• A Bracket By Any Other Name... Mike Slive doesn't want to use the `P-word' but was asking SEC coaches on the first day of the league meetings Tuesday about their playoff BCS adjustment ideas.
The coaches really don't know, their own selves, but this is certain: they have no qualms with pissing off Michigan.
Urban Meyer:
"I think there's ways to decide something like that, like a team has to win a conference championship before it is even considered for it (the BCS national championship game). The BCS needs to clean that up, and it came back (from its annual meeting) saying 'everything is as is.'"
I'll let Brian vent and rebut that old news, but he'll have to come up with something new for Phil Fulmer's more direct shot:
[...]
"The regular-season conference schedules we play in the SEC are very difficult. Maybe some of the other conferences have teams like Michigan that play just two or three tough conference games a year. Maybe a plus-one playoff concept would make sense."
The only coach in the Commercial-Appeal to directly favor a playoff, though Meyer seems to lean in that direction, is Les Miles, who, staying in character, took Jim Tressel's non-vote last December as a knock on the validity of the poll system:
And not only because that format would have included the very hot Tigers last year, we can be sure. Or I can be sure, because I favor the same format, and whatever biases and other self-interested motivations bring people to my point of view, I'll take.
Elsewhere, Steve Spurrier is characteristically blunt: "A playoff is the most fair way to do it." But he's been saying that for years, and nobody's ever asked what the OBC thinks is fair.
More disagreement: the addition of an early signing period.
• And Then There Were Two, One an Emu: It may be more telling that no South Bend or Chicago papers and none of the many, many Irish-centric sites have picked up on this than that Dennis Dodd has, but the Holy Narrowing reportedly comes from on high today, when Charlie Weis is expected to announce the two quarterbacks competing to start this fall. Dodd says the finalists are fairly obvious:
Freshman Jimmy Clausen and sophomore Demetrius Jones will compete for the job come August. You may now go back to your iPods and barbecue pits.
[...]
Let the hostilities begin. Sorry, junior Evan Sharpley and sophomore Zach Frazer. Here's some lovely parting gifts. No, really. A transfer might be in order for one of you. You might want to stick around for a while, though, if only to have club seats to the drama. This Clausen-Jones thing could get good.
Good, as in cat fight good.
Good, as in a full-blown quarterback controversy.
Two-thirds of almost 600 highly reliable online voters in a poll at Blue and Gold agree, which is good enough to make the Clausen-Jones cat fight "conventional wisdom" as far as I'm concerned. Going on reputation - none of the kids has thrown a college pass that counts - Clausen figures to be Weis' typical within-the-offense guy out of the gate, just like Sharpley and Frazer, but the force is considerably stronger in young Jimmeh than either of his very slight elders down the line. Jones is the lone "athlete" of the group and threw an interception returned for a touchdown in the Spring. But if it's a given the short-term passing game is going to suffer regardless, his alleged, stereotypical ability to "create," etc. might be more immediately valuable behind an inexperienced line.
If Jimmy wants to start, Jimmy needs to prove Jimmy can move.
- - -
• Hill Possibly Concussed During Accident: The autopsy on drowned ex-LSU star Marquise Hill showed no signs of drugs or alcohol in his system, which reinforces the validity of the "hero" storyline, but does show he may have suffered a concussion during the fall from a jet ski on Lake Pontchartrain Sunday:
There was a slight amount of blood in the brain, which could indicate a concussion, Minyard said.
"That could have caused him some confusion," Minyard said. "Although we were told he talked to the woman who was with him after the accident, he could have become disoriented."
• Quickly: One of the Auburn recruit transcripts in question may not be irregular, after all ... LSU wants Texas A&M for 2008, but TAMU ain't biting ... The San Francisco Chronicle tries to sort out the West Coast quarterback carousel, and Jim Harbaugh's desperate effort to get just one of them ... John David Terry officially files against the dismissal of his crazy lawsuit against Arkansas administrators ... The Super Bowl, the Big 12 Championship, the Cotton Bowl...fine. But what the Dallas Cowboys' proposed stadium in Arlington should really covet is Tech-A&M ... UCLA receiver/return man Jeremy McGee is transferring to Ole Miss ... Dividing the scholarship pie in "non-head count" sports ... And Mark Richt sits down for a fairly bland talk with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The Rap Sheet
Crimes, misdemeanors and eligibility-crippling issues legal, academic, institutional and otherwise.
- - -
Arrested, waaaaay back on May 18, USC safety Josh Pinkard, on suspicion of driving under the influence. Pete Carroll confirmed the arrest Tuesday evening after being "unaware" in the afternoon. Discipline: internal. That doesn't sound bad where happy-go-lucky Carroll is concerned, though offending players usually begged for center-of-campus stocks and rotten vegetable throwing when Orgeron was around.
Pinkard was pulled over for swerving on the Pomona Freeway and issued a breathalyzer before being booked. Probably still upset about losing his job to genuinely freakish human levitator Taylor Mays after blowing out his knee against Arkansas, and hey, Josh, we've all been there. But keep the drama safe, bro.
Arrested, backup Purdue tight end Jerry Waskiowski, another DUI victim. No details of possibly bizarre behavior. Joe Tiller will "wait for the judicial system to run its course" before meting his own brand of justice, according to a spokesman, though we can rest assured the coach is on the case. Charged, with theft, Florida safety Dorian Monroe, who turned a little traffic dispute into a felony last week when he took a university police boot off his car and put it in his trunk. Urban Meyer: "Dorian is a heck of a kid," and, again, faces internal discipline.
Why is a removing a police boot a felony? The Tampa Observer's Andy Staples explains:
So does that mean Munroe will face serious jail time for his offense? Not likely. As a first offender, he's more than likely going to be offered a pre-trial diversion for a lesser charge. He may have to pay a small fine or do a little community service. If this happens, Munroe's arrest probably won't hurt him down the road, provided he stays out of trouble in the future.
Where do kids come up with these crazy, anti-authoritarian ideas, anyway?
Loading comments...