“Mr. Emmert, I have a Mr. Saban on line six for you.”

I predict this will go over like a lead balloon in certain quarters.

… Following a six-hour meeting in late September, the Resource Allocation Working Group, chaired by Georgia President Michael Adams, agreed to consider a reduction in FBS football scholarships from the current number of 85 to 80 and a reduction in the number of FCS football scholarships from 63 to 60. The reductions would likely follow a move toward a full cost-of-attendance scholarship that is expected to be passed in early 2012. In addition to football, the group agreed to consider a reduction in the number of men’s basketball scholarships from 13 to 12 and in women’s basketball from 15 to 13.

Oh, and if you think this is somehow about benefiting the noble student-athlete, guess again.

The cuts are just a few of the controversal recommendations the working group is expected to pursue prior to their presentation to the Board of Directors at the NCAA Convention in January. According to a summary of the group’s update, obtained by CBSSports.com, it was agreed upon to recommend eliminating all foreign travel, reduce mandatory out-of-season practice time and explore a reduction in competition (i.e. cutting the number of games for several sports).  [Emphasis added.]

What a bunch of cheap bastards.

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UPDATE:  John Infante shares some related thoughts about splitting the pie.

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Say hello to my little friend.

(Photo via Red & Black)

Yo’.

“Coach Grantham is like Scarface,” said defensive end Chase Vasser. “He is a very intimidating man. If you know you messed up, he’s the one person you don’t want to see you mess up.”

This is what great teams do.

Mike Huguenin has a series of impressive facts about LSU:

LSU is playing its third consecutive game while ranked No. 1 in the nation, the first time that has happened since the 1959 season. LSU is 16-3 all-time in games played as the nation’s top-ranked team, which includes a 4-2 mark under Les Miles.

Those two losses under Miles were both in triple-overtime games in 2007.  And LSU still wound up winning the MNC that season.

LSU has won seven consecutive games by double digits, one shy of tying the school-record streak set in 1936.

That streak includes wins over five ranked opponents.

LSU hasn’t trailed since the second quarter of the season-opener against Oregon.

That covers games with three ranked opponents.  All in all, it’s a pretty good case for why the Tigers are ranked #1.

Tater Tot’s dumpster diving

Terry Bowden declares that he finds Will Muschamp’s discarded table scraps mighty tasty.

Mark Shurtleff, master of reality

Jon Wilner points us to this silly op-ed piece in The Arizona Republic by Utah’s AG, along with Chris Dufresne’s take down of a number of factual misstatements contained in it.  It’s hard to argue with Dufresne’s parting shot:

Shurtleff vows to sue the BCS in federal court “within a few months.”

That gives him time to hire a fact checker.

But I also think he missed the biggest whopper of the bunch.

… Mountain West Conference games consistently generate more ticket sales, TV viewership and interest than the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Big East Conference – both AQ conferences.

This is after what were the MWC’s two biggest draws during the regular season – BYU and Utah – left the conference?  Me no think so.  (Not that I’m convinced that was correct before, either.)

Look, if that were really, truly the case, Shurtleff wouldn’t even be bothering to write editorial pieces now.  Because ESPN would have showered the MWC with a big TV contract and the BCS would be falling over itself to bring the conference inside the tent.  And because Utah, BYU and TCU wouldn’t have had any motivation to leave in the first place.

Reality sucks sometimes, Mark.

Is South Carolina man enough?

Pat Dye doesn’t think so (h/t MrSEC.com).

“I still don’t like South Carolina,” Dye said. “Hell no, it was against Kentucky. They could all score 60 or 70 points against Kentucky. Let them throw for 300 yards against Alabama or LSU, then I’ll be impressed with South Carolina.”

Dye said he ranks his former team, Auburn, in the bottom half of the SEC.

“You got LSU and Alabama at the top,” he said, “then under that you got Arkansas, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.”

Interestingly, Dye gets some statistical support from Bill C., who observes,

… Georgia, meanwhile, surged into the top 20 and solidified my impression of them as the East favorite. South Carolina and Florida could obviously still have something to say about that, but a) Florida needs a quarterback, and b) South Carolina needs to look great against somebody other than Kentucky before I get back to believing in them. (P.S. How bad is Kentucky? South Carolina destroyed them in every possible way and still fell out of the F/+ Top 25. Ouch.)  [Emphasis added.]

Sure will be interesting to see which way things head in the SEC East over the next three weeks…

Angst on the banks of the Tennessee River

I swear, it’s almost getting surreal with Georgia’s defense.  Jim Cheney admits he was befuddled in the Vols’ last game.

“I don’t know, I sense frustration in everybody, including myself,” Chaney said. “I had a hard time as a playcaller finding any rhythm in that game. Long fields early, the second half didn’t start the way we wanted, it was a difficult time. It doesn’t surprise me that some of our young players lost a little composure, as I did too at times. It was a tough deal. We move on from it, we learn from it.”

And Tennessee’s offensive line coach gets surly.

“You guys [the media] are beautiful, I tell you what,” Hiestand said.

I double-checked the schedule to make sure:  Tennessee played Georgia last Saturday.  Not LSU.  Not Alabama.

God help me, I’m starting to feel positively giddy.  Somebody needs to talk me down before I do something stupid.