Author: War Eagle Atlanta

Florida coach Urban Meyer dressed down a newspaper reporter Tuesday during practice for an article that he thought was critical of one of his players. Jeremy Fowler of the Orlando Sentinel wrote a piece Monday about the excitement of Gator receiver Deonte Thompson, who has been under-utilized his first two seasons, of playing with more of a pure-passing QB this season.. Fowler seemed to lay the blame at the feet of departed QB Tim Tebow, who ran as often as he threw, and one direct quote in the article from Thompson about new QB John Brantley seemed to do likewise:

“You never know with Tim (Tebow). You can bolt, you think he’s running but he’ll come up and pass it to you. you just have to be ready at all times. With Brantley, everything’s with rhthym, with time. You know what I mean. A real quarterback.

At practice on Tuesday, Meyer decided to give Fowler his version of a Gundy moment, albeit not in the press room and a little bit more contolled with Lisinopril:

MEYER: “You did it. You do it one more time and the Orlando Sentinel is not welcome here ever again. Is that clear?”

FOWLER: “Okay…”

“IT’S YES OR NO!!!!!!!”

“Urban, come on. Don’t make threats. I’ll play by the rules.”

“What’s that?”

“I’ll play by the rules, but all I was doing was quoting the guy, and I don’t think I’m the only one and…”

“You’re a bad guy!!”

“Thanks, Urban. I appreciate that.”

“BAD GUY!!!!”

“I appreciate that.” Meyer then starts to walk away, but then comes back:

“Maybe when you get a chance, call his family, help him out. The kid’s never been in trouble one time, he’s a great student, he’s a great kid. If you’re gonna do that–if that was MY son, we’d be going at it right now. Be very careful”

Now while it’s obvious that Meyer was talking about Deonte Thompson, you have to wonder how much of that rant was really directed towards the inference (by Thompson, repeated by Fowler) that Tebow wasn’t a *real* quarterback. Because if TEBOW was Meyer’s son—wait. I thought he was…

Meyer is rapidly getting the reputation as being a bully with the media. Making threats and pointing fingers is no way for him to be acting unless he was up against Lane Kiffin. Florida AD Jeremy Foley, if he has the stones, probably needs to have a sit down with Meyer, if for no other reason to ensure that the guy doesn’t keel over with a massive heart attack by this Fall.

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Frogs and Beavers get together, oh my! ESPN, not Animal Planet, has brokered a matchup between the schools for the first Saturday in September at Cowboys stadium, to be the prime-time broadcast for that evening. Cowboys stadium will probably be configured to seat around 80,000, which is roughly twice as many as TCU’s home stadium seats at 44,000. Gary Patterson, TCU’s head coach, has seemingly brought home the bacon as the Mountain West conference champs, who went undefeated last year until losing to Boise State in the Affirmative Action Bowl, will get a double-dose of national exposure TWICE in the month of September.

Also scheduled for the Horny Toads three weeks later is a Friday night game at cross-town rival SMU in a game henceforth to be known as the Dallas/Tarrant County Bible Acronym Shoot-Out. This game will also be carried as the prime game by ESPN and will probably be the first significant exposure for the Mustangs since early in Ronald Regan’s first term. Odds are good that Craig James will be either in the announcing booth or the utility closet for this one.

Props to the Beavers for scheduling an away game against a non-BCS team, just like Oregon did last year by playing on the road in Boise State. TCU could be tough, as they are 13-3 in their last 16 games against BCS opponents. Alas, juvenile-humor enthusiasts are foiled yet again, as we seek to get the Beavers to travel to Columbia, SC, or vice versa, to play South Carolina for the first time, a matchup that similar to the Mayan calendar, will surely designate the end of the world.

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From the home office in Atlanta, GA, today’s Top 10 Reasons I Watched Dancing With the Stars last night:

10) College football withdrawal DTs make you go CRAZY…

9) Wanted to evaluate Tim Tebow’s new waltz motion for myself…

8) Steve Spurrier to interview Erin Andrews for once mid-show…

7) Possible new celebrity couple: Kate Ocho-Birtho…

6) Draft combine coverage not nearly as energetic and with as many flashy costumes as I had hoped…

5) See Kate Gosselin’s moves, she who birthed a whole offensive line, two tight-end set with a flanker to spare. On three. Break.

4) Put an end to the nasty Buzz Aldrin more agile than Joe Paterno rumors…

3) New celebrity judge: Pete Carroll, who danced his way off to the NFL at the end of last season…

2) Will Muschamp named as Wallflower-in-Waiting…

1) Tired of grainy video and peep-hole footage…

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From the RUMOR mill (because no major sources other than blogs are claiming this) the NCAA has completed three days of interviews, including two focused solely on the football team–a virtually unprecedented duration–and word is leaking out that USC will soon be hit with major probation penalties in two sports. The only thing seemingly left in doubt is the severity of the sanctions. A two year TV ban, loss of scholarships and bowl eligibility and vacation of games possibly loom over the Trojans. And that’s just the football team.

With the departure of Pete Carroll the likely bellweather for the fortune of the gridiron side, one can’t help but think how the game itself will be affected should the NCAA deliver severe penalties to a major program like USC. Although everyone knew this was coming, the realization that the hammer is getting ready to drop has many perplexed about how the CFB landscape might change. Will it be for the better or for the worse, or will we just muck it up as usual? If improper benefits, the crux of both the football and basketball investigations, are found to be of the more flagrant variety, might the NCAA finally have a conversation about paying these players some money to alleviate the sting of being young, broke and impressionable? Or would that just lead to an onslaught of cash being diverted underground to augment the aforementioned stipends?

The prime argument against paying players has always been about the sanctity of their amateur status, but what does that really mean? It’s not like they’ll forfeit some opportunity to play in the Olympics or bar entrance into the NFL–there is no Olympic football and NBA players already under-achieve in the summer games. Hell, make them file a tax return like everyone else. There’s little doubt that the players are employees, especially considering how much revenue they produce for their employers, but that’s about it. The universities are the brand. Just because you work for Apple doesn’t mean you get a share of the merchandising royalties for every iPod sold, but you should get something–like a paycheck. That’s my capitalistic two cents. But since we’re talking about amateur status and compensation, let’s let the lawyers weigh in:

Flying under the sports radar is a class-action lawsuit from former collegiate basketball players who are suing the NCAA for compensation for using their likeness in video games. The implications of this suit are enormous. While the NCAA, a non-for-profit organization, has been fighting tooth and nail, it must now open it’s books to the plaintiff’s side, and once opened, this genie may never go back in the bottle. Recently, a 2009 court decision allowed retired NFL players royalties on the use of their images in video games, so the outlook for the NCAA might not be so rosy. The amateur status of athletes–maybe ALL or just those in SOME sports–might be turned on it’s ear. Even if the NCAA is able to uphold the chastity of amateur status, that might not bar ‘retired’ athletes, i.e. those who have exhausted their eligibility, from one day collecting royalties.

Although I think it’s still way too early to speculate specifics, I think we might see the NCAA look to throw a bone to the athletes sometime in the near future as a way to not only hold off potential future suits like the one above, but to perhaps mitigate the flood of improper benefits being directed at athletes at many schools. How would you handle it?

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I read today that Notre Dame has just inked a deal to play Maryland at FedEX Field for the 2011 season, a neutral site game that will give the Irish four seasons in a row with such a game. They’ve also got Arizona State scheduled in Cowboys Stadium in Texas for 2013. Last year they played Washington State in San Antonio, a matchup that had to be created purely for the accumulation of frequent flyer miles, and they play Army this coming season at Yankee Stadium. Even an ardent Notre Dame detractor such as myself has to admit that the matchup and venue combination is pretty cool. The only bad thing about it is that it’s scheduled for late November, the game before the Irish’s season-ending rivalry match with USC. It might draw way more attention if they played it earlier in the season, like a kickoff game, but I forgot that they schedule other activities in Yankee Stadium around that time.

I applaud the Irish for doing more touring than Jimmy Buffet. It keeps their name out there, and gives their still enormous fan base a snowball’s chance of seeing them somewhere outside South Bend, which is pretty handy since they don’t always accept bowl invitations. Keeping relevant is important for a team that who although has it’s own individual television contract, has played Georgia Tech almost as many times (34) as neighbor Michigan (37). Yet with new coach Brian Kelly barely settling into South Bend, the temptation to cut some slack on his upcoming schedule might be too great. Why risk going on the road when you could have a gut game at home and help your new coach build confidence, especially the week before your biggest game of the season? Kudos to the Irish for this unique scheduling approach. If they keep it up, they might be able to resist joining a conference for at least another decade.

Know this: These one-shot games are the way of the future. They allow easier scheduling logistics than a home and home, and generous payouts help ease the financial sting of the subtraction of a home game from the slate. And the venue and/or timing of the game give unparalled exposure. Last season’s Chick Fil-A Kickoff Game gave ABC huge numbers, with football-starved fans eager for any pigskin action. It’s like a bowl game to kick off the season, but even better than one because all of CFB is focused on you. The game isn’t diluted with a bunch of other meaningless games like the bowl season is.

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I mentioned recently in my thoroughly and blatantly unbiased comparison of Auburn and Alabama in the 2000s that one of the great things about the statistical site CFB Data Warehouse is the rankings index they have that attempts to objectively compare all of the teams in the sport either all-time, in a quarter century, or in a given decade. Now that 2010 is upon us, the good folks at CFBDWH have finally compiled their rankings for the decade ending last year and we now get to see who they think were the top 25 programs in the nation from 2000-2009.

There are only four criteria: Winning percentage points, strength of schedule points, major-4 bowl appearances and national championships won. Three are pretty self-explanatory, but SOS still remains a mystery. I’m unsure exactly how they compile the number for that. Of course, I think that a thorough evaluation of teams in a given time period should include additional categories like conference titles and top 25 poll finishes–maybe the latter somehow is figured into their SOS. But regardless, it’s still the quickest, best comparison a blogger can pull up for much-needed material in the off-season.

And the great thing about pulling up these indexes in the last few decades is that we all know that the national championship points are legit. CFBDWH also allows you to rank teams all the way back, where NC claims tend to be a bit more dubious. The site itself tends to accept what most schools claim in that regard, so you must consider that if you utilize material that old. But for the decade that just ended, I think we’re pretty safe. And here are the results:

1) Southern California. 1048.86
2) Florida. 944.77
3) Louisiana St. 910.84
4) Ohio St. 904.24
5) Oklahoma. 889.13

6) Texas. 852.31
7) Miami (FL) 847.22
8) Georgia. 811.41
9) Oregon. 790.71
10) Florida St. 778.43

11) Virginia Tech. 763.98
12) Alabama. 746.64
13) Oregon St. 735.36
14) Michigan. 732.03
15) Auburn (AL) 730.85

16) Notre Dame (IN) 722.85
17) Tennessee. 714.54
18) Georgia Tech. 707.69
19) UCLA. 705.19
20) California. 704.23

21) Penn St. 697.85
22) Iowa. 692.56
23) Wisconsin. 691.83
24) West Virginia. 690.55
25) Boston College. 689.43

The first thing that pops out is that all of the teams that won multiple NCs-USC, Florida, and LSU–are all at the top, followed immediately by the teams that won single crowns–Ohio State 4th, Oklahoma 5th, Texas 6th, and Miami 7th–with the exception of Alabama, which came in at 12th. Georgia, at 8th, is the highest ranked team who didn’t win a NC, but they won two SEC titles. Oregon, at 9th, was in the same boat with PAC-10 titles in 2001 and 2009 but no national crowns.

FSU, who won four conference titles last decade, came in at 10th, probably because of a watered down ACC that didn’t win a single national championship and didn’t go to divisional play until 2004. Newcomer Virginia Tech, who won that first divisional title in 2004, also won conference crowns in 2007 and 2008, making them the second highest ranked ACC team at 11th. Curiously, Oregon State is 13th, having only shared a PAC title in 2000 with a Fiesta Bowl appearance. Evidently, their high SOS rating helped them with quite a few rungs on the ladder. Michigan 14th, who only won one outright Big Ten title, still went to two Rose Bowls, although they wouldn’t have gone in 2006 had Ohio State not gone to the BCS CG, leaving UM that open Rose slot. Auburn comes in at a respectable 15th, with the SEC title and Sugar Bowl appearance in 2004.

Tennessee was the remaining ranked SEC team at 17th. Half of the conference was in the top 25. I guess there’s really no need to mention which was the top conference in the decade, but you might be surprised who’s #2.

So let’s hear who got hosed, who got just deserts and who was a martyr!

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The NCAA football playing rules committee has announced some proposed rule changes, which must now be approved by the Playing Rules Oversight Panel. If you think that sounds an awful like trying to get health care pushed through both houses of Congress, well maybe that’s overstating it just a bit, because this isn’t double-secret legislation.

The biggest change comes in the way of penalties on taunting. If a player commits the act before he crosses the goal line, the penalty is assessed from the spot of the foul–negating the TD. If it occurs while in the end zone, then the same rules apply, with the penalty being assessed on the extra-point attempt, 2-point conversion try, or ensuing kickoff–depending on the outcome of a quick game of three-card Monty. The changes, which enjoy almost universal support, would take place starting in the 2011 season.

“Taunting and prolonged individual acts have no place in our game, and our officials have generally handled these rules well,” said former Oregon coach Mike Bellotti, the committee chair. “This is just another step in maintaining our game’s image and reflecting the ideals of the NCAA overall.”

Oh really, Mike? If it was that important to you, why don’t you just toss the player? Is that what Draco would have done?

Other rules changes suggested include:

Television monitors will be allowed in the press box coach’s booths beginning in 2011. The home team has responsibility for insuring that coach’s booths for both teams have identical television capability, complete with access to Youtube and Twitter and Holly Rowe’s cell phone number.

Ending the requirement that players pants always cover the knees. Just the jock area is fine.

Eliminating the intentional “wedge” on kickoffs and punts, a rule implemented by the NFL last year. I doubt that anyone can explain what the hell that is because all I hear is wedgie…

Recommending conferences that do not have a pregame warm-up policy use a 10-yard, no-player zone between the 45-yard lines beginning 60 minutes before kickoff. Okay, what does that mean? For RV parking? No tail-gating? Special National Anthem Singing Area?

Requiring players who wear “eye black” to use solid black with no words, logos, numbers or other symbols. That will be effective next season, but not nearly as effective as requiring full-on mascara. Sissies! Seriously, they had to do something about it. Guys were trying to print War and Peace in there.

Anyone got any other rules changes you’d like to see? Okay, a few for me:

1) If you have a tight end line up for more than 50 plays in the game and never throw it to one of them, automatic ejection of the player. (Known as the Auburn rule) You won’t be needing him anyway, or you would have done it already. Bring in a flanker.

2) Any player whose helmet falls off more than once in a game because he won’t button the straps properly in the hopes that he will be seen on TV more easily will be ejected and forced to conduct all post-game interviews wearing his helmet.

3) Any offense, within two minutes of the half, must throw at least one pass per four downs and at least pretend they’re trying to do something other than run the clock out.

4) Line the field with sensors and lace a chip into the ball. I’m tired of chains and measurements that drain momentum and lengthen the game time. Oh, and if you could get that yellow first down marker to be visible to the players on the field, that would be cool, too.

5) No more icing the kicker time-outs. If you have one remaining and it is the last play of the game, it will automatically be called when the ball is spotted–not when the guy has lined up. Any attempt to call succeeding timeouts will result in 5 yard penalties and more beer commercials

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From the news of the weird today, I heard this one on the radio and had to look it up later just to make sure they were yanking our chain. According to a site which tracks such things, it appears that Alabama coach Nick Saban has more fans from the state of Alabama on the social networking site Facebook than even God does. You can draw your own conclusions on that one. By no means scientific or realistic, the number of people subscribing to certain fan pages seems to be consistent in certain areas of the country, with God usually coming out on top in most states in the south, but sometimes barely edging Starbucks or the occasional Chick-Fil-A.

Heck, the Saints now rule with Louisiana residents, and while allegiences to sports teams are nothing new, the worship of a specific coach is somewhat interesting, although not totally surprising in this case, as Jimmy Sexton might have had this adolation specifically written into Saban’s contract as the Capstone threw him the keys while he deplaned that inbound flight from Miami. God’s agent, while unavailable, did email that the Lord may want to discuss the matter in person and released his itinerary, which included a flight into Saban and Tuscamorrah later this week.

Oh, write your own damn jokes. It’s what the comments section is for.

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With all the recent talk of conference changes, we had almost forgotten the original impetus for it, the Big Ten. As rumors of the Pac 10 poaching Colorado from the Big 12 have fallen this week, it seems that Missouri might not be the only target of a possible Big Ten expansion. Seems that “preliminary exchanges” between the Big Ten and the University of Texas have already taken place, according to a confidential source to LJWorld.com. If true, as strange as it may sound, it’s not the only time Texas has considered such an interesting conference arrangement. Before the Big 12 was welded together from the old Big 8 and Southwest conferences, Texas considering joining the Pac-10.

If Texas did join the Big Ten, the drawing power for the conference for TV ratings would be astronomical, possibly eclipsing even that of the SEC. However, one look at a map will indicate that the logistics might be hard to reconcile. The travel costs of all sports would be enormous, and one would have to wonder if the extra money would be worth it. But Texas, already the most valuable CFB program in the nation, could possibly absorb it, especially if certain financial concessions were made by their suitor. Texas already receives more TV money than any other team in the Big 12, and would certainly demand a Texas-size share of any new agreement. There are also reports that Texas may also consider forming it’s own state-wide TV network, although no details on how that would work are known.

I’m thinking that this is all a ruse, if it’s even true at all. The Big Ten is posturing for a specific reason. Perhaps it’s to sufficiently motivate Notre Dame to finally consider losing their virginity independence. Or could it be to significantly drop the price and demands of other potential draftees like Pitt and Missouri? And think about the state of Texas itself. They used to be their own separate country for God’s sake. Do you think they would stand for the loss of tradition and see their cherished Horns run off to join a durned Yankee conference? They might as well build another Alamo in Ann Arbor for that matter. Besides, there’s no way that UT could drop the rivalries with Oklahoma and A&M. And you can’t play two OOC games like that every year and a Big Tweleven schedule and expect to compete for many national championships.

Sorry, Big Ten. Ya’ll come back now. Ya hear.

h/t: OU-Ron

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A Salt Lake City TV station is speculating that sources may be indicating that Utah could possibly be invited to join the PAC-10 at some point in the near future, and that Colorado might defect from the Big 12 as well. Again, this is pure speculation, but what else do we have to hold onto during the dead season between NSD and spring drills? Now much of this folly hinges on anticipated moves that a Big 10 expansion might bring, so keep that in mind. Should the Big Ten go to divisional play, that would leave the PAC and the Big East as the conferences left out in the cold, and we know that the traditional Rose Bowl participants are monkey see, monkey do.

The PAC’s TV contract is expiring soon and the gold standard now is to have a conference championship game, especially if you ever hope to attract SEC-like money. But why let the Big Ten choose first? With only three independents out there and little chance of landing Notre Dame, the prime reason might be that the ripple effect will only be a east-coast, west-coast thing. Poaching teams from another conference is going to be like a game of musical chairs, but in the end, smaller teams may get a seat at the adult table of established conferences and larger teams may scramble to be moving on up to the east side..

The Mountain West may lose Utah, but would it pick up another team, merge back into the WAC, or fold, with members falling where they may? What about MWC stablemate BYU? Why wouldn’t the PAC look to draft BYU instead of poaching Colorado from the Big 12? Seems that BYU doesn’t play any sporting events on Sundays, for religious reasons, and the PAC-10 homey don’t play dat. Alas, greener pastures with the Denver TV market might be in the sites of new commissioner Larry Scott. If Colorado did make the jump, and being landlocked by oh, say 1000 miles, could a conference name change be forthcoming? Maybe The Big PAC-12 with Ocean Front?

And why no respect for the Big 12? Seemingly, they’re mentioned more often for losing members than the Democratic National Convention. Missouri to the Big 10(11)12)? Now Colorado to the PAC? Someone check the seams from when they welded those guys together from the old Big 8 and Southwest conferences. Does no one like playing with those Texas boys besides Arkansas? Regardless, teams must give at least one year’s notice of departure, so for football, that means if they declared by sometime this summer, they wouldn’t actually play in the new conference until the 2011 season.

And how’d you like to be the scheduler for that?

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View the original post or comment on Rumors: Utah to Pac-10?…

Coming off one of the most exciting recruiting seasons in recent memory, Rivals has announced accolades for their list of the top recruiters in all the land. These guys don’t get enough credit most of the time, and I’m glad to see the spotlight shined on them for once. Assistants are the foot soldiers who now carry the day instead of the Field Marshals. Per NCAA rules which limit the HC to one official in-home visit, gone are the days when the big-named head coach walks in at the last minute and closes the deal.

Tosh Lupoi of Cal was announced as the top recruiter. The rest, in no particular order, are:

Steve Addazio, Florida
Chris Beatty, West Virginia
Tom Bradley, Penn State
Gary Campbell, Oregon
James Coley, FSU
Lawrence Dawsey, FSU
Brandon Doman, BYU
Cornell Ford, Missouri
James Franklin, Maryland
Rodney Garner, Georgia
Cale Gundy, Oklahoma State
Charlie Harbison, Clemson
Todd Howard, UCLA
David Kelly, UCF
Bobby Kennedy, Texas
Curtis Luper, Auburn
Charles McMillian, Texas A&M
Pat Meyer, Colorado State
Will Mushamp, Texas
Ed Orgeron, USC
Morgan Scalley, Utah
Sal Sunseri, Alabama
Trooper Taylor, Auburn
Lance Thompson, Tennessee

Some of the names are new, some are very familiar, especially Rodney Garner of Georgia and Ed Orgeron of USC. Texas, FSU and Auburn are the only schools with two coaches on the list, in line with the fine classes each just landed.

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