Spurrier and the art of the (hard) sale

Interesting anecdote from Robert Edwards about his recruitment by the OBC:

… How close was Edwards to signing with the arch-rival Gators?

“My dad didn’t appreciate the pressure Spurrier put on me. Spurrier was like, ‘If you don’t sign today we may not have a spot for you tomorrow.’ And that’s how he got a lot of his players. Because once you stepped inside his office he expected you to sign a letter of intent right there…I wanted to go with Spurrier and probably would have come back the next day to say I was going to Florida but since he put on that pressure I decided with Georgia.”

Edwards believes that Spurrier has more patience with the recruiting process these days.

Like he has a choice.  What worked for Spurrier in Gainesville probably had people looking at him in Columbia as if he were nuts.

“Puzzling to say the least.”

Over at Team Speed Kills, that’s kleph’s reaction to the comparison of Georgia’s 2010 turnover margin with its third-place finish in the SEC East.

Welcome to the party, pal.

He’s got some interesting data on last year’s fumble recovery numbers that’s worth a look.  Check out Alabama’s and Mississippi State’s positions on his first chart.

The secret to punting, in ten easy words

Coach, I love you, but sometimes you say the darndest things:

“Until the kickoff rule changes, you better have someone that can kick it high and deep and punting is so huge. You just think about the return men in our league. If every time you punt the ball, you’ve got to hold your breath because some guy has a chance to take it to the house, that’s a scary thought. But if you’ve got a guy that can boom it high and deep and let your gunners get down there and stand there and force a guy to fair catch, they can’t beat you if they’re fair catching the ball…” [Emphasis added.]

Which is pretty much what opposing coaches thought every time they saw Logan Gray hit the field with the punt return team.  And most Georgia fans, for that matter.

“The game right now, for a game of that stature compared to other rivalry games, is underpriced.”

In a shocking development, Florida’s athletic association votes to almost double the prices of Cocktail Party tickets by 2017.

Somewhere, Jimmy Williamson is smiling.

I wonder how many Fulmer Cup points this garners.

Police say a University of New Mexico football player’s saggy pants led to his arrest at San Francisco International Airport.

Sgt. Michael Rodriguez says 20-year-old Deshon Marman was boarding a flight Wednesday to Albuquerque, N.M., when a U.S. Airways employee noticed his pants were “below his buttocks, but above the knees, and his boxer shorts were showing.”

Round up the usual suspects.

Ruh roh.

1. NCAA investigators are coming to South Florida this week to look into the recruiting of several high-school football stars and the methods of several colleges in doing so, according to a source.

Among the schools whose recruits are in question: Ohio State, Louisiana State, Auburn and Tennessee.

Yes, rest easy, Miami, Florida and Florida State fans. This isn’t about you. The schools involved have been successful for years in getting players out of South Florida, and enough red flags have been raised about money changing hands in the recruiting process to merit the investigation, the source said.

High schools officials, street agents, seven-on-seven tournaments – they’re all going to be asked questions by the NCAA.

I wonder who’s been complaining.

Because that’s where the money is.

I’m sure this will come as a complete shock to you.

NCAA revenues and expenses data from the 2009-10 fiscal year show a widening gap between schools with self-sufficient athletics programs and schools that rely on institutional subsidy to balance their athletics budgets.

The most recent annual report indicates that “generated revenues” (ticket sales, NCAA and conference distributions, concessions, contributions, media rights and other sources not including institutional or governmental support, or student fees) exceeded expenses at 22 Football Bowl Subdivision institutions, eight more than during the previous fiscal year.

The median net surplus at those 22 institutions was about $7.4 million (ranging from $211,000 to $41.9 million), compared with the median net deficit for the remaining Football Bowl Subdivision schools of about $11.3 million. That gap – almost $19 million – is significantly higher than the $15.6 million separation in 2009.

The rich get richer.  That’s what 21st century America is all about, my friends.  And to an extent, there’s nothing wrong with that.  Except this does seem a little tacky.

… Much of the rise in athletics revenue came from an escalation in money generated through multi-media rights deals, donations and ticket receipts, but schools also continued increasing their subsidies from student fees and institutional funds.

Altogether in 2010, about $2 billion in subsidies went to athletics programs at the 218 public schools that have been in the NCAA‘s top-level Division I over the past five years. Those subsidies grew by an inflation-adjusted 3% in 2010. They have grown by 28% since 2006 and account for $1 of every $3 spent on athletics.

Belt-tightening is for suckers.

Meanwhile, if you are the athletic director at a school that isn’t playing D-1 football, what are you thinking when you see this chart?

You’re probably thinking something along the lines of “I’ll gladly take my chances.  Where do I sign up”?  Of course, that’s one reason the NCAA has made the admissions process considerably more expensive.

But don’t worry, have-nots.  Mark Emmert is on the mother.

… NCAA President Mark Emmert said the disparity this report shows among athletics programs in Division I is cause for concern and likely will drive the agenda at a presidential retreat Emmert is convening in August.

“That gap in revenue, either from self-generated or institutionally allocated sources, is significant,” Emmert said. “Indeed, it is coming to redefine what we mean by competitive equity. This will undoubtedly be a discussion point at the August presidential retreat.”

Keep in mind that Emmert is the same fellow who thinks that Jim Delany’s musings about extending full cost scholarships to student-athletes – as enormous a threat to the budgets of non-BCS conference schools as you could imagine – has merit.  How he can balance that with a concern about “competitive equity” should be a neat trick.  (So should Jim Delany’s keeping a straight face as Emmert attempts to do so.)

That presidential retreat should be a real hoot.

Welcome to the big leagues, kid.

Make sure you read MaconDawg’s initial write-up of what he heard at the Pigskin Preview.  What he was told about Isaiah Crowell’s introduction into the summer work out program is similar to what I’ve heard:

… The incoming freshman “Dream Team” was a big topic of conversation, to the point that it seemed veterans Christian Robinson and Cordy Glenn were frankly a little tired of talking about them. When asked about Isaiah Crowell specifically, Christian Robinson displayed a sly smile and said that while he’d just done 7-on-7 drills with several of the freshmen, Crowell was not able to participate because he “had a hard morning” in conditioning and “got a little sick.” I took from this that our all-world tailback may have been a little too chill during the spring and is not yet quite ready for primetime. I don’t know if that’s reason to worry just yet, but it’s certainly not the same as saying “He fell right in like he’s been here for years.”

I agree that it’s not a matter of concern this early.  I think Mr. Crowell is learning that Coach Tereshinski doesn’t play favorites, though.

(By the way, while we’re doing the workout scuttlebutt, word is that John Jenkins arrived in very good shape and as strong as advertised.  Maybe we’ll hear something about that from MaconDawg in an upcoming installment.)

Chizik: no worries, mon.

Since I know nobody reading here is going to rush out and buy Gene Chizik’s memoirs, let me just end the suspense for you right now:  he was never worried about losing Cam Newton to suspension.

“If we’d had any level of concern regarding Cameron’s eligibility, we would not have put him on the field and risked forfeiting games for playing an ineligible player,” he wrote.

Hurp… durp… wait a minute… wasn’t… oh, yeah.

Auburn quarterback Cam Newton is eligible to play in the SEC title game this weekend, though the NCAA says his father broke rules by shopping his son to another school.

The NCAA released its finding in a statement Wednesday. The college sports governing body had concluded Monday that a violation of Newton’s amateur status had occurred. Auburn declared Newton ineligible Tuesday and requested his eligibility be reinstated.

I’ve given up trying to parse this.  Besides, Chizik only devotes two pages out of the entire 282-page magnum opus to the Newton story.  If he doesn’t think it’s a big deal, why should we?