Sideline Warning

While looking over the SEC’s opening day schedule, I was pretty impressed. There are a lot of interesting match-ups to get the season rolling. I was curious about how that compared to other conferences around the league… here’s the SEC Schedule…

Alabama vs. Hawaii
Arkansas vs. Southern Cal
Auburn vs. Washington State
Florida vs. Southern Miss
Georgia vs. Western Kentucky
Kentucky at Louisville
LSU vs. Louisiana-Lafayette
Ole Miss vs. Memphis
South Carolina at MSU
Tennessee at Cal
Vandy at Michigan

That’s a pretty good opening day schedule… let’s take a closer look…

(more…)

Things have been quiet around here as I’ve been getting things ready for this coming season.

It’s going to be great.

This week, look for a run-down of what you can expect from the SEC this weekend, including a look at the Cal/UT and Arkansas/USC… it’s going to be a great weekend for college football.

For the first time in a while, ESPN’s Ivan Maisel has written something that I actually find a grain of truth to: 20 reasons why College Football is better than the NFL.

With the exception of his defense of the college game’s lack of a playoff, it’s a great read.

ESPN reported yesterday that the Gator’s projected starting right guard Ronnie Wilson fractured his ankle in practice and will be out for four to six weeks — at least three games, including the trip to Tennessee.

Florida’s O-line was not its strength, and this will not help, but while the Tennessee game might be closer, the injury won’t be a deal-breaker. As long as they get him back before their SEC West gauntlet of ‘Bama, LSU, and Auburn they should be just fine

Via: SEC Rivals.

WR Coach Trooper Taylor, it seems, spoke to a group of alumni without approval from UT which, fo some god-unknown reason, is a violation. Tennessee will self-report the minor violation. If you don’t follow Tennessee football too closely you might recall his name from the aftermath of the 2004 season when he was accused of recruiting violations by, most likely, the internet bulletin board rumor-mill. Nothing, of course, came of those allegations.

Via: View from Rocky Top.

The rules changes implemented by the NCAA for 2006 are largely unimportant, a majority of the text going to implement instant replay.

More interestingly, though, there are three rules that are going to impact game play at the end of close games in a way that many people fear will not be very good. Let’s have a look.

Half-time shortened to 20 minutes — I don’t like this idea. I would rather have a longer half time and fewer TV time-outs. I don’t think this is going to wind up shortening many games by any appreciable amount of time. Why? Because it’s a static (and small) difference. When you’re talking about 5 or 10 minutes over the course of a 4 hour game… what are you really saving?

Game clock starts when a ball is kicked — I don’t like this rule change, either. Again, this is really only going to help in high scoring games and even then you’re only talking about saving 3 or 4 seconds per kick-off. I’ve heard a lot of folks say that this is bad because a team, at the end of a game, could keep the other team from scoring by kicking the ball high and out of bounds. This seems unlikely for two reasons: first, that’s one hell of a precision kick… if there’s anything more than a second on the clock, the ball has to be kicked far enough that time will expire before it crosses the sideline. This will be harder than it sounds. Also, this would create a penalty, and games cannot end on defensive penalties… so (if that interpretation is used) the other team would now, instead of having to return the ball for a touchdown, would get a free play from scrimmage.

Clock is started when the ball is set after a turn-over — This is a pretty contentious one. I don’t think I’ve heard anyone in support of it yet and there are a lot of yahoos running around on the internets who believe in all sorts of crazy things, so this cannot be good. Truth be told, I’m not sure how many situations this is going to change, except in so much as a team that is down and gets the ball with a limited amount of time on the clock is now going to have less time to work with.

50-Yard Lion Blog suggests that this will not help because networks will just add TV Time-outs in the case of a turnover. I’m not so sure about that. I, admittedly, have very poor recollection of when networks do their TV time-outs (I repress painful memories like that), but doesn’t the clock have to be stopped pending being put back into play by the offense before a network can take a TV time-out? I’ll be interested to see how this plays out, but I certainly don’t like it.

Frankly, if the NCAA wants shorter televised games, maybe they should crack down on how often the networks can send the man in the little red hat onto the field to obstruct the game. Or, here’s a thought, reduce the actual amount of time on the game clock. That would be much more efficient than trying to nickel-and-dime the game to death.

One comment I have heard is that these changes are trying to combat the huge number of plays that certain kinds of pass-heavy offenses are creating. If that is actually the intention, it seems to make more sense to shave time off of the passing game… starting the clock after a down-field incompletion when the ball is whistled ready for play. Rather than penalizing everyone.

In a move that both Yellowjacket AND Bulldog fans are hoping will be boons to their respective programs, MSU and Georgia Tech have inked a deal for a home-and-home series in 2008 and 2009. Georgia Tech, a charter member of the SEC, seems to have a bit of a crush on its old conference, likely owing to a fan-base that would rather see the Ramblin’ Wreck take the field against the worst of the SEC than the anyone from the Big East.

“It’s a game we’ve been wanting to schedule for a number of years,” [MSU Athletic Director] Templeton said, “because of our recruiting connections to Georgia. And we have a tremendous alumni base in Atlanta.”

The Jackets now have an SEC foe on their out-of-conference schedule (other than Georgia) every year between 2008 and 2014 reaching a high-water mark of 3 in 2009 with Georgia, Vandy, and MSU. Other SEC teams on future GT schedules include Ole Miss (’10 & ‘11) and Alabama (’12 & ‘14).

Via: Georgia Sports Blog.

I’ve got a ton of college football blogs that I read, and they write about a lot of things that I don’t feel like writing about. Nevertheless, you ought to be reading them, so this is where I pass the baton to some other great sports bloggers out there doing what they do best. It’ll be a weekly feature… showing up at some point on Fridays when I decide to roll out of bed and will contain the most interesting posts I’ve read from the week leading up to the entry (that is, the ones I haven’t already linked).

• The M Zone :: The real difference between the Big Ten and the SEC. I’ve gone to school in both. This is true.
• Georgia Sports Blog :: the bottom of the basic cable barrel, Jefferson Pilot, is no more and Dawgnoxious was one of many to offer his insights.
• Fanblogs :: For those of you who simply can’t live with how unrealistic NCAA 2007 is, you can buy a professional grade football simulator for a quarter mil.
• EDSBS :: This Week’s Mustache Wednesday features Florida RB Coach Stan Drayton.
• DeepSouthSports :: Which SEC Coaches have the hottest wives? In response, Orson at EDSBS dubs the winner Coach Touchback.
• PittBlather :: Having eliminated recruiting violations, improper benefits, and academic issues, the NCAA has focused on something much more important: eradicating highly offensive feathers from school logos.
• BruinsNation :: Speaking of improper benefits… apparently getting $150 worth of groceries is more morally repugnant than getting $18,000 in rent. Or so says the NCAA.
• Dawg Sports :: Kyle has an amazing take-down of a number of idiotic shock-jock sportswriters.
• Wizard of Odds :: Charlie Weiss is teaching the podunk media types in northern Indiana that they’re at his mercy… if they want the story, they play by his rules.

I can’t possibly read everything. If you have a tip for next week’s Pep Rally, use the contact info on the sidebar.

Friday’s New York Times is running a story about the recent academic scandal at Auburn in which two sociology professors offered “directed reading” courses to students. The courses in question were, to say the very least, not very rigorous. Not surprisingly, Auburn has cleared the Athletic Department of wrong-doing. Of course, the NCAA may elect to open its own investigation.

The magic talisman that Auburn administrators and fans hope will ward off the NCAA is that lots of non-athletes got free grades, too. It would be nice if we could look to a string of NCAA infractions committee decisions and make an honest guess at what will happen from here, but the truth is that the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions is about as even-handed and consistent as a blind, epileptic, dart-throwing monkey.

Curious, isn’t it, that these courses sprung up just in time for Auburn to take top 5 honors in the NCAA’s APR. The 18 football players who took Peete’s classes having a C average in their other classes, they averaged a B+ Peete’s. And some players took over 9 hours worth. Interim President Richardson wants you to pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, though.

“But Richardson repeatedly stressed that the issue had nothing to do with Auburn’s athletic department.”

These are not the NCAA infractions you are looking for.

So there’s the key, boosters… it’ll be pricey, but if you give $1,000 to a football player, spread $4,000 amongst non-athletes and you should be fine.

Florida

Spread, spread, spread… bullshit. The reason the “spread” is not going to work any better in the SEC than any other form of offense is that it doesn’t rely, as the Kool-Aid drinkers might tell you, on “balance.” The Spread, especially as Urban Meyer runs it, relies on speed. Namely, being faster than the defense. Gator faithful can put those dreams to rest. You just don’t get faster than SEC defenses. This is Meyer’s last year of excuses, though. Chris Leak, who would’ve flourished at any other team in the conference, is not well-suited to the offense. Florida fans are still waiting for Tim Tebow will get off the pine next year and really make something happen.

Nevertheless, Florida is still in the hunt on talent alone, but they’re the only team in the SEC with a more demanding schedule than LSU. Having to face the three toughest SEC West teams, and having to face them in successive weeks, is going to put a hurtin’ on any national title hopes UF might have… and it will probably torpedo their SEC title hopes as well. Meyer is going to keep pointing fingers at the backs, but the truth is that the spread just will not be the same here in the SEC. It’s going to take some major tweaking and flawless recruiting every year to make it work.

Predicted Record: 8-4 (5-3 SEC)

Georgia

Georgia, for the spot that they’re in, has about as favorable a schedule as one can hope. After some talent loss, Richt is going to try to reload but the new kids haven’t seen a tremendous amount of playing time and the offensive line is a little thin. Nevertheless, Georgia’s offense will be a force when it’s clicking on all cylinders and UGA hasn’t been the best team in the Richt Era by playing sloppy defense.

The only rough spot of The Dawgs’ schedule is the conference opener at South Carolina. The young team might not be quite ready for an up-and-coming SEC opponent that early, but if they can get by Spurrier’s Gamecocks, they’ll have smooth sailing until the Cocktail Party in late October. Their out-of-division schedule is remarkable, getting Ole Miss and Mississippi State — two easy conference wins — but having to face Auburn right at the end. By the time they get to the plains, though, Georgia should be knocking on the door of a 10-win season and will probably have locked up an appearance in the SEC Championship game.

Predicted Record: 10-2 (6-2 SEC)

Kentucky

The Wildcats have a lot of experience, but that experience has seen about as many wins over major D-IA programs as the local High School’s JV squad has. Maybe a few less. Do not expect UK to be 2006’s Vanderbilt. While they have an exceptional player in Runningback Rafael Little, Little can only line up at one spot per play, so that leaves about 10 other match-ups for opponents to beat them. And beat them they will.

Despite being the SEC East’s punching bag, the Wildcats have a chance, if they get lucky, to be bowl eligible for the first time in recent memory, but to do that they’re going to need a to pick up two or three conference wins on top of winning all of the out of conference games that they should.

Predicted Record: 5-7 (2-6 SEC)

South Carolina

Spurrier has never been one to start of slow, nursing expectations. There’d be absolutely nothing negative to say about 2005 campaign if the Cocks hadn’t fallen to rival Clemson and had fared a little better in their bowl game. Nevertheless, we all know that Spurrier is the real deal. He’ll have the Gamecocks competing for Conference Championships… but not this year.

South Carolina will get to the plus-side of .500 with five games that The Ol’ Ball Coach could lead a team of one-armed monkeys to victories in: Mississippi State, Wofford, FAU, Kentucky, and Vandy. Add in wins at MTSU and Clemson (don’t expect a repeat of last season) and splitting the Tennessee and Arkansas games and you’re left with a solid 8-win season for the Gamecocks. There are a number of SEC East teams, however, on the rise and if Spurrier expects to continue to compete, the talent level has to go up, and it has to go up quickly.

Predicted Record: 8-4 (4-4 SEC)

Tennessee

It can’t happen again, right? There’s no way the Vols are going to miss a bowl berth this year, are they? Lose to Vandy? No, probably not, but it won’t be as good as the pundits think it will. Tennessee has the talent on offense to have one of the best squads in the nation… just like last year. The only difference? Cutcliffe back at the helm as the OC. It will make a huge difference, but not enough to put Tennessee in the hunt for the SEC East.

The Vols lost six of their front seven on defense but if this is a rebuilding year for the D-line, the Vols could be fighting to stay bowl eligible again. QB Erik Ainge simply must get the job done. While he won’t have competent back-ups to cut him any slack, his solid spot on the depth chart is going to help his game. Will the Vols have a repeat of the 2005 season? No… but don’t expect them to make it to Atlanta or go bowling with the BCS either.

Predicted Record: 8-4 (5-3)

Vanderbilt

Do we really need any more analysis beyond “Cutler is gone”? Sadly, no. There’s not much else to say. The defense is dismal. The offense is a little better. The schedule is much more daunting with Michigan, Alabama, and Arkansas to open the season. Not to mention the fact that the ‘Dores won’t be besting Tennessee this year. The Razorbacks are Vandy’s “reach” game… if they play their best game and Arkansas makes some mistakes, they can get a win there. Don’t count on it. They’ll have some battles with Ole Miss, Duke, and Kentucky… but the Commodores won’t be getting back to a bowl game this year.

Predicted Record: 4-8 (2-6 SEC)

2006 SEC East Prediction

1. Georgia
2. Florida
3. Tennessee
4. South Carolina
5. Kentucky
6. Vanderbilt