Jackson Free Press

Media that covers Conference USA has made their preseason football predictions for order of finish in both the East Division and West Division. The predictions will keep expectations high on new University of Southern Mississippi coach Jay Hopson.

The Golden Eagles made one of the best turnarounds in college football, winning the West Division and earning their third appearance in the conference championship game last season. USM finished 9-5 before losing then head coach Todd Monken to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Monken will be offensive coordinator for the Buccaneers this season.

Hopson takes over after a highly successful tenure as head coach at Alcorn State University. He led the Braves to back-to-back SWAC Championships in his last two seasons in Lorman.

The media picked Southern Miss to top the West division for a second straight year, with Louisiana Tech University picked to finish second. Rice University was picked third, followed by the University of Texas at El Paso for fourth. The University of Texas at San Antonio was picked fifth and the University of North Texas was picked to finish last.

In the East Division, the media selected Middle Tennessee State University as the team to beat. Western Kentucky University, last year’s East winner, was picked to finish second, and Marshall University was picked third. Rounding out the rest of the East is Florida Atlantic University at No. 4, Florida International University at No. 5 and University of North Carolina at Charlotte was picked last.

The league coaches selected preseason awards and preseason All-USA team.

Southern Miss quarterback Nick Mullens was named preseason Offensive Player of the Year. Mullens returns for his senior season and will try to improve on last season when he threw for 300 or more yards in 10 games.

The coaches named Mullens to the preseason All-C-USA offense. Joining him is Southern Miss running back Ito Smith. The junior running back led the Golden Eagles in rushing last season and was a big play threat.

Senior center Cameron Tom was also named to the preseason All-C-USA team. He leads an offensive line that improved greatly over the last two seasons.

On defense, the Golden Eagles placed three players on the preseason All-C-USA defensive team. USM had a player named on each level of defense from the line to the secondary.

Those players named to the defensive team were senior defensive Dylan Bradley, senior linebacker D’Nerius Antoine and junior defensive back Picasso Nelson Jr.

C-USA media days are on Monday, July 24, and Tuesday, July 25, in Dallas. USM head coach Hopson will be on hand, along with Mullens and senior linebacker C.J. Perry.

The NFL is trying to settle a concussion lawsuit against it. A concussion lawsuit against the NHL is currently pending.

Now, 53 former wrestlers are suing the WWE over concussions. It really only seemed to be a matter of time before the biggest wrestling organization in America ended up in court.

Some of the lawsuits’ better known plaintiffs are Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka, Paul “Mr. Wonderful” Orndorff and Joseph “Road Warrior Animal” Laurinaitis. Some interesting facts: Snuka was just declared mentally incompetent to stand trial for the murder and manslaughter charges stemming from 1983, Laurinaitis’ brother John still works for the WWE, and Orndorff made an appearance at WrestleMania XXX and on Monday Night Raw in 2014.

James Harris, better known as Kamala, is a Mississippi native and is also named as a plaintiff in the lawsuit. Harris had both his legs amputated due to diabetes in 2014.

The lawsuit alleges that the WWE hid the risk of brain trauma from wrestlers and put profits over the welfare of performers’ health. Attorney Konstantine Kyros, whose name sounds like wrestling heel or bad guy, filed the lawsuit.

Kyros has tried to sue the WWE in the past and has already seen two class-action lawsuits against the Stamford, Conn.-based company dismissed. He also has two wrongful death lawsuits pending against the WWE.

One major obstacle to this lawsuit is if the wrestlers can prove the WWE knew the dangers of concussions and hid them from them. As ESPN’s legal expert Lester Munson points out, do the wrestlers and their lawyers have a “smoking gun” to prove that the WWE knowingly withheld concussion information?

Another hurdle for the wrestlers will be that they were, and still are, considered independent contractors. Unlike the NFL and other sports leagues, wrestlers don’t have a union to represent them.

The current lawsuit addresses the fact that the wrestlers are independent contractors and states that independent contractor is the wrong designation.

Even if the wrestlers get the lawsuit in front of a judge or jury, many of them worked for other organizations. In the days before the WWE became a national company, wrestlers worked for organizations that were territory based.

Several of the wrestlers in this lawsuit started out during the territorial days. In those days, the different territories were under gentleman's agreements, and the National Wrestling Alliance was the governing body.

Nearly all of the wrestlers in the lawsuit wrestled for organizations such as World Championship Wrestling, New Japan Pro Wrestling, Extreme Championship Wrestling, Total NonStop Action and others.

In fact, some wrestlers in the lawsuit spent more time with other organizations than they did with the WWE. The fact that the WWE bought both WCW and ECW might play a part in the lawsuit.

Any wrestler who spent time in ECW might have a hard time proving any health problems they had were suffered in the WWE. The former