UAlbany

Tuesday morning was media training with yours truly giving the presentation to the University at Albany football team. 100 players packed into the academic center, where the team generally holds training camp team meetings. The UAlbany Great Danes are preparing to take on 10th-ranked Baylor on September 3rd, so information had to be quick and to the point. Plus, one Great Danes player was about to learn that he earned something incredibly special.

The New York Giants have a deep history with Albany and the Capital Region. Check out some of the best photos from camp, featuring the Giants biggest stars.

Baseball is a funny game and a Major League clubhouse can be an interesting place. Respect from veteran players doesn't come easy. Younger players and journeyman are merely taking another guy's job. So, when a 12 year-veteran All Star buys the entire team replica tee-shirt jerseys of your name and number, that's a pretty big honor.

Being a student-athlete is not easy at any level. Competing in a sport with the best of your peers can be extremely challenging, physically and mentally. High school student-athletes are going through intense bodily chemical changes as they grow and compete at the same time. Collegiate student-athletes are usually on the back end of the growth spurt but most are living on their own for the first time and are faced with brand new expectations, challenges and temptations.

On Tuesday, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) announced that current President Mark Emmert would step down by June 30, 2023. Running an organization that governs the athletic operations of hundreds of a colleges across the country, with different financial models, is an impossible task for the most part. However, having worked at one of those institutions' athletic department for a few decades, Emmert doesn't get a pass for his performance or lack there of.

While they no longer hold training camp at UAlbany, the New York Giants will still visit the Great Danes from time to time, and here's why that happened this past weekend.

Students from the Capital Region and beyond attend SUNY Albany each year, and here is how much money the school has awarded in scholarships to new students since 2009.

It was the University at Albany's first trip to the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament. Head coach Will Brown would take the Great Danes four more times. However, the game on March 17, 2006 was more than special, on and off the court. I was at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia with the team and will never forget the experience of that game. Albany alumni across the country were digging out their old 'Albany State' sweatshirts after that program changing performance.

The University at Albany has nice tradition over the past decade. For six of those years in the month of March, the Great Danes women's basketball team has won the America East Conference and gone to the NCAA tournament. In that time span, a few of the head coaches benefitted from the Danes good fortune. UAlbany's head coach Colleen Mullen isn't worried about things like that. She has her team poised to cut down the nets on Maine's home floor.

Ahead of his return to the Capital Region at the MVP Arena tomorrow night, here is the inside story behind the rise, and fall, of Tehoka Nanticoke in Albany.

Tony Sparano Jr. played 24 games for the University at Albany Great Danes' football team, and now, he's the newest member of the New York Giants' coaching staff.

Scott Marr has built an amazing Division I lacrosse program at the University at Albany. Multiple men's lacrosse NCAA tournament games have been played on campus to an unprecedented response from fans. The Great Danes lacrosse faithful didn't go unnoticed. The Premier Lacrosse League has brought professional lacrosse to Tom & Mary Casey twice. Each time being a huge success. This tour might even be a little better!