“Fan is a fanatic. That’s the longform of the word fan.”

Geez, people.  Chris Conley?  Really?

“But I think their fear is fear of change. Everybody fears change.”

Two very telling quotes from Jon Solomon’s piece about Jeffrey Kessler:

“I think if we go down the road of paying football and men’s basketball players, as the agents and their agents, the trial lawyers, would like us to do … we’re going to be put in a situation as a series of enterprises that we’re going to be forced to make that exact decision, that the non-revenue sports are going to get eliminated,” Texas athletic director Steve Patterson said at a recent forum sponsored by the Big 12.

“You’re going to see schools ask to go from 16 sports, which is the minimum to compete, down to 12. I’ve already sat in meetings where those kind of conversations have happened, and that’s bad for the country. That’s bad for Olympic sports. That’s bad for opportunities for people to get out of lesser environments, get to a university and have a better outcome in life.”

Kessler brushes aside such doomsday warnings. He focuses instead on the mixed message he says universities apply while attempting to educate students and be commercial enterprises without paying players.

“What is there about an educational mission for the SEC schools to spend $25 million this year on digital television studios on their campuses for the SEC Network?” Kessler said. “It’s a very nice business investment, but does that have anything to do with educating their students? Does that have anything to do with the student-athlete experience? It has to do with one thing: selling cable television programs. That’s OK, but acknowledge the reality.

“The people who say, ‘Gee, I wish we went back to no television schedule and no sponsors and none of this and just focus on the educational mission,’ that’s a perfectly worthy viewpoint and small schools, like the Ivy League, do that. That’s a perfectly legitimate choice. Maybe in some sense it’s a better world. But the world we live in, there are more than 150 schools who have made a very different choice, and those schools have decided to engage as businesses to generate huge amounts of revenues, and what they need to do is treat fairly the people who helped them generate those revenues.”

Which do you think a trial court will find more convincing?

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Did you hear the one about the selection committee?

Confession time:  I didn’t watch the College Football Playoff show last night.  I don’t intend to watch any more of them until it’s time for the selection of the semi-finals pool.  And I only watched the start of the first show to see how full of themselves ESPN and the selection committee were.

What they’re doing is pointless from a settle it on the field perspective.  It exists purely for broadcast fodder.

The only thing more pointless than the weekly votes themselves is the weekly tea leaf-reading they inspire.  Using Year2’s example, I get that dropping Ole Miss down as much as the committee did seems like an overreaction, but in the vast scheme of things, what does it matter?  Mississippi is a two-loss team now, playing in college football’s toughest neighborhood with its best offensive player gone for the season.  Toast, in other words.

And as far as what the move reveals about the selection committee’s mindset, that’s about the same as Ole Miss’ chances of climbing back into the top four.  There are no rules here.  Nor is there a window into the vote itself, despite the many protestations about transparency.  In the end, the committee will do whatever the hell it wants.  Because it can.  Which is how the conference commissioners who designed this process want it to be.

So quit worrying about what they’re doing.  It just doesn’t make any difference.

The NCAA, making it up as it goes along.

Can’t say I’m surprised by a single word here.

Internal emails from the NCAA re: Penn State are something else. http://t.co/JowKiIXyl9—
Ben Jones (@Ben_Jones88) November 05, 2014

But don’t you see?  Emmert had to do something!

“Georgiaing”

I’ve knocked Ed Aschoff for missing a point before, so let me say that when he gets something right, credit should go where credit is due.  And this is spot on.

It’s easy to call Richt out, but it’s been a collective collaboration by the Dawgs. Defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt, who appeared to have most of the holes on this defense sown up before Saturday, stood in front of the media and took the blame for the Gator gashing, but neither he nor Richt were out there getting thrown around by Florida linemen. They weren’t the ones missing tackle after tackle or getting pushed over with ease.

Richt isn’t the one limited in what he can do throwing the ball. Offensive coordinator Mike Bobo has been ridiculed for years by Georgia fans, both justly and unjustly, but neither he nor Richt got blown off the line by Florida’s pass rush. They are the ones developing these guys, and have to be held accountable, but there also comes a point where the players have to accept blame and outrage.

Remember, linebacker Ramik Wilson said players “underestimated” Florida. That’s on everybody.

The underachievement is real. Georgia is a top-10 job surrounded by platinum talent, but for whatever reason, this program has been held back from breaking through to achieve consistent championship success.

No matter who you point the finger at, it’s baffling.

The only thing I’d add is that we’re all tired of pointing fingers.  We just want things to work, both on and off the field, as they should at a program that believes it’s a conference power.  Is that too much to ask?  Or are we simply not asking the right folks?

“The more you know about these teams, the less sense this result makes.”

Bill Connelly says all you need to say about the Georgia-Florida result in his advanced box score analysis here.  And his last sentence wouldn’t come as a surprise to me, either.

It’s sure gonna suck when it happens, though.

This is the season of Spurrier’s discontent.

You probably heard about the OBC’s brief presser after the overtime loss to Tennessee, but if you haven’t seen it, it’s something to behold.

Give him credit – he doesn’t spare himself from criticism.

I know he fully intends to coach again next season.  But you wonder how long he can put up with mediocrity.  Hell, just for the ‘Cocks to become bowl eligible this year, they’ll either have to beat Florida or Clemson, neither of which is exactly a given at this point.

It’s going to be interesting watching him this offseason.

“I think that’s why sometimes I don’t want anyone to talk to the media.”

I got news for you, Coach.  We didn’t need to hear Ramik Wilson and Sterling Bailey tell the media that the defense wasn’t mentally prepared to play Florida.

All we had to do was watch.

You know what really infuriates you when you watch this film closely? Georgia – when it did its job – actually shut down Florida’s offense. The issue was that there were WAY too many plays where not all 11 men did their job – whether it was a DL getting pushed back, taking a back door, or an OLB losing outside contain. Georgia did some things on defense last Saturday that would drive any defensive coach crazy because you KNOW they KNOW not to do what they did. You KNOW they’ve been coached better than that.

I can guarantee that all the talk about being able to dominate their opponent and Florida not being good on offense directly lead to this selfish, lazy play. When a person thinks they can dominate another player on the football field, fundamentals go out the window and they believe their skill will just allow them to be better.

Cory is confident that Pruitt will get after his charges this week and we’ll see a different defense.  And maybe we will.  They certainly were taken down a couple of notches in Jacksonville, so maybe the false comfort can be stripped away.  No doubt shame can be a great motivator.  But who knows with this bunch?

What I’m sensing right now is that Kentucky is the pivotal game of the season for this team.  It’s not that the ‘Cats are that scary.  They’re not.  It’s that Georgia’s mental preparation is.  That’s on the coaching staff as much as it is the players.  So there’s plenty of soul searching to go around this week.  And not just about what to say to the beat writers.