Story Links
June 30, 2003
Entries from a broadcaster’s notebook…
While the expansion drama plays out, the Virginia Tech coaches are already preparing for the wars of the ACC. Friday at a charity golf tournament in Salem, I had lunch with a former UVA basketball graduate assistant, now the Hokies head man…Seth Greenberg. The always glib Greenberg, who was selected to follow former Cavalier Ricky Stokes, said the timing couldn’t be better for his young program.
“This is a real shot in the arm for us,” Greenberg said with a smile. “I can now recruit in Virginia and North Carolina and tell the kids they will be playing close to home. You don’t think that makes a difference? It’s huge for us.”
Seth spent most of the day on his cell phone instead of playing golf. Imagine that.
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Not all of Virginia Tech’s fans are excited about the ACC invitation. One Hokie fan from Pulaski, Virginia wrote to The Sporting News website and said Tech looks like the kid on the playground who didn’t get picked for a touch football game. He runs to the principal, who comes out and tells the other kids either he gets picked, or no one will get to play. The fan writes…
“…it turns my stomach. Why would you want to be in a conference that didn’t want you in the first place? Why would you turn your back on those who do? It will be a sad, sad day. Tech has become what we were calling Miami when all of this got started…turncoats.”
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ACC expansion stat of the week? The Duke football team is 8-5 lifetime versus Virginia Tech and Miami.
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Guess what the NCAA is up to again? Academics and athletics better mix in the future. An NCAA subcommittee, headed by former Virginia assistant athletic director and promotions manager Todd Turner, is studying a proposal that would penalize programs which can’t get their act together in the classroom. Programs with perennially poor academic records could lose scholarships and may not be eligible for post season play.
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Turner, Vanderbilt’s A.D., is the subcommittee chair, and told the Associated Press that the NCAA’s new measuring stick could be a point based system. Each athlete would receive a point per semester or quarter if they were academically eligible and another point each term if they remained at the school. Evaluations would be done annually.
If a program fell below a yet to be determined line, it could face sanctions. The proposal’s harshest penalties, ineligibility from NCAA championships or collecting money from the events is not likely to take effect until 2010. The subcommittee is also recommending a more immediate penalty…losing scholarships if athletes leave the programs in poor academic standing.
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Why hasn’t the college football websites jumped on the Matt Schaub for Heisman bandwagon yet? I guess it just takes a little marketing….look for Matt’s “Schaub4Heisman.com” website to launch sometime in mid to late July.