“There’s a very realistic possibility this winds up in Federal court.”

Does the NCAA ever get tired of hearing that?

Hey, isn’t that Steve Spurrier?

The OBC gets off to a familiar start at SEC Media Days.

Steve Spurrier: "There are people in Knoxville and Fayetteville still doing cartwheels over going 7-6."

— Josh Kendall (@JoshTheAthletic) July 14, 2015

Not exactly his “A” material…

“I do also believe that this is an isolated incident.”

Another day, another second chance in the SEC.  (Okay, technically, it’s a first chance, but you get the drift.)

SEC, Gary Danielson is worried about your soul.

Really, he is.

… All but one SEC team averaged more than 360 yards per game last year; eight averaged more than 400, and Mississippi State averaged a staggering 513. But Danielson wonders if the conference might be starting to sell its soul for shiny silver.

“The big advantage the SEC had against other conferences was they were the most physical, NFL-like conference there was,” he said. “If they try to morph too much into becoming a fantasy league, they are going to cede their position as the toughest and best conference in college football.”

In case you can’t tell, the man really doesn’t like the spread.

“You go into a room, you meet with athletic directors, you can wow them by putting the spread on the board, show them how you’re going to run up all these scores. For years, I’ve been saying they are running too many plays and the games are getting too long, but none of them want to give up their stats. They love these stats.”

I’ll be the first to concede that many athletic directors have their heads up their asses, but I don’t think any of ’em are hiring coaches to run up stats.  They want to win, even if they don’t always have the best idea about how to go about accomplishing that.  And, like it or not, that hurry-up stuff works.  If it didn’t, you wouldn’t see Saban taking steps in that direction.

Derek Mason’s touching show of faith

For all the center of the college football universe talk, I found yesterday’s SEC Media Days sessions pretty run of the mill.  The bravado was expected.  So maybe that’s why the only quote that really made me do a double take came from Vanderbilt’s Derek Mason, of all people, who had this rather amazing explanation for why his team basically stunk on ice last year:

“I think me as a head coach, I made some assumptions a year ago about this football team,” Mason said. “I assumed that, just because we were in the SEC, that we play like an SEC team, and we didn’t.”

Say what?  You’re at Vanderbilt, dude.  If things were that easy, your predecessor wouldn’t have been able to grab the Penn State job.

You read a quote like that and wonder what the interview process that led to his hire was like.  What on earth did Mason say to impress his future boss?

I guess that explains how you can hire an offensive hack like Karl Dorrell and believe things will work out well.

Gus Malzahn is all in on Agent Muschamp.

Boom may not have been the bestest head coach, but don’t let that stop the Gus Bus.

“The best defensive mind in all of football, not just college football,” Malzahn said of Muschamp, who was fired last November after serving four seasons as Florida’s head coach.

Hoo, boy.  SEC, you have been warned.

Tuesday morning buffet

I’m not in Hoover.  You’re not in Hoover.  So, eat.

• Speaking of Hoover, CFN’s Pete Fiutak has some pretty amusing observations about his first day there.  My favorite:  “Because it’s 174 degrees outside with 139% humidity, and considering most media types get paid in buttons and some of those fans who actually did show up look like they’ve been wearing the same jersey for three straight weeks, every ten feet or so in this cramped, confided space there’s a waft of pure evil. This is one place where the term “smell you later” really does apply.“  Ew.
• Melvin Robinson, Georgia’s Assistant Athletic Director for Facility Operations, about the ongoing improvements at Sanford Stadium:  “The fan experience is so big and when they see the improvements we’re doing at the stadium, they’re going to be blown away…”  No offense, Mel, but we’ll believe when we see it… or don’t have to spend fifteen minutes in a concession line.
• Bruce Feldman points out that, for all the preseason hype about Auburn, the Tigers return fewer starters on offense than any team in the SEC.
• This looks pretty cool, if you ask me.
• “Everybody is the media. Everybody with a camera phone is the media…”
• Fiutak’s SEC team likely to disappoint?  Tennessee.
• And here’s a detailed look at D-1 athletic spending, with an emphasis on bang (i.e., wins) for the buck.

Amateurism ain’t cheap.

You can bet Stacey Osburn has no comment about this:

A federal magistrate judge late Monday ordered the NCAA to pay nearly $46 million to Ed O’Bannon’s lawyers in attorney fees and legal costs for their court victory. The NCAA had been seeking the costs to be heavily reduced to approximately $8.5 million.

US Magistrate Judge Nathanel Cousins awarded the O’Bannon lawyers $44.4 million in attorney fees, a reduction of almost $1.2 million from what they requested. The NCAA was also ordered to pay $1.5 million in costs and expenses, down $3.7 million from what the plaintiffs sought.

Good thing it’s got March Madness to pay for it.

This observation by Cousins has to sting.

“This win against a behemoth of an institution like the NCAA could significantly change American college sports; in particular, the way the NCAA treats its student-athletes.”

And this is when you know your arguments aren’t persuasive.

Another argument the NCAA made in trying to reduce the legal fees was that O’Bannon’s lawyers were overstaffed. Cousins said the NCAA’s claims are “undercut by their own staffing decisions. For example, while it cries foul over plaintiffs’ counsels’ alleged overattendance at trial, the NCAA had close to a dozen attorneys, not to mention paralegals, assistants, and technical staff members, representing its interests at the trial.”

So go ahead and put Cousins on the list of people who are just wrong, wrong, wrong about amateurism.  Pretty soon we’ll be able to add the Ninth Circuit to that, when it denies the NCAA’s appeal.  It’ll be interesting to see where things go after that.  Maybe we should ask Stacey if she’s heard anything.