Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity opened up yesterday regarding the SEC’s soon-to-be sorted out football scheduling format.  Unfortunately, he offered nothing new.

First, don’t expect the SEC to go to nine games in 2013:

“The general feeling is we want to stay with eight.  But we have not sat down as a group of ADs to talk about 2012 and beyond.  We just had to get 2012 solved to move forward.  So who knows what 2013 through either a two-year or six-year rotation.  But that’s what we’re going to meet to (talk about) and dedicate a whole day to (during the SEC’s women’s basketball tournament).”

The fears of a nine-game slate are the same — you can’t schedule as many patsies:

“Nine games, and Georgia Tech, that makes 10 games.   If you ever wanted to schedule Clemson or Ohio State, like we have, then that only leaves one guarantee game.  That’s a pretty tough schedule.  Fans would love it.  But I don’t know if your coaches or players (would).  That’s strapping it up 11 of 12 weeks there.  You have to have some time where some players play who never get a chance to be on the field.”

The ACC has announced that it will go to a nine-game conference slate when Pittsburgh and Syracuse begin league play.  The Big Ten and Pac-12 will engage in a yearly conference-versus-conference agreement that will guarantee that both leagues’ teams will face at least nine BCS opponents per year.  In addition, the ADs at Iowa and Michigan have already stated that facing nine BCS teams per season won’t lead them to end their annual series with Iowa State and Notre Dame, respectively.

In other words, only the SEC is scared of guaranteeing nine to 10 games per year against BCS competition.

Clearly, the goal of most SEC athletic directors is to keep more teams bowl eligible via laughable non-conference schedules.  We find that to be embarrassing and we believe it will eventually bit the league right in the polls.  But then again, it’s you the fan who gets to pay 50+ bucks a seat to watch Jackson State come to town… just so you can then travel to Memphis to watch your 6-6 SEC squad play in the Liberty Bowl against a Conference USA team.  Fun, no?

Additionally, McGarity makes it clear that some of the league’s oldest, most-stories, most-important rivalries could still go away:

“I think if you ask Alabama and Tennessee, like us and Auburn, we’d like to retain the (permanent cross-divisional) games.  But does that work?  What do the other 10 schools think?  Those four schools like having those games but there’s no other East-West match-up that has that piece of history to it.  So I don’t (know) where that fits in.”

A history lesson for Mr. McGarity: Ole Miss and Vanderbilt have played 86 times.  That’s one of the 10 most played rivalries in SEC history.  If the SEC is about everyone being equal, then that rivalry means something, too.

Also, you can bet Missouri likes keeping its toes dipped in the deep recruiting waters of Texas thanks to its cross-divisional partnership with Texas A&M.

But in the end, Georgia’s AD is right about one thing:

“With 14 teams, not everybody will be happy.  Some will have a problem with everything.  But we’ll make decisions based on the best situation of the league.”

Well, there’s nothing better for the league than protecting the very thing that made it great — long-time, heated, tradition-rich rivalries.

The best way to do that is to go to a nine-game conference slate or somehow convince the NCAA to dump its requirements for conference championship games.

1.  Florida will try to bounce back from a clubbing at Kentucky when they host Tennessee this weekend.

2.  Georgia put a whoopin’ on Arkansas to climb out of the SEC cellar.

3.  This writer believes John Calipari has his best shot at a national title with this year’s Kentucky team.

4.  South Carolina has now lost 10 basketball games in a row to Tennessee.

5.  The Vol football team will be a lot more multiple on defense next season.

6.  Meanwhile, assistant coach Darin Hinshaw wants more production from his receiving corps.

7.  After a sluggish first half, Vanderbilt dropped 49 on LSU in final stanza to win 76-61.  (Up next: VU hosts top-ranked Kentucky and the Dores have toppled the last four #1 teams to visit the West End.)

1. Rivals has released its initial list of the top 100 prospects for the 2013 class.

2. Here’s a breakdown of the initial group from Rivals.

3. Alabama is making a push for Georgia quarterback commit Brice Ramsey.

4. Sounds like a move by Urban Meyer, who called the upset talk in the Big Ten last week “nonsense.”

5. If you missed it last week, Florida basketball coach Billy Donovan said he doesn’t recruit prospects committed to other schools.

6. Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin believes the Aggies need to focus their recruiting on Texas and Louisiana.

1. Get ready for the recruiting circus that is sure to follow 2013 defensive end Robert Nkemdiche from Loganville, Ga.

2. The top-rated unsigned prospect for the 2012 class is getting closer to making a decision.

3. Here are some signing day grades for the 2012 class from CBSSports.com.

4. Alabama signee Dalvin Tomlinson had nothing to do with Darius Philon losing his scholarship at Bama, according to Tomlinson’s coach.

5. Chris Hays of the Orlando Sentinel takes an early look at the 2013 class in Florida.

6. Here’s a look into Kentucky’s efforts to sign its class for 2012.

7. Nkemdiche won’t be the only highly-touted prospect in the state of Georgia for 2013. The group will be large again.

8. South Carolina received a visit from offensive lineman Tyrone Crowder from Rockingham, N.C.

1. Kevin Scarbinsky: Is Nick Saban doing to Les Miles what he did to Urban Meyer?

2. Derek Dooley on multi-year scholarships: “We forget this is a contract, a two-way street.”

3. And on the season-ending loss at Kentucky: “It eats me alive. I didn’t sleep for a week after that game.”

4. Urban Meyer is doing to the Big Ten what Lane Kiffin did to the SEC.

5.  ”(J)ust admit everyone’s guilty of poaching on some level…”

6. The Darius Philon story will not go away.

7. Neither will the Jarrett Lee BCS championship game saga.

8. Jordan Jefferson leads two scoring drives but the North beats the South in the Players All-Star Classic.

9. Avery Johnson will legally change his last name to Peterson when he arrives on the LSU campus.

10.  A signing day breakdown for the Ole Miss Rebels.

11. And one for Mississippi State.

12. How to work a living room – Kentucky Wildcats style.

13. Alabama 69 – Ole Miss 67 (2 OT).  Key plays by Trevor Releford prove to be  the difference. Ole Miss loses seven-point halftime lead.

14. LSU 71 – Arkansas 65.  Four scorers in double figures for the Tigers. Arkansas still winless on the road.

15. Mississippi State 91 – Auburn 88. Bulldogs connect on 12 3-point shots. Beat Auburn despite Dee Bost fouling out with 3.29 to go.

16. Florida 73 – Vanderbilt 65.  19 straight at  home for the Gators. Press and double teams doom the Commodores.

17. Kentucky 85 – South Carolina 62. 22 points, eight rebounds and eight blocked shots for Anthony Davis in a record-setting game for the freshman. Worst loss in Darrin Horn’s coaching career.

18. The Big Blue Nation Occupy Movement.

19, Tennessee 73 – Georgia 62. Lineup shuffle a winner for the Vols. Georgia coach Mark Fox ejected.

20. Mike Strange: “I pity the teams who have to prepare a scouting report on Tennessee.”

21. Is selfishness killing college basketball?

Extras

22. The NFL wants more Thursday night games.

23. Former Kentucky player Dermontti Dawson elected to Pro Football Hall of Fame.

24. IBM says Twitter prefers Eli.

25. The 21 strangest Super Bowl prop bets.

26. The Super Bow is over when this happens.

Signed So Far:

Corey Batey, WR

Tip McKenzie, WR

Andrew Jelks, OL

Caleb Azubike, DL

Paris Head, DB

Brian Kimbrow, RB

Tory Agee, DL

Darreon Herring, LB

Barrett Gouger, OL

Blake Fromang, OL

Patton Robinette, QB

Will Holden, OL

Brandon Banks, DB

Jake Sealand, LB

Signed So Far:

Kelvin Rainey, TE

Brock Stadnik, OT

Clayton Stadnik, C

Jerrell Adams, TE

TJ Holloman, LB

TJ Gurley, S

Jody Fuller, WR

Rico McWilliams, CB

Chaz Elder, CB

Kendric Salley, RB

Brendan Nosovitch, QB

Nick St. Germain, K

Darius English, DE

Joe Harris, OG

Mason Zandi, OT

The top receiver in the country on a lot of boards — Missouri-native Dorial Beckham-Green — has made his decision between Arkansas, Alabama, Texas, Oklahoma and the home state Tigers.

The 6-6, 220-pound star has selected… Mizzou.

That is a huge grab for Gary Pinkel and the Tigers.  Welcome to the SEC, Mizzou.

Signed So Far:

Kory Brown, DB

Daron Blaylock, DB

Zack Blaylock, DB

Thomas Chapman, DL

Patrick Graffree, DL

Josh Harris, DB

Dyshawn Mobley, RB

Zach Myers, OL

DeMarcus Sweat, WR

Fred Tiller, DB

Jon Toth, OL

Patrick Towles, QB

Jordan Watson,  OL

Rarely do we ever get into pet peeves on this site that have zero to do with sports.  But I’m going to get into one right here:


Do Not Send Me A LinkedIn Invitation If You Do Not Know Me.


Personally, even though everyone does it, I find it odd when people who don’t know each other try to friend up on Facebook.  So when folks zip each other LinkedIn invites having never ever worked together — having never even met — it annoys me.  Especially when the guy getting the requests is me.

I just nuked four LinkedIn requests from people I’ve never worked with, never heard of, and never met.  Why would I put those people in my professional network?  Why would they want to put me in their professional network?

If you don’t know someone and have never worked with them, please don’t send them a LinkedIn request.  Facebook’m instead, if you must.  But LinkedIn was initially supposed to be a professional contact list.  Are we all so lonely and cut off from one another that we have to fake friendship with strangers on multiple websites these days?

And another thing… get off my lawn!