| Monday, April 29, 2019 |
| Broward College director Daniel Barnard named executive director of MSU Riley Center | |
 | The Mississippi State University Riley Center for Education and Performing Arts in downtown Meridian has a new executive director. Daniel Barnard was named the new executive, Terry Dale Cruse, administrative director and head of campus, announced in a news release Monday morning. Barnard will be the second person to lead the center after founding executive director Dennis Sankovich retired at the end of March. "Dr. Barnard, with his wide-ranging experience as a performing artist, an arts administrator and programmer, and a professor, will take the Riley Center to even greater heights," Cruse stated in the news release. Barnard has been associate dean of cultural affairs and director of Bailey Hall performing-arts center at Broward College in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, since 2015. |
| Former Mississippi State president to address spring graduates at MSU-Meridian | |
| The 16th president of Mississippi State University is the 2019 speaker for MSU-Meridian's spring commencement. West Point native and MSU alumnus Malcolm Portera, who served as the university's leader from 1998-2001, will deliver the May 2 address during an 11 a.m. public ceremony at the MSU Riley Center for Education and Performing Arts. Approximately 120 students are candidates for spring degrees at MSU-Meridian. As chief executive, Portera worked to expand MSU's research and development capabilities and its role in economic development, and was a constant champion of the National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center for Computational Field Simulation, founded at the university in 1990. MSU honored him in 2014 with the formal naming and dedication of the Malcolm A. Portera High Performance Computing Collaboratory, formerly the ERC, located in the Thad Cochran Research, Technology and Economic Development Park in Starkville. |
| From Ragtime to Rockabilly The 2019 Templeton Ragtime & Jazz Festival | |
 | The 13th Annual Charles H. Templeton Ragtime & Jazz Festival was an unqualified musical success. The event, held in the Mitchell Memorial Library and McComas Hall at Mississippi State University in Starkville, featured returning performers -- pianists Martin Spitznagel and Jeff Barnhart -- together with three newcomers: pianist Larisa Migachyov, clarinetist/pianist Dave Bennett and this writer on drums. Before the official start of the festival on Thursday, Barnhart performed at two area schools, along with his wife Anne -- an accomplished flautist and vocalist. On Thursday evening both Barnharts, Migachyov, Bennett, and Smith played for the "Gatsby Gala" at Mitchell Memorial Library. This event showcases fashions designed and modeled by Mississippi State students. Later that night, the performers gathered at the home of festival co-chair Chip Templeton and wife Connie for a reception and jam session which gave the newcomers a chance to play together in various combinations. |
| Floating Cell Towers Are the Next Step for 5G | |
| As the world races to deploy speedy 5G mobile networks on the ground, some companies remain focused on floating cell towers in the sky. During the final session of the sixth annual Brooklyn 5G Summit on Thursday, Silicon Valley and telecom leaders discussed whether aerial drones and balloons could finally begin providing commercial mobile phone and Internet service from the air. When the time comes, it will be important for telecommunications companies to create demand for high-flying mobile phone and Internet services by showing what they can do for communities or customers, said Dallas Brooks, director of the Raspet Flight Research Laboratory at Mississippi State University and associate director of the ASSURE FAA UAS Center of Excellence. |
| Economist Keith Coble shares crop insurance insight | |
| The 2018 farm bill, passed by Congress and signed by President Trump, now awaits implementation by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other agencies. The passage of the farm bill authorizes funding for many of the federal programs producers use throughout the growing season. This bill is considered to be evolutionary, not revolutionary. Keith Coble, agricultural economist at Mississippi State University, talked about crop insurance at the Farm Bill Summit in Ohio. "It is an amazingly short list in terms of what I would define as big changes to the crop insurance program," he said. "I think the more relevant question is what didn't happen?" |
| Starkville to undertake historic property survey | |
 | Starkville will soon be the first city in the state to undertake a survey to identify all of its historic properties. The survey, which is happening thanks to an $8,500 Mississippi Department of Archives and History Certified Local Government grant, will allow the city to take stock of what historic properties remain after several have already been demolished for redevelopment. According to a grant application, the funds will help pay for a $15,000 survey project, the rest of which will be funded with local matching funds. The application, which was submitted to MDAH, notes that Starkville, in the midst of unprecedented growth, has lost a number of historic buildings. Those include four old homes in recent years -- three near downtown, where the Midtown development has since been built and one at the intersection of Louisville and Gillespie streets, where new residential buildings will be built. |
| Area districts vow all teachers will get their raises | |
| A Mississippi Department of Education math error could cost three area public school districts nearly $500,000 next school year to fund teacher raises. State lawmakers approved a $1,500 salary raise for teachers and teacher assistants starting July 1. But when MDE submitted to the Legislature its count of employees qualifying for the raise, it excluded gifted, special education and career/technical teachers, resulting in a $15 million shortfall in the appropriation. Leaders from Columbus Municipal, Lowndes County and Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated school districts said they will pony up the funds themselves, if necessary, and allow the deficit appropriation to reimburse them. Local legislators all agree MDE's mistake was unfortunate and avoidable. They also agree the Legislature must fix it. However, they disagree on whether it should be done by a deficit appropriation next year or with a -- albeit highly unlikely -- special session before July 1. |
| NBC News Chairman an Unexpected Figure in Mississippi News | |
 | Born and raised in Manhattan and a national news executive for much of his career, Andrew Lack would seem an unlikely figure behind an attempt to revive the ailing local news industry in Mississippi. Quietly, NBC's news chairman has been the key person behind Mississippi Today, an online news site that has been operating for three years. It is one of several experimental approaches to journalism seeking traction during a painful time of retrenchment for local news. "They have in some ways supplanted the other, more established news entities," said Sid Salter, longtime editorial page editor at the Clarion Ledger who now works at Mississippi State University. "But because they're digital-only in the least-wired state in the Union, it limits their influence. There are still a lot of people who, when you say 'Mississippi Today,' they say 'who? What?' I expect that to diminish." |
| Mississippi cooperatives taking a close look at rural internet | |
 | In January, the Mississippi Legislature passed a law that for the first time allows the state's electric power associations to also provide internet services. The legislation has been hailed as a game-changing opportunity to serve rural customers with the high-speed internet they have lacked. Now, the cooperatives must determine whether they have the viability to offer such services. All 12 of the electric cooperatives in the Daily Journal coverage area have taken at least the initial steps of looking into the matter. Some already have three studies under their belts and are currently working on a business plan to start the next step. "We contracted with the National Rural Telecommunications Council to do a feasibility study," said Chuck Howell, manager of the Pontotoc Electric Power Association. "We're working to get them data and maps. They are swamped right now, so we will have to wait our turn." |
| Lawyers: Mississippi making abortion 'virtually unavailable' | |
| A Mississippi law banning most abortions starting at about six weeks of pregnancy is unconstitutional and will make the procedure "virtually unavailable" in the state, reproductive rights attorneys say. In a court filing Thursday, the attorneys gave detailed arguments about why they want a federal judge to block the law from taking effect July 1. State attorneys wrote last week that Mississippi has an interest in preserving fetal life "from the moment of conception." The Center for Reproductive Rights and the Mississippi Center for Justice are representing Mississippi's only abortion clinic. They sued the state in March after Republican Gov. Phil Bryant signed a law banning most abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected, about six weeks into pregnancy. It is one of the strictest abortion laws in the U.S. |
| Restoring voting rights arduous in Mississippi | |
| Mississippi has a difficult system for people to regain voting rights after being convicted of some felonies. Legislators did nothing to change that during their recent session, and a federal court case that is pushing for change has seen little action in recent months. The Mississippi Constitution strips voting rights from people convicted of 10 felonies, including forgery and bigamy. The attorney general later expanded that list to 22, adding crimes that included including timber larceny and carjacking. Mississippi has almost 3 million residents. About 218,000 of them with felony records remained disenfranchised in 2016, and only about 7 percent of those were still imprisoned, according to the Sentencing Project, a national advocacy group that seeks to eliminate racial disparities in the criminal justice system. |
| New Jersey removes Mississippi flag from local park due to Confederate imagery | |
 | New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) ordered a state park to remove the Mississippi flag due to the fact that it contains Confederate imagery. In a tweet Friday, Murphy said the Mississippi flag at Liberty State Park would be replaced by the American flag, saying the imagery does not reflect the state's "values." "The Confederate symbol does not reflect New Jersey's values of inclusivity and equality," he wrote. The 1,200-acre state park in Jersey City contains a display featuring the flags of each state, according to the Associated Press. Mississippi will be the only state flag not included. In a statement responding to Murphy's decision, Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant (R) said he was disappointed by the move. "I'm disappointed in Gov. Murphy's actions. As I have repeatedly said, the voters of Mississippi should decide what the state flag is or is not," Bryant said, according to the Associated Press. |
| Rising tide of white nationalism is at fore of 2020 race | |
 | First came Joe Biden's campaign announcement video highlighting President Trump's "very fine people on both sides" comment about the 2017 white-nationalist rally in Charlottesville that left a counterprotester dead. Then Trump dug in, arguing that he was referring not to the self-professed neo-Nazi marchers, but to those who had opposed the removal of a statue of the "great" Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. Less than 24 hours later came another act of violence described by authorities as a hate crime: Saturday's shooting at a synagogue in Poway, Calif., in which a gunman killed one person and injured three others. Those events have pushed the rising tide of white nationalism to the forefront of the 2020 presidential campaign, putting Trump on the defensive and prompting even some Republicans to acknowledge that the president is taking a political risk by continuing to stand by his Charlottesville comments. |
| 'A lot of money.' Family businesses sue over payment for Southern Miss dorms on Coast | |
 | Family businesses in Gulfport say they have waited too long for a total of $180,754 they are owed for work on a dormitory building that opened in 2018 in Long Beach and caters to students at the University of Southern Mississippi's Coast campus. A company managed by James Parrish, who has site approval for a Long Beach casino, owns Friendship Oak Village, the single-story dormitory building with a projected construction cost of around $4.6 million. Parrish's company, Gulf Coast Student Housing, hired Kentucky company Encompass Develop, Design & Construct to oversee construction of the dorm building, according to a professional services agreement. Phillips Building Supply is suing Encompass for $109,561, the amount it says remains unpaid for building materials. "That's a lot of money for us to lose," said Bill Hough, CEO of the family business. |
| MCC's Phil Hardin Foundation Honors College celebrates successes | |
| Hard work has its rewards, and soon-to-be graduates of The Phil Hardin Foundation Honors College at Meridian Community College were applauded for their efforts during a reception Sunday, feting the students. As a special presentation, honorees received a specially-designed ribboned medallion to wear during the college's spring commencement. Cathy Parker, one of the two co-advisors of the honors college, said collectively the 33 graduating students completed more than 1,400 community service hours while maintaining a rigorous academic schedule. One student had more than 400 documented service hours. "That hard work and dedication deserve recognition," she said. MCC President Thomas Huebner thanked the students in being a part of the honors college and said he sings their and the program's praises with others. |
| First class at GTECHS prepares to graduate | |
| Twins Kierra and Krystal Hayes, 17, do everything together. They started kindergarten together and now they will graduate high school together. But before they receive their high school diploma, the two will graduate with an associate's degree from East Mississippi Community College. Four years ago, Kierra and Krystal left West Point and started high school with 59 other freshmen in the Golden Triangle Early College High School's inaugural class -- which in May will become its first-ever graduating class. "We were all for it," Krystal said. "It was a chance to get a two-year degree. A lot of people have to pay out of pocket." Friday morning, Kierra and Krystal announced to their classmates during a GTECHS college and career celebration on campus that they will stay together once more. "We are going to Alcorn State," the two exclaimed on stage. |
| Amid rumors about King Alexander, Gov. John Bel Edwards voices support for LSU president | |
 | LSU President F. King Alexander, whose future at LSU has been the subject of intense speculation recently, received the backing Friday of the governor. "I support the entire team that's in place," Gov. John Bel Edwards told reporters after visiting the LSU Board of Supervisors. "I think it's my job to support them and to challenge them and to give them the resources they need to deliver the flagship mission for the state of Louisiana." Some board members have privately groused about what they call the imperiousness of Alexander, as have some legislators and officials in other higher education systems. They basically said King is more Alexander's attitude than just his name. But they also give Alexander credit for navigating the university through years of declining state appropriations made up for with budget cuts and higher tuition. Only in the past two years has state funding increased. |
| UT-Knoxville names Donde Plowman, former UT department head, as next chancellor | |
 | Donde Plowman, executive vice chancellor and chief academic officer at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and former UT department head, has been named the next chancellor of the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. She will be recommended to the Board of Trustees during a special meeting at 9 a.m. on Friday, May 3, in the Student Union. Pending board approval, her first day will be July 1, according to a news release from UT. Plowman was at UT-Knoxville last Monday, April 22, where she hosted an open forum for students, faculty and staff. Plowman will now become the highest-paid chancellor in the university's history, with a base salary of $600,000, according to UT spokeswoman Melissa Tindell. Her total compensation package was not immediately available. |
| UGArden grant extends outreach to UGA food pantry | |
 | Food insecurity is an issue among college students that is rarely discussed, but all too common. With limited funds and sometimes-inconsistent income streams, college students sometimes have to choose between paying rent and buying groceries. Students working at UGArden, the University of Georgia's student-run farm, decided to take action. With the help of a $5,409 grant from the UGA Parents Leadership Council, a group of highly engaged parents, UGArden will now be able to provide fresh produce to the UGA Food Pantry, said John McGinnis, president of the UGArden Student Club. The grant will be used to buy harvesting supplies, a refrigerator for the garden and one for the UGA Food Pantry. The refrigerators will extend the shelf life and food safety of the produce. The pantry was established in 2011 by the UGA Panhellenic Council. |
| Valen Johnson named Texas A&M's Dean of Science | |
 | Valen E. Johnson, the head of the department of statistics at Texas A&M University, has been named the university's Dean of Science. Johnson joined the Texas A&M faculty in September 2012, was named head of Texas A&M statistics in March 2014 and has been serving as interim dean of Texas A&M science since July 1. He succeeds Meigan Aronson, who served as dean of science from October 2015 to June 2018. Johnson is a renowned expert in Bayesian statistics and using probability distributions to represent uncertainties with regard to unknown quantities. |
| U. of Missouri honors decades of giving from alum and family | |
 | University of Missouri officials on Friday recognized alumnus Jim Liu and his family for donating $2.2 million to the university over 33 years in a ceremony in Reynolds Alumni Center. The donations established the Liu-Him Memorial Scholarship in 1988, which has been provided to more than 100 students with financial need. Chancellor Alexander Cartwright said the scholarship helps the university fulfill its mission of providing an education for all Missouri students. "I'm thrilled to be here to celebrate a remarkable legacy of support for MU," Cartwright said. Liu, a medical physicist in Pasadena, Calif, has bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees from MU. "I would like to thank the people who have helped me in the past so I can be here today," Liu said. "First of all, I'd like to thank the taxpayers of Missouri." He said Missouri taxpayers helped fund his education by funding the university, which motivated him to want to return some of his income. |
| Betsy DeVos emerges a Trump Cabinet survivor | |
| In a presidential Cabinet that resembles a season of "Survivor" more than "The West Wing," an unlikely contestant is still standing after more than two years. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos remains so disliked in certain circles that her very name is a punchline. She mostly lands in the news for the wrong reasons, such as being forced last month to defend budget cuts for the Special Olympics before angry lawmakers. President Trump has privately complained about her, insulting her intelligence on several occasions, according to a former senior administration official who worked closely with Trump and another senior official who is still at the White House. Yet the president shows no signs of asking her to resign, reflecting in part his lack of interest in the issue of education and the department responsible for it. And DeVos has no interest in departing. |
| White nationalists disrupt Vanderbilt professor's talk | |
 | Many professors who do research or teach courses on white people have been subject to criticism that includes threatening emails and distortions of their work, typically from those on the far right. On Saturday, a group of white nationalists went a step beyond that and disrupted a talk being given in a Washington bookstore by a Vanderbilt University professor. The small group of white men did not name any group with which they are affiliated but said that they were speaking for the white working class and that they were "identitarians." The men shouted, "This land is our land," among other things. After a bit, they left. The professor who was giving the talk was Jonathan M. Metzl, the Frederick B. Rentschler II Professor of Sociology and Psychiatry at Vanderbilt University and director of its Center for Medicine, Health and Society. His new book, which was the subject of his talk, is Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America's Heartland (Basic Books). |
| Foster Youth Face Extreme Barriers to College. Here's One Program That's Helping. | |
 | Young people leaving foster care and trying to break out of poverty have the odds stacked against them. They've witnessed or experienced traumatic events, and often moved among multiple homes and schools. Every year, some 20,000 of the nation's nearly 450,000 foster kids age out of the system, encountering an abrupt end to support at a time when many of their peers are enrolled in college. Their financial challenges, and often a lack of life skills, are compounded by the absence of a family or network to encourage them to enroll. "Their experiences tell them that maybe there's not trusting people in their lives, maybe the system is not for them," says Karen Cheers, former dean of student services at Virginia Highlands Community College, who now directs a student-success program there. Great Expectations, an 11-year-old effort at Virginia's community colleges, has developed a program focused on building trust and support to get foster youth to college and help them succeed. |
| Prosperity indicators not so good across Mississippi | |
 | Syndicated columnist Bill Crawford of Meridian writes: Mississippi politicians running for re-election or higher office are out, about, and on social media touting how good things are and how they helped make things that way. Well, some things are good, but some are far from good. One is population growth, rather, lack thereof. As Jack Schultz noted in his best seller Boomtown USA, population growth is one the best indicators of an area's prosperity. People, especially young people, gravitate to booming economies with good quality of life. So, when you talk to your favorite politicians, ask them to explain why all those good things happening in Mississippi are not resulting in population growth. Here's some background. |
| Grocery tax unpopular, but cutting it hasn't been winner for politicians | |
| Bobby Harrison writes for Mississippi Today: Politicians' efforts to eliminate or reduce Mississippi's grocery tax have been unsuccessful despite what appears to be widespread support for doing so. Various polls have found that a majority of Mississippians favor reducing or eliminating the state's sales tax on groceries. A Chism Strategies/Millsaps Poll earlier this year found that nearly 70 percent of Mississippians supported reducing or eliminating the tax. In 2006, 71 percent favored reducing the grocery tax and increasing the tax on cigarettes in a poll conducted by the Mellman Group. But thus far politicians who have chosen to take up the cause of reducing the 7 percent tax have not fared well on a statewide level. |
SPORTS
| No. 9 Mississippi State completes sweep of No. 4 Georgia | |
| After being swept at Arkansas last weekend, Mississippi State returned home to regroup and find a better approach at the plate. The ninth-ranked Bulldogs were able to do that and enjoyed an excellent bounce-back effort with a midweek win over No. 19 Ole Miss in the Governor's Cup and a three-game home sweep of fourth-ranked Georgia. MSU completed its sweep with a 6-5 victory on Sunday. "We'd scuffled a little bit last week and I'm really proud of the guys for being able to comeback out," said MSU coach Chris Lemonis. "All those power arms we faced today and we only struck out six times. We just make you compete, make you make plays and grind out at-bats. We saw some really talented arms out there and our guys competed." The Bulldogs travel to Texas A&M to begin a three-game series starting Thursday at 6 p.m. on the SEC Network. The Aggies, ranked No. 6 last week, were swept by Ole Miss. |
| Peyton Plumlee's pitching performance paces Mississippi State to series sweep over Georgia | |
 | Jake Mangum might be as good of a prognosticator as he is a baseball player. Well, maybe not. He's darn good at being the latter. This weekend, though, he proved to be better than decent at being the former as well. A few hours after he broke the Southeastern Conference record for most all-time hits by a single player, Mangum had a few predictions about No. 8 Mississippi State's series finale against No. 5 Georgia on Sunday. After Mississippi State plated 28 combined runs in the first two games of the series, he warned MSU fans to not get accustomed to so much scoring. He knew there would come a game in which the runs didn't come with as much ease. Sure enough, that game was the final one against Georgia. "It happens, it's baseball," Mangum said. "And I hate the saying, 'It's baseball,' but there's a lot of truth to it." |
| Mississippi State's Peyton Plumlee finishes off Georgia with solid pitching performance | |
| Peyton Plumlee looked downtrodden. Wandering off the mound after 6.1 innings pitched Sunday, the senior righty kept his head peering toward the grass, almost sulking. There was subtle disappointment in not finishing the seventh inning for the first time all season, yet it was also a look of triumph. As he headed toward the dugout, the 8,204 fans in attendance at Dudy Noble Field presented him with a deafening standing ovation. Plumlee had allowed just one hit and no runs on the day -- his best outing since an eight-inning, three-hit day against Indiana State on Feb. 25, 2017 -- as No. 9 Mississippi State took down No. 4 Georgia, 6-5. "To have that feeling, to walk off, and today to have everybody behind me and all my teammates get so excited, that was a really special moment for me," he said. MSU earned its second SEC sweep of the season with the win. The first came against Alabama during Super Bulldog Weekend April 12-14. |
| Mississippi State's Jake Mangum claims SEC hits record in series win | |
| Jake Mangum wasted little time breaking the SEC'S all-time hits record on Saturday, a mark which stood for 21 years. The Mississippi State senior smacked the first pitch he saw into right field for a single to tie Eddy Furniss' mark and then surpassed it in the second inning by blooping a single over Georgia's first baseman that landed just inside the right field foul line for his 353rd career hit. A crowd of 9,572 rose to their feet at Dudy Noble Field to recognize Mangum's accomplishment as the baseball and the first base bag were taken out of play to be immortalized. "I was just really happy it was over," Mangum said. "Hitting with that in the back of your head was really hard." |
| Mississippi State's Jake Mangum breaks all-time SEC hits record against Georgia | |
| One night before senior center fielder Jake Mangum suited up for one of the biggest games of his Mississippi State career, his head coach sat in the Omaha Room at Dudy Noble Field in front of an array of reporters. One of them asked Lemonis what the past couple weeks have been like as Mangum has been in pursuit of "a record." Lemonis had some fun with the question. "What record is that?" Lemonis sarcastically responded with a sly smile. He knew exactly what record was in question. So did thousands of supporters dressed in maroon and white at Dudy Noble Field on a sunny Saturday afternoon. Mere hours after the exchange between Lemonis and the reporter, Mangum broke Eddy Furniss' record for most all-time hits by a Southeastern Conference player in front of those loyal fans. |
| How a Mississippi State baseball player changed a young athlete's life in Arkansas | |
| It doesn't take much to change a young athlete's life forever. That's exactly what one Mississippi State baseball player unknowingly accomplished at Baum-Walker Stadium in Arkansas last weekend when the Bulldogs were in Fayetteville to face the Razorbacks. MSU Junior pitcher Riley Self was going through his normal pre-game warm-up routine before the third game of the highly-anticipated SEC series. It was a beautiful day for baseball in northwest Arkansas. A young boy, Braden Weatherall, watched as Self and his teammates got loose in the outfield. Braden was with his own teammates; they play for the Dardanelle Lightning in a youth league two hours outside Fayetteville. Braden roots for the Razorbacks, but he's mesmerized by collegiate baseball players no matter what color their jerseys are or what they say across the front. He looks up to all of them. So when one of the balls that was flying back and forth in the outfield was suddenly flipped in his direction by Self, Braden froze -- but only for a split second. He snapped out of it in time to catch the ball before any of his fellow starstruck teammates could snatch it from him. It's only been a week, but that brief moment changed his life. |
| Bulldogs run-rule Missouri to clinch series sweep | |
 | Big barrels were in play on Sunday as Mississippi State softball (30-19, 7-14 SEC) slugged three home runs to secure a 10-2 run-rule victory over Missouri (29-21, 10-11 SEC) to clinch the series sweep at Nusz Park. Sophomore Mia Davidson and senior Kat Moore both slugged two-run homers in the bottom of the fifth to walk off the 10-2 victory to pick up Mississippi State's first series sweep on the Tigers in program history. Every Bulldog in the starting lineup recorded at least one hit as State closed the game with 13 total, while three Bulldogs tallied multi-hit contests. Junior Fa Leilua led the way at the plate as she went 3-for-3 with a double and a two-run home run. Redshirt sophomore Montana Davidson went 2-for-3 with a home run and a double to record a career-high four RBI. Mississippi State closes out the regular season next weekend as the Bulldogs trek to Gainesville for a three-game series versus No. 7/10 Florida. The finale weekend of the regular season begins on Friday, May 3 at 5 p.m. CT. |
| Mizzou softball swept at Mississippi State | |
| The Missouri softball team lost for the third straight day Sunday afternoon, dropping the finale of a three-game series 10-2 to finish on the wrong end of a Southeastern Conference sweep at Mississippi State. Jazmyn Rollin and Emma Raabe each hit solo home runs for Missouri in the loss, but Mississippi State countered with four homers of its own, including a game-ending two-run shot by Kat Moore that enforced the mercy rule. Senior Madi Norman started for the Tigers but was pulled after three innings after giving up two runs and seven hits. Sophomore Cassie Gasper came in but was unable to get through the fourth, picking up her seventh loss this season after giving up four runs. Junior Nalani Scates finished the game. |
| Bulldogs sign free agent deals after NFL Draft | |
| The 2019 NFL Draft was a success for Mississippi State with five players drafted, including a school-record four players from its defense. Immediately after the draft ended on Saturday, several other Bulldog players signed NFL deals as undrafted free agents. Defensive tackle Braxton Hoyett inked with Tennessee joining teammate Jeffery Simmons, who was a first round selection by the Titans. Quarterback Nick Fitzgerald signed on with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, offensive guard Deion Calhoun and defensive tackle Cory Thomas with the Miami Dolphins, tight end Justin Johnson is headed to the Seattle Seahawks and safety Mark McLaurin agreed to terms with the New York Giants. |
| Auburn, Alabama student-athletes help with rebuilding efforts in Beauregard together | |
 | The sound of hammers pounding nails into wood echoed across the Providence Baptist Church parking lot Saturday as student-athletes from rival universities worked together to help rebuild Lee County. Students representing a variety of sports at Auburn University and the University of Alabama pre-built -- and autographed -- walls that will be part of three different homes in Beauregard. Saturday's event will help to rebuild a community that was devastated by an EF-4 tornado last month. The event fell on April 27, the anniversary of a historic tornado outbreak in 2011 that slammed Alabama and directly affected Tuscaloosa. "Sport is so emotional, and the rivalry is incredibly passionate with our fans and with our student-athletes. But tragedies like this I think transcend rivalries," Auburn athletics director Allen Greene said Saturday. |
| Rick Barnes' new Tennessee basketball contract after UCLA offer raises average salary by $1.7M | |
| Rick Barnes joined rare company among college basketball coaches Friday. The Vols coach signed an amended five-year contract worth $26 million on April 17, days after his offer to jump to UCLA crashed when a $5 million buyout proved an issue and he remained in Knoxville. On Friday night, UT released the details of Barnes' new deal, which bumps his annual average salary from $3.5 million to $5.2 million. He will make $4.7 million next season, with annual raises of $250,000 to pump the salary to $5.7 million in the 2023-24 season. Only six coaches earned more than $4 million in the 2018-19 season, according to the USA TODAY coaches database. At Tennessee, Barnes will make $4.95 million in 2020-21, $5.2 million in 2021-22, $5.45 million in 2022-23 and then $5.7 million in the 2023-24 season, which would be his ninth with the Vols. The deal includes incentive figures, highlighted by $1.5 million for winning the national title. |
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