A year without sports in Duval County?

State budget cuts are leading the Duval County School Board in Jacksonville to consider eliminating all sports for the upcoming school year. According to the school board president, they’re not the only county considering the idea.

Several Georgia players have come from Jacksonville, and one current and one recent Bulldog would have been affected by this decision. Current Bulldog defensive back Derek Owens graduated from Andrew Jackson. Former safety Bryan Evans attended Ed White. Shaun Chapas and Brent Benedict were also from Jacksonville but attended The Bolles School which, as a private school, is not a part of the Duval system.

Fundraising for a postseason

The coach of Southern’s women’s basketball team made a tough call last weekend: the team could not accept a WNIT bid because they had no money for travel. Over the past couple of days, boosters and fans have stepped up and raised enough money for the team to reconsider. Thanks to those donors, they’ll play on.

Cutting a champion

Remember Trev Alberts? After torpedoing his on-air career, he took the job of athletic director at Division II Nebraska-Omaha. Over the weekend, Alberts and the school announced that they’d be cutting the successful football and wrestling programs. Why? So that they can position the program to move to Division I for basketball.

Alberts and the university are taking a lot of heat for the decision, especially since the wrestling program was one of the best in Division II. They had won their third consecutive national title just a day before the announcement, and they’ve won six of the last eight national titles. The decision has cost the program one of its largest boosters and athletic board members, and a planned facilities project is now on hold after the withdrawal of that booster’s support.