Now is the summer of our discontent. Basketball season has long passed, as have spring drills. College kids are taking their finals, which means summer is basically upon us. Save a few spring sports that nobody really cares about.

On to about three months of dead air time before football practice starts back up in August. Some news comes out, most of it is pretty minor and stuff that wouldn’t even be on the radar during the season suddenly becomes a huge news item for media and fans starved for some nugget of news during the off-season.

The burning topic in Morgantown right now is Heathergate, concerning the awarding of Governor Joe Manchin’s daughter with a bogus MBA degree. I could weigh in heartily, but I hate to shed the sports-sighted aim of this site. I suggest perusing through the past few months of Fifth Column for in-depth analysis.

The off-season is also the time for bloggers and message board pundits to create crazy conference re-alignments and THE ULTIMATE COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF SYSTEM. Luckily, you will see none of that here. There will be occasional posts, I will try to stick to news items, a smattering of videos, and leaning towards previews of the next college football season. So, rest assured that we will still be alive and kicking it next season, even if the off-season seems lean and I disappear without a post for weeks at a time.

After an entire season of waiting with baited breath, Bob Huggins has finally signed a long-term contract with the Mountaineers. As far as contracts go, Huggins’ deal seems to sew him up in Morgantown for the next decade-plus. Huggins’ deal goes for 11 years (through 2020? Wow.) at $1.5 million per year, with a $4 million buyout. No coincidence that Huggins’ buyout matches the contentious amount of Rich Rodiguez’s buyout. I’m glad to see Huggs get some handsome compensation, but I am not surprised at all about the length of the contract. I have always had a feeling that Huggs is here for good, and this just solidifies that the administration feels the same.

In looking around the blogosphere and the spring sports atmosphere, one thing that’s always bothered me is the lack of a varsity lacrosse team at WVU. A few years back, WVU cut many sports and I realize they are now running a minimum number of sports, and funneling money into football and mens basketball. However, I think WVU is in the perfect spot to run a successful lacrosse program. On many campuses, lacrosse is a successful spring sport that are nearly as popular as football and basketball, and certainly on par with soccer and baseball in popularity. Lacrosse at WVU would fill a void of popular spring sports. Let’s face it, WVU will never be a baseball power, but WVU is a perfect fit geographically to become a lacrosse power.

Lacrosse is most popular in areas that traditionally draw a lot of students to WVU–Maryland, New Jersey, upstate New York, Virginia, and eastern Pennsylvania. Schools with traditional sports rivalries with WVU are lacrosse powers–Syracuse, Maryland, Notre Dame, Georgetown, Penn State, etc. In fact, the Big East is closing in on forming a men’s lacrosse league. Syracuse has long played as an independent but now seem to be behind forming this conference. Read more on this here and here.

WVU could make an even eight Big East squads in lacrosse. WVU has long had a successful club team, so integrating into varsity would be fairly easy. Facilities-wise, lacrosse could use Mountaineer Field for most of the lacrosse season. Spring football drills would probably take a priority, but I think that could be scheduled easily. I’m not exactly sure of the dimensions of a lacrosse field, but I figure Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium could also be a possible venue. WVU has plenty of practice area near Mountaineer Field, beside the Coliseum and in the Caperton Indoor Center.

I suppose the biggest barriers would be Title IX and finance. Title IX could be offset by adding both mens and womens teams. Is it unrealistic to think that lacrosse could raise enough money to sustain itself? Probably. Most people in West Virginia have little notion of the sport. But I continue to hold on to the dream, because I think it makes sense and could eventually be successful.

Switching gears again, the Big East has announced the home-and-away matchups for womens basketball next season, and that is available here. The mens basketball opponents will be announced in June, after it is ascertained which players will stay in the draft. So basically the mens schedule is hinging on three players — Joe Alexander, Donte Greene of Syracuse and Marquette’s Jerel McNeal. These are the only three players who have entered the draft early from the Big East, and none have signed with agents, leaving the door open to come back. A littany of great athletes will return next season, and thinking about the conference next season is absolutely sickening.

Finally, it appears that Yinka Sanni is impressing the coaching staff of the Detroit Shock–including head coach Bill Laimbeer. Could this be the year I actually try to watch a WNBA game? Stay tuned.

• Green Tops White…44-8 (GoHerd.com)
• Green Dominates White (Charleston Gazette)
• Marshall Goes Green In Spring (Beckley Register-Herald)
• Questions Answered (Huntington Herald-Dispatch)
• Great Day To Go Green (Huntington Herald-Dispatch)
• Cann Eyes Starting QB Job (GoUpstate.com)

Cincinnati awaits the final appeal of QB Ben Mauk’s hardship waiver for his sixth year of eligibility, but it certainly doesn’t look good. Luckily, the Bearcats have a senior in Dustin Grutza with lots of starting experience. And Grutza had a wonderful spring game for Cincinnati Saturday night. Grutza finished 13-of-18 for 100 yards and 2 TD. Notre Dame transfer Demetrius Jones was expected to compete for the starting job but finished the spring clearly behind Grutza on the depth chart.

UC is commended for shunning traditional color vs. color matchups, aptly naming their contest Bearcat Bowl II. It’s not exactly original, but did we really need another Red-Black Game? Well over 10,000 fans arrived at Nippert Stadium for the festivities.

Enjoy the mouth-watering five-way chili and read these two articles to breakdown the spring from Bearcat Insider.

• WVU Players Taken: 3
  • Steve Slaton, RB: 3rd Rd/#89 - Houston
  • Owen Schmitt, FB: 5th Rd/#163 - Seattle
  • Ryan Mundy, DB: 6th Rd/#194 - Pittsburgh
• Big East Players Taken: 12
  • Jeremy Zuttah, OG, Rutgers: 3rd Rd/#83 - Tampa Bay
  • Harry Douglas, WR, Louisville: 3rd Rd/#84 - Atlanta
  • Tyvon Branch, DB, Connecticut: 4th Rd/#100 - Oakland
  • Mike McGlynn, OG, Pitt: 4th Rd/#109 - Philadelphia
  • Gary Barnidge, TE, Louisville: 5th Rd/#141 - Carolina
  • Breno Giacomini, OT, Louisville: 5th Rd/#150 - Green Bay
  • Trae Williams, DB, USF: 5th Rd/#159 - Jacksonville
  • Donald Thomas, OG, Connecticut: 6th Rd/#195 - Miami
  • Haruki Nakumura, DB, Cincinnati: 6th Rd/#206 - Baltimore
  • Angelo Craig, DE, Cincinnati: 7th Rd/#244 - Cincinnati
  • Mario Urrutia, WR, Louisville: 7th Rd/#246 - Cincinnati
  • Kennard Cox, DB, Pitt: 7th Rd/#251 - Buffalo
• Other Players Who Faced WVU: 15
  • Chris Ellis, DE, Virginia Tech: 3rd Rd/#72 - Buffalo
  • Andre Fluellen, DT, Florida State: 3rd Rd/#87 - Detroit
  • Philip Wheeler, LB, Ga. Tech: 3rd Rd/#93 - Indianapolis
  • Dre Moore, DT, Maryland: 4th Rd/#115 - Tampa Bay
  • Xavier Adibi, LB, Virginia Tech: 4th Rd/#118 - Houston
  • Tashard Choice, RB, Georgia Tech: 4th Rd/#122 - Dallas
  • Carlton Powell, DT, Virgina Tech: 5th Rd/#148 - Denver
  • Durant Brooks, P, Ga. Tech: 6th Rd/#168 - Washington
  • Thomas Brown, RB, Georgia: 6th Rd/#172 - Atlanta
  • Josh Morgan, WR, Va. Tech: 6th Rd/#174 - San Francisco
  • Geno Hayes, LB, Florida State: 6th Rd/#175 - Tampa Bay
  • Justin Harper, WR, Va. Tech: 7th Rd/#215 - Baltimore
  • Chester Adams, OG, Georgia: 7th Rd/#222 - Chicago
  • Brandon Coutu, K, Georgia: 7th Rd/#235 - Seattle
  • Allen Patrick, RB, Oklahoma: 7th Rd/#240 - Baltimore

• WVU Players Taken: 0
• Big East Players Taken: 4
  • Jeff Otah, OT, Pitt: 1st Rd/#19 - Carolina
  • Mike Jenkins, DB, South Florida: 1st Rd/#25 - Dallas
  • Ray Rice, RB, Rutgers: 2nd Rd/#55 - Baltimore
  • Brian Brohm, QB, Louisville: 2nd Rd/#56 - Green Bay
• Other Players Who Faced WVU: 7
  • Joe Flacco, QB, Delaware (Pitt): 1st Rd/#18 - Baltimore
  • Chris Johnson, RB, East Carolina: 1st Rd/#24 - Tennessee
  • Duane Brown, OT, Virginia Tech: 1st Rd/#26 - Houston
  • Brandon Flowers, DB, Virginia Tech: 2nd Rd/#35 - K.C.
  • Curtis Lofton, LB, Oklahoma: 2nd Rd/#37 - Atlanta
  • Eddie Royal, WR, Virginia Tech: 2nd Rd/#42 - Denver
  • Malcolm Kelly, WR, Oklahoma: 2nd Rd/#51 - Washington