If you can make it there, you’ll make it anywhere.

Welcome to the SEC West, Texas A&M!

The Texas A&M football program violated NCAA recruiting and countable athletically related activity rules between January 2018 and February 2019, according to an agreement released by the Division I Committee on Infractions. The head football coach also violated NCAA head coach responsibility rules.

… The university, head coach and the enforcement staff used ranges identified by the Division I membership-approved penalty guidelines for Level II-mitigated penalties agreed upon for the university and assistant coach and Level II-standard penalties for the head coach. Those and other penalties, approved by the Committee on Infractions, are detailed below:

• One years of probation.
• A fine of $5,000.
• A reduction in football official visits by 17 days during the 2019-20 academic year.
• An off-campus recruiting ban for the entire football coaching staff for November 2019, which reduced the permissible evaluation days for the 2019-20 academic year by 19.
• A seven-day off-campus recruiting ban for the football coaching staff for the 2020 spring off-campus recruiting period and a 10-day off-campus recruiting ban for the football coaching staff for the 2020 fall off-campus recruiting period.
• The university ended its recruitment of the prospect.
• A ban on recruiting any prospects from the prospect’s high school for the 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-222 academic years.
• A six-month show-cause order for the head coach. The terms of the show-cause order include a previously served nine-day ban on phone calls, emails or texts with prospects in January 2020; a reduction in off-campus recruiting contact days by three for the December 2019 through January 2020 contact period; a ban on all off-campus recruiting activities for the fall 2020 contact period; additional one-on-one rules education; and a public statement from the head coach addressing the violations.

It’s a real shame Mike Slive isn’t alive to enjoy the fruits of his labors.  The Aggies fit right in now.

Honor among thieves

Boy, Greg Sankey threw his conference members under a bus yesterday.

“It would be difficult and confusing,” Sankey said when asked about managing various state laws among the league’s 14 member schools. “Knowing the competition within my 11 states, I can foresee quickly the other 10 one-upping each other. And I think that’s a problem for fair and equitable competition.”

Well, damn, Commish. I just wish one of the senators at the hearing had asked him which school concerned him the most.

Maybe they should name the new law the Uniform Bagman Code.

Okay, this is getting serious.

That’s a fundraising event, typically, so that should give you some idea how worried schools are getting.

(h/t)

“We ended up with Kyle Trask, alone, at the top tier.”

If you want to hear a ringing endorsement of this year’s SEC quarterbacks, don’t dial this clip up at the 5:20 mark and listen.

You have to think somebody in this bunch will step up and exceed expectations, but who knows which quarterback(s) that will be?

The decade that was

Dawg fans, with one SEC title and one CFP quarterfinal semifinal win, do you feel like you’ve gotten enough from those 100 wins?

The gap, she is closing.

At least in the minds of SEC East sports information directors:

In AL.com’s 74th annual SEC Spring Football Report, Alabama ran away with the Overall voting in the poll conducted by the Southeastern Conference’s 14 football information directors.

The Crimson Tide, the West Division pick, topped the field with 12 first-place votes and one second for 168 points. East Division pick Georgia, which has been to three title games in a row, received one first-place vote, six seconds, four thirds and one fourth to finish with 149 points, 10 points ahead of Florida and LSU, which tied for third with 139 points.

A school could not vote for itself in either the divisional or Overall poll.

The East Division voting alone says Kirby Smart’s Bulldogs, who have owned their division since his arrival in 2016, are no longer a gimme against Dan Mullen’s Gators, who have dropped three straight in their annual rivalry game.

In the voting of the East Division football information directors, Georgia received five first place votes and one second for 35 points. Florida totaled two firsts and four fourths for 32 points.

I’ll be honest with you here — I can’t figure the math out.  By my count, two firsts and four fourths adds up to 24 points.  So that doesn’t make sense, but, then again, I can’t figure out how seven votes were cast for first place.

I guess that’s how you “no longer a gimme” the SEC East race.

Today, in I saw it on the Internet, so it must be true

Come for the attention grabbing tweet…

2020 SEC Order of Finish. pic.twitter.com/SGkbkQvU4E

— CFB Savages (@CFBSavages) June 27, 2020

… and stay for the equally insightful comment thread it generated.

But don’t laugh.

They’ve been experts for almost two months.

(h/t)

Defense, bitchez!

This is good, right?

of the top 50 returning defensive players in pff grade in the SEC who played at least 100 snaps in 2019:
Georgia has 10 of them
Missouri- 7
Kentucky- 7
Florida- 6
LSU- 4
Bama- 3
Auburn- 3
Tenn- 2
MSU- 2
Texas A&M- 2
Ole Miss- 1
Vandy- 1
Arkansas- 1
South Carolina- 1

— Seth Galina (@pff_seth) June 26, 2020

But spring practice, something, something…

The lucrative bigotry of low expectations

Looking at Mark Stoops’ situation at Kentucky, Andy Staples ($$) makes an interesting comparison with a coach we know.

… Let’s put it this way: Stoops could probably coach at Kentucky 15 more years, never win the SEC East and still could retire as a beloved steward of the program.

Meanwhile, Kirby Smart — a coach Aidan referenced as being secure — has won the past three SEC East titles, won the SEC in 2017 and came within a miracle pass of winning the national title that same season and people keep wondering if he can get it done in Athens. By the standard being applied to Stoops, Smart has gotten it done several times over.

But Smart is still trying to live up to expectations. Stoops has exceeded expectations despite winning 11 fewer games than Smart over the past three seasons. Yes, Smart makes more money. Stoops is scheduled to make $5 million this season, while Smart is scheduled to make $6.8 million. But who has the better job?

I know who has the easier one.  Nice work, if you can get it.

Reports of the demise of the Alabama dynasty may be premature.

If Georgia gets the “Florida’s closing the gap!” narrative thrown in its face on a regular basis, I have to say ‘Bama gets some of the same treatment.  And, sure, 2019 was a comparative downer, as the Tide finished with two regular season losses for the first time in a while and missed the SECCG to boot, but when you’re projected to have five of the conference’s ten best players (with two more on the “Also Considered” list), you’re not exactly washed up yet.