Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long has been in a hiring mood today.

The university has also announced that a new softball coach, Mike Larabee, has been hired today. Larabee comes to Arkansas after spending the past five seasons at Wright State. He is the third coach in the program’s history. Arkansas started softball in 1997.

Below is part of Arkansas’ lengthy release on Larabee. If you want the whole thing, click this link.

FAYETTEVILLE –- After building Wright State into an NCAA Tournament qualifier and establishing himself as one of the nation’s top coaches at the collegiate, national and international levels, Mike Larabee has been named head coach of the University of Arkansas softball program, Vice Chancellor and Director of Athletics Jeff Long announced on Thursday.

“We are pleased to announce that Mike Larabee has been selected to lead the Razorback softball program,” Long said. “His diversified experience of competing in men’s fastpitch softball at the highest level, and coaching college baseball and women’s college softball made him uniquely qualified. He has built a program with limited resources into one that has qualified for the NCAA Tournament. His energy, enthusiasm and confidence in his ability to lead our program to competitive success set him apart from our other candidates. Coach Larabee has demonstrated his ability to teach and motivate his players on the softball field and support them in their academic pursuits as well.

“We have made a tremendous commitment to our softball program, including the completion of Bogle Park. I believe Coach Larabee’s ability to coach, instruct and recruit will allow us to continue toward our goal to compete at the top of the SEC and at the national level.”

Larabee, a two-time United States National Softball Team pool coach and a two-time all-world selection as an athlete, becomes the third head softball coach in University of Arkansas history. The Razorback softball program was launched in 1997.

“I am appreciative of the opportunity Jeff Long and the University of Arkansas has given me to lead the Razorback softball program,” Larabee said. “The University of Arkansas is a place where our coaching staff will work hard teaching and coaching the game while recruiting quality student-athletes. I couldn’t ask for a better opportunity than to coach in the Southeastern Conference at an outstanding institution known for its academic and athletic excellence.”

We’ve spent a lot of time talking about the Arkansas basketball program and its APR shortcomings this year.

It deserves to be talked about. It’s a major sport. And it looks like there is some big trouble brewing.

But let’s take a break and assess the rest of the Arkansas’ APR landscape. Eighteen of Arkansas’ 19 sports earned scores above the 925 cutline. That’s an impressive achievement. Even more impressive, 16 of the 19 teams maintained or improved their scores from last year’s four-year snapshot. And even more impressive than that, 12 of 19 teams scored above 959.

Two of the biggest improvements were pointed out in Arkansas’ release earlier today:

• Baseball went from 914 to 945

• Men’s golf went from 904 to 945

Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long said he was pretty happy with the entire program and how it performed. He said Arkansas holds a higher standard than the NCAA. If a team scores under 935, they examine it, see what has happened and does everything possible to improve. You can’t blame them. I wouldn’t want to be messing around close to the 925 mark.

In those terms, Arkansas will evaluate football (927) and women’s tennis (932). Long was asked about the football program’s score on the teleconference earlier today and had this to say:

“Football, it’s OK,” Long said. “We’re going to work to do better there. It’s beneath that 935 level that we kind of set as an area where we’re going to work even harder and present plans to help our student-athletes achieve at a higher rate. But I’m satisfied because we did go through a coaching change and that does impact your numbers. But we’ve got to stay on top of it. I know Coach Petrino and his staff are on top of it. I think we’ll see improvement as the years go on.”

I’ll close this blog with something Arkansas fans won’t like to see regarding both football and basketball.

Brett McMurphy of the Tampa Tribune has done a little research (at least, I think it was him) and has found the bottom 10 football and basketball scores among BCS conference schools. The school he covers, South Florida, falls in that category in both sports. But guess what? So does Arkansas.

According to McMurphy’s blog, Arkansas is sixth-worst in football (but still above the 925 cutline I might add) among BCS conference schools. The basketball team is fourth worst. So there you go.

Arkansas has issued a press release regarding APR scores for all 19 sports teams. In it, Jeff Long and John Pelphrey were quoted in regard to the basketball team’s score of 888.

Here is what they said:

Long — “We have been closely monitoring our APR situation in our men’s basketball program and know that we still face some challenges ahead. Certainly, we are disappointed that we have subjected ourselves to potential penalties. However, our athletic department administration and academic support staff continue to work closely with the coaching staff to help ensure that our student-athletes have every opportunity to meet their academic responsibility and succeed academically.”

Pelphrey — “As a basketball program, we are committed to the development of student-athletes academically and athletically. Our current APR score is a reflection of many factors including a significant amount of transition in the time period evaluated. Just as we have taken steps to lay the groundwork for an even stronger team on the court, our coaches and academic support staff have worked with our student-athletes to help them enhance their academic progress. I am optimistic that our continued emphasis and proactive approach will result in an improved team APR rating.”

The media will have a chance to speak with Long in a little bit via teleconference. I’ve been told this is the only quote we’re going to have from Pelphrey today. So we’ll let you know when we hear more.

The NCAA will be releasing Academic Progress Rate’s across the country a little later this afternoon, but we know what’s going on with the Razorbacks already: Arkansas’ basketball ball team is going to take a hit and will be penalized in some form or fashion.

Athletic director Jeff Long said last week he doesn’t foresee the Razorbacks losing scholarships right now because of the poor performance in the latest multi-year APR. Instead, Arkansas is expected to get a public warning. We’ll see if that holds true. It may sound like a slap on the wrist, but it’s clearly a concern. It’s something that could lead to scholarship losses or worse down the road.

Ole Miss’ football program is dealing with some fallout today. The Clarion-Ledger indicates the football program will lose three scholarships because of a poor APR rating. There are two kinds of penalties the NCAA dishes out in regard to APR: Historical and Immediate. The scholarship losses at Ole Miss are the result of immediate penalties, meaning these were scholarship athletes who left the program and left the program when they were academically ineligible.

Ole Miss isn’t the only program to take a hit, either. Minnesota football has lost three scholarships as well.

Clearly, the APR is no laughing matter. Check back later for Arkansas’ program-wide scores and any penalties issued.

One other thing we got a chance to talk to Jeff Long about today was the Academic Performance Rate (APR) that will be released by the NCAA next Wednesday. I wrote about it on the Blog last week.

Well, brace yourself: The basketball team’s score sounds like it will be problematic.

“Absolutely we worry about APR,” Long said. “It’s a very important part of what we’re doing. You have to strategize about APR. It does cause you to pause and make some different decisions, at least consider some options with the young men on your team. Especially when we’re coming off a situation where we had six leave our program, none of them having graduated, and then a seventh who left for other reasons for one year. It’s a tremendous impact on APR. So yes, we’re very concerned.”

Long was referring to the 2007-08 senior class. None of them have graduated, which means Arkansas will lose valuable points toward their APR score. The seventh was Patrick Beverley, who left last season. They’ll lose points for him, too. There were a couple of players who left the program a year before that, too, meaning it could be even uglier.

An unsatisfactory score leaves open the chance for penalties. One of those could be the loss of scholarships.

Long was asked if that’s going to happen. He’s not ready to say at this point whether that is the case.

“It’s too early to know that,” Long said. “The NCAA has a process where we can file petitions so to speak explaning why someone left and a review board reviews that. They may or may not take a point away from us. Leaving for the NBA, if they get a contract, in a camp, it helps you there. Some of these guys who have gone on and played professinally it won’t count against us as much.

“So at this point, no, I don’t see us losing a scholarship. Is that a possibility down the road if we don’t get this thing headed in the right direction? Absolutely.”

  Robbie Neiswanger has already posted some comments from Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long, who took part in a news conference this morning to announce that the athletic department was giving $1 million to the university.

  I thought I’d post a few more remarks from Long, who went into detail about the installation, cost and timeline for the new turf inside Reynolds Razorback Stadium. (If you’re like me, you’re probably tired of all the talk about the turf.)

  Still, here is what Long had to say.

  Long said that while the estimated cost of installing a synthetic playing surface was around $1.1 to $1.2 million, he believes the project will cost under $1 million. More than $1 million has been raised, giving the athletic department a bit of cushion room in case there are any complications.

  “The fundraising effort was successful,” Long said. “We have those funds committed, so we weren’t going to put that bulldozer in the ground really until we had those funds secured. And we have them.”

  Long said the struggling economy has resulted in the project costing 30 percent less than it would have been if done a year ago. 

  Long is working with a general contractor to receive bids on the different types of turfs that could be installed in the stadium. He said he anticipates those bids to come in as early as the first part of next week.

  “No blue turf, I can dispell those rumors,” Long said. “No blue turf, red turf.” 

  The plan is still for the turf to be down before Aug. 1, giving the Razorbacks plenty of time to work on the new surface before the start of the 2009 football season.

  “We’ve said to prior to Aug. 1, but I think it will be significantly earlier than that,” Long said, referring to the completion of the project.

  Apparently, the new turf isn’t the only changes in the works. Long didn’t go into specifics, but he said there are several other changes to Reynolds Razorbacks Stadium that are being considered for the upcoming football season.

  “We’re working out somethings for the stadium that we’re not quite ready to unveil at this point,” Long said. “But we’ll have somethings that we hope to do, and again it depends on funding and some of those things. We’re working through that now.”

  Speaking of blue turf, here’s a picture of what Boise State has to play on.

 

Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long was part of a big announcement on Arkansas’ campus a few minutes ago. The announcement: The athletic department is contributing $1 million to the school. That’s a pretty big deal.

But it also was a chance to talk to Long about the direction of the basketball program.

As we’ve found out, coach John Pelphrey’s signature is on a two-page letter to Arkansas’ season ticket holders explaining the growing pains the program underwent last season. It’s a letter that has created quite a buzz this week, but one Long said is no big deal.

“I think maybe sometimes people read too much into things,” Long said. “That letter was simply to kind of update the fans on where we stand. That the coaching staff is working hard. That we understand how important basketball is to our fans. John is committed to building our program. That’s really what it was, was just a direct communication with our fans about their support and that we’re working very hard to improve our program.”

Long said it was the product of several conversations the two have had since the end of the season. Long said Pelphrey loves being Arkansas coach and loves the support of fans. They came to the conclusion that the best way to let fans know they’re working hard on righting the program would be to communicate with them directly.

It’s one of several things they’ve talked about since the end of the season. In that time, Michael Washington has declared for the NBA Draft without hiring an agent, Andre Clark and Brandon Moore have left the team and a handful of new players have been signed to scholarship papers.

Most of those things haven’t necessarily been Pelphrey decisions, but Long said he is happy with the steps the coach has taken to trying to right the ship in the past few months.

“I have every confidence in John and support him with the moves he made,” Long said. “We’re buidling a program. I can’t over emphasize that. We want to build a strong, solid program with the right kind of young people in our program that are growing academically and athletically. We want to help them get to the NBA if that’s their desire and they have those abilities. We also want to help them get their degrees and leave the University of Arkansas as better people.

“Winning is very important. But I think it’s important that we run our program the right way as we win. John’s steps he’s taken are right in line with what I’d hoped he’d do. And we’re on the same page.”

Check back later. I’ll have more on the basketball program.

I have a bad habit of not checking my Google alerts very often. Maybe that should be my New Year’s resolution: Paying attention.

Because of it, one item I nearly missed was this story by Bloomberg Press regarding athletic director salaries. With the national title game tonight, the story is centered on athletic directors and the issues they face. It says that Florida’s Jeremy Foley is the highest paid AD in the nation. He earns a guaranteed salary of $965,000 with the potential for more based on benefits and bonuses.

But I’m thinking that’s not the part you’ll care about. You want to now where Jeff Long’s salary ranks in the SEC, right?

Well there’s good news. As part of the story, Bloomberg listed salaries of ADs from across the country and where they ranked. Then they grouped them together by conference. Long, who makes $450,000, is the fourth-highest paid AD in the SEC according to their research.

Here are the SEC ADs, their salaries and the school’s athletic department budgets. What do you think?

1. Jeremy Foley (Florida) - $965,000 - $83.1 million

2. Joe Alleva (LSU) - $55,000 - $75.8 million

3. Mitch Barnhart (Kentucky) - $475,000 - $67 million

4. Jeff Long (Arkansas) - $450,000 - $51.8 million

5. Damon Evans (Georgia) - $420,000 - $76.3 million

6. Mal Moore (Alabama) - $400,000 - $77 million

7. Jay Jacobs (Auburn) - $355,050 - $75.2 million

8. Pete Boone (Ole Miss) - $327,400 - $38.2 million

9. Mike Hamilton (Tennessee) - $314,575 - $ 86.5 million

10. Eric Hyman (South Carolina) - $309,065 - $52.1 million

11. Greg Byrne (Mississippi State) - $175,000 - $31.8 million

The Arkansas basketball team held its media day on Monday in Bud Walton Arena, which smells like paint pretty much everywhere you walk because of the numerous renovations taking place there.

There will be a story and a notebook in tomorrow’s edition of The Morning News, where we’ll also have comments from athletic director Jeff Long about the progress of those renovations.

Here are a few media day highlights:

• Arkansas coach John Pelphrey, who lost six seniors and Patrick Beverley from last season’s 23-12 team, didn’t hide the fact that this is a rebuilding season. He said as much, commenting that it’s an understandable perspective anytime a team loses “80 percent from any offensive category you want to look at.” That said, Pelphrey said expectations wouldn’t be lowered for this season.

• Pelphrey did address the Beverley situation, admitting that his loss was a big blow to this year’s team. He also looked at the bright side of the departure, stressing that other players would just have to step it up in his absence.

• Because of Arkansas’ small roster (11 players), Pelphrey said the Razorbacks would hold walk-on tryouts tomorrow (Tuesday) at the HPER building. He said he hoped to add a couple of players but didn’t rule out adding as many as four.

• Pelphrey lauded the continued maturation of juniors Stefan Welsh and Michael Washington, who will both shoulder much of the leadership duties this season.

• Welsh said he didn’t once go home to Virginia this summer and added 10 pounds of pure muscle in the offseason. Washington said he put on 15 to take him to 240 pounds.

• Pelphrey singled out each of his seven newcomers at his news conference. Of note, he called freshman point guard Courtney Fortson a “tough, nasty point guard” and compared freshman combo guard Rotnei Clarke to a former Kentucky teammate — “Travis Ford on steroids.”

• Freshman Jason Henry and junior Montrell McDonald, both small forwards, each said the departure of Sonny Weems played heavily into their choices to come to Arkansas.

• Arkansas’ first practice will be on Friday. The Hogs will then practice twice on Saturday and twice on Sunday before taking one day off early next week. The Red-White game, the first chance for fans to see the Razorbacks, is the evening of Oct. 24 in Bud Walton Arena.

Updated 11:15 p.m.

Oh, and here’s a late addition I forgot to include earlier (this was pretty funny):

• Pelphrey was asked a series of questions about flying with the Blue Angels on Wednesday at the Air Force base in Jacksonville. Only problem: Pelphrey hadn’t told his wife, Tracy. Oops. Pelphrey said, “I’ll have to tell her now,” and went on to talk excitedly about the opportunity.

Arkansas’ athletic department released this not long ago. This decision was expected.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The NCAA Division I Infractions Appeals Committee has denied the University of Arkansas’ appeal of the sanctions imposed against its men’s track and field program.

The University of Arkansas appealed the penalties assigned by the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions in its report of Oct. 25, 2007. In the appeal, the University argued that the penalties assigned by the NCAA Committee of Infractions were both “excessive and inappropriate.” The University also contended that the starting date of the probation period should reflect the beginning of the institution’s self-imposed probation.

“We are disappointed in the outcome of our appeal before the NCAA Division I Infractions Appeal Committee,” Arkansas Vice Chancellor and Director of Athletics Jeff Long said. “We believe that in our presentation before the appeals committee, we made clear and compelling arguments that the penalties assessed were excessive and that the starting date of the probationary period should include the nine months of self-imposed probation. Although we differ in our view in the appropriateness of the penalties and the application of the probation period, we respect the appeals process.

In its decision, the Appeals Committee directed the University to seek clarification from the NCAA committee responsible for scoring track and field events with respect to the proper manner for calculating a vacation of points.  Accordingly, Jeff Long stated, “The University of Arkansas does intend to seek clarification on the vacation of records as it applies to the deduction of individual points. In the near future, we will communicate with the Division I Men’s Track and Field Committee to review this issue.”

“Obviously, I am disappointed in the decision of the Appeals Committee,” former Arkansas head track and field coach John McDonnell said. “As noted by the Appeals Committee, I believe it is important to seek clarification of the proper method for calculating the points that must be vacated. This determination will have an important impact on the ultimate outcome of the sanctions imposed against the University.”