UH ESPN GameDay Notes: Corso Picked The Coogs!

 But not so fast my friend, Corso dropped the f-bomb in doing so and had to apologize for it later. 



Still doesn't detract from the fact he knows his football.

ESPN College GameDay On Campus

The ESPN College GameDay crew is on the University of Houston campus for the first time ever, and UH Cougar Nation, the campus, alums and the city is hyped because of it.

As the Vice President would characterize it, it is a BFD to us longsuffering UH football fans.

The stage has been set up in Cullen Center and the 300 person standing room only area behind the stage opened at 6 AM CST for the broadcast that will be cranking up at 8 AM CST in advance of today's 2:30  PM kickoff against the SMU Mustangs.

Today's game also happens to be Senior Day and it's sold out.    

I'll be on the UH campus later this evening for more serious business, but definitely will be getting up a little earlier than I normally do on a Saturday to watch the fun transpiring on my alma mater's campus..

UH Formally Invited to Join Big East

You have failed Emperor Palpatine (oops DeLoss Dodds) in your burnt orange mission to keep the University of Houston out of a BCS conference. 

UH got that rumored invitation to formally join the Big East Conference in all sports late last night after the Big East presidents and chancellors met via conference call to discuss expansion.   AD Mack Rhoades and UH President and Chancellor Renu Khator will head to New York later this week to meet with Big East officials.

If they accept, they would join the Big East for the 2013 season.  They would not only get that coveted AQ spot in football, but it would be a major boost to the men's and women's basketball programs.  Where it would hurt would be in baseball, where C-USA is one of the strongest collegiate leagues but right now the grins over on Cullen Blvd and in Cougar Nation are as wide as Texas.

After being Left Behind during the formation of the Big XII, we're now in a better conference than the Big XII that Texas AD DeLoss Dodds was keeping us out of.   He and his bretheren in the Big XII-3+1 will pay for his lack of vision and the burnt orange flavored hateraid he was drinking when it comes to UH.

Take that Longhorn Elementary.   As the old saying goes, when you dig a grave for one, better dig one for yourself as well.

Being that the University of Houston not only has Tier One academic status and sits in the fourth largest city in the nation, the largest in Texas and the prime recruiting area for Lone Star high school talent in all sports, potential Big East membership will not only help the financial bottom line, it also helps UH tremendously in terms of recruiting.in football and especially basketball since the Big East is the premier basketball conference in the collegiate men's and women's game.

So we'll see how this conference realignment drama will play out, but for now a long sought after UH return to the stage of big time collegiate athletics is within its grasp.

Syracuse And Pitt Leave The Big East For ACC

Wow, didn't see this coming.   Dave Gavitt, the man who founded the Big East conference in 1979 and was its first commissioner until 1990 passes away on Friday.   Sunday the news gets leaked that founding member Syracuse and Pittsburgh are leaving the conference for the ACC.  

While Syracuse and Pitt have the right to look out for their schools interests, it's still some foul and nekulturny timing to make this kind of announcement in light of the fact the founder of this league isn't even cold in his grave yet. 

TCU, y'all sure y'all want to head to the Big East seeing that serious sporting drama is about to break out on the East Coast?

Now the fun and drama the Big XII-3 is having over Texas A&M's SECession is about to take place on the east coast.   There are rumors the ACC is about to extend invites to Rutgers and UConn as well, but we'll have to stay tuned to see if this plays out

That unexpected ACC raid of the Big East may set off another frenzied round of expansion and soap opera level intrigue.  Will the SEC get busy and make an expedited adoption of a 14th team and who will it be?   Will the Big Ten wait or expand?   Will the Pac-12 grab more teams?  Will the ACC do the same?  

What happens to Louisville, West Virginia and the rest of the Big East's remaining members?   Will everybody in the BCS wait and see if the Big 12 and Big East implode, then pick up the leftovers and the AQ BCS conference status that go with it?


And to think I was upset about All My Children being canceled and the last broadcast of it happening on Friday.

Time to pass the popcorn, the latest chapter of 'As the College Conferences Realign Turns' is about to take place.

NCAA Adopts Official Athletic Competition Policy For Trans Student Athletes

With transpeople transitioning as early as elementary, middle school, high school and their college years, it was only a matter of time before adjustments were made in the athletic policies at the high school and collegiate levels to allow transgender athletes the same opportunity to compete in athletic competitions as cis athletes get.  

The NCAA has adopted and announced an offical policy that allows transgender athletes to compete before and after transition

The new policy had its genesis in an October 2009 think tank on transgender athletes conducted by the NCAA, the National High School Federation, It Takes A Team!, an initiative of the Women's Sports Foundation, Helen Carroll, the Sports Project Director from the National Center For Lesbian Rights and Dr. Pat Griffin, the former director of It Takes a Team!. 

The think tank included transgender athletes, and an array of experts on transgender issues from the legal, medical, advocacy groups and athletics and reported its findings in an October 2010 report authored by Carroll and Griffin entitled "On the Team: Equal Opportunity for Transgender Student Athletes.".

According to the new NCAA policy, transgender student-athletes may socially transition by dressing and using the appropriate pronouns that match their gender identity.

Any transgender student-athlete who is not taking hormone treatment related to gender transition may participate in sex-separated sports activities in accordance with his or her assigned birth gender.


• A trans male (FTM) student-athlete who is not taking testosterone related to gender transition may
participate on a men’s or women’s team.

• A trans female (MTF) transgender student-athlete who is not taking hormone treatments related to
gender transition may not compete on a women’s team but can do so on a men's one.

If the student-athlete is undergoing a hormonal transition:

* A trans male (FTM) student-athlete who has received a medical exception for treatment with testosterone for diagnosed Gender Identity Disorder or gender dysphoria and/or Transsexualism, for purposes of NCAA competition may compete on a men's team, but is no longer eligible to compete on a women’s team without changing that team status to a mixed team.

* A trans female (MTF) student-athlete being treated with testosterone suppression medication for Gender Identity Disorder or gender dysphoria and/or Transsexualism, for the purposes of NCAA competition may continue to compete on a men’s team but may not compete on a women’s team without changing it to a nixed team status and she completing one calendar year of testosterone suppression treatment.

The NCAA stated the policy "will allow a transgender student athlete to participate in sex-separated sports activities so long as the athlete’s use of hormone therapy is consistent with the NCAA policies and current medical standards.”

NCLR's Sports Project Director Helen Carroll applauded the new NCAA policy.

“I commend the NCAA’s commitment to creating and supporting an inclusive culture that fosters equitable participation for student athletes," Carroll said. "This new policy that will not only allow, but encourage transgender student athletes to participate on athletic teams. This is truly historic, and it will give transgender student athletes equal access and opportunities to play college-level sports without any obstacles.”

The NCAA policy is not only fair to cis athletes, it is proactive in dealing with the reality that transpeople exist, they transition earlier and it's better to have those policies in place now rather then having to write them in the wake of an adverse legal decision later.