ODD’S N ENDS
Props to the Fairfield University baseball (my alma mater) team not only boasted the best defense in the MAAC in 2011, but was ranked 12th in the nation entering the NCAA Baseball Regionals. The Stags defensive unit was also the best-ever in program history. The Stags recorded a .977 fielding percentage, committing a program low 40 errors in 1,107 chances.

Just up the road from Fairfield, the University of Connecticut baseball team had 10 players drafted in the June 2011 Major League Baseball draft including 2 number one picks, proving that if you are good enough, you don’t have to go down South to play in college to prove it!

And just over the road from Fairfield, Sacred Heart qualified for the NCAA baseball tourney where they took on Clemson.

A high school golfer in Minnesota lost his eligibility to play in the state finals after he won $5,000 for a hole-in-one at a tournament. The kicker is he didn’t lose eligibility because he accepted the money, he lost his eligibility because Minnesota high school rules state the following… "a player may not participate as an individual competitor or as a member of a non-school team in the same sport during the high school season."

ARTICLES
Article on recruiting for Division 1 basketball. READ

Violations are not limited to Division 1 athletics. READ

NEWS ON INDIVIDUAL COLLEGES

Wayne State (Michigan) will discontinue its women’s ice hockey program, effective immediately. All current student-athlete scholarships will be honored, provided they meet satisfactory progress standards under NCAA guidelines. Releases will be offered to those who wish to transfer to other schools this summer, where they will be eligible to participate immediately as the normal residency requirements of the NCAA are waived.

Dixie State College of Utah, a member of the Division II Pacific West Conference, will add women’s golf as the school’s 13th intercollegiate sport. the program will begin competition in the 2012-13 school year.

Hilbert College is joining the North Eastern Athletic Conference as an associate member in men’s lacrosse.

Nazareth College (Rochester NY) will add men’s ice hockey to its intercollegiate athletic offerings with competition at the NCAA Division III level slated to begin with the 2012-13 season. They currently lack an on-campus hockey rink. Nazareth will now have 24 collegiate teams. Nazareth recently won the D3 championship in men’s volleyball.

Midwestern State announced that women’s track and field will become the school’s 13th varsity sport.

Lindenwood University, located in St. Charles, Mo., has accepted an invitation to have its men’s and women’s lacrosse programs join the recently formed Western Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association for the 2011-12 academic year and 2012 season. Lindenwood has an enrollment of 8,787 students and is in the process toward becoming a full NCAA Division II member. Its lacrosse teams had previously played under the umbrella of the Men’s Collegiate Lacrosse Association and Women’s Collegiate Lacrosse Associations.

Georgia Gwinnett College is working on an entire new athletic program. Construction on 30 acres has begin which will include a variety of athletic fields. Varsity teams in 2012-13 will include men’s baseball, men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s tennis and women’s fastpitch softball. Men’s and women’s basketball and women’s volleyball are being considered for the 2013-14 school year.

The California state budget crisis continues…College of the Redwoods announced it has suspended its baseball and men's soccer programs.

Bridgewater College (VA) has approved a plan to will add men's lacrosse and women's golf to the school for the 2012-2013 athletic season.

Delta College (Michigan) is offering baseball as a varsity sport for the first time in its history next year

With that addition, Delta will field varsity teams in men's and women's basketball, golf, women's soccer and softball. Men's soccer and women's volleyball are being discontinued.

Muskegon Community College (Michigan) is growing. The Jayhawk athletic program welcomed men's and women's bowling teams and men's and women's cross country teams over the past academic year. They joined the school's existing roster of men's and women's basketball, baseball, softball, volleyball, wrestling, tennis and golf. Next year, MCC will add a men's soccer team, while women's soccer will debut in 2012.

Marquette University (Wisconsin) will add men's and women's lacrosse to its NCAA Division I varsity sports offerings. Both teams will begin competition in spring 2013 and bring the number of varsity sports teams to 16 for both men and women.

National Junior College Athletic Association's board of directors voted in late March to hold the number of non-U.S. players at no more than one-fourth of a team's allotment of scholarship players. In basketball and volleyball, for instance, that would be three. In soccer, four. In track, five. Full article

The Big South Conference will sponsor women’s lacrosse as its 19th championship sport starting with the 2012-13 academic year. Women’s lacrosse is the first sport the Big South has added since football in 2002. Six Big South members will sponsor the sport by the time league competition begins in the spring of 2013 – Campbell, Coastal Carolina, High Point, Liberty, Presbyterian and Winthrop. Of those, High Point, Liberty and Presbyterian already compete at the Division I level. Campbell, Coastal Carolina and Winthrop will debut their respective women’s lacrosse programs in 2013.

The Chicago State men's basketball team has been banned from postseason play, penalized two scholarships and has had its practice time limited after failing to improve its Academic Progress Rate for the 2009-10 academic year, according to figures released by the NCAA. In all, 8 teams were banned.

1. Cal State-Northridge men's basketball
2. Chicago State University men's basketball
3. Grambling State University men's basketball
4. Idaho State University football
5. University of Louisiana-Monroe men's basketball
7. Southern University at Baton Rouge football
8. Southern University at Baton Rouge men's basketball

The national champion Connecticut men's basketball program will lose two scholarships for the upcoming season as a result of a poor Academic Performance Rating from the NCAA. In addition to the one scholarship they had already lost for recruiting violations. A small price to pay for being able to hoist a shiny trophy I guess?