Urban Meyer eyes the I(-formation).

Over at Team Speed Kills, Year2 argues that some of us in the blogosphere are overreacting to the suggestion that Urban Meyer is contemplating moving his quarterbacks under center and running some of that old time I-formation stuff.

I’d like to interrupt this week’s Tennessee coverage briefly to go over something that has been thrown around by Smart Football, Spencer Hall (a.k.a. Orson from EDSBS), Senator Blutarsky, Rocky Top Talk, and I have no doubt others as well lately. It’s the notion that Urban Meyer incorporating pro-style elements into his offense will be some kind of earth-shattering change.

In the immortal words of Jules Winnfield…

My argument isn’t that the earth is going to move if Meyer occasionally inserts a fullback into the game (who’s the Gator fullback, anyway?), it’s that embracing the I-formation is unlikely to make the Gator offense better, or even allow it to hold serve at the level it’s currently performing.

Look at one of Year2’s points.

… Well, the big theory from spring practice was that hiring pro-style QB coach Scot Loeffler and adding some under center stuff was to get Tebow ready for the draft. There may be some truth to that; I’d be surprised if there wasn’t. However, Florida ran plenty of under center sets while Chris Leak was the quarterback (35% in the Ohio State game, for instance). The offensive staff has done it before and can do it again.

Sure it can, but do it well?  Does anybody remember the Gator offensive juggernauts of ’05 and ’06?  Of Meyer almost being reduced to tears after the 2005 LSU game (how many times have you seen a ranked team lose a game in which it was +5 in turnover margin)?  The 2006 Gators were the first team in conference history to reach the SECCG without breaking 30 points on offense in a single SEC regular season game.  That’s not the most compelling track record I’ve seen.

But, hey, if the move works and the Gator offense doesn’t miss a beat, I’ll be the first one to tip my cap.  From where I sit right now, though, it’s a vanity project that’ll be trotted out this year with little negative impact given the strength of the defense and the weakness of the schedule.  We’ll see how it plays out in 2010 when the post-GPOOE™ rubber meets the road.

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In a shocking development…

One of the most amusing things about the logic of people like Orrin Hatch and Craig Thompson is this almost child-like faith that if only someone can find the right lever, or manner of persuasion, the BCS conferences will see the proverbial light and share the wealth with those schools less fortunate.

You need to quit kidding yourselves, fellas.  The BCS conferences don’t even do that so much among their own.

Georgia signs an incredibly lucrative deal with ISP Sports for media rights.  That’s one of the things that lets the school pay North Texas $975,000 to come to Athens and get its brains beat out (hopefully).  Meanwhile, fellow conference school Mississippi State can’t afford that luxury.

“Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly I-A) schools are asking for, and in some cases receiving, $1 million as a guarantee for playing road games. We currently gross just a little over $1 million in revenue for a home game. Thus, it is challenging for us to schedule straight-up guarantee games with FBS opponents. A solution is to schedule home-and-home series, where each school plays a home game against each other in a two-year agreement, where no guarantee payment is necessary.  The drawback is that if the other three non-conference games are home-and-home series, we would alternate between seven and six home games.  However, many FBS opponents are willing to take a smaller guarantee if they can get an SEC opponent to play at their place. For instance, the recent three-game agreement announced by  South Alabama calls for two games in Starkville and one in Mobile. In the additional game played in Starkville, we are paying USA $350,000. These are called two-for-ones (two game at one site, one at the other).  Two-for-ones give us the best chance to schedule seven home games each season and, at the same time, schedule in a way that gives our team the best competitive opportunity to become bowl eligible. Two-for-ones also give us the best chance of being fiscally responsible on what we pay as game guarantees.”

And the SEC is actually one of the better conferences when it comes to sharing the wealth from TV contracts and bowl revenues.  For comparison, check out the revenue figures from the Big XII.

Big 12 South
Total Revenue – Football Revenue
1. Texas $120.3 million – $72.9 milion
2. OSU $88.5 million – $23 million
3. OU $77 million – $41 million
4. A&M $74.8 million – $42.5 million
5. Baylor $44 million – $11 million
6. Tech $42.8 million – $20.2 million

Big 12 North
Total Revenue – Football Revenue
1. Kansas $86 million – $15 million
2. Nebraska $78.4 million – $49 million
3. Colorado $56.5 million – $28.7 million
4. Missouri $49 million – $19 million
5. KSU $48 million – $21.9 million
6. Iowa St. $38.6 million – $17.4 million

How does anyone there keep up with Texas?

I know it’s hard to believe, but in life, the rich tend to get richer.  And one way they do that is by not sharing too much with the less well off.  No matter how much of a nudge they’re given, the power conferences aren’t going to see the light suddenly and start shoveling money to San Diego State.

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UPDATE: Another amusing delusion comes from Joe, at Coaches Hot Seat Blog, who proves, with geometric logic, that the BCS conferences are leaving at least a half billion dollars on the table by not embracing a playoff.  Keep in mind that Joe has this to say in the same post:  “The WAC has been playing some very good to great football for a number of years now, and these undefeated WAC teams cannot get a shot at playing for the national championship.” Sure, man.

Thursday morning buffet

There are a few tasty morsels out there worth sampling today.

• If there were a vote for worst college athletic director of the decade, former Kansas State AD Bob Krause would be a runaway winner.  How could the school not have monitored his management better?  And doesn’t school counsel sound a bit overwhelmed by it all?
• Bruce Feldman ranks the schools with the eight easiest non-conference schedules.  Leading the way is the SEC, with three on his list.
• I’m not sure what irritates me more – this post at Bleacher Report, or that the AJ-C’s Dawg blogger, Bill King, actually linked to it.
• It looks like Michael Elkon is getting warmed up for the return of Stewart Mandel.
• Amazing – a roundtable discussion about the most overrated teams in 2009, and not a single mention of Notre Dame.  Is the schedule that soft, or are people already that far in the bag for the Irish?
• So Georgia State takes on Alabama in 2010.  Everybody is focusing on Bill Curry’s return to the scene of the crime, but I’m wondering why Saban didn’t take the opportunity to play the game in the Dome and get a little extra showcasing for recruits done.  No doubt Paul Johnson is relieved.
• Dennis Dodd thinks he smells a double standard in the media’s focus on Florida players’ legal woes.  That’ll only be the case if everyone is still on Meyer’s arse about it next year.  Otherwise, chalk it up to short attention spans, dude.
• David Hale takes a look at some returning numbers in the SEC.  One thing’s for sure after looking at those – the potential for the South Carolina offense to be a train wreck is virtually off-the-charts.