This week in J.J. news

I had a pretty crazy week at The Daily Universe. By Wednesday I had whipped up three stories. And one of them is in two parts, so really I did four stories. I'm still suffering from the fatigue, but I accomplished a lot and I'm pretty proud of that.

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Here's the non-sports story I wrote:

Huntsman to toss hat into ring?

And if you're curious to know the story behind that story, go here.

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The other two/three stories I did were more sporty.

First, I finished up a two-part story on the BYU athletics budget. I started it a couple weeks ago, but I procrastinated and didn't finish it until Tuesday, haha. The first part focuses on how football is really the only BYU sport that makes any money. Men's basketball does a little better than break even, but every other sport only survives because of football.

Of course, most of you probably think, "Well yeah, duh." But I was curious to see what those other sports thought. Interestingly enough, no one I found had any problem with depending on football. I didn't know if maybe any athletes would be jealous of football and the financial influence they have, but from what I could tell, no one was. (The women's basketball coach did say he has a goal of making his team financially self-sufficient, but he admitted he has a long ways to go.)

The second part is more about the budget in general, how it's put together and a little about how it will change next year when football is independent and the other sports are in the WCC.

That story isn't published yet, but as soon as it is I'll definitely pass it on.

If you want to look at the report where I got most of my numbers, go here:

BYU's 2009 EADA report*

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The other article I wrote covered a National Signing Day event at Rio Tinto Stadium on Wednesday. A few of Utah's top high school football recruits were there to sign their letters of intent, including six of BYU's new players. It was a cool event, I'm glad I got to go. I talked to Austin Heder, Baker Pritchard and Kesni Tausinga. Kesni was especially fun to talk to. I asked him what emotions were going through him that day, and he's like, "I'm psyched! It's totally sick!" Haha. He should be a lot of fun for reporters in the future.

Here's my story:

BYU football signs recruits

My co-sports editor Alex went to the afternoon press conference here at BYU. It looks like Bronco talked mostly about the overall future of the program, not only the recruits. And Alex said Bronco seemed pretty excited. Which is saying something.

Alex's story:

Mendenhall enthused about future of program

And our big BYU fan on the Daily Universe copy desk put together this chart of all 19 new recruits:

2011 BYU Football Signees*

*Click on "Go to login page," then click on "Get data for one institution," then search for Brigham Young University (or any other college you're interested in looking at).

**Go to page 7.