What’s worse than using college players’ likenesses for financial gain?

Using them for political gain.

That violates NCAA rules, but I’m not exactly sure whom the NCAA can punish.  I bet if Prewitt and Love were threatened with suspension over it, heads would roll, though.

The Georgia Bulldog Club of Jacksonville…

… is, per its website, “America’s Largest Bulldog Club”.

If you’re down their way for the Cocktail Party, they’re hosting a meeting Thursday, October 30.  Social hour starts at 5:30PM (yes, there’s a cash bar, what kind of Bulldog Club meeting would it be without one?) and the formalities begin at 6:30.  Admission is free.

Speakers include Loran Smith, Eric Zeier and some blogger dude who writes at a place called Get The Picture.

Come on by if you’re in the neighborhood.

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In case you were wondering…

Florida coach Will Muschamp says freshman Treon Harris will start at QB vs. Georgia.

— Marc Weiszer (@marcweiszer) October 22, 2014

I’d worry about Georgia facing a running quarterback, except isn’t that what Driskel is, too?  That seems to have worked out okay.

Bill Connelly’s updated conference projections

As you can imagine, they’re a lot more fun to read after the Arkansas game.

• Georgia is the only team in the East with better than a 50% chance to go 7-1 in the conference.
• Bill now has Georgia listed as a favorite in all of its remaining SEC matches, including Auburn.  (He assigns Florida a 2.6% chance of winning in Jax.)

The number that really jumps out at me is that he projects Ole Miss to have better than a 50% chance to run the table.  Out of the SEC West.  Wow.

Taking stock at mid-season

Seth Emerson’s got a good post up picking the good and the bad to this point.

I’d probably cheat and give the offensive MVP jointly to Gurley/Chubb (Gurubb?  Churley?).  And it’s weird to say, but right now my defensive MVP is Damian Swann.

Check out his list and give me your picks.

Gurley free?

The process started off well, suffered a glitch in the middle, but, hopefully we’ll soon be able to say all’s well that ends well.

“I want to thank the University, coaches, teammates, and the Bulldog Nation for their patience and support,” Gurley said.  “I take full responsibility for the mistakes I made, and I can’t thank the University, my coaches, and teammates enough for supporting me throughout this process.  I’m looking forward to getting back on the field with my teammates.”

So are we.

Wednesday morning buffet

It’s a Gurley-free buffet, if that helps.

• This is awkward.
• Steve Hummer’s assessment of the psyche of Georgia’s fan base is pretty good:  “Georgia people habitually expect the worst. They can never relax. They can never wander the sunflower fields of blind optimism. They just know deep down that around every corner awaits a kick to a most sensitive area.”
• The advanced box score of the Florida-Missouri game is as amazing to see as the game was.
• And the advanced box score of the Arkansas-Georgia game is just what you’d expect.
• Devin Gardner’s comment about the number of racist fans he’s encountered this season puts me in mind of Randy Newman’s “Rednecks”.  Hang in there, Devin.  You’re a classy kid.
• “We found out that ball is an incredibly important part of the game of football and we didn’t secure it the way we needed to on offense and it paid off for them,” Arkansas offensive coordinator Jim Chaney said.  Better late than never, I guess.
• When it comes to scoring this season, Georgia is a damned efficient team.

It’s easier to keep fighting when you’ve got help.

Now here’s an interesting stat from Saturday:

7 First downs for Arkansas because of Georgia penalties on Saturday. No other SEC has gotten more than four first downs in a game this season via its opponent’s penalties. Georgia was penalized nine times for 101 yards against Arkansas.

No way I’m saying some of those penalties weren’t justified, but, man, that’s a lot of first downs.  Matt Moore’s crew didn’t blatantly affect the outcome of the game in the way they did last year at Vanderbilt.  But perhaps it’s time to add them to the list of officials to keep an eye on.

Opaque transparency

Nobody objected to the Coaches Poll being a part of the national title conversation more than me, but I’ll say one thing for it:  at least the coaches made their last individual ballots public.