Tiffin will be GLIAC's 14th full member

6/21/2007

BAY CITY, Mich. - Tiffin University has accepted an invitation to join the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

Its enrollment will begin in the 2008-09 academic year.

The private school will become the GLIAC's 14th full member.

Founded in 1888, the school has about 2,000 students and is entering its ninth year of NCAA Division II status.

Tiffin will be the third Ohio school to join the GLIAC.

Ashland University joined the league in 1995, followed two years later by the University of Findlay.

"The invitation to join the GLIAC is really a testament as to how far our athletic program has grown," said Ian Day, director of athletics at Tiffin.

Other GLIAC schools are Gannon and Mercyhurst, both in Erie, Pa., and nine members in Michigan: Ferris State, Grand Valley State, Hillsdale, Lake Superior State, Michigan Tech, Northern Michigan, Northwood, Saginaw Valley State and Wayne State.

EAST LANSING, Mich. - Michigan's high schools are beginning to enforce a seven-day "dead period" when schools' athletics coaches can't have contact with students in a sports setting.

NEW YORK, N.Y. - Jeff Gordon won't have to miss a race for the birth of his daughter.

NASCAR's four-time champion became a father yesterday when his wife, model Ingrid Vandebosch, gave birth to a girl.

CLEVELAND - Ohio State basketball player David Lighty pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor assault charge and was fined $250 in a case involving a jogger who was shot with a BB gun last year.

Two of Lighty's former teammates at Villa Angela-St. Joseph High School in Cleveland also entered pleas in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court. Jimmy McLeod and Darryl Rushton each were fined $100 after pleading guilty to disorderly conduct.

INDIANAPOLIS - NBA player Stephen Jackson pleaded guilty to a felony count of criminal recklessness for firing a gun outside a strip club last fall and was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine and perform 100 hours of community service and a year's probation.