Ohio State coach Urban Meyer spends his time in Big Ten country now but it doesn’t mean the former Florida coach doesn’t have opinions on SEC Football.  He sat down with CBSSports.com’s Jeremy Fowler this week and had plenty to say about his old team and his old conference, even admitting he would still be at Florida if health issues hadn’t surfaced.

On Alabama’s 2012 team:

“You look at [2012], [Alabama] should have lost three games. Georgia had them beat. LSU, I watched that one, it was over. Obviously they ended up beating them. I thought they’d be really good. I think there are some really good teams in the conference.”

Comparing last year’s 12-0 Ohio State team to his 2008 national champion Florida team:

“I don’t think we’ve reached that status. I could show you some film and we’re certainly not there. We were not good enough [last season] where we had these high expectations. I’m biased, but I think that ’08 team is as good or better than any team to ever play college football.”

With better health, he says he would still be at Florida:

“I realized not too long after [around February 2011]. I called Jeremy [Foley] and said, ‘I made a mistake.’ Once I felt like everything was under control, it was like, ‘Oh my gosh, what did I do?’ I just told Jeremy as a friend in conversation. The talk was more about one day getting back into it. He was very supportive. Then I started at ESPN and had a ball with that, but is that enough? Is that what I was called to do? I planned to take more than a year [off] though.”

Asked if he had any regrets about how his time at Florida ended, Meyer told Fowler, ”I didn’t at first. I thought we did a good job. We did our best. I look back now, the way it ended was certainly a regret. Does that mean it haunts me? Not at all.”

SEC Football

1. Georgia A.D. Greg McGarity on the possibility of a nine-game conference schedule: “At the end of the day, the presidents will decide, like everything else in the conference.”

2.Georgia’s $93 million dollar athletic department budgets includes more than a million dollars in facilities improvement for Sanford Stadium. Projections on football ticket revenue down $2.1 million.

3. Why safety/linebacker Josh Harvey-Clemons is one of Georgia’s ten most important players this fall.

4. Kentucky coach Mark Stoops on the reception he’s received: “Could not be more happy with the fanbase.”

5. Seven of the 20 Auburn signees have already enrolled in classes.  The group  includes quarterback Jeremy Johnson.   ”Johnson will have his chances to play right away if he can beat out a big group of competition.”

6. Another Auburn freshman to keep your eye on - defensive end Carl Lawson.

7. Andy Passanastos projects as the favorite to be the Ole Miss kicker this fall.

SEC Media

8. Tommy Tomlinson on Paul Finebaum:  ”There’s one clear loser in all this, and that’s the state of Alabama.”

9. John Clay on Finebaum;  ”He has always known how to hit the buttons that prompt listeners to pick up the phone.”

10. MrSEC:  ”Do SEC officials really want to put Finebaum’s craziest callers front and center as ambassadors for their league?”

11. Paul Finebaum on the importance of college football in the South: ”First of all, in the South, it’s all we have.”

12. Updated look at SEC games on television this fall.

13. LSU senior associate athletic director Herb Vincent leaving to become a spokesman for the SEC. Mike Slive: “Herb brings a wealth of experience as well as energy and passion for the SEC.”

SEC Basketball

14. Is this the issue with Sheldon Jeter’s potential transfer from Vanderbilt to Pitt?  “According to a source with direct knowledge, he didn’t meet face-to-face with Stallings to tell him he was leaving.”

15. Vanderbilt headed to Greece and Italy for games this summer.

16. South Carolina A.D. Ray Tanner on whether coach Frank Martin’s criticism of his players this past year crossed the line. ”No. I would never criticize him, because I know him and I know where his heart is and I know how much he cares.”

Extras

17. Football coaches salaries aren’t the only ones rising in the SEC.  So are the salaries of the league’s baseball coaches.

18. Notre Dame’s buyout of Charlie Weis was costly – could end receiving almost $19 million.

19. Most marketable American athlete? RGIII.

20. Thanks to Athlon Sports for recognizing MrSEC as one of the top 50 Twitter feeds every college football fan should follow.  You can join more than 35,000 other college football fans by following us here.

With the SEC spring meetings set for next week in Destin, Florida, a number of football writers from across the country have decided it’s time to weigh in on the league’s scheduling plans.  It’s clear to at least three of them that Les Miles and LSU are correct — it’s time to dump permanent cross-divisional rivals in the Southeastern Conference.

Readers of this site know that we feel the SEC’s history is what makes it special.  And history is the main reason the permanent rivals still exist.  Alabama/Tennessee is traditionally the SEC’s biggest game.  Those two schools have won more league titles than any other.  More than Florida.  More than LSU.  More than Georgia and Auburn.

Auburn/Georgia — the deep South’s oldest rivalry — happens to be the other game the league’s leaders have deemed worthy of protection.  Those leaders have taken a big-picture approach.  The columnists quoted below do not.

Matt Hayes of The Sporting News writes:

“Meanwhile, Alabama has played Florida and Georgia eight times — the lowest of any West Division team.  Alabama’s argument is it plays Tennessee, which started the BCS era with a national title but has recently fallen on hard times.

The reality is Florida and LSU are better equipped than Tennessee — now and for the foreseeable future — to win big in the SEC.  So where does that leave permanent rotations?”

Stewart Mandel of Sports Illustrated goes down the same path:

“Alabama-Tennessee has always been a streaky rivalry, but the utter humiliation the Tide have laid on the Vols in most of the past six season suggests this isn’t much of a rivalry at all.  Since its win streak began in 2007, Alabama has beaten Tennessee by an average of 23.2 points.”

Today, Kevin Scarbinsky of The Birmingham News jumped in:

“With all due respect to UT AD Dave Hart, who’s made it part of his mission to preserve that game on an annual basis, the Tide vs. the Vols is no longer a rivalry.  It’s a guarantee game.

When they play in Knoxville, Tennessee gets a crowd and a bruise, and Alabama gets a win.  When they play in Tuscaloosa, Tennessee gets nothing but a bruise, and Alabama gets another win.

Meanwhile, while Alabama’s using its permanent cross-division game as a breather to prepare for LSU, LSU has to go through Florida before it even gets to Alabama.  Auburn has to prepare for Alabama by climbing into the ring with Georgia.”

So the basic reason for dumping permanent cross-divisonal rivalries like Alabama-Tennessee and Auburn-Georgia is: Tennessee sucks and always will.

This is what happens when we in the media spend too much of our time writing and reading tweets.  We can’t see anything but the now.  Anything past the 140th character qualifies as the distant future.  And history?  Well, Mandel did go back six whole seasons in discussing the Vols and Tide rivalry.

Shortsightedness is not an asset when it comes to running a conference.

And just as Mike Slive and Texas A&M president R. Bowen Loftin referred to Texas A&M’s decision to join the SEC as a “hundred-year decision,” league scheduling should take into account the fact that the teams on top today might not be the ones on top tomorrow.  Scheduling should be based on historical strength, not current power.

By way of an example, let’s imagine the SEC’s stewards were planning to create a new schedule rotation back in 2002.  They would have had a full decade’s worth of records from a 12-team SEC with which to work.  Below are those SEC records from 1992 through 2001:

SEC East 1992-2001

SEC West 1992-2001

Interesting.  One must wonder whether or not Hayes — if he’d looked at those numbers in 2001 — would have dared to write that Tennessee wouldn’t be equipped to deal with Florida and LSU moving forward.  We’ll guess not.

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Yesterday’s lyrical/musical inspiration came by way of a country/truck-driving song turned rocker by a blues king.  While looking for a video version of Taj Mahal’s “Six Days On The Road,” YouTube churned up a whole mess of trucker songs.  One earned placement on the website this morning.

Don’t get used to it, though.

After Del Reeves’ “Girl On The Billboard” has its day in the sun, we’ll likely refrain from posting trucker songs.  Trust us, there aren’t very many on the MrSEC iPod.

“Oh, I love the girl wearing nothing but a smile and a towel in the picture on the billboard in the field near the big ol’ highway.”

With conferences eagerly working to line up and lock in partnerships with bowls for the 2014-19 cycle, the slate of games for 2013 — the last year of the current cycle — was released by the Football Bowl Association yesterday.

The dates and times for the SEC’s games are as follows (all times Eastern):

Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl

Nashville, TN

Monday, 12/30, 3:15pm

SEC versus ACC

AdvoCare V100 Bowl

Shreveport, LA

Tuesday, 12/31, 12:30pm

SEC versus ACC

AutoZone Liberty Bowl

Memphis, TN

Tuesday, 12/31, 4:00pm

SEC versus Conference USA or AAC (old Big East)

Chick-fil-A Bowl

Atlanta, GA

Tuesday, 12/31, 8:00pm

SEC versus ACC

TaxSlayer.com Gator Bowl

Jacksonville, FL

Wednesday, 1/1, 12:00pm

SEC versus Big Ten

Capital One Bowl

Orlando, FL

Wednesday, 1/1, 1:00pm

SEC versus Big Ten

Outback Bowl

Tampa, FL

Wednesday, 1/1, 1:00pm

SEC versus Big Ten

Allstate Sugar Bowl

New Orleans, LA

Thursday, 1/2, 8:30pm

SEC versus BCS qualifier

AT&T Cotton Bowl

Arlington, TX

Friday, 1/3, 7:30pm

SEC versus Big XII

BBVA Compass Bowl

Birmingham, AL

Saturday, 1/4, 1:00pm

SEC versus AAC (old Big East)

Ten bowl partners.  Three games against the ACC.  Three games against the Big Ten.  Not a single game outside the SEC footprint.

Our take?

For the love of all that’s holy, is there no way to shake things up a bit?  (Of course there is and we’ve talked about it before… but it’s not going to happen.)

Earlier this week, SI.com’s Stewart Mandel tried to piece together what the next cycle of bowl games might bring us.  His SEC projections were: Sugar, Capital One, Outback, Gator, Belk (in Charlotte), Music City, Meineke Car Care of Texas (in Houston) and then possibly the Liberty, AdvoCare v100, or the-bowl-soon-to-be-known-as-the-bowl-previously-known-as-the-BBVA Compass Bowl.  The SEC will also have an occasional path to the Orange Bowl in Miami Gardens.

That’s two new games on a regular basis.  The Belk Bowl is at least technically outside the SEC’s borders, though not by much.  Unfortunately, it will likely feature yet another SEC/ACC clash.

The Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas will probably be another matchup against the Big XII.  It would be played indoors at Reliant Stadium.

As for the carry-over games, the Sugar will match the SEC against the Big XII when not part of the College Football Playoff.  The Capital One will still be an SEC/Big Ten game.  Ditto the Outback Bowl.  The ACC and Big Ten will flip-flop sending teams to the Gator and Music City bowls to face the SEC.

Yawn.

Sorry, but that’s still pretty blah.  There’s not a single matchup with the Pac-12.  And unlike the Big Ten’s national bowl lineup — which will stretch from Yankee Stadium to Florida to San Diego — the SEC continues to stick within its own region come the holidays.

We get that shorter travel makes things easier on SEC fans, but couldn’t one long-distance bowl be added to the schedule?

It looks now like the ACC will be facing the Big Ten in the New Era Pinstripe Bowl.  Aren’t there some SEC fans out there who would have liked to see the SEC and Big Ten trade in the Gator Bowl for a cold-weather date in the house that replaced the House that Ruth Built?

And while Juarez, Mexico has gone from tourist destination to crime capital, fans staying on the US side of the border in El Paso might have enjoyed seeing an SEC squad face a Pac-12 team once a year.  Instead, the ACC will keep its slot against the Pac-12 in the Hyundai Sun Bowl.

The SEC knows how to make money and it knows how to win bowl games.  If only the league knew how to excite its fans come bowl season.  The same ol’ same ol’ just doesn’t get the job done.

SEC Football

1. Georgia tight end Ty Flourney-Smith is transferring.  Played eight games last year without a catch. Could he return to the team?

2. Indoor practice facility not a priority right now at Georgia.  Mark Richt: “Do we have to have it? I don’t think we have to have it, but like I said it would be nice to have it.” UGA athletic board approves $92.3 million budget.

3. Will Georgia have the best offense in the SEC in 2013?  MrSEC has an opinion. What about Florida State/Georgia in 2016 – “long, long shot.”

4. Alabama coach Nick Saban on high school all-star games.  ”We don’t think football’s a dangerous game, so we don’t worry about guys getting injured.”

5. CBS will kickoff its SEC coverage this fall with Alabama at Texas A&M on Saturday afternoon, September 14th. How the SEC bowl schedule shapes up for 2013.

6. LSU closing 2014 season with Texas A&M?

7. South Carolina A.D. Ray Tanner on non-conference scheduling: “I was very much involved in doing the deal with North Carolina for the 2015 opener in Charlotte.”

8. Why South Carolina “has a chance for a special season.”

9. Vanderbilt coach James Franklin with some Twitter advice.

10. The future is now for senior Ole Miss defensive back Brishen Matthews.

11. Andy Staples on SEC scheduling models: ”The SEC has tossed tradition before, and sometimes with happy consequences.”

SEC/College News

12. Former Alabama A.D. Mal Moore posthumously honored as Athletic Director of the Year.

13. Tennessee’s Neyland Stadium listed as one of the nine most unique fields in sports.

14.  Email from University of Tennessee’s vice chancellor for student life - “intolerable situation.”

15. Tim Tebow’s name brought up in connection with the Ed O’Bannon lawsuit against the NCAA.

SEC Basketball

16. LSU guard Corban Collins leaving, looking to play at another school.

17. None of Kentucky’s freshmen will take part in the U19 World Championships this summer (neither will sophomore Willie Cauley-Stein). John Calipari: “Most of it is, they didn’t want to play. I’m not forcing kids to do anything,”

18. Tennessee’s Jarnell Stokes and Florida’s Michael Frazier II get invited to the training camp.  Bill Donovan is the coach of the team.

19. Florida’s Will Yeguette underwent arthroscopic knee surgery Wednesday.

20. Harvard assistant coach Yanni Hufnagel joining the staff at Vanderbilt. Dan Wolken: “Big -time move”

21.  NBA scout on former Missouri guard Phil Pressey. “I like his energy, he’s a good passer, he just has to realize he’s not Nate Robinson.”

22.  Cleveland has the No.1 pick but it doesn’t mean former Kentucky player Nerlens Noel is headed there.

Extras

23. Sometimes it’s better to say nothing at all.  European Tour CEO tries to defend Sergio Garcia:  ”Most of Sergio’s friends are coloured athletes in the United States…”

24. Auburn one of the 15 fastest-growing cities in the U.S.

25. The cheapest 25 pro sports teams to watch in person.

Former Penn State quarterback Steven Bench has picked a new school as his transfer destination, but that school’s not in the Southeastern Conference.  Today, Bench announced via Twitter that will attend South Florida, where he’ll be eligible to play immediately (due to Penn State’s NCAA penalties).

Bench had also considered Mississippi State and North Carolina State (before the Wolfpack landed ex-Arkansas quarterback Brandon Mitchell via transfer earlier this week).  The Bulldogs’ starting quarterback, Tyler Russell, will be a senior this season.  Bench will be a sophomore this fall and would have been looking at a year on the bench and then a competition for the MSU starting spot in 2014.

South Florida has a new coach in Willie Taggart and an immediate opening quarterback in 2013.

The return of Paul Finebaum is underway.  The former syndicated radio host will be introduced on various ESPN radio properties throughout the day. 

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week that Finebaum would be leaving Birmingham for Charlotte and a new job with the four-letter network.  That gig will include a new ESPN radio show, 100 TV appearances per year on ESPN’s television networks, and a television simulcast of his new radio show on the just-as-new SEC Network once it launches in August of 2014.

ESPN has put out a press release on the hiring today.

The move makes sense on a number of levels for ESPN and the SEC.  First and foremost, it’s cheap programming.

This week, ESPN reportedly whacked some 400 employees in a massive staff cut designed to enable the Haliburton of sports to meet its budget projections.  ESPN has paid billions of dollars to professional leagues and college conferences for the rights to air their games.  They’ve snatched up star on-air and online talent from their competitors time and time again.  At some point, selling enough advertising to cover all those costs was bound to become a concern (as those dismissed by ESPN this week have discovered).

Facing the need to lay people off and with a brand new all-SEC channel fueling on the launch pad, ESPN needed to find some cost-efficient programming.  Enter Finebaum.  His work will be seen and heard across multiple platforms.  A simple simulcast of his radio show — a la Howard Stern, Dan Patrick and others — costs basically nothing.  Stick a couple of cameras in a room and just air what radio listeners are already hearing.  Smart move.

Finebaum also provides the new SEC Network with an anchor personality that ESPN can build programming around.  Three or four hours or programming per day are now locked into place.  There’s now a face to put on billboards, a character to use in on-air promotions.  It’s not just the SEC Network for sale at this point, it’s the SEC Network with Paul Finebaum.

Over the years, Finebaum has gained a reputation for being able to stir just about any pot.  Consider him the Woody Woodpecker of radio sports coverage, an instigator of the highest class.  And nothing is better for ratings — TV or radio — than a controversial host.  If you track it backwards through Rush Limbaugh’s heyday to the 1980s rise of Morton Downey Jr. and beyond you’ll find that those radio hosts who’ve become the biggest stars have typically had two kinds of listeners — those who love them and those who hate them.  When folks choose to tune into someone they do not like just to hear what he’s going to say next, that’s money in the bank.  And that’s Finebaum.

ESPN officials are also surely counting on a number of Finebaum’s craziest callers to tag along as the host moves from one outlet to another.  Anytime this site has questioned Finebaum’s decision to give the nuttiest nuts on the fruitcake a voice on his radio show, we’ve always been met with cries of “You just don’t get it” from the Finebaum faithful.  (Which is pretty much exactly what I used to say to my father about Guns ‘N’ Roses and NWA.)  Many, many, many people tuned into Finebaum’s old show just to hear the lunatics.  Remember, it was on Finebaum’s Birmingham-based show that Harvey Updyke first admitted to poisoning the trees at Toomer’s Corner in Auburn.

Bizarro callers who’ll insult one another like pro wrestlers and conspiracy theorists who believe the world is out to get their favorite team are ratings gold.  It’s reality television for radio.  I can’t relate to it, but millions of Americans actually enjoy watching and listening to numbskulls as entertainment.  If some of the same screamers and hollerers who backed Finebaum before join him once again, that’ll be a good draw for the new SEC Network.

But while Finebaum’s callers could drive ratings, they could also hurt the league’s image.

Assuming some of the loons do follow Finebaum to ESPN and the SEC Network, the stereotype of dumb, redneck Southerners will be amplified outside the SEC footprint.  Both ESPN and the SEC have said that they want the SEC Network to get into as many homes nationally as ESPNU.  That’s a lot of homes.  In a lot of places.  All pointing and laughing at the insane followers of the SEC who will dial up Finebaum’s show.

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Receiver prospect Cordell Broadus has a snared himself a new scholarship offer to go along with previous offers from California, Duke, Oregon State, Southern Cal, UCLA, Washington and Tennessee.  LSU is the latest school to put an offer on the table.

So why is this story on our homepage and not just on the recruiting page?

Because you might have heard of Broadus’ father — Snoop Lion.  Though you might know him better by his pre-Rastafarian name — Snoop Dogg.  And Snoop Dogg’s ties to LSU and its coach might help the Tigers’ chances in the race for Broadus.

The rap star is a massive sports fan and has backed a number of colleges over the years with Southern Cal’s and LSU’s jerseys being among his favorites to wear in public.  At one time he also had a house in Baton Rouge.  And in 2008, he popped up with Les Miles at a Rotary Club meeting, prompting Miles to say: “I defend his music and am much more a fan of the person.”

Snoop Dogg, er Lion said he showed up at the event (pictured below) “to give my love and support to Coach Miles.”

At the moment, Broadus seems to be more wowed by Southern Cal’s offer, having grown up a Trojan fan.

Still, Miles’ friendship (?) with the junior-to-be’s father can’t hurt LSU’s chances.

After Tyrann Mathieu’s alleged admission that he failed double-digit drug tests for weed while in Baton Rouge, we’ll let you insert your own joke about the Tigers now chasing the son of a tried and true Rastafarian.

In the words of Broadus’ father: bow wow wow yippee yo yippie yay.

Nick Saban knows a little something about defending national championships.

He’s done so three times already and this season will be his fourth try at it.  (Though he would say with a brand new team, there’s no “defending” anything.)  After the first two BCS crowns he won (LSU 2003, Alabama 2009) his teams failed to recapture the magic the following season.  His 2011 title-winning squad, however, gave way to another national champion in 2012.

The trick to reaching the top of the mountain again?  Starting from scratch.  Saban knows it and consistently tries to get his players to understand it.  Yesterday, he said the same to a group of Alabama fans at a booster event:

“Michael Jordan’s old statement is: No matter how many game-winning shots you’ve made in the past, the only one that matters is the next one.  Well, that’s all that matters to us…

I think we’re still trying to find ourselves and find an identity as a team, which every team has to go through as you re-invent yourself.  So we’ll see how that goes over the summer.”

If Alabama could win yet another BCS title this season, it would be Saban’s fifth national crown and the Tide’s fourth in five years.  At that point you go from talking about “historically great” to “legendarily great.”

So what can a blues legend do with a legendary trucker song?  He can turn it into a funked up rocker that sounds just as slick today as it did upon its release 45 years ago.

Everyone’s got a favorite artist and when it comes to the blues, I’m a Taj Mahal man.  Not the building, the man.  And if you’ve never heard the work of the man named Taj Mahal, check out his pulse-quickening version of “Six Days On The Road.”  Everything about it — from the guitars to the vocal delivery — is dead-on perfect.

If you think you know the song without ever hearing this version… you don’t know the song.

“Got my air hose runnin’ clear, baby, you ought to watch the way I shift my gears.”

SEC Football

1. Les Miles bid to end permanent opposite-division rivals finds a backer in Matt Hayes: “Auburn, LSU and Florida are impacted most by the SEC’s standing scheduling rule of one permanent opponent from the opposite division.”

2. Seven Auburn signees have arrived on campus and enrolled in school.  Remaining 13 signees expected to enroll over the summer

3. Auburn fullback Jay Prosch is 6-foot, 259 pounds and has 5.9 percent body fat.

4. Prosch makes Bruce Feldman’s annual “Freak List”.  No. 1? South Carolina’s Jadeveon Clowney.

5. Incoming Georgia freshman Shaun McGee on saying no to Nick Saban: “Anything he says to you, you’re kind of in awe because you’re like ‘Man, this is a really powerful guy.’ He was really hard to say ‘no’ to.”

6. Why sophomore kicker Marshall Morgan is one Georgia’s ten most important players this season.

7. What kind of impact can Ole Miss expect from senior offensive tackle Derrick Wilson.

SEC/College News

8. Longtime Vanderbilt booster John Rich dead at the age of 85.

9. Assessment of Tennessee A.D. Dave Hart: So far, so good.

10. Paul Finebaum headed to Charlotte to join ESPN.

11. Appeals court revives lawsuit by former Rutgers football player against video game maker Electronic Arts.

SEC Basketball

12. Vanderbilt A.D. David Williams asked about coach Kevin Stallings reportedly blocking Sheldon Jeter from transferring to Pittsburgh.  ”We, as an administrative body, stay out of the middle of that. I don’t investigate that. I don’t ask about it.”

13. LSU assistant coach Robert Kirby has resigned to take a similar job at Memphis.  Kirby had spent one-year at LSU, bulk of his career at Mississippi State.

Extras

14. “Joebots” trying to drive Bill O’Brien out of Penn State?

15. Memphis the favorite to host conference tournament for new AAC conference.

16. Hotdog, popcorn, or a glass of Merlot? University of Toledo wants to add beer and wine to its concession stand menu.