Yow

COLLEGE PARK -- After a little miscommunication and months of stop-and-start negotiations, Maryland and Navy have agreed to open the 2010 season Sept. 4 at M&T Bank Stadium. The snags started this summer, when Navy athletic director Chet Gladchuk said the Midshipmen felt snubbed by Maryland's preference to play in the more prestigious Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando, Fla., last season than against Navy in the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte, N.C. Earlier this month, the programs reached an impasse because the Terps faced a time crunch to schedule a nonconference opponent and miscommunication led to a delay that forced Maryland athletic director Debbie Yow to reopen the search.

The University of Maryland is interested in playing football in Baltimore, as early as 1996.Athletic director Debbie Yow said that she has yet to talk with officials who oversee the operation of Memorial Stadium and Camden Yards, but would do so this summer."

The past three years of Maryland football success have also made a number of off-the-field improvements possible in College Park. Since coach Ralph Friedgen arrived, Maryland has received a new scoreboard at Byrd Stadium, a new artificial turf practice facility, a remodeled weight room, a remodeled dining hall and a renovated Gossett Football Team House. The next big push will be to expand Byrd Stadium, adding both additional seats and luxury suites. Maryland athletic director Debbie Yow said Wednesday that the athletic department recently commissioned a feasibility study that will look into how much the school could sell luxury suites for. That would be the first step in getting initial approval from university president C.D. "Dan" Mote Jr. "That's when we start building a funding formula for potential expansion," Yow said.

In Wednesday's editions, an article on graduation rates for athletes at the University of Maryland incorrectly referred to former football coach Mark Duffner. In fact, athletic director Debbie Yow said the percentage this year is likely to be lower because football players transferred after the departure of head coach Joe Krivak in 1991.The Sun regrets the error.Pub Date: 3/13/98FTC

The Maryland basketball team will return to the Baltimore Arena for a game this season against Temple on Feb. 28, athletic director Debbie Yow said yesterday.Temple has a commitment from Mark Karcher, The Sun's two-time All-Metro Player of the Year as a swingman at St. Frances. But Karcher has not yet met NCAA requirements to be academically eligible as a freshman and is not expected to play for Temple next season.Temple does have another player with local connections: 6-foot-10 sophomore center Marvin Webster is the son and namesake of the former Morgan State All-American, who went on to play with the Seattle SuperSonics and New York Knicks.

Mancel Johnson, a two-year starter at wide receiver, was suspended from the Maryland football team after he was charged with two counts of theft of under $300.Johnson, a junior from Lanham, was suspended by coach Mark Duffner from spring practice and the Terps' first two games next season. Johnson, 20, was arrested by campus police yesterday, and released by a Prince George's County commissioner on personal recognizance to his father. Trial was set for March 18.The misdemeanor charges arose from a series of on-campus incidents early on the morning of Dec. 3.Witnesses told campus police that a group of from 12 to 15 men, several identified as football players and recruits, roamed through several residence halls, created diversions and took items.

Maryland made enough strides on and off the football field to earn coach Mark Duffner an extra year of job security.Duffner's original five-year contract runs through 1996, but at the end of last season he negotiated with athletic director Debbie Yow a one-year, non-guaranteed extension through 1997 that would take effect if the Terps' record and academic performance improved.Yow announced last night that Duffner had met the terms for that extension, and that they are having negotiations that could lead to a similar extension through 1998, which would hinge on the Terps' performance in 1996.

It was the right thing to do, the decent thing to do, the smart thing to do.And the NCAA did it?The same NCAA that collects millions of dollars in TV revenue and allows coaches to sign lucrative sneaker deals, yet once prohibited an athlete from posing for a charity calendar?The same NCAA that often makes about as much sense as the baseball owners?Yes, that NCAA did the right thing for once last week, when it gave athletes the right to work part-time jobs.Incredibly, the NCAA previously had barred athletes from working in their free time -- a right afforded every other student.

When Debbie Yow took over the Maryland athletic program in 1994, she promised to set a standard for excellence. But Yow never predicted yesterday's accomplishment.Maryland finished No. 19 out of 306 Division I schools in the Sears Directors' Cup, cracking the top 30 for the first time.The 5-year-old competition, administered by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics, is based on each school's national finish in up to 18 sports, nine for men and nine for women. The cup is also the only all-sport trophy recognized by four-year NCAA and NAIA institutions.

The mother of Maryland forward Keith Booth yesterday expressed confidence that an investigation into a trip he made to Chicago last spring will turn up no wrongdoing."