Ah, historic Wallace Wade Stadium. The site of the 1942 Rose Bowl. A quaint little stadium with the capacity to seat almost 34,000, rarely exceeds 20,000. Why? Well it's the home to the Duke Blue Devils and their 7-40 record at home over the last 8 years (10-82 overall). It is also, in the words of new Athletic Director Kevin White, in need of "a pretty significant makeover."

Duke's strategic plan for athletics, released in May, has called for renovations at Wallace Wade. White said those renovations need to be so extensive he doesn't even know where to start in talking about them.

He wants to consult with architects about possibilities and prices before getting specific.

"We need to do an awful lot at Wallace Wade," White said. "This facility is antiquated at best, and we just have got to come in here and do a pretty significant makeover. Not a facelift, but a makeover."

So, in a companion to the legal conclusion that Duke is the worst in football from last month, it appears that the Blue Devils have the stadium to house them.

It seemed like a cool thing. A Syracuse alum traveling in Russia actually found a set of Syracuse themed nesting dolls. The dolls even have the numbers of the best players on the Orange squad for this year painted on the back.

• #91 -- Brandon Gilbeaux, DT
• #9 -- Andrew Robinson, QB
• #1 -- Mike Williams, WR
• #4 -- Taj Smith, WR
• #97 -- Arthur Jones, DT

Who knew they were really cursed matryoshka dolls.

Let's look at the facts. The dolls were created in the bowels of the Kremlin, made from the ashes of Josef Stalin's remains, remnants of Hitler's brain and Orange #3. The ingredients were mixed together in a cauldron by this manand set in molds. From there they were placed in a shop that just so happened to be somewhere where American and Syracuse fan Bob Kalka would see them, just HAVE TO buy them, and bring them back to America.

And the curse had begun.

Clearly something was happening.

Every program has some turnover when there is a coaching change. There are players dissatisfied with the new system, personalities clash, promises made by the old regime are no longer valid, academics can always be an issue.

That's fine, but turning over a quarter of the roster in a little more than 12 months is ridiculous. Especially when a team goes from 12-1 and winning the Orange Bowl to 6-6 and home for the holidays. That appears to be what has happened at Louisville in the year after Bobby Petrino left and Steve Kragthorpe took control.

The Cardinals' beat writer from the Louisville Courier-Journal listed 21 underclassmen who have left the football team from the spring of 2007 to June 2008. While his list included a couple of players who left early for the NFL, it is still a crazy number.

• 4 players had to quit due to medical conditions.
• 6 were simply dismissed from the team.
• 8 transferred, left the program or quit the team.
• 1 was an academic casualty.

Add in the 17 seniors who graduated and that comes to 38 players out of the Louisville program in Kragthorpe's first year. There's winnowing out players not on-board with a new system, and then there's clearcutting.

Louisville brought in a 22-man recruiting class. That leaves 16 open scholarships coming into this season. They have roughly 20 scholarship seniors on the 2008 roster. The NCAA limits the number of scholarships to be given to a recruiting class in a given year to 25. It's going to be a while before Louisville gets close to its limits.

At least the walk-ons should get rewarded this season.

Ridiculous. I realize Vandy is a private school and they provide a valuable service to the SEC in helping with the conference graduations rates. Still, if they aren't going to actually pay their football coach over $1 million dollars, there's a problem. Sylvester Croom just got his pay pushed into the seven figure zone. Now Bobby Johnson is the only SEC coach still earning a paltry 6 figure salary. Keep up.

Les Miles, LSU, $3,750,000
Nick Saban, Alabama, $3,750,000
Urban Meyer, Florida, $3,250,000
Bobby Petrino, Arkansas, $2,850,000
Mark Richt, Georgia, $2,800,000
Tommy Tuberville, Auburn, $2,800,000
Phillip Fulmer, Tennessee, $2,050,000
Steve Spurrier, South Carolina, $1,750,000
Sylvester Croom, Mississippi State, $1,700,000
Houston Nutt, Ole Miss, $1,700,000
Rich Brooks, Kentucky, $1,600,000
Bobby Johnson, Vanderbilt, $950,000

Then again, Johnson is the only SEC coach not to be automatically placed on a hot seat after a losing season.

The Texas Bowl has aspirations. They want to see the Cotton Bowl move into the BCS rotation and then the Houston-based bowl can grab the Cotton Bowl's prestige. They want the not even 3-year old bowl to be a New Years Day game. Heck, they've moved the 2008 bowl game to December 30.

Of course to get that spot takes more than just throwing money -- well, that helps a lot -- they have to make sure they fill the stands for the bowl games. That's the problem.

For all their dreams, the Texas Bowl is a regional draw. It isn't a destination location like the bowls in Florida and California. To get people to attend, they need to feature teams that are geographically relevant (read: have strong alumni affiliations in the Houston area and/or local). Last year they featured TCU and Houston and drew over 62,000. The year before with K-State and Rutgers, they got a bit over 52,000.

Now the Big 12 has that, and that's why they are happy to take the 8th team from that conference. The problem was they also had affiliated with the Big East -- which just seemed ill-fitting for a bowl that proclaims itself as "a celebration of the culture, heritage and football tradition of the Lone Star State." Yes, UConn and Cinci would be perfect representatives

The Big East also recognized the problem and decided to disengage from the Texas Bowl. Instead Conference USA will be the contributing conference this year along with the Big 12. The Mountain West and occasionally Navy will be in the rotation. Between the MWC and C-USA they have shots at getting schools in Texas: TCU, Houston, Rice (okay, a longshot), UTEP and SMU. Not to mention a lot more schools within the region.

Poor Oklahoma. They had an unsigned agreement to have Middle Tennessee State come to Norman for a guarantee game, but instead MTSU took a better offer. The Blue Raiders got a home-and-home with Mississippi State -- the first time an SEC team will play MTSU on the road. Mississippi State agreed to this only because Central Michigan reneged on its visit to Starkville.

Since MTSU pulled out late, Oklahoma was forced to scramble and could only find 1-AA Tennessee-Chattanooga to fill the gap. Something that pissed off Oklahoma AD Joe Castiglione when people then questioned why Oklahoma would play such a game.

Several factors go into making a schedule work, including corresponding dates, availability and the exorbitant amount of money BCS powers like OU are forced to pay I-A teams to play in Norman.

"Let's face it," Castiglione said. "There are some (I-A) schools that just don't want to play you regardless of the opportunity or the offer."

Yes, the opportunity to travel for a road beating with no reciprocal game. Of course, those same BCS teams helped create the market that they then decry. The BCS schools were happy to support the addition of the 12th game that increased the demand. They seek only guarantee home games whenever possible and only against teams they can handle. They happily poach opponents with the increased bids.

You know it was some really bad weather in Indiana when a artificial turf surface is ruined. Indiana University's Memorial Stadium switched to AstroPlay turf in 2003. You know, to save money and allow the field to be used for more activities.

Well after the state of Indiana was buffeted last week by strong wind and heavy rains, there was flooding everywhere. Including Memorial Stadium.

[Indiana Athletic Director Rick] Greenspan said high winds this week drove a "phenomenal amount of rain under the carpet" and created a 10-inch deep sinkhole from the middle of the field inside the south end zone to the fence separating the field from fans.

"When it got down to (the south end), part of the turf just collapsed like one of those landslides you see in California where the foundation just goes out from under it," he said.

IU football coach Bill Lynch said there was a lot of water on the field when the staff arrived Thursday morning. When it drained, there were sinkholes and lumpy sections of carpet.

This picture (sorry, we don't have the rights to show it) shows the turf looking like a funhouse floor. Indiana is still trying to determine whether they can repair or have to replace the whole thing. The costs are expected to be $750,000 to $1 million.

The biggest issue, though, is time. It will take about 4 weeks to replace the turf. Then they have find a company capable of doing the work on short notice. The season opener is August 30, the absolute date it must be repaired or replaced. In the meantime, practices and football camps scheduled to take place on the field have been moved or canceled. Where the football team conducts summer training camp in August is now in question

Illinois Head Coach Ron Zook took in a Cubs game at Wrigley and was given the honor of leading the crowd in singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" today.

Clearly Zook does not get the recruits to Illinois by serenading them.

Well, not everything in college football. In this case, Minnesota AD Joel Maturi is referring to the new 'Gopher Points' program for deciding who gets to pay for what seats in Minnesota's new football stadium.

"Sure there has, but people are passionate about it; people who have been sitting on the 40-yard line don't want to pay anything extra," Maturi said. "I don't like it when my taxes go up, either. There has been an honest and open reaction, and I'm respectful of that.

"When people say to me 'It's about money,' I say to them, 'You're right, it is.' It's not that I like it; it's just the reality of what big-time college sports has become."

It is reality. Nearly every major football (and basketball) program has been moving to this system. There are the ticket prices and then there are the mandatory donations that escalate depending on how good the seat locations are. Then there are the 'tie-breakers' to determine who gets the seats based on which interested party has given more money to the athletic department and earned more points.

I'm talking about the West Virginia linebacker who was dismissed from the team in February after being charged with possession and intent to distribute marijuana. You didn't think I meant that other John Holmes?

At the time, the charges against Holmes and two other Mountaineer players were felony charges. All three were immediately dismissed from the team. Since then one player has pleaded not guilty and awaits a trial in late July. Another player plea bargained to misdemeanor possession and conspiracy to possess marijuana. He received two years probation.

Holmes had his charges reduced to misdemeanor possession. Of the three, only Holmes may be allowed back on the team.

"It was a case of being with the wrong people at the wrong time," [West Virginia Head Coach Bill] Stewart said of Holmes' involvement in the matter. "He's paid a high price for it, an expensive price. It's come as a high cost to him."

Stewart isn't saying it's a done deal. Holmes has to meet all requirements leading up to training camp in August he will be allowed back. Holmes had no prior incidents with the law. The other two players, however, were given "no chance" of returning to the team.

Of the three, Holmes was the only one to play in all 13 games. That's just a coincidence