College Football weekly notes

-Courtesy of the National Football Foundation

NFF Board Member to be Honored Clayton Bennett, a board member for The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame since 1995, will be inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame this fall. He and seven other Oklahomans will be honored for their significant contributions to and admirable representation of the state.

A graduate of the University of Oklahoma Bennett serves as president of Dorchester Capital, a diversified private investment company; serves as the chairman of Seattle SuperSonics & Storm; and currently serves as chairman of the Oklahoma State Fair and the Oklahoma Industries Authority. In addition to his duties as an NFF board member, he also chairs the NFF Fundraising Committee.

National Basketball Association (NBA) Commissioner David Stern will present Bennett for induction at ceremonies hosted by the Oklahoma Heritage Association on Nov. 8. Other members of the class include country music singer Toby Keith, former Miss America and broadcast journalist Jane Jayroe Gamble, and award- winning educator and "mother of the civil rights movement" Clara Luper.

On-Campus Salute Held for Florida Athletics Director

University of Florida athletics director Jeremy Foley was honored by the National Football Foundation last Saturday during the Gators' season opener against Western Kentucky.

Foley was named the 2007 recipient of the NFF's John L. Toner Award, which annually honors an athletics director who has demonstrated superior administrative abilities and shown outstanding dedication to college athletics and particularly college football.

Coming off one of the most successful years in college athletics history, highlighted by the 2006 BCS National Championship, Foley has headed the Florida regime since 1992. Under his leadership, Florida has won 12 national titles and 77 SEC championships. Equally impressive, 66 Academic All-Americans and two NFF National Scholar-Athletes, including 1996 Draddy Trophy winner Danny Wuerffel, have been honored during the Foley era.

Foley will be honored alongside the 2007 College Football Hall of Fame Class at the NFF's Annual Awards Dinner on Tuesday, December 4, at the prestigious Waldorf=Astoria in New York City.

Play It Smart Job Openings

The NFF's acclaimed Play It Smart program is currently seeking applicants for part-time "Academic Coach" positions in the following cities: San Francisco, CA; Miami, FL; Chicago, IL; Boston, MA; Minneapolis, MN; Asbury Park, NJ; New York, NY; Tarrytown, NY; Nashville, TN; Charlottesville, VA; and Green Bay, WI. Please call 800.486.1865 for more information.

NFF to Post Game Schedules

Each Thursday, The National Football Foundation will post to its Web site, www.footballfoundation.com, a viewer's guide for all televised match-ups featuring Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) schools that weekend.

Two-Minute Drill

Virginia Tech honored the 32 victims of last April's campus shootings during a ceremony before last week's opener against East Carolina at Lane Stadium. The school also recalled the victims' families, those wounded and the first responders to the massacre inside Norris Hall. East Carolina chancellor Steve Ballard and athletic director Terry Holland presented Virginia Tech officials with a $100,000 donation to the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund. ACC commissioner John Swofford also was recognized for the league's earlier donation of $300,000. Virginia Tech president Charles Steger and Virginia governor Tim Kaine later lauded the first responders at the 50- yard line. A tribute video of the victims was shown on the stadium scoreboards before 32 balloons were released in memory of the deceased... Jane Hoeppner, the widow of 2005 and '06 Indiana head coach Terry Hoeppner, and her children and grandchildren were honored guests and received a five-minute video presentation in pre-game commemoration of Hoeppner during last Saturday's IU-Indiana State contest in Bloomington.

Auburn's football squad and cheerleaders visited Storybook Farm in nearby Opelika, Ala., to interact with children with disabilities at the horseback riding facility... Texas will wear a commemorative bluebonnet logo on its helmets to memorialize the life of Lady Bird Johnson, Texas-ex and the wife of U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson... Notre Dame's Counterfeit Ticket Task Force via the Notre Dame Security Police is seeking any possible counterfeit game tickets or scams for 2007 South Bend or road games... Several student-athletes from Stephen F. Austin will be doing grocery sacking with "Jacks with Sacks" at the Brookshire Brothers location in Nacogdoches, Texas, on Fridays before home contests as a public service... SMU student-athletes will solicit donations for the families of Virginia Tech April tragedy victims at the SMU-Texas Tech tussle Monday... Maine football student- athletes recently took a day off the practice field to welcome back 245 soldier returning to the U.S. from Iraq... Louisiana Tech will host a special Tackle Breast Cancer fundraising effort in conjunction with Saturday's Western Athletic Conference contest against Hawaii in Ruston... LSU officially has sold out all games at Tiger Stadium for '07... Kentucky student ticket sales have reached 5,000 to shatter the previous mark of 3,549 in 2005... Geico signed on last week as sponsor of the Iowa-Northern Illinois game at Soldier Field.

Maryland will feature its eight NFF College Hall of Fame members, 11 consensus All-America selections and a total of 33 football student-athletes around the concourse of enhanced Chevy Chase Bank Field at Byrd Stadium on campus in 2007. The recognition areas will include photos and career highlights... Papa John's International has made a $10 million donation toward future expansion at Papa John's Stadium on Louisville's campus... Iowa State is providing new shuttle "CyRides" from parking lots to Jack Trice Stadium... Syracuse's 2007 opener included "44 Giveaways" to commemorate and to salute the unveiling of NFF Hall of Fame member Ernie Davis' bust at the Carrier Dome last week.

Tennessee head coach Phil Fulmer and wife Vicky made a $1 million donation to the university last Tuesday for the Campaign for Tennessee to celebrate their 30-plus-years associations with the university... Texas head coach Mack Brown had his contract extended through the 2016 season... Maryland head coach Ralph Friedgen has just released his book "My Way: Football and Life Lessons With Maryland Coach Ralph Friedgen"... Villanova head coach Andy Talley has helped facilitate over 3,500 potential donors for the National Marrow Donor Registry through his volunteer and community awareness efforts... San Jose State head coach Dick Tomey has helped raise funds and awareness for Hurricane Katrina survivors through several personal endeavors and a message to the San Jose community at a campus rally last week... Former Syracuse head coach Dick McPherson was named honorary team captain for the Orange's '07 opener against Washington last Friday.

The Davey O'Brien National Quarterback Award has added fan voting via www.DaveyOBrien.com for the 2007 laurel... Florida State named former football standouts Derrick Alexander, Gary Pajcic and Jack Shinholser, administrator and former football player Larry Pendleton, and long-time chair of the Athletics Committee Charles W. Ehrhardt to its Athletics Hall of Fame. Induction will be Friday night... 2006 NFF Scholar-Athlete Luke Palko (Saint Francis) has accepted an internship with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The Big East Conference and ISP Sports are carrying a Big East Game of the Week on 67 radio affiliates throughout the country... The Big Ten Conference opened its FBS-record 112th year of competition last week with 11 contests and also kicked off its new football media center at www.BigTen.org... The Southland Conference has an 11-game package of www.Southland.tv webcasts and selected individual webcasts available on a subscription basis... The Big Ten Network officially launched last Thursday... Rutgers and MSG (Madison Square Garden Network) have signed a contract to produce a number of live Rutgers' game telecasts as well as coaches' shows and other programming... AT&T U-Verse TV is teaming with The Big Ten Network to simulcast over 400 events, including numerous football telecast, in 2007-08... Tennessee has inked a multi-year pact with SportSouth to provide some live and 12 encore showings of the Vols' football tilts... XOS Technologies and Army will provide live streaming of non-televised Knights' encounters through subscription Knight Vision... Blumo mobile technology facilitation will provide text messaging updates on Arizona State football tickets for 2007... Northern Iowa will provide coverage of all 2007 home games at www.UNIPanthers.com... Action Sports Media joined the Alamance County/Burlington Chamber of Commerce in hosting the debut of Elon's PhoenixVision scoreboard and streaming updates last week.

The Capital One Bowl is sponsoring the popular All-Mascot Team for college football again in '07. Competition begins Monday, Sept. 10... For the second year in succession, the 2008 International Bowl in Toronto, Canada, will be the final postseason outing before the Allstate BCS Championship Game in New Orleans.

ESPN.com columnist Bruce Feldman has penned a new book "Meat Market: Inside the Smash-Mouth World of College Football Recruiting" for an insider's look at the confidential recruiting meetings and strategies of several FBS members... Margie La Panja-a La Porte has written and had recent signing in South Bend, Ind., for "Notre Dame: A Fan's Companion" and all proceeds from the book will be donated the Ara Parseghian Medical Foundation.

Tommy Spinks, 58, a teammate of College Football Hall of Fame QB Terry Bradshaw and All-America WR at Louisiana Tech in 1969, died last week in Arlington, Texas... Former Tennessee RB Leonard Coffman, 92, died last week in Greeneville, Tenn... Washington All-America James M. Cain, who was a Pacific-Eight Conference football for 25 years, died recently in Seattle, Wash.

Correction: The high school football game in Dallas between Southlake (Texas) and Northwestern (Miami) will be played at Gerald J. Ford Stadium (former site of Ownby Stadium) on the SMU campus.