Charles Spencer, drafted at #65 (3d round) by the Houston Texans has agreed to terms. The Texans have all their draft picks signed. Not sure what the exact numbers were, but it couldn’t be much different from the Texans pick at #66.

Winston was the last player the Texans signed. He agreed to a $608,000 signing bonus in a four-year deal, which likely will be restructured after three years. He is slated to make $275,000 this season, $360,000 in 2007 and $440,000 in 2008.

Winston, who was drafted 66th overall, is expected to back up right tackle Zach Wiegert this season.

To make room for Winston, 6-6 and 311 pounds, and fellow third-round offensive tackle Charles Spencer on the roster, the Texans waived defensive back Jammal Lord and running back Nick Luchey.

Not bad.

Way back in May, I posted about the desire of schools with 1-AA football to remove the perceived second class citizen status of that classification. They didn’t like that they were being treated like Division 1-AA in basketball and other sports when it came to recruiting and public perception. They were talking about changing the names to something more representative of their respective post-season approaches: “Bowl Division” and “Playoff Division” or the slightly less simple such as the “Playoff Championship Group” and “Bowl Championship Group.”

Fine, I guess. I kind of understand the whole stigma argument. I’m sure A-10 schools just get sick of it in trying to recruit against the ACC and Big East and treated like some also-ran group. The important thing would be to keep the names simple and short so they can be easily adopted and understood. Thank goodness the NCAA and the schools pushing the change understand that.

For the first time since they were created 28 years ago, the top divisions of NCAA football could get new names next week.

Division I-A would become the “Football Bowl Subdivision” and Division I-AA the “NCAA Football Championship Subdivision.”

The 16-team postseason tournament in Division I-AA would be called the “NCAA Division I Football Championship.”

That’s catchy.

Here’s a tip from fans that never stopped calling Pitt, Pitt. You can make it official. You can send out the press releases. You can insist on news and media outlets using the offical names. It won’t make a bit of difference.

If you make the name more cumbersome, it is less likely and harder to be accepted. It will be mocked and derided instead. The differences will be accentuated, not minimized. The name isn’t the stigma. Any stigma is from the fact that you can’t bring b-ball recruits to big football games, the football games aren’t on TV to further promote the school, and show the fanbases. And even that hasn’t stopped Kentucky, Duke and Kansas from still doing pretty well in basketball despite little evidence of real football programs.

It’s expected that this will be adopted at meetings on August 3.

The 1-AA schools are using another approach to get the 1-A schools to go along with this. Trying to increase the palatability of bringing in a 1-AA patsy for a home game.

Another reason for changing the I-AA name and including everyone in Division I is scheduling. Currently Division I-A teams can count one game against I-AA opponents each season toward bowl eligibility. Removal of the I-AA moniker could make scheduling easier for all schools in Division I.

“It wouldn’t be a conflict in scheduling if everybody was Division I,” LaFleur said. “It would be a huge gap between the schools that are I-AA and I-A. I would go for having one moniker.”

There would also be benefits to the Division I-A schools. Currently, Division I-A schools have to meet minimum football attendance requirements (average 15,000 fans in actual or paid attendance per home game).

With all schools in Division I, the attendance requirement would no longer be necessary.

Temple would be happy.

Caught this little nugget from a report on the Reebok Camp.

Pitt’s Jamie Dixon and Boston College’s Al Skinner watched Teeng Akol in the morning along with assistants from DePaul, Florida, St. John’s and Georgetown.

Akol, is without a doubt, very raw. He came to the US from Sudan in 2005. He’s also 6′ 10″ and apparently loaded with potential. Scout.com considers him a 4-star, 30th best PF prospect. Rivals.com is higher on him. They put him as the 48th best overall prospect and 14th best PF prospect. Lots of teams interested including Kentucky, Maryland, UConn and Cinci; but it doesn’t appear anyone has actually offered him yet. Not surprising since Pitt is in pursuit of kids like Beasley, Patterson and Vaughn who also play the PF position and are much more advanced in their game.

Here’s another player drawing some interest from Pitt.

Blake Hoffarber said he has around 20 offers from mid-major schools and picked up free rides from Cincinnati, Rutgers and Washington State since the ABCD camp while Indiana, Iowa, Iowa State and Pitt have also shown interest since then.

Hoffarber is a shooting guard from Minnesota. He’s listed as about a 3-star recruit, left-handed, good range and an excellent free throw shooter.

I’m not sure if their damning another potential Pitt recruit with faint praise or what?

Bradley Wannamaker, 2007 – Here is a guy with a great future ahead of him somewhere in the Atlantic 10. The Philly guard can dial it up from deep and he has a body that can take the banging when driving into the paint for buckets. Against the Mean Streets crew, Wannamaker made sure he wasn’t left out of the compliment party for the guards. He finished with a hard earned 22.

Pitt showed some interest in him at the ABCD camp earlier in the month. He still hasn’t received a major offer yet.

If you can’t get enough of reading about how sordid and just generally creepy AAU and summer league basketball can get, this series of articles — Part 1, 2 and 3 (via Big East Basketball Blog) — is must read stuff.

UPDATE (2:52 PM): Damn. Here’s some more about Hoffarber. He’s the same kid who shot a desperation shot from his ass a couple years ago in a Minnesota HS championship game.