Thongs in baseball, swimmer streaking and anime politics

By Eric Horowitz

Iowa's athletic department wages an online war, two swimmers take a stroll with no bathing suits, Oregon State drops the "U" and USC's "mooning" goalie says he's innocent. All this and more in this week's Campus Chronicles.

Just how did these guys form such a tight bond in the first place? John Biever/SI

Another campus hazing investigation is underway -- this time it involves Cal's baseball team. The investigation stems from an incident in which campus police discovered eight veteran baseball players and six freshmen players near the school's baseball diamond at 11 p.m. It was 34 degrees outside and the freshmen, two of whom were blindfolded, were wearing nothing but thongs. The best part of the story is that Cal's athletic director had cleared the baseball team to be on the premises because their coaches thought they were having a legitimate team-building activity. What did they think was going to be going on at 11 at night -- trust falls? Three legged races? A slumber party? I wonder if blindfolding scantily clad freshmen is how Noah, Horford, Brewer, and the rest of the Gators became such a solid team.

The University of Iowa is firing a pre-emptive strike against those who might cause trouble for new basketball coach Todd Lickliter. The school has purchased the domain name FireLickliter.com in order to prevent it from becoming the hotbed of Hawkeye rage that was FireSteveAlford.com. Iowa is becoming a pioneer in the online war between fans and athletic departments -- the school already owns at least seven other domain names relating to its athletics, including firekirkferentz.com. The only problem is that the school has chosen to redirect people who type in those domain names to the school's athletic department. At first that may seem like a good plan, but sending angry fans to a site that has phone numbers and email addresses of athletic department officials might not be the best of ideas.

Two University of South Carolina swimmers have been kicked off the team after a neighbor's surveillance camera caught them streaking through their neighborhood. The swimmers, who were seen "gyrating" on their porch before taking off down the street, were arrested for indecent exposure. I'm not sure why a Columbia, S.C., home has surveillance cameras, but for swimmers everywhere the arrests serve as another cruel reminder that the only thing separating practice from a misdemeanor is a thin layer of spandex.

LSU is eliciting the help of its student body to name a newly remodeled dining hall. The school is asking students for name suggestions and has even started a texting campaign that allows students to text message ideas to school administrators. There's no early favorite yet, but if I were an LSU student I would get ready to start eating my meals at the sparkling new AlabamaSucks Dining Hall.

It can be difficult to get student government candidates together for an open, honest forum about important issues -- especially when costumed martial arts stunts get in the way. That was the case last week at Temple, where the Office of Student Activities booked a stage to both the Temple Student Government and the school's Anime Club. When the student government candidates and interested members of the student body showed up for the forum, they found students from the Anime Club dressed in costumes performing martial arts stunts. The evening's effects were immediate, with the lightly regarded Dragon Ball Z party rising to 3rd place in the polls.

Oregon State is dropping the "U". The school recently unveiled a new "OS" logo that administrators hope will help make the Oregon State brand more unique and lucrative. It's also never a bad move to drop a letter that could cause your school to be associated with Miami's football team.

The USC hockey goalie who famously pulled down his pants, mooned the crowd, slapped his butt and rode his hockey stick like a horse in the middle of a game has pleaded not guilty to lewdness charges. I'm not sure how he expects to prove he's not guilty of a crime an entire arena witnessed, but considering what he's already done the last two months, I'm ready to believe he can pull off anything.

Got questions, comments, or a story idea? Email me at CampusChronicles@Gmail.com.