“Most coordinators in our league have three-year deals.”

Yes, they do.

Way to step up, fellas.

McGarity 2, NCAA 0

The Rules Working Group suspends two of the new recruiting proposals.

• Prop. No. RWG-11-2, which eliminated the definition of recruiting coordination functions that must be performed only be a head or assistant coach, be suspended until appropriate modifications can be made. The concept will be considered as the membership ponders its approach to non-coaching personnel.

• Prop. No. RWG-13-5-A, which eliminated restrictions on printed materials sent to prospects other than general correspondence, be suspended to allow for a broader discussion of the rule.

What’s Kevin Steele going to do with all that free time now?

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UPDATE:  It’s always the kids who suffer the most.

Steve spurrier Jr.'s plan to send Gamecock recruits Fatheads, which would have been perfectly legal under new rules, on hold for now.

— Josh Kendall (@JoshatTheState) March 7, 2013

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Target this.

The NCAA has officially approved the new ejection for targeting rule.  Therein lies the rub.

One area of concern, though, is how exactly to define the targeting of a defenseless player and how different officiating crews may interpret the NCAA’s own definition.  In an attempt to alleviate some concern on that front, the oversight panel accepted the rules committee proposal that any targeting penalty be subject to immediate video review.  The release states that “[t]he replay official must have conclusive evidence that a player should not be ejected to overturn the call on the field,” which of course brings additional subjectivity into the mix.

A bug for some, a feature for Penn Wagers.

Today’s tortured analysis: QB U

If you were to rank colleges by the number of quarterbacks they’ve produced over the last fifteen years who were drafted in the first three rounds of the NFL draft, Georgia, rather unbelievably, ranks fourth.

4. Georgia

* The Data: Top-Three Round Picks: 3; First-Round Picks: 1; First Overall Picks: 1.

* The Skinny: Mark Richt has been the coach at Georgia for 12 years and brought some stability to that program – even if Bulldogs fans are waiting for that breakthrough national championship season. Jim Donnan was the coach for Quincy Carter, who went in the second round of the 2001 draft.

Richt helped send David Greene to the NFL as a third-round pick in 2003 and Matthew Stafford as the No. 1 overall pick to the Detroit Lions in 2009. Stafford has helped lift the Lions from the bowels of lethargy with his play the last couple of years.

In terms of production on the next level, it’s not the most memorable bunch, true, but it is what it is.  And Murray will likely keep up appearances next year.

About Todd Grantham’s hotness…

For the AJ-C, Todd Grantham’s professional ambition is like that loose tooth you had as a kid… you just can’t leave it alone.  Today, high school recruits across the Southeast get some helpful direction from Michael Carvell:

…  Grantham is the Bulldogs’ defensive coordinator, and he’s considered one of the college football’s brightest minds. Recruits want to play for him because he has NFL coaching experience, and they think that he can help put them in excellent position get to the league. Those are the positives.

The negative for any elite defensive recruit that is considering UGA is this: Will Grantham, who got NFL feelers this off-season, still be around to coach me in a few years?

What do you think? Do you think Grantham will still be at UGA in a few years?

Because Grantham is such a hot name in coaching circles, it likely cost the Bulldogs one linebacker recruit this past year and nearly lost them another.

Oh, please make sure you click on that first link of Carvell’s and check out the Naim Mustafaa story.  Grantham’s status is one of four possibilities Carvell explores – with Mustafaa’s coach.  Truly definitive.

Kids, here’s a better test for you.  When you’re sitting down with that coordinator or position coach you really like, ask him if he’s in the last job he’ll ever have.  If anybody says yes, he’s either sixty-five or lying to you.

Mark Emmert’s legacy

I’m sure the NCAA president would like it to be about the way he handled Penn State or the reforms he’s been pushing, but Andy Staples points to a very different area:

When federal judge Claudia Wilken ruled in January that the O’Bannon plaintiffs could proceed with the class certification process, the panic level among the people who actually run college sports on a daily basis — the athletic directors and commissioners — rose to DEFCON 2. The plaintiffs have altered their legal strategy so that this case isn’t just about the use of former athletes’ likenesses in video games and DVDs. Now, it’s about whether the NCAA and its schools have the right to market the likenesses of former and current athletes for big money. If the class is certified in June, the NCAA would be fighting for its life in an antitrust trial that, if won by the plaintiffs, could bankrupt the NCAA. The other option is to settle, but that would also require a paradigm shift. To get the plaintiffs to drop the suit, the NCAA would have to allow athletes to get a chunk of the massive television money now flowing into college sports. That probably would require the big-money conferences — at the moment, the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12 and SEC — to at least form their own division within the NCAA and could force them to break away and form their own organization. Even at the top of the food chain, schools would have to change the way they budget. Instead of building a new weight room, a school might need to hold back on capital improvements to meet payroll. Such a settlement would get messy, but it would finally stick a knife in the NCAA’s sham notion of amateurism in major college sports.

This case could have been settled long ago for relative peanuts.  Instead, due to arrogance and greed, Emmert may go down as the guy who killed college amateurism.  That’s not exactly the kind of legacy that gets buildings named after you (assuming schools could afford new athletic buildings if the NCAA loses).  Although I imagine the plaintiffs will raise a few toasts in Emmert’s direction if they win.

Bobo haz a raise.

Good for him; he’s earned it.  But it’s the patented McGarity triangulation that makes the pay story interesting.

Bobo’s increase moves him to fourth in pay among offensive coordinators in the SEC behind Florida’s Brent Pease and LSU’s Cam Cameron at $600,000 and Alabama’s Doug Nussmeier at $590,000, according to various media reports. Cameron is set to make $1.3 million in 2014 and $1.5 million in 2015.

Bobo was the ninth-highest paid offensive coordinator before the increase.

“It’s not the highest in the conference, but it’s among the top three or four and that’s where we felt Mike should be,” athletic director Greg McGarity said. “Mike has played a huge part in not only running the offense but in the development of our quarterbacks. The way he’s been such an integral part of recruiting in general it was a priority for Mark Richt and that’s where we ended up.”

I’m not sure I want to live in a world where Georgia’s athletic director thinks Mike Bobo deserves to be paid about the same as Brent Pease.  They sure didn’t get similar results last season.

And then there’s this.

Georgia’s nine assistant coaches will be paid a total of $3.225 million, up from about $2.77 million last season. McGarity said that’s not in the top tier in the conference but is comparable with SEC East rival Florida.

I mean, seriously?  I guess when LSU offensive staff is scheduled to make about what Georgia’s staff  in its entirety earns next year, McGarity will check with Jeremy Foley first before deciding what to do on the pay front.

And still no word on whether Bobo’s in line for a multi-year deal.

Maybe McGarity figures that everyone should be as loyal to the institution as he is and be willing to take a few less bucks for the privilege of working in Athens.  After all, he’s the man who’s making less than all but two of his conference peers – not to mention less than his counterpart at Georgia Tech.

It’s going to make for some interesting decisions down the road as the money flow into the SEC keeps assistants’ deals rising.  We’ll see if McGarity chooses to keep up.  And if the staff is as loyal as he’s banking on it being.

My baby, he wrote me a letter.

Pity the poor NCAA investigator.  It had to be tough working that Miami case, getting little cooperation.  Then there’s that pesky no subpoena power roadblock.  So you cut a couple of corners and make use of a sleazebag’s desire to get even with the school that spurned him by getting his lawyer to do some of your dirty work.  And you find yourself relying more on what the sleazebag has to say to make your case, because… well, because that’s about all you’ve got.

But you’re still a representative of the face of college athletics, damn it.  So when Nevin Shapiro asks you to help a brother out by putting in a good word at his sentencing hearing, you’re not going to do something stupid by going out on a limb for a guy who admitted to massive securities fraud and money laundering.  And you di’int, right?

Oh, yes, you did.

Najjar, who is no longer with the NCAA, told U.S. District Judge Susan Wigenton that college sports’ governing body could have utilized Shapiro “in the future as a consultant and/or speaker to educate our membership.”

Talk about being fully invested in a debacle.  And here’s an interesting choice of words:

“Nevin Shapiro has not been and will not be a consultant for the NCAA,” the NCAA said in a statement late Wednesday night. “We are aware of the letter but cannot comment further at this time.”

Sure would be nice to know when the NCAA’s awareness kicked in.  I suspect that Miami’s lawyers would like to know that, too.  More depositions for everybody!