A Hawkeye Extension, Army, and Andrews
Another weekend is upon us and if you have been getting viruses out of your computer searching for the infamous Erin Andrews video, here are a couple good things that happened in the game this week. (My own take on Andrews in a bit.)
Iowa and Kirk Ferentz agreed to a seven-year extension for the 53-year-old coach, who is 70-53 in ten seasons at the helm of the Hawkeyes. Ferentz has guided Iowa to a BCS bowl, 2003 Orange, and four other New Year's bowl games, three Outback's and a Capital One, during his tenure. As the replacement for the legendary Hayden Fry, Ferentz tenure has seen the program remain a strong and vital Big 10 school.
Critics may not agree with his three million dollar a year salary or some of the past indiscretions that saw players, including his son, arrested, but the ship has been righted and the program wins. Fanhouse gives this interesting tidbit, only three Big Ten schools have winning records over the last thirty seasons, combined and not consecutive, Ohio State, Michigan, and Iowa. Ferentz, as a line coach in the 1980's under Fry and in his own right, is a major part of that. The extension is through 2015.
The other bit of good news comes from Army. They have signed a five year deal with Yankee Stadium to bring an annual game to the new stadium. The series starts next year as Army and Notre Dame will tangle on November 20, 2010, Notre Dame, by the way, will be the home team so the game can be seen on NBC. Army then, as part of their new deal with CBS College Sports that kicks in for 2011,will play Rutgers in 2011, Air Force in 2012, and Boston College in 2014. A 2013 game will bedetermined at a later date. This deal harkens back to Army's glory days in the late 1940's when Notre Dame made an annual trip to New York to play the Cadets with a championship on the line.
While Army's title hopes are long in the past, giving the team a high profile game at Yankee Stadium, which hosted an annual Grambling game as late as 1987, gives the team and the academy some great exposure and a big game in New York. New York City is not a hotbed for college football, but that should change a bit with this deal and if Rutgers can stay a force in the Big East. Kudos to Army and the Yankees for such forward thinking. The Cadets all have a higher calling than pro football after their college years are over and giving them some recognition is a good thing.
Finally, back to the mess ESPN finds itself in with the Erin Andrews video. Do not be surprised if this was an inside job by someone either from the crew that travels with her or the chain of hotels they stay at. The scenes spliced together are clearly two different locations. While not a big fan of her work, it is sad that she was exploited this way and a bigger shame that she was really exploited by the New York Post this week by publishing pictures. She's pretty and a blogger favorite but, in my view, not a great sideline reporter. Trashing her career, by whoever did this however, was not right and is not fair.
Until next week...
