Belt Loops: Women's Basketball Teams Get The Coolest Trips

Starting off with some MAC links:

• A lot of the MAC men's basketball teams are using their quadrennial tour to play in Canada, but a couple of the women's teams are going a bit further than that. Miami, for one, will play three games in Greece and Turkey. [Muredhawks.com]

• Meanwhile, Toledo is en route (perhaps there by now) to play a couple exhibition matches in Israel, then basically sightsee for a week. No doubt the impetus behind Israel as a destination was to showcase native daughter Naama Shafir. [WTVG]

• Yet another college football award. It never ends. Toledo's Eric Page, BG's Boo Boo Gates and NIU's Tommy Davis were named on the 50-player Paul Hornung Award watch list. This is award to "the most versatile player in major college football." [Paul Hornung Award]

• Our Michigan State brothers peruse the football schedule and try to identify the "trap" game. Among the four possibilities are CMU, notably because it's the week between matches against Notre Dame and Ohio State. I don't see the upset happening, but I like the "trap" identifier for it. [The Only Colors]

• They're not actual games yet, but it's a score and a competition. Akron women's soccer defeated Cleveland State 4-0 in an exhibition match over the weekend. [GoZips.com]

• Ball State basketball on is playing their first international exhibition tour since 1989, with four games in Canada. Backup guard Tyrae Robinson won't be joining them, however, thanks to academic ineligibility. [The Star Press]

• Rufus the Bobcat won a Most Improved Mascot award. In all fairness it's truly been on its best behavior since the incident. [OhioBobcats.com]

• Owlified is shutting down operations on his Temple blog, perhaps to blog with Al Golden. [The Owl's Nest]

Did we miss any links? Email us below, share them with @HustleBelt or submit a FanShot.