At Auburn, three coaches for less than the price of two

The two highest paid defensive coordinators in the country both coach in Alabama.

The good news for Auburn is that they’re paying Chizik’s two new coordinators and Willie Martinez almost half a million dollars less than they paid Malzahn and Roof last season.  Such a deal.

Although considering what they got out of Roof for what they paid him, there probably is more bang for the buck when it all shakes out.

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UPDATE:  Chris Low suggests that Smart and BVG may soon have company.

Are we reading too much into the Malcolm Mitchell cornerback move?

I’m not just talking about our deluded Bleacher Report observer.  Even Andy Staples has weighed in on the subject.

Not exactly, but Georgia coach Mark Richt wants to keep his best athletes on the field. This spring, Richt plans to work sophomore receiver Malcolm Mitchell at cornerback. Georgia’s defense beings back a lot, but with Sanders Commings suspended the first two games in the wake of a January arrest during which he was accused of striking his girlfriend, the Bulldogs are thin at a critical position. That won’t matter in Week 1 against Buffalo, but it will matter in Week 2 at Missouri.

I don’t disagree, as far as that goes.  Missouri will present some sort of challenge that may very likely necessitate Mitchell’s presence on defense.  But how much time is he likely to see on that side of the ball after Commings returns?

I don’t ask because I’m skeptical he can contribute.  I ask it because I think Mitchell’s too valuable on offense to risk spreading him too thin.  Go back and look at Bill Connelly’s receiver target numbers for a minute.  Is there much doubt that Mitchell was Georgia’s most effective receiver last season?

Hey, if it turns out that he’s the second coming of Champ Bailey, go Dawg go (although it should be pointed out that Champ went the opposite direction from Mitchell, defense to offense).  But I’m not sure how all in Richt wants to be with the move if it impacts the receiving corps production.  With the inexperience of the offensive line, Aaron Murray’s gonna need all the help he can get this season.

Nobody’s gonna tell Mike Slive what to do.

It should come as a surprise to exactly no one that Mike Slive is less than enamored with Larry Scott’s conference champs-only plus-one format.

“I’m willing to have a conversation about (only conference champions), but if you were going to ask me today, that would not be the way I want to go,” Slive said. “It really is early in the discussions, notwithstanding what some commissioners say publicly. There’s still a lot of information that needs to be generated.”

Translation:  if you think I’m giving up the advantage of having the only conference that seems capable of having two schools in the title game without a battle, you’re crazy.

That being said, I think he’s off base with his complaints about playing the semifinals on the campuses of the higher ranked schools.  Sure, there’s a competitive advantage.  That’s the whole point.  You’ve got to build some incentives into the system to make sure that schools don’t overload on cupcakes or, even worse, decide to take a regular season game off to prepare for the postseason, à la the NFL.  That’s an even bigger concern if you adopt Scott’s proposal.

And, turning to the current state of affairs in the SEC, this is too cute by half:

… Meanwhile, as the SEC prepares to welcome Missouri and Texas A&M into the league, Slive said the conference is content with 14 members.

“I still view 14 as an extension of 12,” Slive said. “Going beyond 14 is no longer an extension of 12. Maybe the Pac-12 and Big Ten scheduling alliance may be their way of answering that question. I can only speak for us. I think it’s going to take us some time to absorb these two institutions. At this point, I don’t see us adding more. We’ve never been trying to get 14 so I don’t see us necessarily trying to get to 16.”

Slive said the SEC is currently in future TV discussions with CBS and ESPN and that finalizing future football schedules beyond 2012 does not impact those talks.

“They know who we are and what we have,” Slive said. “None of our schools will be hurt financially (in 2012-13). But that’s just today. It’s tomorrow that’s the real issue. The discussions are very important. They’re longterm. We’ll leave it at that.”

Right.  This whole thing just sort of fell in Slive’s lap.  And the TV negotiations going on simultaneously?  Mere coincidence.  If you’re buying this, I still haven’t been able to unload that beachfront property in Hahira and would love to talk with you.