The SEC Network’s one sop to tradition

At least we know who will be calling the third-rate games on the network now.

For those inquiring-I have agreed to a multi yr deal with ESPN/SEC NET. Excited to get it going with Fball this fall!

— Dave Neal (@DaveNealSports) June 30, 2014

You may remember Dave from such great moments like this:

No word on whether they’re getting the band back together, though.  Just don’t pair him with Andre Ware.  Please.

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Stop me if you’ve heard this before.

This time, they really mean it, though.

“We are holding each other accountable, making sure everybody is there, 100 percent, nobody taking any days off,” Bailey said. “Everybody is busting their tail. We have got to get ready for our first game.”

Nick Saban, master of space and time

It sounds like Greg McElroy thinks Les Miles owes Nick Saban some of his salary.

“If you look at LSU, they’ve had sustained success since Saban left because he established that mindset. Les Miles obviously did take over that program and has done a terrific job in his own right, but once you establish that mindset and have the leadership that holds young players accountable, that success shouldn’t soon dwindle…”

I guess Nick just didn’t get that mindset established in time in Miami.

Jeebus, ESPN, it’s bad enough we’ve got Finebaum genuflecting in Saban’s presence on the SEC Network.  Is it really necessary to double down?

Root, root, root for the conference opponent?

Year2 has a good piece about the etiquette of supporting other SEC teams and I agree with him that being a fan means following your heart, not coldly calculating what’s good for the conference may be indirectly good for the team you support.

Where I think I part ways with him is that, with at least some conference rivals, I can’t even get into the intellectual justification as a fall back exercise.

That then changes the question to whether it is good for your team to see other SEC teams do well. In the aggregate, the answer is an easy “yes”.

There is a subjective element to how every NCAA postseason field comes about. The better the league’s reputation is, the more likely it is that its teams will get into those fields ahead of other conferences’ teams. It is especially important in the revenue sports, because more spots means more money to the conference, and the conference divides the loot evenly. The conference’s good reputation has paid off concretely in football…

Was Florida’s loss to Georgia Southern bad for the conference’s reputation?  Certainly.  As a Georgia fan, would I have changed the outcome had I the power to?  Are you freakin’ kidding me?

There are some SEC schools I’m always going to root against… unless they’re playing Georgia Tech.  (Maybe.)  There are some conference schools I may dislike for a time because of a player or coach whom I instinctively pull against.  And there are some teams in the SEC I support.  If that makes me a bad conference fan, so be it.  Besides, outside of Mike Slive, who wants to be a conference fan anyway?

Mamas, let your lacrosse players grow up to be offensive linemen.

Now I know that two kids hardly constitutes a trend, but I still find it interesting that this tidbit pops up on Georgia’s latest commit for the class of 2015:

The big man, who also plays lacrosse, can get to the second level in a hurry and while he needs to improve angles, he can be an effective second-level blocker.  [Emphasis added.]

Along with Greg Pyke, that makes for two big lacrosse players potentially suiting up for Will Friend.  Coincidence, an appreciation for kids who are generally good athletes, or do you think the Georgia coaches see something specifically useful in having a background in that other sport?

That’s some lull we’re having.

USA Today notes this…

Of the 128 schools to play at the FBS level this season, more than 40 percent have made at least one move over the past decade. That figure doesn’t even include the shake-ups of the mid-to-late 1990s that produced the Big 12, Conference USA and the Mountain West. Flip the calendar back 25 years and find only 48 teams that have stayed put. That means more than 62 percent of them switched during that span.

… and wonders if we’re gonna get a breather on the conference realignment front.  Surely you jest, fellas.  They’re just taking a time out until the next TV deal shows up.

“To strive and thrive, you’ve got to get bigger. Conference realignment is about exactly that: having more economic value when you get bigger,” said Chris Bevilacqua, a sports media consultant. “It’s not going to stop, because the market forces are going to continue to incentivize and reward size. It’s not just college. It’s everything in the ecosystem. So will it settle down and pause for a while? My guess is probably. Will there be further consolidation and realignment? I think most definitely. When will that happen? That’s hard to say.”

Fever dreams

Now I enjoy an anti-NCAA rant as much as anyone, and this one certainly has its moments of rhetorical pleasure – “the fevered delusions of NCAA chief Mark Emmert, who swore under oath that what he presides over is as amateur as tiddlywinks on a playground” has a nice ring to it, no doubt – but the idea that Jim Delany, a man who just added two teams to his conference for the sole purpose of making its broadcast network a more attractive proposition, would be prepared one day to blow up the entire structure of college athletics and return to a simpler, purer arrangement is a fevered delusion of its own.

Money is the drug and they’re hooked on it.

Musical palate cleanser, all I have is a nickel and a nail edition

Bobby Womack’s passing led me to an R&B binge this weekend and I would be remiss if I didn’t share one of the all-time greatest songs, O.V. Wright’s “A Nickel And A Nail”.

Unbelievable vocals and Willie Mitchell’s production, with the Hi Records Rhythm Section and the Memphis Horns thrown in – what more do you need?

“There’s more to life than the SEC championship.”

My favorite part of this Spurrier Q&A is how he manages to reflect on going 6-2 in the SEC each of the last three seasons without winning the division and yet not mention Georgia.

That’s just the way it’s happened. To go 6-2 in the conference, which is the best record ever for South Carolina – and we did it three years in a row – how can you be upset? We are disappointed that we beat the division winner and they never lost again, but give them credit. Give the other guy credit. Jack Nicklaus finished runner-up 19 times in the majors. Of course, he won 18, but every time he finished runner-up, he shook the hand of the other guy and said, ‘Well done, you beat me.’ Missouri ran the table after we beat them. People kept asking me, I said, ‘If they win it all, I’ll call coach (Gary) Pinkel and congratulate him,’ and that’s exactly what I did.

Which is not to say he forgot about Georgia’s existence.

All you have to do is look around a little bit. Who would have thought Florida would go 4-8. Georgia didn’t finish in the Top 25.

So sayeth the best coach in South Carolina’s history.

‘The coach’s voice needs to be heard.’

I don’t know how I missed the news at the time, but I’ve got to say this may be the most amusing sponsorship in the history of college football.  Is there good money to be made in sponsoring an irrelevancy?

Also, if Auburn wins the fan poll, will Jay Jacobs claim that as a national title?