Here are some headlines for your Tuesday afternoon.

-Offensive line prospect Alex Kozan is visiting Arkansas today. Oklahoma State and LSU will follow.

-Cornerback Chris Bivins has committed to South Florida. That is unless the Florida Gators comes calling.

-Defensive tackle prospect Martin Aiken explains his commitment to Clemson over South Carolina.

-CBSSports.com has obtained a letter outlining recruiting changes being proposed by the SEC.

-Georgia’s top-ranked quarterback prospect is ready to visit several schools in the Southeast.

-Defensive tackle Jordan Watkins has trimmed his list to eight schools. Half of them are in the SEC.

1.  Arkansas’ athletic budget ranks near the bottom of the SEC, but the Hogs don’t count pennies when it comes to hiring coaches.

2.  LSU football is feelin’ the love from preseason prognosticators.

3.  Trent Johnson says it’s “so far, so good” in Baton Rouge this summer.

4.  Mississippi State’s Rick Stansbury is the only coach bemoaning the league’s decision to dump divisions in basketball.

5.  Hotshot receiver prospect Tobias Singleton says his grades are in order and he’ll be enrolling at Ole Miss “by Wednesday.”

6.  Mississippi is spending time and money on educating its student-athletes on proper social media behavior (when it could just as easily pull the dang plug on those sites and be done with it).

Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity announced yesterday that his school has contacted both the SEC and the NCAA with regards to improper benefits two UGA athletes might have received during their high school years.

The Columbus Ledger-Enquirer reported on Sunday that a police investigation into Columbus’ Parks and Recreating Department had found that football player Jarvis Jones and basketball player Kentavious Caldwell-Pope had received benefits while starring for a Columbus AAU team.

“The UGAAA and the student-athletes will work cooperatively with both entities (SEC and NCAA) as the process continues,” read McGarity’s release.  He also said that the school would make no additional comments “until the matter is resolved.”

The amateur status of both Jones and Caldwell-Pope are now in question due to the investigation’s findings.

Asked what he would wish for over the next 12 months, Auburn NCAA compliance director Rich McGlynn cut right to the chase:


“Hopefully, next year is not as stressful.  I hope next year is as eventful on the field.  It’s been an interesting year for sure.  I love Auburn.  I love working for Jay Jacobs.  I love our coaching staff and I love our kids.  It’s been a wild ride.  From a professional and personal level, the stress has been there.

We’re working hard.  Does that mean we’re perfect at what we do?  Absolutely not, but no one is.  But we are doing it the right way, and we’re building a program.”


McGlynn said that he also hopes the NCAA will grant Mike Blakely a waiver allowing the former Florida running back to play right away on The Plains.  The freshman Blakely signed with the Gators but never played or practiced with UF before deciding to transfer.

1.  This writer says there’ll be no excuses if Vanderbilt doesn’t have a heckuva year in hoops this winter.

2.  Anthony Grant got burned by the NCAA selection committee last year… so he’s beefing up Alabama’s basketball schedule.

3.  Auburn is up for a whole lotta ESPY Awards this year.

4.  With Kiehl Frazier in the fold, the loss of QB prospect Russell Wilson to Wisconsin could be better in the long run for the Tigers.

5.  Losing three players to transfer — including leading scorer Rotnei Clarke — is making for “an interesting transition” period at Arkansas.

The hot topic on yesterday’s SEC basketball teleconference was scheduling.  Specifically how the SEC’s plan to do away with divisions will affect the league’s schedule.

The options are to move forward with a 16-game schedule as is currently the case, move to an 18-game schedule, or expand to a full round-robin 22-game league schedule.

Mike Slive seems to be in favor of the 18-game plan and, therefore, we’d put our money on that option eventually being chosen.  The 16-game schedule would mean that the league simply did away with divisional standings without making any schedule changes.  And the 22-game plan has few supporters.

“We feel drug through Armageddon after 16 games,” Kevin Stallings said.  “I don’t think (22 games) has got a lot of traction.  But I thought it was worth bringing up and discussing.”  Vandy’s coach pitched the idea of a 22-game schedule at the SEC Meetings in Destin just a few weeks ago.

Auburn’s Tony Barbee is at least glad that the division standings have been dumped.  “(The Big 12) before their turnover always scheduled in the North-South football conference kind of way, but they didn’t advertise it in terms of two separate divisions.  I think the perception has been that we’ve had two separate leagues and that hasn’t helped the league as a whole.”

“There’s no way that an Alabama team — that if we were one division or one conference last year — that would have finished second behind Florida, I’m not convinced they would not have been in the NCAA Tournament coming in second place in the SEC if people would have looked at it in that format.”

Agreed.

As we have stated before, we at MrSEC.com favor an 18-game league schedule:


* To preserve rivalries, the East and West teams (in football terms) would continue to face one another twice per season on a home-and-home basis. 

* Teams from the East (in football) would play four teams from the West (again, in football terms) once per year.

* But each team would also play two teams from the other division (in football terms) on a home-and-home basis.  These two opponents would rotate each season.


Yes, that would create an unbalanced schedule, but technically that’s what the SEC has now anyway.

The league’s coaches will discuss the options again in August before the conference makes a final decision later this year.

We’ll allow Alice Cooper to reiterate our position:

It’s a lovefest in the SEC these days.  Andy Kennedy and Billy Donovan are praising Kentucky and John Calipari.  Mike Anderson is tossing verbal bouquets at Cuonzo Martin.

Arkansas’ new hoops coach got to know Tennessee’s new coach when they were both coaching in the Show Me State — Anderson at Missouri, Martin at Missouri State.  Anderson was impressed:


“He’s a quality young guy working hard.  He’ll do a great job at Tennessee.  I say that because he’s like me, a character guy.  His kids are going to do all the right things on and off the floor.  They’ll play as a team.

All you’ve got to do is look at his background, where he’s from, to find out a lot more about what Cuonzo Martin is all about.  Nothing’s been given to him.”


In addition to meeting each other on the court each season, Anderson and Martin will probably cross paths often while recruiting the talent-rich Memphis area as well.

1.  Mark Richt — as he’s wont to do — has given offensive lineman Brent Benedict an unconditional release.

2.  This writer says John Calipari won’t leave Kentucky for the NBA over money… or stay in Lexington because of money.  In other words, it ain’t about the money.

3.  This writer makes the case — a valid one, too — that paying huge dollars to coaches like Calipari doesn’t guarantee a school will get past Butler or VCU in the NCAA Tournament.

4.  So why did Clifford Snow leave Kentucky’s football operations job to take the same gig at Louisville?  He says because he wanted to work with Charlie Strong again.

5.  Tennessee linebacker Shane Reveiz sees his hard work pay off with a scholarship from Derek Dooley.

During yesterday’s SEC basketball coaches teleconference the subject of John Calipari’s new mega-contract came up again and again.  And while the league’s other coaches said all the right things about Coach Cal, a couple of them had even better things to say about the school the employs him.

Ole Miss’ Andy Kennedy:


“… I think when you start setting the standard for the epitome for success for college basketball, you start with Kentucky.  No offense to Cal, but that started way before he got there.  Obviously, it’s the most storied program in the history of college basketball.  The most passionate fan base of any collegiate following that I’ve ever been a part of.  And he’s done a tremendous job of going in and selling that product.  He’s an excellent coach.”


Billy Donovan of Florida:


“Every program aspires to build that kind of tradition. … Kentucky’s always been Kentucky.  It’s been that way for 60 years.  … They are truly the measuring stick.”


I think the PR department at UK just got some free and easy quotes to use in this year’s hoops media guide.

CBSSports.com’s Dennis Dodd ranked the hot seat status of each FBS coach yesterday.  His grading system was pretty simple:


0-0.5 = “Don’t even think it — can’t be touched”
1-1.5 = “Very safe — change highly unlikely”
2-2.5 = “Safe — solid position”
3-3.5 = “On the bubble — you never know”
4-4.5 = “Warm seat — feeling the pressure”
5 = “On the hot seat — it’s time to win now”


When it came to the SEC’s 12 coaches, there were no 4′s or 5′s.  Mark Richt sits at a 3.5 on Dodd’s scale — meaning he’s somewhere between “you never know” and “feeling the pressure.”  That number is the highest in the league.

Below are Dodd’s scores for the SEC’s coaches:

Petrino isn’t at a 0.0?  Franklin feels more pressure than Phillips?  Dooley — after one season — could be in worse shape than Miles?  Those are some interesting choices to say the least.

We’ll be posting our annual Hot Seat Rankings later this summer.