College football is one of America’s most celebrated sports. Millions of dollars are spent by fans on tickets, tailgating, sportswear and concessions. That doesn’t even begin to take into consideration the money spent by colleges on recruiting players, paying coaches, putting uniforms on the team and paying for players scholarships. The college football industry is driven by fans, tradition and money. Winning games means more money, more students wanting to go to the school and more fans.

One expense that highly winning football schools pay close attention to is the football coach’s salary. Schools with more winning programs pay their coaches a lot more than those with mediocre programs. If a coach wins a national championship or consistently goes to the more prominent bowl games, he’s pretty much able to write his own ticket.

No matter what, the coaches with the highest salaries have worked to get the best results from their players and for their schools. As of 2009, the highest paid college football coaches, with their yearly salaries, are: Read the rest of this entry »

College basketball may be the only sport that has an entire month devoted to its championship tournament – March Madness. Teams across the country work hard their entire season so that they’re eligible to play in this highly anticipated tournament each year. Good teams work hard and average teams work even harder to have a chance to participate. The coaches of all college basketball teams dream for the chance to compete for that championship as well.

Like with any sport, there are some schools that are known as basketball powerhouses. Each year there are schools that consistently make it to the tournament. One thing that can be agreed upon when looking at school programs is that no one makes it to the March Madness tournament without a good coaching staff. Head basketball coaches are valued, especially when their team wins. As with any sport, only the most successful coaches make the most money. When a coach is winning, schools want to keep him coaching at their school. The natural way to do that is to offer the coach large amounts of money in the way of a coaching salary. Of course, the flip side to that is that when coaches start losing, they get fired.

The best coaches know how to continue their winning streaks for many years. The top ten college basketball coaches and their reported 2009 salaries are as follows: Read the rest of this entry »

USC announced today that it will give the 2005 Heisman Trophy, won by the school’s former star tailback Reggie Bush, back to the Heisman Trophy Trust. The Trust will meet July 27, and according to Rivals they have declined comment on what will come of the trophy.

In June, USC was slapped with a laundry list of NCAA sanctions after it was discovered that Bush, and former basketball star OJ Mayo, were both receiving “benefits” under the table, which is not allowed in the NCAA. The sanctions included a ban from bowl games for two years, a loss of 30 scholarships for three years, and the removal of their 2005 national championship over the Sooners from the record. Read the rest of this entry »

Even though college football is months away, it’s never too early to discuss the Heisman Trophy. Vegas NCAA football odds makers have released a list of 26 candidates for college football’s top honor, and Alabama running back Mark Ingram, last year’s winner, is the favorite.

You can find the full list here. And here are my thoughts:

Tyrelle Pryor at number two seems way high on the list. Yes, he finally seemed to hit all of his potential in the Rose Bowl, and maybe Jim Tressel has finally figured out a way to utilize Pryor’s amazing potential.

But consider that Pryor was ranked 62nd in the country’s quarterback rating last season, and 85th in completion percentage. Or the fact that he had as many games (four) with under 100 yards passing as he did games with over 200. Read the rest of this entry »

South Carolina starting pitcher Blake Cooper. Image Via: AP Photo/Nati Harnik

When you only allow two runs in two games, it’s a safe bet that you’re going to win a lot of baseball games. And behind a stellar pitching performance, the South Carolina Gamecocks just won the biggest game of them all.

With a dramatic 2-1, 11-inning victory, South Carolina beat the UCLA Bruins two games to none in the best-of-three College World Series Championship.

Read the rest of this entry »

Image via: ACLU.org

Title IX is often referred to when speaking about high school or college athletics. It’s part of the Education Amendments of 1972 and ironically, when it was originally written there was no mention of sports in the statute.

Title IX was renamed the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act in 2002 to honor the principal author of the act, Congresswoman Patsy Mink.

The official language of Title IX says “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

Read the rest of this entry »

The South Carolina Gamecocks don’t just look like they’re going to win the College World Series. They look like they’re going to do it in dominant fashion.

The Gamecocks destroyed the UCLA Bruins 7-1 Monday night, behind ace Blake Cooper’s near no-hitter, taking a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three match-up.

The Bruins never looked comfortable against Cooper, managing just a single hit in eight innings before Cooper tired in the ninth as his pitch count rose. Catcher Steve Rodriguez singled in the fifth inning, spoiling Cooper’s chances at immortality.

Save for that one hit, Cooper was flawless through the first eight frames. He entered the game with a 2.86 ERA and a .240 opponents batting average against, but UCLA probably wondered how those numbers got so high. Read the rest of this entry »

The NBA Draft took place in New York last night, and the first overall pick, John Wall of Kentucky, set a tone for the first round. Every time you looked up, there was another Wildcat walking up to the podium.

After Wall went at #1 to the Washington Wizards, fellow freshman DeMarcus Cousins went to the Sacramento Kings at #5, junior Patrick Patterson went to Houston at #14, freshman Eric Bledsoe went to the Thunder at #18 and freshman Daniel Orton went 29th to the Magic giving Kentucky an astounding five first-round selections.

It was reminiscent of the 2005 draft, when four North Carolina Tar Heels were selected in the first 14 picks.

When I think about the group of Kentucky players, a thought creeps into my head: has the class designation lost all meaning in D-I college basketball? Read the rest of this entry »

According to Jeff Webb, CEO of the cheerleading organization Varsity Spirit, cheerleading should not be considered a competitive sport.

His testimony comes in the middle of a case where students from Quinnipiac University sued the school when they eliminated the volleyball team in favor of a competitive cheer squad.

The “is cheerleading a sport?” debate has been going on for some time. In January of 2009, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that, not only was cheerleading a sport, it was a contact sport.

OK, so what’s my stance on this? It really comes down to defining what a “sport” is. There are lots of different things that go into that definition in my mind, including the need for some sort of high-level athletic activity in the sport, formal rules and regulations, and some form of formal competition ending with some kind of result, i.e. winning and losing. Read the rest of this entry »

Brady Thomas ripped a single into center field to complete a stunning, 3-2 South Carolina comeback win over Oklahoma in the College World Series Thursday night.

Tyler Ogle’s home run in the top of the 12th inning gave Oklahoma a 2-1 lead and threatened to end the Gamecocks‘ season.

Ogle blasted a 1-0 pitch the opposite way, barely clearing the left-centerfield wall. The home run was Oklahoma’s first hit since the sixth inning.

South Carolina got the lead-off runner on base in the 12th when Robert Beary singled, but Evan Marzilli struck out after failing to get a bunt down and after Beary stole second, Whit Merrifield popped out. Read the rest of this entry »