Over the Dam: 6.15.09

 --Mike Riley was named tothe American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Board of Trustees recently, replacing former Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti. You can check out the official press release here, as well as Cliff Kirkpatrick's story in the Gazette-Times.

--Exciting news in the OSU alumni department, as the Steelers signed Keenan Lewis, who was a third round pick. The 6-foot, 202-pound Lewis, one of three third-round selections made by Pittsburgh, will compete for playing time on defense. He made 48 career starts at Oregon State and made seven interceptions.

--Paul Buker of the Oregionian ensures us that the coaches of minor sports at OSU are remaining optimistic despite the dark times in the budget crisis. I especially liked this quote from OSU volleyball coach Terry Liskevych:

This is a place where we know we have to work a little harder and be a little smarter to make a dollar go a long way, I think that is a core value of this institution and in particular this athletic department.

--In the oh-by-the-way department, the Rose Bowl game will be moving to ESPN in 2011. "We were very specific when we did the Rose Bowl agreement back in 1989 about a free over-the-air broadcast," Rose Bowl Chief Executive Mitch Dorger said. "But the world in 1989 was different than it is in 2009." The game will remain on Jan. 1 in its traditional time slot of 2:10 p.m. "We knew it was coming," Dorger said. "We don't think it's going to be damaging . . . we think that the vast majority of people that are going to watch the Rose Bowl game are sports fans who already have ESPN."

--Pac-10 meetings concluded with no changes to the round-robin schedule. If the league were to drop the round-robin schedule and go with an 8-team rotation and add in a non-conference game, it would be much easiere for teams to become bowl elidigble. Jon Wilner of the Mercury News had this exchange with Pac-10 associate commishioner Jim Muldoon:

Muldoon said the Pac-10 coaches expressed interested in dropping the round-robin schedule during their meeting, so the issue was placed before the athletic directors.

"It didn't gain a lot of traction," Muldoon said.

So what's the status, I asked.

"It's dead."

Why wouldn't the athletic directors be in favor of a change that could help their teams qualify for a bowl game? Or improve their bowl position? Or possibly get a second team into the BCS?

"Most people like the nine-game schedule," Muldoon said. "They don't want to buy another non-conference game. There just wasn't a lot of interest."

So little, in fact, that the topic didn't even reach the presidents.

As you may remember, The VD Special voiced his opinion on this issue a few weeks ago.

--Some more draft talk out of the Gazette-Times from before the weekend. It still looks like Ortiz and Reyes will go, and everybody else will stay another year at OSU.

--And lastly, UCLA fans are glad to be done with Jrue Holliday after he informed Ben Howland of his decision to aim for the NBA through a beat writer. There's another reason for Beaver fans to be optimistic about the 2009-2010 basketball season.

That's all for today... if you have links you'd like to share, do so in the comment section below.

--Jake (jake.buildingthedam@gmail.com)

PS: The Los Angeles Lakers are NBA Champions.