Morning Notes And More Fallout From Ref Suspensions

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It’s going to be a busy day with all of our regular updates as well as coverage of the SEC’s Basketball Media Day.

As we put together our team-by-team reports, we’ll get you started with a few national headlines regarding the SEC:

1.  Mike Curles — the official who actually made the call against Arkansas and heads the crew that made the call against Georgia — opened up with ESPN.com’s Mike Fish.  In the piece, he explains what he saw on the controversial play, apologizes for missing the call and talks about the negative response he’s gotten from fans who’ve tracked him down at home.  (Which is ridiculous.)

“If people could just understand there is a human element to it.  Hey, I am trying my dead-level best.  I am getting email from folks accusing me of being on the take, all this kind of thing.  We are absolutely trying to get it perfect every time.  And nobody feels worse than we do when it doesn’t happen.”

For the full story of the suspension, scroll down on our homepage.

2.  Ray Melick of The Birmingham News doesn’t think full-time officials would benefit the SEC.  Instead, he thinks it’s time all referees are work for the NCAA and are assigned (and graded) by that independent body.

3.  The folks in Arkansas say they’ve moved on from the bad call at Florida.

4.  Chris Low of ESPN.com tells you what to watch for this weekend in the SEC.

And here are ESPN second-half previews for each league team:

Alabama
Arkansas
Auburn
Florida
Georgia
Kentucky
LSU
Mississippi State
Ole Miss
South Carolina
Tennessee
Vanderbilt



And finally, Mel Kiper has released his latest NFL draft Big Board to the paying subscribers of ESPN.com.  I wouldn’t feel right revealing the whole list, but I will tell you which SEC players he ranks as Top 25 values:

2.  Eric Berry, DB, Tennessee
8.  Carlos Dunlap, DE, Florida
16.  Terrence Cody, DT, Alabama
19.  Greg Hardy, DE, Ole Miss
20.  Brandon Spikes, LB, Florida
24.  Eric Norwood, LB, South Carolina

Also, Nebraska defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh took over the number one spot this week.  And Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford fell from the top spot to fifth.  (Which would cost him millions in real life.)

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