There’s more than one way to spice a rivalry up.

Lane Kiffin just hired Nick Saban’s top recruiter away from ‘Bama.  No word on the salary yet.

‘Bama fans, this is one you can’t blame on Fulmer.

Good intentions and that well-traveled road to hell

Another courageous politician, Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., the incoming chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, intends to take a look at the BCS in the hopes of motivating D-1 football towards a full-blown playoff.

“Nobody questions the Super Bowl. The team that wins is the best team that year. I think we can do the same thing at the college level where once it’s over there is no questions about who is No. 1 and who is No. 2.”

…

“I really feel that you can’t leave it as is,” Towns said. “Right now, if you ask what the No. 1 team is, a lot of people would say USC. Others would say Texas and if you ask anybody in the state of Utah, they would say their team was the best. I want to get a system that has credibility.”

Doc Saturday notes that, considering the Congressional committee involved here, the likelihood that this will degenerate into little more than grandstanding is fairly high (although he thinks this is more evidence that the good ship BCS is taking on more water than it can handle and stay afloat).

Maybe yes, maybe no.  But here’s what I want to know.  Let’s say the politicians succeed in imposing a playoff on D-1 football.  After the cheers from the adoring multitudes fade, will anyone have considered the dark side of this sort of political manipulation?  Does something like this help bring that question into focus?

I hear it’s a bitch to get camels’ noses out of tents.

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More thoughts on a pleasant offseason

By the way, Matt Hayes is a complete douchebag for writing this.  And that last line – Now we’re left with student union leftovers – ought to be next season’s rallying cry.

Fine for me, but not for thee.

You’ve gotta love the comment thread to David Hale’s post about the likelihood that Reshad Jones has had a change of heart about leaving for the NFL.

After reading a number of comments savaging the entire 2006 recruiting class because some of its members have committed the unpardonable sin of wanting to earn a living, commenter “papadawg” fires back with this salvo:

Why in hell would Reshad want to leave a school where an extremely vocal contingent of the fan base constantly bitches and moans, calls for the firing of several coaches, and (most importantly) calls him out personally?

…

If it were me, I would DEFINITELY pass up the opportunity to pay for more money than I’ll ever see…just to return to my good ol’ alma mater that loves me so dearly…

While I think he’s just as guilty of painting with too wide a brush as those he criticizes, I do think he’s spot on in pointing out that it’s a bit rich for those who’ve been taking Jones to task in harsh, yet anonymous terms to be whining about loyalty right now.  Especially when you figure that if most of these folks were in the same shoes as Stafford, Moreno, Allen and Jones, they’d probably be making a similar decision.