NCAA Football Update - 3/1/2009

• Penn State and Michigan have dropped Russell Athletic as product manufacturers because of their use of unfair labor practices. Student groups on both campuses are recognized as spearheading the movements. [Centre Daily Times & Mlive]
• The Indiana Hoosiers have announced that an additional eight football players are not returning to the team in 2009 and that seven offensive players are switching to defense this coming season. [The Herald-Times]
• The consensus #1 recruit in the nation for 2009 - RB Bryce Brown - apparently will not be suiting up for Miami this fall. Brown had been a Miami verbal for some time but did not sign his letter of intent in early February. Miami has decided to move on. [Miami Herald]
• The possible starting QB for Washington State, Marshall Lobbestael, was arrested last week for being a minor exhibiting signs of alcohol consumption. He was promptly suspended indefinitely from the team. [The News Tribune]
• Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano has relinquished his duty as defensive coordinator. He has had the dual coach role since 2005. Replacing him will be co-coordinators Bob Fraser (linebackers) and secondary coach Ed Pinkham. [nj.com]
• The Mountain West wants an automatic bid to the BCS, something other conferences are not happy about. [CBS & ESPN]
• Can things get any worse for Syracuse (football, that is)? All-Big East tackle Arthur Jones has torn a pectoral and will miss four to six weeks after having surgery. If rehab goes as planned he'll be ready just in time for the start of the season. [Syracuse.com]
• Air Force's second-leading rusher is making a switch from RB to QB. Asher Clark will compete with last year's starter Tim Jefferson. Jefferson was last year's MWC Freshman of the Year. [Colorado Springs Gazette]
• The always entertaining (and aloof) Dave "The 'Stache" Wannstedt did a quick question and answer session with Brian Bennett. [ESPN]
• Former USC LB Rey Maualuga is considered one of the best defensive players in the 2009 draft. However, a teammate of his outperformed him in many ways at the combine. No, it wasn't Brian Cushing or Clay Matthews nor was it Mark Sanchez. It was kicker David Buehler. [College Football Talk]
• It's always exciting when two BCS teams play each other, a rare occurrence in the "schedule-cupcakes-to-guarantee-a-BCS-berth" world we live in now. Starting in 2010 LSU and West Virginia will start a home-and-home series. This is great news. Pay attention, Penn State. [LSUsports.net]
• The boy who thought he'd supplant Vince Young at Texas is accepting his fate of never being QB for the Longhorns. After Colt McCoy stepped in and, I guess, has done OK for himself, John Chiles has been asked and has agreed to switch to WR. Talk about your team player. Good for him. [Dallas Morning News]
  
• Michael Crabtree, the former Texas Tech WR and top WR prospect in the 2009 NFL draft, will have surgery on his foot and miss the TTU pro day. Now NFL scouts will have to decide to pull the trigger on the ubertalented athlete without knowing how well he runs without pads on and no contact. Crabtree is scheduled for surgery on Wednesday and will be out of action for 8-10 weeks. [USA Today]
• Former Michigan QB Ryan Mallett was arrested for public intoxication early Sunday morning outside a nightclub near the Arkansas campus, where Mallett is fighting for the starting QB job. [International Herald Tribune]
• As always, ESPN.com Big Ten blogger Adam Rittenberg has a bunch of great stuff this week. First up is his five positional battles to watch this spring.

Every Big Ten team has some holes to fill, and the process begins in spring ball as position competitions kick off throughout the league. Here are five key spots to watch when practices get under way.

From his blog, the battles are Michigan's, Wisconsin's, and Michigan State's QB, Ohio State's RB, and Penn State's DEs. [Adam Rittenberg]

• There is talk of the Big Ten expanding to a nine game conference slate. However, the mathematical matchups would prevent every team from playing nine conference games, meaning the odds of this happening are just slightly better than there being a FBS playoff system. [Badger Beat]
• Continuing the Mount Rushmore theme at ESPN, Rittenberg does a conference one for the Big Ten. He excludes any and all Penn Staters because they have only been in the conference for 16 seasons. I was wondering where Joe Paterno was until I read that little tidbit. [Adam Rittenberg]
• Rittenberg serves up some more Big Ten juice with his Love/Hate lists.

  Night games in Columbus, Madison and State College -- Noon kickoffs are generally the norm in the Big Ten, which sort of blows but makes the rare night game all the more special. Ohio State will host only the ninth night game in team history this fall against USC, and the atmosphere will undoubtedly be electric. Same goes for any game under the lights at Camp Randall Stadium -- there were two last year -- and at Penn State, which thankfully welcomes night football more than any other Big Ten team.
  

• Yes my Big Ten bias is showing. But I love Adam Rittenberg's stuff. Here's a few more things he has had this past week.

  New faces in the spotlight this spring
  Who will break out in the Big Ten?
  Outlook for national awards in 2009

• OK, this is the last Rittenberg thing for this post, I swear. Penn State and Maryland teamed up for a fundraiser to recognize Global Rare Disease Awareness day on Saturday, February 28th. How did they do this? College football video game tournament! Penn State players participated at the local Damon's Grille. Admission was $5-$10. The winner from each school was to face off against each other to determine a real champion (taking notes, NCAA?). Rittenberg also makes note of Penn State's Lift for Life event. [Adam Rittenberg]

OK, that's enough for tonight. I'll be back tomorrow with the next installment of Nittany Lions in the Pros.