Hooker with a heart of garnet and gold

FSU’s Chairman of the Board of Trustees is ready to move the school to a street where the business is better.  Even if nobody’s invited it.

Haggard confirmed that as far as he knows there has been no contact between FSU and the Big 12 regarding possible expansion. However, he makes it very clear that he and the Board of Trustees would be more than open to exploring the possibility if it would mean additional revenue to the school.

“How do you not look into that option,” asked Haggard. “On behalf of the Board of Trustees I can say that unanimously we would be in favor of seeing what the Big 12 might have to offer. We have to do what is in Florida State’s best interest.”

Whatever that is.  See, what he says he’s upset about is the new conference TV deal (“It’s mind-boggling and shocking,” said Haggard. “How can the ACC give up third tier rights for football but keep them for basketball?”), but Year2 notes that the previous TV deal worked in the same way.

I suspect the real problem is that the days of FSU dominating the conference in football have long passed (the Seminoles haven’t won a conference title in six seasons), and with that gone, the satisfaction in being a proud member of the ACC has faded.  All that’s left now is good old-fashioned nouveau riche frustration – “It continues the perception that the ACC favors the North Carolina schools”… jeez, dude, you just noticed that?  And if you’re getting a little longer in the tooth and aren’t as special as you used to be, you might as well go where you think the johns pay better.

That’s not even Haggard’s best line.

Of the few who still support FSU staying in the ACC, most cite the number of well-regarded academic institutions within the conference. However, Haggard scoffed at the idea that the ACC somehow helps FSU’s academic reputation.

“No FSU graduate puts on his resume or interviews for a job saying they are in the same conference as Duke and Virginia,” he said. “Conference affiliation really has no impact on academics.”  [Emphasis added.]

Sucks to be you, FSU.  Although you have to be impressed with his honesty.

Obviously, this is a very early warning shot.  The school hasn’t talked to a conference.  Haggard hasn’t even discussed his hurt fee-fees with school officials.  But it’s hard to see how this won’t get some traction.  What remains to be seen is whether FSU is leading a rush to the exits by the rest of the conference.

What you have to wonder is if there will be room in college football in a few more years for more than four major conferences.  And seeing as three of those – Big Ten, SEC and Pac-12 – are locks for survival, this has all the makings of a fight for survival between the ACC and Big 12 if things turn ugly.  That sounds fine with Andy Haggard.  He’s ready to throw himself at somebody.

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UPDATE:  “Listen, we’ve been a year away from the Seminoles’ return to dominance for eleven years now.”

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UPDATE #2:  Hey, guess who’s got conference meetings scheduled to start today?

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In a couple of years, he’ll be tanned, rested and ready.

Bruce Feldman speculates on Bobby Petrino’s next landing spot.

For background: I appear weekly on Paul Finebaum’s radio show. On Thursday, he asked me where I could see Bobby Petrino coaching next. My answer was that Joker Phillips at Kentucky better win.

Phillips is 11-14 in two seasons at UK and 4-12 in league play. By Kentucky football standards, that’s not that bad. But Phillips can’t afford a backwards step in the next two seasons with Petrino out there. If UK goes 4-8 this year, even if it’s still only Phillips’ third year, the pressure will be high. Anything short of a bowl season will add a lot more heat.

I’ve heard a lot of folks say how three years is the new five years in college coaching these days, and I think there is something to that. My hunch is Petrino may be out for two years while some of the spectacle of his demise at Arkansas fades. So what may be a viable landing spot in two years? Well, Kentucky could fit that recipe: Petrino is a proven winner at the highest level of the SEC. Obviously, he comes with major baggage and that would scare off probably all Top 25 football programs, but the thought that he could make UK dangerous in football might be tempting.

I’ll tell you what’s even more tempting:  a chance to stick it to Louisville.  There’s a small measure of revenge to be taken in hiring the guy who took the rival program to its greatest heights.  It’ll be even more enjoyable for UK given the history with Rick Pitino.  So, yeah, I can see this happening.

The downside for the ‘Cats is that I don’t see Petrino sticking around for too long.

“There’s a lot of money to be made off these kids.”

You know, as much crap as I direct towards the NCAA, I have to be fair and admit it doesn’t have an easy task monitoring sleazy behavior.  So take a minute and read this depressing story (warning:  you’ll probably need to shower after reading it).   While most of it’s about basketball, there is this one little football nugget:

Some might say the only people a player can trust are his parents — but that’s not even 100 percent true. Take current Carolina Panthers star Cam Newton. Cam’s father, Cecil, shopped him to different schools for reportedly up to $180,000 — without his son knowing. The NCAA was irked enough to enact a “Cecil Newton Rule” in January, making it possible to include parents as potential outside third-party agents.

That’s one incident, but we’d be naive to think Cecil Newton is the first parent to try to make money or get a job because of his son’s athletic talents. Parents aren’t exempt from this “inner circle” syndrome.

If it’s naïve to think it hasn’t happened before, then why did the NCAA just wake up and pass a rule about it this year?

Teh stoopid – it burns!

A couple of truly shake your head in wonder dumb, dumb articles:

—  The conference commissioners, panicked by falling postseason ratings and attendance numbers, are on track to reform the BCS such that the money train will pick up speed.  Sure, the inevitable turf wars have ensued, but these guys know they have certain common goals.  Which makes this Rachel Bachman article in the WSJ such a special disconnect from reality.  She argues that the Big Ten and Pac-12 should pull out of the BCS to… I don’t want to diminish the impact with a paraphrase here:  “… serve the greater glory of the best thing about college football: the Rose Bowl.”  Even better, she says that would force the networks to face a tough decision:  “Do they want to plunge into a playoff or bask in the glow of tradition?”  I can’t make that shit up if I tried.

—  But as dumb as that is, I think I’d have to say this Kevin Scarbinsky piece is even farther out.  At least you can say Bachman’s writing out of some sense of romance about what is, still, a tradition, albeit one that’s compromised itself in the BCS era.  Scarbinsky, though, honestly wants to convince the world that Jim Delany’s reference to “that team” in the context of the Big Ten commissioner’s push to form a D-1 playoff in his own image has awakened a sleeping giant in Tuscaloosa:  “The Crimson Tide has been handed a new motivational slogan.”  Ooh.  What’s Nick Saban been doing lately, if he hasn’t begun preparing his team for the season opener?  I was going to spend a lot more effort strafing this piece of junk, but I’m outsourcing it to Brian Cook instead.

GODDAMMIT JIM DELANY NOW ALABAMA IS GOING TO SHOW UP IN DALLAS AND TRY TO WIN. OUR WHOLE PLAN WAS THIS: DO NOT MAKE ALABAMA FEEL LIKE THEY SHOULD WIN THIS FOOTBALL GAME. OUR WHOLE PLAN IS NOW: AAAAAAAAIIIIEEEEEE. I SHOULD SHAKE YOU, SCREAMING “GET AHOLD OF YOURSELF” AND YES I KNOW THAT’S IRONIC.

Aiight?