Sal Interdonato, Middletown Times Herald-Record: Hawaii's 4,955-mile trip to play Army is the longest in team history. The flight from Honolulu to Newark took nine hours. Rich Miano, Hawaii's secondary coach, said he has made the trip at least 55 times.
Stephen Tsai, Honolulu Advertiser: Hawaii held its first practice after landing in Newark. The Warriors went through a walk-through in the back parking lot of the hotel where they are staying. The parking-stall lines served as markers. Orange cones denoted the sidelines. Several players wore socks but no shoes. Defensive tackle Haku Correa practiced in bare feet.
Brent Schrotenboer, San Diego Union-Tribune: A look at the longest bowl droughts. Louisiana Monroe's last postseason appearance came in the 1947 Junior Sugar Bowl.
James Rainey, Los Angeles Times: ESPN has plunged into local coverage online, but the going may be tougher than it imagined.
Jay Christensen, Covers: Some bozo actually believes college football games can be fixed.
BCS Guru: The first simulated Bowl Championship Series standings have Alabama at No. 1, followed by Boise State, Texas, Ohio State and Texas Christian.
Ben Maller: A recent survey revealed that nearly half of respondents would skip out on date night to watch their team play. Even more surprising, nearly one out of three people would deny themselves beer.
Lost Lettermen: Where are they now? A look at the 2000 BCS champion Oklahoma Sooners. One guy runs a roofing company. Another works for a lumber company. One player's whereabouts are unknown.
Josh Kendall, Columbia State: South Carolina received an official letter of inquiry from the NCAA enforcement staff, potentially turning what has been a player-eligibility issue into a much more serious situation.
Scott Wolf, Los Angeles Daily News: USC athletic director Pat Haden said that Pacific 10 Conference athletic directors discussed "revenue sharing" this week during a teleconference on realignment.
Eric Ferreri, Charlotte Observer: North Carolina athletics director Dick Baddour told the UNC system's Board of Governors that academic misconduct by members of the football team may date back a year or more. Wiz reaction: Baddour better start looking for a new job.
Phil Mushnick, New York Post: ABC/ESPN analyst Matt Mullen rips Rich Rodriguez a new one.
Bob Wojnowski, Detroit News: There are big games on tap this weekend, then there's Michigan-Notre Dame.
Tim Kawakami, San Jose Mercury News: Is this Jim Harbaugh's last year at Stanford?
Mark Viera, New York Times: A friend of Joe Paterno says part of the motivation for the Penn State coach deciding to return each year is his fear of the unknown after football. Paterno, the friend says, is "painfully aware that [Bear] Bryant died a couple of weeks after he retired."
Tom Keegan, Lawrence Journal-World: North Dakota State coach Craig Bohl, whose team plays Division I-AA powerhouse Northern Iowa on Saturday, took a shot at Kansas and Turner Gill. "I think the environment that we're going to play in Cedar Falls [Iowa] is going to be much more of a hostile environment than Memorial Stadium in Kansas. That was pretty docile. And the type of team that we're going to be playing is going to be a much more physical, aggressive football team than KU."
Andy Hyland and Chad Lawhorn, Lawrence Journal-World: Lew Perkins abruptly resigned as Kansas athletic director, but he left behind a ticket scandal that has spurred a federal investigation, a state ethics probe over an alleged improper gift of exercise equipment, and now a $600,000 retention bonus that the university will pay Perkins even though he did not stay on until its 2011 triggering date. In total, Perkins will receive from Kansas about $2 million post retirement.
Mike Kuchar, Smart Football: How Boise State uses leverage, numbers and grass to gash the opposition.
Tyler Jett, Florida Today: News of a local church's plan to burn Qurans incited reactions from the president, the secretary of state and even the pope. But, before Tuesday, Florida's Urban Meyer did not know about the controversial ceremony.
Ken Tysiac, ACC Now: North Carolina State's Tom O'Brien won't release an injury report because Saturday's opponent, Central Florida, has refused to release one. ACC policy doesn't require teams to release injury reports if the opponents don't release them. "Why would I give my opponent an advantage?" O'Brien said as he walked off the practice field.
Darren Rovell, CNBC: In the 2002-03 school season, Boise State made about $70,000 in gross royalties from merchandise. Last season, that number had jumped ten fold to more than $700,000 after big exposure from wins over Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl and Texas Christian in the 2010 version of the game. Plus, a look at the jerseys that are available at retail by apparel companies for players in the Associated Press top 25.
Dan Hinxman, Reno Gazette-Journal: Reality is sinking in for Nevada. When it leaves the Western Athletic Conference for the Mountain West in either the summer of 2011 or 2012, it will also leave ESPN for the mtn.
Geoff Calkins, Memphis Commercial Appeal: People wonder why Memphis struggles in football. Why Memphis can't replicate the success of Boise State or East Carolina or Texas Christian or Central Florida or Tulsa or Louisville or Cincinnati or, geez, it's a long list at this point. It's not just that all those schools play in on-campus stadiums. It's that those schools think football is important.
Shannon Shelton, Detroit Free Press: Ticket sales for Saturday's Michigan State-Florida Atlantic game at Detroit's Ford Field are not going well.
Alexis Stevens, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Tennessee's Derek Dooley recently gave his players a lesson in shower skills after a run of staph infections among players.
Brandan Kirby, Mobile Press-Register: A federal judge approved the sale of a house once owned by Kenny Stabler to help satisfy the former Alabama quarterback's debts to the Internal Revenue Service.
Sports Media Watch: Ratings report. Last Saturday's Oregon State/Texas Christian game drew a 2.3 U.S. rating and 3.660 million viewers on ESPN, down 18% in ratings and 20% in viewership from Brigham Young/Oklahoma last year (2.8, 4.562 mil), but up 44% and 42%, respectively, from Illinois/Missouri in a later timeslot in 2007 (1.6, 2.585 mil). ESPN drew its second-largest college football audience ever for Monday's Boise State-Virginia Tech thriller.
Kellis Robinette, Kansas City Star: The ongoing lawsuit between Kansas State and former coach Ron Prince moves back inside a Riley County courtroom Friday when lawyers from both sides will argue for immediate judgment.
Jeff Lockridge, Tennessean: Vanderbilt has received an apology from the Big Ten for a bad call in its 23-21 loss to Northwestern.
Marc Weiszer, Athens Banner-Herald: The NCAA handed Georgia receiver A.J. Green a four-game suspension for selling his Independence Bowl game jersey to an individual whom the governing body defines as an agent. That person was identified by ESPN as Chris Hawkins, a former North Carolina defensive back. "I'm not an agent," Hawkins said.
Eric Schmoldt, Casper Star-Tribune: Connecticut's Randy Edsall plans to reach out to Wyoming counterpart Dave Christensen after the death of freshman linebacker Ruben Narcisse in a car accident Monday morning. Edsall is less than a year removed from the murder of cornerback Jasper Howard.
Brad Allis, Tucson Citizen: New Arizona athletic director Greg Byrne wants Mike Stoops to schedule more Division I-AA teams. "I want us to continue to get confidence on the football field and get victories," he said.
Tim Gardner, USA Today: Former Texas Tech coach Mike Leach will be host of a show on Sirius XM Radio. He'll be joined by Jack Arute.
Brent Schrotenboer, San Diego Union-Tribune: Longtime San Diego State strength coach David Ohton's whistleblower protection lawsuit against the school is headed for trial on May 27. Ohton alleges that San Diego State coaches and employees illegally retaliated against him after he cooperated with a 2003 audit that found mismanagement in the athletic department. The audit led to the ouster of Rick Bay as athletic director and and three other employees in the athletics department. Thanks to Mike!
Detroit Free Press: Coaches from Cincinnati, Kansas, Louisville, Michigan, Nebraska, Notre Dame, North Carolina State, Tennessee, Texas A&M and Wisconsin will wear patriotic gear for the Sept. 11 games.
Washington State: The university will honor the ESPN "GameDay" flag wavers before the Cougars' game Saturday against Montana State.
Dave Matter, Columbia Tribune: Missouri backup quarterback Ashton Glaser was served an arrest warrant by university police for failure to appear in court for a speeding ticket issued earlier this summer.
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