Charlotte, U.S.A. — The Belk Bowl is thrilled to announce Country Music Awards’ 2011 Vocal Group of the Year, Lady Antebellum, will be the featured act at the 2012 Belk Bowl this coming December. The 11th annual Belk Bowl will kick off at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 27 at the Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C. and will feature a matchup of the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Big East Conference.

“Bowl games are always a lot of fun whether your favorite team is playing or not,” said Lady Antebellum. “This is going to be our New Year’s Eve pre-party celebration in Charlotte!” The group’s record breaking third disc “Own the Night” debuted at the No. 1 position on Billboard’s Top 200 chart in October 2011, becoming the biggest first week debut by a country artist last year.

The album has already produced two No. 1 singles—”Just a Kiss” and “We Owned the Night.” The band has now tallied six No. 1 hits since its debut in 2007. The current single, “Wanted You More”, is now being played on country radio stations and is making its ascent up the charts. The trio’s previous two albums, “Lady Antebellum” and “Need You Now”, have sold more than five million albums across the globe, spawned four No. 1 hits, scored six GRAMMYs and more than a dozen other awards.

The group received five nominations for the 2012 Academy Of Country Music Awards and won the Group of the Year award for the third straight year. Additionally, the group received a 2012 Grammy award for Country Album of the Year. Past wins include Vocal Group of the Year at the 45th Annual CMA Awards, Favorite Country Band, Duo or Group for the 2011 American Music Awards and being one of CMT’s five Artists of the Year for 2011.

“College football season is our favorite time of the year,” said the band members of Lady Antebellum. “When we’re out on tour, we make sure a TV is set up so we can all hang out and watch the Saturday games together.” This year’s FanFest event is free to the public and will begin at 1:00 p.m. with Lady Antebellum scheduled to begin their performance at 4:30 p.m.

Individual tickets for the 2012 Belk Bowl will go on sale in early October and will be available through TicketMaster and the participating schools. Fans can visit the official website, www.BelkBowl.com, for more information about the game and surrounding events.

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Iona College’s stellar point guard, Scott Machado, is anxiously waiting for his name to be called Thursday at the 2012 NBA Draft. Machado is currently ranked as the 35th best player in the draft and the 5th best point guard of the draft, according to Chad Ford’s ESPN Player Evaluation

Machado received plenty of national recognition in his final season with the Gaels. He was one of the 16 finalists for the John R. Wooden Collegiate Player of the Year Award, and was one of the 11 finalists for the Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year Award. In addition, his incredible court vision led him to finish the season as the nation’s assists leader, averaging 9.9 assists per game.

Machado’s 13.6 points per game, 5.0 rebounds per game, and 9.9 assists per game rightfully earned him the Pepsi Max Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Player of the Year award, as well as membership of the All-MAAC First Team.

In his final season with the Gaels, he helped Iona become regular season MAAC champions, and also earned it an at large NCAA Tournament Bid. Iona’s regular season MAAC championship was the first since 2001, and this was the Gaels’ first NCAA tournament appearance since 2006.

It is clearly evident that Machado has been spending countless hours in the gym since joining the Iona Gaels, improving his shooting, passing, rebounding, and assisting throughout the years, posting career bests in each category as a senior.

He had some wonderful words of advice left behind to his teammates at Iona, “Work hard and seize opportunities given to them; to get better at every aspect of the game in any way possible and to sharpen up their everything.”

As for the tons of other mid-major players living the dream like Machado is, he stated, “At a mid major school, you have to be able to do a certain something very great and special because they think we can’t play. They feel as if our level of play isn’t very good because of the leagues we are in. You have to stand out and show that you are capable of playing at the next level in some sort of way.”

Once being drafted, it doesn’t end there for Machado. “After being drafted I want to become a somebody in the NBA, not just another player.” The Gaels, as well as the NCAA, are losing a talented player. However, the NBA is gaining an ambitious future star.

Image Courtesy of  Scott Machado

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With March Madness well underway, most of us have seen the student-athlete commercial about student-athletes performing better academically than those that are simply students. But is this true for ALL students and ALL student-athletes? Not exactly.

According to an exploratory study on www.AthleticInsight.com, student athletes at the college level face higher levels of stress than do their counter-parts. Student athletes reported having less time for sleep, heavier pressures and demands, little time for themselves and more relationship problems than regular students.

Meanwhile, students had higher stress levels when it came to making important life decisions, focusing on their education and social pressures. In the past, athletes had higher stress levels in terms of academic performance but current studies suggest that athletes fare just as well as students.

Cynthia Dallas, who states, “think we’re just a bunch of dumb jocks?” at the end of the commercial, is an advocate for student-athletes. Dallas, a former Divison-1 basketball player, claims, “A lot of people just assume I can’t string a coherent sentence together because I played sports, and they’re very wrong.”

But what is the direct correlation between being dumb and playing sports? While the NCAA claims it’s a stereotype of society, statistics speak otherwise. NCAA President, Mark Emmert states, “NCAA student-athletes, particularly African-American males, are graduating at a higher percentage than their counterparts in the general student body in almost every category,” and “In a 10-year time frame that begins after high school, nearly 90 percent of student-athletes graduate.”

However, research from the Atlanta-Journal Constitution has found that “college student-athletes actually have lower SAT scores than that of the general student body.” In fact, male athletes at the college level had on average, a score of 200 points lower on the SAT than male students, according to the New York Times.

While the NCAA boasts about higher graduation rates and doing better than non-athletes, a survey that they themselves conducted suggests differently. While the commercial claims that African-American males that are athletes have a higher chance of graduating college, the NCAA’s research contradicts that fact.

In 2011, the NCAA revealed male-students athletes (regardless of nationality) consider themselves athletes before students and spend more time on their athletic performance than their academic performance. Additionally, male college football player’s graduation rates across the nation are 16% below the general student population graduation rate while male college basketball players are 25% below.

Former NCAA President Myles Brand wanted to bring about change for student-athletes and their futures by mandating a reform for Division-1 schools by raising the bar for the eligibility to play. The Academic Progress Rate known as the APR requires that student-athletes must complete 40% of their degree by the end of their second year, 60% by the end of their third year and 80% by the end of their fourth year. The APR is measured on a scale of 1,000 and if a school falls below a 900, then there will be consequences from the NCAA.

Regardless of the commercial, or the contradicting statistics of the NCAA’s reports, those are not the facts we should be looking at. As they boast about African-American male athletes having a higher graduation rate than non-athletes, the bottom line is this; African-American males are more likely to go to prison than they are to go to college and in this country, “33% of black males between 18 and 24 get arrested” (www.best-basketball-tips.com).

So before one can become an NCAA student-athlete, these are the numbers that need overcoming with integrity, discipline and perseverance in order to give these students an opportunity for a promising future. Being a student-athlete is a privilege and with that privilege, being a student must ALWAYS comes first.

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USC quarterback, Matt Barkley, has decided to don the Trojan red and yellow for one last season. On Thursday afternoon, the 21-year-old declared that he will not enroll in the 2012 NFL Draft, opting instead to return for his senior year in Los Angeles. Barkley broke the news in a nationally televised event held in the campus’ Heritage Hall with his family, girlfriend, head coach, the USC marching band, and many others in attendance.

When discussing the two options before him, he began by speaking optimistically of his future at the next level. “I am prepared to play quarterback in the NFL,” said Barkley. “It is my dream to play quarterback in the NFL – and I intend to make that dream a reality.” While this initially sounded like a young man that had decided to move on, Barkley would take everyone by surprise and suddenly go in the exact opposite direction.

“But, I know in my heart, that I have not yet finished my journey as a Trojan football player,” said Barkley. “Our USC football team has been through some tough times, and we have persevered. This 2012 team has some serious unfinished business to attend to, and I plan to play a part in it. I have firmly decided to forgo the 2012 NFL draft and finish that.”

The conclusion of that statement quickly brought about wild cheers along with a celebratory tune played by the band. For the first time in two years, the USC football program had good news for their loyal family. Sanctions handed down by the NCAA in 2010 banned the school’s bowl eligibility for the past two years. Barkley’s return will now give him the opportunity to lead the school to its first bowl since defeating Boston College in the 2009 Emerald Bowl.  With USC retaining most of its starters for next season, a national title run after this year’s 10-2 finish could be an inspiration as well.

Head coach, Lane Kiffin, was not shocked at all by Barkley’s announcement. Kiffin had paid Barkley a visit at his home the previous night, and his quarterback gave him a gold Christmas ornament. Displayed on the front of the ornament was a picture of the two embracing after this year’s victory over Colorado. After being told to turn it around, Kiffin found the words, “One More Year”, written on the back and immediately rejoiced.

Kiffin has tremendous respect for Barkley, knowing that most star athletes would not pass up the opportunity to begin making millions of guaranteed dollars and play professionally. “This is a special, special college student-athlete story,” said Kiffin. “To be a part of this story is unbelievable for all of us involved.”

Barkley had an outstanding junior year and was projected to be an early first round pick in the upcoming draft. In 2011, he threw for 3,528 yards along with 39 touchdowns and only 7 interceptions. Stanford’s Andrew Luck and Baylor’s Robert Griffin III were regarded as the only two quarterbacks that could have possibly been selected before him.

However, Barkley is not expected to hurt his draft stock at all by remaining in school. In fact, experts believe that he will be even more prepared for the 2013 NFL Draft and will actually be selected with the number one overall pick. Being a potential frontrunner for next year’s Heisman Trophy does not sound too bad either.

Barkley did not listen to those who believed that this was the wrong route to take. His ultimate goal is to help contribute to the winning tradition established by the historic USC program. All eyes will now effectively be on him in 2012 to see if he is successful in doing so, like those who occupied this prestigious position before him – current NFL quarterbacks, Mark Sanchez, Matt Leinart, and Carson Palmer.

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Upset seemed to be the theme this week as No. 2 Oklahoma State fell to unranked Iowa State, No. 5 Oklahoma was taken out by No. 22 Baylor, and the No. 7 Clemson Tigers were dropped off by an unranked NC State squad. And as much as Oregon fought USC to not join the group of upset Top 10 teams, it was of no avail.

The No. 4 Oregon Ducks suffered a 38-35 loss at the hands of the USC Trojans, in what was an exciting, fight-to-the-finish showdown, Saturday night. By the third quarter, the Trojans had taken a 38-14 lead and looked to be cruising to victory. But the Ducks never gave up. Freshman De’Anthony Thomas ran a 96-yard kick return in for a score, and the tide shifted into Oregon’s favor.

Though LaMichael James couldn’t get it going with only 78 yards on 20 carries, backup RB Kenjon Barner picked up his slack, especially in the fourth quarter, rushing for 123 yards and two touchdowns on only 15 carries.

QB Darron Thomas also got it rolling, completing 23-of-35 pass attempts for 265 yards and a touchdown, but USC was able to shut down Oregon’s offense early, preventing them from getting the hot start that they needed.

USC QB Matt Barkley absolutely dismantled the Ducks’ defense, passing for 323 yards and four touchdowns, while completing 26-of-34 attempts. And his favorite target? The true freshman, Marquise Lee, who hauled in 187 and a touchdown on eight receptions; over 23 yards per reception. Barkley also hit WR Robert Woods seven times for two touchdowns.

The spotlight was on Oregon freshman, De’Anthony Thomas, who had verbally committed to USC before changing his mind and officially committing to the Ducks. Along with his kick return TD, he was also on the receiving end of a 29-yard touchdown pass.

For Oregon, hopes of a rematch against No. 1 LSU in the BCS Championship Game have been spoiled, and at 9-2 they MUST win next week’s rivalry game against Oregon State in order to maintain home field advantage in the Pac-12 Championship Game. The Trojans, however, are still feeling the results of the Reggie Bush scandal, and were banned from all bowl games after being found guilty of paying Bush to attend their school.

Their win over Oregon was beautiful, but it may have been in vain.

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Silence fell upon the entire Clemson sidelines as NC State continued to pour unanswered points onto the scoreboard. Without WR, playmaker, and possible Heisman candidate, Sammy Watkins, No. 7 Clemson’s offense was stagnant, and State’s defense was smothering.

Scoring their first touchdown with 1:12 remaining in the fourth quarter, Clemson felt the effects of Watkins absence, who had suffered an upper body injury when playing Wake Forest last week. Unranked North Carolina State sacked QB Tajh Boyd five times, picked him off twice, and recovered two forced fumbles in their routing of the Tigers Saturday night.

Coming off of a one-TD, three-interception performance last week,  State QB Mike Glennon pulled a complete 180. Playing a nearly perfect game, Glennon hit eight different receivers for 253 yards and 3 touchdowns, hitting four of them for three or more receptions. There were no interceptions.

The Wolfpack also had a combined  145 yards on the ground, led by James Washington’s 86-yard performance, but their ability to contain a Watkins-less, Clemson offense overloaded Coach Dabo Swinney’s play calling.  With a team who averaged 170.5 rushing yards per game coming in tonight, Clemson was held to a miserable 34 yards on the ground. As for the Tigers’ aerial attack, Boyd did complete 21 of 34 passes for 238 yards, but he failed to get the ball into the endzone and turned the ball over twice.

State also managed to keep the Clemson offense off the field, winning the possession battle by a margin of just about 13 minutes. State CB David Amerson recorded his eleventh interception tonight, six more than any other team in college football and three away from tying an NCAA record.

The now 9-2 Clemson Tigers will likely take a huge hit in the BCS standing, since losing to a non-Top 25 team normally results in a drop of ten or more rankings. Things do not get any better as they end the season with a road game against the No. 12 South Carolina Gamecocks.

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After a dramatic week behind the scenes inside the football team, Penn State was unable to come up with a home victory against Nebraska, losing 17-14. The Cornhuskers’ running game carried the team to victory with Rex Burkhead and Ameer Abdullah rushing for a total of 127 yards and two touchdowns.

Quarterback Taylor Martinez helped get the ball down the field, throwing for 144 yards on 13 catches with no interceptions. Penn State running back Stephfon Green got the only two touchdowns for his team, while quarterback Matt McGloin moved the ball downfield 192 yards on 16 catches.

With no offensive action in the first quarter, the Cornhuskers were the first to make a change on the scoreboard with a 41-yard field goal by Brett Maher five minutes into the second quarter, and a 2-yard rushing touchdown from Ameer Abdullah in the final minute of the half.

Nebraska scored yet again in the early minutes of the third quarter with Rex Burkhead rushing 14 yards for a touchdown, making the score 17-0. However, Penn state showed signs of life later on in the third quarter with Stephfon Green running five yards for a touchdown that brought them ten points away from the lead going into the final quarter.

After several pushes for more points, the Nittany Lions were able to bring themselves three points away from tying up the game with Green rushing for another touchdown late in the fourth quarter.

Penn State was able to get the ball back in the final minute of the game.  However, in the final seconds and after several Hail Mary attempts, the Nittany Lions were unable to get the ball down the field to get the final points that they needed. In the end, Nebraska won the game 17-14.

This game was the first Penn State has played since the firing of their head coach, Joe Paterno, who had been coaching the Nittany Lions since 1966. He holds the record for the most Division 1-A wins with 409 and the most bowl wins with 24 in his career. The Nebraska Cornhuskers (8-2) travel to face the Michigan Wolverines next Saturday, while the Penn State Nittany Lions (8-2) travel to face Ohio State.

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Despite the Ducks being down both star RB LaMichael James and QB Darron Thomas — essentially the crutch of the Oregon offense — the team, short-handed and all, managed to completely dismantle the Colorado Buffaloes Saturday afternoon.

Led by junior RB Kenjon Barner and backup QB Bryan Bennett, the Ducks high-octane offense lit up the Colorado defense for five touchdowns and carried Oregon to a 45-2 road win over the Buffaloes. Barner picked the Buffaloes defense apart on the ground, rushing for 115 yards and two touchdowns on 10 carries.

Freshman Tra Carson also made the most of some touches, hauling in 80 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries. When it came to the passing game, variety was definitely the spice of the Oregon air attack. Bennett hit eight different receivers, completing 11 out of 20 pass attempts for 156 yards and two touchdowns.

Star freshman De’Anthony Thomas had yet another stellar performance, rushing for 50 yards on four rushes, and finishing with two receptions for 18 yards and a touchdown. As for the Buffaloes, the only highlight of their day was a safety in the third quarter. The Ducks held the Colorado offense scoreless the entire game, allowing only 133 passing yards and 133 yards on the ground.

They even forced a pick-six in the second quarter when LB Michael Clay picked off Tyler Hansen for a 32-yard defensive touchdown. Oregon (6-1) looks forward to yet another blowout victory at home when they face off against Washington State next week.

As for Colorado (1-7), their future doesn’t seem any brighter, as they’ll be facing off against a 5-2 Arizona State team next week, followed by a date with the powerhouse USC Trojans the week after.

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The NCAA—a governing body of rules and regulations for college sports, has again been tarnished by its flawed system of vigilance. Unsurprisingly, imprudent judgment, a term that can be so easily entwined with college sports, has again led to scandal. This scandal, like all the previous before, will surely set off a firestorm of questions pertaining to how the NCAA can successfully regulate and prevent such prevalent illegality within college sports. This time the scandal that has besmirched college sports involves the football program of Ohio State.

Over the past two weeks, allegations accusing the Ohio State football program of committing NCAA infractions have been swirling sports media airwaves across the county.  These alleged NCAA infractions stem from 2010 allegations, which have, emerged more fully in the past two weeks. The 2010 allegations accused Ohio State’s star quarterback Terrelle Pryor and other Buckeyes’, of dealing memorabilia to a tattoo parlor in Columbus Ohio in exchange for money. The tattoo parlor was inadvertently linked to a federal drug trafficking investigation. The incident was looked into during an 11-day investigation, during which, Pryor and four other players were slapped with a 5 game suspension for the start of next season. At the time of the investigation, Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith who must be eating his words right now, stated, “there are no other NCAA violations around this case”.  The re-emergence of these violations, come on the heels of an anonymous former friend of Pryor’s being mentioned as a source in a report by ESPN’s Tom Farrey and Justin Gubar; the report, accuses Pryor of receiving large sums of money for memorabilia signings back in 2009-2010. As Farrey and Gubar write in their article, the former friend said the signings for cash, “occurred a minimum of 35 to 40 times, netting Pryor anywhere from $20,000 to $40,000 that year”. The former friend also referenced how much the Ohio State quarterback was paid for each signing, telling Farrey and Gubar “Pryor was paid $500 to $1,000 each time he signed mini football helmets and other gear for a Columbus businessman and freelance photographer, Dennis Talbott”.  In addition to giving explicit details about the signings for cash, the former friend also provided transparency of Pryor’s relationship with the Columbus community, saying he would receive, “thousands of dollars in free food at local restaurants and convenience stores, free drinks at bars and free tattoos”. The former friend, also mentioned Pryor having, “access to free loaner cars from local dealerships”.

Unfortunately for Ohio State, in the midst of these allegations, the football program has already lost head coach Jim Tressel, who has been alleged with covering up these incidents’ of signings for cash and who’s resignation last week, marks the loss of not only fan favorite in Columbus Ohio, but also sparks questions about how the team will do moving forward. Also sparking questions about the team moving forward is the decision of Terrelle Pryor, not to return to Ohio State University for his senior season. Tressel and Pryor will surely be missed in the Buckeye state, as both have been a huge part of the Ohio State football teams success; Tressel has a staggering winning percentage of .828, while Pryor has an equally astounding winning record of 31-4 while a at Ohio State.

News of NCAA infractions get reported so frequently; they really should not surprise anyone anymore. Week after week these stories come out and they don’t seem be coming to a halt anytime soon. The following questions need to be answered; what should be done, in order to thwart the omnipresence of illegality within college sports? Secondly, if the omnipresence of illegality can’t be addressed acutely enough, then might it be best for the rules to change? There are countless examples of College sports teams that have Blemishes, when it comes to NCAA infractions committed.  Most of the infraction within college sports involves a paper trail of money going to college players. NCAA rules specifically prohibit players from soliciting money or signing contracts in order to receive money. Despite this, college players have not thought twice about leaving money on the table, even if they are offered it illegally. One-day people in charge of college sports will hopefully realize, that the floodgate of scandals will not cease until players get paid their lump sum of money.

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The NCAA has been criticized by many for the way it handles college sports and student athletes. Schools constantly must be on their toes to ward off NCAA investigations. They must be careful to follow every dumb and mundane rule to the T.

There are so many things wrong with the NCAA, and its legal existence is a phenomenon. The organization is a monopoly, and a surprisingly successful one. There is no other organization that oversees college athletics, and not a hint of competition.

It is also a dictatorship. Conferences should be allowed more power and freedoms to make their own decisions, making things quicker and more efficient, but also providing a check to their power. Whatever these big wigs say goes, and that’s another problem with them. Their rulings are often inconsistent, and they lack punishment guidelines, just making them up as they go.

In the Cameron Newton controversy this past year, the NCAA decided that Newton was eligible, even after several allegations were made that his father was asking universities for money in exchange for Cam to play for their school. Previously the NCAA had ruled that parents were part of the student, resulting in sanctions for USC and stripping Reggie Bush of his Heisman Trophy.

Several other major institutions have been in the news recently for brush-ups with the NCAA. The University of Connecticut, Tennessee, Michigan, and recently Ohio State have received disciplinary actions for somewhat trivial ordeals.

Another problem is the profiteering off of student athletes. The NCAA has video games, jerseys, bobble heads, etc in the likeness of players, and these players don’t see a dime of this money. Yes, the players do have scholarships and are receiving a free education which is of amazing worth, but it pales in comparison to the profits that the NCAA and schools are making off of students. They should get a cut of these profits in the form of a stipend, or receive a portion of money after graduation to help them financially with their futures.

The NCAA is so worried about themselves that they forget about the student athlete’s who make the college engine run. They suspend kids over golf-cart rides, or if someone buys them a pizza, while the NCAA smugly enjoys their royalties. If these students make a mistake, the NCAA has no problem wiping their names from the record books so it’s as if they never existed at all.

If a coach messes up at a university it is the college that is punished, not the coaches. They can leave for another job while the institution suffers through penalties caused by a departing coach. It can take years to turn a program back around, especially if it is suffering from a lack of scholarships, or a post-season ban.

Now there must be rules of course, or else every team would be pulling an SMU, but the rules must create a level playing field, should be less trivial, and should be more consistent. Maybe the conferences should just govern themselves, and the NCAA could take a back seat to the athletes that make them all of this money.

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