I’ve commented before on the cost of football programs and the salaries of head coaches before — while every other part of a university is cutting, university presidents feel they are unable to control the cost of athletics. A report released today by USA Today shows that the soaring salaries of football coaches are not reserved for the men in charge.

“At least 66 football assistants, including more than two dozen in the Southeastern Conference, make $300,000 or more, and USA TODAY found that perks once reserved for head coaches are commonplace: multiyear and rollover deals, supplemental income from TV and radio, performance bonuses, retention bonuses, cars, complimentary tickets and country club memberships.

“Tennessee’s nine assistants earn an average of more than $369,000; Texas’ better than $327,000.”

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As I previously reported, University of Mississippi Chancellor Dan Jones is trying to get Ole Miss fans to stop ending the fight song “From Dixie With Love” with the traditional call for the South to rise again.

At first, he simply asked the band to cut off the song before that part of the music. Now, after seeing that it clearly did not solve the problem, he’s threatening to ban the song altogether. It’s creating quite a response in the blogosphere — a mix of agreement with the Chancellor and outrage toward his political correctness.

I’m all for funding athletics programs. People who feel committed to their schools and their sports teams are more likely to donate in the long run — it’s an investment. But if I were University of California student right now I would be pissed.

As I’ve covered many a time, the UC system isn’t doing so hot — it’s budget cuts are forcing big changes across the schools, including increasing student fees, enforcing a faculty furlough and cutting departments entirely. But at UC Berkeley, the athletics program isn’t really hurting.

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A new report shows that presidents of universities and colleges with large athletics programs are concerned by the rapidly grow cost of said programs. But they don’t know what to do about it.

One of the key findings of the report show that most presidents think the salaries of their football or basketball coaches are “excessive.” According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, “In 2008, the median salary for head football coaches in Division I-A was more than $1-million, according to recent NCAA data. For head coaches in men’s basketball, that figure was $735,000.”

“Show me a president who won’t meet the demands of a winning coach who has the chance to walk out the door for a higher salary someplace else,” one president said.

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The list of things that are inappropriate for Mascots to do is not really that long — let’s be honest, most things are fair game when you’re wearing a giant head. But some of things mascots should not do include:

1. Not being perky enough (read: too hung over from the night before to stay standing)

2. Stripping during a game

3. Cheering for the other team

4. Making fun of a player while they pray

5. Offending the referee (things that offend referees can including insulting their mothers, attempting to hump them, attempting to make them dance and questioning their manhood)

6. Hitting a fan

Guess which one of these actually happened this weekend?

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If you’ve ever been to a football game to cheer for the University of Mississippi, you know that, near the end of their fight song, “From Dixie with Love,” the crowd will inevitably begin the chant “The South will rise again.” Turns out, Ole Miss’ administration doesn’t like that much.

Last month, Ole Miss student government passed a resolution recommending that the chant be changed to “To hell with LSU.” The school seemed to think they had the right idea. In the hopes of putting a stop to a chant that the University feels reminisces on a negative part of the region’s history, new Chancellor Dan Jones has officially shortened the fight song, removing the part of the song when people usually began the chanting.

According to the AP, this isn’t stopping students from chanting anyway. At this weekend’s homecoming game against University of Alabama at Birmingham, when the band stopped, the students played on.

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Early Sunday morning, a fight at a University of Connecticut on-campus dance turned deadly with the school’s starting cornerback was stabbed to death. Jasper Howard, age 20, was stabbed in a fight that broke out after a fire alarm was pulled at the dance in the Student Union.  Another person was injured in the fight, whose name and role in the incident has not been released.  Both students and non-students were involved in the fight.

The UConn football team had just won its homecoming game, a game in which Howard had a career-high 11 tackles and forced a fumble at a critical point.

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The NCAA has recommended that the traditional pre- and post-game handshakes at volleyball matches be suspended to prevent the spread of H1N1.

Personally, I’m a little skeptical — it sounds a little senseless to me. They are, afterall, all touching the same ball throughout the game, sharing locker rooms, etc… Shaking hands can’t possibly put them at a much higher risk. But, of course, I’m no expert.

These people, however are:

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USC students expect only the best when it comes to Trojan football. So, in a way it makes sense that they would be among the first to experience an away game in 3D.

On Saturday, 7,500 attended an ESPN viewing of the USC v. Ohio State game in the Galen Center. The projection of the game was in 3D. According to The Daily Trojan, “As the game came down to the final minutes, the crowd was treated to the most realistic viewing experience they could have had without being at Ohio Stadium. When freshman quarterback Matt Barkley led the Trojans to the final scoring drive of the game, all of his passes were seen in three dimensions, as were all of junior Joe McKnight’s game-changing runs.”

I have only one word for this: Awesome.