B1G's Delany, Pac's Scott will try to weasel teams in CFB Playoff

[jbcarol]

Tony Barnhart ‏@MrCFB 3h
Little understood fact about the College Football Playoff: Two out of every three years the semifinals will be played on Dec. 31.

[jbcarol]

Brett McMurphy ‏@McMurphyESPN  11h
Cheapest ticket on market for next year's @CFBPlayoff title game: $1,889 @darrenrovell reports http://es.pn/1fR7NLi

[jbcarol]

The SEC Logo ‏@SEC_Logo 2h
2014 pic.twitter.com/wmZC285T4x

[jbcarol]

Leaning against a wall, conspicuous in the sumptuously appointed meeting room, was an ironing board. Nearby, an iron. No one associated with the College Football Playoff seemed quite sure why either was there.

"We have a lot of things to iron out," said Jeff Long, chairman of the selection committee.

Then he grinned and fist-bumped with CFP executive director Bill Hancock.

Among the items on the agenda Tuesday and Wednesday: methods of delivery of game video the members be expected to review each week; the kinds of data and tools that will be made available to help in evaluating teams; the in-season schedule of committee meetings and the release of interim rankings; the balloting process during deliberations; and a recusal policy.

"It's a brand new process," Long said. "Everything has to be thought out, really for the first time. There are a lot of details."

Among the most important issues to be resolved is the recusal process. How and when, because of perceived conflicts of interest, members should abstain from discussions and deliberations, is a potentially sticky issue. It gets complicated in a hurry.

Long, for example, played football at Ohio Wesleyan, so his alma mater won't be an issue. But in addition to his current job at Arkansas, he was previously athletic director at Pittsburgh and worked at Oklahoma, Virginia Tech and Michigan. Tyrone Willingham, a Michigan State graduate, was head coach at Washington, Notre Dame and Stanford. Condoleezza Rice, the former Secretary of State, has a degree from Notre Dame and is a longtime Stanford faculty member and self-proclaimed Cardinal fan.

Where should committee members draw the line?

The selection committee plans a "practice session" some time before the 2014 season starts.

[jbcarol]

Jon Solomon ‏@jonsol  4h
SEC signees by state: GA 15%, FL 14%, TX 11%, MS 11%, AL 9%, LA 7%. http://bit.ly/1kVGK0d

Less than one-third of the 2014 Alabama and Auburn football signing classes come from the state of Alabama, likely the first time that has ever happened. It's part of a growing trend of several SEC schools branching out nationally, particularly Alabama.

Thirty percent of the Crimson Tide's class comes from Alabama, nearly the same amount of recruits from non-SEC states (27 percent). Back in 2008, 55 percent of Alabama's class came from the state of Alabama, and 66 percent were in-state in 2003.

The SEC has seven of the top nine recruiting classes, based on Rivals.com's rankings: No. 1 Alabama, No. 2 LSU, No. 5 Tennessee, No. 6 Texas A&M, No. 7 Florida, No. 8 Georgia and No. 9 Auburn. The SEC signed 115 of ESPN's top 300 recruits, more than double the next closest conference (the ACC with 51 top-300 signees).

SEC schools grabbed Rivals' No. 1 player from four non-SEC states plus Washington D.C. SEC teams signed a total of 17 players from a non-SEC state who were ranked among that state's top-5 players.
Alabama alone signed the No. 1 player from Virginia, and the No. 2 players from Minnesota, Iowa and Oklahoma. Auburn signed the No. 1 player from Kansas. Tennessee had half of the six highest-rated players in Illinois, more than the entire Big Ten combined.

The state of Texas, once a breeding ground for the Big 12, saw five of its top nine players go to the SEC: two to Texas A&M, two to LSU and one to Alabama. Thanks to the inclusion of Texas A&M, Texas is now tied with Mississippi as the third-largest producer of SEC players, behind Georgia and Florida.

Table at link above includes the percentages of SEC signees by home state.

[jbcarol]

Making the 4-team College Football Playoff starts with recruiting. Here are links to the ESPN recruiting analysis of all 14 SEC schools.

http://espn.go.com/blog/sec/post/_/id/79226/taking-a-look-at-the-2014-sec-classes

[jbcarol]

Clay Travis ‏@ClayTravisBGID ·1 hr
Alabama signed 6 five star players yesterday. The Big Ten signed four.

[jbcarol]

Ryan Abraham ‏@insidetroy ·23 hrs
So the #SEC media days have expanded to four days. While the #Pac12 media day is still about four hours.

[jbcarol]

Led by the resurgences of FSU and Clemson, the ACC is looking to improve its strength of schedule by eyeing more SEC games

The unofficial ACC v. SEC-East challenge traditionally occurs on the last game of the season.

[jbcarol]

AL.com sports ‏@aldotcomSports  36m
Urban Meyer 'disappointed' Ohio State's recruiting class wasn't ranked No. 1 | http://AL.com  http://ow.ly/trqMn

The Ohio State coach, addressing the media during his signing day press conference on Wednesday, said he was disappointed his Buckeyes' 2014 recruiting class wasn't ranked No. 1. That distinction went to Alabama for all four major recruiting services, with Ohio State's class ranked second in the nation by 247Sports, third by Rivals.com, fifth by Scout.com and seventh by ESPN.

"I hear people say it's not important. I disagree," Meyer said of the class rankings. "I think ... as long as you're keeping score we're going to try to win. (It's) disappointing we weren't the number one recruiting class in the country. Our staff knows we're disappointed about that.

"There is a correlation between how teams do where your team is ranked, recruiting class is ranked. But certainly that's not the final product because you've got to coach and develop them and get them here. So actually we do pay attention to that. It's not saying we take a kid who is a five-star over a three-star, if we believe in the three-star. That's not it at all. But I'll start watching it at the end of the recruiting class."

Meyer signed one 5-star and 15 four-stars. He noted that time will tell if it is the best class he ever recruited and he thinks it is the best class ever recruited by Ohio State.

[jbcarol]

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/10414082/alabama-crimson-tide-win-recruiting-war-moves-latest-way-too-early-top-25

1. FSU
2. Bama

6. Auburn
8. UGa

12. So. Car.
13. LSU
15. A&M

23. Florida

Side notes: OU is well represented at #5. They can't blame Bielema for leaving the cupboard bare at Wisconsin.

[jbcarol]

After the B1G approved Maryland and Rutgers as future members in November 2012, league commissioner Jim Delany described the additions as "an Eastern initiative with a Penn State bridge."

The Big Ten is about to cross that bridge, put down roots in another region and brand itself as a truly national league. And despite lingering concerns and criticism from some corners of the conference about the new look, there's no turning back now.

"We're probably as close to a national conference as there is in terms of demographics and alumni and national reach," Delany told ESPN.com. "It was a great Midwestern conference, and now it's a conference that's much broader."

Delany's national theme resonated as Big Ten ADs and coaches reviewed a new bowl lineup that includes games in Florida, California, Tennessee, Texas, New York and Michigan. They also discussed the upcoming College Football Playoff and the selection committee with Michael Kelly, chief operating officer of the playoff.

[jbcarol]

CKS615 ‏@ckssense  12h
... This is what happens when the #SEC doesn't win the national title. Earthquakes and blizzards litter the Southland.

[jbcarol]

http://espn.go.com/blog/ncfnation/post/_/id/93611/attendance-challenges-big-deal-for-b1g

The Big Ten in 2013 set records for total attendance (6,127,526) and attendance for league games (3,414,448), and ranked second behind the SEC in average attendance per game (70,431), a slight increase from 2012.

So what's the B1G deal? Eight of the 12 league programs saw a decline in average attendance last season. Some have seen numbers drop for several years. Student-section attendance is a growing concern, and the Big Ten is tracking the troubling national attendance trends.


Plans: Connectivity, raising student attendance, variable ticket pricing for less than attractive games.

[jbcarol]

ESPN's David Hale: One of the big knocks on FSU last season was its strength of schedule. That's come even more to the forefront as college football's playoff system begins in 2014, and it's a topic the ACC is debating, too. What's the discussions regarding conference scheduling, and where does Florida State stand in the debate?

Florida State athletic director Stan Wilcox: We're still in conversations with that, but what I would say is that as a league, we're trying to do what's best to position the league so that we can get teams into the playoff. If you can get more than one -- like this year, we got more than one team in the BCS -- that's even better. There are conferences that have already decided how they think they're going to do that. They're going to nine games. We're contemplating and discussing what's going to be the best way, just like the SEC is doing. Each league is considering how best to position the conference from a scheduling perspective without compromising the regular season and the rivalries that have been established. You also want to make sure you have the right inventory you can sell to networks and sell to create channels. And from the ACC perspective, nothing has been decided yet.

From [Florida State's] perspective, we're at the point now that we would like to continue to be able to have as many quality home games as we can, potentially take one of those games on the road -- this year, we're going to Dallas, and we're looking at Orlando and other cities.* Some of that can be jeopardized depending how the conference ends up. If we had our druthers, we'd like to just keep everything the way they are right now. But I can't say that's what's going to happen.

[*Ed. note: FSU confirms it is in preliminary talks for a neutral-site game in Orlando in 2016 and Atlanta in 2018.]

Florida was a tough opponent in the recent past.

[jbcarol]

Stanford coach David Shaw was 2,300 miles away from campus in a Hawaii hotel room Thursday when he rolled into an offensive meeting being conducted by offensive coordinator Mike Bloomgren.

Using a Beam Pro robot designed by Stanford graduate Scott Hassan's company, Suitable Technologies, Shaw was able to watch, listen and communicate with everyone in the room.

In other places they use video conferencing.

[jbcarol]

"I'm sure that somewhere down the road there will be some exercises that will include pulling together a real bracket," Radakovich said. "It's been really good to watch the group together, to be a part of the group, because it is truly 13 people looking for the same answer, and that is pulling the best four teams together for the semifinals and placing some really great matchups in the other games to keep college football at the forefront of people's minds at that time of the year and create some great games and good memories for the coaching staffs and student-athletes."

http://espn.go.com/blog/ncfnation/post/_/id/93696/ad-gearing-up-for-role-on-playoff-committee

Clemson AD Dan Radakovich

[jbcarol]

AL.com sports ‏@aldotcomSports  7h
New weekly college football poll to feature votes from Hall of Famers, writers http://ow.ly/tZ7I3

The "FWAA-NFF Grantland Rice Super 16" will pull together opinions from journalists and college football legends starting this fall. It'll be organized by the Football Writers Association of America and the National Football Foundation, but won't have any official role in the playoff selection process.

It's named after legendary sports writer Grantland Rice, who worked with both naming organizations. FWAA writers, College Football Hall of Fame members and NFF board members will have ballots in the poll.

A total of 26 voters will be writers and 10 will come from the NFF with members coming from all regions of the country.

Grantland Rice

[jbcarol]

B1G Weak One Schedule:

Aug. 30

Indiana State at Indiana
James Madison at Maryland
Appalachian State at Michigan
Jacksonville State at Michigan State
Ohio State at Navy (at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore)
Penn State vs. UCF (at Croke Park in Dublin, Ireland)
Rutgers at Washington State (at CenturyLink Field in Seattle)
Youngstown State at Illinois
Northern Iowa at Iowa
Eastern Illinois at Minnesota
Florida Atlantic at Nebraska
California at Northwestern
Western Michigan at Purdue
Wisconsin vs. LSU (Reliant Stadium in Houston)

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/96782/ultimate-big-ten-2014-road-trip-week-1

[jbcarol]

Bo Mattingly ‏@SportsTalkwBo ·3 hrs
RT @jonsol: Mike Slive will return as SEC commissioner in 2014-15. http://bit.ly/1kvL493

[jbcarol]

Narrow majority of SEC ADs favor 8 league football games, but presidents will help as decision nears

By the SEC spring meetings in May, Slive said there will be a final decision for the 2016 schedule and beyond. (The yet-to-be released 2015 schedule will maintain the current eight-game format of six division games, one permanent opponent and one rotating opponent.)

"The important thing is we've got a target that we have to shoot for," Slive said. "The conversation does get all over the place, but the timeframe is finite, not infinite."

Last spring, SEC coaches voted 13-1 to keep eight conference games -- Alabama coach Nick Saban was the lone vote for nine -- and were about evenly divided on whether to maintain permanent cross-divisional opponents. SEC presidents and chancellors directed the conference office to study the issue for another year.

Almost a year later, many opinions remain hardened. The majority of SEC athletics directors favor sticking with eight games.

ADs at Auburn, LSU, Vanderbilt, Ole Miss, Florida, Georgia, A&M and State all favor eight games...

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2014/03/majority_of_sec_ads_favor_8_le.html

[jbcarol]

In its first month in the Big 12, West Virginia charged into the league with the vigor its musket-toting mascot would toward a black bear.

After striking down Texas on the road, the Mountaineers stormed into October two seasons ago ranked in the top five of the polls.

But since that moment, West Virginia has been fighting a steady, but furious, backpedal. The Mountaineers have lost eight of their past 12 games in the league, culminating with a triple-overtime collapse to Iowa State in Morgantown to cap a bowl-less 2013 season.

Yet, minus several outgoing key performers, playing for a coach whose seat is getting warmer and a brutal slate awaiting them, the Mountaineers...

http://espn.go.com/blog/ncfnation/post/_/id/94009/west-virginia-ready-to-prove-big-12-mettle

School has one of the biggest away game travel budgets in the FBS.

[jbcarol]

"One thing is true," Bowden told ESPN.com Monday, "it's easier to win one than to continue winning."

Bowden won 304 games in 34 seasons at Florida State and two national championships. Although the Seminoles did not repeat in 1994 following his first national title, complacency never set in at Florida State. He went 42-4-1 the four seasons after the 1993 national title and reeled off 14 consecutive top-5 finishes from 1987-2000.

With Fisher getting his first taste of a national title as a head coach and Florida State's rising seniors a combined 35-6 in their careers, the biggest question this spring is whether the program is poised for another decade-long run of national relevance.

"The big thing you try to do is prevent a letdown, prevent the kids being overconfident, taking things for granted," Bowden said. "You need to be looking out for letdowns. You have to continue to talk and stress it to the boys and if you see it happen nip it in the butt."

http://espn.go.com/blog/ncfnation/post/_/id/94120/bowden-to-jimbo-look-out-for-letdowns

Coach Bobby Bowden weighs in on complacency.

[jbcarol]

Mr. SEC: Does this year's NCAA Tournament Selection and Bracketing process give you confidence about the new CFB Playoff Selection Process (It's a Long way off).

Yes, another Selection Sunday has come and gone and complaints continue to pour in from North, South, East and West.  Bizarre bracketing, senseless seeding, teams shifted due to other schools' locations.  It's bad...

When the conference commissioners decided to do away with polls and computers in favor of a selection committee, we warned that come March everyone would be reminded of all the things they dislike about selection committees.  Here we are.  And with people complaining about the sheer randomness of the seeding process as well as the hard-to-figure out invitation process for the final four or five bubble teams, it should all be quite worrisome for college football fans.  If there's this much debate over 68 teams, how hot will temperatures rise when we're talking about a bracket that will include only four teams?

The good news is that the football panel will have a former Secretary of State, a retired Air Force lieutenant general, and a career basketball man to help pick the teams and set the matchups.  Yes.  That was sarcasm...

[jbcarol]

LSU Athletics Director Joe Alleva says the athletic directors in the SEC are not likely to budge on the current scheduling format that calls for six division games, one permanent crossover match-up and a rotating spot for the eighth game.

Would know.

[jbcarol]

AL.com sports ‏@aldotcomSports ·5 hrs
#OhioState coach @OSUCoachMeyer on college football parity: 'The SEC is so unique' http://tinyurl.com/n9j6z6b

Ohio State coach Urban Meyer was asked recently if the parity in college football is improving.

"It's close," he told CBS Sports. "Oklahoma showed it. Michigan State showed it to beat Stanford. The Big 12 has a strong conference now. I got to watch some games. There are some good teams out there. I think the Big Ten is getting better. Michigan State, Penn State coming off the sanctions, Wisconsin is a helluva football team. We were right there on the 35-yard line to beat Clemson. Traditionally there's an Iowa, that's a helluva team. I think its coming.

"The SEC is so unique because there are just so many. I don't know if you'll ever catch them top to bottom. The talent down there -- there are so many players."

[jbcarol]

AL.com sports ‏@aldotcomSports  2h
Think Kentucky over Louisville was big? Wait until Alabama meets Auburn in the playoffs. http://ow.ly/v9VBE

Scarblog:

If you think Louisville vs. Kentucky in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament on Friday night was as intense as a postseason game between two bitter in-state rivals can be, you ain't seen nothin' yet.

Imagine the energy, the passion, the raw emotion that'll be generated the first time Alabama and Auburn look each other in the face in the College Football Playoff.

It's going to happen. It has to happen. It would've happened last season in the semifinals in the Rose Bowl had the playoff started a year sooner than its upcoming 2014 debut, but it's probably better that it didn't.

It would've been next to impossible to top the Kick Six.

Saban and Malzahn have a way to go to match the long history between Louisville's Rick Pitino and Kentucky's John Calipari, but the Alabama and Auburn football coaches are off to a great start. With them on opposite sidelines, we've already witnessed two of the most amazing Iron Bowls in history in 2010 and 2013.

They're 1 for 1 in staging a classic as opposing head coaches.

A playoff game between them in, say, New Orleans would set off that famous seismograph on the LSU campus in Baton Rouge. It would look and feel a lot like Kentucky 74, Louisville 69 on Friday night in Indianapolis.

Come to think of it, on the court, that Battle of Kentucky played out a lot like the last Iron Bowl...

[jbcarol]

AL.com sports ‏@aldotcomSports ·2 hrs
Live at 9 with Kevin Scarbinsky: SEC basketball sets the bar high for SEC football. Come chat. http://ow.ly/vdvKC

It happened in football in January of 2012 when Alabama put together one of the most dominating big-stage performances ever in any sport against LSU.

It happened in baseball in June of 2011 when South Carolina swept Florida to go back-to-back at the College World Series and in June of 1997 when LSU outslugged Alabama.

Now it's only 40 minutes times two away from happening in basketball, too.

It's an All-SEC national championship game in another major sport.

Is it any wonder the rest of the country is jealous of Mike Slive and company?

Florida and Kentucky still have business to take care of before they can meet for the fourth time this season.

By the way, did we mention that the Final Four is in Cowboys Stadium? That's right. It's the same place where they'll play the first title game of the College Football Playoff next January.

Looks like SEC basketball has set the bar pretty high for SEC football.

[jbcarol]

Paul Finebaum ‏@finebaum ·19 hrs
I thought there was a reasonable chance of 2 SEC teams playing in Dallas for the national title. I just assumed it would be in January.

[jbcarol]

Alabama is nonetheless wrought with pressure from the outside. Inside the bubble of the football offices it's all business, but everywhere around there's immense expectations and boundless conjecture about wins, losses, championships and future stars.

Saban might claim to not have a depth chart, but every day is a constant battle for fans to determine who the starters will be on a team that loses two starting offensive linemen, two veteran receivers, two high-profile linebackers and three key contributors in the secondary. Oh, and there's also the small matter of AJ McCarron leaving a vacancy at starting quarterback -- just don't ask Saban about that race because he'll tell you to hold your horses and be patient...

List those names all you want, just don't expect Saban to sing their praise. It's simply not his way to buy into the hype.

"I'm not satisfied with the way any of them are playing, if you want to know the truth about it," Saban said of his D-line. "They've got to be more aggressive, physical, play with better leverage, hold the point better, rush the passer better. I didn't think that last year was one of our best years up front, and even though we have a couple new players competing and Dalvin Tomlinson back, I think all of them have a ways to go. A'Shawn Robinson has a lot of ability, but I think we need to get him in shape and he's got to play with better focus and intensity down in and down out to be more consistent.

"So defensively we have a ways to go to improve to get back to the level and our standard of what we like to play here."

Though sometimes it feels like Saban is constantly fighting with reporters, he's not. The speculation extends far beyond the walls of the media room and the pages of newspapers. It's all the talk that drives Saban nuts because it has a way of reaching his players, inflating their egos long before they've earned their stripes. Remember Saban's comment about the depth chart? That came unsolicited, a direct shot at his team one floor below in the locker room.

What Saban is fighting is the standard. While others are taking time off, he's busy worrying about the next move, not the next question about how things appear.

http://espn.go.com/blog/ncfnation/post/_/id/94406/saban-wants-standards-not-speculation

[jbcarol]

AL.com sports ‏@aldotcomSports ·14h
College Football Playoff committee keeps its proposed recusal policy to itself for now. http://ow.ly/vptnU

Scarblog:

The College Football Playoff Committee continued to embrace the notion of transparency Thursday by keeping its proposed recusal policy to itself.

Just kidding. But not really.

During two days of meetings in Grapevine, Texas, the committee did formulate a policy to avoid real or perceived conflicts of interest, and it'll forward that policy to the Management Committee, which is made up of the 10 Football Bowl Subdivision conference commissioners and the Notre Dame AD.

But the selection committee doesn't plan to divulge the details of the policy, at least until the management committee has voted on it at the end of this month.

Arkansas AD Jeff Long, the chair of the selection committee, danced around questions from reporters about the recusal policy. Long even joked about not recusing members because of where their mothers were born.

It's good that Long can kid now...

[jbcarol]

The Fighting Irish are exploring the prospect of playing Georgia in the future, though the dates remain to be determined, senior associate athletic director John Heisler told ESPN.com. CBSSports.com's Jeremy Fowler reported earlier Tuesday that the schools are working to finalize a home-and-home series for 2018-19.

Notre Dame's last two games against SEC schools came in postseason play, with Alabama beating the Irish in the Discover BCS National Championship after the 2012 season and LSU topping them in the Nokia Sugar Bowl after the 2006 campaign.

Notre Dame has not played an SEC school in the regular season since it beat Tennessee at home in 2005, the second of a home-and-home series between those programs.

http://espn.go.com/blog/ncfnation/post/_/id/94489/notre-dame-exploring-home-and-home-with-georgia

[jbcarol]

Duke Nation ‏@Dukenation5 ·6h
Duke, Louisville, Michigan State & Baylor: Only schools to finish in final AP top 25 poll for FB, MBKB & WBKB

[jbcarol]

Florida State will start next season as No. 1, just as the Seminoles ended last season. The Seminoles have 14 returning starters from the team that won the BCS National Championship three months ago. That includes the best player in the country...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- At SEC media days last summer, someone asked Alabama head coach Nick Saban if he wears any of his four national championship rings.

"To me, it doesn't make any difference how many game-winning shots Michael Jordan made," Saban said. "The only one that matters is the next one. So there doesn't seem to be any purpose to me. I have them. They're there."

Fisher knows what Saban believes. He coached it at LSU. And that's what convinced him that it's wrong.

"One of the things I wish we had done better then," Fisher said in his office recently, "was actually remember we were national champions. We were so focused to me on, 'Forget that. Don't get big-headed. Don't do that,' that I think you lost the aura and the confidence of winning the championship."

[jbcarol]

2014 Season-Opening Neutral Site Schedule (as of April 16)

Date           Time (ET)                   Game                                                   Network
Thu, Aug 28  8 p.m.      Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game: Boise State vs. Ole Miss         ESPN

Sat, Aug 30  3:30 p.m.  Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game: West Virginia vs. Bama      ABC/ESPN2

Sat, Aug 30  9 p.m.       AdvoCare Texas Kickoff: Wisconsin vs. LSU                  ESPN

http://espnmediazone.com/us/press-releases/2014/04/time-and-network-for-espns-2014-season-opening-neutral-site-college-football-schedule

Cowboys Classic and Croke Park Classic are also on tap for Saturday.

[jbcarol]

Enter Steve Sarkisian, a top lieutenant of the Pete Carroll era who left to make his mark in the Pacific Northwest and returns to Troy unfazed by the championship-or-bust mentality.

"All of these guys come here to be the best, and that reminded me why I came back here. I want to be the best," Sarkisian said. "This place breeds that environment, that culture. That jumps out at you the moment you are on campus..."

[jbcarol]

Hugh Kellenberger ‏@HKellenbergerCL ·3h
SEC will make decision soon on future football schedules http://on.thec-l.com/1iDCiDA  via @clarionledger

Mike Slive says future football scheduling (eight or nine games) will be decided before meetings in Destin next month.

[jbcarol]

Mark Stoops: I don't wanna play nine SEC games.

Cecil Hurt ‏@CecilHurt ·17 hrs
Nick Saban says he still advocates a 9-game SEC schedule but adds "I don't think there's any support for that" after coaches' meeting today.

[jbcarol]

Josh Kendall ‏@JoshatTheState  6h
Steve Spurrier on SEC permanent rivals: "Alabama and Tennessee like each other. I don't know why Tennessee would keep liking them though."

Josh Kendall ‏@JoshatTheState  10h
Gamecocks 9-pt favorite over TAMU RT @KegsnEggs: We have actual college football point spreads. http://kegsneggsblog.com/2014/04/24/college-football-week-1-point-spreads-posted-at-5dimes/ ...

[jbcarol]

Auburn defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson is in favor of a nine-game SEC schedule.

Johnson's view is in opposition to Auburn coach Gus Malzahn, who has long been in favor of an eight-game league schedule with Georgia as the permanent East division.

http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/auburnauthority/2014/04/25/ellis-johnson-favors-a-nine-game-sec-schedule

[jbcarol]

It has started with Idaho and UNLV missing the 2014 postseason because of Academic Progress Rate violations. Could the bowl system itself now be in danger of not having enough eligible teams?

Idaho on Saturday became the second FBS school in the decade-long history of the APR to be hit with a postseason ban. UNLV was the first earlier this month. Both schools are banned from postseason play in 2014.

The sources -- intimately involved in the penalty phase of the APR -- expect the list of FBS schools to grow beyond two. One source said "at least three more" programs could be nicked.

Football Bowl Association executive Wright Waters says he was told by an NCAA official -- an additional source -- "there will be others," banned from the postseason. However, the entire list won't by known until mid-May, he was told.

If that's the case, Waters is worried.

"Absolutely," the former Sun Belt commissioner said.

APR penalties have largely touched Football Championship Subdivision schools (formerly Division I-AA) until this month.

With a record 39 bowls in 2014, the system is already operating on a razor-thin edge. There were 72 bowl-eligible teams for 70 spots (35 bowls) from 2010-2012 according to figures supplied by the FBA. The total grew to 79 for 70 spots in 2013.

That's an average of 73.75 bowl-eligible teams the last four years. The system will need a minimum of 76 teams in 2014. (The two national semifinal winners will "pass through" to the national championships game.)

"We're probably going to end up with a situation where we don't have enough teams," Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany told CBSSports.com.

If it all blows up in December, one bowl official said, affected bowls can't say, "I didn't know."

Ironically, if there aren't enough bowl-eligible teams for all the slots -- at least a 6-6 record -- bowls will be allowed to dip down to 5-7 eligibility. But those teams will be ranked by highest APR score.

"That would be an embarrassment," Delany said of a sub-.500 bowl team. "It could happen."

Schools must attain a minimum APR score of 930 out of 1,000. That number roughly equates to a 50 percent graduation rate. It is calculated over a four-year rolling average. The standard was raised in 2011 from 925.

[jbcarol]

Dave Matter @Dave_Matter  ·  2h
New at STLToday: SEC settles on football scheduling model, pitting Missouri vs Arkansas every year http://www.stltoday.com/sports/college/mizzou/eye-on-the-tigers/sec-sticks-with-eight-game-football-schedule---with/article_818073f7-8770-5cbf-a734-9783c4b9b547.html ...

Dave Matter @Dave_Matter  ·  3h
SEC will maintain cross-division rivals with new format: Missouri & Arkansas will play every year

Dave Matter @Dave_Matter  ·  3h
SEC football schedule format: Stick with 8 SEC games plus 1 noncon game vs ACC, Big 12, Big Ten or Pac-12 must be scheduled starting in 2016

[jbcarol]

Clay Travis ‏@ClayTravisBGID  2h
Miss. State, Texas A&M, Ole Miss & Vandy are only four schools in SEC not playing a Big 12, ACC, PAC 12 or Big Ten school in 2014.

[jbcarol]

Dennis Dodd ‏@dennisdoddcbs  30m
There is no firearm in existence that can shoot holes in SEC sked format. Sheer genius -- again. http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/writer/dennis-dodd/24542717/dont-shoot-holes-in-it-sec-scheduling-format-sheer-genius----again ...

[jbcarol]

Ross Dellenger ‏@DellengerAdv  1h
SEC votes to keep permanent cross-division opponent 10 to 4. Alleva ticked. Updated story - http://bit.ly/1jZURij  #LSU

Ross Dellenger ‏@DellengerAdv  1h
Florida's president voted to KEEP the cross-division permanent opponent. #LSU

Ross Dellenger ‏@DellengerAdv  1h
Alleva: "People are not voting in the interest of the league but voting in the interest of themselves." #LSU

Ross Dellenger ‏@DellengerAdv  1h
Alleva: "If you're Ole Miss and you're playing Vanderbilt (every year), are you going to vote against permanent partners?" #LSU

Ross Dellenger ‏@DellengerAdv  1h
Alleva before permanent-opp vote: "We share all of our revenues equally and our expenses, but we do not share our opponents equally." #LSU

Ross Dellenger ‏@DellengerAdv  2h
More Alleva: "LSU has played Florida and Georgia 19 times since 2000 and Bama has played them 8 times. Is that fair ?" #LSU

[jbcarol]

 The SEC Logo @SEC_Logo  ·  13h 
pic.twitter.com/KHezMcqssu




Chuck Dunlap @SEC_Chuck ·11h 
On the anniversary of the tornadoes in Tuscaloosa, horrible news coming out of Arkansas. Puts football schedules in proper perspective.

[jbcarol]

 Ross Dellenger @DellengerAdv  ·  1h 
Les Miles said leaders kept "biased" SEC schedule that "continues to be disproportionate." http://bit.ly/1k5bLvP  #LSU

[jbcarol]

http://espn.go.com/blog/sec/post/_/id/82439/debating-the-secs-future-schedule-model

ESPN's "Chris Low" of the B1G and Pac 12 weigh in on the SEC's schedule model

Ted Miller: Well, Adam, you knew it was coming. We live in an age when if you want to do something sneaky and con the public, you claim you are doing the opposite of your true intent. And then repeat it over and over again until some believe it really is opposite day.

Even we fall for it. Our ESPN.com headline says, "Schedule strength is SEC priority," when the opposite is actually the truth.

Adam Rittenberg: It makes me less excited about the playoff, for starters. Maybe I'm naïve, but I saw the playoff, with its purported emphasis on schedule strength, as the great equalizer in scheduling. Maybe it still will be, but I have my doubts.

You cover a league (Pac-12) that for years has employed the most challenging schedule model in the country: nine league games plus marquee nonconference contests. I cover a league (Big Ten) that has traditionally resided in cupcake city. But three factors -- the playoff, an expanded conference and an upcoming TV contract -- triggered the Big Ten to adopt a nine-game league schedule, no more FCS opponents in the near future and stronger nonleague opponents. This is good for the fans. Expansion might remain a sore subject for some, but the idea of playing each other more, not less, is a good one.

If every league had the same model -- nine league games, at least one marquee nonleague game, a championship game -- it would create a degree of equity, produce more appealing games for fans and allow the selection committee to evaluate teams with similar profiles...

[jbcarol]

Tejas AD

[Albert Einswine]

Tejas AD

Except everyone else doesn't do that while also playing an SEC schedule. This is always lost on those guys.