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News Nuggets, 09.09.05
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Compiled from staff reports and electronic dispatches

Tulane-MSU game shifted out of harm's way

STARKVILLE, MS — The Mississippi State-Tulane football game scheduled for Sept. 17 will be played in Shreveport, LA, Mississippi State officials said Thursday.

The game was scheduled to be played at the Superdome in New Orleans, but the city and the facility were damaged last week by Hurricane Katrina.

Mississippi State said the game will be played at Independence Bowl Stadium starting at 7 p.m. CDT and will be broadcast by College Sports Television.

``We fully understand the terrific strain Tulane University has been under in coping with this tragedy,'' Mississippi State athletic director Larry Templeton said. ``We are doing everything we can to assist Tulane in its hurricane recovery efforts.''

Mississippi State said it will forgo its $200,000 guarantee to help Tulane's athletic department in its attempt to overcome the budget shortfall resulting from the relocation of its athletic programs.

Tulane athletic teams displaced from their New Orleans campus will be based this fall at five universities. The football program is relocating to Louisiana Tech in Ruston, La., about 70 miles east of Shreveport.

Mississippi State's last game in Shreveport was a classic — the Bulldogs beat Texas A&M 43-41 in overtime in a snowy 2000 Independence Bowl that was their most recent postseason berth. Since then, Mississippi State is 12-35.

Ex-Marshall coach latest to pull out of BCS poll

Recently retired Marshall coach Bob Pruett has dropped out of the Harris Interactive College Football Poll because of his affiliation with ESPN, and will be replaced by former SMU player Bobby Leach.

Pruett, who retired early this year, was placed on the 114-member voter panel for the Harris poll last week as part of a group selected to replace six panelists who withdrew.

Most of those who withdrew, including former Notre Dame and South Carolina coach Lou Holtz, did so because they work for ESPN in some capacity and the network does not allow its employees to take part in polls used by the Bowl Championship Series to determine which teams play for a national title.

The Harris poll replaced The Associated Press Top 25 media poll as one of three components in the BCS standings. The USA Today coaches' poll and a compilation of six computer rankings make up the other two-thirds of a team's BCS grade.

The AP poll had been used by the BCS since its inception in 1998, but after last season the AP asked BCS officials to stop using its rankings in their formula.

ESPN cut its affiliation to the coaches poll after last season.

The Harris poll panel was selected randomly by Harris Interactive Inc., a marketing firm hired by the BCS, out of a group of more than 300 nominations supplied by the Division I-A conferences and Notre Dame.

The voters were chosen to give equal representation to all 11 conferences.

The first Harris poll will be released Sept. 25. Harris poll voters will not be required to make their ballots public until the final poll Dec. 5.

The first BCS standings will be released Oct. 17.

News Nuggets are compiled periodically based on material supplied by staff members; data published by ECU, Conference USA and its member schools; and reports from Associated Press and other sources. Copyright 2005 Bonesville.net and other publishers. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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