End of story.

Nick Fairley will not receive any sort of suspension from the SEC for his helmet-to-spine hit on Aaron Murray.

But rest assured he will receive a stern talking-to…

“We’re handling the matter internally with the institution,” Bloom told The Birmingham News.

… after which, he’ll exchange a chest bump with Trooper Taylor.

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Is Mike Slive as powerless as he makes himself out to be?

I picked on him yesterday, but Clay Travis raises an interesting point in today’s Camgate post:

The Southeastern Conference bylaws offer specific language that could render Auburn quarterback Cam Newton ineligible to play any sport at all league institutions. That’s what careful study of the Ethical Conduct provision of the SEC bylaws has revealed to FanHouse. In particular, Section 14.01.3.2 dealing with Financial Aid states (bold added for emphasis):

“If at any time before or after matriculation in a member institution a student-athlete or any member of his/her family receives or agrees to receive, directly or indirectly, any aid or assistance beyond or in addition to that permitted by the Bylaws of this Conference (except such aid or assistance as such student-athlete may receive from those persons on whom the student is naturally or legally dependent for support), such student- athlete shall be ineligible for competition in any intercollegiate sport within the Conference for the remainder of his/her college career.”

It has been alleged that Cecil Newton, who is Cam Newton’s father, solicited payment for his son to attend Mississippi State. If this is true, a clear reading of this SEC bylaw would suggest that in making this demand “a student-athlete or any member of his/her family … agrees to receive, directly or directly,” an improper benefit that would rule him ineligible not just at the school in question but at all schools in the conference in every sport. A solicitation is a request or encouragement of another to perform an act. If Cecil Newton solicited Mississippi State then he agreed to receive the improper benefits by nature of the solicitation.

It’s that “agrees to receive” that’s the nub.  Clay argues that’s implicit in making a solicitation in the first place, but what little I remember from my first year contracts class in law school is that it takes an offer and acceptance to reach an agreement.

I will say that if Clay’s right, Slive doesn’t seem to be as lacking in authority to act as he claims he is.  And perhaps it’s somewhat revealing that the commissioner who isn’t afraid to throw his weight around when coaches snipe at each other – or more relevantly, when a member school reports information on a potential violation directly to the NCAA instead of going through league channels – seems reluctant to involve himself more in what could turn out to be one of the biggest scandals in SEC history.

A tasteful musical interlude

I guess I’m inspired by this comment thread from yesterday.

In case you’ve never heard it (or even if you have), here’s the full version of the greatest college football song ever performed, in all its six-plus minutes of glory.

Minister of the New New Super Heavy Funk, indeed.

Mr. McGarity, you really need to bring this back to Sanford Stadium.  We shouldn’t keep the family treasures buried in the rear of the closet.

Playing the cards you’re dealt.

In response to a listener’s complaint on last night’s Bulldog Hotline about how Georgia’s offense is too predictable, Mark Richt responded with this (ed. – thanks for the tireless transcription efforts of Jim from Duluth):

… CMR doesn’t like an offense that’s predictable, but sometimes that means you’re doing some things well. Sometimes people say why didn’t you keep running a play when it was working. Richt noted again we have now scored at least 30 points six games in a row. Not coincidentally a lot of that happened after AJ got back. Of course if you took Newton away from Auburn they would struggle .. same with that RB at South Carolina if you took him out. Richt gave examples of how having AJ opened things up for other receivers in the Auburn game.

We could’ve been a little more patient running the ball in this game if it had not become such a scoring battle. We didn’t stay with the run quite as much because we were trying to move the ball when we got behind.

This, in a nutshell, is what drives me crazy about Georgia’s offense.  Richt and Bobo are bipolar.  On the one hand, Richt recognizes that if something keeps working, you don’t abandon it if the other guy’s defense can’t stop it.

Something like this.

The downfield passing game was there.  As I mentioned before, when the dust settled in the first quarter, Murray was averaging better than twenty yards per pass attempt.  (Even in the late third quarter, he was getting more than 22 yards per completion.)

And yet, for some inexplicable reason, Richt regrets “not staying with the run quite as much”.  They just can’t help themselves.

When Georgia went up 21-7, I looked at my friend and said, “if they can trade touchdowns the rest of the game, Georgia will win.”  Auburn was going to get its points; it was Bobo’s task to hold serve.  Unfortunately, only one side recognized that.  It’s why Auburn elected to open the second half with an onside kick.  Georgia elected to run a play out of the Wildcat.  From such decisions are 18-point losses made.

Tuesday morning buffet

As far as I know, the buffet is not under review by the SEC office.

• Nice twofer:  Meyer announces that Addazio’s job is safe and John Brantley is denying transfer rumors.
• Meanwhile, Gator Nation tries to come to grips with what might have been.
• Now you know why they’re drinking.
• Pretty amazing story:  “Coach Kiffin was like, ‘You don’t want to go in?’” Poole said. “I was like, ‘No. I should have been playing all year. I don’t want to go in there with three minutes left in the Memphis game.’”
• Good to know that Coach Chizik has skin in the Camgate game.
• Vuvuzelas will make an appearance at a college football game and the world will not end:  “The horns may distract the marching bands, but they don’t violate any NCAA rules, and Harvard has no plans to confiscate them, a school spokesman said.”
• If God has a sense of humor, this will prove it.
• Chip Kelly, BCS bargain.
• The Wiz gives us a few of Nick Fairley’s greatest hits.

Not one of their best seasons

Groo hits on something I meant to mention – that Uncle Verne and Gary Danielson don’t seem to be on top of their respective games this year.  By that, I’m not suggesting bias on their part, at least not anymore than they’ve displayed in the past (nobody has really filled Tebow’s shoes for Lundquist in 2010), but that their observational skills aren’t as sharp as what they’ve displayed in past seasons.

Take, for example, the call on the play where Reuben Faloughi was hurt.

My first thought on hearing Danielson’s comment about the home crowd booing was that he was being dryly sarcastic, but he said nothing as a follow up during the replay about what actually happened, which meant that he was playing it straight.  And Lundquist completely whiffed on his description of what occurred, despite the clean camera work.  All told, there was a strong disconnect between what they were saying and what had taken place on the field.

Couple that with Danielson’s puzzling comment during the broadcast of the Georgia-Florida game that the Gator defense wasn’t doing anything special with its secondary coverage of A.J. Green when it was clearly rotating towards him all day long (something that Todd McShay, of all people, neatly illustrated during last Saturday’s GameDay show).  I can’t figure out how Danielson missed that; it’s the kind of analysis he normally does in his sleep.

This isn’t a Georgia-related observation, either.  Their call and commentary of the Alabama-LSU game was fairly pedestrian, given how riveting the game was.  (And when you get down to it, the game that really got my attention to how skilled an analyst Donaldson is was a Florida-Tennessee game from a few seasons back in which he was predicting UT’s playcalling at an uncanny rate.)  Danielson seemed content with picking up fairly obvious bits from the replay camera.  And Verne might want to think about scaling back his use of his trademark “wow!” a bit.

Everyone has their moments when they’re not at their best.  (To some extent, you can say that about this SEC season, too.)  And even their less-than-best effort betters many of the hacks that ESPN trots out.  Still, I’m used to getting more from them and I hope they step it up with what’s left of the season.

Housekeeping note

For some reason, WordPress has decided to retire the format that I’ve used at GTP from the blog’s inception and replace it with one which has more bells and whistles.  I’m an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” kind of guy, so I can’t say I’m particularly thrilled with this version of progress.  Fortunately, the new format accepts the old header, so JB and VD are safe.

I don’t like the way the blog looks with the new format as much as I did before, but there’s not much I can do about it.  The bells and whistles I mentioned include color changes and format changes, but what I’ve seen when I mess around with those look even worse.

Anyway, it is what it is.  If you’ve got any comments or criticisms, let me know, even if there may not be a lot I can change.