Thursday morning buffet

A few nibbles here, a few nibbles there:

• Mark Emmert is keeping his powder dry on whether to put Penn State on double secret probation.
• September could be a cruel month for some schools.
• Edward Aschoff calls Mark Richt a “bargain-priced” SEC head coach.
• Hey, Mark Bradley!  Over here!
• Today in stupid athletic director tricks:  Hawaii AD gets suspended for a $200K scam involving a fake Stevie Wonder concert.
• Patrick Garbin explores the issue of whether Aaron Murray is a “gamer”.
• A Bobby Bowden statue… in Birmingham?
• A.J. Green’s “agent” goes to jail.
• Leonard Floyd is going to prep school, hopes to be back in Athens in January.
• Bobby Petrino, teaching experience.

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Bobby Bowden haz a iPad.

Evidently you don’t need much more than that to be considered worthy of serving on a football playoff selection committee.

“No person is better equipped to handle the pressure that would go with being on that committee than an ex-coach,” former Texas A&M coach R.C. Slocum told ESPN.com. “We’ve seen a lot more pressure than being on a poll.”

That explains why they do such a bang up job with the Coaches Poll.

Tuesday morning buffet

Random bits and nuggets to nosh on:

• Whatever else is going on in the wake of expansion/realignment, it has to suck waking up this morning and realizing you’re the WAC.
• Will Collier catches Chris Low with a math error.
• Mike Bianchi is right:  compared with what the NCAA socked Southern Cal with, FSU got off lightly.
• Blitzology looks at some offensive protection schemes and how they handle the 3-4.
• Turnover in the SEC – only four players from last year’s All-SEC first team are back this season.
• This is cold.
• Junior gets his first post-sanction commitment.  Wild Boyz!
• Now that the Big Ten has finished expanding, we can fret about its new name.  I think Delanyland has a nice ring to it.
• It probably won’t surprise you to learn that Notre Dame boasts the most expensive season ticket price in college football.

Wednesday morning buffet

Grab your plate and get your day started…

• I missed this when it was initially posted, but Ivan Maisel shares something Texas AD DeLoss Dodds has to say about slowing down the conference expansion talk:  “Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds believes all the nerves on edge because of expansion could be calmed if the NCAA passed legislation removing the minimum of 12 members needed to stage a conference championship game. Then there would be no need to add members in order to jumpstart revenue…” Okay, but then what would be the point of playing a round robin schedule in the Big East or Pac-10?
• This isn’t about football, but I’m not pleased that Kentucky was able to out-recruit Georgia for this student-athlete.  A school with our obvious resources should never lose out on a player like Fetch.
• Spencer Hall is rather colorfully upset with Turner Gill’s decision to ban cursing at Kansas’ practices.
• Bobby Bowden’s tower stood empty on FSU’s first day of spring practice.
• The header on Mike Hugenin’s preview of South Carolina says it all.
• Don’t miss this look back at one of my favorite Dawgs of all time, Jake Scott.  I think of him every time I walk up to Stegeman.
• And cocknfire posts the mother of all did-Urban Meyer-do-Tim Tebow-right examinations.

Monday morning buffet

No snow, federal holiday… things could be worse.

• Bobby Bowden wasn’t too keen on the coach/ambassador slot FSU offered him to clear the way for Jimbo Fisher to become head coach:  “It reminded me of Barney Fife. They gave him a gun, but they won’t let him put the bullet in there.”
• Regardless of whomever winds up starting at quarterback, Aaron Murray is pretty pumped about Georgia’s offense this season:  “We have an unbelievable offense for next season. You look at the offensive line; we have, like, seven or eight [players with starting experience].  The skill positions are unbelievable. It’s not going to be all on your shoulders. We have a great running game, two great young running backs. With that offensive line, we should put up some great numbers on the running game.”
• The sports media adapts – at least, the writers do.
• Jon Tenuta’s career arc begins to descend.
• Matt Melton does his annual SDPI thing, starting with the ACC.  Surprisingly, Georgia Tech wasn’t as dominant on offense, or as mediocre on defense as the common wisdom made the Jackets out to be.  But that Virginia offense was every bit as putrid as we thought.
• Earlier, I missed this quote from Terrence Cody on a college football playoff, but I take it he’s not a fan:  “That’s stupid,” Cody said earlier this week. “I don’t think there should be any playoff. Why should there be a playoff? I mean, in the NFL they’re getting paid to play off and stuff.”
• More antitrust logic from that bastion of clear thinking, Bleacher Report.  Dude, among several things you don’t get, the NCAA has nothing to do with the money from the D-1 football postseason.
• Trojan Football Analysis takes a look at Monte Kiffin’s defensive philosophy and draws this conclusion: “Bottom line I don’t expect a whole lot of change in terms of defensive schemes…but I do expect better results than the defensive debacles versus Oregon and Stanford in 2009.” Maybe so, but a quick look at Tennessee’s defensive stats last season don’t indicate that Monte had particularly great success against spread attacks.

Gone, but not… oh, never mind.

Amidst the announcement that Florida State is vacating 12 of Diddy’s football wins, comes word that the fan base has taken that news very, very hard.

… According to FSU, renewal of booster memberships is up 90 percent compared to early 2009, while monetary gifts have jumped 17 percent.

Florida State’s ticket office has reported an 80 percent increase in new sales and ticket renewals have skyrocketed. By this time last year, the ticket office had 423 renewals. This year, they have 2,327, a spike of 450 percent.

Tuesday brunch buffet

A few late morning nuggets for your viewing pleasure:

• Paying Mack Brown $5 million per year is “unseemly” in the eyes of some UT faculty members.
• What Zooker’s paying Paul Petrino to be his offensive coordinator next season will raise a few eyebrows.
• Jimbo Fisher sees some good in having been a coach-in-waiting.
• Gordon Gee reiterates his longstanding playoffs-over-my-dead-body position.
• Urban Meyer talks to Tyrone Nix.  Urban Meyer has known Tyrone Nix a long time.  But Urban Meyer hasn’t offered a job to Tyrone Nix, because nobody says “no” to Urban Meyer.
• This is as good a smackdown of political involvement in the D-1 football postseason as I’ve read.
• The Big Ten evidently is considering adding another school and a playoff game.

Thursday morning buffet

Believe it or not, there are other things going on in the college football world today.

• Louisville hasn’t spoken with Charlie Strong yet.  Phil Fulmer, on the other hand…
• Ari Fleischer has been, is and always will be a douchebag of the first order.  What the BCS sees in him I have no idea.
• Stewart Mandel says the Gator Bowl can invite a 6-6 FSU team to play this season in Bobby Bowden’s last game as head coach.  The Gator Bowl says the ACC had better believe that.
• What is it about schools that make them think they should get away with heavy-handed crap like this?
• Ivan Maisel interviews four SEC coaches about Alabama vs. Florida.  Their conclusion?  It’s all about Tebow, baby.
• Today’s “Jane, you ignorant slut” exchange:  Jerry makes the case for why Auburn is as worthy as any 7-5 SEC school to play in the Outback Bowl and cocknfire counterpunches.

Thursday morning buffet

Here are a few tempting morsels to whet your college football appetite.

• Aron White plays the “woulda, shoulda” card regarding the Florida game:  “My hat’s off to them because they’re a great team, but I don’t feel that they’re unbeatable by any means. I feel like if we’d have come and had a little more focus, we could have came out with a ‘W.’ ” Oy.
• The Locksley punch-out story gets stranger and stranger.
• So does the Slick-Rick-gets-ripped-on-Facebook story.
• What happens if Diddy picks Chuck Amato to succeed Mickey Andrews as the FSU defensive coordinator?  ‘Cause I’m betting that the Chest ain’t Jimbo’s first choice.  Or his fifty-third, for that matter.
• If this is accurate, shame on every D-1 school that’s turned Boise State down.
• If you haven’t seen this yet, take a minute and watch.   It’s pretty damned cool.
• Oh, puhleeze.
• Mark Richt channels his inner Vince Dooley with this classic quote about Tennessee Tech:  “Just looking at the film throughout the year, they might be the best-coached kick return team we’ve played…”
• Speaking of Mark Richt, Joe at Coaches Hot Seat Blog has some advice for him regarding strength and conditioning.

Bobby Bowden’s writing on the navel

This may go down as Diddy’s epitaph.

“Bobby Bowden refusin 2 step down is like when ur grandparents refuse 2 give up their car keys,” FSU superfan and former SI.com contributor Jenn Sterger tweeted Monday. “We luv u, just tired of u crashing into [stuff]!”

My friends, when you’ve lost Jenn Sterger, you’ve lost America.