UNC got a shout-out today from President Obama.

In a speech about higher education today at the University of Texas in Austin, Obama singled out UNC and the University of Maryland as two public  universities that have managed to remain affordable while retaining quality.

As I read it, it isn't actually clear whether Obama is citing UNC-Chapel Hill specifically or the entire University of North Carolina system.

Either way, he'd be right. By most national markers, UNC-CH and the state's university system provide a lot of bang for the tuition buck.

Here's what he said, in part:

Now, part of the responsibility for controlling these costs falls on our colleges and universities. And some of them are stepping up. Public institutions like the University of Maryland and the University of North Carolina, and private institutions like Cornell are finding ways to combat rising tuition without compromising quality. But too many others aren't doing enough, and I want to challenge them to get a handle on spiraling costs.

In-state students living on campus at Maryland's College Park campus this fall will pay just more than $21,000.

By comparison, UNC-CH's in-state undergrads living on campus this year will pay about $19,700.

Cornell, the private institution Obama cited, charges a bit more - nearly $40,000 a year.

N.C. State has a new athletics director.

She is Debbie Yow, who will leave the University of Maryland to return to her native North Carolina. She begins work July 15, taking over the athletics program at the university where her sister, Kay, made such an imprint as the longtime women's basketball coach. Kay Yow died last year after a very public cancer battle.

Though NCSU officials have been cagey today about the hiring, Yow herself confirmed the hiring to the N&O earlier today. You can read that here.

And up in Maryland, campus leaders say they're saddened but not entirely surprised that Yow is making the move after 16 years on that campus.

Maryland's president, C.D. Mote, is quoted in the Baltimore Sun as crediting Yow for turning around a program under serious financial strain.

"She leaves a program that is in very strong shape," Mote said in this story. "Most ADs when they leave, they leave a lot of bad baggage behind, like the athletic program she inherited when she came.  Huge debts and huge problems. When you look at the program she's leaving compared to the one she took over, you have to say it's been a spectacular run."

Maryland football commitment Nigel King is expected to transfer from Raleigh Wakefield to Oak Ridge Military.

A planned screening of a pornographic movie at the University of Maryland was nixed at the last minute this week when state legislators, filled with outrage, threatened to withhold funding to the public university.

Campus officials quickly acquiesced, shutting down plans to screen "Pirates II: Stagnetti's Revenge," a film you won't be seeing at your local megaplex anytime soon.

This isn't a sports blog, but here's a story I'd like to pass on nevertheless, given the Triangle's infatuation with college basketball.

The Washington Post just concluded a three-part series examining the precipitous decline of the University of Maryland's basketball program since it won a national championship in 2002 under the leadership of longtime coach Gary Williams.

It is a fascinating read. It lays out in specifics many of Williams' supposed deficiencies, most notably his reluctance to play many of the somewhat unseemly recruiting games that have now become the norm in big-time college basketball.

For example, he doesn't want to offer jobs to high school or travel-team coaches who have a huge amount of influence on star players and their college choices.

The core question that comes from this series: Is it worth it for Williams to stand on his moral high ground if his team is no longer winning?

Here's part one. Here's part two, and here's part three.

Across the nation, public universities are slicing and dicing their way through one of the worst budget years in recent memory.

But the methods vary. Here are what three states are doing to help their universities.

• In Missouri, the governor has made a pledge to give public universities as much funding this year as they received a year ago if they agreed not to raise tuition and fees.

• In Maryland, a proposed state budget would actually increase money to higher education.

• In Oregon, legislators are pushing a stimulus package that would include $88 million for higher education in that state.