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

SEC, Big 12 agree to bowl matchup; champs will play if not in playoff

With the anticipated arrival of a four-team playoff to determine the national championship in 2014, college football is getting ready to enter a new world order.

The SEC and the Big 12 staked out a big chunk of real estate in that world on Friday by announcing a five-year agreement for their champions to meet in a Jan. 1 bowl game that will be determined at a later date. The first game will be Jan. 1, 2015.

If one or both of the champions are in the four-team playoff, then “another deserving team” from those conferences would get the slot.

In the 14 years of the BCS, either the SEC or the Big 12 champion has been in the title game 11 times. They have met twice for the BCS title — after the 2008 (Florida-Oklahoma) and 2009 (Alabama-Texas) seasons.

read more: cbssports.com

Nick Saban skeptical of Steve Spurrier’s proposal to count only division games toward division championships

FLORENCE, Ala. — One week after LSU coach Les Miles voiced his support for Steve Spurrier’s proposal for the SEC to choose division champions based exclusively on division record, Nick Saban politely did the opposite.

Speaking to reporters before Tuesday’s Crimson Caravan stop at the Marriott Shoals Hotel & Spa in Florence, Saban said he understood the South Carolina coach’s logic behind his opinion, but couldn’t get behind an idea that essentially eliminated the importance of cross-divisional games.

“I just think that’s one of those things that’s not always going to be controlled,” Saban said. “It’s not manipulated with who you play. We have a rotation, we have to go through it.

read more: al.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

How to win the West?

LSU has won its four Southeastern Conference home series, and if it wins its final one against Vanderbilt beginning Friday night, it will clinch the Western Division.

The Tigers (38-11, 16-8 SEC) have a four-game lead over second-place Arkansas and Mississippi State and would win a tiebreaker with both by virtue of having beaten them in head-to-head series.

LSU has taken a step-by-step approach to put itself in this position. The Tigers began conference play by taking two out of three against Mississippi State. In subsequent home series, they swept Arkansas and Alabama and taken two out of three from Georgia.

Read more: theadvocate.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

Johnny Jones takes stage as new LSU basketball coach

Johnny Jones answered a call from LSU Athletic Director Joe Alleva a little before 5 o’clock Friday evening not sure how a most nerve-wracking week would end.

Either he’d be awarded a chance to become the 21st men’s basketball coach at the school where he starred as a player in the early 1980s and later served 13 years as an assistant. Or he’d be denied his dream job for the second time in four years.

So when Alleva used a simple “How you doing?” to begin their conversation, Jones answered honestly.

Read more: theadvocate.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

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