Associated Press
The college football notebook …
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. ó Arkansas football players lent a helping hand or two to those affected by the deadly tornado that plowed through Joplin, Mo.
Rachel Krummel of Americorps says team members arrived in Joplin about 3 p.m. Wednesday and were dispatched to a local church to help sort donations for victims. Krummel says the players were expected to leave sometime Wednesday.
The EF-5 tornado packed winds of more than 200 mph when it hit the southwest Missouri city of about 50,000 people on May 22.
The twister killed at least 134 people and damaged or destroyed an estimated 8,000 homes and apartments, along with hundreds of commercial buildings, schools, a hospital, power transformers and other infrastructure.
WISCONSIN
MILWAUKEE ó Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez says it hurts the Big Ten to have its two marquee programs ó Michigan and Ohio State ó sullied by controversy the past two years.
“Those are our two highest profile teams,” Alvarez said.
While Alvarez said he didn’t know if Jim Tressel specifically cheated, it was clear that the former Ohio State coach was not straightforward with the NCAA.
Tressel’s 10-year reign as coach of the Buckeyes ended in disgrace Monday. He was forced to step down for breaking NCAA rules after withholding information from Ohio State officials and the NCAA about his players receiving improper benefits.
Alvarez said he’s working with his compliance staff to make sure the rules are clear, and head coach Bret Bielema said he sent people he leans on in the athletic department to check in at two Madison, Wis., tattoo parlors to make sure something similar wasn’t happening there.