“Oh, I’m a little bored,” he said.

Steve Spurrier is tanned, rested and ready.  Just sayin’.

Has Steve Shaw cut a deal with Bert?

Bielema sure seems to be under that impression.

Bret Bielema received an unsportsmanlike penalty after a flipout during Arkansas’ loss to Alabama, but Bielema said this week he’ll never have to see the official again.

Late in the second quarter, an Arkansas touchdown was called back due to a hold on a tackle. Bielema said umpire Stan Weihe should only watch between the guards. After a field goal, Bielema went way out of the field, yelling at multiple officials, drawing the flag.

“For a lot of reasons, we’re probably better off moving forward (not talking about it). I can be rest assured we’ll never see that official again. That’s been guaranteed to me,” Bielema said.

Details, please, SEC Office.  And I hope somebody keeps an eye on the crews chosen to work Arkansas games for a while.

If it turns out to be true, I want a retroactive deal on Penn Wagers.

You’ve got to spend money to lose money.

The 104 of the 128 athletic departments in the NCAA’s Football Bowl Subdivision that do not bring in enough money through ticket sales, donations, or other outside revenue to offset their costs saw their average deficit double over the last decade.

This must be why we hear college presidents say they don’t necessarily want to hire athletic directors with business backgrounds.

Culture change at Baylor

Good Lord.

These people are practically begging the NCAA to come in and kick their collective ass.

An exile ends.

Jonathan Ledbetter has been reinstated and will play this Saturday against Vanderbilt.

As far as Ledbetter’s role this week, that hasn’t been determined yet.

“How much he’ll play, I don’t know,” head coach Kirby Smart said. “He’s handled everything we asked him to do very well. He has worked really hard.”

Georgia outside linebacker Chuks Amaechi said Ledbetter has been relishing the opportunity to get back on the football field after sitting out the first half of the year.

Speaking with him when Georgia’s football team met Monday, Amaechi said Ledbetter displayed a more enthusiastic demeanor.

“He had a lot more glow to him,” Amaechi said.

Ledbetter also adds depth to a group that is rolling eight players at times.

As far as I’m concerned, the more, the merrier there.

I’m glad he’s back and that he’s worked hard to get there.  Let’s just hope he stays on the straight and narrow, both for his sake and the team’s.

The sound of ice cracking beneath the NCAA’s feet

Hey, look — the NLRB is messing with Northwestern again.

In an unprecedented foray into college sports, the National Labor Relations Board has declared that Northwestern University must eliminate “unlawful” rules governing football players and allow them greater freedom to express themselves. The ruling, which referred to players as employees, found that they must be freely allowed to post on social media, discuss issues of their health and safety, and speak with the media.

The new rules apply to the football programs at the 17 private universities that play in the FBS, including schools such as Notre Dame, Stanford and Baylor — but not public universities. As the nation’s top labor agency, the NLRB governs relations between private employers and their employees, so it has no power over public schools. Its findings on Northwestern became public on Friday in response to an ESPN.com Freedom of Information Act request.

Here’s the reason the schools and the NCAA will be shitting bricks:

In addition to granting players greater freedoms, the NLRB ruling will offer athletes a clear path to bring their issues before an independent agency outside of the organizations that have historically governed college athletics — the universities, the conferences and the NCAA.

So while this ruling did not address compensation for athletes, someone could now file a charge with the NLRB asserting that failing to pay players constitutes an unfair labor practice. After all, if the NLRB — which is led by a five-person board and a general counsel, all appointed by the president — declared that close monitoring of social media is an unfair labor practice, it is an open question how it would view failure to pay players. Until now, the issue has been contested only in antitrust courts.

Meaning that an antitrust exemption wouldn’t save them here.

Then again, I guess they could just kick every private school out of the NCAA.

Part of the plan

Hell, I was just kidding about this yesterday.

Jim Harbaugh says on his radio show he's going to Ruth's Chris this week to take advantage of the steak discount.

— Nick Baumgardner (@nickbaumgardner) October 10, 2016

At least I think I was.

“Commissioner, Butch Jones is on line three and wants to speak with you.”

With regard to the Florida-LSU re-scheduling, Greg Sankey’s problem is that he can take the reservation, he just doesn’t know how to hold the reservation.

Meanwhile, Greg Sankey’s tenure as SEC commissioner is threatening to go up in smoke like a Samsung Galaxy Note 7. First, he lets himself have terms dictated to him by Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley. Now, he has an open rebellion on his hands with LSU and Alleva, an uprising that by SEC bylaws he is powerless to suppress.

According to SEC rules, the commissioner can cancel or postpone a game. But once it is postponed, he needs the cooperation of both schools to get it played.

Oops.  Awk-ward.

As we’ve seen, Georgia has put its foot down about moving the Cocktail Party.  And if repetition is any indication, it seems that Joe Alleva won’t be moved on the second fallback date.

“What I said the other day about this game being very difficult to reschedule is still true,” Alleva said Monday ahead of interim coach Ed Orgeron’s weekly press luncheon. “I think it’s very difficult. One thing that we’re going to hold very firm on is that we have a home game Nov. 19 and we’re going to have a home game on Nov. 19. We are going to have a home game on Nov. 19. We’re not going to change that situation.”

All that would seem to indicate Sankey has two options left:  convince Florida to play in Baton Rouge on November 19th, or move the SECCG a week later to let the two teams play on the first Saturday in December.  I strongly doubt Foley will agree to the former, and as far as the latter goes, that would mean postponing the CFP and bowl announcements and rearranging the Georgia state high school football finals set for Dec. 9-10 at the Georgia Dome.  Does anyone see Jim Delany throwing Greg Sankey a bone here?

Which brings me back to what I believe Sankey’s Plan A is right now, namely, wishing for Florida to lose another conference game and hope like hell Tennessee stops the bleeding for good after playing Alabama this week.  If neither happens before November 19, I’d hate to be something that has to pass through the commissioner’s sphincter, because that sucker is gonna be tighter than a gnat’s arse.

A few follow up thoughts from the win

• Sunday’s game was a little frustrating to watch, simply because it seemed like Georgia had several opportunities to bury South Carolina that it failed to capitalize on.  Still, no complaints about being on the right side of a 28-14 score.
• And Bill Connelly’s advanced stats profiles for Georgia and South Carolina actually make me feel a little better about that, as the Dawgs turned in a mediocre 57% performance in a two-touchdown win, abetted by SC’s sorry 16% showing.  Bringing their “C” game won’t get them past Auburn or Florida, of course, but as a floor with regard to much of the remaining schedule, it’s hard to see how that wouldn’t be enough to prevail against Vandy, Kentucky and a mid-major.
• Here’s today’s trivia question for you:  when was the last time a Georgia head coach beat South Carolina in his first try?
• Seth Emerson makes a good point in his second glance piece today about the running game.  On their first 34 carries, Georgia’s backs gained 264 yards (7.76 ypc).  On their remaining 16, only 62 yards (3.88 ypc).  Why the drop off?  Chaney stuck with the multi-tight end/fullback formations and SC loaded the box more and more until they had the bodies to gum the works.  Eason’s poor day made that an obvious strategy; in fact, you wonder what might have happened if the ‘Cocks had embraced that approach earlier in the game.
• Speaking of Eason, Emerson also notes that the freshman took far fewer snaps out of the shotgun this week than he did against Tennessee.  Again, that just goes to show that Chaney is trying to balance having a competitive game plan with quarterback development.  One thing to keep an eye out for this weekend is how Derek Mason decides to scheme on defense and how Chaney counters.

That wasn’t so hard now, was it?

McGarity finally uses the correct language.

Georgia athletics director Greg McGarity ruled out this scenario Monday. In an email to The Telegraph, McGarity was asked whether any discussions have taken place to move the Georgia-Florida game up a week and if this is a scenario the athletics department would consider.

“Nope. Not an option,” McGarity said.

And that’s the way it should be.

In the immortal words of Rod Tidwell, you’re a little slow, but you come around.  I’ll take it.  Thank you.