THE UNIVERSITY DARY IKANSAN
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2007
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South Florida gains positive reputation with top 10 spot
ASSOCIATED PRESS
University of South Florida's George Selvie, center, celebrates with students after the team's 21-13 upset win over West Virginia during a football game Friday night in Tampa, Fla. The upset of West Virginia, combined with an overtime win at then-No. 17 Auburn three weeks earlier, has earned the Bulls their first-ever Top 10 ranking in the weekly AP college football poll and is putting the sprawling school computer on the man.
Football team rids school of undesirable label
BY MITCH STACY ASSOCIATED PRESS
Unranked and unheralded a month ago, the undefeated Bulls vaulted to No. 6 in this week's college football rankings after upset victories over Auburn and West Virginia. They even leapfrogged defending national champion Florida, which slipped to No. 9.
TAMPA, Fla. — The University of South Florida has been dubbed "Terrorism U" and "ijihad U" in recent years because of a furor over a Palestinian militant on the faculty. But lately, to the school's delight, people are talking about USF for an altogether different reason: the football team.
USF officials and alumni couldn't be happier, considering that before this, the 45,000-student school — the nation's ninth-largest public university — was probably best known for employing Sami Al-Arian, a former computer-science professor, who, after an investigation that lasted more than a decade, pleaded
"I think everybody feels the real picture of USF will come through because of this," university spokesman Ken Gullette said of the football team's success. "This publicity hopefully is going to drown that out and carry us forward."
gully last year to aiding Palestinian terrorists.
News reports in the 1990s started linking Al-Arian and associates to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. A think tank founded by Al-Arian and partially sponsored by the university was shut down because the FBI suspected it was a front for the terrorist group. An Al-Arian associate who left USF resurfaced later as the head of the PIJ in the Middle East.
Unable to fire the tenured Al-Arian, USF finally suspended him in 2001 after an on-air grilling on Fox by Bill O'Reilly about his suspected links to terrorists. He was indicted in 2003 and eventually dismissed by USEF.
After a six-month trial, a federal jury failed to reach a verdict on most of the counts and acquitted Al-Arian
The "ilhad U." label came up again over the summer when two USF students from Egypt were indicted on federal explosives charges. One is accused of posting an online video that showed how to use a remote-controlled toy to set off a bomb.
on others. He later pleaded guilty to one count and agreed to be deported after serving more jail time.
The 51-year-old school has long been overshadowed by the University of Florida. Florida State and the University of Miami.
The football team's success "brings a whole new atmosphere to the school," said Matt Staton, a 20-year-old junior. "I've been to Tallahassee; I've been to Gainesville — they are football towns with established rivalries and everything. And now we're actually part of this. We're no longer considered just that commuter school in Tampa."
MLB
Baseball merchandise sales soar
USF President Judy Genshaft said: "I see athletics as being the front porches to the rest of the university. It gives people a chance to know the university."
BY RANDY PENNEL ASSOCIATED PRESS
PHILADELPHIA — Combine popular players, big markets, a team on a hot streak and a trio of long-suffering cities desperate for a World Series champion, and what do you get?
If you're Major League Baseball, a problem. But at least it's a good one to have.
At Sports World, across the street from Wrigley Field, sales of Cubs memorabilia were also sped up. Employees stuffed division championship T-shirts and hats into priority mail boxes to meet the demand from online orders.
The traditionally stagnant Phillies, the lovable loser Cubs and the sometimes hapless Indians are in the playoffs. So are the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Angels, while the Colorado Rockies are riding a furious late-season rally and flying high off a win in a wildcard tiebreaker.
And their merchandise is selling so fast that Major League Baseball has a hard time keeping up.
For franchises with traditionally strong sales like the Yankees and Red Sox, that isn't unusual, according to Mike May, the director of media relations for the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association.
"Internet sales are through the root," said Earl Shaevitz, one of the store owners. "We can't even keep up with it, selling all over the country and to Europe."
"We never give out numbers, but suffice it to say it is at a record pace, for sure," said Howard Smith, Major League Baseball's senior vice president of licensing, said Tuesday. "We're struggling to keep up with the demand as we speak."
With a regular season that came down to the final weekend — and beyond, in the case of the Rockies, who needed a one-game playoff to win the wild card — the confluence of big markets, rabid fan bases and potential storybook endings are increasing memorabilia sales.
The urge to buy was strong in the playoff cities on Wednesday.
"We're not used to this stuff in September," Reed said. We did the last ordering probably about a month or two months ago. So, yeah, it's really hard to keep stuff in here on a constant basis."
The Phillies store at Citizens Bank Park was doing brisk business hours before the Phillies-Rockies game with lots of fans picking up practically anything bearing the NL East champions logo.
Josh Cramer, 25, was buying a Ryan Howard batting practice jersey to add to his collection. He already owns a Chase Utley road jersey and a Mike Schmidt throwback jersey.
"I've been wanting to get another one for a long time, and this seemed like the perfect time." Cramer said.
Across the street from Coors Field in Denver, the store Sportfan still hadn't received Rockies wild card T-shirts or hats. Assistant manager Clayton Reed said the phone had been ringing off the hook from people requesting the merchandise.
But it could get bigger if one of the Cinderella teams wins the World Series.
"In these other markets — Phillies, Cubs, Rockies — whatever's not nailed down is going to go," May said.
The Cubs could bring an end to their 99-year title drought and break the Curse of the Billy Goat. In the season they recorded their 10,000th loss, the Phillies are trying to win Philadelphia's first major championship since the 76ers won a NBA title in 1983. The Rockies could capture a fairy-tale World Series title after winning 14 of their last 15 games just to make it into the playoffs.
And the Cleveland Indians have a chance to win its first championship since 1948.
In a year with relatively ho-hum playoffs, MLB might see the postseason produce about 5 percent of its merchandise sales, said Smith, the league official. This year, it could be as high as 20 percent.
While the league does not release sales figures, the manufacturers association reported total sales of MLB merchandise was $3.1 billion in 2005, the last year for which figures were available. That was up from $2.9 billion in 2004, when the Red Sox won the World Series and touched off a buying frenzy that lasted into May, Smith said.
May says fans just get swept up in the excitement and have to be a part of it.
"When people get caught up in the excitement of a winning team, especially in the case of the Red Sox and White Sox (the 2005 World Series champs) who had not tasted
victory in decades, people feel, "If I don't buy now, I'll never get a chance to buy them as a winner, because it may be just as long before they win it again." May said.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nancy Gehman, a Phillies season ticket holder since 1994, understands that feeling completely. She has been waiting a long time to see the Phillies get back to the playoffs for the first time since 1993.
"It's been 14 years," said Gehman, who was buying an NL East champs shirt and two hats. "We enjoyed just coming to the game, even those ones where nobody was in the stands. They didn't have a lot of this other stuff yet."
Many Flores hangs more Chicago Cubs jersey on the wall at the Sports World merchandise store Wednesday across the street from Wrigley Field in Chicago. With several traditionally bad teams in the playoffs, MLB could see up to a 15 percent increase from last year in postseason merchandise sales.
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