North Carolina has sold out of its allotment of 36,250 season tickets for the 2008 football season, the school announced Tuesday.

This year's total is the most ever sold by the Tar Heels, surpassing the previous high of 34,800 set in 1998, the year after the Tar Heels were 11-1 and finished ranked No. 6 in the country.

"To sell out this early is a tremendous statement by our fan base," athletic director Dick Baddour said.

Single-game tickets remain for North Carolina's home games against McNeese State (Aug. 30), Connecticut (Oct. 4), Boston College (Oct. 25) and Georgia Tech (Nov. 8) and will go on sale at 10 a.m. July 19.

Tickets, which cost $50 apiece, will be available at www.tarheelblue.com.

(From UNC News Release)

MORE FOOTBALL

UNC GETS COMMITMENT FROM LB: Shane Mularkey, a senior linebacker who is the son of Atlanta Falcons offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey, has committed to North Carolina, the player's high school coach said Tuesday night.

Greater Atlanta Christian School coach Ken Robinson said Shane Mularkey is 6 feet 2 and 210 pounds, with good instincts and athletic ability.

"Growing up in a home with a dad as a coach, he's gotten those extra coaching points," Robinson said.

Shane Mularkey will play his first season at Greater Atlanta Christian this fall after transferring from St. Thomas Aquinas in Florida.

(Ken Tysiac)

DUKE CLEANS CAMPUS: The Duke football team met at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday to take part in a campus cleanup project that began at Wallace Wade Stadium and extended through Duke's entire West Campus.

More than 70 members of the football team and several coaches, each with a garbage bag in hand, spent nearly two hours clearing the area of garbage.

"When people think community service, a lot of them think outward, but it's pretty neat that we can do it here on our own campus," senior wide receiver Ryan Wood said.

"I think it's a testament to the mentality that coach [David] Cutcliffe has. In one of our first team meetings, he came in and told us about who he is as a person, and one of the things he remembers was his father really instilling in him to leave a place better than you found it. And what better place to do that than the place where we live and play everyday?"

(From Duke News Release)

SEMINOLES LOSE STARTER: Florida State's inexperienced offensive line took a hit Tuesday when projected starting guard Evan Bellamy announced he'll miss the season because of a blood clot.

Bellamy, 19, was hospitalized Friday for treatment on the clot in his lower left leg. He will remain on medication for several months.

The 6-foot-4, 295-pound redshirt sophomore from Miami played in 10 games last year and made his first start in the Music City Bowl loss to Kentucky.

Bellamy's departure leaves sophomores Ryan McMahon and Rodney Hudson as the only Seminoles who have started a game on the offensive line going into the Sept. 6 season-opener against Western Carolina.

(The Associated Press)

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