via sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net

GREAT NEWS!

Miami athletics getting $5 million for facilities

 

 

CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) — Miami's athletic department has received the largest gift in its history, a $5 million donation earmarked toward substantially upgrading facilities for the university's 400 student-athletes.

The gift from the Ted & Todd Schwartz Family Foundation will help provide a new academic center for members of Hurricane sports teams, a larger sports medicine facility, a new football locker room and a gallery of champions. The deal is scheduled to be announced Friday.

Preliminary details obtained by The Associated Press show the total cost of the project is planned at $13.6 million, of which $10.5 million had already been raised.

"The generosity of the Schwartz Family will sustain the University of Miami in its spot among the top premier athletics programs in the nation by expanding and renovating the resources and facilities we offer to current and future student-athletes," university president Donna Shalala said.

Miami has long been maligned for not having state-of-the-art facilities, and changing that perception has been a point of emphasis for the university for the past several years. The university created what it called "The Sprint for Hurricane Athletics" in 2007, a plan to raise more than $70 million for all of Miami's programs.

Some of the work has already been done: The baseball stadium, largely through a gift from New York Yankees third baseman and Miami trustee Alex Rodriguez, has been upgraded, as have the facilities for track, soccer and tennis. The Hurricanes' basketball teams now practice in a new fieldhouse as well.

"Ted & Todd Schwartz's gift ensures our future ability to sustain athletic excellence in this age of continued facility growth and enhancement throughout the college athletics landscape," Miami athletic director Kirby Hocutt said.

The new facility will be known as the Theodore G. Schwartz and Todd G. Schwartz Center for Athletic Excellence. It will be an expansion and renovation of the current Hecht Athletic Center.

Plans for the new facility include a 120-seat auditorium, classrooms, tutoring rooms, labs for computer, math and science study, as well as staff offices, study spaces, the football locker room and a lounge for the football team. The sports medicine facility will expand to three times its current size, with new in-ground hydrotherapy pools, digital imaging and rehabilitation space.

Ted Schwartz founded and chairs the board of APAC Customer Services, based in Illinois. His son Todd Schwartz is director of the family foundation and founder and president of Beach Coast Properties and Opportunity Financial.

via miamiherald.typepad.com

 

Having the opportunity to watch many of the athletes in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties when they begin playing football at the youth football level, the Miami Herald will shine the spotlight on many athletes during the spring and summer.

With the chance to see the athletes away from the football field as well, we can bring you up close and personal with some of the top prospects in the nation - right here in our own backyard.

PLAYER: Keith Brown
YEAR: 2012
SCHOOL: Norland
CITY: Miami
POSITION: LB
HEIGHT: 6-1
WEIGHT: 190
HEAD FOOTBALL COACH: Darryl Heidelburg

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: After an impressive sophomore season at Southridge, this quality football talent makes his move north and has already started to turn heads with his size, quickness and athletic ability.

Anyone who has had the opportunity to watch him play last year was sold on his physical play, speed and knowledge of the game. Coaches who competed against him were extremely impressed by the level he plays the game at.

Whether it's playing the run and or the pass, here is a linebacker who has certainly been able to pick things up quickly.

Having covered his father, Morris Atkins, when he played at North Miami Beach, there is a lot of things that Keith has taken from being around Atkins through the years. Colleges are already bowled over by what he brings to the football field.

HERALD STATEWIDE INFORMATION

The Big Ten Commissioner & all his windbags keep this up the BCS will be done earlier then the TV contract expires.....BCS is EVIL!!!!

Assault on BcS, its 'discrimination' continues Posted by John Taylor on May 25, 2010 2:31 PM ET In the days since the Good Ol' Boy network -- known by some as the BcS -- basically told Congress to stay off their lawn and get a haircut while you're at it punks, the response to that response has been growing and is reaching a crescendo that's arguably louder than it's ever been.  Or, at the very least, close to it.
Orrin Hatch, the Utah senator who was one of the lucky ones afforded the opportunity to be talked down to by the BcS in letter form, called the BcS "arrogant" and labeled it as "biased, secretive and harmful".  Utah president Michael Young said "math be damned... if any conference in the country has proved itself" worthy of automatic qualifying status it's the Mountain West.
On Monday, Arent Fox, a D.C.-based lobbyist employed by the MWC, produced a damning set of charts that show how the MWC/WAC has outperformed both the Big East and ACC from 2007-2010 in major bowl games when it comes to TV ratings, rankings and attendance, while not even remotely touching the revenue those two AQs received.

Armed with that set of numbers, Boise State president Robert Kustra Tuesday became the latest in a string of public figures to take a whack at the current structure used to determine a national champion.
In a statement that uses the word "discrimination" no less than five times, Kustra blasted the inequity of the current system, and questioned the "half-baked defenses... cook[ed] up" by "politically-connected and expensive consultants" even as the BcS has Congress and the Justice Department breathing down their backs.
"University presidents and others who care deeply about what higher education stands for should take a hard look at the chart. The lesson embedded in this chart teaches that it is fine to employ a system, such as the BCS, where the revenue is rigged in favor of some, at the expense of others, regardless of who performs better. That is the last lesson we should be teaching our students.
This chart tells only a slice of the full story of the BCS's discrimination. The revenue discrimination is even greater when deserving teams are excluded from major bowls. The BCS system is designed to make it virtually impossible for teams from outside of the six Automatic Qualifying Conferences or Notre Dame to ever win the national championship. Further, the Automatic Qualifying Conferences are guaranteed 60% of the spots in the major bowls, and barring a highly aberrational situation (such as occurred last year for the first time), those conferences, along with Notre Dame, for all practical purposes will be given at least 90% of the major bowl spots each year."
While invoking Butler's magical run through the men's basketball tournament this past March as something that could never happen in football, Kustra ripped one the tired BcS arguments that the current system makes every regular-season game count, something, they say, would never be the case if there were that hedonistic playoff system in place.
"Unfortunately, the BCS speaks with much less candor. For example, a BCS spokesperson stated that "the best reason for supporting the BCS can be summed up in three words: every game counts." But how do Boise State's games count under the BCS when four of the past six years we went undefeated in the regular season, and yet never even came close to having an opportunity to compete for the national championship? How did all of those games, and all of those perfect records, count under the BCS? In fact, in two of those four undefeated regular seasons, Boise State was foreclosed from even playing in a major bowl."
Keep tightening that vice, fellas.  Keep tightening that vice until the head pops off like a grape.  Until the intestines, like they're spring-loaded, pop out, leaving nothing but a lifeless body to spin down to the ground like a whirligig.
After hitting a gargoyle first, of course.

Permalink 3 Comments Latest stories in: Boise State Broncos, Mountain West Conference, Rumor Mill, Western Athletic Conference Previous: Big East Network 'is definitely on the table' Next: Another receiver vacating Happy Valley

3 Responses to "Assault on BcS, its 'discrimination' continues"

1. stnmmc says: May 25, 2010 4:08 PM ET

   The highlight of my day is when there is a story about somebody slamming the BcS. I have hated the crowning of a DI(until we have new names for DII and DIII I refuse to use whatever alphabet soup name they are calling themselves this week) champ through polls and this current system ever since ol' Dr. Tom pulled the "I'm retiring" act and screwed Penn State out of any piece of the title in '94. How can these bastards use a playoff for EVERY other NCAA sport, but not DI football. That is a rhetorical question, because we all know the answer.

   Go get'em fellas!!!!

2. Sam says: May 25, 2010 7:21 PM ET

   What about attendance and TV ratings during the regular season? Oh yeah, Mountain West about 33k per game (about 25k without BYU) and WAC about 23k. Pretty chart though. Keep poking the bear little guys, and maybe you'll have your own division soon.

3. Observer1 says: May 25, 2010 7:36 PM ET

   I will say it again.

   16 Teams

   Each of the 11 conferences get an automatic bid. Conferences would be required to have a conference championship game, the winner gets the auto bid. The five at large bids would be selected from the 11 teams that lost in the conference championship game. This means teams must win their division to even get considered for an at large bid. Independents would have three years to join a conference.

   The 11 eligible at large teams would use a power rating system to determine the five teams that get the at large bids.

   The playoff is the seeded based on the power rating system.

   1. The first round would be thanksgiving weekend. Round two the weekend following and then a break until a few days after New Years Day. Teams that lose in the first two rounds could stay play in a bowl game. Bowl games would have to be played during the three weeks of down time between round 2 and 3. When the playoffs are being played, there would be no other D1 game scheduled on that date.

 

It could happen says SEC commishioner & ESPN!

Reported on todays ESPN College Football Live show, if the Big 10 raids the big east for

its  own expansion,  then the SEC will not be left in the dust. As the SEC would want to remain the supreme

conference in college football. Sources say the SEC would raid the ACC for The University of Miami

and Florida State. Courting the too florida schools for a major florida presense in the SEC. And travel

expenses would not be great for all other sports.

 

Since Miami left the Big East for The ACC they have had nothing but bad karma/luck etc. Also

this would have a very positive impact on recruiting for the U. Son come play for the U in the SEC...LOCK IT UP!!

Although Coach Shannon would need to improve his head coaching philosphy and game management alot from

where it is now to compete with Saban, Meyer, and the rest of the good ole boys in the SEC.

 

 

This could also cause a major change in the college football post season as the Big East would prob loose

its BCS bid( no matter how much pull there commishioner has) and maybe be the final nail in the coffin of the dreaded BCS when the contracts up.

 

couldn't find the video of espn today, but here is SEC commishioner has already made of few public statements about there plans if the Big Ten expands to a super conference.   

So the balls in the Big Ten courts now, if they raid the Big East. The U could be joining the SEC...we can only hope!!!

:-)

 

HOUSE U CREW (via canephin30)

Continue reading this post »