With the recent closing of Dana College, the Great Plains Athletic Conference is left with a few empty spots in its schedule.

Conference commissioner Corey Westra says schedules through the 2012-2013 season were already set when Dana announced its closure last week. Affected sports are football, basketball and volleyball.

Dana College has been an active member of the conference for the past ten years. This recent development has conference commissioners scrambling to alter the 2012-2013 athletic season. Read the rest of this entry »

Image Via: Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Sports

There’s no denying that sports instill college students with school pride and spirit. Sports programs are valuable, but when schools are investing more money on the football field than in the classroom, it may be time for some colleges to re-think their spending.

In early June, The Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics called for several financial and academic reforms. One in particular wants NCAA schools to set aside at least 20 percent of their income from the football Bowl Championships Series for the classroom.

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If South Carolina Gamecock and Oklahoma Sooner players had any Father’s Day plans, hopefully they took care of them in the morning. Because they spent the rest of their Sunday at the ballpark.

After suffering through two rain delays that delayed the game over six hours, the Sooners then had to wait out a ninth-inning rally by the Gamecocks.

Trailing 4-2 in the ninth, the Gamecocks got a break when leadoff batter Kyle Enders smoked a ball under the third baseman’s glove. After a single and a walk sandwiched around a strikeout, South Carolina had the bases loaded with only one out.

But then Sooner pitcher Ryan Duke tied up Whit Merrifield on a 2-2 pitch, forcing him to pop up for the second out.

With one out to go, Duke may have felt the pressure as he walked the next batter on four pitches, none of which were especially close, making the score 4-3. Read the rest of this entry »

Facebook statuses, tweets and the like are outraged; many express their disappointment, while some express deep anger about the death of a beloved part of the college experience for many people. What am I talking about? Unfortunately, I’m not talking about the demise of college finals – however those seem just about as integral to my college experience – but the end of the Big 12.

The University of Colorado was the first to leave, announced June 10, 2010, accepting an invitation to join the Pac-Ten. Other college powerhouses who are considering abandoning the Big 12 and joining the Pac-Ten, by invitation, include the University of Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Texas Tech University, and the University of Texas.

The University of Missouri and the University of Nebraska, who is seriously considering, were both invited to join the Big Ten conference. This would leave the former Big 12 with only Kansas University, Kansas State University, Baylor University, and Iowa State University, which would force the Big 12 to dissolve. Read the rest of this entry »

Lacrosse is a very rough sport. Oneonta College’s men’s lacrosse team is one of the toughest teams who play it. The men have a reputation for being tough and menacing; the head coach, Dan Mahar, admits his players are seen as being “rough around the edges.”

Surprisingly though, these men are incredibly accepting and tolerant.

Huh? Doesn’t really fit the bill, right? Let me explain.

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Well, the NCAA tournament has seen many upsets as it dwindled from 64 teams to the Final Four. The Final Four teams are Michigan State, Butler, West Virginia, and Duke.

Michigan State, while a very good team, is still a surprising member of the Final Four. The team’s best player, point guard Kalin Lucas, tore his Achilles tendon earlier this season, seemingly ending their chances for a tournament run. However, the Spartans have pulled it together and are now in the Final Four.

Butler is the most “Cinderella” team left standing. Butler started as a five seed, and comes from a mid-major conference, but has been a consistently good basketball team over the last few tournaments.

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Well, the first round of the NCAA tournament is over. Now it’s time for the Sweet Sixteen.

Here are the teams who made it into the second round:

1.    Syracuse
2.    Ohio State
3.    Kansas State
4.    Northern Iowa
5.    Michigan State

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College football season just about over. Basketball season is in full swing, and in the spring it’ll be baseball time. Sports are a huge part of the college experience, and at some schools, they are also a huge part of the budget.

The following are the top 10 ranked schools from 05-06 and what their athletic budgets were.

Is your school on the list?

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The Southeastern Conference released this month an updated media plan in which they banned the mention of any event details via social media.

“Ticketed fans can’t produce or disseminate (or aid in producing or disseminating) any material or information about the Event, including, but not limited to, any account, description, picture, video, audio, reproduction or other information concerning the Event,” per the SEC’s new media plan.

What does this mean in layman’s terms? No one can Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or publish at any other social media site details about the games they are attending, as this may compete with authorized media coverage. And unless you can beat the $3 billion deal that the SEC has with CBS for the next 15 years, then you’re likely not authorized. Read the rest of this entry »

If you think the school is picking up the tab on all those torn tendons, broken bones and other injuries that are commonplace amongst college athletes, think again. College athletes are amongst those that are burdened with extensive medical bills. Take for example a rower at Colgate University who is strapped with $80,000 in medical bills for back and leg pain. The school won’t pay citing she was treated for an illness and not a sport injury. Read the rest of this entry »