| Friday, June 29, 2018 |
| Starkville native selected for prestigious Army War College | |
 | Many areas of schooling have options for higher education beyond college: medical school, law school, accounting and more. Were you aware there is a grad school for the armed forces? It's known as War College, and for the Mississippi National Guard, it's extremely competitive. While Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Rendon of Starkville was serving in Kosovo over the last year, he received some news he didn't expect. Rendon is the latest appointee to the United States Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, an institution the Mississippi National Guard sends only one officer to every two years. Currently, Rendon serves as the Director of Mississippi State University's Planning and Assessment Office and said the university is one of the reasons he's able to take the appointment. "The most military friendly university in the nation," Rendon emphasized, "and they do that through the support they give not only to their students, to their faculty and staff, but also through the things they do for the community." |
| Campers create play during Mississippi State camp | |
 | Campers in the Mississippi State University Summer Scholars On Stage program are learning all the aspects of writing a play during the three-week camp. Writing instructor John Bateman said the first week is writing camp, and the next two weeks are production camp. Campers can either participate in all three weeks or only the production camp. Bateman said the campers stay in the dorm and spend around 14 hours each day writing and working on their play. Bateman said during the writing camp, the students will work on songwriting, script writing and set design and production. He said the campers are split up into three groups, and each group is then responsible for one act of the play. At the end of the three-weeks, the campers will put on their play at 7 p.m. July 13 and 1 p.m. July 15 at McComas Hall. Camp Director Joe Ray Underwood said the performances are free, open to the public and suitable for all ages. |
| The pull of nature for storm chaser Bailey Allard | |
 | A tornado was churning up Illinois fields a mere kilometre away; far too close and Bailey Allard had no idea of its exact location. The sky was dark and walls of rain hammered her vehicle. Radar data was off and on, making it a "recipe for disaster," says Allard, an experienced storm chaser from Glen Allan, Ont., near Conestogo Lake. Without radar, it felt like Allard -- chasing with a friend -- was "charging blind." Allard is one of about 10 to 15 chasers in Ontario whom veteran chaser Dave Patrick would "trust with (his) life" because of her experience, good judgment, observations and analyses of computer models. A graduate of the Earth sciences department of the University of Waterloo, Allard is studying part time for a Bachelor of Science in meteorology through distance education with Mississippi State University. |
| National Weather Service warns of extreme heat throughout Golden Triangle | |
| The Golden Triangle, along with the rest of north Mississippi, is in potential danger for heat stress through the rest of the week according to the National Weather Service in Jackson. NWS forecaster Anna Wolverton said temperatures will remain in the mid-to-upper 90s throughout the week along with high humidity, with peak heat indices in the mid-100s. "These temperatures are a little above average, but having long stretches of high heat is not out of the normal for us in the summertime," Wolverton said. Wolverton said chances of afternoon showers and thunderstorms will increase into the weekend, which will help keep the heat at bay. Wolverton said the biggest threat during extreme heat is heat stroke and heat exhaustion. |
| Mississippi shows slight increase in child wellbeing | |
 | Mississippi ranks 48th in child wellbeing, the highest ranking in nearly 30 years, according to the Mississippi KIDS COUNT study. Mississippi KIDS COUNT is a branch of the KIDS COUNT network supported by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, which measures child wellbeing on four major indicators, each of which have four sub-indicators which are all used to rank each state. Comparing the results from previous years, Mississippi improved on nearly all aspects, said Heather Hanna, a representative for Mississippi KIDS COUNT. However, most states showed larger improvements across the board as well. Hanna said the improvements in Mississippi have helped raise its national ranking from the 50th place last year. Although Mississippi still ranks near the bottom of the list, it is important to recognize the state's progress, Hanna said. "I think overall it's really encouraging that we're showing improvement," Hanna said. |
| BCBS responds to local concerns over UMMC dispute | |
| The minutes are ticking away leading up to the expiration of the contract between Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi and University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, the latter of whom just announced an affiliation partnership with OCH Regional Medical Center in Starkville. The Starkville Daily News reported on Wednesday that UMMC released a statement through the hospital saying the change in network status pertains only to patients with BCBS commercial insurance. UMMC Director of Public Affairs Marc Rolph said it will not impact employee par- ticipants and their dependents in the State Employees health Insurance plan, including Mississippi State university and Mississippi University for Women faculty and staff. He then said affiliation will have no effect on OCH's current relationship with Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi, even if UMMC goes out of network with Blue Cross. On Thursday, BCBS responded, saying the participating hospital agreement between Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi and OCH Regional Medical Center is a completely separate agreement. |
| Golden Triangle YTD sales tax collections remain steady | |
| Sales tax collections for the month of May were up in Columbus and West Point and dipped slightly in Starkville compared to last May, but fiscal year revenues for all three cities are slightly lower than that in 2017, according to the June report. In Starkville, May sales produced $576,637 in sales tax, a drop of about $12,000 from May 2017. For the year, the $6,398,027 collected so far this year is about $41,000 less than though May of 2017. Sales taxes collections are calculated on a three-month cycle. Taxes collected in the first month by retailer is reported/paid to the state's Department of Revenue in the second month and the cities' portions of that revenue is paid to the cities in the third month. |
| Threefoot details emerge in Lauderdale County abatement proposal | |
 | Developers for the Threefoot Building provided a brief construction update to the Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors Thursday, estimating it would take an additional 16 months for construction to finish. Tray Hairston, an attorney with Butler and Snow facilitating the project, discussed proposed tax rebate programs at the state and local levels with the board, asking the board to provide the project with a 10-year tax abatement. John Tampa, the president of Ascent Hospitality Management, LLC., the project's developer, discussed the ongoing demolition and asbestos removal and discussed some project details, such as an 11th-floor restaurant and rooftop bar as well as a secondary stairwell to comply with modern fire codes. "The building has been vacant for so many years and an eyesore for the county," Tampa said. "This can become a jewel for the city and the county." |
| Local casinos get ready for sports betting | |
| At least one Vicksburg casino plans to be ready for sports betting once it becomes legal in the wake of regulations approved by the Mississippi Gaming Commission, while another is waiting on the completion of the sale of its parent company to another gaming company. The commission June 20 approved a set of regulations for betting on baseball, football, basketball and other sports. The regulations become effective in late July. "We've been working on this for a while now," said Tony Scudiero, manager of WaterView Casino. "Now that the regulations will be ready to go, we are also working on it to be up and running to the best of our ability the first day that bets are able to be placed." Casinos can't take bets from coaches or athletes and must report suspicious bets over $5,000. Sports books are supposed to get detailed information on anyone betting or winning more than $10,000. |
| Dark fiber: Is there tech gold beneath Jackson's crumbling streets? | |
 | Buried deep under Jackson residents' feet are miles and miles of a mysterious "dark fiber" -- unused optical fiber potentially worth high-tech gold. Forgotten over the years, the fiber optic cables are now being rediscovered, and city officials say they could be a potential game-changer for the city. A new mayoral administration wants to tap into the cable lines and provide what they say will be some of the fastest internet capabilities in the country. The ultra high-speed broadband access would be available for all K-12 schools, universities, hospitals, city institutions and businesses in the Jackson area. Residential service could come years down the road. The move is expected to usher in a "technological leap" forward for the city, said Chief Administrative Officer Robert Blaine, who is leading the broadband initiative. |
| Chris McDaniel, Cindy Hyde-Smith spar over past Democratic voting | |
| Republican U.S. Senate candidate Chris McDaniel accuses GOP opponent Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith of coming down with a "case of ideological amnesia" when she says she can't remember who she voted for in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary. Hyde-Smith's campaign has countered that McDaniel has appeared to suffer amnesia about his past voting in a Democratic primary. Hyde-Smith campaign spokeswoman Melissa Scallan countered McDaniel's release: "This is just another desperate attempt to smear Cindy Hyde-Smith's name while ignoring the facts. Chris McDaniel voted in the 2003 Democratic primary and lied about it, so his claim to be 100-percent Republican is patently false." McDaniel in a statement on Thursday said: "Cindy Hyde-Smith would like us to forget that she is a lifelong Democrat. She was a Democrat during the Reagan administration. She was a Democrat during the 1994 Republican Revolution. She was a Democrat when the Tea Party was mobilizing millions of voters." |
| Obama: 'You are right to be concerned' | |
 | Barack Obama's message to Democrats: Stop dreaming of him. Speaking at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser Thursday in the lush backyard of two Beverly Hills megadonors, Obama warned of a country and world on the brink --- "you are right to be concerned," he told the crowd -- but said they'd flub their chance to change that if they kept pining for a magical savior. "Do not wait for the perfect message, don't wait to feel a tingle in your spine because you're expecting politicians to be so inspiring and poetic and moving that somehow, 'OK, I'll get off my couch after all and go spend the 15-20 minutes it takes for me to vote,'" Obama said in his first public comments in months, which only a few reporters and no cameras were allowed in for. "Because that's part of what happened in the last election. I heard that too much." |
| Anti-establishment fervor grips Dems | |
 | The public debate for Democrats has centered around whether the party is drifting to the left. But on the heels of Rep. Joe Crowley's upset loss to 28-year-old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the real battle is looking more like a fight between establishment and anti-establishment forces. "I think it's less about left-right, and more about new-old," said Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who defeated a Democratic incumbent to win his seat in Congress in 2016. Khanna was a player in the Crowley battle with Ocasio-Cortez . He backed Ocasio-Cortez, though in a move that's won his some criticism, he also endorsed Crowley. "To me, it's about anti-establishment, it's about let's have new voices in there, it's about a sense of a failed generation of congressional leadership. I think that's really the sentiment," he said. Republicans -- seizing what they see as an opportunity -- predict the jolt in direction will be too much for Democrats. |
| How the 'Bad Boys of Brexit' forged ties with Russia and the Trump campaign, and came under investigators' scrutiny | |
 | On Aug. 19, 2016, Arron Banks, a wealthy British businessman, sat down at the palatial residence of the Russian ambassador to London for a lunch of wild halibut and Belevskaya pastila apple sweets accompanied by Russian white wine. Banks had just scored a huge win. From relative obscurity, he had become the largest political donor in British history by pouring millions into Brexit, the campaign to disentangle the United Kingdom from the European Union that had earned a jaw-dropping victory at the polls two months earlier. Now he had something else that bolstered his standing as he sat down with his new Russian friend, Ambassador Alexander Yakovenko: his team's deepening ties to Donald Trump's insurgent presidential bid in the United States. A major Brexit supporter, Stephen K. Bannon, had just been installed as chief executive of Trump's campaign. And Banks and his fellow Brexiteers had been invited to attend a fundraiser with Trump in Mississippi. |
| Five dead in 'targeted attack' at Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, police say | |
| A gunman blasted his way into the Capital Gazette newsroom in Annapolis with a shotgun Thursday afternoon, killing five people, authorities said. Journalists dived under their desks and pleaded for help on social media. One reporter described the scene as a "war zone." A photographer said he jumped over a dead colleague and fled for his life. Police took a suspect into custody soon after the shootings. He was identified as Jarrod W. Ramos, a 38-year-old Laurel man with a long-standing grudge against the paper. Ramos was charged with five counts of first-degree murder, according to online court records. He did not have an attorney listed; a bail review hearing is scheduled for Friday in Annapolis. "This was a targeted attack on the Capital Gazette," said Anne Arundel County Deputy Police Chief William Krampf. "This person was prepared today to come in. He was prepared to shoot people." |
| Oxford, UM construction projects parallel population spike | |
 | Both Ole Miss and Oxford have felt growing pains as more students attend the university and more people move to town, placing a higher demand on the city's many stores, restaurants and places of entertainment. At the beginning of 2017, Oxford's Galleria II shopping center opened with many retailers such as Dick's Sporting Goods, Marshall's and Ulta Beauty and brought in some 2,000 jobs. "I'm really grateful that people decided to move here, because they're now able to build shopping places so I don't have to drive to Tupelo," local realtor Caroline Felker said. The need to accommodate this increased population has left its mark on campus as well. Ole Miss Student Housing has added seven residence halls since opening Residential College South in 2009. The most recent additions came in 2016 with Residence Hall 2 and Residence Hall 3. "We're sort of taking a cooling-off period," Ole Miss Student Housing director Lionel Maten said. "We're not in the construction of any new facilities nor are we planning for any new facilities at the current time." |
| Russian hackers probe, could affect U.S. food systems, says Auburn prof | |
 | Russian hacking into the nation's infrastructure could harm much more than computers and routers -- it could have a potential impact on U.S. agriculture, food systems and municipal water supplies, says an Auburn University professor. "The Russian government and military are quietly probing our nation's computer systems that control our critical infrastructures," said Bob Norton, chair of the Auburn University Food System Institute's Food and Water Defense Working Group. He is a long-time consultant to the U.S. military and federal and state law enforcement agencies and editor of Bob Norton's Food Defense Blog. The Food and Agriculture Sector is one of the 16 critical infrastructures identified by the Department of Homeland Security. "The most likely scenario would be for malware to destroy industrial control systems, which would cause food production to come to a screeching halt for a period of time," Norton said. |
| U. of Florida grad Rob Hiaasen among journalists slain in Maryland shooting | |
 | Rob Hiaasen wrote about snow snorkling. He wrote about his bat house: "Bats can eat as many as 1,200 insects an hour. ... And I want to meet the person who tallied some bat's hourly chow." He wrote about a conversation with his dog, Earle. Among those killed in the shooting Thursday at the Annapolis Capital Gazette newspaper was the veteran columnist, editor and journalism teacher, his family said. Hiaasen, 59, the brother of best-selling author and journalist Carl Hiaasen, had been a feature writer at the Baltimore Sun for 15 years before moving to the Capital in 2010 as an assistant editor. A native of Fort Lauderdale and a graduate of the University of Florida, he had been a reporter for The Palm Beach Post, and an anchor and reporter at news-talk radio stations in the South. |
| This U. of South Carolina program ranks among the top in the world | |
 | Those graduating the University of South Carolina with a master's degree in managing entertainment and sports are some of the best-educated in their field worldwide, according to a new survey. The SportsBusiness survey showed USC's Master of Science in Sport and Entertainment Management ranked fifth in the country and sixth in the world among similar programs. Last year, the same survey ranked the program 15th in the world. Since USC started the program 14 years ago, USC has hired high-profile teachers such as Susan O'Malley, the first female president of an NBA franchise -- the Washington Wizards --- and former Carolina Panthers President Danny Morrison, said Matt Brown, chair of USC's Department of Sport and Entertainment Management. The program prepares students for careers such as running an athletic department, running tournaments or large sporting events or working as a tour manager, Brown said. |
| PETA files second lawsuit against Texas A&M University | |
| PETA is suing Texas A&M University over accusations that the school is refusing to release public records related to its ongoing medical research involving dogs. It is policy for Texas A&M not to comment on pending litigation, but KBTX has reached out to the school for a response. This is the second lawsuit this year the animal advocacy organization has filed against A&M. The first lawsuit claims the school violated First Amendment rights by blocking critics on its Facebook page. |
| Should America's Universities Stop Taking So Many International Students? | |
| The University of California at Berkeley fields more than 85,000 freshman applications every year. About 15,500 of those applicants are accepted, including 4,500 or so students who aren't from California; roughly 9 percent of those offered admission aren't from the United States. Global diversity has inherent value in a college setting, but at Berkeley -- a public institution that receives substantial support from taxpayer dollars -- some argue it can come into conflict with its founding values as a "land-grant" university established in the mid-1800s largely to serve the children of farmers and factory workers. And as panelists acknowledged in a discussion Wednesday at the Aspen Ideas Festival, which is co-hosted by the Aspen Institute and The Atlantic, some even find international-student recruitment at private universities problematic at a time when a four-year degree remains out of reach for so many Americans. But the panelists -- all of them current or former university presidents -- roundly disagree with the contention that colleges and universities in the U.S. should be restricted to those who live in the country. |
SPORTS
| Goodbye, Alex: Brantley, Mississippi State celebrate Wilcox's life | |
| There were tears and hugs, but also laughter and warm memories. Alex Wilcox, an inspiration to so many before her death Monday, will continue to be for years, both in this community, this county and this world. "We say, 'God must have wanted her to be with Him,' but that was true before Monday," Michael Precht, formerly the family's pastor at Brantley First United Methodist, eulogized Thursday at her funeral. "It was death that took Alex from us, and God took Alex from death. ...We know she is with God and will be forever." The community put on a state funeral for Wilcox, who died one week shy of her 19th birthday after a 2-1/2 year battle with ovarian cancer. She probably looked down at the gathering of more than 600 in Brantley's gymnasium, her sweet smile showing and her thoughts on: "All this, for me?" But her Brantley family and her Mississippi State softball family joined her own family to celebrate her life and, however embarrassed she'd be at the thought, her impact and legacy. "We are all better people just having known Alex," Mississippi State softball coach Vann Stuedeman said. "We refer to Alex as Wonder Woman." |
| Ben Howland optimistic about Bulldogs' potential | |
 | Ben Howland's first two seasons at Mississippi State were a struggle but last year saw the Bulldogs reach the semifinals of the National Invitation Tournament, the program's first postseason appearance since 2012. Now in his fourth year, Howland is gearing up for what could be his most successful season yet in Starkville with all five starters returning along with a top 20 recruiting class coming in. "I'm excited about our group because we've been together here for a couple of years now," Howland said. "Guys are really into what our potential is this season at Mississippi State. It's just really exciting for us to go into a season with so much optimism about our opportunity to do something special this year." |
| Ben Howland talks NBA Draft, ball movement and landing local talent | |
| There are few coaches in the SEC as optimistic about their team as Mississippi State's Ben Howland. The 22-year coaching veteran returns 13 players off a team that went 25-12 overall and finished seventh in the SEC with a 9-9 record in league play before making it to the semifinals of the NIT. The biggest news for Mississippi State this offseason was four of its best players declaring for the NBA draft without hiring an agent. After testing the waters, the brothers Weatherspoon (Quinndary and Nick), Aric Holman and Lamar Peters are all coming back to Starkville. It's big for Howland, but he said he's just happy his players got a chance to see what the business is like. "I think the NBA has done a good job with the feedback process for players to give them a real sense of where they potentially would be drafted," he said. |
| Athletic revenues, expenses for Ole Miss, Mississippi State, JSU, USM | |
| USA Today released on Thursday the total revenues and expenses for Division I schools during the 2016-17 school year. While USM showed modest improvements in some categories, ticket sales were down as were contributions from the university. As a result, Southern Miss was last in Conference-USA in revenue, and No. 126 nationally. It's good to be in the SEC, and both Mississippi athletic departments look to be doing well. Ole Miss is No. 24 nationally with $117 million in revenues. Mississippi State is not far behind at No. 31, with athletic department revenues that are over $100 million for the first time. That's up $6 million from 2015-16, largely coming from an increase in contributions and rights/licensing. MSU, it should be noted, also reported expenses of "only" $86 million, so it worked at a nice profit. No one else in the top 40 revenue schools spent as little as MSU did. JSU reported $9.46 million in revenue. |
| Building baseball leaders: Former Citadel players thriving as coaches | |
 | Back when they were Citadel assistant coaches and depending on team meals to survive, Chris Lemonis and Dan McDonnell were hired to move a piano. "They hated that piano, but they needed a few extra bucks," says the piano's owner, longtime Citadel associate athletic director Andy Solomon. Some 25 years later, Solomon ran into McDonnell -- the first $1 million-per-year college baseball coach -- at Louisville and reminded him of that piano. "My rates have changed," McDonnell said with a laugh. The rates have changed for both McDonnell and Lemonis, named this week as the new baseball coach at Mississippi State, where he will earn a starting base salary of $600,000. The pair of Citadel grads -- who both played for the late Chal Port on The Citadel's 1990 College World Series team, and then played for and coached under Bulldogs legend Fred Jordan -- are running two of the top college baseball programs in the country. |
| NCAA will not seek a cut from sports betting, association executive says | |
 | The NCAA's leadership will not pursue so-called integrity fees for the association even though it recognizes that the anticipated spread of legalized sports betting will require it to spend money to monitor betting patterns for indicators of potential irregularities in college games, a top-ranking executive of the organization said Thursday. Speaking to a group of college athletic business administrators at the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics' annual convention, NCAA senior vice president and chief financial officer Kathleen McNeely said that if sports gambling continues to operate under regulation on a state-by-state basis, it will be up to individual schools to decide whether they want to pursue this type of money. (The NCAA and the NFL are advocating for federal regulation of sports betting.) The NCAA remains opposed to sports betting, McNeely said. |
| Missouri was least lucrative public SEC school in 2017 | |
 | Missouri was the least lucrative athletics program -- amongst public schools -- in the Southeastern Conference for the 2017 fiscal year, according to a report by USA Today. In its annual report of athletics finances for Division I public schools, USA Today reported that the Tigers' revenues of $97,848,195 were more than $2 million behind their next closest conference foes. By virtue of coming in last, Missouri was also the only SEC school to bring in revenues below $100 million. Missouri was also the only SEC school to run a deficit, according to the report. It racked up $102,409,131 in expenses, finishing the year $4,560,936 in the red. Texas A&M led the conference in revenue, bringing in $211,960,034. |
| Tennessee athletics surplus of $10.8M ranks ninth in SEC | |
 | Tennessee ranked seventh in the SEC in total operating revenue and third in the conference in total operating expenses for the 2016-17 fiscal year, according to expense and revenue data collected by USA TODAY for 230 public Division I universities. USA TODAY's findings were released Thursday. Vanderbilt, a private school, is the lone SEC school not included. As reported by USA TODAY NETWORK-Tennessee in January, UT's athletic department brought in $145.7 million in revenue for 2016-17 and reported $134.9 million in expenses for an operating surplus of $10.8 million. Tennessee ranked fifth in the conference in ticket-sales revenue ($36.8 million). Among notable expenses, it spent the most of all SEC schools on fundraising, marketing and promotion ($7.4 million), while it ranked second in expenses dedicated to recruiting ($2.8 million) and facilities debt services/leases ($19.9 million). |
| College football: Is overspending catching up to these big-time schools? | |
| A few weeks before the football season last August, a Washington State University vice president sent an urgent message to the athletic director. The topic was deficit spending in the athletic department, which had ballooned to a cumulative debt to the university of $67 million. "Understand the magnitude of the problem," WSU vice president Stacy Pearson wrote in an e-mail to Bill Moos, WSU's athletic director last year. "Athletics has by far the largest cumulative deficit than all other campus areas combined. ... The entire University has to work to reduce this deficit, and it can't be done if Athletics continues to spend millions into deficit each year. I obviously have come to understand your challenges, but you simply must make progress to reduce these deficits." Moos responded by forwarding the message and asking for a meeting with their boss, WSU President Kirk Schulz. |
| LSU proposes these football ticket prices, new season ticket option for Skyline Club | |
 | In a sports world where fan fervor no longer necessarily translates into sellout crowds, LSU is feeling the pinch as much as anyone. Prices for football season tickets and the Tiger Athletic Foundation Tradition Fund reflect that reality. In a proposal that goes before the LSU Board of Supervisors on Friday, LSU would hold the line on Tradition Fund fees for the seven-game 2018 home season and even lower them in two hard-to-sell areas of the stadium. LSU is also not going up on season ticket prices overall, though the school is creating a new season ticket option for the Skyline Club section of Tiger Stadium's south upper deck, which last year was ticketed on a game-by-game basis and with mini-ticket packages. LSU's football season begins Sept. 2 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, against Miami. The Tigers' home opener is Sept. 8 against Southeastern Louisiana. |
| The Message Behind the Money: How Texas A&M Landed Jimbo Fisher | |
| Let's start with the Christmas tree, which everyone assumed was the proof that Jimbo Fisher was gone. Yes, an old artificial tree did get tossed to the curb on Shoal Creek Drive in Tallahassee, Fla., on the morning of Dec. 1. Photos of said tree began circulating on social media within hours of its disposal. This, along with a proclamation during a SiriusXM interview the previous day that he'd choose brisket over pulled pork, served in the absence of any official word as proof that Fisher had decided to leave Florida State to coach at Texas A&M. But it wasn't true. Not yet, at least. |
| Hogs heartbreak: Fans red-hot for College World Series title go home blue | |
| Arkansas Razorbacks fans didn't walk out of Baum Stadium feeling disappointed many times this season. Thursday night was an exception, and disappointed would probably be putting it mildly. Devastated might be more accurate. About 1,500 fans went to Baum Stadium -- where the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville baseball team had a 34-4 record this season -- for what was called a free "watch party" by the university. Fans watched ESPN2's telecast of Oregon State's 5-0 victory over Arkansas in the decisive third game of the College World Series championship matchup on the stadium's scoreboard big screen. The watch party felt more like a wake as the Beavers won a national championship that seemed to be in Arkansas' glove before an improbable rally by Oregon State on Wednesday night. |
| Damon Evans gets another chance as Maryland athletic director | |
 | The University of Maryland has hired Damon Evans to be its athletic director, completing the transition that started in October when Kevin Anderson took a six-month sabbatical from the post. Evans joined the school in December 2014. He was named acting athletic director when Anderson began his sabbatical and maintained that job after Anderson resigned in April. Maryland launched a national search for a new AD after Anderson resigned, but ended up staying close to home with its final choice. Over the past four years, Evans overhauled the athletics budget and financial operations, resulting in an operating surplus, according to the school. Evans served as the director of athletics at Georgia from 2004-10. He resigned from his position at Georgia after a DUI arrest in Atlanta when he was in the car with a woman who was not his wife. |
| Eastern Michigan sued in sports-equity 'retro' Title IX lawsuit | |
 | Nowadays, when a college or university is sued over Title IX, the federal gender antidiscrimination law, it's usually because someone thinks the institution fumbled in dealing with campus sexual assault. But in a lawsuit that legal experts are calling "retro" civil litigation, two female athletes have accused Eastern Michigan University of limiting sports opportunities for women. Several teams were shut down, including softball and women's tennis, with officials saying the budget could no longer sustain them. The complaint comes as a political war wages over Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, particularly in the area of campus sexual assault. The Trump administration is in the process of revising its rules for how colleges should handle sexual assault. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos's controversial statements on these issues, and the flaws that critics perceive in Title IX guidance from the Obama Education Department, have dominated the news cycle. That makes it easy to forget how influential the law has been in making campus athletics more equitable -- and that some institutions haven't met their Title IX obligations when it comes to sports. |
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