Take pride in your accomplishments.

A little self-deprecating humor from Aron White’s impressive speech at yesterday’s commencement ceremony:

… We have even been named the number one party school in America.  Given our record this year, at least we are number one in something.

There aren’t a lot of high-profile athletes that can laugh at themselves like that.  Best of luck to you, Aron, but I don’t think you’ll need it to succeed.

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Exile on Philip Fulmer Way

Banishing Aaron Douglas from the southeastern United States and then watching him sign with a hated rival?  Hey, it’s all good for Derek Dooley, master of spin.

“First of all, I wanted to release him,” Dooley said. “I didn’t want to deny a release, which is what we normally do. But I thought he needed to get away and I thought it was good for our team that he wasn’t close by, so I thought everybody benefited — that we just get away from the deal for a little bit. And I think it worked out well for our team and it worked out well for Aaron, so everybody should be happy.”

Dude, let’s be straight here – you forced the kid out and did it on terms where you hoped he’d sign with some school nobody in these parts would ever see.  Instead, Douglas called your bluff and you’ll have the pleasure of facing him next year.

It should make for a great story on the recruiting trail… for Nick Saban.  That should make Dooley happy, too.

It’s all been done before.

Does this really surprise anyone?

… As Cuban wrote today, however, he faces another hurdle — namely, that he’s not the first person to have this idea, and those before him aim to profit off a playoff plan one way or another. Here’s part of an e-mail Cuban received from someone reportedly represented by a major law firm:

My advise is, don’t waste your money. There are three perfected alternatives to the BCS.  I own one, a guy with CBS owns another and a guy in Arizona owns the third.  By that, I don’t mean the screw-ball ideas you see on the internet, but actual branded properties.

[…]

You should also consider that the playoffs are already owned by someone, as in, the patent for resolving the FBS championship by way of a playoff was issued long ago. It’s called a method patent, so be careful not to infringe it.

I was hoping it turned out that Jim Delany was the patent holder, but no such luck.