News and Issues

Biggest athletics donation ever: Boone Pickens is donating $165 million to the Oklahoma St athletics dept. Ralph Engelstad gave No. Dakota $100 million in ‘98. Nike Chairman Phil Knight gave Oregon over $50 million in the 80s. . . . . . AFCA Coach of the Year winners: D1-A: Joe Paterno (Penn State); D1-AA: Jerry Moore (Appalachian State); D2: Chuck Martin (Grand Valley State); D3: Bob Berezowitz (Wisc Whitewater). . . . . . . . This week’s nomination for coolest coll. athletics name: Yngve Ramstad, U-Rhode Island Faculty Athletic Rep. . . . . . Florida Atlantic U is progressing w. plans for a $120 million, 40,000 seat domed stadium on its Boca Raton campus. . . . . . . 1st signage at UNC’s Smith Center: Wachovia Bank will have virtually the first signs hung since the arena’s 1986 opening. Cost: $9.1 mill over 8 yrs. . . . . . . NAIA Football Coach of the Year: Mike Van Diest of Carroll College (Helena MT), which won an unprecedented 4th straight NAIA nat’l championship. Van Diest is 78-16 at Carroll over seven seasons. . . . . . . New single-season D1 NCAA record: Indiana’s Cyndi Valentin made her 61st straight free throw on Jan. 12. She’s 78-of-82 (95.1%) for the season. Overall D1 record (over two seasons) is 66 by Ginny Doyle of Richmond. . . . . . . . . . . Best TV rating ever: Texas-USC Rose Bowl w. a 21.7 Nielsen rating (35.6 million viewers), best for a national championship game. The Rose Bowl had not had a rating as big since the ‘86 UCLA-Iowa game, which had a 22.7. Last year, the Texas-Michigan game was a 12.4. . . . . . Length of bowl games: Orange (3 OT)- 4:49; Fiesta- 3:45, Sugar- 3:57, Rose- 4:00. Rose Bowl by qtr: 1st- 41:05; 2nd- 58:56; Halftime- 23:01; 3rd- 41:12; 4th- 68:41. The final 6:42 of the game lasted just over 30 minutes. The last 57 seconds needed nearly 13 minutes to complete. . . . . . . Bowl booty: Some of the gifts bestowed on bowl players (per player NCAA limit was increased by $150 to $500 this yr.): MasterCard Alamo Bowl (Xbox 360), Rose Bowl (Sony PlayStation), Nokia Sugar Bowl (customized Trek mtn bikes), Holiday Bowl (iPods), Champs Sports Bowl (Sony Camcorders), Music City Bowl (portable DVD players), Las Vegas Bowl (tkts to Blue Man Group), Hawaii Bowl (Oakley sunglasses). . . . . . Best bowl records: John Robinson, USC / UNLV (8-1); Frank Kush, Arizona St. (6-1); Gene Stallings, Texas A&M / Alabama (6-1); Warren Woodson, Hardin-Simmons / NM St. (6-1); Pat Dye, E. Carolina / Auburn (7-2-1); Dick Crum, Miami (OH) / No. Carolina (6-2); Paul Pasqualoni, Syracuse (6-2); Bud Wilkinson, Okla. (6-2) and Barry Alvarez, Wisconsin (7-3). . . . . . . Wisconsin contract figures announced: Barry Alvarez (now solo AD after dual role as AD / FB coach) to be paid $600,000 ($500,000 fr. UW and $100,000 fr. private funds). New FB coach Bret Bielema’s contract is $750,000 ($350,000 fr. UW). . . . . . Bounceback award?: Indiana State Sycamores went a symmetrical 33-88 over the past 4 seasons (.273 winning pcntg). This year they’re an asymmetrical 8-2. . . . . . Best handle to come out of RI? God Shammgod, ex-Providence star, left school after 2 yrs. Currently playing in Saudi Arabia; has played in Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Poland and China. . . . . . . 10 most powerful women in sports in 2005 (as selected by Dan Weil of FOXSports.com): Maria Sharapova: Russian tennis star, ranked No. 1 for part of the year; Sheila Johnson: co-founded BETV, stakes in the Wash. Mystics, Wizards & Capitals; Annika Sorenstam: Swede golfer, won 10 tournaments; Williams Tennis Sisters: power, athleticism, endorsements; Michelle Wie: $10 mill in endorsements from Nike and Sony; Danica Patrick: 23-yr-old w. 4th-place finish at Indy 500; Donna Orender: WNBA commish; Amy Trask: CEO of Oakland Raiders; Lesa France Kennedy: prez of NASCAR Int’l Speedway Corp.; Donna Lopiano: exec. director of Women’s Sports Foundation . . . . . . . Arms race update: revenues for U-Wisconsin athletics have increased 178% since 1995-’96 . . . . . . . University HS, a Miami “diploma mill” spotlighted in a scathing feature by the NY Times a couple weeks ago, is shutting down. No surprise there . . . . . . . A volleyball home run: American Volleyball Coaches Assn has hired Kathy DeBoer as new exec director. DeBoer - who also serves on the Clips Advisory Panel - spent 23 years in college athletics (18 at U-Kentucky) as a VB coach and administrator. Congrats Kathy. . . . . . . 27 straight: No. 25 Iowa beat Drake for the 27th straight time, 65-60, Tuesday Dec. 20. Drake has not beaten Iowa in Iowa City since 1967. . . . . . . Duke women spanked Ball State 110-24 on Dec. 19. Duke scored the first 23 points. Ball State missed its first 16 shots and its last 11, and shot a woeful 13%. . . . . . . Mount Union (Alliance, Ohio) won its eighth D3 FB title in 13 yrs. They had a 110 game regular season winning streak that ended in 1994. . . . . . . . . . Report from Canada’s Ryerson U: global investment in sponsorships have zoomed from approx. US$500 million in 1982 to an estimated US$28 billion in 2004. . . . . . . .