Old Dominion University, long a regional basketball mid-major power, will field a division I-AA program starting in 2009. The Monarchs made the announcement today after a long fund-raising campaign that netted $6 million. The Monarchs at one point had a football program, but after eleven seasons and dropping attendance, it was shut down back in 1940.

ODU will play in the Colonial Athletic Conference, where they currently play their other intercollegiate sports. The coaching staff will start to be assembled during the 2007-08 year as a head coach and assistant athletic director will come on board.

The Monarchs will play at their old field, Foreman Field. Foreman Field has recently hosted lacrosse and field hockey. Those programs will move to a new facility as Foreman Field undergoes renovations to host football.

ODU remains Title IX compliant as women’s crew, softball, and volleyball will get varsity status by 2015.

It started in the Big Ten two seasons ago, last year most of the other conferences adapted it in one shape or another, but now all of Division 1-A will be using the same instant replay rules. On Tuesday the NCAA’s Playing Rules Oversight Panel approved a proposed video replay system for all Division 1-A games that will start this fall. This new system will combine the aspects of what the Big Ten started with the official in the press box and the Mountain West system, which allowed one challenge per game.

Before this rule most conferences used the system that had the official in the press box initiate all replays. That will still be the case but now the head coaches will be allowed to have one challenge per game provided that the team has a timeout when requesting the challenge. If the challenge is overturned the team loses the timeout and does not have the ability to challenge another call during that game, but if the call is overturned the challenging team retains their timeout but that will be the only challenge allowed in the game for that team.

Now if we can only get the NCAA to agree on a playoff…

Just as I predicted two weeks ago, Navy will in fact have a limited partnership with the Big East.

Unfortunately for Big East fans, the agreement is betwen the Midshipmen, the Big East and the Meineke Car Care Bowl.  MSNBC reports that should Navy become bowl eligible, they will compete for a spot with the Big East’s third place finisher for a berth in the Charlotte, NC-based bowl game to play against the ACC’s fifth place finisher.

Navy, with its broad-based appeal, boasts one of the better followings in college football. They sold their 20,000 ticket allotment to the Poinsetta Bowl last season, with bowl officials indicating that they were responible for upwards of 35,000 total ticket sales. They also brought an average of over 20,000 fans to their previous two bowl games–the Emerald Bowl in 2004 and the Houston Bowl in 2003. Only two Big East programs, Louisville and West Virginia, have a comprable history of bringing their fans to bowl games.

What does this mean for the Big East? First consider that Notre Dame already owns a similar arrangement with the Big East and the Gator Bowl. So, in a worst-case scenario for the conference, if Notre Dame falls below their BCS-bowl expectations and Navy becomes bowl eligible, the Big East’s second place team could fall all the way to one of two brand new (read: not very prestigious) bowls–the Birmingham Bowl, played in Birmingham, AL, or the International Bowl, played in Toronto, Canada(!!!).

The University of Texas is renovating their current stadium to seat over 90,000, by totally re-designing and building larger stands in one of the end zones. However plans are in existence to completely enclose the stadium bringing up capacity to 114,000.

Pittsburgh Central Catholic Running back on his was to Colorado.
Lamont Smith a RB from the storied high school program has ran for over 2000 yards. With 3 BCS winners within a couple hours drive and University of Pittsburgh less than one block from Central. You have to wonder how any top players from WPIAL will make it out of the PA-Ohio-WVa triangle this recruiting year.

A few years ago George O’Leary was the butt of a lot of jokes when he was found to have lied on his resume’. His stay at as head coach of Notre Dame was as short as one of Mike Price’s stays at a local Gentleman’s Club. On Friday, the University of Central Florida decided to extend O’Leary’s contract until the year 2015. O’Leary helped the Golden Knights have one of the best turn arounds in recent college football history. After an 0-11 season in his first year in 2004, UCF compiled a 8-5 record last year and played in the school’s first conference championship and bowl game. O’Leary’s contract will pay him $1 million the first year with increases up to $1.55 million in 2015.

Former New Jersey high school stand out QB Domenic Natale has decided to transfer from Michigan State to Rutgers. Natale will have to sit out the entire 2006 season but will still have 3 years of eligibility remaining.

Steve Paskorz wanted to go to Notre Dame from day one, so when Charlie gave him the call with a offer, Paskorz gave him an answer right away. Now the only question remaining is where exactly will he play. At 6′1 220lb Paskorz from Hampton, PA was recruited as a linebacker, and a running back.

As we emerge from the Keith Jackson era, ABC/ESPN have finally announced their broadcasting crews for college football’s largest schedule. Disney’s boys will feature games across five channels this year providing wall to wall coverage of Autumn’s Passion.

As announced before, ABC enters the Saturday night primetime frey with a lead crew of the ageless Brent Musberger and Bob Davie as lead color man. Kirk Herbstreit will also be in the booth when ESPN’s College GameDay is in town as well. Lisa Salters gets the sideline honors.

The Alphabet Network has made Brad Nessler, Bob Griese, and Paul Maguire of ESPN Sunday Night Football, the main crew for the traditional 3:30 games as Nessler and Griese get the lead regional game. Stacy Dales plays sideline reporter.

Other ABC crews feature Dan Fouts debut as a play-by-play guy as he is paired with Tim Brant and Jack Arute on the sidelines. (No word if Arute gets to deck Fouts the first time he calls him partner.) Gary Thorne returns this year with Andre Ware, Todd Harris draws the sideline assignment. (Lloyd Carr cringes in the corner.) Mark Jones makes the jump back to the mothership from ESPN as he and David Norrie make up ABC’s last crew along with Sam Ryan.

ESPN’s anchor team of Mike Patrick and CBS alumni Todd Blackledge draw ESPN’s College Football Saturday Primetime package, Holly Rowe gathers the sideline dirt. Ron Franklin shifts to ESPN2’s primetimer with Ed Cunningham, Dr. Jerry Punch roams the sidelines. (I’d have moved Franklin to ABC for their big game, he is vastly underrated.) Sean McDonough and Chris Spielman get ESPN’s noon game, mostly Big Ten, Rob Stone will stare at cheerleaders on the sideline. Pam Ward keeps her ESPN2 noon date, she shares the booth this year with Mike Gottfried and sideliner Jimmy Dykes.

Thursday night’s Primetimer on ESPN draws Chris Fowler and Herbstreit, Erin Andrews draws the sideline. Dave Pasch, Rece Davis and John Saunders will call weekday games. By the way, what happened to Mike Tirico?

Chris, Kirk, and Lee Corso return to ESPN College GameDay, Rece Davis, along with Lou Holtz and Mark May sit in studio on ESPN during games. John Saunders, also higly underrated, Craig James, and newcomer Doug Flutie hold court on ABC.

State College High School’s Nathan Stupar will hold a press conference tomorrow afternoon, at 3:30 PM EST, to announce his college destination.  The tight end/defensive end prospect is expected to give his verbal commitment to Penn State.  It appears that Maryland, UVA, and West Virginia are the other programs under consideration.

Stupar comes from great football lineage.  His father, Steve, was a Penn State defensive linemen in the 1970s.  His brother, Jonathan, plays tight end for the University of Virginia.  And his uncle, Jeff Hostetler, played for West Virginia before quarterbacking the New York Giants to victory in Super Bowl XXV.

We are more than 8 months away from National Letter of Intent day but that does not discourage recruits from stating their verbal intentions of where they would like to go to school. During these summer month a lot of potential recruits attend camps where college scouts can take a better look at the players and put faces to names. This is where the kids have a chance to set themselves apart from the rest. In the recent weeks a few have stated their intentions and below is a list of those players and where they verballed.

Jared Williams is a 5 foot 10 inch, 180 lb cornerback from Perry Traditional Academy in Pittsburgh PA. His 4.4 40 40 time will help the Panthers in the defensive backfield. He chose Pitt over Ohio State, Virginia and Iowa and said that his relationship with defensive coordinator Paul Rhodes was key in his decision to choose the Panthers.

The Iowa Hawkeyes recently picked up a verbal commitment from 6 foot 5 inch offensive lineman Bryan Bulaga from Woodstock IL . This 270 lb offensive tackle had upwards of 14 offers from school such as Michigan, Nebraska, Michigan State, Purdue, and Wisconsin. Bulaga can play both sides of the ball, and it is evident with his 90 tackles from the defensive tackle position last year but in college he will concentrate on offense.

As noted previously, Josh Marks from Catawissa, PA verbally committed to the Nittany Lions last week. Marks is a 6 foot 5 inch, 300 lb offensive tackle. Some say he quickness and agility to play the tackle spot in college and will be moved inside to a guard position. Marks is slated to be a Rivals.com top 100 recruit and chose Penn State over Pitt, West Virginia and Rutgers.

Finally the West Virginia Mountaineers picked up a verbal commitment from Donny Barclay. The 6 foot 4 inch offensive tackle from Harmony, PA chose the Mountaineers over Pitt, NC State, and Akron. Barclay thinks that the Mountaineers system fits in to his abilites and thinks that with a little hard work that he could fight for a starting position.