The SEC is looking to start its own network

Want to know why a conference that is already the most powerful college football conference in the country adds two new schools it doesn’t necessarily need? It does so because now the SEC can renegotiate its television contracts with both CBS and ESPN, the two networks that own the rights to SEC football games in the fall.

As you’d expect, given the television deals that have gone to the Pac-12 and the Big 12 in the last year, the SEC will be looking for more money from both ESPN and CBS for the right to broadcast games, though that’s not the end goal here.

According to Sports Business Daily(subscription), the SEC is once again looking into the idea of starting its own SEC Network, much like the Big Ten currently has.

read more: cbssports.com

New bowl game means football Final Four is coming

In the ever-changing world of college conference realignment, the calm never seems to last very long. Blink, and the paradigm shifts. What appears to be a condemned disaster area one moment can make a miraculous turnaround in a matter of months.

This is the biggest, craziest high-stakes game of musical chairs the college sports world has ever seen. For proof of that, who could have imagined 12 months ago that the creation of a Southeastern Conference-Big 12 bowl game to rival the prestigious Rose Bowl could not only signal that a legitimate football playoff is on the way, but that the ripple effect would also be wildly beneficial to both Mizzou football and St. Louis University basketball?

Read more: stltoday.com

Mike Slive gets the better of Jim Delany again

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - Mike Slive just sank Jim Delany‘s battleship.

No, wait.

That sounds cute, but it’s not exactly true.

What Slive really did by partnering the SEC with the Big 12 to invent a new made-for-television, money-printing postseason game was build his own bat­tleship.

A Rose Bowl by another name.

read more: al.com

College football coach rankings: Alabama’s Nick Saban tops list of 124 coachesSporting News has ranked the 124 FBS head coaches by conference. Now it’s time to see how they rate overall.

First, some notes about our list:

— The Big 12 coaches have by far the best average ranking: 27.2, which crushes the second-best SEC’s average ranking of 43.3. Next in line: the Pac-12 (43.8), ACC (45.6) and Big Ten (46.8).

— Of course, the Big 12 has only 10 teams. Compared with the top 10 rankings by conference, it falls slightly below the SEC’s average of 26.6. The Pac-12 still ranks third at 34.5, followed by the Big Ten (35.9) and the ACC (37.0).

— The SEC is the only league other than the Big 12 whose lowest-ranked coach isn’t in the 100s. Tennessee’s Derek Dooley, the No. 14 SEC coach on our list, ranks 99th overall.

Read more: aol.sportingnews.com

Whitehurst released from Razorbacks football team

FAYETTEVILLE — Kane Whitehurst, a redshirt freshman wide receiver, will transfer from Arkansas after receiving a scholarship release over the weekend.

Whitehurst had been suspended indefinitely after he was arrested April 1 on drug possession charges. He did not play in his first season with the Razorbacks in 2011.

The Alpharetta, Ga., native is the fourth of Arkansas’ 31-player 2011 signing class to leave the Razorbacks’ program. He is the third to do so this off-season, along with linebacker Brock Haman and receiver Quinta Funderburk.

read more: arkansasonline.com

Top performer: Tight end

The SEC returns six of the top 10 statistical tight ends this season. Orson Charles led all tight ends in yardage with 574 yards and had five touchdowns on 45 catches. The No. 2 tight end returns this fall, and this race might be the most wide open of all the top returners by position.

Here’s the conference’s top returning producer at tight end

Read more: espn.go.com

Tough road lies ahead for playoff debate

The factions are forming.

As the debate continues to rage on about the future of college football’s postseason plan, those involved with making the final decisions are not unanimous with their beliefs.

While everyone appears to be in agreement on a four-team playoff, the selection of those four teams is being hotly contested between the conference commissioners.

The Big Ten’s Jim Delany added more fuel to the fire when he told The Associated Press that he doesn’t believe a playoff should include a team that doesn’t win its division.

read more: blogs.orlandosentinel.com

Alabama-Arkansas tops list of must-see games of season’s first month

Spring practice has ended everywhere (UCLA’s spring game, the last one, was Saturday), which now means nuclear winter is here for college football fans: No football until camps open in early August.

To try to ease the pain, we’ve put together a list of the 10 best games in September (albeit one is in August). And there definitely are some good ones. The problem, of course, is that the first one is 117 days away.

Yikes. That means a long wait.

read more: sports.yahoo.com

Tigers, Trojans, Tide exit spring practice atop Power Rankings

Other than deciding how to split the money, the most difficult task facing conference commissioners in the next few months is devising the system that will select the teams that play in the upcoming playoff. Do they keep the current BCS ranking system? Do they follow the model of the NCAA basketball and baseball tournaments and empanel a selection committee? Do they develop an entirely new ranking formula?

Read more: si.com

Post-Spring Storylines to Follow in SEC

Arkansas’ coaching search.  With each passing day it becomes more likely that the Razorbacks will keep an “interim” tag on Taver Johnson, use the remainder of the year to find a long-term replacement for Bobby Petrino, and make that decision official following the 2012 regular season.  I believe that course of action to be the wisest.  While Petrino is a low-down scoundrel and rotten human being, replacing him as a football coach will be difficult and Arkansas needs to find the right coach, not the right-now coach.  Not only would a coach hired before the start of the season have an incredibly condensed time frame with which to learn the team and instill his system, looking for a head coach to start immediately would dramatically limit your pool of candidates.  I simply can’t imagine a current head coach ditching his program post-spring to take another job.  I know there exists little which is ethically “off limits” in major college football, but I don’t see an “A” list coach doing that to his team.  Because of that, if you want to hire a permanent replacement to start immediately, you reduce your candidate pool to coaches out of work and assistants – Arkansas can do better.

Read more: chuckoliver.net