I attended the press conference this afternoon announcing the resignation of Sioux City Bandits indoor football Coach Jarrod DeGeorgia after two years, but came away most intrigued with long-time owner Bob Scott’s blast against the Indoor Football League (successor to UIF league of a few years ago).  Scott put the hard times this year (4-10 record) in part on teams paying player salaries in excess of the league limits and practicing out of line with league rules too.

He said it would be premature to name a new coach until he knows if the IFL will put some teeth in rule enforcement. Scott said his preference is to remain in the league, since there are so many regional opponents, but the Aug. 28 league meetings will tell a lot. He’s going in with an open mind, hoping for the best, although he blasted the league to boot.

Scott said the Bandits have never made money, at best breaking even financially. He noted the team lost money on the 2009 year. The team could do better, he said, if the IFL ensured a competitive playing field — Scott was concerned the league moving to some teams (Sioux Falls?) becoming the equivalent of the high-paying, high-performing Yankees to the detriment of the others.

“Either we get people who play by the rules and do it right, or we’re gonna have to look at a different place to play football,” Scott said.

The Bandits have not had a winning season since 2005, with the 15-3 team that won two playoff games. In nine years since the team was created in 2001, the Bandits have made the playoffs four years.

The University of South Dakota is using appearances on the fields of Big 10 football opponents as a way to gain some national publicity. Today USD, which in 2008 finished 6-5 in the transition from Division II to Division I Football Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA),  announced a third game with a Big 10 school in the next few years.

The 2012 opponent announced today was Northwestern University, which plays in a stadium roughly six times the size of the DakotaDome.  That game is on top of the 2010 game to be played at Minneapolis with the Minnesota Golden Gophers and the 2011 tilt with the Wisconsin Badgers.

Will those be slaughters that will give the USD athletic department some plump funding for playing the road games? Probably the three Big 10 games won’t be wins, but Coyote coach Ed Meierkort is enthused. He’s a Chicago native who says it’s good to be playing a top flight conference foe, while athletic director Joel Nielsen noted USD will nab exposure in one of the biggest media markets by playing in the Chicago metro area vs. Northwestern.

Can a USD-Iowa Hawkeye game in Iowa City be far behind? There’s no way it would ever be a home-and-home arrangement, since Iowa has never agreed to travel two hours north to play UNI in Cedar Falls, even though they play each other about every three years.

BOYS TOWN, Neb. (AP) – Former NFL running back Jerome “The Bus” Bettis will be the keynote speaker at the annual Boys Town Booster Banquet.

Bettis, who was part of the Pittsburgh Steelers when they won the Super Bowl in 2006, is fifth on the NFL’s all-time rushing list.

The banquet is set for May 7 at the Embassy Suites conference center in La Vista.
The annual event benefits and honors Boys Town student athletes.

Past booster banquet speakers include baseball legend Johnny Bench and NFL figures Mike Ditka, Will Shields and Peyton Manning.