I had no idea brackets could be so exciting.

So this is what you guys mean by “settling it on the field”.

Creative financing on the Flats

When I saw the details of the deal Al Groh struck with Georgia Tech on the defensive coordinator position, I wondered why the pay structure didn’t catch his former boss’ eye.

It looks like Craig Littlepage has finally caught on.

… So, how did Georgia Tech get Groh for less than half the going rate? Virginia is making up the difference.

Groh, fired by U.Va. with two years left on his contract, has a severance package worth more than $4 million. His contract with Virginia also has a clause saying that severance paid would be reduced by whatever amount Groh made elsewhere as an assistant or head coach.

Georgia Tech, though, has agreed to pay Groh a minimum bonus of $321,000 on or before Jan. 12, 2012, “regardless whether he’s still employed by Tech,” the Journal Constitution reported.

Virginia athletic director Craig Littlepage said earlier this week that he was aware of the Journal-Constitution piece and the situation was “being reviewed.”

Pretty clever, hunh?

… Groh did not return a voice message on the subject, and Georgia Tech athletic director Dan Radakovich said by phone that the school’s policy is not “to talk about those things.”

If by “those things” he means screwing another school out of 300 large, I wouldn’t talk about it either.

Saturday morning buffet

Sit, sit… eat, eat.

• Three teams in the SEC West with eight home games this year… and none in the East.  That seems fair.
• Steve Spurrier, pioneer of the fist bump.
• Deck chairs on the Titanic.
• Rex Robinson makes a good point about why Georgia isn’t always going to be on the mind of five-star recruits.
• Teryl Austin’s resume.  Sometimes the old saw is true – it is whom you know as much as what you know that counts.
• David Hale sums up the salaries for Georgia’s new assistant staff.  Outside of Grantham, things really haven’t changed.
• Disney thinks the WWL is undervalued.  Prepare to open your wallets further, gang.
• Is anybody really interested in what Stewart Mandel thinks about Lost?
• Given that Mack Brown just bragged about the fact that Texas signed every kid in the ’09 class who took an official visit to Austin, does this really matter as much as they’re complaining it does?
• More on the ‘Horns:  I understand the inquiries about switching conferences and I understand listening to them, but what’s in it for Texas?
• Mike London’s staff is about as Virginia-centric as you can make it.
• Another SEC defensive coordinator gets a big raise courtesy of an opposing head coach.  This time it’s not Mark Richt’s fault, but Derek Dooley’s.