There are only so many hours in the day, you know.

“I don’t think it will be onerous,” SEC Commissioner Mike Slive said. “We’ll be very sensitive to their schedules. I think they’ll find it’s actually a benefit for them…”

No, Slive’s not talking about football scheduling there.  He’s talking about the time the coaches will have to devote to the new network.

Time is a precious commodity for college football coaches.

When they’re not coaching, they’re preparing for the next game, recruiting the next prospect, conducting staff meetings, making public appearances or talking to the press.

There’s little time for much else.

How much time coaches will be required to set aside when the SEC Network launches in August 2014 is not yet completely known, but the hours and hours of original programming — both live and taped — yet to be developed leaves the 14 football coaches ample opportunity showcase their program, whether in interviews or opening their doors for behind-the-scenes programming.

If you view the problem as a zero-sum game (Saban:  “I think the time that we have to spend on media-related promotion, whether it’s coaches, student-athletes or whomever it is, it can’t be increased because we have other things that are important to do,”), it’s pretty obvious who’s going to come out on the short end of the stick.

The simple solution? Coaches and athletic departments will restructure and shift their coaches’ free time when the SEC Network requires an appearance. For Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze, that means less interviews with reporters and last-minute radio appearances.

“It’s about managing,” Freeze said.

“We’ll be able to bounce all of that,” said Auburn coach Gus Malzahn, “and it won’t take away from the job that we need to do.”

My bet is the coaches will be quite happy with the trade off.  Can’t wait to hear the reaction from the media when it starts sinking in that the SEC Network gets first helpings.

“I first met Jarvis at a Cracker Barrel…”

David Paschall explores the difference between coaching college and pro games through Todd Grantham’s perspective.

One – helping kids grow versus coaching players who play for a living.  As Richt puts it,

“I think Todd really embraced that we’re more than coaches,” Richt said. “We’re mentors, and we’re father figures. We’re guys who these guys really kind of count on for a lot of counsel besides just football. He really embraced that from the very beginning, and I was very happy to see that along with what he could bring to the table just as far as football was concerned.”

Two – variety versus the No Fun League.  Again, from Richt:

“I think there is so much more diversity in the types of offenses that you see on a week-to-week basis in college depending on who you’ve scheduled,” Richt said. “One week we might be working against a spread team and the next week it’s the triple-option and next week it might be a team that wants to run with power and slow the game down. There’s just so much more diversity in offensive styles in college compared to the NFL.”

That’s all nice, but as we learned earlier in the year, Grantham would go back to the NFL if the right opportunity presents itself.  Ironically, I expect that the time he’s spent in the college ranks will wind up making him more attractive to the pros in the long run.