On the cusp of best time of year
With August now upon us, there are several ways to look at the near future.
For school students and teachers, their school years are right around the corner.
As for the travelers who love hitting the beaches before the weather starts changing, their windows are closing.
But for those who love football, the light at the end of the tunnel that is the start of the seasons is getting brighter.
NFL camps are under way, high school football camps start shortly and fall camp is underway for some schools with the rest to follow.
The major Division I conferences recently had their respective Media Days, and there is optimism heading into the season coming from the Pitt, Penn State and West Virginia programs.
The Panthers will look to build off of their upset over Miami to end the 2017 regular season.
鈥淚 would say our team is confident, they are passionate about what they are doing and they are working hard,鈥� said Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi at the ACC Media Days in Charlotte. 鈥淪ince the Miami game, there蘑菇视频 been a process that we鈥檝e gone through to get to where we are today and where we鈥檒l be when they report to camp.鈥�
Pitt will look to bounce back from a 5-7 record in 2017.
Penn State is looking for its third straight 10-plus win season for the first time since 1980-82, and even though it has to replace several All-Conference players and All-American Saquon Barkley, coach James Franklin realizes that expectations are higher.
鈥淭he reality is, for you to have a consistent top-10 or top-5 program, you can鈥檛 do it by just being good in one area,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t蘑菇视频 being well-rounded, continuing to evolve and continuing to grow.鈥�
WVU is aiming high under senior quarterback Will Grier.
Head coach Dana Holgorsen feels his team, which returns seven offensive starters and six on defense, will be one of the top programs in the Big 12.
鈥淲e welcome expectations,鈥� he said at the Big 12 Media Day. 鈥淲e want improvement but handling the expectation part of it, that蘑菇视频 what you want.鈥�
WVU is picked second in the Big 12.
Optimism isn鈥檛 just limited to the bigger schools as Cal U and Waynesburg look to improve on their 2017 campaigns.
Regardless of who one蘑菇视频 favorite team is, the start of the college football season ranks up there with March Madness and opening day for MLB fans.
The smell is in the air, fans are getting excited and tailgaters are starting to think about their menus for games.
For college football enthusiasts, it truly is about to be the best time of the year.
A look at NCAA championships
Last month, the NCAA updated its list of overall championships by schools.
A few things stood out to me, first of which is that three Pac-12 teams top the list.
Stanford (117), UCLA (116) and USC (106) are the top three with the Cardinal and Bruins winning championships in 20 sports each while the Trojans have won titles in 17 different sports.
Oklahoma State is fourth with 52 titles covering five sports while Penn State is fifth with 50 championships split between 10 sports.
Penn State is the only local school to make the Top-15 list, and if fact, it is the only school in the northeast with Michigan and North Carolina being the next two closest schools, in geographical terms.
The Pac-12 has five schools in the top 15 and the SEC has four.
When looking at these numbers and trying to figure out the breakdown, weather instantly came to mind.
I reached out to Chris Dountas, a Cal U grad who is in his third year as the Assistant Athletics Director/Equipment Manager at Stanford.
鈥淚 think it is a number of factors as winning championships is difficult within itself,鈥� he said. 鈥淗owever, doing it consistently takes the perfect combination of several different factors.
鈥淚f you look at (Stanford, UCLA and USC and their academic standards, you will see how those standards trickle down to each蘑菇视频 athletic departments.鈥�
He went into greater detail.
鈥淭hose departments focus on hiring coaches who meet their standards and recruit student-athletes who are able to meet both the academic and athletic expectations,鈥� he said. 鈥淪tudent-athletes who can find that balance are a special group and the results you see are a product of that.鈥�
Before finishing, Dountas changed tones from serious to his ever-joking personality, and added, 鈥淧lus the Pac-12 is the conference of champions and it only makes sense that the top three spots are occupied by schools from there!鈥�
The full list of the top 15 can be found at https://www.ncaa.com/news/ncaa/article/2018-07-06/these-schools-have-won-most-ncaa-di-championships.
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