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Penn State University located in State College, Pennsylvania is notorious for their seemingly bottomless pitcher of school spirit. After all, students at the University are even tailgating their final exams. Complete with hot dogs and encouraging signs. This photo from Onward State's Facebook page has been making the rounds this week: Stephen Pianovich, pictured above, is graduating this May and masterminded the plan to tailgate a final. It was on his senior year bucket list. In an email to Business Insider, he said: We got some confused looks from people walking and driving by, but nobody from the university or...

When people think of mathematicians, they often think of the stereotype: the awkward, hunched-over guy doing groundbreaking research at a bar. Russell Crowe’s John Nash in A Beautiful Mind.John Urschel isn’t that kind of mathematician. He’s a 6-foot-3, 313-pound man who lines up across from defenders and hits them, hard. Urschel was a first-team All–Big Ten offensive lineman the last two seasons at Penn State, and he projects as a fourth- or fifth-round pick in this week’s NFL draft. He works hard at football, and when he’s finished, he goes home and does math.Recently, Urschel sent me two of...

Have you heard? Barack Obama’s brother-in-law was just fired after six seasons as head basketball coach at Oregon State. It’s wonderful to hear the words “fired” and “Obama” in the same sentence. Unfortunately for America, the wrong member of the Obama family was canned after six failing years. If ever there was a case to fire a CEO, it’s Barack Obama. Why should running an economy be any different than running a sports team? Both are about results. Winning. In sports, if you’re not winning, there are no excuses. Obama’s brother-in-law could not use the excuse that after six seasons,...

Oregon State fired head coach Craig Robinson on Sunday night, according to a source with knowledge of the situation. In six seasons, Robinson went 93-104 with no NCAA tournament appearances. The Beavers went 16-16 last season and are losing all five starters from that team. The biggest surprise of the firing of Robinson, the brother-in-law of President Barack Obama, comes with the timing. Oregon State's season ended six weeks ago with a loss to Radford in the CBI and Robinson had reportedly received support from Oregon State's administration. Robinson has three more years remaining on this contract and the university...

Audio link of a recording made between John Ziegler and espn star "journalist" Don Van Natta before his release of his expose on Mike McQueary. This is followed by another interview with Van Natta and Kevin Slaten (after the release of the article), where Slaten lays the lumber to DVN, and catches him in lie after lie. Note to DVN: Don't play stupid. Especially with people (like Ziegler and Slaten) who know much more about this mess than you will ever hope to.

The NCAA suffered another blow Wednesday in its challenge of a 2013 state law that would prevent millions of dollars in sanctions imposed against Penn State from leaving Pennsylvania. In a one-sentence decision, the Commonwealth Court denied the NCAA’s request to re-argue its preliminary objections in the case. The organization wanted the court to reconsider its April 9 decision that backed the constitutionality of the Endowment Act.The act was passed last year by state legislators to determine how to spend the fine money levied against Penn State over the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse scandal. The law calls for...

Go back and read Allahpundit’s primer on the regional NLRB’s (immediately appealed) March ruling that Northwestern University football players are employees of the school, and are therefore entitled to form a union. That decision precipitated today’s vote — the official results of which likely won’t be known for months, or even years, due to a lengthy anticipated appeals process. The unionization push has become a hot topic in sports media and a political lightning rod. The university, coaching staff, and many former players have come out strongly against the idea, and some current members of the team have suggested that...

As the furor over compensation of college athletes continues to heat up across the nation, a number of different proposals and options have been explored. Last month members of the Northwestern football team stepped the debate up by successfully petitioning the National Labor Relations Board to form a union and bargain for benefits. The issue was further highlighted when Shabazz Napier, star of the recently crowned NCAA Mens Basketball Champion University of Connecticut Huskies, told reporters that sometimes he goes to bed “starving” because he can’t afford food. While the NCAA has been adamant in its policy to not monetarily...

Final Four most outstanding player Shabazz Napier complained on the eve of UConn's tournament win over Kentucky that he sometimes goes to bed "starving" as a student-athlete. The NCAA has heard the growls of Shabazz's stomach. The NCAA announced that schools can now provide student-athletes with unlimited food. The NCAA release called the Division 1 rule revision "an effort to meet the nutritional needs of all student-athletes." Prior to Tuesday's change, schools could provide their competitors with a stipend or dining hall pass good for three meals a day, a deprivation which sent Mr. Shabazz to sleep starving. Other changes...

Approximately 4,000 participants took part in the Paterno Family Beaver Stadium Run on April 13, 2014. The event consisted of a 3 Mile Run and 1 Mile Family Fun Walk. The entire course was on the Penn State campus; finishing inside Beaver Stadium after running through the players’ tunnel. Sue Paterno, wife of the late Penn State coach Joe Paterno, was on-hand at the event, encouraging participants. Former Penn State and Pittsburgh Steeler great Franco Harris and former Lions' defensive coordinator, Tom Bradley, greeted runners as they crossed the finish line. The event raised an unofficial total of around $400,000...

PHILADELPHIA -- Union College won its first NCAA hockey title Saturday night at the Frozen Four, scoring three times in a 1:54 span in the first period in a 7-4 victory over Minnesota on Saturday night. Mike Vecchione tied the score at 2 with 4:01 left in the first, Eli Lichtenwald gave the Dutchman the lead 57 seconds later, and Daniel Ciampini capped the spree with 2:57 to go. “I don't think anyone will call us Cinderella anymore,” said Shayne Gostisbehere, who had a goal and two assists. “These guys, my brothers, they do everything. I don't care about anything...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - John Urschel (Williamsville, N.Y.), the Penn State All-American guard who claimed the 2013 William V. Campbell Trophy from the National Football Foundation (NFF) as college football's premier scholar-athlete, has been named the recipient of the 84th James E. Sullivan Award, presented by the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) to America's top amateur athlete. Urschel was announced as the winner of the prestigious award Friday night during an awards ceremony at the AAU National Headquarters in Orlando, Fla. 
Urschel was selected from a pool of 19 semifinalists vying for the honor in 2014, and was joined by two...

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) –Police in riot gear arrested 10 University of Minnesota students Thursday night after hundreds took to the streets of Dinkytown following the Gophers’ stunning last-second win over North Dakota in the Final Four. Hordes of hockey fans swarmed the intersection of 4th Street and 14th Avenue around 11 p.m., and law enforcement officials responded to the scene, wearing riot gear. “I saw the SWAT team, or whoever they were, marching down the street, and I’ve never seen that before,” said McKenzie Lagodinski, who was arrested. “And just, like, all of a sudden, it was like: Wait, guys, this...

Philadelphia – Senior defenseman Justin Holl’s shorthanded goal, in the last second of the game, gave the Gophers a 2-1 victory over North Dakota in the second semifinal of the Frozen Four on Thursday night in Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center. Just when it appeared the game would go into overtime tied at 1-1, Holl’s shot on a last rush changed everything. Kyle Rau and Brady Skjei had assists on the play. Sam Warning of the Gophers ended 51 minutes of scoreless hockey with a goal in the third periodd and seconds later North Dakota responded to knot up keep the...

(CNN) -- A U.S. congressman is questioning whether the NCAA failed to hold the University of North Carolina accountable during a 2012 academic fraud investigation and is demanding answers from NCAA brass. If he doesn't get them, he'll call for congressional hearings and subpoena NCAA President Mark Emmert, Rep. Tony Cardenas told CNN. The California Democrat is referring to a probe in which the National Collegiate Athletic Association investigated UNC's system of "paper classes" -- independent studies requiring little work and no attendance. Athletes were able to get easy "A"s without actually going to class. The NCAA declined to sanction...

STORRS, Conn. – Jubilant fans celebrating UConn's Monday night national basketball championship win smashed a window in an engineering building, broke street lights and overturned furniture inside the school's student union. Campus police had made 30 arrests by 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, while state police had made others and more were expected, said University of Connecticut spokesman Tom Breen. "A lot of it was alcohol-related," Breen said. "There was breech of peace, destruction of property, and we had a fireworks charge." Most of the property damage was minor, he said. No serious injuries had been reported. "By far, most of our...

Last year, twenty one year old Northwestern University quarterback Kain Colter decided he could “…revolutionize the way collegiate athletes are treated” by forming the first players union in NCAA athletics. A union…”would put the athletes in a position to bargain, to demand things that college athletes have never had before — like stipends, continuing medical coverage after graduation, more concussion testing and even a portion of the profits of the multi-billion dollar windfall created by college football and basketball,” writes CNN reporter Sara Ganim of the benefits players might realize. (1) On March 26th, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)...

Did you fill out a March Madness bracket this year? In many states, if you put money in a pool, that's illegal! The NCAA website warns, "Fans should enjoy ... filling out a bracket just for the fun of it, not ... the amount of money they could possibly win." Give me a break. Americans bet more money on March Madness this year than on the Super Bowl. Politicians can't quite make up their minds about gambling: They approve certain casinos and promote state lotteries but crack down on sports bets and some charity poker games. It seems that government...

[B.O.] chooses Florida, Arizona, Louisville and Michigan State for his Final Four picks.

The Talk Shows March 30th, 2014 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Sens. Angus King, I-Maine; John Barrasso, R-Wyo.; Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.; Michael Leiter, former White House adviser on counterterrorism.FACE THE NATION (CBS): NCAA President Mark Emmert; Michael Hayden, former head of the CIA and the National Security Agency; Michael Morrell, former deputy CIA director and member of NSA Surveillance Review Group; Cmdr. William J. Marks, U.S. Navy 7th Fleet, which is involved in the search for the missing Malaysian Airlines jet.THIS WEEK...