Texas A&M is trying to hurriedly put together its 2012 non-conference football schedule and three changes were announced yesterday:


1.  The Aggies opener on September 1st with McNeese State has been dumped and A&M is paying $200,000 to cancel it.

2.  A&M will instead open the season in Shreveport, Louisiana against Louisiana Tech on Thursday, August 30th.

3.  South Carolina State will visit Kyle Field on September 22nd.


A&M still has one more non-conference slot to fill for November 17th.

The switch from McNeese State at home to Louisiana Tech at Shreveport insures that the Aggies first-ever SEC contest — against Florida on September 8th — will also be the school’s home opener.

The SEC’s 2012 tally board now reads: SEC Home Teams 41, SEC Road Teams 13.

Three more home teams won — and won big — last night.  That’s a 76% clip for teams in their own arenas.  If you’d bet a buddy $10 straight up on the home team to win in every SEC game this year, you’d be plus $280 over your pal right now.  If you’d been sharp enough to take Kentucky in their road games — and the Cats are the only team to take on the road — you’d be at plus $330.

Just saying.


Tennessee 69, South Carolina 57

As the Gamecocks continue to sink into the quicksand at the bottom of the SEC standings board (they’re now 1-8 in league play), the Vols appear to have found a new offensive weapon.  Long-range shooter Skylar McBee made his first start of the year on Saturday and tallied 10 points.  Making his second start last night, he led the Volunteers with 18 on 4-of-7 shooting from the 3-point line.  If McBee could average 14 points per game as a starter, even the defense-first Cuonzo Martin would likely take it.

Struggling Carolina was outrebounded 32-25 and couldn’t muster any consistent offense in the paint.


Vanderbilt 76, LSU 61

The Commodores snapped a two-game losing streak behind a 21-point effort from Festus Ezeli in Nashville.  John Jenkins added 20.  Jeffery Taylor poured in 19 more.  But it was Ezeli who helped give Vandy a 38-22 edge down low and that proved to be the difference in the ballgame.

After a solid start in SEC play, the Tigers have now lost four out of five to fall to 3-6 in league play.  The temperature of Trent Johnson’s seat is once again starting to warm.

The Commodores will host #1 Kentucky — the SEC only unbeaten road team — Saturday night at Memorial Gym.


Georgia 81, Arkansas 59

The road woes continue for Mike Anderson’s team.  Unbeaten at home, the Razorbacks remain winless away from Fayetteville after getting trounced in Athens.  For Georgia, it was just the second SEC win of season.

Gerald Robinson scored a career-high 27 and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope contributed 18.  The Dawgs had a 15-0 run in the first half and a 12-0 run in the second to put the Hogs away.

UGA also crushed Arkansas on the glass, 44 rebounds to 21.

The Big Ten has a four-team plan with the national semifinals being played in on-campus stadiums.  Georgia president Michael Adams says an eight-team playoff might be in the offing.

SEC commissioner Mike Slive says… slow down.

Speaking in Nashville yesterday, Slive went in 180 degrees the opposite direction of UGA’s prez when he said:


“Really a lot of this discussion is premature, and I want to respect the process that we’re in… What would (a new system) look like and whether it’s actually going to happen, all of that is premature.  I think we need the time to sit down and analyze it.  We need time to take ideas back to our respective conferences and… a decision to be made sometime later this year as we being to talk about the… next format.”


As we noted earlier today, we believe there will be resistance to a no-playoff to eight-team-playoff jump.  It’s far more likely — at least in our view — that a four-team, seeded Plus One will be the answer.

Consider the Big Ten and Pac-12.  The idea to bid out the championship game site each year protects the tradition of the Rose Bowl.  It would not be part of a rotation which would cast one or both leagues out once every four years (as is currently the case).

How would those leagues feel about an eight-team playoff that might invite two schools (or maybe even three) from those leagues… thus leaving the Rose Bowl as Pac-12 #2 versus Big Ten #3 or even #4?

The safe money is on a four-game plan.  Even though Slive would probably say that we’re jumping the gun by going that far.


On a sidenote, the commissioner confirmed what we’ve been saying for a while: The SEC isn’t looking to go to 16 schools anytime soon.

“We’re at 14,” Slive said.  “It’s going to take us time to absorb.  I don’t know if you realize how difficult it is to take two institutions and move them into 12 other institutions whether it’s scheduling or the way we’re working together.  So we have our hands full for now.”

At least until the landscape changes elsewhere.

Each day, we get up and try to bring you all the news from around the league as well as some — when we have time for it — research pieces.  Today, we posted the number of players from each state’s Top 20 prospects who signed with a particular school.

The goal was just to see how much talent leaves a state.

We always try to use one baseline so as to prevent arguing.  In this case, player ratings, not star rankings, according to Rivals.com.

But more than 100 angry emails later, they’ve been taken down. 

Why do you use Rivals, not Scout?  Not ESPN?  Not 247?  (All because those rankings favor the writer’s favorite school.)

Why do you list players by rating and not star ranking… and not by the individual state rankings from various publications?  (Mainly because not all sites have the same rankings.)

Why do you list jucos?  Why do you list players by their high school and not by their birthplace?  Why do you list juco players by their junior colleges and not their high schools?

Why do you hate my school?

Now that’s par for the course and it shows plenty of people are reading.  And it’s not like we’re having to mine coal around here.  Things are quite cushy, actually. 

That’s thanks 100% to you, and it’s appreciated.

But there are days when the battles and insults just get old.  And as someone who went through cancer last summer, I can promise you that life is way too short to deal with that much negativity.

So we’ll be back at it with plenty o’ news tomorrow.

1.  The Orlando Sentinel says Florida was “completely outclassed” by Kentucky last night.

2.  Brian Cox Jr. signed with the Gators because his papa — the ex-NFL’er — and Gator D-coordinator Dan Quinn worked together with the New York Jets.

3.  Off-field issues have whittled down Georgia’s secondary depth.

4.  This columnist says Anthony Davis’ defense is just the tip of Kentucky’s spear. 

5.  Michael Kidd-Gilchrist continues to come up big in the Wildcats’ biggest games.

6.  South Carolina is 1-7 in the SEC and 0-4 on the road heading to Tennessee tonight.

7.  The Vols’ Jeronne Maymon will try to remain consistent, efficient and tough versus the Gamecocks.

8.  Vanderbilt will try to snap a two-game losing streak when LSU visits Nashville tonight.

9.  No surprise — SEC coaches aren’t thrilled with the NCAA’s new multi-year scholarship option.

1.  After a flurry of technical fouls, Alabama knocked out Auburn.

2.  Anthony Grant probably won’t be happy with some of his players for calling out Auburn fans and players on Twitter after the win. 

3.  Tony Barbee says his Tiger team got “out-toughed.”

4.  Undefeated at home, Arkansas heads to Georgia looking for its first win away from Bud Walton Arena in 348 days.

5.  LSU goes on the road to Vanderbilt’s Memorial Gym tonight.

6.  MSU fans have chosen their program’s Team of the Century (from State’s first 100 years of basketball… it’d still be a bit soon to for the team of the 2000s.)

7.  Ole Miss needs to keep hitting the boards when the Rebels travel to Starkville on Thursday.

8.  Terrance Henry says he’s got the back of UM’s Nick Williams, the Reb’s top trash-talker.”

Yesterday we told you that in SEC hoops, teams have but a 24% chance of winning on the road.  Well after last night, that number has skyrocketed to a 25% chance.

SEC home teams are still 38-13 in league play, but one of last night’s two contests was indeed captured by the visitor.  In spite of the turmoil surrounding that squad.


Alabama 68, Auburn 50

One day after the indefinite suspension of Tony Mitchell, the Crimson Tide traveled into the home of its arch-rival and made off with an easier than expected win.  The Tigers had been 3-1 at home and Bama would be looking to replace Mitchell’s 13 point- and 7 rebound-average.

JaMychal Green and Trevor Releford combined for 34 points to fill the scoring void.  And UA managed to outrebound AU 30-26 on the night, even without Mitchell’s usual contribution.

The win boosts Bama to 16-7 overall and 5-4 in the SEC.  They’ve now rebounded from a four-game losing streak with a three-game win streak.  The NCAA Tournament is still in sight for Bama.  For Auburn?  The SEC cellar remains in view as the Tigers tumbled to 3-7 in league play, ahead of only Georgia and South Carolina.


Kentucky 79, Florida 58

The thinking went as follows: If anyone is going to knock off the Wildcats in Lexington, it will be the Gators.  But in reality, Billy Donovan’s team was just another speed bump en route to an SEC crown and a probable #1 seed in the NCAA tourney.

When we pointed out yesterday that UK’s average home win was by a score of 83-60, we didn’t anticipate last night’s score being so similar.

For the Cats, overconfidence might be the only concern moving forward.  Example: “We have this little swagger.  We just want to go out there and play hard and win.  We’re capable of winning a national championship if we keep playing how we’re playing.”  That’s from Anthony Davis after last night’s whipping of Florida.  Davis, of course, is a freshman who happens to have no idea of what it takes to win six games in a row in the NCAA Tournament.

There’s a reason John Calipari changed his talking point from “being physical” to “avoiding overconfidence” this week.  The latter seems to be the only thing that can slow down his Wildcats… especially in the regular season.

Darius Philon — the conflicted Alabama commitment who chose Arkansas sight unseen when the Tide tried to get him to delay enrolling for a year — is feeling better about his decision to matriculate in Fayetteville.

According to Richard Davenport of WholeHogSports.com, Philon’s defensive coordinator in high school says the player “has been wearing Razorback clothing to school and is all smiles about attending Arkansas.”

The coach also said that Philon had surgery on a torn meniscus before Christmas, but he is “rehabbing well and should be ready to go in the fall.”

Anyone not wishing the best for this kid has a heart of stone.

1.  Varez Ward is becoming a real leader for Auburn’s basketball team.

2.  Michigan has sold out its allotment of tickets for this fall’s season-opener against Alabama at Cowboys Stadium.

3.  Even without Marshawn Powell, Arkansas is playing itself onto the NCAA tourney bubble.

4.  Trent Johnson is trying to prepare his LSU team for a visit from battle-tested Vanderbilt.

5.  Forward Shaun Smith could be a big help to Mississippi State in the stretch run.

6.  Bo Wallace has an advantage in Ole Miss’ quarterback race.

When Alabama rolls into Auburn Arena tonight they’ll do so without a key contributor.  Junior forward Tony Mitchell has been put on indefinite suspension by coach Anthony Grant for “conduct detrimental to the team.”

Grant said his decision was based on “an accumulation” of issues, not just a single incident. 

Mitchell averages 13.1 points per game and 7.0 rebounds per game for the Crimson Tide. 

“It obviously hurts,” teammate Andrew Steele told TideSports.com.  “He’s such a big part of what we try to do.  But it’s a coach’s decision and we just have to focus on doing what we have to do to get a win.”

Alabama is currently 15-7 overall and just 4-4 in the SEC.  Expected to be an NCAA Tournament team — and still a probable for March Madness — Grant is making quite a statement with his suspension of Mitchell.  The Tide’s RPI and tourney resume will surely take a hit if Bama can’t overcome the loss of the talented forward tonight on The Plains.

Kudos to Grant for putting discipline first.  If the moves comes back to haunt Alabama, you can be sure his decision will be second-guessed.