Inside Lacrosse is launching another day of rivalry matches, tentatively titled "Day of Rivals", which will pit Army against Navy, and then Johns Hopkins vs. Maryland. The Face Off Classic will still be held, and next year's installment will feature a double-header of Duke vs. Maryland and Johns Hopkins vs. Princeton.

Hopkins and Maryland definitely get a lot of exposure from these events, which is great for them, but I'm bummed to not see Syracuse in the mix... Wondering if there were scheduling difficulties, or if the 'Cuse was just tapped out, or if travel costs were prohibitive, or...? If I were Hopkins or Maryland, I might be concerned about the instensity of these match ups and the potential of limping out of two major double headers with injuries, or going 0-2 in some major media spotlight.

Nick Myers will be the new head coach of men's lacrosse at Ohio State University. Myers has been an assistant coach at Ohio State and at Butler, and he is said to have been Joe Breschi's desired successor. Inside Lacrosse reports that Colgate's Jim Nagle, Dartmouth coach Bill Wilson, and Navy assistant coach Stan Ross were interviewed for the position. Truth be told, I'm as interested to see who might be "on the market" as I am in who was selected for the Buckeyes' head lax coach position.

Wow, this settlement came quicker than I thought, and I'm surprised it's the full buy out, too. Wonder where Rich is getting the $$$...

Ana Ivanovic will retain her No. 1 ranking and Jelena Jankovic will rise to the No. 2 spot when the new rankings are released next week. The other big news is that Agnieszka Radwanska will debut in the top 10, in the 10th ranking spot.

Maria Sharapova will drop a spot to No. 3. Next in the rankings: Svetlana Kuznetsova at No. 4, Serena Williams at No. 5, Elena Dementieva at No. 6, and Venus Williams at a ranking of 7th in the world.

The new rankings might not represent a huge "shake up" to casual observers or even most tennis fans, but I think the US Open Series might be pretty interesting considering how much movement in and out of the top 5 could occur before the US Open. Jelena Jankovic over-scheduled last summer and has a ton of points to defend, for example. Serena Williams has no points to defend, however, and is scheduled to play Stanford and Los Angeles.

I think we'll see some blockbuster match ups this summer that actually build anticipation, like the summer Kim Clijsters rolled. And, I think what happens this summer might also impact the rankings a bit, meaning a quarterfinal or semifinal in Los Angeles or Montreal might actually determine who meets who in the quarters or semis in Flushing.

Even though players say publicly that they don't care about the rankings, it's not inconceivable that the road to the final would include for someone like Sharapova, current No. 3, would include at least one Williams and both Serbs. And given the way everyone in the top 10 has been playing this year, I think players will really want to avoid this if possible...

STANFORD

Serena Williams, Elena Dementieva, and Anna Chakvetadze are entered, as is Marion Bartoli, who might be able to work her way back into the top 10 over the course of the summer.

LOS ANGELES

Jelena Jankovic, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Anna Chakvetadze, and Dinara Safina are entered.

MONTREAL

Ana Ivanovic, Jelena Jankovic, Maria Sharapova, Elena Dementieva, Venus Williams, Anna Chakvetadze, and Dinara Safina are slated to play.

NEW HAVEN

Dinara Safina is the highest ranked player to commit so far. Agnieszka Radwanska, Marion Bartoli, and Agnes Szavay are also scheduled to play. In years past, big names have played the event (Davenport, Henin, and Mauresmo), and Svetlana Kuznetsova is the defending champ, so it's a safe bet that the entry list for this event will grow in the weeks to come.

CINCY (I'm actually not sure if this event counts).

Really too early to tell who'll play and Marion Bartoli is the only "top ranked" play to say she'll be there. Anna Chakvetadze is the defending champ, so I expect Chakvetadze to return, and would be disappointed if Agnieszka Radwanska didn't also enter the event.

Joey Chestnut looked nervous before his title defense, hopping around, shaking his arms, and trying to control his frenetic energy. Even as an ESPN reporter approached for an interview, Chestnut was focused on the matter at hand, barking orders for more water. In what was truthfully a thriller, Chestnut pulled away from his nemesis Takeru Kobayashi, but as the 10 minute bout wound down, Kobayashi found a rhythm, and was able to eek ahead of Chestnut. With seconds left, literally seconds, Chestnut pounded his way to a tie.

A tie was declared, to the rather large crowd's delight. "Five more hot dogs!" the ringmaster bellowed.

In a scene that was like something out of a motion picture, Kobayashi jumped around a bit, but was otherwise a model of calm and focus. Chestnut on the other hand was wearing his emotions on his sleeve, and was quite literally trying to push recently devoured hot dog and bun down his intestinal track. In what threatened to be another photo finish, a quick starting Chestnut pulled away and Kobayashi relented for even just a mili-second.

Chestnut destroyed the five overtime frankfurters and was hailed the victor.

GREAT STUFF.

Props to Tim "Eater X" Janus for scoring a solid third place, and to Pat Bertoletti for checking in with both Chestnut and Kobayshi before overtime. Loved seeing all the MLE gear at the event, too.

John Desko not only coached the Syracuse Orange lacrosse team to the national title, he helped the team complete an amazing turn-around in the process, rebounding from a miserable 5-8 in 2007 to a 16-2 record in 2008. The Coach of the Year honors aren't all, though: Desko and the Orange lax team recently visited the White House to celebrate their victory, and just a week later it was announced that Desko will also be inducted into the Greater Syracuse Hall of Fame in October.

I've discovered a whole new world of tennis blogs over the past several weeks, thanks in large part to Yardbarker. My two favorites right now are Double Bagel and Throw Up the Deuce - alongside Tennis Served Fresh, these two sites are pretty good for breaking news, including match results, tournament news, press conference goodies, and off-the-court stuff (who knew Maria Sharapova and Camille Bell were gal pals?). Both sites also have great match photos and really great candid shots I usually don't see anywhere else.

thedoublebagel: http://thedoublebagel.wordpress.com/

Throw Up the Deuce: http://kthanxbye.wordpress.com/

Recommendations for other tennis blogs to check out (and bookmark)?!?

Fulmer and the TN Vols have a tough, tough schedule in 2008, taking on UCLA, Florida, and Auburn in three of their first four games! TN could seriously be 1-3 at the end of September. The salary bump and committment to 2014 is a show of support from the TN powers that be, but consider this: the raise is only $100,000 to $200,000 than his current salary ("only"), and the contract is extended only a year (his current contract runs to 2013).

Additional reporting from Rivals.com provides the salaries of the other TN coaches:

http://tennessee.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=823559

His old contract is here:

http://www.coacheshotseat.com/TennesseeCoachesHotSeat.pdf

Tamarine Tanasugarn is the first woman into the quarters. TammyT. is a favorite of tennis fans worldwide, and she recently surprised us all by winning the Ordina Open (defeating none other than Safina in the final). Tammy d. Jelena Jankovic 6-3, 6-2. Granted Jankovic has been less than 100%, but Tammy is a great player who moves well and is capable of amazing grass court play.

Venus Williams struggled to put Kleybanova away. Venus served for the match twice and needed something like 5 points to win the match. So our first quarter is set: Venus Williams vs. Tamarine Tanasugarn.

And, just now, Zheng Jie just defeated Agnes Szavay, 6-3 and 6-4. Jie defeated Ivanovic, and this is just as great a result. Wonderful to see the Chinese player proceed through the draw here considering the tragedy in her home country.

Penn State recruits are being told that someone from the current Penn State coaching staff - not an outsider - will become the new Penn State football coach when Joe Paterno eventually retires. The article is based on the comments of a new recruit, but the author (a writer for the Altoona Mirror) appears to have double checked sources for accuracy. Interesting...

Tom Hansen will retire in July 2009 and will certainly be remembered for helping Pac 10 men's and women's basketball grow under his 26 year stint as conference commish.

Tom Hansen will retire from his post as commish of the Pac 10 athletic conference in July 2009. As Pac 10 commish, Hansen held significant weight in athletic circles, particularly regarding the BCS and suggestions about moving toward a playoff system. Hansen has been strongly opposed to playoffs, so his departure might make way for reform. Expansion has been discussed for several years, too - will be interesting to see if a new Pac 10 commish makes moves to bring additional teams into the already prestigious and storied conference...

As much as I try to focus on the actual sport, the results, etc., I couldn't help sharing this "news" about Serena Williams... And, actually, the cover shot is pretty tasteful.

Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese will retire in June 2009. Tranghese has kept the conference strong despite sometimes competing agendas and interests from the "basketball" and "football" schools in the conference. Some fans are already lobbying for the Big East to bolster it's basketball field: http://www.fanblogs.com/big_east/007587.php and more significantly http://community.myfoxmemphis.com/blogs/MattStark/2008/05/14/Tigers_Big_East_Bou nd .

Memphis might be a coup for the Big East, and the Memphis AD clearly wants out of Conference USA. Hmmmmm...

Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese will step down in June 2009, a year from now. He is credited for helping the Big East survive when Boston College, Miami, and Virginia Tech defected to the ACC five years ago. With Tranghese leaving, talk of a conference split has already begun.