And just for you, Mr. “It could never happen”…

The FCS goes there, announcing a 24-team playoff beginning in 2013.

“The concern has been we’ve haven’t had a full tournament with automatic qualifiers for all the existing conferences. That’s a big part of making sure everybody has an opportunity for their champion to participate,” said Appalachian State athletic director Charlie Cobb, the new chairman of the Division I Football Championship Committee. “The sentiment is that by seeding the top eight, it keep more to a truer sense of what a national tournament is about, and I think that’s the beauty of what we have.”

That’s a five-round tourney with the finalists playing 15- or 16-game schedules.  But that’s okay, because it’s really not just one season.

“It’s tough,” Cobb said. “But the playoffs are called the second season for a reason. Once you get to it, everybody’s got a chance. And I think if you ask any coach or any player, they’d rather be in the playoffs than not in the playoffs.”

It’s not that FBS players are such wimps.  It’s that they don’t know what they’re missing.

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“Don’t let guys forget what got them there and you build from there.”

This piece about Todd Grantham is pure red meat to those of us with a serious mancrush on the dude, but there’s one part in particular that makes me stand up and cheer.

Grantham and his players agree that while they’re disappointed in the boneheaded decisions made, they aren’t dwelling on the situation. Grantham used it as an opportunity to create better depth by inserting younger players…

This, my friends, is the anti-Martinez.  As somebody who watched in disbelief as Bryan Evans started ahead of Bacarri Rambo week after week for no other reason than having been in Athens longer and who watched a freshman linebacker named Rennie Curran kept out of the starting lineup for weeks despite having better football instincts than anyone else the coaches trotted out, it’s a pleasure to watch a coach at work who really does believe in trying to get the best eleven players on the field at any given moment.

If I’m jacked about Georgia’s chances this season, that’s why.  Well, that and the schedule…

If you had any doubts about John Theus…

forget ’em.

… Freshman John Theus from Jacksonville, Fla., could do what Cordy Glenn, Ben Jones, Trinton Sturdivant and Clint Boling did in their first seasons on campus: start.

“We’re not afraid to start a true freshman lineman,” Richt said. “I would say John Theus in high school was probably farther advanced than any of those guys. Ben Jones was pretty salty coming out of the box. He’ll have a chance to win a starting position. More than likely it will be at tackle. We’ll wait and see what he does.”

Go ahead and pencil him in at left tackle.  And keep your fingers crossed a little for Aaron Murray’s blind side.

“I don’t have a lot of regard for that team.”

Yeah, yeah, yeah.  We get it.  Jim Delany isn’t shaking Nick Saban’s hand in congratulation any time soon.

“I certainly wouldn’t have as much regard for that team as I would for someone who played nine conference games in a tough conference and played a couple out-of-conference games on the road against really good opponents. If a poll doesn’t honor those teams and they’re conference champions, I do.”

So here’s my question:  do you think Delany would have the same response to a scenario where fourth-ranked Wisconsin, excluded from the Big Ten title game by virtue of its only loss of the season (one point margin on the road at Ohio State), made it into the national playoff and won the whole shootin’ match?  Me neither.  And I don’t think he’d lose much sleep over it.

That he can talk like this tells you how concerned he is about SEC dominance of a new postseason setup.

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UPDATE:  The Sabanator fires back.