The big news of the day comes from Jason Groves of the Las Cruces Sun-News who reports that one of our favorite Aggies, Wendell "Baby Matrix" McKines, is returning to the Aggie family. Losing the two seniors, Hatilla Passos and Martin Iti, was a big hit to the interior depth and then when Baby Matrix asked for his release it was an even bigger hit as he saw significant minutes last season as a freshman. His return will definitely add depth to the frontcourt for the Aggies and we look forward to more spectacular dunks from Baby Matrix this upcoming season.

Volleyball season is just one week away from starting. The Aggies will take on Oregon, Ilinois and North Carolina next weekend at the State Farm Illini Classic in Champaign, Ill. We'll have more on the start of the season next week and also a quick reminder that tomorrow is the Alumni Match for the Aggie volleyball team. The current Aggie squad will face former Aggies. We hope it goes better for the Alumni than it did in the spring Alumni match (although somehow we don't think it will, sorry Alumni).

A couple of things to remember as the volleyball season begins are the rule changes that were enacted this season including reducing the number of point required to win to 25 and the subsequent reduction in substitutions as a result of dropping to 25 points. We expressed our feelings on the changes shortly after they were announced which you can read here. The biggest thing to keep an eye on is the substitution limit. This new change could adversely affect the Aggies because the 6-2 system that they run uses a lot of substitutions (for an explanation of the 6-2 see Jordan Bostic's writeup in the 2008 bleedCrimson.net Aggie Volleyball Preview).

On to today's links...

Felix Chavez of the Las Cruces Sun-News writes that senior Oren Long hopes to have an impact on the defensive line for the Aggies.

Shawn Siegel of CollegeHoopsNet discusses the current state of the "two program states". Unfortunately he ranks UNM ahead of the Aggies and one of the reasons is because they play in a "cool" arena. If people like playing in place called The Sinkhole then more power to them.

The Big Lead examines Fresno State head football coach Pat Hill's "Anyone, Anywhere" philosophy for scheduling.

Wendell Barnhouse, formerly of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and now a full time blogger for The Big 12 is examining his "Bottom 25." Unfortunately the Aggies have made the list.

Awful Announcing has obtained the list of the ESPN broadcast teams for the 2008 football season.

NCAA President Myles Brand delves further into the controversial "Pay for Play" for college student athletes.

The WAC previews the 2008 edition of the Aggie football team. (Thanks Vic)

The WAC website also talks about the WAC two ranked volleyball teams, NMSU (23) and Hawai'i (12). (Thanks Vic)

Aggie Track and Field coach Orin Richburg's Olympic relay teams didn't fare so well. Both the men's and women's teams dropped the baton during a handoff.

Jason Groves of the Las Cruces Sun-News discusses some of the names being floated around for the now vacant men's basketball assistant coaching job on his blog.

Jason Groves also gives his early prediction for a starting five for the men's basketball team.

Teddy Feinberg of the Las Cruces Sun-News says don't forget about A.J. Harris when talking about the Aggie receiving corps.

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