We knew it was coming.

Surprise, surprise.

Ladies and gentlemen, Knowshon Moreno is your SEC freshman of the year.  Unanimously so.

As a sidenote, it’s interesting that McFadden was named offensive player of the year and not Tebow. Could that be a foreshadowing of the Heisman vote?

Doesn’t it come with chips?

Just another day in paradise, aka Gainesville, Florida, for Gator starting defensive end Jermaine Cunningham:

According to a Gainesville Police report, Cunningham and former Gator linebacker Jon Demps got into an argument with an employee at Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwich shop, located on University Avenue. When the employee reportedly told Cunningham and Demps they had to pay for a bag of potato chips, Cunningham and Demps became “verbally abusive” and began throwing items, including empty soda cups and a sandwich, at the employee.

Cunningham and Demps left the store, and were arrested on campus at 2:49 a.m.

According to records from the Alachua County Jail, he was booked at 3:56 a.m. and was still at the jail at 10:30 a.m.

There’s nothing worse than getting a serious case of the munchies at two in the morning.

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But Fox does have those cool robot graphics.

Boy, am I eagerly looking forward to Fox’s in-depth coverage of the Sugar Bowl.

Today, the AJ-C treats us to this: “(f)ormer Tennessee defensive back Charles Davis, who’ll serve as color analyst for Fox’s coverage of the Sugar Bowl, gives us five reasons Georgia … shouldn’t take Hawaii for granted…”

And about those five reasons? Here’s my favorite one:

3. Defense. Yes, defense. (Coached by former Falcons head coach Jerry Glanville.) Hawaii moved from a final Division I-A ranking of 93rd in 2006 to 33rd in 2007, and pitched a second-half shutout of Washington with the season on the line.

That’s sure sounds insightful to me. Except there’s one teeny, tiny, little catch – Jerry Glanville isn’t Hawaii’s defensive coordinator. He was prior to this season, but left to become the head coach at Portland State in 2007.

Can’t wait to hear what Charles thinks Hawaii should be worried about. Maybe he’ll give kudos to Neil Callaway for the great job done by the Georgia offensive line this season.

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UPDATE: The AJ-C has updated the photo spread and removed the reference to and photo of Glanville. It’s kinda like what the Soviets did with Stalin after he died.

Clean, old-fashioned blindness

Tony Barnhart, on the Georgia Tech head coaching search:

… Will Muschamp, the Auburn defensive coordinator, fit the bill of an energetic young coach. But Muschamp was told that the fact that he is a Georgia graduate was something that could not be overcome.

Seriously? I mean, rivalries are great and all, but if you let something like that color your head coaching search… jeebus. I have no idea if Muschamp is ready to be a head coach, but I do know that he’s coached at two other SEC schools in the last five years, so he seems to be able to handle the emotional attachment to the dear ol’ alma mater thing just fine.

If Tech is willing to walk away from a viable candidate simply because he’s a Georgia guy, that speaks volumes about the depth of institutional insecurity to which that program has fallen.

“Are those people worth it? Of course not.”

According to USA Today, the average salary for a major college head coach has now topped $1 million per year. Again, salary – that doesn’t include perks and bonuses (including Dink NeSmith’s wet dream) that may be paid on top of that figure.

At least 50 coaches are making seven figures, seven more than a year ago. At least a dozen are pulling down $2 million or more, up from nine in 2006. Last season, Stoops was the only one making more than $3 million…

… On Thursday — four days after Miles and Louisiana State landed a berth in college football’s national championship game and five days after he ruled out a move to Michigan — LSU’s Board of Supervisors will gather in Baton Rouge and likely approve an extension of his contract through 2012. It figures to make Miles a $3-million-a-year man.

Another one.

Four coaches — Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops, Alabama’s Nick Saban, Florida’s Urban Meyer and Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz — already have cracked the $3 million mark, leading a spiral that shows no sign of slowing…

Tommy Bowden, who in nine seasons at Clemson sports an overall record there of 69-41 (62.7% winning percentage) , an ACC record of 42-30 (58.33% winning percentage), has never won an ACC or division title and has a losing record in bowl games, just signed a contract extension that will reportedly raise his salary to around $2.2 million per year.

Tommy Tuberville, who led his Auburn squad to an 8-4 regular season record in 2007, agreed to a two-year contract extension that will make his average salary for the next six years around $3.3 million.

And then there’s Les Miles.

Miles, who’s making $1.8 million this season, already had three salary escalators in his contract.

Two require LSU to make him at least the SEC’s fifth-highest paid coach if the Tigers win 10 games and third-highest if they claim a conference championship; the third guarantees he’ll become the nation’s third-highest paid coach if LSU wins the national title. The stipulations are included in his new agreement.

The 10 wins and SEC championship are in hand, the latter secured with a 21-14 victory against Tennessee. That makes Auburn’s Tommy Tuberville the immediate earnings target for Miles and LSU.

Very nice.

Well, except for this:

At LSU, there appears to be no pause. Miles likely will go from a $10 million guarantee over five years to $15 million.

Bertman says Miles’ raise likely will result in an increase in ticket prices (currently topping out at $45 a game) or preferred-seat licenses (now as high as $500 a game in addition to the ticket price).

No likely end in sight, either.

“Is this a favorable trend? The answer is: Of course not,” says LSU Chancellor Sean O’Keefe, who worked out the new deal with Miles. “That said, it’s also market dynamics. The value of things is determined by the demand that exists. There’s nothing unfair about that.”

Especially when you do the math involved with big college athletic departments.

At LSU, a football team that finished 11-2 and ranked No. 3 in 2006 accounted for 63% of the school’s athletics revenue for the year. It also accounted for a lion’s share of the spending — more than $16 million — but turned an almost $32 million profit that helped underwrite the school’s non-moneymaking sports.

Not all athletics departments are self-supporting, however. The NCAA’s latest data shows that more than four of every five major-college sports programs need institutional subsidies, student fees and other supplements to balance their budgets.

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UPDATE: It looks like Jimbo Fisher won’t be missing too many meals, either. $1 million a year for an assistant coach – wow…