Content provided by And The Valley Shook.

Who’s ready for a rematch of the ’95 Weed Eater Bowl?

The LSUSports.net hostage situation has ended and normal service should be returning to your area soon, if not already.

Patrick Peterson has been named a 1st team All-American, just the 67th Tiger to ever gain the honor and the 9th under Miles.

Rosetta at The Advoc says the season was “Good, not Great” Kleinpeter, in his excellent as usual film study, believes last week was our worst game of the season.

Alleva says Miles has the only call on keeping assistants. (also, 2 punts in the 1st half last weekend hit camera wires. War Memorial is a truly awful place)

From our SBN Neighbors: The Expats are understandably ecstatic and they should be with the potential of the Hawgs first ever BCS bid.

LSU fell to 10, 11, and 12 in the BCS, AP, and USA polls respectively. The Blog and SEC Power Polls are out tomorrow, and I expect them to be much less forgiving.

It wasn’t a bad enough loss to warrant inclusion in the Schadenfreude, but if you’re looking for the lowlights without having to go to TigerDroppings, RBR’s Meltdown recap will do the job.

There is more to the LSU-A&M Cotton Bowl than just both fanbases hopes, as it seems the committee is also in favor of the matchup. (H/T Advoc Blog)

The Men’s team beat up on South Alabama, 80-65 (and got the first LSU road win since the 09 tourney.) They’ll face a 4-2 Houston team in the PMAC tonight before going on exam break. And don’t feel too bad about that early Nicholls St. loss, It turns out the whole SEC West division is already a smoldering crater and it’s not even December yet.

The Ladies played a 3 game tourney @ UCONN and whupped Leigh and Howard before falling to the Juggernaut that is the Lady Huskies, 81-51 (now winners of 84 straight). They play at Nicholls St. tonight before the break.

Volleyball earned their 6th straight tourney berth as a 13 seed and will start in the Norman, OK regional this Friday against Tulsa.

So, after kicking their way back home in a loss to Nevada, Boise St. woke up to the nightmare that TCU is leaving the MWC for the Big East, leaving behind a shell of a conference that can now charitably be described as “WAC 2.0″ Meanwhile, some Big East stalwarts are learning, as Kansas did when the B12 nearly fell apart, that football is all that really matters in college athletics these days.

In local news, The Bustle Hustle has ended in Lafayette after what I’m told was a particularly engaging version of The Battle of The Hyphenated in which the Cajun’s won on a missed extra point. Potential candidates vary wildly (including a Miss St. assistant and *gasp* Gary Crowton) but we all know who the only candidate should be.

As for the SEC, the only confirmed death is Robbie Caldwell at Vandy. (Rumors of Nutt’s demise/banishment to Colorado were greatly exaggerated) The ‘Dores are hoping for a top flight hire. The only real flight risk at this point is Gus Malzahn.

Finally, a great quote from Vol Basketball coach Bruce Pearl.

Alright, I don’t wanna see any students here tomorrow, you’ve got finals next week.

Content provided by Garnet And Black Attack.

Garnet and Black Attack readers, I am a student at the University of Alabama and write pretty regularly over at Roll Bama Roll. I don’t know if you guys usually take down guest posts but I just wanted to give ya’ll a little insight from our side.

I know USC has already played Auburn once this year and knows what they are going up against, but i feel like at that point in the year it was a completely different football season to where we are now.

First off, I know Alabama blew it, just like we did against LSU. USC was the only team that deserved to take Alabama to the woodshed and rightfully did.

But this is not about Alabama, this is about beating Auburn.

The mindset of the Auburn program is simply to top Alabama, that is ALL they care about.

I believe this will give South Carolina a great advantage going into the SECCG being that many Auburn players, fans, and coaches will have a false sense of a season accomplished after taking down the 4th ranked team in the West.

Cam Newton is an absolute monster, but much like Ellis Johnson showing how to slow Alabama’a rushing game, I think Saban and Kirby Smart gave the blueprint of how to slow down the best professional athlete in college football this year.

Essentially Cliff Matthews and at least two linebackers will have to sell out every play to contain him on the ground. I believe we held him to something like 39 yards rushing which I believe USC can do the same.

Where USC has an advantage over what Alabama couldn’t stop is they have defensive backs that can contain the deep ball. The deep ball to Zachary completely sucked the life out of the Alabama defense much like Jeffery making Milliner and Mark Barron look like absolute ass bags out there in Columbia.

Offensively, USC is in a great spot to take down the tigers. Get enough out of Garcia to Gurley and Jeffery to post up points early then grind it out with the freak Lattimore and the OBC should be bringing the SEC title back to Columbia.

So make you guy’s first trip to Atlanta the best it can be and bring the same intensity to the Georgia Dome that you had in Williams-Brice Stadium when the Tide came to town and you can really take them out of their game.

Best of luck Gamecock supporters, you will have all of us cheering for you this Saturday without a doubt.

Content provided by Swamp Things – Gators Blog.

Four-star DE Jeoffrey Pagan decommitted from Florida on Monday, changing his mind in part because of the departure of defensive line coach Dan McCarney for North Texas.

Danny Wilkins, Pagan’s high school coach at Asheville (N.C.) High, said, “I think he’s concerned about the distance from home a little bit more as time approaches, too, for signing.”

The Gators had honored their offer after Pagan tore his PCL and MCL earlier this month. He has since had surgery under the direction of Dr. James Andrews, one of the most renowned sports surgeons in the country.

“His knee’s doing much better,” said Wilkins. “It was not as severe as they thought. He’s in rehab and doing well. And they expect a full recovery.”

Pagan’s decommitment leaves Florida with 17 recruits in the 2011 class. They are:

ESPN broadcaster — and former Maryland star and member of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics — Len Elmore says that Tennessee’s Bruce Pearl should be suspended for two years for lying to NCAA investigators.

“That would really be taking a stand,” Elmore says on USAToday.com.  He believes the penalties self-imposed by Tennessee as well as those handed down by the SEC were “too soft.” 

Pearl will lose $1.5 million in salary over five seasons.  He is not allowed to recruit off-campus for a year.  And he will miss the first half of UT’s SEC schedule this season.  In addition, the NCAA will hand down its own penalties in the coming months.

“That sanction is no swift penalty,” Elmore said of the the eight-game ban.  “I call it mercy.  When people perjure themselves, you have to go after them hard.”

Wow.  I wonder if Elmore is a church-going man.  If so, he’s going to the wrong one.

As for Pearl’s decision to eventually coming clean to the NCAA, Elmore said, “A lot of times people are motivated to do that because they’re going to be found out.  It’s a mitigating factor but not enough to warrant a mere eight-game sanction.  That’s a total cop-out.”

When it comes to calling for people’s heads over moral failings — and that’s what lying is — that’s not in my DNA, as you surely know by now.  Sue me.  I’m a minister’s son and I get tired of watching sinners scream for other sinners to be stoned.  So I’ll give a thumbs-down to Elmore’s anti-mercy stance.

However, when it comes to the actual facts of this case, Pearl is the man at fault.  Pearl created enemies in the coaching profession when he ratted out Jimmy Collins of Illinois 20 years ago.  He should have known better than to cheat in any way, form or fashion — even if that cheating involved a barbecue and less than a 100 phone calls.  (Some say that’s nothing, others say that’s awful, either way it’s something.)

Pearl also should have just come clean to NCAA investigators when shown a photo taken in his own house.  He did not.  Perhaps he panicked.  Perhaps he tried to mastermind a cover-up.  That’s for the NCAA to decide.

Even before this incident, Pearl’s teams were often ranked lower in the coaches’ poll than in the AP poll.  Many coaches see Pearl as a self-promoter.  They weren’t impressed by his one shirtless night at a women’s basketball game half a decade ago and they didn’t buy his tears at his mea culpa press conference in September.

For basketball people who dislike Pearl, they have the goods on him now.  The barbecue, the illegal contacts, the lie.  And that’s no one’s fault but Pearl’s.  He and the Tennessee program will have to live with that.

But to angrily — at least Elmore’s words read angrily — call for harsher, stiffer punishments while also pooh-poohing mercy?  Sorry, I won’t go there.

And in case you’re wondering why we didn’t link to news that former Georgia AD Damon Evans had his arraignment for drunk driving postponed in the Peach State today… same principle. 

There are plenty of people in this world who like to pile onto others for their moral slip-ups.  I’ll try to stick to tossing barbs about bad play-selection and poor recruiting instead.

Dan Mullen poked fun at the job rumors swirling around his name via Twitter today:


“with all the rumors, all i am mulling over is the flu and what bowl we are going too”


Does this sound like a man who is in contract negotiations with Miami?  Either Mullen has yet to be contacted by The U or he’s a very, very cold man who likes to toy with State fans’ emotions.

I’ll go with “no contact yet.”  Why say anything at all if you are speaking with Miami?

Sidenote — I’m sure Ole Miss fans are already poking fun at Mullen’s use of the word “too” instead of “to.”  I would “too,” if I didn’t have my own rushed spelling errors umpteen times a day.

This Thanksgiving was a particularly special one for the Vanderbilt basketball team. It marked the first time in four years that we were actually able to spend Thanksgiving in Nashville and enjoy a traditional home-cooked holiday meal.
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Head Coach Steve Spurrier met with the media Tuesday afternoon to preview Saturday’s SEC Championship game against Auburn.
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The South Carolina men’s basketball team (4-1) is set to host Delaware State (2-2) in non-conference action at Colonial Life Arena on Wednesday night. Tip off is set for 7 p.m.
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It’s not so hard to put Auburn in a hole. Keeping the second-ranked Tigers there is much more troublesome.
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Arkansas travels to UTA and Utah this week.
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