You’re welcome, Mr. Blank.

Maybe it’s the libertarian in me.  Maybe it’s the reaction I had yesterday listening to a mom who works in my office complain that the public high school her son will be attending next year requires payment of a thousand dollars for him to participate in the band while the state legislature continues to whack the hell out of the education budget…

The recession and a sluggish economic recovery, meanwhile, crunched Georgia’s state budget and forced deep cuts into areas like education. The state owes local school districts more than $5 billion collectively — Atlanta-area school districts are millions of dollars short. In 2011, the state cut $403 million from its education budget after taking cuts of $300 million and $275 million in the previous two years.

… but the idea that the state is going to hand over $300 million dollars in tax revenue so the Falcons can enjoy a new, more profitable home offends the crap out of me.  Jeff Schultz is right – it’s not that Arthur Blank is a villain or merely even a lousy owner – the Georgia Dome works just fine.  If the Falcons want to make more money, Blank should do it the old-fashioned way.

Of course, who am I kidding here?  Not myself, certainly.  Blank is doing it the old-fashioned way.  It’s just another reflection of our out-sized vision of the role of organized sports in our society and our government as enabler of same.  It’s how you get college football coaches who are routinely among the highest paid state employees across the country.  We may not get the priorities we deserve, but we do tend to get the ones we like.

Just remember to take some pride in it when the first SECCG rolls into town at the new facility (which will boast less seating than the Dome, by the way).  After all, in one form or fashion, you will have helped pay for it.

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Craig James is running to save us from Mike Leach.

Simply unbelievable.

He just wants to sue somebody, damn it.

Even as it looks like the BCS is going to be superseded by another postseason format, Mark Shurtleff is still making plans to file his antitrust case.

With the possible end of the BCS on the horizon, Mark Shurtleff still remains determined to see the sun set on the 14-year old system.

The Utah attorney general is forging ahead with his year-old and often-delayed plans to sue the BCS. Shurtleff’s legal strategy actually now accounts for the possible dissolution of the Bowl Championship Series at the same time commissioners decide on college football’s postseason future beginning in 2014. His office recently posted online detailed requests for proposal soliciting law firms to assist in his anti-trust challenge of the BCS.

Among those to be considered as “possible adverse parties” in any future legal action, according to the document, are the NCAA, BCS, the BCS bowls, the six BCS conferences and any radio or TV partner.

He’s turning into college football’s Hiroo Onoda.

The audacity of a plus-one

And you guys thought I was kidding about Republican objections to Obama’s opinion about a D-1 playoff.

Thursday morning buffet

Rise and shine, campers.

• Looking to learn a little about Georgia’s first SEC opponent this coming season?  Seth Emerson gets some answers out of a Missouri beat writer for you.
• Speaking of Missouri, Gary Pinkel is a little bit of a dreamer.
• No doubt you’ll be surprised to learn that no progress was made yesterday on the SEC scheduling front.
• You know, this might work:  “Greg McGarity suggested last week on Barnhart and Durham on WQXI 790 The Zone in Atlanta that the conference could play six divisional games, one permanent cross-division game and then rotate single cross-division games on a six-year cycle.”  It has the virtue of saving the big rivalry games.  As for the rest, TV would be fine with it, even if it’s not any better for the fans attending games.
• Alamo Bowl official thinks there’s nothing wrong with bowl ratings that the calendar and avoiding a rematch in the title game can’t fix.
• What is it with Texas Tech head coaches and lawsuits?
• Given that Obama has reiterated his support for a college football playoff, I guess we can expect the Republican party to come out strongly against it any minute now.
• Here’s a little something I bet you didn’t know about the Butler family:  “Dad was called ‘Butthead,’ ” the younger Butler said, with obvious pride. “Everybody just calls me ‘Butt.’ I don’t know what the deal is with that. But it’s just Butt for me.”  Beavis was already taken, I suppose.

Friday morning buffet

Grab a plate and do your thing.

• SOD defends signing Deion Bonner.  Sure sounds noble, but I still wouldn’t want to be the guy with the locker next to Bonner.
• Mark Richt thinks the way to improve last year’s horrendous showing on special teams is with personnel.  We’ll find out, because he’s not making any changes in the coaching assignments.
• Matt Hayes’ piece on the plus-one is a perfect exercise in cynicism.  Well, almost perfect:  “The biggest problem I have with the Group of 12 — all good men trying to do the right thing — is they’re being pushed into a situation they want no part of.”  Yeah, right.
• There’s no way the WWL can bring back Craig James after his Texas Senate campaign goes up in smoke, is there?
• Rating 2011′s  college quarterbacks by QB score (“if you generate yards and avoid turnovers, you will be rewarded”) yields some different results than does the standard passer rating formula.
• “The biggest thing I took from working with Coach Meyer was that Xs and Os are about one percent of why we were successful (at Florida) and why we will be successful here.”
• List of projected SEC quarterback starters in order of career wins here.
• Georgia isn’t wasting any time filling the slots that opened up in the defensive backfield.

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UPDATE:  Promises, promises.

Asked ESPN PR following Q today: How would Craig James's political comments be weighed by ESPN/Disney regarding any attempt to get re-hired?—
Richard Deitsch (@richarddeitsch) February 24, 2012

Responded an ESPN spokesperson:"You are asking a hypothetical since we don’t intend to bring Craig [James] back." So it's on the record.—
Richard Deitsch (@richarddeitsch) February 24, 2012

ESPN, we’re holding your ass to this, understand?  (h/t Doug)

Tuesday morning buffet

Time to grab a bite.

• Gordon Gee continues to say the darnedest things.
• Mike Bianchi doubles down on the Urban Meyer bashing.
• With the new kickoff rules, the NCAA intends to monitor directional kicking.
• Wishful thinking:  “Every day Craig shares his message with voters, he gathers more support,” said Meredith Turney, a spokeswoman for James.
• Harvey Updyke’s lawyer:  Wess has argued previously that the trees, which are the focal point of post-game celebrations, are not venerated objects because they are “routinely rolled with toilet paper.”  It’s gonna be a fun trial.
• Jordan Jenkins has the lowdown on some position moves on Georgia’s defense.
• SEC coaches were wrong about the effects of an expanded conference schedule the last time it happened.
• The Red and Black gets its groove back:  writer admits she doesn’t know the facts behind the Commings suspension as well as Richt, but still finds the coach to have been too lenient in his treatment of the player.

Craig James’ latest kiss of death

Everyone’s favorite former ESPN commenter switches his Presidential endorsement from Rick Perry to Rick Santorum (maybe he’s just partial to Ricks).

If James wants to do his party a favor, he ought to endorse Obama.

Friday morning buffet

Some traditions soldier on.

• When one door closes on a Samoan lineman, another opens for one.
• Mark Emmert’s tough new enforcement regime sees the light of day today.  Can’t wait to see how that goes over with the membership.
• “… black college quarterbacks are not viewed as positively as white quarterbacks for their leadership on the football field, according to research published in the December 2011 issue of the Academy of Management Journal.”
• More “I blame Bobo” for you.
• Only eighteen schools have been able to keep the same nine assistant coaches on staff since the end of the season.
• Ed Kilgore explores Craig James’ negative media problems.
• Chris Sanders is on his way to Georgia Military College.
• Finally, something Nick Saban didn’t get his way on:  “I talked to my dear friend Nick Saban about that, and, like me, he said, ‘I would like West Virginia in the SEC,’ and we were working toward that.”
• No doubt Jimmy Williamson is taking notes on this.
• Georgia’s secondary this season may be thin but it’s talented.

“This is a bad place to have a personal vendetta, I can tell you that.”

If a couple of hillbillies got into a big enough pissing match over their two beloved college teams, you could expect blood to be spilt.

That’s not quite how it goes when such folk happen to be members of the United States Senate (h/t Dr. Saturday), probably because liquor isn’t involved.  But it’s close.