Christian Swezey, settling into his new gig at Inside Lacrosse, updates us on the UNC coaching search and tells us that Richie Meade has, in fact, been contacted. Bad news?
Meantime, UNC officials contacted Navy Athletic Director Chet Gladchuk for permission to talk to Meade about their opening, Gladchuk said. Gladchuk said he met with Meade on Tuesday.
“I met with him just to have some dialogue,” Gladchuk said. “His heart is at Navy, he made that perfectly clear. But North Carolina is his alma mater. Even if he’s not talking to them about their opening, at least he might be able to advise them.”
I certainly hope that’s all there is to it. I maintain my state of nervousness.
In other lacrosse news, the long-rumored addition of lacrosse as a Big East-sponsored sport has finally come to fruition. Georgetown, Notre Dame, Providence, Rutgers, St. John’s, Syracuse and Villanova will begin play as a conference in 2010. Providence and Villanova better step up their games in a hurry.
Finally, there’s some more news on the Ohio State game. USA Today is reporting that Navy will earn $1.4 million for its 2009 date in Columbus. That’s one hell of a payday. There’s no mention of how much Navy will pay for the return trip in 2014, but we might have more of a clue about the ’09 schedule:
Ohio State’s Gene Smith calls the Navy payout a “special situation” and says he doesn’t plan to pay that much at least until after 2014 because his schedule is set till then. The Navy payout came because another school pulled out of a contract with Ohio State, leaving the Buckeyes with a hole in their schedule. But Navy had to buy its way out of a contract in order to come. Ohio State’s guarantee will in effect cover Navy’s buyout as well.
But which game is it? Hawaii was originally supposed to be the season opener, but we already know that the game against the Warriors was moved to November and not bought out. Regardless, we know that Western Kentucky is replacing someone as well. So it appears that Chet is making good on his promise to lighten the load a bit in ’09. Depending, of course, on who exactly is getting replaced.
The Birddog 
Seeing the Big East lacrosse conference story reminds me of a question: Are there any new Div 1 teams for 2009?
so is Swezey’s TFBO2F now offically done (i.e. can I remove it from my links folder)?
I’m not sure, but I’ve replaced the TFBO2F RSS feed with IL now that he has some posts there.
It would be a HUGE mistake if Chet Gladchuck let Ritchie Meade leave for the UNC job. Meade stands for all the things that are good about the Naval Academy: discipline, hard work, toughness, teamwork, and commitment. Navy will never get a better coach. Chet needs to do whatever it takes to keep Ritchie Meade at Navy.
Assuming that it’s up to Chet, I agree. Who knows if that’s the case though. It’s definitely getting pretty nerve-wracking watching this go on without hearing anything from either side.