1. For the second time in less than two years, Missouri safety Tavon Bolden has been booted from the team.

2. Florida defensive tackle Leon Orr is in trouble again after getting caught driving on a suspended license.

3. Vanderbilt running back  Lafonte Thourogood is transferring.

4. Clemson will be without one – possibly two – high-profile players when they open up against Auburn.

5. When it comes to Auburn this fall, different probably means better.

6. Two incoming freshman at Georgia are anxious to get their college careers started.

7. Contrary to a USA Today report, Ole Miss says its athletic department turned a profit in 2011.

8. Expect the college football playoff process to get really messy.

9. Kevin Scarbinsky on Derrick Thomas:  ”The College Football Hall of Fame just revisited his grave. And spit on it. Again.”

Extras

10. Seven million reasons why it’s good to be Mike Kryzewski.

11. The wife of former Syracuse assistant Bernie Fine plans to sue ESPN for libel.

Well, you can’t say we didn’t see this one coming.

A week ago Monday, Tony Barnhart of CBSSports.com made the case for a college football playoff involving the four best teams in the nation, period.  In that piece — which, as you know, we totally agree with — included this quote from ACC commissioner John Swofford:

“I’m a big believer in conference championships and that resonates with me.  But if you’re selling a four-team playoff, and it’s not 1-2-3-4, then the credibility of the system is undermined.”

To date, the Big Ten and Pac-12 have been the leagues trying to limit the number of non-conference champs who could reach a playoff.  The ACC and SEC have been in favor of inviting the top four teams regardless of league silverware.

But between last Monday and this past Monday, Florida State’s Andy Haggard opened his mouth and sent shockwaves across the landscape of college football.  He put FSU on the auction block.  That put Swofford in a tough spot.

On Monday — in a post titled: Did An FSU Trustee Just Cost The SEC A Playoff Partner – we wondered if Swofford might change his tune regarding a playoff for political purposes.  We wrote:

“(Faced with losing FSU) Does Swofford suddenly switch sides in the current playoff talks?  If the ACC were to suddenly join the Big Ten and Pac-12 in pushing for a champs-only or champs-mostly style of playoff, he’d be exerting pressure in two places.  Faced with a champs-only plan, Notre Dame might be forced to actually join a league and the ACC would have a one-in-three shot at grabbing them (along with the Big Ten and the Big 12).  In addition, Florida State might suddenly view the ACC, Pitt, Syracuse and all those other ‘basketball schools’ as looking pretty good.  What’s the easiest path to a national title and beaucoup playoff dollars: Besting Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, West Virginia and TCU in the Big 12 or beating, well, uh, the field in the ACC?  The ACC would clearly be the easier path at the present time (even though FSU has only one its league once and it’s division twice since 2005).  In that scenario, it might make greater financial sense for Florida State to stay put.”

So guess what Swofford said earlier today:

ACC commissioner John Swofford said ACC membership prefers conference champ model in playoff

— Brett McMurphy (@McMurphyCBS) May 16, 2012

Well, whaddya know?

This will most likely be seen as a tit-for-tat deal with the Big Ten and Pac-12.  ”You stop pushing for on-campus semifinals and we’ll go along with your plan of taking any conference champs ranked in the top six.”

But don’t think for a second that this isn’t also being driven by Swofford’s need to either a) lure Notre Dame into the ACC or b) hold on to Florida State.

Let’s try to get all this straight:

* For months, rumors have swirled of Florida State and Clemson (then Miami) leaving the ACC for the Big 12.

* No traditional journalist in America could get a single source to confirm any of that even off the record.  (Not even Joe Schad threw out a “sources say.”)  I can’t stress enough how unbelievably uncharacteristic — and telling — that is.

* The ACC and ESPN announced a new deal, but instead of being viewed as a positive, many viewed it as a negative.  But they did so for many of the wrong reasons.

* The AD at Florida State, Randy Spetman, said last Friday that his school was committed to the ACC.

* A day later, the chairman of FSU’s board, Andy Haggard, nuked Spetman and the ACC and ESPN and said the board “unanimously” agreed with him that it’s time to listen to other offers from the Big 12 or the SEC, etc.  FSU football coach Jimbo Fisher backed Haggard’s comments that afternoon.

* Later that same day, FSU president Eric Barron downplayed Haggard’s trustee/booster’s comments.  He and the ACC put out statements saying Haggard had his facts wrong regarding the new TV deal.

* To the west, the University of Texas is on record as saying it’s in favor of the Big 12 remaining a 10-school league, at least for now, and AD DeLoss Dodds — probably the most powerful man in the Big 12 — said FSU is a “long ways away” from joining the Big 12.

* Newly-appointed Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby said yesterday he wants expansion to slow down, but he also admitted that he has to discuss the possibilities with his schools’ presidents.

* Officials at FSU, Texas and inside the Big 12 have all said there have been absolutely no talks and that no one has even begun any sort of negotiations.

* ESPN — having just re-worked a deal with the ACC in hopes of giving that league more stability — certainly wants FSU to remain in place and not jump to the Big 12, which would set off further moves and force the network to tear up and then re-work more contracts.

* Monday, FSU’s president sent out an email listing the complaints some FSU folks have with the ACC while simultaneously listing even more issues they would have with the Big 12.  In the process, he kicked the Big 12 right in the diplomas calling that conference “academically weaker” than the ACC.

Got all that?  Well now ex-Florida State football player and former trustee Derrick Brooks has gone on Tim Brando’s radio show and said the following:

“This is no new discussion for Florida State in terms of leaving the ACC.  Whether it be the SEC talk, Big 12, you know, what other conference.  It’s nothing new…

I finished up my trusteeship recently, but I’m still very involved.  You know, and the Big 12 is coming after us and it’s no doubt that we’re gonna listen.  You know, if anyone comes in to talk, I think there’s no harm in listening to what the pitch is.

But there’s been no commitment at all and I think from our president’s standpoint, you know, he was just attempting to put things out there from his perspective, saying ‘these are the pros and, as I see it, these are the cons, as I see it.’  But at the end of the day, you know, we’ll measure each one and if it’s a good decision then the board will decide.  You know, not me as a president, but the trustee board will decide what happens and hopefully by the Big 12 flirting or courting us it gives the ACC that much more credibility…

From my understanding it is the Big 12, you know, wanting to talk to us… now again, that’s from my understanding that appears to be the case.”

Observations:

* Even in previous conference realignment moves — with people lying all over the place — I’ve yet to see a situation quite like this one where no one seems to be on the same page.  Right down to Haggard’s rant about the details of a TV contract that were not the actual details of that TV contract.  This isn’t like watching a soap opera… it’s like watching a Mexican soap opera when you can’t speak Spanish.

* Why is it every time someone on or once on FSU’s board speaks — first Haggard, now Brooks — he mentions the SEC as a possibile dance partner for the Seminoles?  It seems that either a) FSU is longing desperately for an invite to the SEC or b) that FSU’s board knows the SEC would/will/is talking to them (which would mean there is no hard and fast agreement within Mike Slive’s league to steer clear of schools in current SEC states.)  The SEC — typically, wisely — remains quiet regarding FSU, allowing that school, the Big 12 and the ACC to stumble all over themselves instead.

* Brooks’ comments regarding the email sent out by FSU president Eric Barron make it seem even more clear that — as we wrote yesterday — if State does join the Big 12, Barron won’t be the president at the time of arrival.  Brooks sounded like a jock making sure everyone knew that the board, not the nerd, would make the final call. There’s a battle inside FSU at the moment and unlike the similar fight that was waged at Missouri last year, this one’s much more public and it’s getting a good bit nastier.

* It’s possible that Haggard and Brooks and FSU are simply trying to “pull a Texas” on the ACC.  By openly flirting with other leagues — as the Longhorns did with the Pac-10 and Big Ten and, reportedly, the ACC over the past few years — the Seminoles seem to be making a leverage play with commissioner John Swofford.  ”Give us something extra.” What’s amusing about this is that “Lil’ Texas” could wind up living in a league with the “Original Texas” and then we’d really get to see some tug-o-wars.

* Brooks’ comments make Bob Bowlsby and the Big 12 look bad.  Bowlsby and Big 12 officials have consistently said they’re not even all on board with expansion at this point with Texas being the one, big, known holdout (though Longhorn Rivals’ site Orangebloods.com is trying to help drive an FSU-to-Big 12 move).  Barron insulted the Big 12 with his “academically weaker” comment and he must have done so intentionally.  Brooks’ comments make the Big 12′s new commissioner — who’s not even officially on the job yet — look either misinformed or dishonest.  Unintentionally Brooks might have ticked off a few Big 12′ers himself.

* Finally, how the Big 12 chasing FSU would give the ACC more credibility is anyone’s guess.  I’m guessing Swofford is feeling less confident these days, not more confident in his own conference’s future.

At this point, anything at all is possible and anyone trying to read the tea leaves is wasting their time.  There are simply too many leaves to be read.

Which means the last 30 minutes I spent writing those observations… yeah, I’ll never get those minutes back.

UPDATE — This just keeps getting better.  Brett McMurphy of CBSSports.com reports that FSU’s AD told him of today’s radio interview: “I don’t know where Derrick got that.”

We at MrSEC.com have obtained a quick video breakdown of the current FSU situation:

When the SEC and Texas A&M first started talking about a marriage during the realignment crisis of Summer 2010, ex-Aggie and Alabama coach Gene Stallings was one of the men pushing for a union.  Stallings was serving on A&M’s board of regents at the time.  (As we’ve pointed out numerous times on this site, A&M and the SEC had actually been flirting off and on with one another since the days of John David Crow, Joe Dean and Harvey Schiller back in the 1980s.)

Yesterday Stallings opened up again about the Aggies move, why they made it, and why he believes fans will need to be a little patient:

“First I didn’t want to go to the Pac-10.  I would have rather kept the (Big 12) conference intact (in 2010). Since it wasn’t going to be intact, I would rather go the SEC than anywhere else.

I think the Longhorn Network made it an uneven playing field (in the Big 12).  I could care less what Texas does.  If that is to their advantage, that is fine.  I thought it was to the advantage of Texas A&M to go the SEC…

You talk about going into the SEC… It’s a tough conference to play in.  There are just no easy games.  I don’t want expectations to be high.  (The Aggies under first-year coach Kevin Sumlin) are going to do as well as they can.  Let’s give it a little time.”

Cue the Texas and Texas A&M fans to bash one another over who started what and who’s in better shape moving forward.  That argument will rage on for years.  And if the Aggies struggle in Year One of their SEC era, you can bet they’ll have to listen to a lot of people say, “I told you so.”

But give it time — as Stallings suggests — and A&M should be A-OK in the SEC.  If Arkansas and South Carolina can become Top 10 programs in college football’s toughest conference, a school with the recruiting base of A&M should be just fine, too.  Long-term.

At one time, ESPN really was “The Worldwide Leader in Sports” that they so often claim to be.  Now, however, the network should be called “The Worldwide Leader in Sporting Events.”  The channel has climbed into bed with so many entities that it can no longer be viewed as an objective purveyor of sports news coverage.

Over the weekend we paid close attention to see how much coverage ESPN would give to Florida State booster Andy Haggard’s rant against the ACC’s contract with the network.  In terms of homepage coverage on ESPN’s website, there was none.  Not a blip, not a blurb, not a headline that we saw.

Even though the most powerful booster/trustee at a traditional football power had shivved his own school’s administration and the Atlantic Coast Conference while inviting other leagues to contact his school… “the worldwide leader” (small caps) remained mum on the subject.  On Monday a couple of ESPN’s college sports bloggers took up the topic, but not to any great degree.

Yesterday, ESPN’s Burke Magnus — the senior VP of college sports programming — wrote a short defense of ESPN’s deal with the ACC on something called ESPN Front Row (yet another of ESPN’s endless offshoots):

“The new agreement with the ACC provided a win for all involved. Fans will be served with more ACC content than ever before through a wide variety of outlets, devices and technologies. ESPN added value through four more years of an ACC agreement, plus more football games, more basketball games, more ACC sports content and new sponsorship rights for conference championships. The ACC has received significant additional financial compensation and unprecedented exposure for the added value and the longer term.

While ESPN has televised college sports for more than three decades, we recognize the rights landscape is evolving and more competitive than ever, and fans are savvier about their content choices. Our company works hard to provide fans with the widest selection of content from the schools and conferences they love.”

No doubt.  And no one does a better job of covering live games and events than ESPN.

Unfortunately, what was once a go-to leader in real, honest-to-God news coverage is no more.  By becoming a partner of the ACCs and SECs of the world and by buying the BASS leagues of the world and by starting and owning college football bowl games, the network has killed its news credibility.  (It’s also become larger and richer than any sports entity in history and for that we salute the network.  We’re not saying ESPN’s leaders aren’t dadgum sharp and savvy.)

I’m not a man who watches bass fishing on television.  In fact, I suspect if I ever find myself in Hell, fishing weigh-ins will be on television ’round the clock accompanied by a soundtrack of songs by The Carpenters.  Still, I do know there are two fishing leagues in existence.  BASS — which is owned and covered by ESPN — and FLW — which gets practically nary a mention on “SportsCenter.”  So is ESPN’s coverage of BASS news?  Or is it promotion for ESPN programming?

Ditto the network’s coverage of the New Mexico Bowl, The Hawai’i Bowl, the BBVA Compass Bowl and more.  For that matter, as a friend pointed out to me the other day, those long-running “SportsCenter” ads featuring current coaches and athletes remain delightful.  But does shooting an ESPN promo with Player X impact the amount of coverage ESPN dedicates to Player X if/when he’s arrested for drunk driving or beating his wife?

When a news organization has to put out an article defending its television contract with an athletic conference, it’s stopped being a news organization and simply become a programming organization.  Here’s hoping someone with enough money and chops to do actual news coverage — Yahoo! Sports, I’m looking at you — can step up and fill the sizeable void in news gathering that ESPN has decided to leave wide open (without ever admitting that it’s left it wide open, of course).

It’s a darn shame, too.  Before “SportsCenter” turned into a video game aimed at teenagers, it was an important, relevant source of true news for sports fans.

Now ESPN is left mostly silent when its own dealings become news, emitting only press release-type spin from a little-read web page.  Oh, to have more Bob Ley and less Skip Bayless/Stephen A. Smith gibberish.

Sidenote — Something in Magnus’ release might interest a few remaining SEC fans who can’t seem to grasp that adding Missouri and Texas A&M will force ESPN to cough up more dough to Mike Slive’s league via an expanded contract or a new SEC Network partnership:

“… the additions of Pittsburgh and Syracuse as ACC members triggered a composition clause in the existing agreement. This clause is designed to allow for both partners to address the value of the conference taking into account the change in membership. There was no specific valuation formula based on total number of schools or on a per school basis. It is not an “out clause” nor does it trigger a complete renegotiation of the entire agreement. Again, conference composition clauses are standard in our industry and are part of every ESPN college rights agreement.”

For those who’ve wondered, there’s a definitive mention from ESPN of the “look-ins” Slive has mentioned previously.  And if the ACC could get a slight bump by adding Syracuse and Pittsburgh, expect the SEC to get a major bump by adding Missouri and Texas A&M (bigger markets, more cable households).

The Chick-fil-A kickoff game has quickly become a tradition at the start of the college football season.  But this season, the game is branching out and becoming a two-game event.  All the better right?

Well, maybe not for everyone.

Years ago — during the short reign of King Kiffin of Knoxville — the Chick-fil-A folks tabbed Tennessee to play NC State in their 2012 game.  At the time, reps for the game said both programs would be on the rise under then-new coaches Lane Kiffin and Tom O’Brien.  Well, the Wolfpack at least won the Belk Bowl last year — I believe the trophy is a bronzed pair of women’s slacks — but the Volunteers have struggled since Kiffin abdicated his Tennessee throne after a single season.

So facing a possible dud game for the first time, the Chick-fil-A crew announced in 2010 that a double-header would be played, adding Auburn and Clemson to the mix.  Most assumed that “double-header” meant the games would be played on the same day, but the press release for the AU-CU game said specifically that dates — plural — and times were still to be determined.

Earlier this year we learned that UT-NCSU would be given a Friday slot and Auburn-Clemson handed the traditional Saturday start time.  Yesterday, we learned the kickoff times as well:

* Tennessee-NC State, Friday, August 31st at 7:30pm ET on ESPNU

* Auburn-Clemson, Saturday, September 1st at 7:00pm ET on ESPN

That’s a nice win for both sets of Tigers.  Not so much for the Vols and ‘Pack, who not only will be kicking off on an ESPN sub-channel, but they’ll be playing opposite Friday night high school games.

In short, Auburn and Clemson will likely get the recruiting boost they were looking for when they signed up for the Chick-fil-A game.  Tennessee and NC State might as well be playing on the C-SPAN at 3am.

Speaking at a Gator booster function last night, Florida’s Will Muschamp was asked what Gator fans might expect from their first trip to Texas A&M this September.  The ex-Texas defensive coordinator responded with a chuckler that would make any Longhorn proud:

“It will be a very SEC-like atmosphere.  It’s one of the few places in the Big 12 that I would say that about…

You ever been to College Station?  It’ll be the only time you go.”

That’s a pretty small shot to take – and it drew laughs according to The Gainesville Sun — but you can bet Aggie fans won’t be amused.  (Possibly because living in College Station has already put them in an ornery mood.  We kid!)

The key for Muschamp will be to make sure Gator fans are smiling just as wide as they leave College Station as they were last night.

Oh, this story just won’t go away.

In January, a South Carolina trustee cooked up a plan for the SEC to adopt an NHL-like point system for counting wins within the league — one full point for a divisional win, one half point for a cross-divisional win.  That idea came and went.  Maybe because the SEC region is such a hotbed for professional hockey.

Steve Spurrier then came out last month and suggested that division games only should count toward determining division champs.  This would make the SEC the first major league or conference, college or pro to play games that didn’t really count in its standings.  South Carolina-Auburn last year — ultimately, the game that cost USC a trip to Atlanta — would have been nothing more than an exhibition when it came to the SEC leaderboard.

LSU’s Les Miles then came out in support of Spurrier’s plan.  Vanderbilt’s James Franklin did likewise late last week.

Now, if you read this site, you know that we’re part of the vocal majority who can’t imagine the league doing any such thing.  Even commissioner Mike Slive has said he would have a hard time conceiving a plan in which some SEC games meant more than others.  And Georgia’s Mark Richt said he didn’t think Spurrier’s plan would pass muster.  

(Perhaps this debate is another reason for the SEC to petition the NCAA to drop divisions as a pre-requisite for a championship game and to just go divisionless.)

As we’ve pointed out, there are scenarios possible under Spurrier’s plan that are much more troubling than what his Gamecocks went through last year.  Say Carolina (or LSU or Vandy) goes 7-1 in league play overall.  Subtract the two cross-divisional wins which are meaningless and the Cocks (or Tiger or Dores) would finish 5-1.  Now let’s say their loss comes to a divisional foe.  The foe wins the rest of its division games and thus holds the tie-breaker over Carolina (or LSU or Vandy).  But if that opponent drops its two cross-divisional games and finishes 5-3 in league play, don’t you suspect Spurrier (or Miles or Franklin) would quickly complain that the teams weren’t really 5-1 each… their team was 7-1 while the other guy’s squad was just 5-3.

At least Alabama’s Nick Saban seems to get it.  Like yours truly, he understands that opponents rotate year to year and what might be an easy schedule this year might not be next year: 
“I just think that’s one of those things that’s not always going to be controlled.  It’s not manipulated with who you play.  We have a rotation, we have to go through it. 

I think the other division games you play on the other side are important to our fans and there’s a lot of tradition involved in some of those games.  I think if you minimize the importance of those games, that wouldn’t be in the best interest of our league.”

The Tide coach went on to say that he would listen to Spurrier’s proposal in Destin in a few weeks.  Here’s hoping the majority of coaches and athletic directors agree with Slive and Saban and Richt rather than Spurrier, Miles and Franklin.  If they don’t, we’ll just be addressing this issue from a “change it back!” perspective the first time some team gets “jobbed” (in their view) by the new system.

Interestingly, many supporters of Spurrier’s plan say they favor it because it would create fair scheduling.  How long would it take, though, for cries of “Why do we have to play three tough games on the road while they get their toughest games at home” to ring out?

Not long.

There’s no such thing as a “fair” schedule.  Until the SEC mimics English soccer’s Premier League and everyone in the conference plays everyone else twice — home and away — there’s nothing even close.  And even then teams would still play on different dates.  Injury factors, weather factors, and discipline factors would all play a role in keeping schedules uneven.  ”You got ‘em when they were weak, but we played ‘em when they were healthy!”

Spurrier, Miles and Franklin can speak their minds in Destin.  But God help the league if they win over their fellow coaches and the ADs and the presidents and the commissioner.  We’ll guarantee you right now that such a change would only lead to more belly-aching from more coaches in the future.

SEC games that don’t actually count as SEC games?  Yeesh.

On numerous occasions over the past month we’ve told you that most college presidents and conference commissioners wants the realignment wheel to stop spinning for a while.  It was our view — backed up by talking to a few folks in SEC athletic departments and administrations — that the current push for a playoff without AQ status was driven in part by a desire to take away one of the key forces — AQ status — that has been driving much of the recent expansion (along with television revenue, conference infighting, and good, ol’ hubris).

That view — coupled with the fact that not one source at any school or league would confirm the Florida State/Clemson/Miami/Big 12 rumors to a single journalist at a any traditional news source — led us to believe there was nothing to the FSU realignment talk.  In fact, we still believe the trustees at FSU bought too much into rumors of TV contract flubs, reacted to those rumors, and gave the rumors more credence than deserved.  FSU board chairman Andy Haggard lit a fuse that was previously unlit, in other words.

So it’s not surprising for us to see that brand spanking new Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby has come out and said exactly what we were saying a month ago — a cooling off period on expansion would be nice:

“My opinion is college athletics would be well served by some period of smooth water and not all of the angst and disorganization that goes with moves from one league to another… 

Conference realignment will continue to be an issue and one we all have to be vigilant about.  I think the topic will be on every agenda going forward.  But it’s on every other conference’s agenda going forward, too…

It’s all about driving value for the member institutions.  There is a case to be made for optimal value being driven by the status quo, and there is a case to be made for some form of expansion.  And I’m not prejudging or adopting either side of that right now.”

Ways to read those comments:

1.  The Big 12 doesn’t want to expand before doing some serious research and learning exactly how the last round of moves will impact the league.

2.  Bowlsby and several others in the Big 12 want to expand, but with Texas in favor of remaining a 10-team league the new commish can’t buck them.  Yet.

3.  League powers are split on expansion an Bowlsby — as a newbie — is trying to figure out who to back and how.

4.  Bowlsby means what he says about wishing for smoother waters, but things change on a daily basis and it’s possible the Big 12 could add schools never… or by sundown.

5.  Bowlsby is flat lying while his league hammers out a deal with FSU right this very moment.

We’ll go with Option 4 on that list.

Presidents and league commissioners across the country are looking for stability for themselves.  Whatever insures stability for their own league or school, they’ll support.  Unfortunately, one league’s move to stabilize itself will in turn destabilize a brother conference.  Thus, the wheel never stops spinning.

But the people running the schools and leagues are smart men and women.  Most realize that it’s better to gauge the changes they’ve just made and then decide whether more changes are necessary than it is to just rush willy-nilly into more changes.  If you don’t know how a 10- or 14-team Big 12, SEC or ACC will work out, why rush to 12 or 16 schools?

Unfortunately, presidents are owned by trustees.  Trustees are often nothing more than wealthy fans driven more by emotion than the cooler, nerdier presidents.  Trustees can make presidents do things they don’t initially want to do.  That’s what happened at Missouri.  That’s what happened to an extent at Texas A&M.  And that appears to be what’s happening at Florida State.

We believe Bowlsby and others would prefer to catch their collective breath before diving back into the depths of the churning realignment seas.  The trustees and fans who ultimately drive these decisions with their checkbooks… not so much.

Former Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer’s name surfaced last month in connection with the Arkansas coaching job after the Razorbacks fired Bobby Petrino.

Doug Matthews – a former Tennessee assistant coach and friend of Fulmer – told WGFX-FM in Nashville that communication had been made by Arkansas with Fulmer, who denied at the time having been contacted by the Razorbacks.

Arkansas, of course, decided to hire John L. Smith, who served as an assistant in Fayetteville from 2009-11 before leaving for a brief stint as Weber State’s head coach.

But Fulmer, who was selected to the College Football Hall of Fame on Tuesday, made it clear he would have been very interested in coaching at Arkansas had the Razorbacks offered him the position.

“The Arkansas job I would have jumped all over,” Fulmer said Tuesday during an interview on WGFX. “That was a really special situation and a really good team and had a chance. And that’s what I’ve said all along – I’m looking for an opportunity you can go compete for championships. At this stage in my career, I’m not looking for a dead end somewhere.

“I miss coaching. I also enjoy time with my family and children and grandchildren and all those things and the business that I’m in. Once you’ve done it for as long as I have, you have a passion for young people and the competition and all those things. You obviously miss it.”

Fulmer, who told WGFX that Arkansas officials spoke to his representatives, said he recognized why the Razorbacks went with Smith.

“I certainly understand the familiarity with John L. was a good thing for them as it turns out and I hope he does well,” Fulmer said.

Fulmer is more than familiar with Tennessee having served as a player, assistant coach and head coach at the school. He was asked if he could see himself returning to the school in an administrative or other role in the future.

“You never say never in the athletics world,” Fulmer said. “Today is kind of more of a day to celebrate what all we accomplished as a staff and as an organization during that time and not really to reflect on what could be somewhere down the road. Tennessee is my school and I love it dearly and the people that had anything to do with my leaving Tennessee are not there any longer and we’ll see what happens.”

Tennessee athletic director Dave Hart appears hopeful that Fulmer’s presence on campus will be more frequent. He was asked Tuesday during the school’s caravan stop if he would like to see Fulmer around the program more often in the future.

“Absolutely, and that’s what I’ve stressed to him,” Hart said.

1.  With new schools and teams entering the SEC, the league has had to add additional officials, too.

2.  Auburn defensive coordinator Brain VanGorder wants his defensive backs to get stronger.

3.  Suspended Arkansas receiver Kane Whitehurst has been given a release to transfer.

4.  Three Hog footballers arrested over the weekend have only themselves to blame.

5.  It was a down year this year, but Florida could have as many as nine players drafted into the NFL next spring.

6.  Georgia AD Greg McGarity expects success from his coaches… or else.

7.  The Dawgs offensive line will be the team’s biggest question mark entering the fall.

8.  James Franklin is offering a lot of scholarships to Vanderbilt and he’s doing so early (and successfully).

9.  Missouri and Kansas are doing battle over license plates.

10.  There’s been a lot of change in the SEC, but you can expect the run of success to continue.

Three coaches and 14 players were elected to the College Football Hall of Fame today and three of them have connections to schools now in the SEC:

Former Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer – who posted a 152-52 record at his alma mater before being forced out — joins a host of Vols already in Hall, including ex-UT coaches Robert Neyland and Doug Dickey.

Former Texas A&M coach RC Slocum — who posted a 123-47-2 record before being forced out  – says his election is “validation of the players, the assistant coaches and the entire staffs I was so fortunate to work with here at Texas A&M.”

The election of former LSU tailback Charles Alexander — a two-time All-American and Heisman Trophy finalist — “is an important recognition for one of the legendary figures in LSU athletics history,” according to Tiger AD Joe Alleva.

Congratulations to all three men.  You don’t get much higher honors than being voted into your sport’s hall of fame.