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News Nuggets, 01.06.04
NOTES FROM ECU AND BEYOND...

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Compiled from staff reports and electronic dispatches

Tip off time adjusted for ECU-Charlotte Bobble Head game

The game time for Saturday's Conference USA game between Charlotte and East Carolina at Halton Arena has been changed to 8:00 p.m. to accomodate fans who want to watch the Carolina Panthers NFL playoff game that afternoon. The Panthers are playing at St. Louis at 4:30 p.m.

Signature Sports Group, Inc., the marketing arm of the Charlotte 49ers Athletic Department, has announced that national recording artist Clay Aiken will be on-hand to perform during the ECU-Charlotte game. Clay Aiken Bobble Head dolls will be given away free to all fans in attendance.

Aiken graduated from UNC Charlotte less than a month ago, on Dec. 20, 2003. He has enjoyed a quick rise to fame since his finalist performance on the hit TV Show "American Idol."

Aiken's first album, "Measure of a Man," debuted at #1 and quickly went double-platinum. He has been popular on the talk show circuit, has performed at such athletic events as the World Series and has appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine.

A total of 9105 Clay Aiken Bobble Head dolls will be given away to fans that attend the game, while supplies last, compliments of Food Lion and Healthy Choice. Each fan who presents a game admission ticket will be limited to one (1) Clay Aiken Bobble Head doll.

To purchase tickets for the game, call the 49ers athletic ticket office at 704/687-4949 or log on to the 49ers official website, charlotte49ers.com, and click on the "Tickets" link.

AP trophy presentation seals title split

LOS ANGELES — To chants of "Pete! Pete! Pete!", USC coach Pete Carroll accepted The Associated Press' college football championship trophy Monday, the Trojans' first title in 25 years.

"It's so great to be standing in front of you representing what this university has always been about: winning championships, national championships," Carroll said during the on-campus presentation.

Several hundred students and fans interrupted Carroll's remarks by yelling his name. Some players chimed in, including quarterback Matt Leinart and defensive end Kenechi Udeze.

USC earned 48 of the 65 first-place votes early Monday to finish No. 1 in the AP poll. The Trojans (12-1) topped USA Today/ESPN coaches' poll champion LSU, which beat Oklahoma 21-14 in BCS title game Sunday night in the Sugar Bowl.

USC beat Michigan 28-14 in the Rose Bowl on Thursday to stake its claim to the title. But the coaches were obligated to crown LSU (13-1), even though USC held the top spot in their poll going into the bowls. Three of the 63 coaches broke the agreement by voting the Trojans No. 1, but it wasn't enough to win that poll.

Clay Haswell, the AP's chief of bureau for California and Nevada, presented the trophy to Carroll.

It's the first split national championship since 1997, when Michigan won the AP poll and Nebraska was the coaches' choice. The Bowl Championship Series started the following season with the goal of determining an undisputed champion.

In the final, post-bowl AP poll, USC received 1,608 points to beat out LSU by 32 points. Oklahoma was third, followed by Ohio State and Miami. The top five in the coaches' poll was LSU, USC, Oklahoma, Ohio State and Miami.

Grantland Rice trophy also goes to USC

The Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) will present its 2003 Grantland Rice Trophy to the Southern California Trojans. The national championship trophy, given by the FWAA since 1954, will be awarded based on USC finishing as the top-ranked team in the Grantland Rice Super 16 Poll. The poll, in its second season, is voted on by 16 writers from around the nation.

The 2003 Grantland Rice Trophy will be USC's fifth and its first since 1974. The Trojans also won the award in 1962, 1967 and 1972.

The complete final Super 16 poll will be released this week through the Grantland Rice Trophy's official website, grantlandrice.com.

BCS title game takes tumble in TV ratings

NEW YORK — Drama in the polls is no match for drama on the field when it comes to the television ratings for the Bowl Championship Series' title game.

LSU's 21-14 win over Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl on Sunday night garnered a 14.4 overnight rating with a 22 share for ABC. That's a 22.5 percent drop from the 18.6 with a 29 share that the network garnered for Ohio State's thrilling double-overtime victory over Miami in last year's championship at the Fiesta Bowl. That game drew the highest overnight rating for a BCS bowl game since the system began in 1998.

The overnight ratings for the Sugar Bowl were very close to the 14.3 with a 21 share that the network received for the Rose Bowl two seasons ago, when Miami routed Nebraska 37-14. That game turned out to be the lowest-rated BCS title game.

The Tigers' win assured them of the USA Today/ESPN coaches' poll championship. USC won the AP title by virtue of a convincing 28-14 win over Michigan in the Rose Bowl.

The Rose Bowl received a national rating of a 14.3 with a 25 share for ABC. That's up 27 percent from last year's 11.3 with a 20 share. It also marks the highest rating for a Rose Bowl since the Bowl Championship Series started in 1998.

The Rose Bowl, which was played last Thursday, was the only one of the four BCS bowl games not to be broadcast in prime time. ABC televises all BCS games.

Miami's 16-14 win over Florida State in the Orange Bowl on Friday night got a 9.1 national rating with a 16 share. That's almost identical to the 9.2 with a 15 share that ABC got for last year's Sugar Bowl, which was shown in the same time slot.

The national rating is the percentage of all homes with TVs, even if they are not in use. Each rating point represents 1,084,000 homes.

Overnight ratings measure the 55 largest TV markets in the United States, covering nearly 70 percent of the country. Each overnight rating point represents about 735,000 TV homes.

The share is the percentage of homes with sets in use.

Associated Press basketball poll

The top 25 teams in The Associated Press' men's college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, records through Jan. 4, total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote and previous ranking:

[Conference USA and Carolinas teams in bold.]

Rank/Team/Record/Points/Previous
 1. Connecticut (50) 11-1 1,752 1
 2. Duke (5) 10-1 1,673 2
 3. Arizona (5) 9-1 1,533 4
 4. Stanford (5) 11-0 1,528 5
 5. Wake Forest (5) 9-0 1,477 6
 6. Oklahoma (2) 10-0 1,408 7
 7. Kentucky 9-1 1,390 8
 8. Georgia Tech 12-1 1,282 3
 9. Saint Joseph's 11-0 1,252 10
10. Louisville 9-1 1,126 11
11. Cincinnati 9-0 1,023 12
12. North Carolina 8-2 964 9
13. Kansas 8-2 903 13
14. Florida 9-2 854 14
15. Pittsburgh 14-0 843 15
16. Gonzaga 10-2 760 16
17. Syracuse 9-1 745 17
18. Texas 7-2 576 19
19. Illinois 9-2 489 20
20. Vanderbilt 11-0 424 22
21. Wisconsin 9-2 305 18
22. Mississippi State 11-0 267 24
23. Marquette 9-2 202 25
24. Purdue 10-3 131 21
25. Providence 8-1 130 --

Others receiving votes:

Creighton 86, Texas Tech 83, Oklahoma State 40, Memphis 29, Maryland 25, Florida State 22, BYU 13, Seton Hall 13, Michigan 7, Missouri 6, Western Michigan 6, South Carolina 5, Utah State 5, Boston College 4, Colorado State 3, Dayton 3, LSU 3, Georgetown 2, Mississippi 2, Rhode Island 2, Boise State 1, Boston University 1, Georgia 1, Nebraska 1.

News Nuggets are compiled periodically from staff, ECU, Conference USA and its member schools, and from Associated Press and other reports. Copyright 2004 Bonesville.net and other publishers. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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