Watch out for sleeping giant in Atlanta
Don’t sleep on Georgia State University. Late last week when nobody was looking, the crafty people who hold the purse strings and also pull the strings at GSU up and bought Atlanta Braves Stadium (Turner Field) and the 70 acres surrounding it.
And as early as next year, the Georgia State
Panthers football team will play there and GSU will also build a baseball stadium.
But wait! That’s not all. The school plans student dorms, and will build a shopping complex and entertainment center. Evidently while we were all sleeping, Georgia State grew to an enrollment of 32,082, compared to the University of Georgia’s 36,130.
And remember the Panthers went to a bowl game last year and their basketball team had a nice run in the NCAA basketball tourney two years ago.
Out & about
The top five majors for major college athletes are, in order, Arts & Sciences, Communications, General Studies, Business and Social Sciences. An interesting side note: Virginia Tech has 36 different declared majors on its football team, the most in the nation. And more than onehalf of the players on the Wake Forest football team were still undecided after two years. … The much-traveled Luke Del Rio has been named the Florida starting quarterback. Del Rio was at Alabama in 2013, Oregon State in 2014 and is now a Gator. … ESPN’s top football analyst Kirk Herbstreit says he think Clemson will have the No. 1 offense in college football. … Six Notre Dame players were arrested last week. One, Max Redfield, was kicked off the team and one has been indefinitely suspended — corner Devin Butler. The other four will be disciplined within the program. The charges were for possession of a handgun and possession of marijuana for Redfield. …
This year’s first Associated Press preseason college football poll is out and in a word, it’s unimaginative. Alabama was No. 1 followed by Clemson, Oklahoma, Florida State and LSU. Just a word to the Crimson Tide fans — just once in the last 10-plus years has the preseason No. 1 finished atop the poll at year’s end. That was Southern Cal in 2004. … University of Tennessee athletic director Dave Hart announced he will retire at the end of this school year.
Here & there
That eminent Kentucky scholar, John Calipari, has announced he will have a new book coming out this fall. The title is “Success is The Only Option.” … Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred says Major League Baseball will consider a pitcher clock for next season. … New Orleans gained what Charlotte lost as the 2017 NBA All-Star Game will be played in the Louisiana city. Charlotte was stripped of the game due to a stupid law passed by the North Carolina legislature that discriminated against the Gay/Lesbian community. … LeBron James presented his wife Savannah with a Ferrari Testarossa for her 30th birthday.
A special salute
Mike Krzyzewski of Duke has finished the Olympic era of his life, and the U.S. Olympic team and the whole of world basketball is much better because of his efforts.
Coach K’s Olympic teams, over the last three Olympics, have compiled a record of 24-0 and won three gold medals. Like him or not, he’s special.
Little things
The word out of College Station, Texas, is that the Aggies of Texas A&M have their best team since Johnny Manziel was running wild. … Not much news has come out of Georgia Tech lately about its football team, but Paul Johnson is secretly and quietly pleased with the depth he has at running back. … Georgia fired Jeremy Pruitt right into a better job last year. Pruitt, once the Dawgs’ defensive coordinator, is now making $1 million annually doing the same thing for Alabama. That’s more than offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin’s salary of $714,000 in Tuscaloosa. … “The Religion of SEC Football,” about the fans that pack the stadiums on Saturdays in the South, is being offered as a course for credit at Presbyterian College, of all places.
And finally
I’m sick and tired hearing about Olympic swimmer Ryan
Lochte’s Rio incident and subsequent lie-filled testimony about what happened. In a nutshell, the guy got drunk, urinated in public and made a fool of himself. No big deal. Just pay your fine, apologize and go home. It just wasn’t that terrible a crime. But now that he’s made a major production of it, he’s lost more than $1 million in sponsorships. Too stupid.