Sport sponsorship: Georgia State will start a football team in 2010. The school will also add women’s lacrosse for the 2010 season and is exploring other options for women’s sports as well. The school launched a fundraising campaign and will increase student fees by $85 per semester to pay fort he additions. The football team will use the Georgia Dome for games and will build new practice and training facilities.

Facilities: The Feist Family Foundation donated $1 million to Montana’s athletics department. The school will honor the donation, to be distributed over a ten-year period, by naming the Washington-Grizzly Stadium expansion after the Feist family’s business, Sheehan Majestic grocery stores. The Majestic Plaza will hold 1,500 reserved seats and 500 club-level seats, an indoor club called the Canyon Room and Hellgate Terrace … Northern Arizona’s J. Lawrence Walkup Skydome’s new playing surface should be complete this weekend. The removable REALGRASS Matrix system began on April 7 and is the first of its kind installed in the United States. The new turf was one of the priorities identified in January by the President’s Task Force on Athletics Facilities. The football team will play its spring game on the surface April 26. The turf replaces Astroturf installed in 2002 … Dale and Marilyn Howard committed $5 million to the University of Iowa Foundation to support athletics, with the majority of the gift earmarked for renovations at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The remainder of the donation will support the Iowa football program … On April 19, Central Michigan named its softball stadium after longtime coach Margo Jonker. Her team went on to beat Akron, 5-0, after the pregame naming ceremony.

Miscellaneous: Northern Illinois and Notre Dame baseball teams played a game at U.S. Cellular Field, home of the Chicago White Sox, in a fundraiser for Northern Illinois’ February 14 Scholarship Fund. The fund was established in the name of five students fatally shot at a Northern Illinois lecture hall on Valentine’s Day. Notre Dame won, 5-4, in front of about 4,600 people. The game occurred on April 16, the anniversary of the Virginia Tech shootings … Austin Peay track and field student-athlete Carrie Burggraf was awarded a summer internship at the Carter Center, founded by Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter. The Princeton Review lists the opportunity as one of the top 100 internships in the country. Burggraf will work with the Cater Center Peace Program, helping with administrative and substantive issues affecting Center operations in the areas of democracy, human rights, conflict resolution, the Americas and China. She will earn six college credits … Hollywood actor Kevin Costner took batting practice with the Citadel baseball team last week, hitting both right and left handed and sending two balls over the outfield wall. He also addressed the team. He is in Charleston filming a new movie.

Coolen

Milestones: Hawaii softball coach Bob Coolen won his 700^th career game April 14 with a 9-6 victory over San Jose State. In his 22^nd season as head coach of the Rainbow Wahine, he is the program’s all-time winningest coach. Coach at Bentley for five years early in his career, Coolen also holds that school’s all-time softball wins record (72) … Delaware men’s lacrosse coach Bob Shillinglaw set an NCAA all-divisions record when he coached his 511^th game April 19, a 20-5 victory over Robert Morris. The previous record-holder was former Cortland State, Washington and Lee and Army coach Jack Emmer, who coached 510 games. Shillinglaw is now 273-238 in his 33^rd season.