USC football has had a rough month with former head coach Pete Carroll leaving to go become the new head coach of the Seattle Seahawks. However things seem to be turning around as USC secured former Tennessee head coach Lane Kiffin, who has previous experience working with the organization from 2001-2006. National signing day was also a huge success yesterday for USC as Seantrel Henderson, the nation’s top high school offensive lineman, announced his commitment to go to the Trojans by wearing a hat and team jersey. Residents of Southern California, and students at the college are very excited about the possible new addition to their football team. Unfortunately everything is not official just yet, as Henderson has not signed his letter of intent for USC as of now. Since USC is under investigation by the N.C.A.A. for infractions, the Henderson family wants to wait until USC meets with the N.C.A.A. infraction committee starting on February 19th.

Hopefully things go well and USC will have this amazing player in their football lineup next season, but only if the N.C.A.A. infraction committee meetings go well. Henderson is also seriously considering a few other colleges like Ohio State, Miami, and Notre Dame. These schools still have a glimmer of hope if something goes bad for USC, and Henderson decides to sing his letter of intent with one of the other colleges he is considering. Not only is Henderson a spectacular football player in the offensive lineman position, he also is considered by many analysts to be the top high school recruits of the year. So far Henderson and his family appear to be getting along with new coach Kiffin, which is a very positive sign as California residents wait to see if he signs his letter of intent for USC.

California has long been known for having great college baseball players, many of which moved on to play professionally after graduating from school. The NCAA Division I has 24 college baseball teams in California, which will all be highlighted in two different events later this month for the Easton 2010 California College Baseball Media Days. This is the first time all of these California college baseball teams and coaches have organized together for this unique event. On January 22nd the first event will take place for the Southern California teams at ESPN Zone Anaheim and on January 26th at Stanford University. Both days of the event will start at 9am and run until noon, and CBS college sports online is expected to cover the event on a live webcast. January is a great time to start generating a buzz for these college baseball teams who are looking to bring in more players in the fall of 2010.

Overall NCAA Division I baseball teams have won a total of 29 national titles and have been part of over 50 College World Series events. Roughly 80 students have went on to become players in Major League Baseball over the past year and a handful of older players have now become Hall of Fame inductees. The rough economic conditions going on in California are hurting college athletic programs, so this event is a great way to keep the sports top of mind so that alumni and local residents continue to support their local teams. Donations to the California college sports teams are great, but just showing up and attending the games is also a big help to moral and revenues for the schools.

Now that it is official that Pete Carroll is leaving his head coach position for the USC football team to coach the Seattle Seahawks, football fans in Seattle are mixed and students and alumni of USC wonder if it has anything to do with the ongoing investigation of the university. The running investigation at USC involves various illicit benefits that Reggie Bush accepted while attending the college from 2003-2005. It is suspected that Bush and his family received cash and gifts worth $291,000 from a marketing agent during college. This investigation has hurt the reputation of the USC football team which Carroll helped lead to win two National Championships and numerous BCS bowls. In addition, Carroll has had over 50 of his players get picked up in the NFL draft and had 3 players win the Heisman Trophy. Coaching the Seattle Seahawks should not be a large challenge to Carroll, seeing as he coached for four years in the NFL during the late 1990’s in which he never made it to a Superbowl.

There are a lot of struggles going on within the USC athletic department, as the mens basketball team recently decided to voluntarily forfeit the postseason for a street agent’s payments made to player O.J. Mayo. Despite the troubles within the athletic program, USC continues to be an amazing California university that students and athletes still want to attend. It is unfortunate that these things happen within college sports, but with professional sports being such a big business, it is no wonder that people have tried to be greedy. Moving forward, USC now needs to find a new head coach for their football team and regain a spot among the top teams in their college division.

The budget troubles in California over the past year have had a direct effect on the athletic programs of the University of California and California State University systems. Not only do athletic programs take a tremendous amount of effort by the students and administration, they also are very expensive. Just as professors at colleges in California have taken a reduction in pay, so have the athletic coaches and administrators. In order to keep things going, many coaches are spending their time putting together events to raise money to support their programs. All aspects of these athletics programs are being analyzed to ensure that money is being saved wherever possible so that things run efficiently. Earlier in the year, the Cal football team decided to bus down to Los Angeles to face U.C.L.A. in a game, instead of flying. This saved them roughly $30,000. The past fiscal year has been very difficult for the California colleges athletics programs and the next fiscal year, which begins in July, is expected to be worse.

In order to avoid giving the athletic staff pay cuts, they are forcing most to take scheduled days off so that the programs can stay running. This change has forced athletic program staff at California colleges to reduce their spending and cut expenses just like many other residents of the state. The poor economic conditions and lack of spending by many consumers has also resulted in low attendance at many athletic events. Therefore the revenue generated each game is far lower than expected which, compounded with budget cuts, makes it extremely tough to keep the athletic programs running. Many are hoping that the job market will improve in 2010 along with the housing market in California, which will help shift the economy so that people start to spend more money at these college sporting events.