Georgia’s 2016 class refuses to stop.

They’re still trying to pull kids in.

Maybe we shouldn’t be so worried about those slots Kirby left open on signing day after all.

 

Bill Hancock dares us to cross that line. Okay, this line.

Perhaps sensing that football fans on the East Coast want to par-tay a little on New Year’s Eve, the movers and shakers directing the college football playoffs agree to move the start times for the semi-final games up an hour.

The CFP will move the 2016 semifinals — the Fiesta and Peach bowls — from 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. ET to 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Due to the shift, the Orange Bowl will shift from New Year’s Eve afternoon to the night of Dec. 30. Staging of the Peach and Fiesta bowls will be decided when match-ups are announced on Dec. 4.

I’m sure the huge drop in television ratings had nothing to do with the change of heart.

“The first two years have shown us that the playoff is extremely popular with fans and that we successfully struck an appropriate balance creating a new event while maintaining the great traditions that have enabled college football to hold such an important place in the country’s culture,” Hancock said…

Keep blowing that smoke, Bill.  It’s a good thing the 31st falls on a Saturday.

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If only American society could change as easily as college football.

Hey, everybody!  The war is over and culture won.

I guess all those Title IX folks can quit their jobs and go home now.

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UPDATE:  Some of the media covering Tennessee football don’t appear to have gotten the memo on culture change.

“So it’s a sweet deal for us.”

Gosh darn it, this is so cute.  Greg McGarity thinks he needs to explain to us why he’s keeping the Georgia-Florida game in Jacksonville.

“We’ve got to do a better job of explaining the finances of that whole deal,” McGarity said. “Right now, there’s a segment of our fan base that wants to go home-and-home. There’s a segment that may want to go to Atlanta, but I go to Atlanta there’s 72,000 seats. We have 84,000 in Jacksonville.”

Georgia nets about $2.4 million a year playing Florida in Jacksonville, McGarity said, which means nearly $5 million every two years. If Georgia-Florida was home-and-home that would mean $3 million every two years because that is about what Georgia nets for home SEC games. It could also cost about $250,000 in expenses for chartered flights and hotel to play a game in Gainesville while expenses in Jacksonville are defrayed as part of the arrangement…

“From a financial standpoint, it’s a huge deal for us. A $2 million swing over a two-year period is hard to make up in other areas.”

It’s about the money?  Gee, Greg, I think we already knew that.

The blessing of lowered expectations

It’s only March, so, yeah, a grain of salt is in order, but one thing Kirby Smart has working in his favor is that Georgia appears to be on the way to becoming 2016’s anti-Tennessee.

Before you go there, I’m talking about in terms of what the media’s perception of Georgia’s prospects are likely to be this season.  Take, for example, this bit from Paul Myerberg’s SEC spring football preview:

The Volunteers will enter the 2016 season on a six-game winning streak, the second-longest streak in the SEC — trailing just Alabama, which won its final 12 games after an early loss to Mississippi. For Tennessee, this stretch has helped to validate Butch Jones’ steady progress since being hired following the 2012 season…

But it’s time for a breakthrough, particularly given the undecided nature of the SEC East Division. Florida remains a heavy favorite to repeat atop the division, though the Gators’ offense needs to see drastic improvement. Georgia is talented — Georgia is always talented — but starting fresh under a new staff. With Missouri and South Carolina in similar states of flux, the time is now for the Volunteers to take the division and challenge the SEC West for conference supremacy.

That’s third place in the East versus “it’s time”.  And No Pressureville is a nice place for Smart to hang out for a while.

True, there are personnel issues to sort out in several key places, as well as a new staff that has to settle in.  But one thing quietly working in Georgia’s favor is the schedule.  Checking Phil Steele’s 2016 Spring Guide reveals that Georgia faces opponents coming off a combined 74-76 season last year.  Only four of those finished the 2015 season ranked.  Five had winning records.

In comparison, Florida has an even easier row to hoe.  But Tennessee’s path is more difficult.  (Although to be fair, nothing compares to what the SEC West teams face, at least on paper.  The top four on Steele’s list are LSU, Arkansas, Mississippi and Auburn.  Alabama is eighth, only because it doesn’t play Alabama.)

Bottom line:  the schedule appears manageable five months out from the start.  If Smart can sort out the most egregious personnel problems, at least to some extent, he’s got a chance to make a better season of it than perhaps most will be expecting.  We’ll see how it goes.

“College football is finally catching up with technology.”

Well, as long as it doesn’t cost anything.

The problem with the helpful tools for coaches? The NCAA doesn’t quite know how to level the playing field and make sure every team has equal access to the coaching tools, from the Power 5 conferences to the FCS programs already struggling financially.

The NCAA playing rules oversight panel will discuss Tuesday whether to approve significant changes allowing tablets and computers in the coaches’ booth and inside locker rooms at halftime on game days. The NCAA football rules committee forwarded the proposal it approved in February.

The complex issue involving logistics, money, equal access and much more, however, has some believing the proposal could stall and be placed on the shelf for another year, according to NCAA sources.

“It’s inevitable that somewhere down the line we will move to allow technology, even on the sideline,” said Steve Shaw, the SEC’s director of officials. “It’s inevitable. It’s part of everything we do now, but whether it is ready now, I just don’t know.”

The main issue is consistency across all conferences. Simply put, it’s yet another Pandora’s Box of compliance issues the NCAA could crack open next fall.

The NFL began using tablet technology on its sidelines — a move that could still be several years down the road in the NCAA — in 2013 thanks to a five-year, $400 million deal it signed with Microsoft. Microsoft, along with NFL officials, developed a universal system that guides all 32 teams, which have the same equipment and capabilities. On the college level, such a system could prove impossible, leading to yet another Wild West of insecurity and big moneymakers getting the upperhand.

When you start talking “Wild West” in the context of college football, you know this isn’t going to end well.

Maybe the P5 schools could start throwing in a shipment of iPads along with the million-dollar guarantee fees they offer when they schedule cupcake games.  Used ones, even.  Heck, you know Auburn will be getting the latest upgrade every time one comes out.

Chip Towers has some tasty Kool-Aid you can sample.

Damn it, man, I’m trying to keep my optimism about Nick Chubb in perspective and you come rolling along with this:

According to the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine, rehabilitation from surgery to repair a torn PCL “typically takes six to 12 months.” There will have been 349 days  — or 10 months and 24 days — passed from the time Chubb went down in Knoxville and Georgia kicks off against North Carolina on Sept. 3rd.

There was also this from the AOSSM: “Although (rehabilitation) is a slow process, a commitment to therapy is the most important factor in returning.”

There are a couple of key words in that statement: “Typical” and “commitment to therapy.” Anyone who has witnessed anything Chubb has done would not apply the word “typical” to any of it. Any kid his size (5-10, 220) who squats 585 pounds like he was stopping to pick up a quarter is anything but typical.

And while UGA has been noticeably guarded and cryptic with its information regarding a specific timeline for Chubb’s return, enough people with direct knowledge his recovery have attested that it is going exceedingly well to believe that it is. He is said to have practically taken up residency in the Bulldogs’ training facility since his rehabilitation began three weeks after surgery. If one of the factors to successful recovery from such an injury is hard work, Chubb should meet that criteria, and then some…

Meanwhile, comments from Chubb and his inner circle, though similarly cryptic, continue to be positive. Whenever he is asked about it in public, Chubb just says “doing real good” and flashes that trademark grin. Asked recently about Chubb possibly getting back in time for the first game, his father Henry Chubb said, “Nick is doing very well. Working very hard. Hopefully he’ll be back.”

So while we really don’t know, there is mounting evidence that Chubb will be back in business this fall, and subtle indications it could be earlier rather than later.

Wouldn’t it be incredibly exciting to see Chubb suited up and ready to go in the opener… MUST… STOP… FEELINGS.

To be a Georgia fan over the past few seasons is to know disappointment.  Which isn’t to say I’m not keeping my fingers crossed, or refusing to believe if there’s anyone with the work ethic to overcome a serious knee injury in good time, it’s Nick Chubb.  I’m not gonna set a timetable on his comeback, though.  Let’s just leave things at get well as soon as you can, Nick.

Alex, I’ll take “Obscenely” for $200.

I don’t think you have to follow college football too closely to get the answer to this question.