ESPN

1. The National Association of Basketball Coaches board of directors met with NCAA president Mark Emmert on Thursday in Indianapolis and, according to at least one source in the room, there is support to close up a few transfer loopholes. The coaches and Emmert discussed making any player who wants to transfer sit out a year, even if he or she has graduated and is seeking a waiver to play immediately at a school that has a graduate program that isn’t available at the current school. The discussion also turned to the waiver that allows a player to play immediately if a relative is ill. That, too, could be closed. The consensus among the coaches is that if anyone transfers, he should sit out a year, even if that means a sixth year in college. The coaches also wanted some sort of universal language on transfer restrictions, maybe even an NCAA rule that forbids transferring within a league. Conferences and schools create their own policies on restricting transfers. According to the NCAA spokesperson, Emmert is going to put together a process to review and make recommendations that includes coaches' input.

2. North Texas athletic director Rick Villarreal said Thursday night that he has a policy that he doesn’t release players who have signed with North Texas or leave the program during their career. Conversely, he won’t allow his coaches, even new ones like men’s basketball coach Tony Benford, to cut a player based on ability. He said the only way a player will be released is if there is an academic or behavior issue. This is relevant because signee John Odoh may want to follow former coach Johnny Jones to LSU. Villarreal said Odoh hasn’t asked for a release yet. If he does, don’t expect a release -- or at least not one to LSU. Villarreal was adamant that Odoh was recruited by Jones with Mean Green funds. Players may leave, but without a release, meaning they would then have to pay their own scholarships.

3. Incoming NCAA tournament selection committee chair Mike Bobinski said that 2013 East Regional sites were discussed Thursday in Indianapolis, and that a decision is due in two weeks. Syracuse and Brooklyn, N.Y., appear to be the favorites. The initial four candidates also included New York City (Madison Square Garden) and Newark, N.J. MSG is booked. Newark hasn’t been eliminated yet.

College coaching searches are typically held on some strict deadlines. For example: Last month, when Illinois sought a replacement for former coach Bruce Weber, athletic director Mike Thomas openly stated that he wanted to end his search before he left for the Final Four in New Orleans. This kind of arbitrary deadline happens for a couple of reasons, far as I can tell:

1. There is a real chance schools can lose current players and recruits if the situation feels uncertain. And who knows what those players are hearing from opposing coaches gently (or not so gently) nudging them toward a transfer.

2. The perception is such that if you can't find a coach within a few days, well, clearly there is something wrong with your program. What's wrong with your program, dude?

Still, the deadlines can be counterproductive, and they were for Illinois. When Shaka Smart turned the job down, Thomas had to scramble to find a second and third and fourth option, and when those possibilities fell through he found himself rushing to sign a deal with Ohio coach John Groce -- a good, well-respected coach, but also one that went 34-30 in the MAC in four seasons -- before the deadline Thomas himself created. It was a bit of a mess for a variety of reasons. The rushing around was one of them.

Which is why it's somewhat interesting to see North Texas athletic director Rick Villareal be so laissez-faire about the idea of hurrying to find a new men's basketball coach. Villareal is charged with finding a replacement for Johnny Jones, who left for the vacant LSU job last week, and while Villareal doesn't want the search to take all summer -- he wants to finish up in the next 10 days -- he told the Denton Record-Chronicle that he isn't hurrying just to hurry, either:

“I know there is some angst and concern, but what I would tell people is that we hired Johnny Jones,” Villarreal said. “We had the foresight and I had the intuition to do that. We hired Karen Aston a year ago, and she did a great job. We hired Dan McCarney, who has increased our program tremendously.We are going to get that kind of person.”

“I’m not going to try to do it in two days, because we don’t have to,” Villarreal said. “We have got some time. I’m going to be diligent and see just who is interested, and at the end of the day make sure that we have the best pool to pull from.”

At this point in the calendar, with much of the high-level coaching intrigue finished for now, this seems like the appropriate approach. Jones made the North Texas job a surprisingly desirable one; Villareal will have a solid pool of candidates to work through. If fans are willing to trust the process, why rush it?

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. -- Teeng Akol scored 23 points and Western Kentucky rallied for a 74-70 win over North Texas on Tuesday night in the championship game of the Sun Belt conference tournament.

The win caps a stunning run for the Hilltoppers (15-18), who earned their first NCAA tournament berth since 2009 by winning four games in as many days. Western Kentucky, which has won six straight overall, opened the season 5-11 -- resulting in the firing of coach Ken McDonald.

George Fant finished with 17 points to help the Hilltoppers rally from a 13-point deficit in the second half.
Tony Mitchell scored 18 points to lead the Mean Green (18-14), who were playing in their third straight league championship game.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. -- Jacob Holman scored 21 points and made five 3-point shots to lead North Texas to a 76-72 over against Arkansas State in a Sun Belt tournament semifinal Monday night.

Alzee Williams added 12 points, Brandan Walton and Tony Mitchell 11 each and Roger Franklin 10 for the fifth-seeded Mean Green (18-13), who will play No. 3 seed Denver or No. 7 seed Western Kentucky in the championship game on Tuesday. It is the team's third straight trip to the finals, and the fourth in six years.

Trey Finn had 21 points and made five 3-pointers for the ninth-seeded Red Wolves (14-20). Marcus Hooten had 18 points and Malcoln Kirkland 14 points and 10 rebounds.

The Mean Green will play Western Kentucky for the conference championship at 6 p.m. on ESPN2.

North Texas football coach Dan McCarney, 58, who is entering his second season with the Mean Green, was admitted to a hospital Sunday and is undergoing a battery of tests.

"The exact cause and nature of the symptoms of his illness are not immediately known by us at this time," UNT athletic director Rick Villarreal said in a statement. "The family has asked until a complete diagnosis and a course of treatment is established that their privacy be respected."

For more on the story, click here.

MARBLE FALLS, Texas -- Todd Dodge is returning to Texas high school coaching five years after a dominant run of four state championships in five seasons.

Dodge was hired Monday night at Marble Falls, ending a college stint that started when the University of North Texas hired Dodge after he went 79-1 in a five-season stretch at Southlake Carroll.

The rare move from high school to a Division I program didn't work out for Dodge. He was 6-37 before getting fired in the middle of his fourth season at UNT. He was the quarterbacks coach at Pittsburgh last year.

Dodge's overall high school record is 124-46 at four schools.

Marble Falls is a Class 4A school 50 miles northwest of Austin, where Dodge has family ties and was a starting quarterback for Texas in the 1980s.

North Texas freshman Tony Mitchell has been named the Sun Belt Conference player of the week for the third consecutive week.

Mitchell becomes just the second player in league history to receive three consecutive weekly honors and the first since the 2008-09 season, when Brandon Hazzard of Troy received three consecutive honors.

Mitchell, a Pinkston High School grad, had 30 points and a Sun Belt-season high 17 rebounds to lift North Texas (12-8, 5-2 SBC) to an overtime win over Denver and into a tie for first place in the West Division.

The Mean Green has now won five of its last six games, with the only loss coming on a half-court buzzer beater on the road at Arkansas State on Jan. 7.

According to The River Cities Daily Tribune, Marble Falls High School is hoping to hire former Southlake Carroll and University of North Texas football coach Todd Dodge.

The report said Dodge visited the school Wednesday and was introduced to the booster club.

"The primary purpose of this evaluation is to allow [Dodge and his family] to see if this is the place they want to be," Marble Falls school district spokesman Bruce Peckover told The Daily Tribune.

Marble Falls, which is about 45 miles northwest of Austin, went 4-6 last season, including 1-5 in District 25-4A.

Dodge coached for seven seasons at Southlake Carroll, leading the Dragons to state championships in 2002, '04, '05 and '06. He left for the North Texas job starting in 2007 but went 6-37 before being fired during the 2010 season. He was quarterbacks coach at the University of Pittsburgh last season.

DENTON, Texas -- New coach. New stadium. Even new uniforms.

Change is the obvious theme for North Texas entering the 2011 season, and given its recent past, that change couldn't come fast enough.

Gone is Todd Dodge and his .140 winning percentage, the worst of any head coach in the school's history. Fouts Field, the woefully outdated stadium that didn't measure up to many area high school venues, will sit empty this year.

Enter Dan McCarney, a veteran college coach whose résumé, demeanor and approach are the polar opposite of Dodge's. He'll patrol the sidelines as UNT's head coach in the inaugural season of the long-awaited Apogee Stadium.

Oh, and the team dumped those Southlake Carroll-esque jerseys, too, opting for an all-green look.

"It's time for a change," said North Texas director of athletics Rick Villarreal. "It's time to change the direction of our program because the university is changing its direction. I think this gives everybody a chance to say, 'OK, here we go, it's time to turn the page.'"

Read the rest of the story here.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- Dec. 17 is supposed to be the big day.

After a frustrating year spent in limbo, that’s when blue-chip recruit Tony Mitchell is expected to become academically eligible for North Texas and finally be able to put on a college uniform.

After five consecutive seasons of at least 20 wins for the Mean Green, the addition of the 6-foot-8 ex-Missouri signee from Dallas would be a real boon for a Sun Belt school unaccustomed to landing talent that ESPN ranks in its top 25.

For Mitchell, the turning point came amid news reports centering on a spotty educational record that turned his college career into a dream deferred. He tuned out the talk of his shortcomings and went to work.

“I was on the news like every week,” Mitchell recalled last month after a workout at the U.S. Olympic Training Center. “I was like, ‘What’s going on?’

“It’s motivation. They can say what they want to say.”

Displaying his ability as a strong and versatile power forward has never been an issue for Mitchell. After a year away from organized competition, he not only made the USA Basketball under-19 team that competed at the world championships but also led the Americans in rebounding (7.6) and blocked shots (1.8) during the tournament in Latvia.

Where Mitchell needed to improve was in the classroom, and he appears to have done so since enrolling at North Texas in January shortly after the NCAA had ruled him a nonqualifier with Missouri. He’s done enough academically to the point where both he and UNT coach Johnny Jones are confident he’ll be eligible to play in December.

“He was extremely strong in his studies in the first semester he was here, and he’s off to a great start in the summer,” Jones said. “There are no indications I should believe he wouldn’t be available.

“He’s very focused and very determined. I don’t think he’d let anything get in the way after what happened.”

Mitchell’s college debut was delayed after he was dealt a series of academic setbacks. The Dallas Independent School District reportedly investigated how testing at Pinkston High had enabled Mitchell to quickly make up for nontransferable academic credits from the Center of Life Academy, a prep school in Miami he previously attended. Also, he wasn’t able to graduate from Pinkston until the summer because he had difficulty passing the state’s exit-level test.

It took months for the NCAA to rule Mitchell ineligible, and he said he became stressed with all the paperwork and phone calls and became withdrawn while sitting at home during the wait. Ultimately, the NCAA announced that it was rejecting Missouri’s appeal and that the school would not further pursue the matter.

“Membership has made it a priority that prospective student-athletes be academically prepared,” Kevin Lennon, the NCAA’s vice president of academic and membership affairs, said then in a statement. “The standards are clear and serve as the foundation for the other NCAA academic requirements that must be met once a student-athlete enters college.”

Mitchell’s mother, Angie, broke it to him that he wouldn’t be able to go to Missouri.

“I was really emotional,” said Mitchell, who was told the NCAA would not accept two core classes from the Center of Life Academy. “Throughout the whole thing, it was frustrating. You got to stay humble and fight through it, though.”

Mitchell decided that rather than head to a junior college, he would attend nearby North Texas and sit out a year while working on academic requirements. Jones, who has led North Texas to the NCAA tournament twice in the past four years, had recruited Mitchell before he committed to Missouri.

“It’s already a winning program,” Mitchell said. “I’m just trying to take it to national heights, basically take the program to another level than it’s already at.”

Mitchell, who can neither play nor practice with the Mean Green while sitting out without an athletic scholarship, realized he did have old habits he needed to change. After all, he said the reason he went to Florida to attend prep school in the first place was to try to make up for poor academics.

“Starting off my freshman year of high school, I messed up really bad,” Mitchell said. “I was playing catch-up throughout high school. I was a class clown. Failing, basically.”

And now?

“I take my books seriously. Back in the day, I really didn’t care about it. Now I’m on top of my stuff. I’m just doing my work -- studying, writing papers, being a regular college student, putting my books before basketball.

“I learned quickly. My coaches really carried me throughout that time -- how to study, time management.”

Mitchell is relegated to staying in shape in the school’s recreation center, but Jones has been able to help get him acclimated in the college setting off the court.

“He comes by our offices, and it’s about growth,” Jones said. “Be on time. That’s half the battle. Get to where you’re supposed to be. Be reliable.

“The basketball portion will come rather easily for him.”

Jones, who played on a Final Four team at LSU and eventually helped recruit and coach Shaquille O’Neal at his alma mater, believes that Mitchell will become eligible just in time for when the Tigers come to Denton for a rare SEC-visits-Sun Belt battle. Mitchell might be rusty, but he should be raring to go after having played only nine real games in the past year, all for Team USA.

Mitchell said he’s not bitter about the circumstances that cost him a career at Missouri and expects big things to happen at his second-choice school.

So does his new coach.

“We look forward to mid-December,” Jones said. “He’s definitely on track. I’m happy for him and extremely excited for us as well.”

School: North Texas
Location: Denton, Texas
Enrollment: 36,206
Bowl appearances: 6
NFL first-round picks: 0
Losing seasons: 22
10-win seasons: 0

Source: ESPN Stats & Info (Note: Numbers date back to 1936, the first year of the AP poll. NFL numbers date back to 1970.)

The good: Though North Texas is located well north of the central part of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, it's still right off I-35, a heavily trafficked highway. The old stadium, and the new one being built nearby, are can't miss landmarks on the side of the highway. That new stadium alone is a big plus for the program, too. The Sun Belt Conference members have the lowest prestige of any of the FBS programs in the metroplex, but North Texas can be an attractive spot for FBS transfers who, for whatever reason, didn't fit in at their bigger programs and want to transfer closer to home.

The bad: The lack of historical success makes it difficult to have much to build on, and even bringing in an innovative approach recently didn't work for the Mean Green, who hired legendary high school coach Todd Dodge from nearby offensive juggernaut Southlake Carroll. Playing in the Sun Belt limits the heights to which the program can reach, and even other programs within the conference are significantly more successful, like Troy and Middle Tennessee State.

The Texas Longhorns have added a home-and-home series with Maryland Terrapins in 2017 and 2018, the school announced Wednesday.

Texas will host the Terrapins on Sept. 2, 2017, and travel to Maryland on Sept. 1, 2018.

The Longhorns also set four other non-conference games and adjusted the years on two others to finalize its non-conference schedule through 2017.

UT has added games with New Mexico on Sept. 8, 2012, New Mexico State on Aug. 31, 2013, North Texas on Aug. 30, 2014 and Rice on Sept. 12, 2015. In order to accommodate some scheduling issues, the Horns moved their game with UCF from 2011 to 2017 and UTEP from 2012 to 2016.

A look at UT's non-conference schedule through 2018 (the non-conference schedule decreases to three games next season as the Big 12 contracts to 10 teams):

2011
9/3 RICE
9/10 BYU
9/17 at UCLA

2012
9/1 WYOMING
9/8 NEW MEXICO
9/15 at Mississippi

2013
8/31 NEW MEXICO STATE
9/7 at BYU
9/14 MISSISSIPPI

2014
8/30 NORTH TEXAS
9/6 BYU
9/13 at Arkansas

2015
9/5 at Notre Dame
9/12 RICE
9/19 CAL

2016
9/3 NOTRE DAME
9/10 UTEP
9/17 at CAL

2017
9/2 MARYLAND
9/9 UCF
9/16 at USC

2018
9/1 at Maryland
9/8 TBA
9/15 USC

The Mountain West Conference opted not to add Boise State last weekend during its summer meetings to gauge the changing landscape around it, but then quickly moved to get the Broncos in on Friday, expanding MWC membership to 10.

We all know that the Pac-10 and Colorado moved quickly to get the Buffaloes in to avoid a coming political power play by Texas lawmakers to get Baylor invited to the Pac-10 party. Did the MWC virtually do the same and lock out Baylor by adding Boise State?

Think about this: Does TCU, spurned by Baylor and the Big 12 in 1994, and which would directly battle Baylor for recruits if they competed in the same conference, want Baylor in? Grudges are grudges, but recruiting is a program's lifeblood. As great a job as Gary Patterson has done recruiting Texas and finding hidden gems passed over by the bigger programs, Baylor, athletically, is on an upswing in large part due to men's basketball coach Scott Drew, as well as optimism created by football coach Art Briles, who is excited to have dual-threat quarterback Robert Griffin back in the fold this season. If TCU and Baylor went head-to-head in the MWC, especially an MWC with an automatic BCS bid, recruiting would be cut-throat. A Baylor program reduced to a lower-level conference is far less threatening.

The MWC, like the Pac-10, has choices -- assuming the Big 12 dissolves as expected by Tuesday. Immediately out of the mega-conference mix would be Missouri, Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State and Baylor. If Texas A&M chooses to join the SEC instead of the Pac-10, Kansas could be the beneficiary and get the Pac-10 invite. If A&M goes to the Pac-10, the MWC would eye Kansas, Missouri, Kansas State and Iowa State for a 14-team league that would be attractive for BCS acceptance. Even if Kansas goes to the Pac-10 or another high-profile conference, the MWC could expand by two to get to 12 and still feel confident of becoming a BCS conference.

Such a scenario only makes the Baylor picture look more bleak. Where do the Bears go in such a case? Does the WAC hold Boise State's vacancy for the Bears? Is that an option Baylor would even considers? But, what's left besides sifting through the rubble to form a revamped SWC? Could Baylor pull together Rice, SMU and Houston, with perhaps North Texas, UTEP, Tulsa and perhaps Tulane or Louisiana-Lafayette for at least an eight-team league with other regional schools perhaps in the mix to take the total to 10?

Certainly, the appeal might not be there, but in this emerging, new landscape it appears the choices might not be there either for Baylor.

These are crazy times. Sixteen years after the formation of the Big 12, it appears TCU's and Baylor's fortunes could very well be reversed.

ESPN College Football Insider Bruce Feldman has put together a top 10 list of college football coaches on the hot seat entering the 2010 season. Appearing on the list are North Texas coach Todd Dodge (No. 4) and Texas A&M coach Mike Sherman (No. 10).

Feldman's comments on the two:

4. Todd Dodge, North Texas Mean Green: With the success he had in high school, many observers thought this would've turned out much, much differently. Instead, UNT -- a program that was very respectable a decade ago -- is now among the worst at the FBS level. UNT is 5-31 in Dodge's tenure. Without a big turnaround, it doesn't seem likely that he gets to coach them again in 2011.

10. Mike Sherman, Texas A&M Aggies: The Aggies are an interesting team right now. They have some outstanding talent in a lot of places. People saw how dangerous they could be when they went toe-to-toe with Texas last Thanksgiving. The Aggies are pretty close to becoming relevant again. Sherman's hire of former Air Force D-coordinator Tim DeRuyter is pivotal. Expectations are building. They have a legit shot to open 4-0 before Arkansas visits. I think Sherman's team will respond well this year and get him off the hot seat, but with a 10-15 career mark, it's iffy right now.

Army Black Knights haven't played in a bowl game since 1996 and the start of the 2010 season is still five months away, but the U.S. Military Academy already knows its bowl destination if it can qualify for a postseason game: The Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl.

The Fort Worth-based bowl reached an agreement with Army to play in the 2010 game at TCU's Amon G. Carter Stadium. The Black Knights of the Hudson would join other military institutions Air Force, which played in the past three Armed Forces Bowl games, and Navy, which has an agreement to play in the 2013 game.

Army fell one game short of bowl eligibility in 2009 under first-year coach Richard Ellerson.

The bowl is currently slated to feature a team from Conference USA against a team from the Mountain West Conference.

the Black Knights must have six wins prior to their annual game with Navy (Dec. 11) in order to secure their spot. The 2010 Army schedule features home games against Hawai'i, Temple, Air Force, Yale and the North Texas Mean Green.

Cadet road games will be at Eastern Michigan, Rutgers, Kent State, Duke, Northwestern and Louisiana Tech with neutral site contests against Notre Dame and Navy.