Brigham Young U. today announced it resigned from the Mountain West Conference, effective June 30, 2011.

Additionally, the University announced its football program will compete in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision as an independent beginning fall 2011. BYU has accepted an invitation to join the West Coast Conference as a full member for men’s basketball and other sports, beginning the 2011-12 athletic season.

Further information will be provided at a press conference scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 1 at LaVell Edwards Stadium beginning at noon (MT). The press conference is available only to credentialed members of the media.

The University will have no further comment until the press conference Wednesday.

Music piracy is by no means a new issue to college campuses. However, students will find that crackdowns on illegal downloads are heavier and more serious this year than ever before.

Spurred on by the efforts of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI), the nationwide, government-funded effort to curb the music industry’s monstrous annual losses from sites like Limewire, BitTorrent and P2P service sites has garnered support from all corners of the United States’ legal and economic sectors. After many high-profile lawsuits, the debate over how to control music sharing has grown into an international, financial scandal that has plagued the music scene for most of the past decade.

According to the IPI, music piracy causes $12.5 billion in global economic losses each year, more than 70,000 U.S. jobs lost, and an absence of $422 million in tax revenues.

The consequences of illegal downloading are wide ranging. If financially-wounded music companies cannot invest in developing bands, artistic diversity declines. Sites like iTunes and Amazon are likewise forced to hike their prices, seeing as so much of their inventory is literally being stolen from under their fingertips.

College campuses, traditional origins of new music trends and fads, are being held to the most rigorous standards of all by the RIAA.

According to the RIAA website, university leaders have a responsibility to acknowledge campus piracy, to take steps to prevent the theft from occurring in the first place and to demonstrate leadership in teaching students that music has value and there are right and wrong ways to acquire it. When college administrators are more proactive in addressing the campus piracy problem, it usually means fewer incidences of illegal downloading on those school networks and less chance that students will get in trouble for breaking the law.

The U. Arkansas administrative staff is taking the most direct action against students who download illegally. The University’s Code of Computing Practices states that anyone found guilty of copyright infringement is subject not only to the loss of all internet privileges, but also revocation of student accounts and initiated referrals to higher law enforcement agencies.

The RIAA has also been aggressive. Since 2007, the RIAA has sent over 7,000 early settlement letters to college students across the country. Of the 83 letters sent to students in Arkansas schools, 31 went to University of Arkansas undergraduates.

The strict protocols have some students, in the words of junior Lilianna Cai “freaked out.”

A Bolivian transfer student, she noted significant changes in Internet culture and law once inside the borders of the U.S.

“Where I come from Internet piracy is completely normal,” she said. “China is the same way; everyone does it, and nobody cares. But since I have come here, I have not downloaded a single song. It’s just so, so risky.”

Others have fended off the allure of free music with their own high moral standards.

“I used to do it all the time. It just seems like everyone does it. When all your friends do it, it doesn’t really even feel like stealing,” said an anonymous junior.

When asked why she no longer downloads illegally, she replied, “A lot of the bands I listen to now are Christian bands, and by stealing music I hurt their profit. It’s better, then, if I buy music.”

There are, however, possible benefits to artists from having their music traded and exchanged, even if they do not get direct revenue from it.

“All artists absolutely have intellectual rights; to rip music from somewhere is just like stealing from a library, it’s no different,” said junior Grant Roe.

“Big name artists take the publicity they get from their music and use it to bolster their alternative revenue streams,” Roe said. “There are tons of artists who get, because of YouTube exposure alone, multi-million dollar endorsements with advertising companies or other large corporations, be they soda, cologne, or whatever.”

Although few would argue with the simple fact that stealing is both wrong and illegal, perhaps the problem with illegal downloading is not as detrimental to major artists as one would initially think. Is there any reconciliation from the spread of influence, fame and endorsement opportunities at the expense of immediate losses? Are there long terms gains to be had for artists from mass file sharing and even piracy?

As Roe said, “In the end, I am pretty sure some benefits go both ways.”

Shortly after taking office, President Obama announced a plan to withdraw all U.S. combat forces from Iraq by Aug. 31, 2010 — today. According to mainstream news headlines, this plan was successfully completed ahead of schedule, as the last U.S. combat brigade rolled into Kuwait on Aug. 18. Unfortunately, this is only a half-truth. While the departure of our regular combat troops does mean an end to major unilateral American operations, “combat” in Iraq is a nebulous word: 50,000 American “advisers” remain in-country, and our troops are still in harm’s way.

At roughly the beginning of the Vietnam War, the American military created special operations forces for exactly the kind of work that is currently being done in Iraq. Many of the advisers currently in Iraq belong to these same units: the Army Special Forces, or Green Berets. The SF mission is to train and lead indigenous forces in combat, and they have successfully completed missions like these around the world, from Vietnam in the 1960s and ’70s to Panama in the ’80s, and now in Afghanistan and Iraq. They were referred to as advisers even then, and they are the soldiers that are training the Iraqi and Afghan military and police forces.

However, they are also the soldiers that drop from helicopters onto rooftops, engaging in direct action missions against insurgent and terrorist cells. In recent years, Army Special Forces have subtly shifted their mission from training local soldiers and police to a broader focus on unconventional warfighting. This will likely remain the case in Iraq, as Special Forces soldiers continue to hunt down terrorists in an effort to improve Iraq’s shaky security situation. In short, our soldiers will still have their boots on the ground and their fingers on the trigger. There just aren’t as many of them there to do it now.

The conflict in Iraq has been marked by three distinct stages. First came the initial invasion and overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s government, which led President Bush to declare victory in Iraq only a few months after the invasion began. This was followed by a bitter civil war between Sunni and Shiite factions with American and coalition forces caught in the middle, and then a prolonged counterinsurgency. The insurgents that American and Iraqi forces are fighting are the last holdouts of this third stage, domestic and foreign fighters that are bent on casting the Baghdad government out of power. While U.S. forces have slowly passed almost all day-to-day military affairs to the Iraqi army and police, the fact remains that the insurgency in Iraq has not been beaten. Doors still need to be kicked in, and that’s where the American “advisers” in Iraq make their appearance.

Army Special Forces are some of the most highly trained soldiers in the American military. They are truly the best of the best, the Defense Department’s equivalent to Lebron James. They will continue to fight in Iraq, along with the roughly 20,000 American soldiers assigned to “advise and assist” Iraqi forces on patrols and during training exercises. These soldiers have their work cut out for them, as terrorist and insurgent groups promise to ramp up their attacks on the budding Iraqi security infrastructure.

Keep all of this in mind as you listen to President Obama’s address today, marking the ceremonial end of combat in Iraq. For the good of the American soldiers and their families, hope that this is different from President Bush’s similar address in May 2003 and that our troops will not be hit by a renewed fury of insurgent attacks. For the good of Iraq, hope that our nation’s finest troops continue to do their jobs in Iraq. And remember that, despite Obama’s claim that combat is over; Iraqis are not yet ready to take over all of their security operations from American forces. If we cease to provide security to the Iraqi people, we will fail in our commitment to rebuild a shattered country.

Iraqis need our help for now, and we should continue to furnish the constant support that our Special Forces and other troops will provide to bolster Iraqi forces. American blood will continue to be shed in Iraq, but the work we do now, if done right, will hopefully prop up a country in desperate need of security and stability.

Penn State Nittany Lion mascot Clint Gyory is charged with public drunkenness and criminal mischief in connection with an incident on Aug. 1.

The State College Police Department said Gyory, a sophomore business management major, had a strong odor of alcohol on his breath at the time he was cited.

Gyory was intoxicated and crawled into the bed of a pickup truck where he passed out, police said. Gyory also broke a rear view mirror off of a vehicle and took it, police said.

Police did not say if the vehicle Gyory fell asleep in and took the rear view mirror from were the same.

The charges against Gyory were filed on Aug. 24, according to court documents.

Police are still awaiting a plea from Gyory, according to court documents.

Penn State head cheerleading coach Curtis White released a statement today that said Gyory will not suit up during the month of September.

“We are certainly disappointed in the news of this incident,” White said in the statement.

White declined further comment.

Athletic Department officials could not confirm if a Nittany Lion mascot will be present at the first home football game of the season against Youngstown State this Saturday.

Gyory did not return calls for comment.

Alabama running back Mark Ingram had surgery on his left knee Tuesday for an injury sustained in Monday’s practice and has been ruled out of Saturday’s game against San Jose State.

“Mark had an arthroscopic procedure this morning with Dr. Cain and Dr. Andrews and it was successful,” head coach Nick Saban said in a statement released Tuesday. “It was a situation where everyone involved thought it would be better to take care of now, so he would not have any issues with it later in the season.”

Saban said in the release that there is no chance of Ingram playing Saturday, and that his availability for upcoming games after the opener will be decided on a week-to-week basis.

“We will make every decision in the future based on what’s best for Mark and his career as we consult with Dr. Cain and Dr. Andrews on his progress,” Saban said.

The injury is not expected to be serious, according to Saban.

“This is not an injury that will affect Mark’s future ability to make a full recovery in a relatively short time frame,” Saban said.

Ingram won the 2009 Heisman Trophy, helping lead the Crimson Tide to the national championship.