Laying down the law

Two final spring football stories for your amusement:

• Phil Fulmer has had enough.  He’s sick and tired of his players getting into trouble.  He doesn’t want any phone calls at 2 in the morning.  So what’s the gameplan?  Something you figure they’ve already tried in Knoxville:

… He said he would meet individually with at least 40 players leading up to fall camp to remind them to represent the program positively.

“I want to look them in the eye,” Fulmer said. “We’ll have some heart-to-heart discussions.”

• No alcohol at Iowa State’s spring practice tailgates?  While Michael Adams might approve, even the school’s athletic director is appalled.  (Bonus points for the Cool Hand Luke reference in the article.)

(h/t The Wizard of Odds)

If he told you, he’d probably have to kill you.

Will the Gators compete for an SEC title and a shot at the MNC? Urban Meyer will know this summer – but he won’t be telling anybody:

“I probably would never tell you [when he knows] because that would be too much pressure on a football team, but I’ll know in July if we’re going to compete for a championship,” Meyer said earlier this spring.

Just like he knew last year, and kept it to himself.

“I’ll tell you after the fact,” Meyer added. “Like last year, no chance. Zero. We’re going to still go and fight, fight, fight, win, win, win, and all that other stuff, but you could tell. …

As inspiration, “fight, fight, fight, win, win, win, and all that other stuff” leaves a little something to be desired. It’s no “finish the drill”, that’s for sure. Let alone this.

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UPDATE: Maybe there’s more not to discuss than chemistry. Percy Harvin’s surgery sounds pretty gruesome, for one.

Meyer was in Ohio to spend time with family last week, but said he has spoken frequently with star WR Percy Harvin, who is recovering from surgery on his right heel. That surgery, which required the doctor to drill two holes in Harvin’s heel and remove some bone, will force Harvin into a months-long rehab program. Meyer remains hopefully Harvin will be able to participate in summer conditioning and will be 100 percent healthy by the time training camp opens in August. “It’s going to be a lengthy deal,” Meyer said. “He’s going to have to be real disciplined about it. The biggest concern is infection at this point, and doing something he’s not supposed to do. But we’re very positive.”

And it sounds like the red carpet is being rolled out for a certain incoming recruit.

That line trouble has coaches on what Meyer called “Omar Hunter watch.” “May 11 he rolls into Gainesville, and guess who is going to be there to meet him,” Meyer said. “Not a GA. The head duck.”

Road trippin’

There’s a very nice article in the Birmingham News about this year’s mission trip to Honduras by Coach Richt and about two dozen of his players.

If Georgia’s national championship aspirations blossom in 2008, expect to see the national media go back and revisit this story.

Credibility is a relative term.

Just a quick reminder about what an upfront, straight talker Charlie Weis is.

March 21, 2007 (h/t The Wizard of Odds):

Question: “You say everyone is full to go, and last time we talked, you said Clausen …”

Weis: “He’s full to go. Contrary to recent reports, he’s full to go, too. By the way, just so we can clear that one up, the only one who will answer for the health of our players will be me. So next time, we can just keep it that way, because I’ll do the answering for the health of our players.”

April 20, 2008:

… Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis admitted after the contest that Clausen didn’t have the arm strength to make that throw at any time last season. Clausen, who started nine games last season, had a bone spur removed from his right elbow last summer.

”He could never make that throw,” Weis said. ”Even at the end of the year, he couldn’t have thrown it that far.”

Another BCS rant

One little innocent e-mail comment – I see that Congress is going to look into the sham that is the BCS. Maybe now you and every other BCS apologist will see it for what it is: the rich getting richer. – and TSN’s Matt Hayes goes off on a tear.

Yeah, it’s patronizing, but he makes a couple of points worthy of comment:

… A playoff makes the regular season virtually meaningless, and frankly, isn’t going to help the little guy any more than you think. The little guy’s access to the big tournament would be limited.

There is no way — NO WAY — a champion from one of the Little Five conferences is going to be among the eight teams selected for a playoff. Believe me, if voting is ever part of a playoff formula, you’ll be “surprised” how votes change on a weekly basis…

… Here’s some more news: a majority of Division I coaches don’t want a playoff. That’s right, they want to keep the bowl system. Why, you ask? Because it’s the fabric of the game. It’s unique and it’s unlike any other sport. Why homogenize it and make it irrelevant?

I have no idea if the second point is valid, but in one sense, it’s probably irrelevant, as the coaches aren’t going to be involved in the ultimate decision making about a D-1 playoff. Still, if true, it’s just one more group of folks that will resist a big change.

However, Hayes’ first point is on the mark. Unless control of the postseason is wrestled away from the conference commissioners and presidents and given to the NCAA, what makes anybody think that a limited subjective playoff is going to be any more inclusive of the non-BCS conferences than the current setup? Face it – the BCS title game already is a limited subjective playoff. Going from two to four or even eight schools isn’t going to change the composition of the participants in any substantial way.

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UPDATE: Tony Barnhart has a post up in response to Reps. Abercrombie, Simpson and Westmoreland that contains an historical reminder about how the BCS came to be.  Pertinent part here:

… In 1984 the United States Supreme Court (surely you’ve heard of them) ruled that individual schools, not the NCAA, owned the television rights to college football games. The schools delegate their rights to their respective conferences, who have the authority to negotiate TV contracts.

The BCS contract is between the six major conferences and two networks (FOX, ABC). Each of those six conference champs gets an automatic bid to a BCS bowl. Without that guarantee, there would have been no deal. There are access points to the BCS for the other five conferences that have been negotiated. Everybody involved has signed off on the agreement.

Good stuff, although I suspect Dawg fans will latch on to this assertion instead:  “And I believe Georgia wouldn’t have beaten LSU in the SEC championship game.”