| Wednesday, June 26, 2019 |
| Sid Salter begins term as Starkville Rotary president | |
 | Longtime Rotarian Sid Salter was installed as the Starkville Rotary Club's new president Monday, taking over for outgoing president Bud Gordon. At the meeting, Salter received the gavel from Gordon in advance of the new Rotary year beginning July 1. Salter has been a Rotarian for 27 years, and spent the past year as vice president of the Starkville Rotary Club. Salter also served as president of the Forest Rotary Club in 1994. More recently, Salter represented the Starkville Rotary Club at the 2019 Rotary International Convention in Hamburg, Germany earlier this month. Outside of Rotary, Salter serves as chief communications officer for Mississippi State University, and has had a successful career as a journalist, syndicated columnist and author. Among his priorities for his year leading the club, Salter hopes to increase female membership. He said Rotary International hopes for Rotary to be 50% female by 2023. |
| Boil water notice issued in Starkville | |
 | Starkville Utilities has issued a boil water notice for a portion of University Drive. The affected area is between North Nash Road and the Studio East Apartment, located just west of the bridge that leads to the Mississippi State University campus. "We had a contractor working on a project that hit the main water line (Tuesday) afternoon," Starkville Utilities General Manager Terry Kemp said. "The system didn't lose pressure, but as a precaution we took samples that we'll send to Jackson for testing. There's no evidence of contamination, but we issued the boil water notice as a precautionary move." Kemp said about 100 customers are affected. Under the notice, water should be boiled before consumption but is safe to use for cooking, washing and other uses, Kemp said. |
| Longview Road project funding approved, work could begin in late July | |
| During a Monday meeting, Oktibbeha County supervisors voted unanimously to accept the low bid of $2.2 million from Phillips Contracting of Columbus to pave Longview Road. It's the final move to secure a project that has been in the works for years. Longview Road connects Highway 12 and Highway 25 just west of the Starkville city limits. County engineer Clyde Pritchard, who gave the presentation on the project Monday, said it will take about three weeks for the contracts to be approved before work can begin. "I think, probably, you're looking at work starting around the end of July," Pritchard said. Pritchard said the project to pave the roughly 4-mile stretch of road will be done in phases. |
| Report details impacts of Bonnet Carre Spillway on the Mississippi Sound | |
 | A task force appointed by Mississippi's governor released an updated report Tuesday detailing its efforts to monitor conditions in the Mississippi Sound. With the Bonnet Carre Spillway having been open for a record 50 days and dangerous algae blooms forming along part of the coast, experts from various agencies are working to report data to Gov. Phil Bryant. The task force is made up of various environmental agencies, including Department of Marine Resources, Department of Environmental Quality, researchers from University of Southern Mississippi, and marine life experts from Institute of Marine Mammal Studies and Mississippi State University. According to the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies and Mississippi State University, the frequency of dolphin and turtle strandings has decreased considerably in June. For the week of June 16, no dead dolphins and only one dead sea turtle were reported. A total of 130 dolphins and 156 sea turtles have been found dead along the Mississippi coastline this year. |
| Mississippi casinos continue to win more from gamblers | |
 | Casino revenues rose in Mississippi in May, as gambling halls continued their streak of winning more since sports betting was legalized. Figures show gamblers lost $184 million in May, almost 2% more than in the same month in 2018. That includes $1.2 million in sports betting revenue at casinos. The 12 coastal casinos saw May revenue rise 2.2% to $109 million, a sixth year of revenue growth there. Statewide revenue is up 4% over the last 12 months. |
| Governor candidates believe DA will heed Flowers court ruling | |
 | Curtis Flowers has been tried six times for murder, but if he's tried a seventh time the state's Republican gubernatorial candidates are wary of addressing whether a prosecutor with a tainted history of racist jury selection should remain involved. A U.S. Supreme Court majority found last week that District Attorney Doug Evans "was motivated in substantial part by discriminatory intent" in his handling of jury selection of a 2010 trial that ended in a guilty verdict for Flowers over a 1996 quadruple-slaying in Winona. Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Waller is a former chief justice of the state Supreme Court and dissented from the 2017 court ruling that the nation's own high court has now overturned. At a Union County campaign stop Monday, Waller told the Daily Journal he has full confidence Evans will make the appropriate decision about how to proceed. |
| New Y'all Politics poll shows Tate Reeves leading primary and general election ballots | |
 | Polling from Impact Management Group commissioned by Y'all Politics shows Lt. Governor Tate Reeves with a substantial advantage in the Republican gubernatorial primary as well as holding a 12 point advantage in a hypothetical matchup (48/36 with 12% undecided) over Attorney General Jim Hood. The poll was done with live callers (as opposed to IVR polling) with appropriate splits between land line and cell phone. It tested likely voters on several questions including their preferences in voting in a primary, Right Track/Wrong Track, Republican gubernatorial primary ballot, and two hypothetical general election ballots. Reeves is polling 30 points ahead over primary opponents Bill Waller, Jr. and Robert Foster. Digging deeper into the numbers, Reeves is showing nearly double the ballot intensity over Waller among decided voters. |
| Half of Mississippi Democrats want Joe Biden for president, poll finds | |
 | A survey released Tuesday finds former Vice President Joe Biden has a commanding lead over Democratic presidential candidates in Mississippi. Half of likely Democratic primary voters favor Biden, according to a Millsaps College/Chism Strategies survey. The survey asked Mississippi Democrats which of the 24 party hopefuls they were supporting or leaning toward. Only three other candidates -- Senators Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris -- polled above 5 percent, the survey found, and about 21 percent of respondents were undecided. The survey found strong support for Biden among black Democrats, who are expected to make up about three-fourths of the Democratic electorate in 2020. According to the survey, 58 percent of African American Democrats found Biden favorable. |
| USDA Economic Research Service union predicts mass exodus ahead of relocation | |
 | As many as four out of five employees at the Agriculture Department's Economic Research Service could quit instead of relocating to the agency's new headquarters in Kansas City, according to a preliminary survey compiled by union leaders and shared exclusively with POLITICO. The mass exodus forecast by the union's review, combined with departures ERS has already absorbed, has added to deep concerns among staff that relocation could paralyze the research agency's work. Employees selected for relocation, several of whom have told POLITICO they believe the move is an effort to stifle research that contradicts the Trump administration's agenda, have been given until July 15 to notify the department whether they will relocate. The deadline comes one month after Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced the Kansas City area was selected as the new home of ERS and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture. |
| Robert Mueller to testify to Congress in open session about his investigation | |
 | Former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III will testify to Congress in a public session next month about his investigation of Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential campaign and possible obstruction of justice by President Trump, a reluctant witness long sought by House Democrats. The House Judiciary and Intelligence committees, in an announcement late Tuesday, said that "pursuant to a subpoena," Mueller has agreed to appear before both panels on July 17. Mueller, who oversaw the 22-month inquiry, is perhaps the one person lawmakers and the nation have been wanting to hear from the most. Mueller is no longer a Justice Department employee, and after the special counsel's office formally closed last month, he and his personal representatives had been negotiating directly with the committee, people familiar with the matter said. |
| What happened when no one wanted dangerous, low-paying guard jobs? Prison put gangs in charge | |
 | It was a prison brimming with violence, awash in weapons -- and severely short on guards to patrol its cell blocks. But security-camera footage caught the action when Brad Fitch arrived in unit F at Mississippi's Wilkinson County Correctional Facility on Jan. 31, 2018. His attackers, after performing what investigators later concluded was a gang-ordered hit, walked calmly away. Such a nonchalant display of gang power wasn't unusual at Wilkinson, a 950-bed maximum security prison where there have been at least four gang-related homicides in the last two years. In fact, the warden relied on gangs to keep the peace. Like most prisons in Mississippi and a growing number across the country, Wilkinson had trouble finding people willing to take dangerous, low-paying guard jobs (more than a third were vacant and annual turnover was close to 90 percent). |
| A look at UM's new $4,500 trash cans | |
 | The University of Mississippi installed the solar-powered, network-connected trash cans that communicate with one another when they are full or nearing capacity in January. The 12 compacting and 13 non-compacting BigBelly garbage bins are strategically located in high-traffic waste areas, including the Grove and the library. The compacting units hold 150 gallons each, and the non-compacting units hold 50 gallons each. The standard Victor Stanley green steel garbage cans, which can be found in most areas on campus, hold 36 gallons. BigBelly rental services cover all repair costs excluding vandalism, UM Sanitation Supervisor Steven Boatright said. Breakdowns require a BigBelly representative to make repairs. Boatright said that the main reason the university is renting the BigBelly waste bins is to cut down on working hours and help the waste collection system operate more efficiently. |
| Squirrel possible cause of power outage at Southern Miss | |
| A campuswide power outage was reported Tuesday morning at the University of Southern Mississippi. The university's physical plant and Mississippi Power Co. workers responded to a report of a blown responder around 10:30 a.m. Southern Miss police department said on Twitter that firefighters responded to reports of a smoking generator at Johnson Science Center, even though it appeared to be operating normally from its startup cycle. A tweet from the university's physical plant said a squirrel in an electrical substation may have caused the outage. |
| Future marine scientists tour the Point Sur research vessel | |
| About 25 high school students across the Coast are more prepared to become our next marine scientists and researchers. They are all attending the first ever Ocean Science and Technology Camp, sponsored by USM and the Gulf Coast Research Lab. Tuesday's lesson plan included taking a tour of the Point Sur research vessel. The students boarded the vessel ready to learn. The robotic arms on the unmanned underwater vehicle, also called ROV, helps search for sunken ships in the Gulf. The students learned about controlling it and what to look for while out at sea. But one lesson that stood out to one student was the teamwork involved in the process. "I got to learn how all those scientists work together, even though they had a different background. One was on marine biology. The other was in biology. There was even a geologist. They all came and worked together," said student Payton Gabrielson. |
| Future computer scientists get real world experience at East Central Community College | |
 | When she grows up, Brooklyn Chisholm wants to be a cryptographer. "So you can be strong and safe on the internet," said the 10-year-old, one of many young girls participating in a GenCyber Camps for Girls at East Central Community College in Decatur. The camp, open to girls in grades 3-5, was made possible through a grant from the National Security Agency and National Science Participants learned computer coding, robotics, cybersecurity and how to deal with cyber bullying. This is the second year the camp has been held, said Ken Ethridge, a computer science instructor at ECCC and the Cyber Warriors GenCyber program director. He said its main purpose is to teach girls about cybersecurity, while keeping them interested in computer science. Faith Curry, a recent elementary education graduate at ECCC, served as a mentor during the camp. She hopes to give her students the opportunity to learn more about computer science. |
| UGA ag scientists open research farm for public view | |
 | Creating methods that ensure economic and environmental sustainability has easily become one of the most important aspects of modern-day farming, according to University of Georgia officials. The UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences has made this theme a priority in the 30-plus agriculture projects they have been researching for the past several years at the J. Phil Campbell Sr. Research and Education Center in Watkinsville. On Tuesday, the public was given free tours of the center as vans shuttled groups through the research stations scattered across the farm in Watkinsville. At each stop, researchers and faculty members offered presentations that explained their findings and how that could benefit farmers. A common theme of their research revolves around sustainability and utilizing resources like clover to become natural suppliers of nitrogen for soil. As the tour group gathered at the corn field to listen to researcher Nicholas Basinger discuss his project, several farmers raised the concern of cost. Eric Elsner, superintendent of the center, acknowledges that cost is a huge concern for farmers. |
| U. of Florida wind symphony heads to France for concert | |
 | The sounds of a dueting trombone and trumpet sang through Steinbrenner Band Hall at the University of Florida Tuesday morning, as the UF Wind Symphony rehearsed before it heads to Europe. The University of Florida Wind Symphony will travel to France on Wednesday ahead of its Saturday night performance at an international music festival. The symphony will perform at the Festival des Anches d'Azur in La Croix-Valmer, a community in southeastern France. The festival is open internationally to all musical symphonies by invitation. It has hosted more than 55 musical ensembles since 1996. UF will be the only U.S. ensemble to attend this year and is one of the few universities ever selected to perform there. Jay Watkins, UF associate director of bands, said every year, festival director Jean-Luc Wastable invites three international bands to perform. There's just two groups this year, he said, the UF symphony and a Japanese group. |
| Texas A&M officials laud opening of new medical research building | |
 | Texas A&M University Health Science Center officially doubled its research space Tuesday with the grand opening of the new Medical Research and Education Building II. "That's a very special thing for a university president to be able to say," Texas A&M University President Michael K. Young told the crowd during a Tuesday ceremony. The space will see multiple disciplines come together to address problems such as "Alzheimer's, cancer, dementia, all sorts of anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, all of these things that really are powerfully important for us to be able to address," he said. Young said the building -- located off Texas 47 in Bryan at 8447 Riverside Parkway -- represents the purpose of a land grant institution to solve problems in the state, the country and the world. In the end, though, the building is just a tool, he said. The true impact will come from those inside who make the discoveries. |
| Summer Welcome busy as enrollment rises at U. of Missouri | |
 | The University of Missouri Summer Welcome for 50 years has been teaching first-year students and transfer students the ins and outs of student life. Incoming first-year students and their parents filled the lower level of the MU Student Center on Tuesday. Tables were staffed with people from MU offices, resources and organizations. Alex Steinbrecher, 18, was there with her parents, Samantha and Erik Steinbrecher. They're from Oswego, Illinois, about an hour north of Chicago. Alex had visited campus in the winter, when there was snow on the ground. "I really loved the campus here," Alex said. "It was really welcoming. I'm really excited about the nursing program here. It offers so many opportunities." Running from June 10 through July 12, this Summer Welcome is busier than it has been the past several years. The incoming crop of new students will be the largest since 2015, when 6,191 first-time freshmen enrolled for the fall semester. The low point was in the fall of 2017, when 4,134 students just out of high school enrolled for classes. |
| Political fallout aside, Joe Biden's 'reach across the aisle' premise is the pragmatic approach | |
| Syndicated columnist Sid Salter writes: Among most of his supposed 2020 Democratic presidential primary opponents -- particularly those hitching their political wagons to the New Left -- Joe Biden's recent comments on the days when those with significant differences within their own parties and certainly with those in the opposing parties could reach out and work together for the common good have been denounced as political heresy and compared to "dog vomit." Joe Biden's record on civil rights, other than on the topic of busing, certainly in no substantive way compares with those of Georgia U.S. Sen. Herman Talmadge or Mississippi U.S. Sen. James O. Eastland. Biden was also a protege of sorts of Mississippi U.S. Sen. John C. Stennis, but Stennis was up until his final years on Capitol Hill an opponent of civil rights legislation. ... Unfortunately, we have reached a point in this country where hyper-partisanship -- blind, unyielding devotion to one party or another at the expense of all else -- has become virtuous, while bipartisanship has become ignoble vice. |
SPORTS
| Mississippi State ready to represent USA in World University Games | |
 | Myah Taylor flashed her fingers to the media in the press conference room at Humphrey Coliseum on Tuesday afternoon. "I got my nails blue because I'm so excited," Taylor said. Taylor, a red-shirt sophomore point guard on the Mississippi State women's basketball team, and most of her Bulldog teammates leave this week for Naples, Italy, to represent USA Team in the 2019 World University Games. "It means a lot because USA is something bigger than just us," Taylor said. "We're getting ready to represent our country. With that comes a lot of pride." Head coach Vic Schaefer's team was selected last fall to be the representative for USA Team in this year's 30th edition of the games. The event is comprised of 18 sports and features athletes between the ages of 17 and 24 who are currently or have been in the past year a student at a college or university. |
| Ben Howland expects to have Nick Weatherspoon available | |
| When Mississippi State tips off the 2019-20 season in November, coach Ben Howland expects Nick Weatherspoon to be the Bulldogs' starting point guard. Weatherspoon was indefinitely suspended for the final 10 games last season for a violation of team rules. "He's on the team and he's practicing," Howland said. "He had a good practice (Monday) and I fully expect him to be available for the coming season." Weatherspoon started 23 of 24 games last year and averaged 9.6 points and 27.8 minutes per game. Having the junior back on the floor is good news for an MSU team trying to replace three players who are now in NBA camps. Weatherspoon's brother, Quinndary, was selected in the second round by the San Antonio Spurs last week and is the first player the Bulldogs have had drafted since Arnett Moultrie in 2012. "That was a really big deal to get drafted with the 49th pick and I'm really proud of him," Howland said. |
| Aric Holman preparing for summer with LA Lakers | |
| Aric Holman is still in awe that he's headed to Los Angeles. He knew there was a pretty strong chance that he was going to make an NBA roster, but that doesn't make his deal with the high-profile Lakers any less incredulous. "It's definitely amazing, but to be honest it hasn't even really hit me yet," said Holman, a 6-foot-10-inch forward who starred at Owensboro High School before playing at Mississippi State University. "All my family and friends are so excited for me, but it just hasn't hit me. I think it will hit me once I get down there and start practicing and get ready for summer league." Holman's name wasn't called Thursday in the NBA draft, but he agreed to a deal with the Lakers early Friday morning. "It was definitely a grateful moment," said Holman, who turns 22 on July 11. "I had to work so hard my whole life, so being able to get that opportunity was a blessing. It hit home when I was able to sign with them. It was just a blessing at the end of the day." |
| Ethan Small: Brewers' first-round pick signed | |
| Ethan Small would rather this date have been delayed, of course. But less than a week after his Mississippi State University Bulldogs were bounced from the College World Series, Small looked around Miller Park and was ready for the future. The left-hander, Milwaukee's first-round draft pick, signed Tuesday for $1.8 million, according to MLB Pipeline. He will head to the Brewers' complex in Arizona for a bit of a break before beginning his professional career at Class A Wisconsin in a few weeks. "You work so hard for so long for something, and then it finally happens," Small said. "It's got me to the verge of tears, just because I'm so happy." "We were excited to get him signed as quick as possible," Brewers scouting director Tod Johnson said. "I think he's disappointed they didn't get as far as he wanted to go, because he's a really good competitor. He pitched great when he pitched out there. But we're excited to get him going." |
| Jake Mangum exits, after sending a message | |
| Mississippi sports columnist Rick Cleveland writes: The College World Series and Omaha won't forget Mississippi State's Jake Mangum any time soon. Days after he left -- and before the Michigan-Vanderbilt championship series began, people were still talking about him and applauding his exit. His remarkable four-year run at Mississippi State ended, Mangum exited with a final thank you and a message for the NCAA. Remember, this was just a few minutes after Louisville had erased a 3-0 State lead and then walked off with a 4-3 victory over the Bulldogs in an elimination game. Mangum's eyes were still red from emotion spilled after State narrowly lost its chance to play Vanderbilt again and continue pursuit of the school's first-ever national championship. State's post-game press conference had ended and the moderator was about to wrap it up when Mangum asked if he could make one more statement. |
| Ole Miss looks to shift as ticket sales continue to fall | |
| One of the biggest challenges most college football programs face today is the fall of season ticket purchases. Ole Miss is no stranger to this issue. With a few exceptions, both season tickets and student season ticket sales are down all across the country, and it's not surprising considering the increased coverage on television and streaming apps making it possible to follow every snap of every team you want over the season. Football ticket sales consistently account for around 20 percent of the Ole Miss Athletics revenue, so it's one of the biggest issues surrounding the program with new Interim Athletic Director Keith Carter. Ticket sales drop along with win totals, and the numbers suggest fans just aren't in the market to pay hundreds of dollars to watch seven games of losing football. Sales dropped from 54,124 in 2017 to 47,170 in 2018. |
| Kumar Rocker saves Vanderbilt again, forces winner-take-all national title game | |
 | Kumar Rocker saved Vanderbilt's season once again. The Commodores beat Michigan 4-1 in Game 2 of the best-of-three national championship series Tuesday to force a winner-take-all title game. Vanderbilt (58-12) and Michigan (50-21) will face off at 6 p.m. Wednesday. The Commodores are looking for their second national championship, following the 2014 title. The Wolverines won national championships in 1953 and 1962. Vanderbilt broke the record for most wins by an SEC team with its 58th victory, but it would love to add one more. "There's no turning back," Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin said. "Everyone from an adrenaline standpoint is going to be ready to go." Rocker has won 10 of his last 11 starts. And in five postseason starts, he has allowed only four earned runs and struck out 46 batters. Closer Tyler Brown threw 40 pitches in relief to finish it, but Corbin said he will be available in Game 3. |
| Tunnel addition increases cost for new Arkansas baseball center | |
| A baseball clubhouse at the University of Arkansas will be built for about $26 million instead of $20 million to $25 million after trustees approved design changes last Monday. A tunnel added to the design will connect the planned Baseball Development Center at Baum-Walker Stadium to the game-day dugout. The center, estimated at 40,000 to 45,000 square feet, will be paid for in part by a bond issue of up to $31.25 million payable over 15 years, as well as by athletic revenue and gifts, according to documents presented to UA trustees. The bonds are to be repaid with revenue from athletics and any future student athletic fee, according to the board's resolution, which also states that no such fee is planned. Principal and interest remaining to be paid on bonds financing UA athletic projects totaled $210.9 million as of June 30, 2018, according to the university's most recent financial report. |
| Tennessee baseball coach Tony Vitello says contract extension helps recruiting most | |
 | Tony Vitello has spent the past two years selling a vision to recruits of what Tennessee baseball can be. But the past month has seen a change in the recruiting pitch for Vitello and his staff. "I think now there is something to point to with recruits rather than just saying, 'Here is our vision,'" Vitello said. "The assistant coaches have done a great job of painting a picture that is very clear for recruits to see, but it was a vision. Now there are some concrete things there that are very tangible for incoming players and also potential incoming players to see." Vitello signed an extension with UT on June 18 after a successful season and Major League Baseball Draft. The deal runs through the 2024 season and bumps his salary up more than 25 percent annually. UT also increased the salaries for Vitello's assistants, all of whom Vitello said have been courted by others. He's committed to Tennessee, as is his staff, which he said makes a difference in a recruiting process in which kids make decisions at "an awful early age" and commitments can fluctuate with coaching changes. |
| Incoming LSU freshmen, Ed Orgeron visit Gov. John Bel Edwards at mansion | |
 | The newest LSU football players met the highest-ranked public official in Louisiana state politics and a friend of Tigers football coach Ed Orgeron on a tour of the Governor's mansion on Tuesday. Most of the incoming freshmen for the 2019 football team attended the occasion, held by Gov. John Bel Edwards, who has often appeared alongside Orgeron at events promoting Louisiana and LSU. The visit came as a result of conversations between Edwards and Orgeron, said Christina Stephens, Edwards' deputy chief of staff, and it was an opportunity for the freshmen to learn some Louisiana history and tour the mansion. A picture of the players was posted on LSU football's official Twitter account, and it included Edwards and his wife, Donna, Orgeron and his wife, Kelly, along with the LSU coaching staff. The two Louisiana natives struck a friendship shortly after Orgeron was hired full-time after the 2016 season, when a mutual friend connected them at a duck-hunting camp in South Lafourche. |
| There's another text exchange between Louisiana's governor and LSU on Javonte Smart | |
 | LSU held basketball player Javonte Smart out of its March 9 game against Vanderbilt after consulting the school's general counsel and an outside attorney who works for LSU's athletics department, according to a text exchange between Gov. John Bel Edwards and LSU Board of Supervisors chairman James Williams. The text exchange suggests that Thomas Skinner, LSU's vice president for legal affairs and general counsel, and Bob Barton, a lawyer with Taylor Porter law firm who regularly represents that athletic department, advised that Smart should be benched after reports surfaced that basketball coach Will Wade may have compensated Smart to play for LSU. A transcript of the messages was released to NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune last week in response to a public records request dating back to March. |
| Banner year: Auburn athletics' widespread success in 2018-19 could be 'launchpad' for department's future | |
 | David Housel can't say for sure exactly how this year stacks up with all the others. It's impossible to compare with any real certainty. After, all there have been a lot of legendary feats accomplished on the Plains over the decades. Measures of success are so subjective, no one can really know for sure if this academic calendar year of Auburn athletics truly stands as the school's best one ever. Who's to say? Housel can't. But he can listen. And all around him, over by the back booth at Chappy's where the former Auburn athletics director so often spends his time, he hears them. "They're still talking basketball, and this is almost July. That's never been that way before," he said. He'd know. And he knows what he's hearing. "They're talking baseball, which has never been that way before," he went on Tuesday, as summer burns over the city. "I think Auburn, this year, kind of puts Auburn on the launchpad to be known as a great athletic program in many areas -- not just one or two sports." |
| 'I see it as a need': How Mizzou athletic staffers approach the mental side of sports | |
 | Swimming hinges on times, and times were consuming rising senior Daniel Hein. When he failed to set a 100-yard backstroke best time at Missouri's invitational last November, Hein left the pool deck frustrated and confused. He had grinded through intense practices but hadn't improved since his freshman year. "That slump was basically all mental," Hein said. "It just kind of took a toll on my body as well because of the mental strain it had on me." So coach Andrew Grevers recommended Hein visit with mental performance coach Scotta Morton. Because Hein knew the mental side of his sport was holding him back, he didn't hesitate to schedule a meeting. It helped. Morton heads a two-person mental performance team in the athletic department, which also employs two sports psychologists. In total, the UM System invests over a quarter-million dollars in salaries for sports psychologists and mental performance coaches. The investment reflects an effort by Missouri to prioritize its athletes' mental wellbeing with an in-house approach. |
| NCAA may not allow participation in championship games if California bill passes | |
 | The National Collegiate Athletic Association is fighting a California bill that would let certain athletes to make money off their name, image or likeness, which NCAA officials and other traditionalists argue would undermine the "amateurism" of college sports. NCAA President Mark Emmert sent a letter last week to the chairs of the two California State Assembly committees that vote on the Fair Pay to Play Act, USA Today first reported. The legislation already passed the State Senate in a 31-5 vote. It would permit athletes to be compensated if the college they attend earns an average of $10 million in media rights revenue a year. The bill is the latest pressure the NCAA faces to rework its rules on athlete compensation on name, image or likeness. Pundits have accused the association and its member institutions of profiting off players while not sharing the wealth with them. The NCAA has maintained that paying athletes would push the college system too far into professional territory. |
| NCAA to tighten transfer guidelines, limit players gaining immediate eligibility | |
 | The NCAA Division I council is expected to approve a package of new guidelines that could make it more difficult for college football and basketball players who transfer to receive immediate eligibility via waivers, according to a document obtained by USA TODAY Sports. The council is scheduled to meet Wednesday in Indianapolis to review the updated guidelines and directives, which in many cases appear to specify and narrow the circumstances in which athletes should be given waivers and raise the documentation requirements to obtain them. Compliance staffs at Division I schools were made aware of the proposals last week. The new guidelines are not rules but essentially a set of directions for the Committee on Legislative Relief, which decides whether or not to grant the waivers. |
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