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

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

Position U. pass catchers: A look at the 2012 draft

While the number of wide receivers drafted basically has held steady over the past five drafts, the number of tight ends has changed drastically.

There have been between 28 and 35 wide receivers selected in each of the past five drafts. But just 12 tight ends were selected last season, a drop-off of eight from 2010 and seven from ’09. Indeed, while there were 55 tight ends drafted from 2008-10, there were just 12 selected in both ’11 and ’07.

Interestingly, though, while there were 35 wide receivers drafted in 2008, there weren’t any first-rounders; that was the first draft without a wide receiver taken in the first round since 1990. Meanwhile, there was no tight end drafted in the first round last year; that was the first time that had happened since 1999.

Read more: sports.yahoo.com

Bobby Petrino: How Arkansas firing will affect recruiting vs. SEC rivals

Ole Miss and Missouri are two SEC football programs that often go head-to-head with Arkansas on the recruiting trail.

Coaches from both schools aren’t sure how Bobby Petrino’s firing will impact the competition with Arkansas for future recruits.

“I think it’s too early to tell,” Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze told the AJC. “I think Arkansas has had some tremendous years recruiting and they have great facilities. I’m not confident enough to say we have a great advantage now. Now I think it could be an advantage but certainly they could go get another great coach in there, which I’m sure they will. Then [Petrino’s firing] would be over in the minds of recruits very fast … so it’s kind of hard for me to say on that.”

read more: blogs.ajc.com

SEC programs, law enforcement have long history

The Bobby Petrino saga has drawn attention to an often overlooked aspect of big-time college football: The relationship between coaches and the police who handle security for them.

Around the Southeastern Conference, providing sideline security for SEC programs is considered coveted duty. Some officers travel to away games, a cost paid for mostly by the schools. It can range from volunteer duty to part of the officer’s regular schedule.

Arkansas State Police Capt. Lance King, who provided security for Petrino at Razorback games, got the call from the coach when he wrecked his motorcycle.

Lions’ Nick Fairley charged with marijuana possession

Allen Park —Defensive tackle Nick Fairley, 24, became the third player from the Lions’ draft class of 2011 to be arrested for a marijuana-related offense since the end of last season.

First it was offensive lineman Johnny Culbreath, who was busted for possession in South Carolina in January. On Monday, it was revealed that running back Mikel Leshoure had been arrested twice in less than a month in southwest Michigan — for use and possession.

On Tuesday, it was Fairley, popped in his hometown of Mobile, Ala., for second-degree marijuana possession, a misdemeanor offense in Alabama. He was held at the Mobile County Jail and eventually released on $1,000 bail.

Read more: detroitnews.com

What happened to Gene Chizik’s first two recruiting classes at Auburn?

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama — Tommy Tuberville did Gene Chizik no favors by leaving behind bare final recruiting classes. Twelve of Auburn’s 28 signees in 2008 never even played a down for the Tigers, and only five of the 28 will likely exhaust their eligibility.

Tuberville’s last group truly was, as the Opelika-Auburn News recently dubbed it, “The Class That Time Forgot.”

So what’s that make Chizik’s first two classes? Because time is quickly forgetting many of those players, too.

Remarkably, 43 percent of Auburn’s 2009 and 2010 signees are no longer on the team, or never joined the program in the first place. That’s a brutal percentage, especially as Auburn sits with the SEC’s fewest 2012 commitments and two new coordinators who inevitably will weed out some veterans.

Read more from AL.com

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