feel sorry for the coaches now," Football Analyst Tom Lemming told the Courant. According to Lemming, he's just giving fans what they want by providing a service that holds entertainment value for hard-core enthusiasts.

Sure, every fan loves to see their school get a top recruit--as an avid Buckeye, no one is more grateful to see Terrelle Pryor select OSU over Michigan--but is focusing so much attention on rankings really good for young athletes?

Connecticut Football Coach Randy Edsall doesn't think so. "I just think one of the problems you have in all of this is what happens when a young kid in high school gets burned out, loses the passion and love for the game? You don't see some of the problems," he told the Courant.

Burnout is one issue, but there's also the subtle message that athletics, not academics, should be the focus of these kids' middle and high school careers. That lopsided mentality can create some difficult decisions down the road because athletic prowess alone does not guaranty a college career. Scholarships (even those promised in middle school) don't go to players who fail to qualify academically.

Take Brandon Jennings as an example. By most accounts Jennings is the top point guard prospect of the 2008 class, but he struggled to qualify academically to play at Arizona. He may have been ranked number one, but without academics backing up his play, Jennings was faced with the decision to play in Europe, sit out a year or play in the NBA's D-league.

These Web sites also create pressure to rank athletes earlier and earlier. Although it may sound like a joke, Lemmings told the Courant, "Bottom line, the evaluation of these guys at this age is a natural progression, and I'm willing to bet that by the year 2010, scholarship offers are going to be made based on genetics."

Suddenly Gattaca doesn't seem so farfetched.

Coaches, like Boise State Basketball Coach Greg Graham, try to downplay the Web sites' power, arguing rankings sites are no substitute for traditional recruiting tactics. But in reality, coaches understand that these sites build brands and, regardless of the recruit's athletic abilities once he's on campus, the cache of luring a top recruit can have a positive impact for the entire athletics program.

College sports have always been a rankings game, but, do these Web sites go too far in perpetuating the mystique (and value) of being number one?

It seems that people think as long as kids are behind academically, its ok to repeat a grade. Why is it not ok for athletics? After all, isn't school about training/educating the WHOLE child?

• Duke men's basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski has returned to campus after serving as the U.S. Olympic head coach in Beijing. Krzyzewski seems to be reenergized for the upcoming season, which is bad news for the rest of the ACC. It seems a little funny for anyone to criticize Krzyzewski, saying that he should have spent the summer getting ready for the upcoming season at Duke instead of coaching the Redeem Team. Here's a bold prediction - Duke will be Duke yet again this season, and Krzyzewski's summer activities won't matter one bit come October. What do you think?

• In the aftermath of Hurricane Gustav, the athletics teams from Gulf Region schools are all dealing with being away from their campuses. Tulane's football team will practice all week in Birmingham in preparation for its Saturday game at Alabama. Coach Bob Toledo is trying to rally his team by calling the game "The Gustav Bowl" and preparing for it like it is a postseason bowl game. Tulane will definitely have the support of the country on Saturday, although the atmosphere in Tuscaloosa will be far from a neutral bowl atmosphere.

• While the media focus of Gustav was on New Orleans, Baton Rouge also got hit extremely hard, and it caused damage to many of LSU's athletics facilities, including the football field. As of now, LSU is still planning to host Saturday's game versus Troy, although there is some uncertainty about it at this point.

• This past weekend, the top two ranked teams in the AP - Georgia and Ohio State - won their opening games by a combined 67 points. However, those wins over Georgia Southern and Youngstown State, respectively (two Division I FCS schools), weren't impressive enough to keep them ahead of Southern California, which jumped to the number one spot after a 51-7 win at Virginia. While all three teams were solid in their wins, perhaps the pollsters rewarded the Trojans for playing the tougher competition. Do you agree with this shift in the polls?

• Like many things on the Internet these days, high school recruiting Web sites have grown rapidly in popularity. High school students are being ranked before they ever play a high school game, and scholarships often get offered when kids are freshmen and sophomores in high school. Some coaches, such as Connecticut football coach Randy Edsall, would like to see this process changed. Edsall would prefer scholarship offers to begin during a student's junior year of high school. What are your thoughts on the high school recruiting process?

• If you're not familiar with the story of former Clemson football student-athlete Ray Ray McElrathbey, you need to read about him. The current Howard graduate student has dealt with everything you can imagine over the last several years - injuries, Clemson not renewing his scholarship, a difficult situation with his parents, and responsibility of his 11-year-old brother, just to name a few. Ray Ray's story is truly inspirational.

We want to win now. This is a phrase that is often uttered in the scope of intercollegiate athletics, especially when it relates to the high-profile sports, like college football. And new coaches are usually brought on board with this short term goal in mind. But really, how fair is it to expect new coaches to have immediate success, and when they do, how much of the credit should they really get?

As the new college football season is underway, many new coaches around the country are expected to make their mark in a big way, right away. And frankly, this is understandable considering the big dollars athletics departments are investing in coaches. But with recruiting playing such a big part of intercollegiate athletics, some say that coaches must have time to assemble their own personnel on the field.

Two high-profile examples of new coaches this college football season are Michigan's Rich Rodriguez and UCLA's Rick Neuheisel. Rodriguez takes over a program that has had a lot of success in recent years under Lloyd Carr, although his roster is somewhat depleted coming into this season. And after he lost star recruit Terrelle Pryor to rival Ohio State, Rodriguez was left with a hole at quarterback, arguably the most important position in football. Additionally, Rodriguez is bringing the spread offense with him from West Virginia, which is much different from Carr's system. How can you expect Rodriguez to be successful this season when he is competing with many players who weren't recruited for his system? But at Michigan, winning is always expected, and this puts Rodriguez in a difficult position.

Neuheisel's situation at UCLA is a little different from that of Rodriguez, since he has returned to his alma mater to try to turnaround a largely disappointing program over the last several years. Considering UCLA's performance last night in its upset win versus Tennessee, it seems Neuheisel has the pieces in place to make a run this year. But how much of that credit should go to UCLA's former coach, Karl Dorrell, since the majority of the student-athletes on the field are his recruits? Should we begin judging Neuheisel's performance this year, or do we need to wait a few years until he can make his full mark on the program?

Remember Charlie Weis' situation at Notre Dame three years ago when he was hired? With a team full of Tyrone Willingham recruits, Weis led the 2005 and 2006 Fighting Irish squads to 9-3 and 10-3 records, respectively. However, last year, with more of his own players on the field than in the previous two seasons, Notre Dame took a big step back with a 3-9 campaign. Should Weis be given the credit for the team's success in his first two years or should we begin judging him from this point forward?

There is no question that these are tricky situations that athletics directors constantly have to wrestle with. What do you think? Are heightened expectations fair to a new coach? How long should a new coach be given before he is fully responsible for a team's success or failure?

• The first college football weekend is in the books, and perhaps the best game from week one took place last night between Tennessee and UCLA. The Bruins ended up winning the game, 27-24, in overtime, despite four first-half interceptions by UCLA quarterback Kevin Craft. What was the best college football game you saw this weekend?

• Penn State football coach Joe Paterno won his 373rd game this weekend with a 66-10 victory over Coastal Carolina, which tied him for the most all-time Division I FBS coaching wins with Florida State's Bobby Bowden. Florida State will open its season next weekend versus Western Carolina, while the Nittany Lions will take on Oregon State. Which coach do you think will finish his career with more wins?

• Appalachian State wasn't able to create the same magic in its opening game this year against LSU that it did last season when it upset Michigan. As you probably heard, LSU moved the start time up six hours from 4 pm to 10 am local time on Saturday for this game due to Hurricane Gustav evacuations. It seemed like LSU officials handled the situation in the best possible way given the circumstances. What were your thoughts?

• Gustav has impacted the entire Gulf Coast, which has obviously affected all the athletics teams in the region. While the college football teams get most of the attention on a national level, one must remember that other sports are in season and are just as inconvenienced by the storm. Let's hope the damage is minimal and these schools can resume operations in the upcoming days.

• College football games took place on each day from Thursday to Monday this past weekend. Do you like this or would you like to see games only on Saturday like it used to be?

• Division II football was in full swing this weekend, and its marquee game featured eighth-ranked Abilene Christian defeating third-ranked Northwest Missouri, 44-27.

• Division III football got underway as well, although there was only one D-III team in action this weekend - Birmingham-Southern was victorious over Division I FCS school Campbell, 12-6. Campbell reinstated its football team this year and this marked its first game since 1950. A full slate of Division III games will begin next weekend.

• Franklin Pierce, the defending Division II men's national champion and preseason top ranked team in the country, suffered its first loss of the season, 2-0, at the hands of Dominican (New York).

• In women's volleyball, number one-ranked Penn State went on the road on Friday and defeated 12th-ranked Hawaii in front of over 7,000 fans in Honolulu. No matter what sport, it's great for everybody - student-athletes and fans in particular - when the top teams play each other early in the season. On an unrelated note, Olympic beach volleyball gold medalists Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor had their 112-match win streak broken on Sunday.

• As the fall college sports season is in full swing, we tend to shift our focus away from the Major League Baseball regular season. However, an event took place yesterday that has not occurred since 1920 when two different players hit for the cycle on the same day - Arizona's Stephen Drew and Seattle's Adrian Beltre. Remarkably, Drew is the third Diamondbacks player to hit for the cycle in the 11-year history of the franchise. For comparison, the San Diego Padres, a franchise that has been in existence since 1969, has never had a player hit for the cycle or throw a no-hitter.

According to a recent study from the Chronicle of Higher Education, over the last 10 years, 48 percent of all Division I institutions have at least doubled their recruiting budgets. Furthermore, in 2007, 21 Division I schools spent over $1 million on recruiting.

It's no secret that spending in intercollegiate athletics has escalated in recent years. Factors like the rising cost of travel have aided in this trend. And unfortunately, it's a phenomenon that is not going away anytime in the near future.

In today's podcast, NCAA President Myles Brand discusses the current state of recruiting budgets and how they fit into intercollegiate athletics spending as a whole.

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