The official blog of The Daily.

Download the app for the full interactive experience.

Uniforms for the Army-Navy college football game have never looked cooler

Would you spend $55,000 a year to go to college? A whopping 74 colleges now charge more than $55,000 a year (compared to just 19 last year). 
The Daily crunched numbers earlier this year and found that if college prices keep rising at the same average rate, the Class of 2034 could face sticker prices of $81,000 for a four-year education at a public school and $232,000 for four years at a private university.

Would you spend $55,000 a year to go to college? A whopping 74 colleges now charge more than $55,000 a year (compared to just 19 last year). 

The Daily crunched numbers earlier this year and found that if college prices keep rising at the same average rate, the Class of 2034 could face sticker prices of $81,000 for a four-year education at a public school and $232,000 for four years at a private university.

Grab the keg! The University of Virginia topped Playboy’s annual ranking of top party schools. 

“Raise a glass to UVA, whose students know a thing or two about raising glasses and everything important to this list,” Playboy says in bestowing the dubious honor.
Founded in Charlottesville, Va., by Thomas Jefferson in 1819, the academically rigorous college dethrones last year’s winner, the University of Colorado at Boulder, which didn’t even crack the top 10 this year.
Playboy says the 2012 Top Party Schools rankings are based on 900 data points across three categories: sex, sports and nightlife.

Grab the keg! The University of Virginia topped Playboy’s annual ranking of top party schools

“Raise a glass to UVA, whose students know a thing or two about raising glasses and everything important to this list,” Playboy says in bestowing the dubious honor.

Founded in Charlottesville, Va., by Thomas Jefferson in 1819, the academically rigorous college dethrones last year’s winner, the University of Colorado at Boulder, which didn’t even crack the top 10 this year.

Playboy says the 2012 Top Party Schools rankings are based on 900 data points across three categories: sex, sports and nightlife.

Just because they’re state employees doesn’t mean they’re not earning like rock stars. Did you know the nation’s 10 highest paid football coaches at public universities make a combined $34.5 million?

Leading the pack was University of Alabama football coach Nick Saban, who will take home $5.3 million this year in base pay alone, and is set to receive $45 million from the school over the next eight years in salary and “talent fees.” Meanwhile, the state’s governor, Robert Bentley, makes $121,000 — about 2 percent of Saban’s salary. Alabama’s football team, which kicks off its season September 1 against Michigan, is ranked number two in USA Today’s pre-season poll.

A scary new ACT study found just one in four U.S. high school graduates is ready for college (and another quarter is totally unprepared).

A scary new ACT study found just one in four U.S. high school graduates is ready for college (and another quarter is totally unprepared).

The presidential race is going back to school, with President Obama and Mitt Romney both showering young voters with attention at college campuses across the country. 

President Obama’s campaign got a big boost from college voters in 2008. This November, he needs their support even more. Going into the national conventions, the Obama-Biden ticket holds a narrow lead — 48 percent to 44 percent — over the Mitt Romney-Paul Ryan campaign, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC poll. The numbers are only slightly changed from July, when Obama led Romney by six points.
Four years ago, voters in the 18-to-24 age group broke 68 percent for Obama to 30 percent for GOP nominee John McCain, according to exit polling. Republicans are hoping to make this election a different story.

The presidential race is going back to school, with President Obama and Mitt Romney both showering young voters with attention at college campuses across the country. 

President Obama’s campaign got a big boost from college voters in 2008. This November, he needs their support even more. Going into the national conventions, the Obama-Biden ticket holds a narrow lead — 48 percent to 44 percent — over the Mitt Romney-Paul Ryan campaign, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC poll. The numbers are only slightly changed from July, when Obama led Romney by six points.

Four years ago, voters in the 18-to-24 age group broke 68 percent for Obama to 30 percent for GOP nominee John McCain, according to exit polling. Republicans are hoping to make this election a different story.

Penn State was slapped with unprecedented penalties by the NCAA this morning, but none are quite as haunting as the ghostly indentations outside of Beaver Stadium where Joe Paterno’s statue once stood. 

The NCAA slammed Penn State with an unprecedented series of penalties today, including a $60 million fine and the loss of all coach Joe Paterno’s victories from 1998-2011, in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.
Other sanctions include a four-year ban on bowl games, and the loss of 10 scholarships per year over four years.
“Our goal is to be not just punitive,” said NCAA President Mark Emmert when announcing the staggering sanctions this morning at a news conference in Indianapolis, “but to also create a mindset in which football will never be placed ahead of protecting and educating young people.”

Penn State was slapped with unprecedented penalties by the NCAA this morning, but none are quite as haunting as the ghostly indentations outside of Beaver Stadium where Joe Paterno’s statue once stood. 

The NCAA slammed Penn State with an unprecedented series of penalties today, including a $60 million fine and the loss of all coach Joe Paterno’s victories from 1998-2011, in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.

Other sanctions include a four-year ban on bowl games, and the loss of 10 scholarships per year over four years.

“Our goal is to be not just punitive,” said NCAA President Mark Emmert when announcing the staggering sanctions this morning at a news conference in Indianapolis, “but to also create a mindset in which football will never be placed ahead of protecting and educating young people.”

Lax lending rules caused college students to take on debt they didn’t understand and couldn’t afford, according to a new government report. 

The report, released Friday by the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and U.S. Department of Education, compares the boom-and-bust cycle in private student loans to the mortgage collapse in 2008 that ushered in a global recession.
“Subprime-style lending went to college and now students are paying the price,” said Education Secretary Arne Duncan.

Lax lending rules caused college students to take on debt they didn’t understand and couldn’t afford, according to a new government report. 

The report, released Friday by the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and U.S. Department of Education, compares the boom-and-bust cycle in private student loans to the mortgage collapse in 2008 that ushered in a global recession.

“Subprime-style lending went to college and now students are paying the price,” said Education Secretary Arne Duncan.

Meet the future of Penn State football, Adam Breneman, the top-rated player who made a non-binding oral commitment to the embattled school in March. 

“I don’t know,” said Adam Breneman, when asked if he would still matriculate at Penn State if the NCAA imposes the death penalty in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal. “I haven’t thought about a one-year, two-year death penalty. I don’t know what I’d do.”
Breneman, about to enter his senior year of high school, is the top-rated tight end in the nation and made a non-binding oral commitment to Penn State in March.  He is the cornerstone of new coach Bill O’Brien’s 2013 recruiting class. While all are non-binding oral committments at this stage, the class is currently rated anywhere from 10th to 15h on most lists.  
“It’s going to take a lot,” said Breneman, a lifelong Nittany Lions fan, “for me to not go to Penn State.”

Meet the future of Penn State football, Adam Breneman, the top-rated player who made a non-binding oral commitment to the embattled school in March. 

“I don’t know,” said Adam Breneman, when asked if he would still matriculate at Penn State if the NCAA imposes the death penalty in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal. “I haven’t thought about a one-year, two-year death penalty. I don’t know what I’d do.”

Breneman, about to enter his senior year of high school, is the top-rated tight end in the nation and made a non-binding oral commitment to Penn State in March.  He is the cornerstone of new coach Bill O’Brien’s 2013 recruiting class. While all are non-binding oral committments at this stage, the class is currently rated anywhere from 10th to 15h on most lists.  

“It’s going to take a lot,” said Breneman, a lifelong Nittany Lions fan, “for me to not go to Penn State.”

If this is true, [Joe] Paterno is forever a phony at best; the embodiment of Penn State’s evil at worst.
Sports columnist Dan Wolken argues that new reports are torching the remainder of Joe Paterno’s legacy.