On Iowa Daily Briefing 6.11.12 -- Inside look at the Iowa Ladies Football Academy

[Marc note: Everyone say hello to Anne Edwards. She is taking over the blog for this post. Anne attended the Iowa Ladies Football Academy this weekend. She jotted down a few words and took a bunch of photos. I appreciate Anne's work. It looked like it was a fun deal. Thanks, Anne! Enjoy the season!]

The temperatures in Kinnick Stadium weren't the only thing climbing last Saturday at the Iowa Ladies Football Academy.

The Academy is a fundraiser for the University of Iowa Childrens' Hospital. The event , the brainchild of Mary Ferentz, Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz's wife, wrapped up just last weekend. Participants raised $550 and spent the day in Kinnick Stadium. They checked out the pink locker room; met players and coaches; participated in skills and drills; swarmed the field to “Back in Black!” They then learned some the Xs and Os with your favorite Hawkeyes.

Kirk Ferentz ended the day with an awards presentation.

Donations collected this year were at an all-time high for the second year of the event at $337,000. The 400 attendees and over 60 volunteers made the event a success.

The high temperatures didn't hinder any of the activities on the field. Attendees had their pictures taken with several of the Iowa Hawkeye football team and staff and tried on some football gear and did a pregame workout with the athletes in attendance.

Campers got their 2012-2013 posters autographed by players. The line for pictures coach Ferentz grew quickly. (Note: I was the first in line.)

There was plenty of water to go around as well as side-line misters to help keep everyone cool.

The lady attendees toured the Hawkeyes' locker room and the infamous pink locker room.

At the end of the event, there were 400 very happy women who left Kinnick. Those who weren't lifelong fans soon found out just what it is like to be a true Hawkeye.

At the end of the awards ceremony at the end, Mary Ferentz said that the Big Ten Network was in attendance and is doing a story on Kirk and Mary and their contributions. They videotaped much of the event. The airing date and time are TBA.

Pretty fun stuff!

HLINKS

-- I'll immodestly start with a plug for one of my own blog posts. The only Big Ten school not to win a league-championship of any kind in the 2011-2012 school year was ... Iowa.

That doesn't mean the Hawkeyes have the poorest athletic program in the Big Ten. But among league teams in the Learfield Sports Directors' Cup Division I standings, they haven't been faring all that well for a while now.

-- Iowa is wrestling at New York's Madison Square Garden on Dec. 16. The Hawkeyes will face Bucknell and Hofstra.

According to MSG Executive Vice President Joel Fisher, it's the first collegiate wrestling meet in the Garden's history.

Hulk Hogan, however, has "wrestled" in the famed arena many a time.

-- Offensive guard Marshal Yanda of Iowa still hurts when it comes to his Baltimore Ravens' AFC Championship loss to New England in January, and John Eisenberg of CSN Baltimore appreciates him saying so.

-- Nebraska Athletic Director Tom Osborne discusses his school's first year in the Big Ten with Brian Christopherson of the Lincoln Journal Star.

There's a lot of interesting comments in the Q&A, and I would recommend clicking on the link and checking out the entire article. Here is a sampling:

LJS: With the exit fee to the Big 12 and then not receiving a full cut yet from the Big Ten, how is the athletic department doing financially? Do you feel as good about where you are as you did a couple years ago?

TO: “I think we paid a $9.25 million exit fee. The university administration took $2 million of that. We paid $7.25 million. So, obviously, that's something we will never recoup. Yeah, we are behind the curve in comparison with the other (Big Ten) schools, so I think we have to work hard and probably be somewhat efficient and use our resources wisely. We're doing a lot of things here in terms of facilities and I think by the time we're done in about 14 months or so, our facilities will compare very well with almost any facilities in the conference. But facilities alone don't do it.

“The things that we are fighting, which we had fought even in the Big 12, are distance and population. Obviously, if you're situated in a state with 10 million people and your recruits can drive in on unofficial visits, it makes it a lot easier than if you're in a state with 1.8 million people and the distance factor becomes much greater. But we've done it before. We've recruited nationally. We've always battled population and distance, and sometimes weather.”

LJS: Now that you've been in both Big 12 and Big Ten meeting rooms, how would you compare how each conference goes about making decisions?

TO: "I think in the Big Ten there's more collegiality. There's probably a little bit greater concern for the overall welfare of the conference, whereas in the Big 12 there's probably a little bit more emphasis on self-interest. And part of that stems from the way revenues are divided. In the Big 12, revenues were split unequally, depending on how many times you were on television and how well your teams did on the national stage, you got a bigger slice of the pie. From the Big Ten, it's actually a little bit the reverse.

“I think the four or five teams that have the best attendance record in football actually contribute a pool of money to the teams that are less well off. It's not a huge amount, but it's kind of a reverse perspective to what the Big 12 has been doing for many years.”

-- Finally, courtesy of Covers.com, add Las Vegas sportsbook-operators to the long list of people disgusted with the officials' scoring of Tom Bradley's upset win over Manny Pacquiao Saturday night for the WBO world welterweight title.

Las Vegas Hotel and Casino oddsmaker Jeff Sherman said it was a bad result but that wasn't what got under his skin.

"I can live with losses but not with corruption,” Sherman said in an email to Covers.