Haylie McCleney Receives Honor
Photo Credit: RollTide.com
For the first time ever an Alabama softball player has been selected as an Academic All-American. Yesterday Alabama junior Haylie McCleney was named the 2015 Capitol One Academic All-American Team Member of the Year for Division I Softball. The announcement was made by the Collegiate Sports Information Directors of America.
In her statement McCleney said, "It's a huge honor. It's the best award a student-athlete can get considering all the work we put into balancing athletics and academics. Unfortunately, softball isn't going to last forever and it's hard to make a career out of the game. I want to have a life after softball and I know that starts in the classroom. It's about pushing yourself to learn more and gain more knowledge to be the best student-athlete you can possibly be."
This is the sixth consecutive year that Alabama has had a student-athlete named Academic All-American of the Year in their respective sport stretching from 2010 to 2015. The three prior to this year were eventually named the Academic All-American of the Year across all sports. The announcement for that honor this year will come in late July.
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SEC Relaxes Restrictions On Satellite Camps
It won't happen this summer, but by next summer the fourteen head coaches and assistants of the SEC schools could be bringing a football camp to the likes of New York, California, Michigan, or Ohio.
The Southeastern Conference has let it be known if the NCAA doesn't do something about the so-called satellite football camps, then the 14 member schools of the SEC are going to be travelling the country doing the same as the other conferences...recruiting in the other guys' back yards. Make no mistake, that's what the satellite camps are: recruiting tools and not the "let's help these kids improve their skills" kinda thing that the Big 10 is blowing up everyone's rear ends.
The SEC would rather see the NCAA ban the satellite camps, or at the very least put restrictions on them. However, it has been decided that the SEC is at a disadvantage not allowing the member schools to do what the other conferences and schools can do, and others actually are doing.
There are those who believe the Big 10 will rue the day they opened this can of worms. Year and and year out the schools in the south out-recruit the others. Thus this new satellite camp gambit.
In poker one might say their hand just got called. And I have a feeling a raise is coming.
We'll just have to wait and see how the NCAA handles this. The SEC has officially notified the governing body it wants changes. If not, watch for an SEC coach in your neighborhood soon, Urban.
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Basketball Scheduling Changes
A new men's basketball scheduling format was unveiled at the SEC Spring Meeting in Destin, Florida. Each of the teams would have three permanent opponents on their schedules, and would meet these three for two games each season. Each team would play the other teams in the conference once each season, and the final two games would be on a rotating basis.
The University of Alabama would keep as its three permanent games Auburn, Mississippi State, and LSU.
All-in-all this is a good thing for the sport in the SEC. Rivalries will be maintained, yet each team will play the other teams to make up the 18 conference games.
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Basketball Scheduling Changes
A new men's basketball scheduling format was unveiled at the SEC Spring Meeting in Destin, Florida. Each of the teams would have three permanent opponents on their schedules, and would meet these three for two games each season. Each team would play the other teams in the conference once each season, and the final two games would be on a rotating basis.
The University of Alabama would keep as its three permanent games Auburn, Mississippi State, and LSU.
All-in-all this is a good thing for the sport in the SEC. Rivalries will be maintained, yet each team will play the other teams to make up the 18 conference games.
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Track & Field Competes In East Preliminary
Photo Credit: RollTide.com
The 2015 NCAA East Preliminary will be held in Jacksonville, Florida, and the University of Alabama will be a part of the contests. 34 athletes and four relay teams from UA will participate.
The East Preliminary is a precursor to the NCAA Outdoor Championships scheduled for June 10-13 in Eugene, Oregon.
All disciplines from the Crimson Tide team will be represented. Eight throwers, consisting of four men and four women, are in the top 48 individuals in nine events. Seven jumpers will compete, four men and three women. Bama sends nine sprinters and hurdlers made up of five men and four women.
In the middle distance and distance races Alabama will be represented by six runners consisting of three men and three women. Three pole vaulters will be making the trip for Bama, one man and two women. There will be one woman in the 3,000 meter steeplechase.
Head coach Dan Waters said, "This meet is the first step to the NCAA meet in June. I'm very proud of
all of the Alabama athletes who have made it this far, and I think they
all have a chance to make it to the national championship meet. This
meet can be stressful for some athletes, but we have told them time and
again that if they do what they've done all season and compete like we
know they can, they will see great results."
A complete listing of events and athletes can be found on http://www.rolltide.com/sports/c-xctrack/spec-rel/052815aaa.html .
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SEC Sets NCAA Revenue Record
It's the largest paycheck in NCAA history. It was announced at the SEC Spring Meeting in Destin, Florida yesterday that the Southeastern Conference made $455.8 million this past year. That comes to $31.2 million for each of the 14 schools in the SEC, but does not include the various bowl payouts to individual schools this past year.
This year's payout is a whopping $10 million for each school over last year.
The new SEC Network is to be credited with the majority of the additional money each school received.
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Bama's Projected Football Wins For 2015
If you recall, only days ago I printed some information from 5Dimes giving odds on Alabama not only making the national championship game but the odds of winning it. Bama's adds were extremely good and I won't go into that again. Now we have their projections for the number of wins for the upcoming football season, and if they are correct on this one, then the other one can't happen.
Anyway, 5Dimes has projected the Crimson Tide to finish the 2015 season with 9.5 wins, which would lead the SEC. Nationally, TCU is expected to win 10 games, and the favorite, Ohio State, is projected at 11 games.
Here is a look at the order of projected wins, most to least, in the SEC according to 5Dimes:
1. Alabama 9.5
2. Georgia 9
3. (T) Arkansas 8.5
3. (T) Ole Miss 8.5
3. (T) Auburn 8.5
6. LSU 8
7. Texas A&M 7.5
8. (T) Mississippi State 7
8. (T) South Carolina 7
10. Kentucky 6
11. Vanderbilt 3
No odds/predictions were given for Florida, Tennessee, or Missouri.
