The university Marching Band will receive national recognition after being selected as one of five college bands nationwide to have a prerecorded performance played at the College Band Directors National Association conference in Austin this week, a university official said.

Bobby Francis, director of bands at the university, said the band was among the five chosen this year, based on a performance of "We the People," which includes several American folk tunes.

For the second straight season the Frogs will be playing 12 straight weeks, but unlike last year, all games will be on Saturdays.

Also, the team will be alternating between home and road games every week this season.

Two times are yet to be set: the two road games on the East Coast against Virginia and Clemson.

All of the Mountain West Conference games will be televised on Versus, CBS College Sports or the Mtn. TV deals are still in the works for the two games against Atlantic Coast Conference opponents.

ArtOrg, the student run organization that promotes its members' work and encourages them to enter local, national and international exhibitions, is hosting its first show this weekend, the organization's president said.

Simone Riford, a junior painting major and president of ArtOrg, said the goal of the ArtOrg exhibit this weekend is to support member's work as well as the organization itself.

"We want to promote artist involvement on campus and get people interested in the art community," Riford said.

So here we are just 10 days away from the first pitch in the 2009 baseball season.

Hopefully, you have done most of your drafts by now. There are some perks to picking your team late in spring training, like getting the most up-to-date injury news and finding out who has been optioned to the minor leagues.

But even those players who are going to spend some time in the minors are valuable as late round draft picks.

Club baseball team to face SMU

The TCU club baseball team will be playing at SMU 2 p.m. Saturday.

Sophomore Bobby Wilson, the president of the team, said the club is 1-3 on the season so far after playing both North Texas and Texas A&M twice.

Wilson said the team is well-rounded and has a good mix of players.

"We're a young team with a lot of freshmen and sophomores," he said.

The team's goal this season is to establish itself with strong play in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Wilson said.

President Barack Obama has finally lifted the ban on federal funding for stem cell research.

Of the two types of stem cells, adult stem cells are multipotent and have the potential to become any of several mature cells associated with specific functions or organs and tissues for the body, while embryonic stem cells are pluripotent, and have the ability to become any of the more than 220 types of human cells.

There is something to be said when international students hoping to attend a university in the U.S. find it difficult to get their visa in a timely manner or worry about if they will even get one at all. A possible staff shortage, a plethora of forms to be filled out and a cap of 65,000 on the number of visas being issued per year, that have been known to run out quickly, are some of the reasons why international students are having difficulty acquiring their ticket to the U.S.

Mountain West proposal to benefit underrepresented conferences

The Mountain West Conference's attempts to pioneer a new format for crowning a college football champion should be applauded by all fans of the sport.

There is no question that the current system is flawed. One slipup on Saturday during the regular season can cost a worthy team a chance at playing on college sports' biggest stage at the National Championship game. The fact that no playoff system has been established as of yet is unacceptable.