News Nuggets, 02.10.04
NOTES FROM ECU AND BEYOND...

Previous Day Nuggets...             Next Day Nuggets...

Compiled from staff reports and electronic dispatches

Louisiana Tech preens for C-USA courtship

The school associated with one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history hopes to be the next team to switch conferences.

Louisiana Tech, the alma mater of high-profile broadcaster and Pro Football Hall of Famer Terry Bradshaw, would be better off in Conference USA, believes Bulldogs athletic director Jim Oakes.

"We think with our strong academic program and our athletic success we would be a good addition to the league," Oakes said of the Ruston, La., school.

East Carolina experienced Tech up close and personal during the Bradshaw era, absorbing solid thumpings from the Bulldogs in Ruston in 1968 (35-7) and in Greenville in 1969 (24-6).

With Texas Christian moving from C-USA to the Mountain West Conference, Tech is one of a reported six schools hoping to fill the void. The Bulldogs currently compete in the Western Athletic Conference.

In picking its 12th member, C-USA assistant commissioner Russ Anderson said, C-USA will look at a number of determining factors, including geographic location and both academic and athletic success.

"There are a whole number of things," Anderson said. "You'd look where they'd fit in from a geographic standpoint, from an academic standpoint, obviously the success they've had on the playing field. Those really stand out as three very key ingredients."

Louisiana Tech is doing well academically and athletically, Oakes said. He believes the northeast Louisiana location is also a plus.

"Geographically, six or seven schools are within a six-hour drive of Ruston," Oakes said. "That's a real plus."

Tech's small operating budget ($8.5 million) and its poor attendance record are viewed as negatives.

List of defendants pared in Big East-ACC suit

For the second time in four months, a state judge removed the Atlantic Coast Conference as a defendant in a lawsuit filed by four Big East football schools over the departure of Miami and Boston College for the ACC. Superior Court Judge Samuel Sferrazza ruled Monday that the ACC did not have sufficient ties to Connecticut to be sued here.

Attorneys for Boston College and members of the ACC's governing body asked that the cases against them also be dismissed. Judge Samuel Sferrazza heard arguments on that request but did not issue a ruling. Connecticut, Rutgers, Pittsburgh and West Virginia argue that the ACC, Miami and Boston College conspired to weaken the Big East.

Sferrazza originally dismissed the case against the ACC in October, prompting Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal to refile the lawsuit adding as defendants individual directors of the ACC. The new lawsuit also added Boston College and its athletic director, Eugene DeFilippo.

Attorneys argued Monday that Blumenthal's suit against ACC members was a veiled effort to get the judge to reconsider the case. "He's trying to get in the back door after he was told he couldn't get in the front door," Erik Albright, an attorney for the ACC, said.

The suit still targets ACC Commissioner John Swofford, ACC President Carolyn Callahan, ACC Vice President Donn Ward and ACC Treasurer Cecil Huey. Callahan, Ward and Huey are professors who serve rotating terms on the board.

Sferrazza has already said Miami can be sued because, as a member of the Big East, it shared in revenues from games in Connecticut. Blumenthal said that holds true for Boston College as well, but James Smeallie, an attorney for BC, said there are no specific allegations that warrant a case against that school.

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 Feb. 8, 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 Duke 43 20-1 1765 1
 2 Stanford 27 20-0 1753 2
 3 Saint Joseph's 2 20-0 1659 3
 4 Pittsburgh 0 22-1 1502 4
 5 Connecticut 0 19-3 1499 5
 6 Mississippi State 0 19-1 1405 7
 7 Gonzaga 0 19-2 1392 8
 8 Kentucky 0 16-3 1281 9
 9 Louisville 0 17-3 1189 6
10 Oklahoma State 0 17-2 1166 13
11 Texas 0 16-3 1156 11
12 Kansas 0 15-4 879 20
13 Cincinnati 0 16-3 846 10
14 North Carolina 0 14-6 723 17
15 Georgia Tech 0 17-5 705 15
16 Arizona 0 14-6 667 12
17 Wisconsin 0 15-4 646 14
18 Texas Tech 0 17-5 415 19
19 Utah State 0 19-1 349 24
20 Wake Forest 0 13-6 333 16
21 North Carolina State 0 14-5 327 NR
22 Florida 0 14-6 294 21
23 Southern Illinois 0 18-2 219 NR
24 Providence 0 15-5 215 23
25 South Carolina 0 19-4 200 25

Others Receiving Votes: Syracuse 187, Memphis 71, Air Force 62, Seton Hall 55, Dayton 54, Oklahoma 46, Michigan State 42, Louisiana State 41, Florida State 40, Illinois 40, Charlotte 39, Western Michigan 33, Vanderbilt 24, Hawaii 23, Marquette 14, Maryland 14, Kent State 12, Texas-El Paso 7, Creighton 5, Boston University 4, Vermont 2.

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.

Page Updated: 02/23/2007