Richt blows a golden opportunity.

I don’t know about you, but if I got a call that started, “son, right now I’m on the operating table having hip-replacement surgery, but I wanted to give you a call to let you know how much you mean to our program…”, I’d commit on the spot.

Thanks for your support, non-sports fan viewers.

This basically blows my mind.

One of Bank’s most interesting charts shows that sports services account for nine of the 10 most expensive pay TV channels if you compare the amount operators pay for each viewer the network attracts. ESPN is No. 1 at $500 per viewer per month. It’s followed by NFL Network ($424), MLB Network ($307), Fox Soccer ($265), Current ($259), FUEL TV ($257), NBA TV ($247), Golf Channel ($251), ESPN2 ($229), and NBC Sports Network ($238).

$500/month per viewer for ESPN?  On the basis of what I’m paying for my satellite service every month, that is one helluva lot of subsidization by folks who don’t care about sports programming.  Gawd only knows what some of this product might cost if cable pricing went a la carte.  In the meantime, no wonder everyone keeps chasing sports programming like it’s the Holy Grail.  It pretty much is the Holy Grail these days.

Hitting that expanded playoffs sweet spot

Settling it on the field, for the win:

Elias: 3rd straight SB won by team that was no more than 4 games above .500. Happened twice in prior 44 Super Bowls ('88 49ers, '07 Giants).

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) February 4, 2013

MOAR.

Musical palate cleanser, the roughest place I’ve ever been edition

The incomparable Stevie Ray Vaughan displaying his chops on “Tin Pan Alley”.

If you ain’t sweatin’, you ain’t playin’.

Random pre-signing day recruiting question

Why is it that so many of the same people who bray throughout the year that they’d rather have the three-star kid who’s dedicated to being at the school freak out when the five-star kids look elsewhere at the last minute?