“If they serve beer in Tiger Stadium, I fear that the upper decks might not hold it.”

Les Miles, in response to the obvious question spurred by beer sales in West Virginia’s stadium:

“I certainly want to be politically correct and not be against serving beer in Tiger Stadium. Certainly the athletic director and the chancellor would have to make that decision. But I promise you, we would enjoy playing in front of a Tiger Stadium that occasionally had a beer.”

I’m glad to live in a country where it’s considered politically correct to serve beer at a college football game.

(h/t Andy Hutchins)

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Quasi-relevant musical palate cleanser

With the news that Athens’ greatest band ever has given up the ghost, here’s my favorite song of theirs:

R.I.P., fellas.

Damned shame about that rivalry.

I love the way one of the greatest rivalries in SEC history is casually tossed away in the last line of this Chris Low post about SEC expansion:

… The SEC has said it has a contingency plan to play next season with 13 teams, although that wouldn’t be ideal.

There have been reports that the SEC rejected West Virginia, and it makes sense that Missouri would probably want to remain in the Big 12 if it survives.

Officials at Auburn have said they wouldn’t oppose a move to the Eastern Division. Alabama and Auburn could still play every year in that format and also could potentially meet in the SEC championship game. However, such a move would mean rivalries like Alabama-Tennessee and Auburn-LSU would no longer be played every year.

I obviously don’t have a dog in this hunt, but if the cost of going to 13 schools means throwing away a perfectly good, historical rivalry* like Alabama-Tennessee, then the SEC needs to get its collective head out of its collective ass and go back to the schedule drawing board.  Going to a nine-game conference schedule wouldn’t be a bad place to start, and before somebody objects to an unbalanced home/away set up with nine, what the hell do they think is going to happen with 13 conference teams?

Sell off enough pieces of your soul and eventually you lose what made you special in the first place.

*I can’t help but reference one of my more favorite movie lines here:

One thing to check on Todd Grantham’s to-do list

This may be a grudging acknowledgement on my part, but I have to admit this counts as improvement.

… There’s another glaring stat that Georgia has: just one sack. Only six other teams at the FBS level have just one sack so far, and four have none. But Grantham pushed back on the importance of that stat, saying that pressuring the quarterback is just as important.

“Yeah. I mean, we’re doing fine,” he said. “Look, sacks, everyone wants them, I like them too, but there’s other things that are more important.”

He then pointed to third-down defense, where the team is now second in the SEC after finishing 12th last year, which he said was a byproduct of pressure.

Besides third-down defense, another area of obvious improvement from last year is big plays. The defense was plagued by them last year, but so far this year there have been just two plays of more than 20 yards.

Even taking Coastal Carolina out of the equation, the Dawgs rank third in the conference in opponent third-down conversion rate.  Considering that’s after playing two top ten teams, it’s not too shabby.

This is an area that many of us were screaming about after last season.  Grantham needed to improve it drastically for Georgia’s chances to improve in 2011.  So far, give the man credit for paying attention.

Wednesday morning buffet

Saddle up and dig in.

• So how bad was Ole Miss’ offense against Vanderbilt?  This bad:  “3: Ole Miss drives that didn’t end in a punt (six) or an interception (five) in Saturday’s blowout loss to Vanderbilt. Those three drives produced one touchdown, one turnover on downs and one safety.”
• Here’s one stat site’s projection for this Saturday in Oxford.  (You’ll like it, don’t worry.)
• Paul Myerberg’s got Ten New Commandments for college football.
• I’m shocked, shocked to find that a bowl game in the state of Louisiana was engaged in making illegal contributions to a politician.
• Go figure:  “Stanford Stadium serves up sushi, organic all-beef “Farm dogs” on whole wheat buns and personal pizzas.”
• Gary Danielson talks about Mark Richt’s future and Georgia’s season.
• Mike Leach just happened to be in the neighborhood.
• Here’s a list of the 50 greatest plays in college football history, with video.  (h/t Tom Kirkendall)
• I guess the local media is getting bored with hot seat talk.  Now, it’s on to ginning up a quarterback controversy.

“They’ve won the Southwest Virginia Bowl!”

What you’re about to see may be the bestest Greatest College Football Play ever.

First, a little background.

Emory & Henry is a school located in Virginia, playing as the Wasps in the D-III Old Dominion Athletic Conference. UVa-Wise, or the University of Virginia’s College at Wise (you can see why they just use UVa-Wise), is a member of the NAIA’s Appalachian Athletic Conference and plays as the Highland Cavaliers. The two teams meet annually in what’s called the Southwest Virginia Bowl.

… Now that that’s out of the way, let’s set the stage: Emory & Henry leads UVa-Wise 30-27 with scant few seconds remaining in the game, but the Wasps have been forced into a 4th and 18 at their own 22 and must punt on what is likely the last play of the game.

And what a last play it is!

It’s not just the insane perfection of the lateral and the miraculous timing of it hitting the other player in full stride that makes this so great.  It’s the refs not calling the roughing the kicker penalty that seals the deal.  (Check them out shoving what looks like one of the Wasps’ coaches off the field at about the 40 second mark.)  Every great play needs a little controversy to spice it.

I love you, college football.

The Big 12, where a good time is had by all.

Throughout this latest round of conference realignment shuffling, I keep wondering why Texas and Oklahoma want to leave the Big 12 for the Pac-12.  When you think about it, they’ve got a fabulous set up:  a 10-team conference means there’s fewer slices to the revenue pie to serve, no playoff game virtually assures that if neither has a season go in the tank, they’ll be playing in BCS games, the conference as now configured is geographically compact, etc.  They lose all that if they run off to form a Pac-16.

The problem is that Texas doesn’t seem to know when it has a good thing going for it.  Or at least it didn’t until now.

There are a few cracks forming in the ceiling.  First, Oklahoma seems to realize what it’s got and what needs to be done to hold things together.

The University of Oklahoma is considering remaining in the Big 12, but only in a “reformed” version of the conference that includes restrictions on Texas’ Longhorn Network and removal of Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe, a high-ranking source at a Big 12 school said Tuesday.

OU president David Boren said Monday the Sooners would decide soon between applying for Pac-12 membership or staying in the Big 12, and the source outlined the parameters for remaining in the Big 12.

Sucks to be you, Dan Beebe.

The demands don’t seem to be too far-fetched, as Texas was rumored to be willing to seriously compromise its position on the Longhorn Network to make itself more attractive for Pac-12 entry.  And Beebe is expendable.

As for that Pac-12 option… sorry, boys, not today.

In light of the widespread speculation about potential scenarios for Conference re-alignment, the Pac-12 Presidents and Chancellors have affirmed their decision to remain a 12-team conference. Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott said, “after careful review we have determined that it is in the best interests of our member institutions, student-athletes and fans to remain a 12-team conference. While we have great respect for all of the institutions that have contacted us, and certain expansion proposals were financially attractive, we have a strong conference structure and culture of equality that we are committed to preserve. With new landmark TV agreements and plans to launch our innovative television networks, we are going to focus solely on these great assets, our strong heritage and the bright future in front of us.””

Translation:  Texas, you’re too much of a diva for us.

So where do they go from here?  It seems like things are boiling down to a simple choice for the Longhorns:  how badly do you want that network?  If Texas won’t compromise, independence may be the only path it has left.  Otherwise, it’s hard to argue with this logic:

Another source from a Big 12 school said OU’s demands could prompt Texas to compromise. If the Sooners and Cowboys leave the Big 12, Texas is not likely to stay and almost surely would have to acquiesce on its network anyway, in some other league. Why not give in and keep the Big 12 together?

Oh, and three cheers for T. Boone Pickens, who certainly knows how to package self-serving bullshit as patriotism:

Earlier Tuesday, OSU booster Boone Pickens, who tried to use his influence in the state of Texas to get A&M to make the same demands of UT that OU now is making, said he detected a thaw in the Aggies’ stance.

Pickens even contacted Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who is running for the Republican presidential nomination.

Pickens said he told Perry to show America that “you fix problems, don’t contribute to ’em.”

Perry is a former Texas A&M yell leader. “After the Aggies leave school, they’re still looking for a yell leader,” Pickens said. He said he told Perry to be that leader.

Because we all know that what’s good for ol’ T. Boone is good for America.  That could make for a great talking point at the next Republican debate.