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

Recruiting and developing NFL draft prospects

Last Thursday night 7 college football teams that combined to sign 94 (4 star) & 13 (5 star) players didn’t have one player picked in the first round.

Here’s looking at you and you lack of coaching & developing players:

1. Texas

2. Georgia

3. Florida

4. Florida State

5. Michigan

6. Oklahoma

7. Miami

Was it a fluke? Sure. Is it unacceptable? Absolutely. More proof that Mack Brown and Mark Richt are two of the best when it comes to underachieving in college football.

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

Spurrier says only SEC division games should count

Let me preface this by saying that I actually like Steve Spurrier. He is a great coach, he changed the SEC with what he accomplished at Florida and he doesn’t cheat (although “suspending” former quarterback Stephen Garcia five times without forcing him to actually miss a game certainly set new standards for enabling and being disingenuous).

But Spurrier’s latest idea is beyond looney.

read more: blogs.ajc.com

Matthews to coach Tebow’s school

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

From champs to chomped: How Urban Meyer broke Florida football

The uproar and controversy of Urban Meyer’s stunning recruiting coup at Ohio State settled in and Stefon Diggs, still on the Buckeyes’ wish list, was debating his future.

Diggs, the second-highest rated wide receiver in the country, had narrowed his list of potential schools to Maryland, Florida and Ohio State. For more than a week following National Signing Day on Feb. 1, and before Diggs eventually signed with Maryland, Meyer relentlessly pursued Diggs.

Multiple sources told Sporting News that Meyer—who won two national championships in six years at Florida and cemented his legacy as one of the game’s greatest coaches—told the Diggs family that he wouldn’t let his son go to Florida because of significant character issues in the locker room.
Read more: sportingnews.com

Aaron Lynch transferring from ND

Notre Dame defensive end Aaron Lynch has left the football team and will transfer to another school following the spring semester, the school announced Friday morning.

“Aaron recently approached me about his desire to leave Notre Dame and return to Florida,” coach Brian Kelly said in a release. “I’ve always known and appreciated the affinity Aaron has for his home in Florida. However, the stark reality is you can’t make it at Notre Dame if your head and heart are not here.

“I am proud of the effort Aaron made in the classroom and on the field at Notre Dame. I wish him all the best in the future.”

Lynch, a rising sophomore, earned freshman All-America honors, starting six games and leading the Irish in sacks (5.5) and quarterback hurries (14) while notching 33 tackles, including seven for a loss, and forcing one fumble.

Read more: espn.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