In Lubbock, Nicholas Talbot noted Texas Tech's football team on Monday got its "first look at the new digs at the Football Training Facility." The $1.6M project allowed Texas Tech to "upgrade its amenities with 120 steel lockers to go along with a new players’ lounge, state-of-the-art lighting system and 60-inch HD televisions scattered throughout the facility." The project was "funded through The Campaign for Fearless Champions." The locker room is also "highlighted by a new entrance, featuring various Red Raider helmets as well as a lighted Double T handing from the roof of the ceiling" (LUBBOCK AVALANCHE-JOURNAL, 7/11).
PIT STOP: In Albuquerque, Geoff Grammer noted New Mexico announced it had recently "discovered payment for use of 24 suites in the Pit had gone uncollected," some since the '10-11 basketball season, to the tune of $432,000. The discovery came amid a "pair of state investigations into spending and fundraising for the UNM athletics department." It is the latest in a "string of recent revelations of questionable financial dealings" with UNM athletics that prompted interim President Chaouki Abdallah on Monday to appoint Chris Vallejos, Associate VP/Institutional Support Services, to "temporarily oversee finances in the athletics department" (ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL, 7/11).
DEAC-TRONICS: The Wake Forest athletics department and Daktronics announced a partnership to "bring 35 LED displays" to Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum. The installation of more than "5,000 square feet of LED displays will be completed this summer and will be used" starting with '17-18 season (NEWSOBSERVER.com, 7/11). The new center hung configuration will feature more than 1,400 square feet of displays (Daktronics).
KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES: 3M this week signed on to title sponsor Minnesota's hockey arena, and in Minneapolis, Jim Souhan wrote if schools want to even "attempt to compete with the powers of the Big Ten in football and basketball, you sell naming rights whenever you can, for as much as you can." Souhan: "You may not like it when Williams Arena is renamed 'Sherwin' Williams, or 'The Dress Barn,' but if the price is right and the funds help the basketball programs excel, what’s in a name?" (Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE, 7/12).
RAM TOUGH: In Colorado, Kevin Lytle notes Colorado State coaches "spoke highly" of the new 41,000-capacity football stadium and its "impact on" the state. CSU AD Joe Parker tweeted out that the school has "sold more than 14,000 football season tickets." He also said that "more than 100 non-football events have been booked" at the $220M stadium (Ft. Collins COLORADOAN, 7/13).
