Saturday morning buffet

I’m heading up to Athens shortly for the basketball game, but there’s still time to set out the buffet.

• John Chavis is suing LSU and Texas A&M over his contract buyout.
• Mark Richt ponders life after Mike Bobo.
• Something to keep an eye on? A mom has filed the first-ever lawsuit filed against a youth football league for CTE.
• College athletics, the NCAA and “cheating pays”.
• ESPN ranks the easiest paths to the playoffs.  Georgia checks in at number eight.
• Was Chris Conley a surprise at the NFL Combine?  Tape don’t lie.
• And Andy Staples explains why Conley could turn out to have a better pro career than college career.
• Has the CFP empowered BYU?

Raises for everybody!

Dan Mullen has a lifetime winning percentage of .597.  He has never won a division title, let alone a conference title.

His pay bump was just announced.  Mullen’s financial package will be $4 million this season and will average $4.275 million over the next four years.

At about $7 million a year, Nick Saban is starting to look like a bargain.  The weird thing is, at this rate, pretty soon Mark Richt is going to look like a bargain.

 

It seemed like such a good idea at the time.

Welp, this hasn’t ended well.

A recruit’s decision not to enroll at LSU after signing a financial aid agreement has the football program in some hot water.

LSU is banned from signing early enrollee recruits to financial aid agreements for the next two years, and the program will be stripped of 10 percent of its recruiting evaluation days in 2015, according to public records obtained by The Advocate.

The penalties, handed down by the Southeastern Conference and reported by the school Feb. 3, stem from a violation that occurred this fall involving an unnamed recruit.

The recruit signed a financial aid agreement with LSU intending to enroll early in January, but he decided not to enroll at the school. That makes at least some of LSU’s unlimited contact with the prospect illegal.

That’s per our good friends at the NCAA.

A financial aid agreement doesn’t bind the player to that particular school like a National Letter of Intent does, but it affords coaches of that school unlimited contact with the signee — contact that would normally be considered against NCAA rules.

The NCAA modified the financial aid agreement (FAA) in April. It continued to allowed schools “relaxed recruiting rules” for prospects who signed an financial aid agreement, but it also warned schools that they could be penalized for recruiting violations if that prospect did not eventually enroll in that school.

Les can’t say he wasn’t warned, either.

David Womack, Matt Womack’s father, told The Clarion-Ledger in the fall that LSU coaches were not planning to contact his son on an unlimited basis because Matt wasn’t completely firm on enrolling early or on his commitment to LSU.

“LSU is not using (the FAA) because if Matt was to change his mind they would have to report it,” David Womack told The Clarion-Ledger.

Makes you wonder if Georgia has thought about that in the case of Roquan Smith, no?

Thursday morning buffet

Perhaps you’ll find something nourishing here.

• SOD taught personal hygiene; Butch has his “Fourth-and-1″.  At Tennessee, they’re always learnin’.
• Vanderbilt is experimenting with GPS in players’ shoulder pads.  (No, it’s not to find them if they get lost on the playing field.)
• Mark Weiszer has a list of the new faces on Georgia’s support staff.
• Todd Gurley’s 2014 season:  In 2014, 61.9 percent of his rushing yards came after contact. He fumbled just three times in 510 carries.
• Don Leebern, friend to the beer drinker.
• “The Gators haven’t had a receiver sniff first- or second-team All-SEC honors from the coaches since Percy Harvin in 2008.”  When people tell you Florida’s offensive personnel don’t live up to the program’s recruiting reputation, this is the kind of stuff they’re talking about.
• Great line from Thomas Brown:  “He still looks good, so he still got it,” Holyfield said. “He says he’s got two more quarters in him.”
• Here’s a look at offensive efficiency trends in the SEC.
• The conclusion to the Silas Nacita affair:  “The bottom line is that I broke the rules.”

Wednesday morning buffet

Let me light the chafing dishes… ah, there.

• Hell is other people, Corch.
• Looks like we’ve got another Year of the SEC Running Back coming up.
• You think Georgia underachieved?  Check out what Bruce Feldman had to say about Miami.
• Eight new defensive coordinators in the SEC this season.  I guess I lost count.
• Mark Richt isn’t digging the prospect of an early signing period.
• Hey, it turns out the WWL can take steps when a broadcaster shows his ass in public.
• Part of me thinks Jim Harbaugh’s a little over the top with this.  But there’s another part of me that kinda knows how he feels.
• How much did losing a head coach or offense/defense coordinator effect a team’s recruiting ranking and class this year?

The problem with “Recruiting rankings matter”…

… is that if you take the concept far enough, Alabama would never lose another SEC Championship game.

Or any conference game, for that matter.

Tuesday morning buffet

A little snow, a little buffet…

• You’d think the one place where they wouldn’t have to dumb down the defense would be Vanderbilt.
• Bill Connelly does all the heavy lifting on Georgia Southern, a Dawg opponent this season, so that you don’t (okay, so I don’t) have to.
• Michigan’s policy for student football tickets now includes need-based discounts.
• “That was an incredible testament to Bobby Petrino.”  Oy.
• What’s in a name:  dual-threat quarterback vs. pocket passer.
• Thomas Brown likes Brian Schottenheimer’s open-mindedness with his assistant coaches.
• Hey, Snapchat and recruiting.  What could go wrong?
• Auburn’s explanation of the two players and the service dog incident?  They may have been dumbasses, but there was no malicious intent.  Hey, it’s Auburn; I can buy that.