2008 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Tournament
The 2008 NCAA Final Four, held at the Qwest Center, was the first in the rally-scoring era (since 2001) in which all top four seeds reached the final four.


2008 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Tournament
This was the first year in which the term "set" replaced "game", with 25 points needed to win a set. From 2001 through 2007, 30 points were required to win a game.


2008 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Tournament, University Park Regional, Regional recap
Just as they had done all season, Penn State swept past Western Michigan, who was making their first Sweet 16 appearance in 21 years. When Penn State won the third set, they broke the NCAA record for consecutive sets won at 106 (The previous record of 105 was held by Florida from 2003.)


2008 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Tournament, University Park Regional, Regional recap
In the other Sweet 16 match, California swept Illinois, setting up a rematch of the 2007 NCAA National Semifinals with Penn State.


2008 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Tournament, University Park Regional, Regional recap
Despite getting a test from California in the first set, Penn State swept the Bears again to head to their second straight Final Four, bringing the program's total to seven Final Four appearances. California ended their season at 26-7, which was the most wins in the program's history in a single season.


2008 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Tournament, Seattle Regional, Regional recap
Washington and Nebraska both swept past their Sweet 16 opponents with ease, to set up a rematch of the 2005 NCAA National Championship.


2008 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Tournament, Seattle Regional, Regional recap
Washington, who had never lost an NCAA regional that they hosted, seemed to be heading to the Final Four after going up 2-0 on Nebraska. Out of the break, however, Nebraska regained focus and easily beat Washington in set 3, before winning a close set 4. In the decisive fifth set, Washington looked to be on the brink of victory after building a seemingly insurmountable 9-3 lead. Nebraska mounted a stunning comeback, though, and took 9 straight points. The Huskies tied it up at 13, before a Husky hitting error gave the Huskers match point. Nebraska senior Jordan Larson served out an ace to close out the stunning comeback. Nebraska advanced to their third Final Four in four years, and eleventh overall. Washington finished their season 27-5 and was the Pac-10 runners-up.


2008 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Tournament, Austin Regional, Regional recap
Texas defeated UCLA in four sets to advance to their third straight NCAA Regional Final. Iowa State continued their dream run, upsetting 11th-seeded Oregon in five sets, just after upsetting sixth-seeded Minnesota in four sets in Minneapolis in the second round.


2008 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Tournament, Austin Regional, Regional recap
After Texas took the 2-0 lead, Iowa State bounced back to take the third set and extend the match. However, Texas responded in the fourth set, defeating the Cyclones easily to advance to the program's first final four since 1995. Iowa State ended their season at 22-13 and made their first Elite Eight appearance in school history.


2008 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Tournament, Fort Collins Regional, Regional recap
Second seeded Stanford had no troubles with 15th-seeded Florida, sweeping them to earn their spot in the Elite Eight. Hawaiʻi defeated Purdue in four close sets to advance.


2008 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Tournament, Fort Collins Regional, Regional recap
Stanford dominated Hawaiʻi in the regional final, which included winning the second set 25-9. Hawaiʻi recorded 29 hitting errors in the match, while Stanford had just 7. Hawaiʻi ended their season at 31-4 as the WAC co-Champions. Stanford advanced to their third Final Four in a row, bringing the school total to an NCAA record 18 appearances.


2008 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Tournament, National Semifinals recap, Stanford vs. Texas
In a rematch of the 2008 AVCA Showcase, Stanford once again beat Texas in five sets to advance to their 14th NCAA title match in school history.


2008 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Tournament, National Semifinals recap, Stanford vs. Texas
After Texas went up two sets to none, Stanford came back to win in five sets behind play from seniors Foluke Akinradewo and Cynthia Barboza. It was the first time in the history of the NCAA tournament that a team came back to win after being down two sets to none in the National Semifinals. Stanford advanced to their third straight title match, while Texas, who had advanced to their first Final Four since 1995, finished their season at 29-4.


2008 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Tournament, National Semifinals recap, Penn State vs. Nebraska
Penn State, unbeaten in both matches and individual sets, seemed to be easily heading to their second straight final after going up 2 sets to 0 on Nebraska in front of an NCAA record crowd of 17,430, mostly Husker fans. The Nittany Lions NCAA record of consecutive sets won stood at 111 before it being snapped by Nebraska.


2008 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Tournament, National Semifinals recap, Penn State vs. Nebraska
Coming out of the break, Nebraska mounted a big comeback. The Huskers forced a game five off of Penn State. The Huskers, unbeaten at the Qwest Center with a 14–0 record and never having lost a match in the state of Nebraska in 96 matches, went up 10–8 in the decisive fifth set. However, AVCA National Player of the Year Nicole Fawcett served six straight points, which included a service ace, to swing the momentum to the Nittany Lions at 14–10. Nebraska fought off one match point before Megan Hodge crushed her 23rd kill of the night to finish the match and set up a rematch of the 2007 NCAA championship.


2008 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Tournament, National Championship recap: Penn State vs. Stanford
For the first time in NCAA tournament history, the same two teams met for the national title in consecutive years. Stanford's senior class, appearing in their third straight title match, was attempting to win their first national title. A Stanford class had not gone through without winning at least one NCAA championship since the program won their first national championship in 1992. Penn State and Stanford met for the fourth time in the NCAA championship - all of which have occurred since 1997 - which is the most meetings between any two schools. Penn State and Stanford are the only two programs to appear in every NCAA tournament since the NCAA started to sponsor women's volleyball in 1981.


2008 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Tournament, National Championship recap: Penn State vs. Stanford
Stanford started the match on fire, going up 10-5, then 15-10 at the media timeout. However, Penn State went on a 15-5 run to close out the first set, 25-20. Both teams remained even in set 2, with a Hodge kill giving Penn State the narrow 15-14 lead heading into the media timeout.


2008 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Tournament, National Championship recap: Penn State vs. Stanford
The national championship was halted in set 2 for at least 10 minutes, though, after a scoring discrepancy. Penn State seemingly earned the point to go up 21-19 after a Nicole Fawcett kill, but the scoring table had a miscommunication, thinking Stanford had gotten the point and that it was 20-20. Despite both Penn State head coach Russ Rose and Stanford head coach John Dunning agreeing the score was, in fact, 21-19 in favor of Penn State, the scoring table did not adjust the score and replayed the point. Another scoring miscommunication took place once again later in set 2, but Penn State eventually prevailed, 26-24, to take the 2-0 lead to the match. The incident led the NCAA Volleyball panel to recommend a protocol for score discrepancies.


2008 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Tournament, National Championship recap: Penn State vs. Stanford
In what was the final set, Penn State eased up to the 21-17 lead. Two consecutive kills from Megan Hodge put Penn State just two points away from their second straight national title at 23-18. Stanford, however, managed to pull within one at 23-22 after four consecutive kills from Alix Klineman. Another Hodge kill halted the run to give Penn State two championship points at 24-22.


2008 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Tournament, National Championship recap: Penn State vs. Stanford
After Stanford scored another kill to stave off one championship point, Penn State senior Nicole Fawcett sealed the set with a tip off of the Stanford block to take the national championship and the match. Penn State extended their NCAA record of consecutive matches won to 64 while Stanford's 16 match winning streak was snapped.


2008 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Tournament, National Championship recap: Penn State vs. Stanford
Stanford became the first team to ever lose in three consecutive title matches. Penn State joined USC from 2003 to become the only repeat champions to go undefeated, while also joining Long Beach State's 1998 team and Nebraska's 2000 team to be the only undefeated teams in NCAA history. The Nittany Lions joined USC's 2003 team and Nebraska's 2006 team as the only schools to be ranked #1 in the coaches poll for the entire season.


2008 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Tournament, National Championship recap: Penn State vs. Stanford
With the dominance Penn State showed throughout the 2008 season - going 114-2 in individual sets, 38-0 in matches, breaking the NCAA record for consecutive matches and sets won, being the first team in NCAA history to go through the regular season without losing a single set, leading the NCAA in blocks per set, and breaking the NCAA rally-scoring era record for team hitting percentage in a season (.390), some think Penn State could perhaps be the best team to ever play women's college volleyball.


2008 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Tournament, National Championship recap: Penn State vs. Stanford
Two of the best middle blockers in NCAA history ended their careers as well. Stanford senior Foluke Akinradewo broke the NCAA Division I all-time career hitting percentage, ending her career with a .443 overall percentage. Penn State senior Christa Harmotto finished her career second all time in NCAA history, hitting .433 for her career.


2008 NCAA Division I baseball rankings
The following polls make up the 2008 NCAA Division I baseball rankings. USA Today and ESPN began publishing the Coaches' Poll of 31 active coaches ranking the top 25 teams in the nation in 1992. Each coach is a member of the American Baseball Coaches Association. Baseball America began publishing its poll of the top 20 teams in college baseball in 1981. Beginning with the 1985 season, it expanded to the top 25. Collegiate Baseball Newspaper published its first human poll of the top 20 teams in college baseball in 1957, and expanded to rank the top 30 teams in 1961.


2008 NCAA Division I baseball rankings, Collegiate Baseball
The preseason poll ranked the top 40 teams. Remaining teams not listed above were: 31. Oklahoma State 32. Louisiana–Lafayette 33. Southern Illinois 34. Southern Miss 35. UC Riverside 36. Stetson 37. Coastal Carolina 38. Nebraska 39. California 40. Oral Roberts


2008 NCAA Division I baseball rankings, NCBWA
The Preseason poll ranked the top 35 teams. Teams not listed above were: 31. Georgia Tech 32. Pepperdine 33. Southern Miss 34. LSU 35. Arkansas


2008 NCAA Division I baseball season
The 2008 NCAA Division I baseball season, play of college baseball in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division I level, began on February 22, 2008. The season was the first to have a uniform start date for both southern and northern teams. The change from previous seasons, in which weather allowed southern teams to begin play weeks before northern teams, was an attempt to improve parity between warm-weather and cold-weather teams.


2008 NCAA Division I baseball season
The season progressed through the regular season, many conference tournaments and championship series, and concluded with the 2008 NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament and 2008 College World Series. The College World Series, which consisted of the eight remaining teams in the NCAA Tournament, was held in its annual location of Omaha, Nebraska at Rosenblatt Stadium. It concluded on June 25, 2008, with the final game of the best of three championship series. Fresno State defeated Georgia two games to one to claim their first championship. Fresno State was the first team seeded fourth in its regional tournament to win a national championship since the NCAA Tournament adopted the current 64-team format in 1999.


2008 NCAA Division I baseball season, Realignment, New programs
Five new programs joined Division I baseball for the 2008 season, four from the NCAA Division II. Florida Gulf Coast, previously a Division II independent; North Carolina Central, previously of the Division II Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association; Presbyterian, previously of the Division II South Atlantic Conference; and South Carolina Upstate, previously of the Division II Peach Belt Conference, all made the transition to Division I. The fifth new program, Houston Baptist, joined Division I from the NAIA.


2008 NCAA Division I baseball season, Realignment, Conference changes
Entering the 2008 baseball season, the Mid-Continent Conference was renamed The Summit League. The renamed conference was one of several conferences to make membership changes.


2008 NCAA Division I baseball season, Realignment, Conference changes
Both the renamed Summit League and the Atlantic Sun Conference added multiple members. The Summit added three schools, IPFW, North Dakota State, and South Dakota State, all previously Division I independents. The Atlantic Sun added two schools, Florida Gulf Coast and South Carolina Upstate, both from Division II.


2008 NCAA Division I baseball season, Realignment, Conference changes
Both the Big West Conference, which added UC Davis from the Division I independent ranks, and the Horizon League, which added Valparaiso from the Mid-Continent, added a single member.


2008 NCAA Division I baseball season, Realignment, Conference changes
Three schools joined the Division I independent ranks. Le Moyne left the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference to become an independent, and both North Carolina Central and Presbyterian became independents after their transitions from Division II.


2008 NCAA Division I baseball season, College World Series
The 2008 season marked the sixty second NCAA Baseball Tournament, which culminated with the eight team College World Series. The College World Series was held in Omaha, Nebraska. The eight teams played a double-elimination format, with Fresno State claiming their first championship with a two games to one series win over Georgia in the final.


2008 NCAA Division I softball season
The 2008 NCAA Division I softball season, play of college softball in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division I level, began in February 2008. The season progressed through the regular season, many conference tournaments and championship series, and concluded with the 2008 NCAA Division I Softball Tournament and 2008 Women's College World Series. The Women's College World Series, consisting of the eight remaining teams in the NCAA Tournament and held in held in Oklahoma City at ASA Hall of Fame Stadium, ended on June 2, 2008.


2008 NCAA Division I softball season, Women's College World Series
The 2008 NCAA Women's College World Series took place from May 29 to June 2, 2008 in Oklahoma City.


2008 NCAA Division I softball season, Records
NCAA Division I season saves:15 – Mallory Aldred, Canisius Golden Griffins


2008 NCAA Division I softball season, Records
NCAA Division I single game doubles:4 – Emily Troup, North Carolina Tar Heels; February 20, 2008


2008 NCAA Division II Football Championship Game
The 2008 NCAA Division II Football Championship Game was held on December 13, 2008 at Braly Municipal Stadium near the campus of the University of North Alabama in Florence, Alabama.


2008 NCAA Division II Football Championship Game, Teams
The 2008 NCAA Division II National Football Championship playoffs involved 24 schools playing in a single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of NCAA Division II college football.


2008 NCAA Division II Football Championship Game, Teams
The tournament began on November 15, 2008, and concluded on December 13, 2008 at Braly Municipal Stadium near the campus of the University of North Alabama in Florence, Alabama.


2008 NCAA Division II Football Championship Game, Game summary
The Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs won the school's first NCAA Division II football championship in a 21-14 win over the Northwest Missouri State Bearcats. Minnesota Duluth's quarterback Ted Schlafke threw  38-yard touchdown pass to Tony Doherty with 14 seconds left in the second quarter to give the Bulldogs a 7-0 lead. Later he threw a  5-yard touchdown midway through the third quarter to Issac Odim for a 14-0 lead. Odim ran for a 4-yard touchdown early in the fourth quarter for a 21-0 lead.


2008 NCAA Division II Football Championship Game, Game summary
Northwest Missouri's first score came on a 44-yard interception return by Aldwin Foster-Rettig cutting the score to 21-7. The Bearcats cut the lead to 21-14 as Raphael Robinson scored on a 2-yard touchdown catch with 1:36 left in the game. Minnesota Duluth recovered an onside kick attempt and ran out the clock.


2008 NCAA Division II Football Championship Game, Game summary
Minnesota Duluth finished the season with a 15-0 record. Northwest Missouri ended the season with a 13-2 record and suffered its fourth consecutive loss in the Division II championship game.


2008 NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Tournament
The 2008 NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Tournament was the 52nd annual single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division II college basketball in the United States.


2008 NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Tournament
Officially culminating the 2007–08 NCAA Division II men's basketball season, the tournament featured sixty-four teams from around the country.


2008 NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Tournament
The Elite Eight, national semifinals, and championship were again played at the MassMutual Center in Springfield, Massachusetts.


2008 NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Tournament
Making a third consecutive appearance in the tournament final, Winona State (38–1) defeated Augusta State in, 87–76, to win their second Division II national championship and second in three seasons.


2008 NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Tournament
The Warriors were coached by Mike Leaf. Winona State's Jonte Flowers was the Most Outstanding Player.


2008 NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Tournament, Regionals, South Atlantic - Augusta, Georgia
† South Carolina-Aiken, despite being the #1 seed, was barred from hosting the regional due to NCAA edicts disallowing the hosting of NCAA championships in the states of South Carolina and Mississippi as a result of controversies over continued usage of the Confederate flag.


2008 NCAA Division II Women's Basketball Tournament
The 2008 NCAA Division II Women's Basketball Tournament was the 27th annual tournament hosted by the NCAA to determine the national champion of Division II women's  collegiate basketball in the United States.


2008 NCAA Division II Women's Basketball Tournament
Northern Kentucky defeated South Dakota in the championship game, 63–58, to claim the Norse's second NCAA Division II national title and first since 2000.


2008 NCAA Division II Women's Basketball Tournament
As in 2008, the championship rounds were contested at the Health and Sports Center on the campus of the University of Nebraska at Kearney in Kearney, Nebraska.


2008 NCAA Division II football rankings
The 2008 NCAA Division II football rankings are from the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA). This is for the 2008 season.


2008 NCAA Division II football season
The 2008 NCAA Division II football season, part of college football in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association at the Division II level, began on August 30, 2008, and concluded with the NCAA Division II Football Championship on December 15, 2008 at Braly Municipal Stadium in Florence, Alabama, hosted by the University of North Alabama. The Minnesota–Duluth Bulldogs defeated the Northwest Missouri State Bearcats, 21–14, to win their first Division II national title.


2008 NCAA Division II football season
The Harlon Hill Trophy was awarded to Bernard Scott, running back from Abilene Christian.


2008 NCAA Division II football season, Conference and program changes
Brevard, Central State, Dixie State, and Seton Hill completed their transitions to Division II and became eligible for the postseason.


2008 NCAA Division II football season, Conference and program changes, Regional realignment
The geographic names of the four super regions gave way to numerical names. The Northeast Region, with the addition of the CIAA, became Super Region 1; the Southeast Region minus the CIAA became Super Region 2. The Northwest Region, with the addition of the RMAC and loss of the defunct NCC, became Super Region 3, while the Southwest Region, minus the RMAC and with the addition of the GNAC (sponsoring football again after a two-year hiatus) became Super Region 4.


2008 NCAA Division II football season, Conference summaries
Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association – ShawGreat Lakes Football Conference – Missouri S&TGreat Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference – Grand Valley StateGreat Northwest Athletic Conference – Central WashingtonGulf South Conference – Delta State Lone Star Conference – Abilene ChristianMid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association – Northwest Missouri StateNortheast-10 Conference – American InternationalNorthern Sun Intercollegiate Conference – Minnesota–DuluthPennsylvania State Athletic Conference – California (PA)Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference – Chadron StateSouth Atlantic Conference – Carson-Newman, Newberry, and TusculumSouthern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference – TuskegeeWest Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference – Glenville State


2008 NCAA Division II football season, Postseason
The 2008 NCAA Division II Football Championship playoffs involved 24 schools playing in a single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division II college football.


2008 NCAA Division II football season, Postseason
The tournament began on November 15, 2008 and concluded on December 13, 2008 with the 2008 NCAA Division II National Football Championship game at Braly Municipal Stadium near the campus of the University of North Alabama in Florence, Alabama.


2008 NCAA Division II football season, Postseason
In the championship game the University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs defeated the Northwest Missouri State University Bearcats, 21–14.


2008 NCAA Division II football season, Playoff format
The first-round games were conducted on the campus of one of the competing institutions as determined by the NCAA Division II Football Committee. Two teams in each super regional earned first-round byes. The first-round winners advanced to face a bye team in their super regional. Second-round winners met in the quarterfinals and quarterfinal winners advanced to play in the semifinals.


2008 NCAA Division II football season, Playoff format
First-round, second-round, quarterfinal and semifinal games were played on the campus of one of the competing institutions as determined by the NCAA Division II Football Committee. The home team at the championship was determined by the Division II Football Committee and the Shoals National Championship Committee.


2008 NCAA Division II football season, National television coverage
The championship game was played at Braly Municipal Stadium in Florence, Alabama and broadcast live on ESPN2 on December 16.


2008 NCAA Division II football season, National television coverage
The semifinal games were broadcast on ESPN2 (North Alabama vs. Northwest Mo., 4pm EST) and ESPN Classic (California (PA) vs. Minnesota-Duluth, 12pm EST) on December 6.


2008 NCAA Division II football season, National television coverage
The Superregional championship (quarterfinal) games were broadcast on ESPN2 and ESPN Classic on November 29.


2008 NCAA Division II football season, Tournament Notes, Individual game results, Round 1
The Seton Hill Griffins deflected and intercepted a pass by the American International  quarterback Rob Parent with 5:45 left and scored with 5:02 remaining for a 14–7 win over the Yellow Jackets' in the first-ever NCAA playoff game for both programs.


2008 NCAA Division II football season, Tournament Notes, Individual game results, Round 1
West Chester defeated Southern Connecticut State, 52–32, as Jackson Fagan rushed for 172 yards and three touchdowns. Fagan scored on runs of 61, 7 and 4 yards. QB Joe Wright threw for 250 yards and two touchdowns and the Golden Rams also scored on a 22-yard interception return by defensive tackle Scott Schiavo.


2008 NCAA Division II football season, Tournament Notes, Individual game results, Round 1
Wayne State quarterback Silas Fluellen completed 17 of 40 passes for 236 yards and a touchdown, but could not overcome the 243 yards and three touchdowns by Chadron State quarterback Joe McLain who left the game with an injury as the Eagles defeated the Wildcats, 23–17. Wayne State had four turnovers inside the 10-yard line in the game.


2008 NCAA Division II football season, Tournament Notes, Individual game results, Round 1
In its first ever home playoff game the Ashland University Eagles defeated the Minnesota State-Mankato Mavericks, 27–16. Quarterback Billy Cundiff threw a 66-yard scoring completion to Joe Horn with 11:56 remaining in the fourth quarter as the Eagles took the lead for good. Previously, Ashland was 0–3 in the school's playoff history.


2008 NCAA Division II football season, Tournament Notes, Individual game results, Round 1
The Valdosta State Blazers fell behind early, but rallied in the second half to defeat Carson-Newman Eagles, 24–20. Ronnye Nelson ran for 83 rushing yards and 59 receiving yards for the Blazers. The win was the fifth straight playoff win for the Blazers, the defending NCAA Division II Champions.


2008 NCAA Division II football season, Tournament Notes, Individual game results, Round 1
The Tusculum College Pioneers only led the final 3:31 of the game against the Albany State Rams, but scored on three fourth quarter drives to win 34–22. Senior quarterback Corey Russell finished the game with 87 yards rushing and two touchdowns on 15 carries and was 23-of-38 passing for 274 yards and three touchdowns for the Pioneers. Tusculum maintained its streak of no games lost at home in two seasons.


2008 NCAA Division II football season, Tournament Notes, Individual game results, Round 1
Quarterback Mark Smith scored a rushing touchdown that put the Pittsburg State Gorillas out of range of the late-surging University of Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks in a 33–21 win. The 24th-ranked Mavericks took the lead in game, 21–20, with 13:05 left in the game, but the Gorillas took back the lead, 26–21 with 5:27 left in the game. Smith scored on a 32-yard touchdown with 2:10 left in the game to seal the win. Smith finished with 365 yards of total offensive, including 212 rushing yards for the Gorillas.


2008 NCAA Division II football season, Tournament Notes, Individual game results, Round 1
Keith Flemming put the West Texas A&M Buffaloes ahead for good with a 6-yard run late in the second quarter in a 49–42 victory over Central Washington Wildcats. Flemming ran for four touchdowns and Keith Null threw three touchdown passes (35 of 49 passes for 463 yards and one interception).


2008 NCAA Division II football season, Tournament Notes, Individual game results, Round 2
The West Chester Golden Rams got a late touchdown pass but failed to recover an onside kick as Bloomsburg held on for a 28–21 victory. A 62-yard interception return for a touchdown by Jesse Cooper in the fourth quarter gave the Huskies a 21–14 lead. Bloomsburg scored on a 28-yard touchdown pass with 3:41 left in the fourth to extend the lead to 28–14.


2008 NCAA Division II football season, Tournament Notes, Individual game results, Round 2
California University of Pennsylvania's QB Kevin McCabe threw three touchdowns as the Vulcan's defeated Seton Hill, 48–7. McCabe completed 19 of 24 passes for 253 yards. Terrence Johnson ran an 82-yard kickoff return for a touchdown. Seton Hill's lone score came on a 30-yard fumble return for a touchdown.


2008 NCAA Division II football season, Tournament Notes, Individual game results, Round 2
Minnesota Duluth held Chadron State to just 8 yards rushing for the game in a 20–10 victory. The Bulldogs held the ball for nearly 40 minutes while gaining 388 yards in total offense. The Eagles gained 178 yards in total offense.


2008 NCAA Division II football season, Tournament Notes, Individual game results, Round 2
The Grand Valley State, the top seed in Super Region 3, defeated Ashland University, 40–7. The Lakers scored on their first two possessions and built a 24–0 halftime lead. Ashland's only score came on the first play of the fourth quarter as quarterback Billy Cundiff hit Christian Livingston with an 8-yard touchdown pass. Grand Valley answered on the next offensive play with a 62-yard touchdown run. The Lakers' defense ended with eight sacks and nine tackles for lost yardage.


2008 NCAA Division II football season, Tournament Notes, Individual game results, Round 2
North Alabama avenged last season's quarterfinal playoff loss to defending Division II Champion Valdosta State, 37–10, as QB A.J. Milwee threw for 167 yards and one touchdown and ran for another score. The Lions took a 16–3 halftime lead and scored two touchdowns in the third quarter and one in the fourth quarter to seal the win. Valdosta State only touchdown came as Dudley Spence returned a fumble 55-yard for a score in the fourth quarter.


2008 NCAA Division II football season, Tournament Notes, Individual game results, Round 2
Delta State compiled 529 yards of offense as QB while Garrett DeWitt threw for 344 yards and backup quarterback Blake Barnes rushed for two touchdowns as the Statesmen defeated Tusculum, 27–19. The Statesmen defense held allowed 425 (310 in the air) but forced Tusculum into three turnovers. The win advanced Delta State to the Division II playoff quarterfinals for the third straight year.


2008 NCAA Division II football season, Tournament Notes, Individual game results, Round 2
Northwest Missouri State came from behind to defeat Pittsburg State 38–35. Pittsburg State took the lead with 3 minutes, 30 seconds remaining, but QB Joel Osborn threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to Kendall Wright with 55 seconds left gave the Bearcats a victory. The Gorillas racked up 408 total yards of offense as QB Mark Smith rushed for 123 yards and passed for 185 yards.


2008 NCAA Division II football season, Tournament Notes, Individual game results, Round 2
The Abilene Christian University Wildcats set a record for points in an NCAA playoff game (93) as they scored touchdowns on 13 of its 15 possessions in a 93–68 defeat of West Texas A&M. The Wildcats compiled 810 total yards as quarterback Billy Malone threw six touchdown passes, each to a different receiver, and completed 16 of 25 passes for 383 yards. Bernard Scott rushed for 292 yards on 19 carries and scored seven touchdowns.


2008 NCAA Division II football season, Tournament Notes, Individual game results, Round 2
West Texas was led by quarterback Keith Null (42-of-63, 595 yards, seven touchdowns), and Charly Martin who had 14 catches for 323 yards and five TDs as the Buffs compiled 721 total yards of offense.


2008 NCAA Division II football season, Tournament Notes, Individual game results, Round 2
The Wildcats will play Northwest Missouri State in the national quarterfinals, a rematch of ACU's 44–27 victory on Aug. 30.


2008 NCAA Division II football season, Tournament Notes, Individual game results, Super Regional finals
California of Pennsylvania eliminated Bloomsburg University, 27–24, to advance to the semifinals. The Vulcans scored two third-quarter touchdowns to take a 27–17 lead, but Bloomsburg scored on a 1-yard run by quarterback Dan Latorre to close the gap to 27–24. The Huskies were attempting a game-winning drive, but the Vulcans linebacker Darren Burns forced a fumble by Latorre on a 28-yard quarterback draw and Brandon Gordon recovered the fumble for the


2008 NCAA Division II football season, Tournament Notes, Individual game results, Super Regional finals
Sophomore linebacker Kiel Fechtelkotter intercepted a pass from Grand Valley State quarterback Brad Iciek in the second overtime to seal a 19–13 double-overtime victory. UMD scored a touchdown in the second overtime, but the Lakers blocked the extra-point attempt. Two plays later, Fechtelkotter made the interception, ending the game.


2008 NCAA Division II football season, Tournament Notes, Individual game results, Super Regional finals
The Lions avenged their only loss this season, defeating Delta State, 55–34. While defense gave up 541 yards in total offense to the Statesmen, they also forced six turnovers total and scored twice on defense (interception returns for touchdowns by Darron Dampier and Michael Johnson). Wide receiver Joemal Campbell caught two touchdown passes and blocked a punt for the Lions.


2008 NCAA Division II football season, Tournament Notes, Individual game results, Super Regional finals
Northwest Missouri State secured their fourth straight trip to the NCAA Division II semifinals with a 45–36 victory against Abilene Christian. The Bearcats' quarterback Joel Osborn threw for 247 yards (19-of-28) and two touchdowns. Backup quarterback Blake Bolles finished with 69 yards through the air and one touchdown pass, and 51 yards rushing and one touchdown run.


2008 NCAA Division II football season, Tournament Notes, Individual game results, Semifinals
A week after upsetting Grand Valley State, the Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs advanced to the National Championship game with a 45–7 victory over California (Pa.). The Bulldogs held the Vulcans to their lowest rushing total of the season, while forcing five turnovers. California had averaged nearly 200 yards rushing and 38 points per game this season. Isaac Odim rushed for 126 yards and scored four touchdowns for the Bulldogs.


2008 NCAA Division II football season, Tournament Notes, Individual game results, Semifinals
Northwest Missouri State Bearcats played turnover-free football while forcing two North Alabama turnovers en route to a 41–7 victory. The Bearcats defense held North Alabama to one touchdown as they advanced to their fourth straight national championship game.


2008 NCAA Division II football season, Tournament Notes, Individual game results, Championship
The Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs won the school's first NCAA Division II football championship in a 21–14 win over the Northwest Missouri State Bearcats. Minnesota Duluth's quarterback Ted Schlafke threw  38-yard touchdown pass to Tony Doherty with 14 seconds left in the second quarter to give the Bulldogs a 7–0 lead. Later he threw a  5-yard touchdown midway through the third quarter to Issac Odim for a 14–0 lead. Odim ran for a 4-yard touchdown early in the fourth quarter for a 21–0 lead.


2008 NCAA Division II football season, Tournament Notes, Individual game results, Championship
Northwest Missouri's first score came on a 44-yard interception return by Aldwin Foster-Rettig cutting the score to 21–7. The Bearcats cut the lead to 21–14 as Raphael Robinson scored on a 2-yard touchdown catch with 1:36 left in the game. Minnesota Duluth recovered an onside kick attempt and ran out the clock.


2008 NCAA Division II football season, Tournament Notes, Individual game results, Championship
Minnesota Duluth finished the season with a 15–0 record. Northwest Missouri ended the season with a 13–2 record and suffered its fourth consecutive loss in the Division II championship game.


2008 NCAA Division III Baseball Tournament
The 2008 NCAA Division III Baseball Tournament was played at the end of the 2008 NCAA Division III baseball season to determine the 33rd national champion of college baseball at the NCAA Division III level. The tournament concluded with eight teams competing at Time Warner Cable Field at Fox Cities Stadium in Grand Chute, Wisconsin for the championship. Eight regional tournaments were held to determine the participants in the World Series. Regional tournaments were contested in double-elimination format, with five regions consisting of six teams and three consisting of eight, for a total of 54 teams participating in the tournament, up from 53 in 2007. The tournament champion was Trinity (CT), who defeated Johns Hopkins for the championship.


2008 NCAA Division III Baseball Tournament, Regionals, South Regional
American Legion Field-Danville, GA (Host: USA South Athletic Conference/Old Dominion Athletic Conference)


2008 NCAA Division III Baseball Tournament, Regionals, Mideast Regional
Art Nehf Field-Terre Haute, IN (Host: Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology)


2008 NCAA Division III Baseball Tournament, Regionals, Central Regional
Brunner Field in the Duane R. Swanson Stadium-Moline, IL (Host: Augustana College)


2008 NCAA Division III Baseball Tournament, Regionals, New York Regional
Leo Pinckney Field at Falcon Park-Auburn, NY (Host: Ithaca College)


2008 NCAA Division III Baseball Tournament, World Series
Time Warner Cable Field at Fox Cities Stadium-Grand Chute, WI (Host: University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh/Lawrence University/Fox Cities Convention and Visitors Bureau)


2008 NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Tournament
The 2008 NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Tournament was the 34th annual single-elimination tournament to determine the national champions of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) men's Division III collegiate basketball in the United States.


2008 NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Tournament
The field contained sixty-four teams, and each program was allocated to one of four sectionals. All sectional games were played on campus sites, while the national semifinals, third-place final, and championship finals were contested at the Salem Civic Center in Salem, Virginia.


2008 NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Tournament
Washington–St. Louis defeated defending champions Amherst in the championship, 90–68, clinching their first national title.


2008 NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Tournament
Troy Ruths, also from Washington–St. Louis, was named Most Outstanding Player.


2008 NCAA Division III Men's Ice Hockey Tournament
The 2008 NCAA Division III Men's Ice Hockey Tournament was the culmination of the 2007–08 season, the 25th such tournament in NCAA history. It concluded with St. Norbert defeating Plattsburgh State in the championship game 2-0. All First Round and Quarterfinal matchups were held at home team venues, while all succeeding games were played at the Herb Brooks Arena in Lake Placid, New York.


2008 NCAA Division III Men's Ice Hockey Tournament, Qualifying teams
The following teams qualified for the tournament. Automatic bids were offered to the conference tournament champion of seven different conferences. One at-large bid was available for the best non-conference champion for each region with one additional at-large bid for the best remaining team regardless of region.


2008 NCAA Division III Men's Ice Hockey Tournament, Format
The tournament featured four rounds of play. All rounds were Single-game elimination. For the three eastern Quarterfinals the teams were seeded according to their rankings. The two lowest-seeded eastern teams played a first round game while the remaining five teams received byes into Quarterfinal round. The top-seeded eastern team played the winner of the eastern first round game. For the western quarterfinal, the top-ranked team awaited the winner of a first round game between the lower-ranked teams. The higher-seeded team served as host for each game of the first round and quarterfinals.


2008 NCAA Division III Men's Lacrosse Championship
The 2008 NCAA Division III Men's Lacrosse Tournament was held from May 10 through May 25, 2008. This was the 29th annual Division III NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship tournament. Sixteen NCAA Division III college men's lacrosse teams met after having played their way through a regular season, and for some, a play-in game to advance to the tournament.


2008 NCAA Division III Men's Lacrosse Championship
The tournament culminated with the finals held on Memorial Day weekend at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts. The championship weekend, which included the Division I and Division II championships, was hosted by Harvard University and the Eastern College Athletic Conference. The game set an attendance record for the Division III title game of 24,317 fans.


2008 NCAA Division III Men's Lacrosse Championship
The championship featured a third consecutive meeting between perennial powerhouses Cortland State Red Dragone and Salisbury Sea Gulls. The Sea Gulls victory sealed their 20th straight appearance, 26th overall in the NCAA Division III tournament, and capped of an undefeated season. They have a record of 45-18 all-time in the tournament and is a new Division III record beating Hobart's old record of 41.


2008 NCAA Division III Men's Lacrosse Championship, Play-in games
The final four rounds of the tournament were preceded by five play-in games on May 7:


2008 NCAA Division III football season
The 2008 NCAA Division III football season, part of the college football season organized by the NCAA at the Division III level in the United States, began in August 2008, and concluded with the NCAA Division III Football Championship, also known as the Stagg Bowl, in December 2008 at Salem Football Stadium in Salem, Virginia. The Mount Union Purple Raiders won their tenth Division III championship by defeating the Wisconsin–Whitewater Warhawks, 31−26. This was the fourth of seven straight championship games between Mount Union (3 wins) and Wisconsin–Whitewater (4 wins).


2008 NCAA Division III football season
The Gagliardi Trophy, given to the most outstanding player in Division III football, was awarded to Greg Micheli, quarterback from Mount Union.


2008 NCAA Division III football season, Postseason
The 2008 NCAA Division III Football Championship playoffs were the 36th annual single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division III college football. The championship Stagg Bowl game was held at Salem Football Stadium in Salem, Virginia for the 16th time.


2008 NCAA Division III football season, Postseason, Qualification
Twenty-three conferences met the requirements for an automatic ("Pool A") bid to the playoffs. Besides the NESCAC, which does not participate in the playoffs, four conferences had no Pool A bid. The SLIAC was in the first year of the two-year waiting period, while the ACFC, UAA, and UMAC failed to meet the seven-member requirement. The NWC received a Pool A bid for the first time, having attained seven members and passed through the waiting period.


2008 NCAA Division III football season, Postseason, Qualification
Schools not in Pool A conferences were eligible for Pool B. The number of Pool B bids was determined by calculating the ratio of Pool A conferences to schools in those conferences and applying that ratio to the number of Pool B schools. The 23 Pool A conferences contained 197 schools, an average of 8.6 teams per conference. Twenty-seven schools were in Pool B, enough for three bids.


2008 NCAA Division III football season, Postseason, Qualification
The remaining six playoff spots were at-large ("Pool C") teams.


2008 NCAA Men's Basketball All-Americans
The Consensus 2008 College Basketball All-American team, as determined by aggregating the results of four major All-American teams. To earn "consensus" status, a player must win honors from a majority of the following teams: the Associated Press, the USBWA, The Sporting News and the National Association of Basketball Coaches.


2008 NCAA Men's Basketball All-Americans, Academic All-Americans
On February 26, 2008, CoSIDA and ESPN The Magazine announced the 2009 Academic All-American team with Adam Emmenecker headlining the University Division as the men's college basketball Academic All-American of the Year.


2008 NCAA Men's Basketball All-Americans, Academic All-Americans
2007–08 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America Men’s Basketball Team (University Division) as selected by CoSIDA:


2008 NCAA Men's Volleyball Tournament
The 2008 NCAA Men's Volleyball Tournament was the 39th annual tournament to determine the national champion of NCAA men's collegiate indoor volleyball. The single elimination tournament was played at the Bren Events Center in Irvine, California during May 2008.


2008 NCAA Men's Volleyball Tournament
Penn State defeated Pepperdine in the final match, 3–1 (27–30, 33–31, 30–25, 30–23), to win their second national title. The Nittany Lions (30–1) were coached by Mark Pavlik.


2008 NCAA Men's Volleyball Tournament
Penn State's Matt Anderson was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. Anderson, along with six other players, comprised the All Tournament Team.


2008 NCAA Men's Volleyball Tournament, Qualification
Until the creation of the NCAA Men's Division III Volleyball Championship in 2012, there was only a single national championship for men's volleyball. As such, all NCAA men's volleyball programs, whether from Division I, Division II, or Division III, were eligible. A total of 4 teams were invited to contest this championship.


2008 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship
The 2008 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship was the 40th annual NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship to determine the national champion of NCAA men's collegiate water polo. Tournament matches were played at the Avery Aquatic Center in Stanford, California from December 6–7, 2008.


2008 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship
USC defeated Stanford in the final, 7–5, to win their fourth national title. The undefeated Trojans (29–0) were coached by Jovan Vavic. This would go on to become the first of USC's record six straight national championships (2008–2013).


2008 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship
The Most Outstanding Player of the tournament was J.W. Krumpholz from USC. Additionally, two All-Tournament Teams were named: a First Team (with seven players, including Krumpholz) and a Second Team (also with ninth players).


2008 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship
The tournament's leading scorer, with 6 goals, was Kyle Wertz from Navy.


2008 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship, Qualification
Since there has only ever been one single national championship for water polo, all NCAA men's water polo programs (whether from Division I, Division II, or Division III) were eligible. A total of 4 teams were invited to contest this championship.


2008 NCAA National Collegiate Women's Ice Hockey Tournament
The 2008 NCAA National Collegiate Women's Ice Hockey Tournament involved eight schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of women's NCAA Division I college ice hockey. The quarterfinals were conducted at the homes of the seeded teams and the Frozen Four was conducted in Duluth, MN It began on March 14, 2009, and ended with the championship game on March 22. A total of seven games were played.


2008 NCAA Rifle Championships
The 2008 NCAA Rifle Championships were contested at the 29th annual NCAA-sanctioned competition to determine the team and individual national champions of co-ed collegiate rifle shooting in the United States.


2008 NCAA Rifle Championships
The championships were held at the Tronsrue Marksmanship Center at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York.


2008 NCAA Rifle Championships
Two-time defending champions Alaska won the team championship, the Nanooks' tenth NCAA national title in rifle.


2008 NCAA Rifle Championships, Qualification
With only one national collegiate championship for rifle shooting, all NCAA rifle programs (whether from Division I, Division II, or Division III) were eligible. A total of eight teams contested this championship.


2008 NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championship
The 2008 NCAA Women's Gymnastics championship involved 12 schools competing for the national championship of women's NCAA Division I gymnastics. It was the twenty seventh NCAA gymnastics national championship and the defending NCAA Team Champion for 2007 was Georgia. The Competition took place in Athens, Georgia hosted by the University of Georgia in Stegeman Coliseum. The 2008 Championship was won by Georgia, their fourth in a row.


2008 NCBA Division I World Series
The 2008 National Club Baseball Association (NCBA) Division I World Series was played at City of Palms Park in Fort Myers, FL from May 23 to May 29. The eighth tournament's champion was Colorado State University. This was Colorado State's fourth title in the last five years. The Most Valuable Player was Brian Dilley of Colorado State University.


2008 NCBA Division I World Series
Colorado State became the first team in NCBA World Series history to lose their first game and win the World Series.


2008 NCBA Division I World Series, Format
The format is similar to the NCAA College World Series in that eight teams participate in two four-team double elimination brackets with the only difference being that in the NCBA, there is only one game that decides the national championship rather than a best-of-3 like the NCAA.


2008 NCBA Division II World Series
The 2008 National Club Baseball Association (NCBA) Division II World Series was played at League Stadium in Huntingburg, IN from May 16 to May 20. This was the first time that the NCBA had offered a Division II World Series for club baseball teams.


2008 NCBA Division II World Series
The University of Kentucky won the inaugural NCBA Division II World Series over the University of Illinois in walk-off fashion.


2008 NCBA Division II World Series, Format
The format is similar to the NCAA College World Series in that eight teams participate in two four-team double elimination brackets with the only difference being that in the NCBA, there is only one game that decides the national championship rather than a best-of-3 like the NCAA. Another difference which is between NCBA Division I and II is that Division II games are 7 innings while Division I games are 9 innings.


2008 NCBA Division II World Series, Participants
† - denotes team also fields an NCBA Division I team


2008 NECBL All-Star Game
The 2008 NECBL All-Star Game was the 15th exhibition game between all-stars from the NECBL's Northern and Southern Divisions. The Southern All-Stars held off the Northern All-Stars 5-2. Mike Melillo of the Newport Gulls was named the game's MVP.


2008 NECBL playoffs
The 2008 NECBL playoffs was the postseason tournament of the New England Collegiate Baseball League for the 2008 season. It consisted of eight teams competing in three rounds of best-of-three series. In the championship round, Sanford defeated Newport 2-0 to win their second NECBL title.


2008 NECBL playoffs, Format
The 2008 NECBL playoffs consisted of three rounds, a Division Semifinal, Division Final, and Championship Series. Competing teams consisted of the four best-record teams from both the West Division and the East Division. These teams were seeded #1 through #4 according to their regular season record. In each division, the #1 seed played the #4 seed and the #2 seed played the #3 seed in the Division Semifinal round. The two winners of these series advanced to the Division Finals. The winner of the round captured the Division Championship, one for both the East and West divisions.


2008 NECBL playoffs, Format
The two division champions faced each other in the Championship Series to decide the NECBL champion. All rounds consisted of a best-of-three series in which the first game and third game (if necessary) of each series were played at the higher seed's home field and the second game was played at the lower seed's home field. If identically seeded teams from opposite divisions met in the Championship Series the NECBL tiebreaker rules would be utilized.


2008 NECBL playoffs, Division Semifinals
The Division Semifinals, the first playoff round, consisted of matchups between each division's #1 and #4 seeds and #2 and #3 seeds.


2008 NECBL playoffs, Division Semifinals, North Division
In the North Division, the Division Semifinal matchups were as follows: #1 Sanford versus #4 Vermont, #2 North Shore versus #3 Keene.


2008 NECBL playoffs, Division Semifinals, South Division Division
In the South Division, the Division Semifinal matchups were as follows: #1 Newport versus #4 Manchester, #2 Pittsfield versus #3 North Adams.


2008 NECBL playoffs, Division Semifinals
The Division Semifinals, the first playoff round, consisted of matchups between each division's semifinal round winners.


2008 NECBL playoffs, Division Semifinals, North Division
In the North Division, the Division Final matchup was between #1 Sanford and #3 Keene.


2008 NECBL season
The 2008 NECBL season was the 15th season of the New England Collegiate Baseball League, a wood bat collegiate summer baseball league. The league's Holyoke, Massachusetts franchise, the Holyoke Giants moved to Lynn, Massachusetts and became the North Shore Navigators. Also, the league's Concord, New Hampshire franchise, the Concord Quarry Dogs, moved to Holyoke and became the Holyoke Blue Sox.


2008 NECBL season
In the quarterfinal playoff rounds, Keene defeated North Shore 2-0 (1-0,10-7), Pittsfield defeated North Adams 2-0 (4-3,7-2), Sanford defeated Vermont 2-1 (3-5,5-1,1-0), and Newport defeated Manchester 2-0 (9-2,9-3). In the semifinal rounds, Newport defeated Pittsfield 2-0 (13-5,6-3) and Sanford defeated Keene 2-0 (15-4,6-5). In game 1 of the championship series, Sanford defeated Newport 6-5. In game 2, Sanford defeated Newport 4-1 to win the NECBL championship.


2008 NERFU College Men's Division III Rugby Tournament
The 2009 NERFU College Men's Division III Rugby Tournament featured 8 teams from four conferences. The top 2 teams in each conference were seeded according to the success of their conference in the previous year.


2008 NERFU College Men's Division III Rugby Tournament
It is clear that Salve Regina made this post. Which is fine, but the dates are wrong. They won in ‘09. Plymouth State University beat Furman in the finals of the ‘08 div 3 championship held at Hamilton college in NY.


2008 NERFU College Men's Division III Rugby Tournament
In an outstanding championship match at the Kirwin Memorial Pitch at Fort Adams in Newport, Rhode Island, newcomer Salve Regina University defeated Southern Connecticut State University by a score of 21-20. The match was attended by over 500 fans.


2008 NERFU College Men's Division III Rugby Tournament, 2008 regular season
The 2008 regular season was played in September and October. Each team played 5 conference opponents, with the top 2 finishers qualifying for the NERFU championship.


2008 NERFU College Men's Division III Rugby Tournament, 2008 regular season
At the end of the regular season, the four conference champs (Salve Regina, Saint Anselm, Southern Connecticut, and Keene State) met the four conference runners-up (UMASS Dartmouth, Tufts, Western Connecticut and defending national champion Plymouth State) in the NERFU quarterfinals.


2008 NFL Draft
The 2008 NFL Draft was the 73rd annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible American football players. The draft took place at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, New York, on April 26 and April 27, 2008. For the 29th consecutive year, ESPN televised the draft; the NFL Network also broadcast the event, its third year doing so. Of the 252 selections, 220 were regular selections in rounds one through seven, and 32 were compensatory selections, distributed among rounds three through seven. As of the end of the 2018 season, 27 players have been selected to the Pro Bowl.


2008 NFL Draft
For the first time since the common draft began, no wide receiver was selected in the first round. For the first time ever, the first two picks had the same last name (Jake and Chris Long; they were unrelated). Also, a then-record 34 trades were made during the draft itself. The number of trades was later broken in 2017.


2008 NFL Draft, Changes for 2008
The schedule for the draft was changed: day one began at 3:00 PM EDT (1900 UTC), instead of noon, and consisted of just two rounds. Day two began with round three at 10:00 AM EDT (1400 UTC), instead of 11:00 AM. Moreover, the time limits for day one selections were reduced, from 15 minutes to ten for first-round picks and from ten minutes to seven in the second. The limit remained five minutes for all picks in rounds three through seven.


2008 NFL Draft, Changes for 2008
The draft also marked the official debut of a new NFL shield logo, replacing the old shield logo which had been used since 1970, featuring eight white stars to represent each of the league's eight divisions, and a football rotated to the same angle as the one on the top of the Vince Lombardi Trophy given to the Super Bowl champion.


2008 NFL Draft, Player breakdown
The following is the breakdown of the 252 players by position:


2008 NFL Draft, Trades
In the explanations below, (PD) indicates trades completed prior to the start of the draft (i.e. Pre-Draft), while (D) denotes trades that took place during the 2008 draft.


2008 NFL season
The 2008 NFL season was the 89th regular season of the National Football League, themed with the slogan "Believe in Now."


2008 NFL season
Super Bowl XLIII, the league's championship game, was at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, on February 1, 2009, with the Pittsburgh Steelers coming out victorious over the Arizona Cardinals 27–23 and winning their NFL-record sixth Vince Lombardi Trophy.


2008 NFL season
Conversely, the Detroit Lions became the first NFL team with a winless season since the strike-shortened 1982 NFL season, finishing their season 0–16. For the first time since the NFL expanded to the sixteen-game season in 1978, three teams won two or fewer games: the Lions, the Kansas City Chiefs, and the St. Louis Rams. Previously two teams won two or fewer games in 1979, 1981, 1983, 1985, 1992, and 2001. Also, for the first time since the 1985 Denver Broncos, a team finishing with an 11–5 record missed the playoffs.


2008 NFL season
The regular season began on September 4 with the defending Super Bowl XLII champion New York Giants defeating the Washington Redskins 16–7, and concluded with the 2009 Pro Bowl on February 8, 2009, in Honolulu.


2008 NFL season, Draft
The 2008 NFL Draft was held from April 26 to 27, 2008 at New York City's Radio City Music Hall. With the first pick, the Miami Dolphins selected offensive tackle Jake Long from the University of Michigan.


2008 NFL season, New referees
Gerald Austin and Larry Nemmers retired. Carl Cheffers and Alberto Riveron were promoted to referee. Ron Blum also retired from line judge position.


2008 NFL season, Rule changes
The following rule changes were passed at the league's annual owners’ meeting in Palm Beach, Florida, during the week of March 31:


2008 NFL season, Preseason
In preseason games, the annual Pro Football Hall of Fame Game was played August 3 between the Indianapolis Colts and Washington Redskins, which aired on NBC. Washington won the game, 30–16. Other preseason highlights included the first game of the Toronto Series, which was played August 14 between the Buffalo Bills and the Pittsburgh Steelers at Toronto's Rogers Centre. The Bills won that game, 24–21.


2008 NFL season, Regular season, Formula
Based on the NFL's scheduling formula, the intraconference and interconference matchups for 2008 were:


2008 NFL season, Regular season, Opening Weekend
The annual NFL Kickoff Game to start the season took place on September 4 and featured the Super Bowl XLII champion New York Giants winning over their division rivals, the Washington Redskins, at Giants Stadium by a score of 16–7. The game's kickoff was ninety minutes earlier than previous years, at 7 p.m. EDT, because of a time conflict with the 2008 Republican National Convention.


2008 NFL season, Regular season, Opening Weekend
Other featured games during the opening week included the NBC Sunday Night Football game between the Chicago Bears and the Indianapolis Colts (the first regular season game at Lucas Oil Stadium and a rematch of Super Bowl XLI), in which the Kyle Orton-led Bears upset the Colts 29–13.


2008 NFL season, Regular season, Opening Weekend
In addition, there were two Monday Night Football contests, both division rivalries, as part of the now annual doubleheader: The Minnesota Vikings at the Green Bay Packers (the Packers’ first Monday night game without Brett Favre since 1992) in which Aaron Rodgers helped the Packers win, 24–19, and the Denver Broncos at the Oakland Raiders, where Jay Cutler and Eddie Royal led the Broncos in beating the Raiders, 41–14. Also, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady suffered a season-ending injury against the Kansas City Chiefs.


2008 NFL season, Regular season, Flexible scheduling
The 2008 season also was the third season of the use of the "flexible scheduling" for Sunday games starting with Week 11.


2008 NFL season, Regular season, Flexible scheduling
As had happened in 2007, a team played on consecutive Sunday nights due to a game being moved into the Sunday night time slot. The originally scheduled New York Giants-Dallas Cowboys game on December 14 was followed by a flexed December 21 home game for the Giants against the Carolina Panthers; the Giants-Panthers game was flexed because it carried serious playoff implications, as the winner would clinch the NFC's top seed and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. This was the second of three flexed games, with a December 7 interconference matchup between the Baltimore Ravens and Washington Redskins. The league filled the open spot on December 28 with a game between the Denver Broncos and San Diego Chargers with major playoff implications, as the winner of that game would win the AFC West and earn a home game in the playoffs while the loser would be eliminated.


2008 NFL season, Regular season, International play
This was the second consecutive season that the league played at least one regular season game outside the United States as part of the NFL International Series. The contest between the San Diego Chargers and the New Orleans Saints was played at Wembley Stadium in London on October 26, with New Orleans winning 37–32. The Chargers played at Buffalo the week beforehand on October 19 so they could immediately travel to London afterward in order to get used to the time difference.


2008 NFL season, Regular season, International play
The league has also approved the Bills’ request to play at least one regular season home game at Toronto's Rogers Centre over each of the next five seasons. Team owner Ralph Wilson petitioned the league to play at least one game in Canada to strengthen his club's fan base in Ontario. The game in Toronto was on December 7, after the end of the 2008 CFL season, against the Miami Dolphins; Miami won 16–3. CBS televised both games regionally; the Toronto game was carried across Canada on Rogers Sportsnet and City TV.


2008 NFL season, Regular season, Thanksgiving
The traditional Thanksgiving Day games were held on November 27, with the Detroit Lions hosting the Tennessee Titans at 12:30 PM EST on CBS (with the then 10–1 Titans handily defeating the then 0–11 Lions by a 47–10 score), and the Dallas Cowboys’ home game following suit on Fox at 4:15 PM EST against the Seattle Seahawks (Dallas Cowboys defeated the Seattle Seahawks by a score of 34–9). A third game on NFL Network, featuring the Arizona Cardinals and the Philadelphia Eagles followed at 8:15 PM EST.


2008 NFL season, Regular season, Thanksgiving
It was the first home game for the Eagles on Thanksgiving Day since 1940, and their first Thanksgiving game at any location since the infamous Bounty Bowl Game in 1989; the Eagles defeated the Cardinals by a score of 48–20. (The Cardinals and Eagles would, two months later, rematch in the NFC Championship Game, with Arizona winning this time by a score of 32–25.)


2008 NFL season, Regular season, Christmas
Despite NFL tradition to play games on Christmas if the holiday lands on a day of the week when the NFL normally plays, and the fact that Christmas landed on a Thursday in 2008, the NFL opted not to hold a Christmas game this season, instead scheduling all of its week 17 matchups for Sunday, December 28.


2008 NFL season, Regular season, Pro Bowl
The NFL's Pro Bowl all-star game at the end of the season was played at Aloha Stadium in the Honolulu, Hawaii, for the 30th consecutive season. The league had the option under their current contract to hold the game elsewhere, including the possibility of moving it to the host site of the Super Bowl.


2008 NFL season, Postseason
The playoffs began with Wild Card Weekend on January 3–4, 2009. The Divisional Playoffs were played on January 10–11 and the Conference Championship Games on January 18. Super Bowl XLIII was played on February 1 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, with the Pittsburgh Steelers winning their record sixth Super Bowl.


2008 NFL season, Postseason
Within each conference, the four division winners and the two wild card teams (the top two non-division winners with the best overall regular season records) qualified for the playoffs. The four division winners are seeded 1 through 4 based on their overall won-lost-tied record, and the wild card teams are seeded 5 and 6. The NFL does not use a fixed bracket playoff system, and there are no restrictions regarding teams from the same division matching up in any round.


2008 NFL season, Postseason
In the first round, dubbed the wild-card playoffs or wild-card weekend, the third-seeded division winner hosts the sixth seed wild card, and the fourth seed hosts the fifth. The 1 and 2 seeds from each conference then receive a bye in the first round. In the second round, the divisional playoffs, the number 1 seed hosts the worst surviving seed from the first round (seed 4, 5, or 6), while the number 2 seed will play the other team (seed 3, 4, or 5).


2008 NFL season, Postseason
The two surviving teams from each conference's divisional playoff games then meet in the respective AFC and NFC Conference Championship games, hosted by the higher seed. Although the Super Bowl, the fourth and final round of the playoffs, is played at a neutral site, the designated home team is based on an annual rotation by conference.


2008 NFL season, Notable events, Detroit Lions going 0–16
The 2008 Detroit Lions would mark the capstone of the ill decisions of President/General Manager Matt Millen since arriving on the job in 2001. After an 0–3 start, the Lions fired Millen on September 23 after seven seasons, during the team's bye week. During that time, the Lions compiled the worst record in the league (31–84, .270 percentage) and had many questionable draft choices.


2008 NFL season, Notable events, Detroit Lions going 0–16
However, by that point, the damage had been done. The Lions went on to lose every game and finished 0–16, the first winless season in the NFL since the strike-shortened 1982 NFL season saw the Baltimore Colts finish 0–8–1, and the first full-season imperfect season since the expansion 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers finished 0–14. It marked the first time that a non-expansion team, non-strike shortened team, non-merged team finished winless since the 1944 Brooklyn Tigers finished 0–10. It was the second winless season for the Lions, who finished 0–11 in 1942. The 0–16 record would be later matched by the 2017 Cleveland Browns.


2008 NFL season, Notable events, Retirement/Unretirement of Brett Favre
The 2008 season marked the first time since September 20, 1992, that someone other than Brett Favre started at quarterback for the Green Bay Packers, as Aaron Rodgers became the new offensive "Leader of The Pack." At first, this was given Favre's announcement on March 4, 2008, that he would retire from the league after seventeen seasons. He owns many NFL records, including most wins as a quarterback, most touchdowns thrown, (broken by Peyton Manning in 2014) and most consecutive starts at quarterback, as well as most interceptions. He started every Packers game, regular season and postseason, for nearly sixteen full seasons (September 27, 1992 – January 20, 2008).


2008 NFL season, Notable events, Retirement/Unretirement of Brett Favre
The Packers were scheduled to retire Favre's #4 jersey in a ceremony during the first week of the season. However, on July 2, 2008, he publicly indicated that he wanted to play again as the starting quarterback. On July 11, 2008, Favre sent a letter to the Packers management asking for an unconditional release which will allow him to play for another team. The Packers did not give it to him, but they were unwilling to release him for fear that he would sign with division rival Minnesota Vikings (Favre's choice for an alternate team). Also, the Packers would not start him as quarterback if he came back to the team, and named the other Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers as the starting quarterback and Favre as the backup.


2008 NFL season, Notable events, Retirement/Unretirement of Brett Favre
From July 14 to 15, Favre did TV interviews discussing his comeback, Rodgers taking his place, and frustrations on the Packers for not being honest with him, personally and publicly.


2008 NFL season, Notable events, Retirement/Unretirement of Brett Favre
On July 16, 2008, the Packers filed tampering charges against the Vikings for alleged improper communication between Favre, Vikings head coach Brad Childress and Vikings offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell. Favre filed for reinstatement on July 29, 2008, and by August 4, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell reinstated Favre.


2008 NFL season, Notable events, Retirement/Unretirement of Brett Favre
Three days later on August 7, the Packers traded Favre to the New York Jets for a conditional draft pick. He played well for most of the year, but entering December he suffered a shoulder injury which dropped the Jets out of playoff contention. Favre again retired following the 2008 season. The Jets then released Favre in favor of moving in the direction of getting a star college quarterback in the draft, eventually landing Mark Sanchez. Another protracted "will he/won’t he retire’ saga emerged in 2009 which concluded in August of that year when Favre signed with, as expected, the Minnesota Vikings.


2008 NFL season, Notable events, Hurricane Ike
Hurricane Ike forced several changes to the 2008 schedule. The Houston Texans' Week 2 home game against the Baltimore Ravens was first postponed to Monday, September 15, before Ike made landfall; damage to Reliant Stadium forced a further postponement, to Week 10, on Sunday, November 9, giving the Texans and the Ravens their bye weeks in Week 2. Furthermore, to accommodate this move, the Texans’ home game against the Cincinnati Bengals was moved forward from November 9 to Sunday, October 26, pushing the Bengals’ bye week from Week 8 to Week 10. Although no other games were postponed, Ike and its remnants also impacted several other Week 2 games on September 14.


2008 NFL season, Notable events, Hurricane Ike
The Texans ended up having to wait until Week 5 against the Indianapolis Colts to have their home opener, the latest an NFL team went into the season before playing at home since the New Orleans Saints played their entire schedule on the road in 2005 due to the damages of the city of New Orleans as a result of Hurricane Katrina. (Every other NFL team had at least one home game by the end of Week 2.)


2008 NFL season, Notable events, Hurricane Ike
With the Ravens eventually advancing to the AFC Championship Game against the rival Pittsburgh Steelers (and having to enter the playoffs as a wild card team), the impromptu decision to give the Ravens and Texans their bye week so early in the season ended up having the unintended effect of the Ravens playing in an NFL-record 18 consecutive weeks without a break in the schedule.


2008 NFL season, Notable events, New formations result in high scores
The 2008 season saw a marked increase in the use of two new offensive philosophies (at least for the NFL, these offenses previously saw extensive use in college or Canadian football for a few years): the "wildcat formation," a formation based on the halfback option play, the "spread offense," which uses multiple wide-receiver sets and the quarterback frequently in shotgun, and the "Suggs package," which features two quarterbacks on the field at once.


2008 NFL season, Notable events, New formations result in high scores
In week 3 of the season, the wildcat formation, used up until this point primarily as a trick play, was used eight times, including four times in a Miami Dolphins game and three times in a game between the Oakland Raiders and Buffalo Bills. Season-ending injuries to the starting and backup quarterbacks for the Chiefs prompted the team's offensive coordinator Chan Gailey to switch to a spread offense after six games. In Baltimore, the Ravens, led by rookie head coach John Harbaugh, implemented the "Suggs package", which places two quarterbacks on the field at once, Joe Flacco and Troy Smith.


2008 NFL season, Notable events, New formations result in high scores
Due mainly to the new formations, 837 points were scored league wide in Week 12, the most ever for one NFL weekend. The wildcat formation in particular was credited with turning the Miami Dolphins from a last-place team into the winner of the AFC East, and four of the top ten plays ranked by NFL.com were directly based on the wildcat (two others featured wide receivers throwing passes).


2008 NFL season, Notable events, Tie game
On November 16, during Week 11, a game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Cincinnati Bengals at Paul Brown Stadium ended in a 13–13 tie, the first NFL tie game since November 10, 2002, when the Atlanta Falcons and the Pittsburgh Steelers ended in a 34–34 draw. After the game, Donovan McNabb mentioned that he did not know there were ties in the NFL, apparently confusing the NFL's postseason rules (where teams can and have played double overtime games because those contests continue until a team finally wins) with the regular season rules.


2008 NFL season, Notable events, Tie game
This drew the ire of many fans, who thought that a quarterback of his caliber should know some fundamental rules; however, none of McNabb's critics accused him of not playing to win during the overtime period in Cincinnati, and his play was tied into a game that was widely derided as one of the ugliest, most disjointed, and controversial results in NFL history.


2008 NFL season, Notable events, Tie game
Ironically, the tie game ultimately helped the Eagles make the playoffs, as it was the deciding tiebreaker for the #6 seed in the NFC; the Eagles went on to lose to the Cardinals in the NFC Championship Game.


2008 NFL season, Notable events, Tributes, St. Louis Rams and Georgia Frontiere
On January 18, 2008, Georgia Frontiere, owner of the St. Louis Rams died due to complications with breast cancer. The Rams wore a commemorative patch in her honor, with her signature on their left shoulder.


2008 NFL season, Notable events, Tributes, Kansas City Chiefs and Lamar Hunt
On January 31, 2008, Clark Hunt, chairman of the board for the Kansas City Chiefs announced that henceforth the team's Lamar Hunt/American Football League tribute patch that was introduced in the 2007 season will be a permanent part of the Chiefs’ uniform. joining the Chicago Bears (with George Halas) and the Cleveland Browns (with Al Lerner) with such a patch.


2008 NFL season, Notable events, Tributes, Tim Russert
The stretch of highway outside Ralph Wilson Stadium along U.S. Route 20A in Orchard Park, New York, has been named the Timothy J. Russert Highway. Russert, who was NBC News's chief Washington bureau correspondent and the host of Meet the Press, was a Buffalo native and noted Buffalo Bills fan. He died of a heart attack in June 2008.


2008 NFL season, Notable events, Tributes, Gene Upshaw
The league honored National Football League Players Association leader Gene Upshaw, who died suddenly at age 63 on August 20 just three days after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. For the entire season, the Oakland Raiders wore a patch on the left chest of the jerseys with the initials "GU" and his number 63, his jersey number with the Raiders. All NFL teams also honored Upshaw with a video tribute and a replica of the uniform patch painted onto the field during the opening weekend.


2008 NFL season, Notable events, Tributes, Gene Upshaw
Originally, the patch on the field and the video tribute were only going to be done in Oakland at the Raiders' home opener against the Denver Broncos as Upshaw played his entire 15-year Hall of Fame career with the Raiders, and at Giants Stadium, when the Giants and Redskins opened the NFL season on September 4. All players wore the same patch during Week One, and later changed to a smaller helmet decal. The Raiders wore the patch through the remainder of the season.


2008 NFL season, Notable events, Tributes, Sean Taylor
The Washington Redskins honored the anniversary of death of Sean Taylor this season in a home game against the visiting New York Giants.


2008 NFL season, Notable events, Steelers ownership restructure
On July 7, 2008, owners of the Pittsburgh Steelers, including Art Rooney's five sons who own 80% of the franchise, looked to restructure the ownership plan of the franchise in order to comply with NFL ownership regulations. Current Steelers Chairman, Dan Rooney, and his son, Art Rooney II, President of the franchise, wished to stay involved with the franchise, while the remainder of the brothers — Art Jr., Timothy, Patrick and John — wished to further pursue racetracks that they own in Florida and New York.


2008 NFL season, Notable events, Steelers ownership restructure
Since 2006, many of the racetracks have added video slot machines, causing them to violate "NFL policy that prohibits involvement with racetrack and gambling interests". On July 11, it was confirmed that investor Stanley Druckenmiller had been in discussion with the five Rooney brothers. A Steelers fan for many years, Druckenmiller "has been known to paint his face black and gold" during games. Coach Mike Tomlin stated that the situation could become a distraction, but "I'm here to coach, they're [the players] here to play. Those questions will be answered by the Rooneys." On September 18, Druckenmiller withdrew his bid to purchase the team.


2008 NFL season, Notable events, Steelers ownership restructure
NFL owners unanimously approved the restructuring of ownership on December 17, 2008, with Dan and Art II getting the mandated 30% stake. Meanwhile, brothers Timothy and Patrick (the ones who own race tracks with slot machines, which violate NFL ownership rules) sold their shares outright, while Art Jr., John, and the McGinley family selling some shares but retaining smaller ownership roles, with the brothers reducing their shares from 16% to 6% and the McGinley family reducing their shares from 20% to 10%.


2008 NFL season, Notable events, Steelers ownership restructure
Joining the ownership group were Pilot Travel Centers president Jim Haslam III, Legendary Pictures president and CEO Thomas Tull, and the Paul family each getting a 16% stake in the team. Dan Rooney mentioned he has no ill will towards Druckenmiller, mentioning he's a great Steelers fan and wishes he remains one.


2008 NFL season, Milestones
The following teams and players set all-time NFL records during the regular season:


2008 NFL season, Coaching changes
The following teams hired new head coaches prior to the start of the 2008 season:


2008 NFL season, Coaching changes
The following head coaches were fired during the 2008 season:


2008 NFL season, Coaching changes
The firing of Kiffin and Linehan marked the first time since the AFL–NFL merger in 1970 that multiple head coaches were fired before Week 5 of the season, and the first since 1989 that any coach was fired this early in a season. Both were released heading into their teams’ respective bye weeks, while Nolan was released prior to the game just before the 49ers’ bye.


2008 NFL season, Stadium changes
In addition to the Bills playing one home game in Toronto's Rogers Centre, this was the first season that the Indianapolis Colts played their home games at Lucas Oil Stadium.


2008 NFL season, Stadium changes
2008 was the final year that the Dallas Cowboys played at Texas Stadium; they moved to Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, in 2009.


2008 NFL season, Stadium changes
McAfee Coliseum reverted to the Oakland Coliseum after McAfee declined to renew the naming rights. In addition, Monster Park reverted to Candlestick Park permanently after the naming right deal with Monster Cable expired, per the terms of Proposition H, passed by San Francisco voters in 2004, that prohibited the city from accepting another naming rights deals for that stadium.


2008 NFL season, Uniforms
The Tennessee Titans switched their home jerseys. They changed their alternate Columbia blue jersey to make it their primary color while the navy blue jersey became the alternate jersey.


2008 NFL season, Uniforms
The Denver Broncos brought back the alternate orange jerseys after a three-year hiatus and wore them for games against the New Orleans Saints and Kansas City Chiefs.


2008 NFL season, Uniforms
In their first two home games, the New England Patriots wore their white jerseys against the Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins. It was the first time the Patriots had worn white at home since 1994.


2008 NFL season, Uniforms
For the first time in the team's history, the Oakland Raiders wore their white jerseys at home against the San Diego Chargers.


2008 NFL season, Uniforms, New league logo
2008 was the first season that the NFL used a new, updated logo. Unveiled on August 31, 2007, in USA Today, the new design features eight white stars, representing each of the league's eight divisions, instead of 25 on the old logo. The football has been redesigned and rotated to the same angle as the one on the top of the Vince Lombardi Trophy given to the Super Bowl champion. Darker shades of red and blue, specifically navy blue, are also used, along with font lettering to that of the league's current typeface for other logos. The new logo officially made its debut during the 2008 NFL Draft on April 26.


2008 NFL season, Uniforms, Apparel
The 2008 season marked just the third time in the salary cap era (and first since 2001) that no NFL team made major changes to their uniforms or logo. Since 1993, half of the league's teams (Arizona, Atlanta, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Denver, Minnesota, New England, New York Giants, New York Jets, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, Tampa Bay, and Tennessee) have completely redesigned their uniforms (The Patriots doing it four times, though none since 2000) while another five (Detroit, Green Bay, Miami, New Orleans, and Pittsburgh) making minor, though noticeable, changes. The Titans are swapping home and alternate designations on their light blue and navy blue jerseys though.


2008 NFL season, Uniforms, Apparel
The Detroit Lions, in celebration of their 75th season in Motown as well as by popular demand by the fans, abandoned their black third jerseys in favor of their 1950s style throwback uniforms. They wore these uniforms against Jacksonville (November 9) and Tennessee (Thanksgiving Day – November 27). In addition, the Pittsburgh Steelers will make their throwbacks from the previous season their alternate uniform, wearing them against the Baltimore Ravens on September 29 and the New York Giants on October 26. The Jets wore their New York Titans throwbacks at home against Arizona on September 28 and Cincinnati on October 12 this season, and the Bills donned their retro uniforms at home against Oakland Raiders September 21.


2008 NFL season, Media, Television
This was the third season under the league's current television contracts with its American broadcast partners. CBS Sports and Fox Sports televised Sunday afternoon AFC and NFC away games, respectively. For primetime games, NBC broadcast Sunday Night Football and ESPN airs Monday Night Football. The NFL Network's Run to the Playoffs also broadcast seven Thursday and one Saturday late season night games, although there were reportedly negotiations to move those games to ESPN Classic.


2008 NFL season, Media, Television
This was also the last NFL season to be broadcast over the air in analog television in the United States; the digital television transition occurred in June 2009. Border stations in Canada and Mexico will continue to broadcast in analog; cable stations are unaffected and will be distributed in the format of the cable provider's choice.


2008 NFL season, Media, Television
NBC broadcast Super Bowl XLIII, their first Super Bowl since Super Bowl XXXII at the end of the 1997 season.


2008 NFL season, Media, Television, Changes
ESPN reduced the on-air roles of sideline reporters Michele Tafoya and Suzy Kolber during the Monday Night Football telecast. Also, Emmitt Smith has been replaced on Sunday NFL Countdown by Cris Carter, who came over from HBO.


2008 NFL season, Media, Television, Changes
Meanwhile, NBC's Football Night in America reunited Dan Patrick with Keith Olbermann on television for the first time since 1997 when they co-hosted SportsCenter.


2008 NFL season, Media, Television, Changes
The in-house NFL Network saw Bryant Gumbel resign as their play-by-play announcer after two seasons on the network's Run to the Playoffs package after critics described his play-by-play calling as "lackluster." New York Giants radio announcer Bob Papa took his place.


2008 NFL season, Media, Television, Changes
Additionally, NFL Films-produced Inside the NFL changed premium cable homes from Time Warner's HBO after three decades to CBS’ Showtime. Also changed: James Brown (from the parent network's The NFL Today) as host and Phil Simms as one of the analysts. Cris Collinsworth is staying, but Dan Marino has been dropped as a studio analyst, and the aforementioned Cris Carter moved to ESPN. Taking their place is Warren Sapp.


2008 NFL season, Media, Television, 3-D Telecast
On December 4, the NFL Network broadcast its game between the Oakland Raiders and the San Diego Chargers to theaters in New York City, Boston and Los Angeles using state of the art 3-D technology. The viewings, which were limited to NFL and consumer electronics executives, served as a test for future use of 3D in NFL television games. Because of a technical glitch, the first half was not shown.


2008 NFL season, Media, Radio
On radio, Westwood One separated from its longtime corporate sister, CBS Radio and the Sports USA Radio Network, another syndicator, has been sold along with parent company Jones Radio Networks to the Triton Media Group.. This led to the former "NFL on Westwood One" giving way in 2011 to "NFL on Dial Global".


2008 NFL season, Media, Internet television
On Internet television, both NFL.com and NBCSports.com carried complete live games of NBC Sunday Night Football for the first time ever. NFL.com continued its live coverage of Thursday and Saturday Night Football, which began in 2007, however for the first time the complete game rather than live look-ins was shown.


2008 NFL season, Media, Home video
The Pittsburgh Steelers 2008 season/Super Bowl XLIII championship home video went on sale on DVD on February 24, 2009. One week later on March 3, it was released on Blu-ray Disc, making it the first NFL Films home video release to be on Blu-ray Disc. The Blu-ray copy is "officially" sold exclusively through Amazon.com, though it is also available through the Sports Illustrated Super Bowl offer as well as eBay.


2008 NFL season, Media, Home video
Among its exclusive content included having most of the features in high-definition video as well as the NFL on Fox fourth-quarter coverage of the Steelers matchup against the Dallas Cowboys at Heinz Field in its entirety. The matchup, which took place during Week 14 and renewed the rivalry the two teams had in the 1970s & 1990s, saw the Steelers come back from a 4th quarter ten-point deficit to win 20–13.


2008 NFL season, Media, Home video
The New York Giants 2007 season/Super Bowl video was only released on DVD the previous year despite the fact that Toshiba dropped support of HD DVD (the primary rival of Blu-ray) just two weeks after Super Bowl XLII.


2008 NHK Trophy
The 2008 NHK Trophy was the final event of six in the 2008–09 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating, a senior-level international invitational competition series. It was held at the Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Tokyo on November 27–30. Medals were awarded in the disciplines of men's singles, ladies' singles, pair skating, and ice dancing. Skaters earned points toward qualifying for the 2008–09 Grand Prix Final. The compulsory dance was the Paso Doble.


2008 NHL Entry Draft
The 2008 NHL Entry Draft was the 46th NHL Entry Draft. It was hosted by the Ottawa Senators at Scotiabank Place in the city of Ottawa, Ontario, on June 20–21, 2008. The Senators were originally awarded the 2005 NHL Entry Draft, but because of the lockout, that draft was scaled back significantly from its usual format of being open to the public and having many draft-eligible players in attendance. The actual 2005 drafting was held in Ottawa's Westin Hotel instead of the Corel Centre, as Canadian Tire Centre was then known. As a result of 2005's abridged draft, Ottawa was compensated with the 2008 draft.


2008 NHL Entry Draft, Draft weekend
The draft was part of a festival of events that Ottawa and the NHL presented at the Scotiabank Place arena. Before the first round and during the later rounds, the patio outside the main doors was the site of the 'Senators Fan Fest', with hockey games and music. Indoors, the NHL presented an exhibit of NHL trophies, including the Stanley Cup. A hockey card and memorabilia sale was also held.


2008 NHL Entry Draft, Draft lottery
The 2008 draft lottery was held April 7. The Tampa Bay Lightning retained the first overall selection. There were no changes from the reverse order of finish of the 2007–08 NHL season.


2008 NHL Entry Draft, Selections by round
Club teams are located in North America unless otherwise noted.


2008 NHL Winter Classic
The 2008 NHL Winter Classic (known via corporate sponsorship as the AMP Energy NHL Winter Classic) was an outdoor ice hockey game played in the National Hockey League (NHL) on January 1, 2008, at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, New York. It was the league's inaugural Winter Classic game, and was contested between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Buffalo Sabres; the Penguins won, 2–1, in a shootout on a goal by captain Sidney Crosby.


2008 NHL Winter Classic
The event was the NHL's second outdoor regular season game (following the 2003 Heritage Classic in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada), and the first outdoor regular season professional ice hockey game to be played in the United States. Due to the snowy conditions, the game was at the time colloquially referred to as the "Ice Bowl" by residents of the area and Sabres' fans. The event was sponsored by AMP Energy, and was televised in the United States on NBC and in Canada on CBC and RDS.


2008 NHL Winter Classic
The game, which was played at a temporary ice rink built on the football field, set an NHL attendance record of 71,217. The Sabres held a Winter Classic "house party" at HSBC Arena (now KeyBank Center) during the game where another 11,000 fans saw the game shown live on the arena's video scoreboard with synched-up audio from the team's radio coverage. The Buffalo Sabres Alumni Hockey Team played a pre-game at the HSBC Arena as part of the house party festivities. Buffalo Sabres anthem singer Doug Allen sang the Canadian national anthem, as is customary at Sabres home games. Irish tenor Ronan Tynan performed "God Bless America" before the game at the stadium.


2008 NHL Winter Classic
The success of the event has led to subsequent outdoor hockey games being scheduled and helped establish the Winter Classic as an annual NHL tradition.


2008 NHL Winter Classic, Preparations
Construction of the outdoor rink began on December 24, the day after the Buffalo Bills played their last home game of the 2007 NFL season. It was built between the 16-yard lines of the football field, under the supervision of NHL facilities operations manager Dan Craig. Initially, six inches (150 mm)  of the nine-inch (230 mm) crown of the football field had to be leveled using styrofoam insulation. On top of the newly created flat surface, three inches (75 mm) of plywood with plastic covering were laid as a base for the necessary piping.


2008 NHL Winter Classic, Preparations
At the same time the boards were being put in place, an inch of sand was spread amongst the piping and was then wet by a combination of hoses and timely rain so it could freeze into a rink overnight and be painted four days before the game. Another ¾ of an inch of ice was added to complete the playing surface.


2008 NHL Winter Classic, Preparations
After this experience, Commissioner Gary Bettman stated that the League would like more time to prepare the site for the next outdoor game. He also wanted to ensure that not too many outdoor games are held so the event can remain special.


2008 NHL Winter Classic, Attendance
The game was attended by 71,217 people, setting an NHL attendance record. The former NHL record of 57,167 was set at the Heritage Classic between the Montreal Canadiens and Edmonton Oilers in Edmonton, Alberta, on November 22, 2003. Georges Laraque and Ty Conklin are the only two players who have played in both the Heritage Classic and Winter Classic games. They both played for the Oilers and Penguins, respectively, for each game.


2008 NHL Winter Classic, Attendance
While it was the record for a professional game, it fell short of the then all-time number of 74,554, which was set in "The Cold War" between the University of Michigan and Michigan State University on October 6, 2001. Sabres goaltender Ryan Miller and Penguins forward Adam Hall both played for Michigan State in that game.


2008 NHL Winter Classic, Attendance
Approximately 41,000 tickets to the game were made available to the general public, selling out within 30 minutes of being made available on September 18, 2007. In the face of controversy about the quickness of ticket sales, an official spokesperson for the Sabres called it "a testament to how popular the Sabres are and how many people want to be part of the event." However, many Penguins fans were left out by not having the opportunity to purchase the tickets after they were made available to the city hosting the event, and they were frustrated by the lack of exclusivity for Penguins season-ticket holders.


2008 NHL Winter Classic, Attendance
Terrence Pegula, who would go on to purchase the Sabres three years later, was among those in attendance. Also in attendance was game show host Pat Sajak, who spoke positively of his experience (although admitting that Ralph Wilson Stadium's size was somewhat of a distraction from the game itself).


2008 NHL Winter Classic, Television and radio coverage
The game was televised in the United States on NBC and in Canada on CBC and RDS. Some NBC affiliates in the United States decided instead to play the game on secondary channels often used for weather service. Therefore, in some markets, fans with satellite service with DirecTV or DISH Network were unable to watch the game.


2008 NHL Winter Classic, Television and radio coverage
Despite this, and competing with broadcasts of college football bowl games (this was particularly noted in the Detroit, Michigan market, usually a strong market for hockey ratings, where the Wolverines were playing in the Capital One Bowl), the game garnered a 2.6 rating and 5 share, the highest rating for a regular season NHL game since 1996, and the highest share since Wayne Gretzky's final game in 1999, in a near tie with second-place CBS's 2.7 rating for Gator Bowl coverage.


2008 NHL Winter Classic, Television and radio coverage
Westwood One carried a nationwide radio broadcast of the game, as did each team's local announcing team for local networks (Rick Jeanneret and Harry Neale for Buffalo, Mike Lange, Paul Steigerwald, and Phil Bourque for Pittsburgh).


2008 NHL Winter Classic, Television and radio coverage
NBC had an airplane flying overhead to provide bird's-eye views of the rink, including a live webstream from its camera throughout the game. The announcers Mike Emrick and Eddie Olczyk stood in a constructed perch on the penalty box side of the rink, in front of the stadium stands; Darren Pang stood between-the-benches, while Jim Hughson and Craig Simpson called the game in the broadcast booth, with Greg Millen calling the action from between-the-benches, all that on CBC.


2008 NHL Winter Classic, Pregame
Doug Allen sang the Canadian national anthem (O Canada) and Irish tenor Ronan Tynan performed "God Bless America" before the game. The U.S. national anthem ("The Star-Spangled Banner") was not performed. A military flyover was conducted by four UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters.


2008 NHL Winter Classic, Rule changes
The NHL also announced that several rule changes were in effect for this game, to nullify advantages to either team due to the weather conditions. The teams switched ends halfway through the third period. Play was interrupted exactly at the 10:00 minute mark, similar to the end of a period with a horn sounding, a Zamboni resurfacing the ice, and a faceoff following at center ice. The overtime period was similarly divided into two 2:30 segments. In the shootout, each goaltender was permitted to choose which goal to defend, and they each chose the same goal, towards the west side of the stadium.