Quick Hits (No Tricks, Just Treats)

A Happy Halloween SHOUT to you all--but aside from the holiday, October's time is running out of the hourglass and November is upon us, which means championships (among other things).


We're going to go rapid-fire few some of the things going on out there...


-- Saturday the 1st actually begins the championship swing with the races for the Big South Cross Country Championships. Liberty claimed both the men's and women's crowns last year, and this year the Flames are hosting the event--will that give them another leg up (or two)? We'll see this weekend.


-- Saturday also offers three football games for our Conference teams: VMI at CSU, each with only one Big South win so far; Liberty at PC, which does not yet count as a Conference game so LU will carry over its undefeated League mark; and Gardner-Webb at Stony Brook, the first meeting for those schools and one in which SBU seeks its third straight Conference win. Coastal Carolina has a bye this week, and the Chanticleers could use the break: 0-3 in the Big South so far.

-- Looking beyond the weekend, each of the next three weeks has a championship tournament in store for us: women's soccer (11/6-9), men's soccer (11/13-16), and volleyball (11/21-23). All of those tournament games will have video streaming available on The EDGE--packages are up now, each tournament offering daily passes or full championship subscriptions.

-- Let's talk academics for a moment...there is an impressive scholarship offer out there right now from Big South Corporate Partner Sunbelt Rentals. Information is available at BigSouthSports.com (look for the green box with the Sunbelt logo, or just click here). The original deadline was 11/1/08, but they are still trying to grow the applicant pool, so it has been extended to 11/15.



-- Still on the academic bent, 2009 will bring us the second Big South Undergraduate Research Symposium, known as Big SURS. UNC Asheville is hosting the event in March, but will start accepting research abstracts on November 10th. For more details, refer to the Big South Big SURS page or to UNCA's Big SURS page.


-- The Big South has an interesting new service available starting with the Cross Country Championships: BigSouthPhotos.com. You can see galleries from the various Conference championships and even purchase the pictures you like! The site is still under construction as I write this, but our partners with Sideline Sports expect to have it up with available shots from cross country as soon as Monday the 3rd. And starting with the Women's Soccer Championship, Sideline Sports will have reps available to sell shots on-site at the event!


Okay, gotta run, but I'll leave with this week's Viewers Guide before I go...

That just might be the scariest thing you'll see this Halloween!

Keep it safe and fun out there, people--and two reminders: don't forget to set your CLOCKS this weekend and don't forget to VOTE on Tuesday (unless you've already done early voting, of course).