Rivals.com is a network of websites that focus mainly on college football and basketball recruiting. The network was started in 1998 and currently employs more than 300 personnel.

Rivals.com was originally founded in 1998 by Jim Heckman in Seattle, Washington. Heckman is the son-in-law of Don James, the former head football coach at the University of Washington, where Hickman attended school and was later involved in a recruiting scandal. Rivals.com employed a subscription fee of $10.00 per month to users for access to the latest recruiting news and to participate in various message boards dedicated to schools being covered by the network. With money from venture capital firms, Rivals acquired AllianceSports, a regional network that primarily covered college sports in the Southeast of the United States, on January 2000. During that period, Rivals.com employed close to 200 people, operated a network of 700 independent websites, filed for an initial public offering worth $100 million, and sponsored the Hula Bowl in Hawaii. However, economic troubles soon led the Rivals Network, the parent company of Rivals.com, to seek bankruptcy protection in 2001. Executives from AllianceSports purchased the Rivals.com assets during bankruptcy proceedings and subsequently relaunched the website. Heckman, who had been fired as chief executive officer before bankruptcy, later started a competitor network initially named The Insider, which was later renamed Scout.com.

A rival is a person, team, company, or other organization competing against another person or team, etc.

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Christian Ballard (born January 3, 1989) is an American football defensive end for the Minnesota Vikings. He played college football at Iowa after attending Lawrence Free State High School. He was rated eleventh among defensive end prospects for the 2011 NFL Draft. He was drafted in the fourth round as the number 106 overall pick by the Minnesota Vikings.

At the University of Iowa Ballard made an immediate impact by playing as a true freshman and collecting 15 tackles, 4 tackles-for-loss and 2.5 quarterback sacks from the defensive end position. He also returned two kickoffs for 32 yards on special teams that season. As a sophomore Ballard become a starter at defensive end for the Hawkeyes. For the season he tallied 40 tackles, 3.5 tackle-for-loss and 1.5 sacks. Ballard burst onto the national scene as a junior when he played both defensive end and defensive tackle, starting at both positions throughout the season. He teamed with fellow Hawkeye Adrian Clayborn to become one of the most feared defensive lines in the nation. For the season he totaled 54 tackles, 9 tackles-for-loss and 5.5 quarterback sacks. At the end of the season he was named 3rd Team All-Big Ten by Phil Steele College Football Magazine and Honorable Mention All-Big Ten by the Coaches Association. Prior to his senior season Ballard was named First Team All-Big Ten by Sports Illustrated, despite being the source of constant double-team blocks he would go on to gather 43 tackles, 5 tackles for loss and 2.5 quarterback sacks. After the season he again earned Honorable Mention All-Big Ten by the Coaches Association as well as the Associated Press. He also received the Coaches Appreciation Award and earned an invite to the 2011 Under Armour Senior Bowl.

Five or 5 Star(s) or star(s) may refer to: