"Legends Bowl" game in Charleston?

In Saturday, August 10's edition of the Post and Courier, there was an article by Jeff Hartsell about a possible new bowl game to be held in Charleston beginning in 2014. The article has more info about the imitative. http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20130810/PC16/130819924/1177/new-effort-to-bring-bowl-game-to-charleston-faces-familiar-obstacles-confederate-flag-naacp-ncaa

The article discusses the stance that the NCAA and the NAACP has towards the Confederate flag in South Carolina, who could be against this endeavor.

Georgia Southern-Citadel game from last season.

Photo from Nick Hartley

The game would pit Mid-American Conference and Sun Belt Conference foes in the Legends Bowl and would be held on December 20, 2014. The game would air on the NBC Sports Network.

The bowl game has looked at many cities. According to a Jon Solomon article from AL.com, they've looked at Montgomery, Alabama: http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2013/06/proposed_montgomery_bowl_game.html

The June 15 article says that Brian Woods, a New York sports consultant heading the Legends Bowl Group, said the organization is in active talks with NBC and smaller conferences such as the Sun Belt, Mountain West, MAC and Conference USA.

The game would be held at Johnson-Hagood Stadium near The Citadel campus. The stadium currently seats 21,000 fans, and was renovated back in 2006.

A bowl game, IMO, would be a good idea for the Charleston area to pursue. It is during a barren part of the year for tourism, late December, just before Christmas.

During December, you have college basketball, the Stingrays (minor league hockey), and not much else sports wise. The bowl game would fill a void locally. A problem may be how far away some of the teams in the two conferences are from Charleston. The two leagues, according to the AL.com article, would get 3,000-4,000 tickets each. The stadium is small for a bowl game, but several bowl have drawn close to or less than what this game may draw.

Here are the distances between the different teams in the MAC and Sun Belt to Johnson-Hagood Stadium:

MAC:

East Division
Northern Illinois- 969 miles
Ball State- 726 miles
Western Michigan- 930 miles
Central Michigan- 950 miles
Eastern Michigan- 819 miles
Toledo- 776 miles

West Division
Bowling Green- 752 miles
Kent State- 696 miles
Akron- 685 miles
Miami (OH)- 659 miles
Ohio University- 559 miles
Buffalo- 871 miles
UMass- 922 miles

Sun Belt:

Georgia Southern- 152 miles
Appalachian State- 300 miles
Georgia State- 318 miles
Troy- 510 miles
Western Kentucky- 586 miles
South Alabama- 643 miles
Arkansas State- 770 miles
Louisiana-Monroe- 815 miles
Louisiana-Lafayette- 893 miles
Texas State- 1,268 miles
New Mexico State- 1,776 miles
Idaho- 2,748 miles

Fox Sports to carry USGA events

Fox and Fox Sports 1 has signed a 12-year deal to carry USGA events, including the U.S. Open. The deal begins in 2015, as Fox hasn't carried many golf events in their history.

Summerville RB Davon Anderson gone

I am hearing about big news in the local high school football world. There are rumors that Summerville RB Davon Anderson is reportedly not in camp. The Palmetto Football Talk message board, which has several Summerville fans on it, seems to confirm this.

Update: 8/13/13 per Phil Bowman, Anderson is playing at Glenville HS in a suburb of Cleveland, near his family.

svgw90 says: As of right now, he has not been to camp and was not at many summer workouts either. Rumor is that he is back in Ohio with a relative. The noted Berkeley fan Cityslicker also heard that he is gone.

Here is the thread created about this: http://forum.palmettofootballtalk.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=31184&p=390369#p390369

Anderson is supposed to be one of South Carolina's top running backs in 2013. He had over 1,300 rushing yards during the 2012 season, including a 312 yard effort against Bluffton. He is also one of the nation's best in 60-meter hurdles, and one of the best in SC in the 100 meters.

If he is gone in Ohio, this would be a big loss for Coach John McKissick and the Green Wave. Stay tuned...

Delta flight attendant goes crazy

A Delta flight attendant on a flight from LaGuardia Airport to Fort Lauderdale went crazy tonight. The video is from the Twitter account @CollegeComplete and Daniel Haim.

This was the account from his Twitter account.

7:13pm: @CollegeComplete 5h

Mayhem breaking out at @delta LGA boarding.... Security!

7:39pm: @CollegeComplete 4h

That moment when the flight attendant tells a passenger that if they don't stop the police will board and taser them..AWESOME

9:21pm: Flight attendant actually said that things on the plane did not work because its old.

9:32pm: @DELTA flight attendant just got LOUD with threats of handcuffs. WTF

9:37pm: Flight attendant is losing it....@delta people on the flight are now scared

Reportedly, the flight attendant got into fights with several passengers and then the pilot. Reportedly, the sheriff left everyone off, and a quote from the @delta flight attendant "People from NY all think they are special".

The flight attendant yells at somebody in the cabin not to say anything otherwise the guy would be arrested. Here are two videos from the flight.

This was later in the flight, the flight attendant arguing with a passenger that was using an e-cigarette on flight.

Was she over the line?

High school realignment in earnest

High school football has gone through many changes over the past few years. Teams have bounced around from region to region as realignment occurs every few seasons. Teams have bounced from different regions and to different classes.

A Florence Morning News article by Lou Bezjak that is published in Sunday's paper (click here) discussed what realignment means to the Pee Dee area. We are just starting the 2013 season, but 2014 is upon us, and

As the Charleston area has quickly grown (from about 600,000 residents in 2006 to over 700,000 now) the schools have become larger. Realignment is important in all sports: this helps to determine what schools play in what divisions each season.

This is what the regions will be like after realignment, for the 2014 and 2015 seasons. Schools in the local area are bolded:
SCHSL REALIGNMENT 2014-16

Class 4A
Region 1: Easley; Greenville; Greenwood; Hillcrest; Laurens; TL Hanna; Westside; Woodmont
Region 2: Boiling Springs; Byrnes; Dorman; JL Mann; Mauldin; Riverside; Spartanburg; Wade Hampton
Region 3: Clover; Fort Mill; Gaffney; Nation Ford; Northwestern; Rock Hill; York
Region 4: Blythewood; Dutch Fork; Lugoff-Elgin; Ridge View; Spring Valley; Westwood
Region 5: Irmo; Lexington; North Augusta; River Bluff; South Aiken; White Knoll
Region 6: Carolina Forest; Conway; Socastee; South Florence; Sumter; West Florence
Region 7: Cane Bay; Goose Creek; James Island; Stratford; Wando; West Ashley
Region 8: Ashley Ridge; Bluffton; Colleton County; Fort Dorchester; Summerville

Class 3A
Region 1: Belton-Honea Path; Daniel; Palmetto; Pickens; Seneca; Walhalla; West-Oak; Wren
Region 2: Berea; Blue Ridge; Chapman; Eastside; Emerald; Greer; Southside; Travelers Rest
Region 3: Broome; Chester; Clinton; Lancaster; South Pointe; Union County
Region 4: AC Flora; Camden; Chapin; Dreher; Lower Richland; Richland Northeast
Region 5: Aiken; Airport; Brookland-Cayce; Gilbert; Midland Valley; Swansea
Region 6: Crestwood; Darlington; Hartsville; Lakewood; Manning; Marlboro County
Region 7: Georgetown; Lake City; Myrtle Beach; North Myrtle Beach; St. James; Wilson
Region 8: Beaufort; Berkeley; Hanahan; Hilton Head Island; Orangeburg-Wilkinson; Stall

Class 2A
Region 1: Blacksburg; Carolina; Chesnee; Landrum; Liberty; Pendleton; Powdersville; Woodruff
Region 2: Abbeville; Batesburg-Leesville; Crescent; Ninety Six; Saluda; Strom Thurmond
Region 3: Columbia; Eau Claire; Fairfield Central; Keenan; Mid-Carolina; Newberry; Pelion
Region 4: Andrew Jackson; Buford; Central; Cheraw; Chesterfield; Indian Land; North Central
Region 5: Barnwell; Edisto; Ridgeland; Silver Bluff; Wade Hampton; Woodland
Region 6: Academic Magnet; Battery Creek; Bishop England; Garrett; North Charleston; Whale Branch
Region 7: Andrews; Johnsonville; Kingstree; Lake Marion; Lee Central; Timberland
Region 8: Aynor; Dillon; Loris; Marion; Mullins; Waccamaw

Class A
Region 1: Calhoun Falls; Dixie; Fox Creek; McCormick; Ridge Spring-Monetta (FB only); Ware Shoals (except FB); Whitmire (except FB)
Region 2: x-Brashier Middle College; Christ Church; x-Greenville Charter; x-Greer Middle College; x-S.C.S.D.B.; Southside Christian; St. Joseph’s; x-Tamassee-Salem; Ware Shoals (FB only); Whitmire (FB only)
Region 3: C A Johnson; x-Governors School Math & Science; Great Falls; Lamar; Lewisville; McBee
Region 4: Blackville-Hilda; Calhoun County; Hunter-Kinard-Tyler; Ridge Spring-Monetta (FB only); North; Wagener-Salley; Williston-Elko
Region 5: Allendale-Fairfax; Bamberg-Ehrhardt ; Bethune-Bowman ; Branchville; Denmark-Olar; Estill
Region 6: Baptist Hill; Burke; xCharleston Charter; Cross; Lincoln; Military Magnet; St. John’s
Region 7: C E Murray; East Clarendon; Hannah-Pamplico; Scott’s Branch; Timmonsville
Region 8: Carvers Bay; Creek Bridge; Green Sea-Floyds; Hemingway; Lake View; Latta

John Palmer dies

Former NBC News correspondent John Palmer has died. Palmer was 77 years old. He worked for the network for forty years, from 1962-94 and from 1994 to his 2002 retirement. His main job was serving as Chief White House Correspondent from 1979-82, and as the news anchor of the Today Show for seven years. Palmer also served on the College of Charleston advisory council.

Following is a statement from NBC News on the passing of John Palmer:

“We are deeply saddened to share the news that we have lost a valued friend and colleague. Long-time correspondent John Palmer passed away today after a brief illness.
“John was a brilliant, brave, and tireless journalist who guided viewers through many of the most significant events of the past half-century – from the early days of the civil rights movement through the tragedy of 9/11. He covered five presidents and traveled to every corner of the world, always showing the empathy and compassion that helped set him apart. His kindness is remembered by all of us, and it built lasting bonds throughout our news division.
“John held many positions over the course of his long career with NBC News, but his most treasured role was that of husband and father.  Our love and support are with Nancy, Molly and Lee, Carter, Hope, and the entire Palmer family.”

More info:  http://nbcumv.com/mediavillage/networks/nbcnews/pressreleases?pr=contents/press-releases/2013/08/03/statementfromnb1394269.xml

Shaq Roland not at practice

Gamecocks WR Shaq Roland is not at practice according to the athletic department.

@DCTheState Shaq Roland, USC sports info confirms, is not here. Reason: "That's a question for the head coach."

@JoshatTheState: WR Shaq Roland is absent from day one of fall practice. No immediate reason given. In the past, these have been academic issues.

From a Gamecock Central insider report, he is supposed to be back practicing tomorrow (Saturday).