YEAR IN REVIEW

As this will be the final issue of 2011, I wanted to take a look back on some of the major things that happened in sports in the past year.

Even at Slippery Rock, many things have happened with sports over the past year.

In 2011, the Rock saw men's basketball make an appearance in the NCAA Division II tournament back in March, and toward the end of 2011, women's soccer made it to the NCAA Division II tournament after having one of the best runs in Division II history.

The women ran off 11 consecutive shutouts, which is the fifth longest streak in Division II history. They also finished the season with their best National Soccer Coaches Association of America rank at No. 14.

While women's soccer was working on advancing into the national tournament, football won the PSAC West conference and made it to the PSAC title game where it lost to Kutztown University of Pa.

Before women's soccer and football played in title games and made the national tournament, outdoor track was competing in the Division II national championships in California, and the women finished 12th, while the men finished 51st in the event.

Many SRU teams have had success on different levels in 2011, and many sports are gearing up for the 2012 seasons.

With SRU teams heading into national tournaments and having exceptional seasons, many major national stories happened, too.

On the sadder end of sports, breaking stories broke out about sexual misconduct scandals at major universities like the incidents with Jerry Sandusky at Penn State University and Bernie Fine at Syracuse University.

Along with the sexual misconduct scandals, college football was riveted with problems in players receiving gifts and money that they aren't allowed to receive.

Specifically at the University of Miami (Fla.), Nevin Shapiro, a football booster, was charged with giving millions of dollars to former players while they were at the university.

 At Ohio State University, many players like Terrelle Pryor left when rumors of a scandal were brought up, and head coach Jim Tressel stepped down due to the reports.

The NFL saw two of the most prestigious teams play each other in the Super Bowl in the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers. The Packers won the Super Bowl, and then the NFL saw a lockout that lasted over 100 days. There was also the loss of one of the most notorious NFL owners in Al Davis of the Oakland Raiders.

The NBA would follow suit of the NFL with a lockout after having one of its most popular finals matchups where the Dallas Mavericks defeated the Miami Heat.

The NBA's lockout just recently ended, so basketball will start on Christmas day.

Also coming up during the Christmas season will be college bowl games. The most controversial part of college football, the BCS still hasn't changed yet.

Maybe in 2012 something will change in college football, other than teams from the west coast moving to the Big East conference, but that's doubtful.

With all of the conference changing in college football, you may have missed the conference changes that came in the NHL recently. With the Atlanta Hawks moving to Winnipeg and becoming the Jets, the NHL decided to move from two divisions and six conferences to only four conferences.

It looks like Major League Baseball will be making some adjustments with its divisions in the next few years with the selling of the Houston Astros, who will move out of the World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals' conference.

Overall, it was a wild year for sports in 2011, and I'm sure that 2012 will be just as crazy.