SPORTSDAY

From Texas Tech:

LUBBOCK, Texas - Sophomore wide receiver Michael Crabtree (Dallas, Texas/Carter) has been selected to the 2008 Playboy 52nd Anniversary All-America Team. He is the eighth Red Raider to be honored with the distinction as former Red Raiders named to the team include E.J. Holub (1960), Dan Irons (1977), Ted Watts (1980), Tracy Saul (1992), Ricky Williams (1999), Aaron Hunt (2002) and Joel Filani (2006).

Crabtree is coming off of the most prolific season in NCAA history for a freshman wide receiver after catching 134 passes for 1,962 yards and 22 touchdowns, all NCAA freshman records. Additionally, he was honored with the prestigious Fred Biletnikoff Award and the Paul Warfield Trophy as the nation's top receiver. Crabtree was one of eight unanimous consensus All-Americans in 2007, having been named to the first team of the five NCAA-recognized All-America teams.

"This is a tremendous compliment to Michael and his talents," Texas Tech Head Coach Mike Leach said. "He is deserving of every award that comes his way, and to be named to the Playboy All-America team is no exception. This is a highly coveted award and he is in the company of many great players, past and present, who have been named to the team."

The publication is celebrating its 52nd year of the Playboy All-American tradition, a tradition that has included such players as Dan Marino, John Elway, Troy Aikman, Barry Sanders, Michael Vick and Peyton Manning. Coaches such as USC's Pete Carroll and former Alabama great Paul "Bear" Bryant also have been honored by the publication.

The National Football Foundation wrapped up its two-day football forum Friday morning at the Grand Hyatt at D/FW International Airport. Today's session featured some frank talk from Florida State president T.K. Wetherell.

Wetherell believes that we'll have a college football playoff eventually. But it's going to take time, and the bowls must be protected somehow. What's driving the bus? Money. To hear a university president spell it out in such frank terminology is rather refreshing.

"Money is going to drive the train," Wetherell said. "The 12th game right now is solving the problem. The reason there's a 12th game in football is the money. People may not want to admit that, but that's the facts of the matter. Ask any of these ADs to take that 12th game away and then ask them to balance the budget.

"We're not playing the 12th game so fans can come tailgate at FSU stadium or they enjoy driving up there to watch us whip up on Chattanooga-Tennessee or somebody. That's being played strictly so we can make money, and if you look at what we're playing Chattanooga to come down on the Greyhound, it's kind of outrageous."

Kansas coach Mark Mangino was in town Thursday as part of the National Football Foundation's football forum at the Grand Hyatt at D/FW International Airport. While there were lots of big-picture topics to be discussed, one issue that couldn't be ignored was KU's recruiting surge here in North Texas.

Mangino and his staff now have two incredible carrots to dangle in front of any Dallas-area player who thinks Lawrence, Kan., is too far from home.

First off, the Jayhawks just completed a phenomenal season in which they won the FedEx Orange Bowl. And No. 2, Richardson's own Aqib Talib just became a first-round draft pick after an All-American season at KU.

"We're doing extremely well here," Mangino said. "I don't think it's any secret that outside of Kansas and Kansas City area, this is our next priority in our recruiting -- the Dallas-Fort Worth area and the entire state of Texas."

Not many people get to see how we make the doughnuts. But sports writers wouldn't be able to do their job without the help of sports information directors. They're the ones who get coaches and players to deal with pesky guys like me.

Baylor's Larry Little is without question one of the best baseball SIDs around. That's why he's been chosen as the press officer for USA Baseball this summer when Team USA competes internationally. This will be the second time Little has handled such an assignment; he worked with Team USA in 2005.

You can read the complete release after the jump. But a well deserved congrats, Larry.

The New York Times' college blog, "The Quad," takes a look at SMU in its countdown of the top Division I programs.

This can't be good. The paper says, "S.M.U. is best known for being the only college football program ever given the N.C.A.A.'s Death Penalty." Why Death and Penalty have to be capitalized is anyone's guess.

And there's this tidbit under season breakdown and prediction: "I cannot imagine what it is like to be an S.M.U. fan, especially one that had seen the great teams of the 1980s and is familiar with some of the program's past..."

Well, Pony Up, SMU fans and let the NYT know what you think.

Rivals.com reports that disgraced former Baylor coach Dave Bliss will coach an Athletes in Action team this summer.

It seems incongruous for the coach of an AIA team to have such a sordid past. [AIA director of basketball Eric] Nelson understands people may be taken aback.

"I can understand the question, and I really don't have a problem with people asking the question," Nelson said. "We have 16 teams that go out in the summer. He spoke at an event at the Final Four that we hosted. After spending a considerable amount of time with him there, we believe we've seen a life change due to his faith. There is redemption in life. I don't in any way expect people to fully understand; therefore, the questions are coming.

"He in no way is trying to find a way back into college basketball. This is an opportunity for him to be part of redemption in others' lives. He wants to share his mistakes. He's recognized and acknowledged and been forthright with people close to him. ... We don't want to continue to be part of the consequences for what he did wrong."

The June Jones era has already brought about change for the SMU football program. It remains to be seen if it will translate into on-field success this fall.

Here's a spring football recap.

SMU basketball signee Jarred DuBois, of Westchester High in L.A., has asked to be released from the national letter of intent he signed with SMU. His father, Gary DuBois, wrote in an e-mail that the request is due to personal reasons.

SMU confirmed that the request has been made. Coach Matt Doherty has not decided on a course of action yet.

DuBois is a 6-3, 170-pound guard. SMU recently added Paul McCoy, a top-10 ranked point guard by Scout.com, and Derek Williams, a junior college point guard, to its signing class.

This should come as no surprise: Oklahoma backup quarterback Keith Nichol said this morning on a Michigan radio station that he plans to transfer to another school.

Though Nichol and his father, Gary, said over and over that they love OU and had no plans to leave, it was obvious that if Keith wanted to actually play college football that he was going to have to do it somewhere else because of the emergence of Sam Bradford last season as a freshman.

Nichol is a former all-state high school quarterback in Michigan who originally orally committed to Michigan State before switching to OU. He's a dual-threat. OU coaches loved the way he ran with the football and his overall athleticism. But Bradford wasn't going anywhere, and Nichol was often out-performed in spring practice by senior-to-be Joey Halzle. That meant Nichol would likely spend another year as the third-stringer.

Don't be surprised to see him end up at Michigan State or even Michigan, for that matter, considering his ability to run with the football.

Texas coach Mack Brown has said he plans to keep the wide-open offensive approach UT had in a Holiday Bowl victory over Arizona State (TD pass to a DT lined up at fullback, reverses and a reverse pass and using John Chiles at QB as change of pace to Colt McCoy).

Brown also says he plans to do away with redshirting and play more first-year players - something he's been reluctant to do in the past because he doesn't like youngins making mistakes and losing confidence.

Here's the question: Do you think Mack Brown will make good on both of these vows?

University of Texas senior DE Brian Orakpo will be honored this weekend as a member of the 52nd Annual Playboy Preseason All-America Football team. It marks the 11th-straight year Texas has had at least one player recognized as part of the team that was first selected in 1957.

Orakpo will travel to Phoenix on Friday, May 9, to join the other members of the squad for a weekend of events, fun competition and the annual photo shoot.

And no - no playmates will be present during the weekend festivities.

Notre Dame and Arizona State have completed an agreement for a football game to be played on Oct. 5, 2013, at the new Dallas Cowboys stadium in Arlington.

"Bringing the storied tradition of Notre Dame football to the new stadium in Arlington to take on a national power like Arizona State makes this an exciting day for all of North Texas," said Dallas Cowboys owner/GM Jerry Jones.

I'm predicting "national power" Arizona State throttles "the storied tradition of Notre Dame" on the way to another appearance in the Holiday Bowl.

Mike Leach being eccentric (that's the word used instead of weird for rich people) isn't exactly breaking news. But it makes for fun reading, so ESPN.com's Mark Schlabach made a trip to Lubbock to sit down with Leach.

Here's something the rest of the nation might not know: Leach's Red Raiders should be really, really good next season. Schlabach goes so far as to suggest that Tech could be a national title contender.

Like the pirates who have fascinated the eccentric coach for much of his adult life, Texas Tech might be on the verge of robbing college football of its most cherished treasure this coming season. As long as Leach has resided in this close-to-nowhere town in west Texas, the Red Raiders have been equipped to launch an all-out assault. After he became their coach in 2000, they led NCAA Division I-A in passing for five straight seasons and then again in 2007. Under his watch, Texas Tech has broken more than 150 NCAA, Big 12 and school records and scored 50 or more points in 21 games.

And the Red Raiders might be more explosive than ever before during the 2008 season. Quarterback Graham Harrell, who last season led the country in total offense and became only the sixth player in NCAA history to throw for more than 5,000 yards in a season, is back for his senior year. Michael Crabtree, who set NCAA freshman records for receptions, receiving yards and touchdowns last season, returns after winning the Fred Biletnikoff Award as the sport's top receiver. Eight other offensive starters are back, including all five linemen.

But what is expected to make the 2008 Texas Tech team different from others in the past is its defense. Eight starters are expected to return to a unit that led the Big 12 in defense over the final eight games of the 2007 season.

Penn State University Football Coach Joe Paterno will give the keynote address and former pro football great and sportscaster Lynn Swann will emcee a dinner to help raise money for a chair at Texas being endowed in football coach Mack Brown's name.

The dinner May 16 at the Four Seasons Hotel will benefit The Mack Brown Distinguished Chair for Leadership in Global Affairs. The Mack Brown Chair will be part of the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law, a university-wide global affairs research center named after renowned lawyer and public servant Ambassador Robert S. Strauss.

The goal is to raise $2 million to fully endow the chair. UT Athletics contributed $500,000 to the chair as part of a $2.65 million gift made to the university for academic programs.

The NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Committee announced today the regional sites for the 2008 and 2009 Division I Women's Volleyball Championships.

Gregory Gym at the University of Texas will host one of the four regionals this year - Dec. 12-13.

Former Texas quarterback G.J. Kinne of Gilmer is headed to Tulsa to play for Todd Graham.

Kinne decided to leave Texas after the Longhorns secured a commitment from 2009 QB prospect Garrett Gilbert of Lake Travis this spring.

Texas currently has three quarterbacks on scholarship: junior Colt McCoy, and sophomores John Chiles and Sherrod Harris.

ESPN.com has a lengthy story on Abar Rouse, the former Baylor basketball assistant who secretly taped a conversation with Dave Bliss that doomed Bliss in the Patrick Dennehy murder scandal.

Rouse is now out of coaching, but he has no regrets over being a whistle-blower.

"I'm thousands of dollars in debt, no longer in the profession I went to school to pursue," said Rouse, whose $42,000 annual salary at Baylor was the most he'd ever made coaching basketball. "And I can tell you right now, five years later, working nightshift at a factory, making barely the minimum to survive, I don't regret it for one second. I wake up every day knowing that principles mean something."

Of the 37 schools penalized for failing to meet minimum Academic Progress Rate requirements in football on Tuesday, the only schools to lose more scholarships than North Texas' five were:

Alabama-Birmingham (9)
San Jose State (9)
Washington State (8)
Idaho (8)
Southern (6.3)
Toledo (6)
San Diego State (6)
Weber State (5.86)

North Texas will lose five scholarships in football and one in men's basketball after the NCAA released its annual report on the Academic Progress Rates for its member institutions - a four-year look at graduation rates culminating with the 2006-07 academic year.

"We recognize and appreciate the intent of the APR and will continue to work hard toward not only meeting, but exceeding the standards set by the NCAA," UNT athletic director Rick Villarreal said. "We do, however, work under the belief that it is one of many
components in measuring academic success.

"In our athletics program, we are continually implementing support programs and enhancing facilities that further the ability of our student-athletes to be academically successful and to graduate. Our focus is to promote an environment where our students achieve their academic goals. That is demonstrated by the graduation rate of our student-athletes, which improved from 37 to 67 percent from 2001 to 2006."

Here is a list of Big 12, Texas and area schools penalized for failing to meet minimum standards: