Just because you’re a dumbass doesn’t mean you’re a bad person.

Great piece at And The Valley Shook about the difference between being a thug and a moron.

Hint: it’s the latter that should perhaps disqualify Anthony Jennings from being LSU’s starting quarterback this season.

Today, in coachspeak

So, Gary Pinkel, when the day comes that the SEC ditches its ban on satellite camps, will we hear you mourn the demise of integrity, or will you start planning your first camp in the Deep South?

Suckers!… er, thanks for having me back, fellas.

If you want proof that the AB-H’s Marc Weiszer and Fletcher Page are gluttons for punishment, they asked me back to do another blogger roundtable.

And if you want proof that you’re a glutton for punishment, you can listen to it here.

Seriously, I appreciate the invite.  I thought we had an interesting discussion.  (Of course, you could argue that any discussion about Georgia football in mid-June would be interesting.)  I don’t think I embarrassed myself – at least Marc didn’t dismiss the possibility of me doing another one in the future.

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Letting Steve Patterson have his cake and eat it, too.

Honestly, I don’t have a problem at all with someone defending the Texas AD’s management strategy on the basis of “hey, we all know it’s a business”.

It just seems to me if that’s the road you choose to go down, you’ve got to call Patterson out on the hypocrisy of his rationale for not allowing student-athlete compensation.  Because either it’s a business you’re running, or it’s not.  Unless your definition of business includes maintaining an artificial construct – sorry, an illegal artificial construct –  to justify not having to deal with the same labor costs other businesses face.  In which case, Walmart is jealous.

I’m Auburn. Fly me.

You know – I mean, you just know – when the guy at Auburn responsible for calculating the school’s cost of attendance says something like this…

“This is a financial aid budget,” he said. “This isn’t an athletic scholarship budget.”

… hilarity is bound to ensue, and this article (h/t) lives up to the promise of that.  In spades.

You can start with the chutzpah of him questioning how other schools can justify their numbers if you like, but for me, the money shot (see what I did there?) has to be his defense of the $2,858 allotment for transportation costs.

As for transportation, Reynolds attempts to encompass those who live on and near campus in Auburn as well as commuters from Montgomery and Columbus (roughly 100-mile round trips) and Birmingham (over 200 miles round trip), and has to account for some trips home for a school with roughly 40 percent of students coming from out of state, predominantly Georgia.

While a student at Auburn would have to drive over 2,100 miles per month at a rate of 20 miles per gallon with gas being $3 per gallon to account for the $317.56 budgeted for transportation each month by Reynolds, that doesn’t factor in any flying, which would quickly eat into that figure and factor into the average annual cost.  [Emphasis added.]

For its size, this must be the busiest goddamned airport in the Southeast.  What a lucky coincidence for Auburn’s coaches.

With Auburn’s cost of attendance figure ranking so comparatively high it will naturally be a factor in recruiting, though not as much as of yet.

“We’re not talking about it enough, to be honest with you,” Auburn wide receivers coach Dameyune Craig said in early May. “But it will focused on from me (during the May evaluation period) and that can be used as an advantage. It is what it is.”

Multiple members of Malzahn’s staff said cost of attendance hasn’t come up much on the recruiting trail so far, even during in-home visits last January, but now that it’s set to start they’ll be emphasizing it moving forward.

“It has not been a big issue – yet – but it’s something that over the course of time we will it a big issue because it’s a good issue for Auburn,” running backs coach Tim Horton said. “It’s good for us. That plays well into our hands.”

Greg Sankey, these people aren’t trolling you.  They’re daring you.

Friday morning buffet

Here’s something to help fuel you through the last working day of the week:

• 247Sports thinks Georgia’s on course for a whale of a recruiting year in 2016.  Of course, that was before this news broke.  Which is why I don’t spend time speculating on recruits until they’re signed, sealed and delivered.  Your mileage may vary, of course, which is what keeps the recruiting services in business.
• Insert “Mark Richt has lost control” snark here.  (And no, there isn’t a Herbstreit reaction to the news I can point you to.)
• Jim Harbaugh isn’t going to listen to you badmouth the United States of America.
• If you don’t think the Alabama-Georgia game is going to be crazy enough already, Michael Carvell points out that that’s the most attractive home date for Jacob Eason to take his official visit.
• Sen. Claire McCaskill wants colleges to continue to make improvements in the way they handle sexual assault accusations against athletes.  Look at the bright side, schools:  at least somebody in Congress is paying attention to the way you run your athletics!
• Brian Schottenheimer is a big fan of Nick Chubb.  Smart man.
• And Georgia has added a 22-year old linebacker with an interesting backstory as a walk-on.