Okay, but what has he done for us lately?

This is pretty interesting.  David Wunderlich explores the question of the solidity of the foundation Dan Mullen has built at Florida.  He starts by noting that the Gators have finished in the top 15 of the AP Poll for three consecutive seasons, something that hadn’t happened since Corch’s day.  He then goes on to compare that with the number of times peer programs can make the same claim, which is where he buries the true lede in one sentence.

Kirby Smart has put the Bulldogs in the top ten in four straight years.  [Emphasis added.]

Yeah, but if Kirby blah, blah, blah this season, then questions blah, blah, blah.

There Bill Hancock goes again…

Shot.

CFP executive director Bill Hancock told ESPN that nothing is imminent.

“There will not be a new format this season or next season,” Hancock said. “The timetable is certainly an important detail, but it hasn’t been determined yet. It’s too soon to predict the timing, but even if the board decides to alter the format, it may well not occur until after the current agreement has expired, which isn’t until after the 2025 season.”

Chaser ($$).

Concerned that their four-team product has been harmed by the dominance of a select few teams from the same region, FBS commissioners are seriously considering expanding the College Football Playoff. And while it’s long been assumed that any change to the format would be modest, several influential decision-makers are suddenly open to a playoff system that skips past eight teams and into the double digits…

“There are two unintended consequences people didn’t see when they created the Playoff,” said a college administrator familiar with the discussions. “One, seeing the same teams over and over from one part of the country. It’s impairing the product, because there’s boredom. … There’s risk to not enough (geographic) spread. Secondly, the brand damage to a conference that doesn’t get in it.”

And there you have it.  It’s not about the best, or the most deserving.  Playoff expansion is about brand damage to a conference.  In furtherance of the academic mission, of course.

Enjoy those brackets, peeps, ’cause they’re coming.  Very soon.  Just ask Bill.

“Everybody’s worried about the quarterback.”

It’s the most important position on the field.  And it’s college football’s best conference.  So, taken together, you might want to take a look at this piece summarizing the quarterback competitions across the SEC as spring practice ends.

A couple of quick, short takes:  one, and perhaps most obvious, is that Georgia and Ole Miss are sitting pretty compared with the rest of the conference in having returning quarterbacks ensconced as the clear number ones.

Two, a question.

– LSU has three quarterbacks who started multiple games last season, though Myles Brennan would appear to be the favorite again. He replaced Heisman Trophy winner Joe Burrows last season and was off to a good start before a torn abdominal muscle ended his season three games in.

TJ Finley logged five starts but Max Johnson replaced him for the final two games and won both in the Tigers’ disappointing follow-up to a national championship season. Freshman Garrett Nussmeier joins the group.

“There is no starting quarterback,” LSU coach Ed Orgeron said. “They’re all competing and all four of them are very, very talented.”

– Tennessee left spring camp with another intriguing situation. Hendon Hooker, a graduate transfer from Virginia Tech, could face additional competition with former Michigan passer Joe Milton expected to arrive as a summer enrollee.

That would give first-year Volunteers coach Josh Heupel five scholarship quarterbacks, provided they all stick around.

So, which is it?  When you say you have no starting quarterback, you have no quarterback, or when you have five quarterbacks, you have no quarterback?

The first month of the 2021 season is going to be interesting.

“And we wonder why there’s no credibility in college athletics.”

This is gold, Jerry.  Gold!

Just a legendary press release. … Wedged that one sentence way down there. pic.twitter.com/dPftx9UqQB

— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) April 28, 2021

The sputtering and disbelief over the news that Mark Emmert’s had his contract extended an additional two years is simply epic.  Here’s just one example:

The most galling part of the contract extension the NCAA Board of Governors gave to president Mark Emmert on Tuesday is that it was embarrassed to give it to him. It is made up almost entirely of college presidents, a group of people that often pay $50,000 retainers to public relations consultants to use buzz words like “transparency” and “accountability.”

When it actually came time to be accountable, transparent and show a smidge of credibility, the “servant leaders” — there’s another favorite — all hid like the gutless and clueless group we’ve expected leading the NCAA.

In the 494th word of a press release the NCAA sent out at 9:06 p.m. on Tuesday, the organization snuck in a casual mention — under the heading “Other Business” — that embattled president Mark Emmert received a two-year contract extension. His deal is now extended through 2025, and the NCAA poured another layer of cement on its reputation as the most dysfunctional and rudderless organization in sports.

And here’s a fun Twitter thread.

I have to confess that I misread the situation when I saw the news that Emmert was in the mix to be the next head of LSU.  I thought he was looking for an exit strategy.  Instead, he borrowed Todd Grantham’s annual move of exploring his NFL options to wrangle a better deal out of the school.

Mark Emmert just Jimmy Sexton’d the NCAA!  He is truly their indispensable man.  Talk about a bunch that deserve each other…

Your 4.26.21 Playpen

I’ll keep this simple:  as much as I enjoy blogging, I hate policing the comments section.  It’s a lather, rinse, repeat experience.  Folks cross a line, I complain, announce steps in response, the guilty parties promise to turn over a new leaf, but are soon back to doing the same old things.  No matter what, some of y’all won’t change.  So, I give up.  It’s time to cull the herd.

Here on out, there are no more warnings.  No more time outs.  You cross a line — if there’s one thing I can confidently say, it’s that nobody has the excuse of not knowing where the lines are — and I will stop it permanently.  Whether that means closing a comment thread, deleting a particular comment, banning a particular commenter or some combination of those, that’s what’ll happen, depending on the moment.

It’s a shame that some who don’t respect the ground rules are the same people whose comments I most enjoy reading and engaging with, but I no longer care.  I’m not going to try to coax y’all to moderate your behavior.  Life’s too short.  If you want to discuss irrelevant topics or inflame others, my advice would be to find other forums to pursue those interests.  But that’s entirely up to you.  Until it isn’t, that is.

Also, the Playpen under its current format is finished.  It’s outlived its purpose of being a heat sink to keep comment threads on other posts clean, so there’s no reason to continue with it.  There will be some sort of Playpen going forward, if only because I get some good topic suggestions from readers via email, but staying on topic in the comments will be the rule there, too.

GTP is about Georgia football and college football.  (Not to mention the occasional Musical Palate Cleanser.)  That’s not to say outside matters like politics don’t sometimes enter into the discourse; I can’t discuss player compensation outside of politics, for example.  However, that’s not an invitation to show your ass about Biden, Trump, the VA, or any other subject you feel it’s important to get off your chest, regardless of the post topic.  Nor is this a place for personally insulting others who take the time to comment, just because they have the audacity to disagree with your world view.

And with that, back to regular posting again.