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

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

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

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.

Haney on Tiger: He doesn’t use PEDs

Tiger Woods and his people have objected vehemently to some of personal nuggets former swing coach Hank Haney included in his candid and controversial new book about his time with Tiger.

But if you ask me, Tiger worshippers should not be upset about what’s in the book. They should be relieved about what’s not in the book.

There’s nothing in the book’s 247 pages about Tiger ever taking performance-enhancing drugs. And that was the single-most important question I wanted to ask Haney during an interview on the Monday of Masters week.

“No, I don’t believe Tiger ever did [performance-enhancing drugs],” said Haney, whose book The Big Miss is one of the most intriguing portraits of sports greatness since John Feinstein wrote a A Season on the Brink about Bob Knight. “Tiger works out in the gym like you wouldn’t believe. His physical therapist for a long time was a very good friend of mine for over 25 years and has always been clean as a whistle.”

Read more: orlandosentinel.com

Georgia may get Josh Harvey-Clemons, but ‘AWOL’ grandfather is going to make them sweat

Mark Richt worked hard in pursuit of five-star Valdosta, Ga., linebacker Josh Harvey-Clemons — at one point he may have even tithed hard — and as of this morning, it looked like his efforts had paid off: Harvey-Clemons  announced on live television that he planned to attend to Georgia, at which point Richt to the opportunity to wax rhapsodic about the crown jewel of his new class:

“I’m sure glad he became a Bulldog,” Richt told ESPNU during its live recruiting broadcast. “He’s a great kid and he’s so versatile. He can play inside linebacker, outside linebacker, he can rush the passer and, quite frankly, he’s quite a wide receiver, too.”

And so everyone went home happy, another strong Bulldog recruiting class in the books. Or so it appeared until a little 5 p.m., when the UGA athletic offices closed for the day without an official letter of intent from Harvey-Clemons. When the university sent out a list of 18 new signees, the No. 1 player in the state was nowhere to be found — apparently, because his grandfather was nowhere to be found.

Read more from YahooSports.com

2.2.12

Richt says Georgia will be ‘knocking on the door’ of greatness

Tampa – Back in July he was being asked if he could turn it around. On the first day of 2012, Mark Richt was asked if Georgia had turned it around. And he said …
“I think so. I don’t think there’s any doubt we’re in a good place. We won 10 games, and when you win 10 games you’ve done well.”

Here he smiled. “Though 11 is better.” Richt’s team can win its 11th game of a rebounding season by defeating Michigan State in the Outback Bowl on Monday.

ajc.com

1/2/12

Richt, Georgia talking about contract extension

ATHENS, Ga. (AP)—Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity and coach Mark Richt have started talks to extend Richt’s contract.

Richt released a statement Saturday in which he said he wants to remain at Georgia “as long as Georgia will have me.”

Referring to the contract talks which began Friday, he said “It’s gratifying to know Georgia wants me.”

Read more from Rivals.com

12.11.11