SEC Commissioner Mike Slive has one year left on his contract.  By  the end of the 2013-2014 school year, Slive will have to decide if he wants to stay in the commissioner role.  Slive, who turns 73 next month, tells AL.com’s Jon Solomon, he hasn’t made his decision just yet.

“There were certainly big things in my A pile (to complete before retiring): the expansion, the (SEC) network and the BCS and modeling that out to how we hoped it would come out. I have another year to go in my current agreement, and at some point this year we’ll sit down and have a conversation and see where we go from there.”

Slive is the fourth-highest paid conference commissioner. The Pac-12′s Larry Scott, Big Ten’s Jim Delany and ACC’s John Swofford all make more money than Slive, who earned approximately $1.6 million in 2011.   When his current term expires next summer, he will have served for 12 years, making him the longest-tenured commissioner since  Boyd McWhorter served from 1972 to 1986.

Curfew for the Auburn football team last fall was 11 p.m.  The university paid a security firm just under $75,000 to check the off-campus homes at more than a dozen locations to make sure players were meeting the deadline.

AL.com’s open record requests produced the documents this week.  Auburn hired Events Operations Group (EOG) after center Reese Dismukes was arrested for public intoxication last summer. The security firm started checking homes in late August and the curfew invoices continued until late November, just before coach Gene Chizik was fired. EOG charged $13.50 an hour for a security officer, $18.35 for its security managers.

The invoices totaled $77,200 but Auburn paid a total of $74,884 after receiving a discount for prompt weekly payments.  At least the money was on time.

Breaking stories, accusations, denials and counter-charges.  It’s been a whirlwind week at Auburn, where blogger Selena Roberts leveled charges of NCAA violations and ESPN claimed a dozen players on Auburn’s 2010 football team failed tests for synthetic marijuana, while officials conspired to keep it secret.  If you read this story, you can quickly get lost in a maze of dates and claims about the synthetic marijuana case.  In order to get a better handle on a story that many fans (on either side of the issue) have already made up their minds, we present a timeline of dates and facts laid out in stories this week.  We report.  You decide.

* July of 2010.  Synthetic marijuana possession is outlawed in the state of Alabama.

* July 17th, 2010.  Auburn’s director of sports medicine, Joe-Joe Petrone, circulates a letter to athletes, informing them the state of Alabama has banned possession.

* Fall of 2010. According to A.D. Jay Jacobs statement, Petrone becomes aware that “synthetic marijuana was a drug readily available in convenience stores…Auburn Athletics contacted our drug testing company to inquire about whether they had a test for synthetic marijuana and when one would be made available.”

* Fall of 2010.  Jacobs says both Petrone and coach Gene Chizik address the team “at multiple meetings” to discuss the dangers of synthetic marijuana.

* January 10, 2011.  Auburn defeats Oregon to win the BCS national championship.

* January 27th, 2011.  Auburn begins testing for synthetic marijuana. In an article at AL.com, Joel Erickson writes , “because  the drug was not banned by Auburn, the NCAA or the state of Alabama, ” synthetic marijuana was not covered under Auburn’s drug-testing policy. As noted above, possession was outlawed six months earlier.  These tests started more than seven months before penalties would kick in.

* March 14th, 2011.  The Auburn Drug Testing/Drug Education Advisory Committee recommends that synthetic marijuana be added to the Auburn athletics drug policy’s list of banned substances. According to Jacobs statement, “the policy change was adopted that day.”

* August 1, 2011.  At the beginning of the academic year, penalties for synthetic marijuana use at Auburn take effect.

* October 14th, 2011.  Alabama governor Robert Bentley issues an executive order, making the possession or sale of chemical compounds typically found in synthetic marijuana substances unlawful.

One other timeline issue of note from the Erickson article.  Auburn officials point out they couldn’t have legally informed parents about failed drug tests before the drug was banned.   Later in the piece, he points out that Auburn did communicate with parents. What was communicated is not clear.   Two athletes in particular are mentioned – Dakota Mosley and Shaun Kitchens.  And when did that communication take place?  According to records obtained by AL.com, “Thirty calls were made from Auburn’s coaching staff to Kimberly Harkness (Kitchens’ mother) between May 1, 2010 and March 22, 2011, and more than 100 calls from Auburn’s coaching staff to Harrison Mosley between May 1, 2010 and May 31, 2011. ”

That’s more than 130 total calls to two parents during a time in which no penalties for synthetic marijuana were in place. Jacobs had a lower total in his statement – “more than 50 phone calls were made to the parents of two former student-athletes who were interviewed by ESPN.”  If information about failed drug tests wasn’t being communicated, one can only speculate why Harrison Mosley received more than 100 phone calls in just over a year.

The SEC is in negotiations with three cities for the men’s basketball tournament in 2017 and 2018.  St. Louis is reportedly one of them.

According to AL.com’s Jon Solomon, conference athletics directors have authorized the league office to negotiate with three cities. SEC Assistant Commissioner Craig Mattox declined to identify the targets but had nice things to say about the Gateway City.

“St. Louis is a great city and would be a great city for our tournament. They’ve got a great venue that’s easy to work. I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t do well in St. Louis.”

That venue is the Scottrade Center which has hosted the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament for the past 23 years and seats around 20,000.  SEC officials made a site visit last week during the MVC Tournament. St. Louis Sports Commission President Frank Viverito will be in Nashville this week.

“We are eagerly awaiting a decision from the SEC. We are optimistic and really would love to have the event. I think the region would really embrace it. It’s at the very top of our list of events that we’d like to add.”

The SEC Tournament goes to Atlanta next year before returning to Nashville for 2015 and 2016.  The 2017 and 2018 sites could be finalized by the end of April.

Expect some changes to college football this fall. The NCAA Football Rules Committee has unanimously approved a proposal that would eject players who target and hit defenseless players above the shoulders.  The measure now goes to the Playing Rules Oversight Panel next month.  If approved, the rule will go into effect for the 2013 season.

Meanwhile, the Big 12 conference has approved a one-year trial to have an extra official on the field. Big 12 officiating coordinator Walt Anderson explained to AL.com’s Jon Solomon why the conference was going to experiment with eight, instead of seven officials.

“With offenses throwing more and going to the spread, the coverages that were for decades defined by seven officials are really appearing to be inadequate just to keep pace with the game.”

The Big 12 will be the only conference with eight officials this fall.  The ACC will experiment with eight officials in spring practices.

The Big 12 will compile video this fall and produce a report for the NCAA rules committee to discuss next winter.

Linebacker Jonathan Walton from Bayside Academy in Daphne, Ala., is no longer committed to Penn State.

Walton told AL.com he will consider offers from Auburn, South Carolina and Tennessee. He has already taken official visits to South Carolina and Tennessee and plans to visit Auburn this upcoming weekend.

“After that, I’ll probably take a week to think about it and then decide where I want to play my college football,” Walton said. “I do plan to stay in the SEC.”

Walton didn’t indicate he favors a particular school.

As is usually the case the day after the bowl matchups are announced, outrage abounds on this first Monday of December.  Georgia shouldn’t have fallen out of a BCS bowl.  Florida shouldn’t have jumped into a BCS bowl.  LSU shouldn’t have fallen to the Chick-fil-A Bowl.  Vanderbilt should be allowed to leave the state of Tennessee for a bowl game.

On and on and on.

But this is what the bowl system is and what it will always be, folks.  Now, maybe if there were a bowl selection draft based on bowl payouts we’d have better, fairer matchups.  But currently, it’s just the same ol’ mess every year.  The BCS bowls are locked into take certain small conference teams — like Northern Illinois to the Orange Bowl! — if they finish above a certain point in the national rankings.  (This was done to fend off lawyers and politicians representing small-conference teams.)

Then you have all of the conference tie-ins that come into play.  The leagues realized long ago that the safest way to insure a nice chunk of Bowl-Revenue Pie each year was to cut deals with the games well in advance.  So before the season starts, we know where the SEC’s, Big Ten’s, Big XII’s, etc, etc, teams are heading.  It’s just a matter of who falls into which slot.

After you cut through all of that automatic stuff, you then get down to the nitty gritty.  Cities began hosting bowls in order to bring tourists to their hotels and restaurants in the winter.  Period.  That’s why bowl games came into being and that’s why the number of games has grown to the point that we barely have enough bowl-eligible teams each year.  (This year, 6-7 Georgia Tech will be heading to the Sun Bowl to face Southern Cal after getting a special waiver from the NCAA allowing it to go bowling with a losing record.)

With the explosion in television coverage, the committees now consider tourism for one week versus for the entire year when picking their combatants.  A committee can choose to bring in two schools who’ll bring fans to their city for a few days in December or January… or two schools who’ll get bigger TV ratings which will provide said city an opportunity to run spot after spot promoting itself as a tourism destination to millions of folks who might visit in February or June or October.

There’s no logic.  There’s no disrespect.  There’s only business.  And the business of the bowl system makes for some real ho-hum affairs.  Below is our take on the good and bad of each SEC bowl matchup for 2012-13:

BCS Championship Game — #2 Alabama vs #1 Notre Dame in Miami, FL

The Good:  There could not be a better marquee pairing for college football’s national title game.  Arguably the two most-storied programs in the sport’s history battling it out for a national crown?  Are you kidding?  Keep an eye on the television ratings records for cable programs (it’ll air on ESPN) when this one kicks off after a full month of hype.  The SEC will be going for its seventh BCS title in a row.  Nick Saban will be going for his second in a row, his third in four years, and his fourth overall in the last 10 seasons (two of which he spent in the NFL).

The Bad:  If you’re an SEC fan, the fact that Notre Dame isn’t the joke everyone makes them out to be.  Unlike the offense-first teams that SEC defenses have shut down in previous BCS title games, the Irish are an SEC-style club.  They’re led by their defense, they finished undefeated, ten of the 12 teams they beat finished bowl eligible and they won at Oklahoma and at Southern Cal (two traditional powers).  The Tide opened as 9.5-point favorites in Las Vegas, but that’s just a measure of how the casinos believe fans will place their bets.  Give Nick Saban a month to prepare and we’ll put our money on Bama every time, but we still don’t think this is going to be as big a laugher as most seem to believe.

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Auburn has fired coach Gene Chizik, according to reports from AL.com and CBSSports.com.

Chizik was told the news on Sunday before he informed his coaches and then his players during a team meeting, according to the AL.com report.

Auburn finished the season with a 3-9 record, 0-8 in the SEC. The Tigers finished the year with a 49-0 loss to rival Alabama on Saturday.

Chizik compiled a 33-19 overall record in four years at Auburn. He went 15-17 in the SEC with the only winning season in conference play coming with the school’s national title in 2010.

UPDATE: Auburn has officially announced Chizik’s dismissal. From Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs:

“This season demonstrated that we need a different direction to get where we want to go. We will move as quickly as possible in our search for a new Head Coach, guided by the benchmarks President (Jay) Gogue and I expect. Those benchmarks are a track record as a proven winner, a commitment to playing within the rules and student-athlete academic success. 

“I am pleased to announce that we have put together an outstanding search committee to find our next head coach. The committee consists of several great Auburn leaders who share our commitment to competing at the highest level and who understand what it takes to succeed at Auburn. I am honored that Mac Crawford, Bo Jackson and Pat Sullivan have agreed to join our efforts to find the best coach possible for our student-athletes, the students of Auburn University and the Auburn Family. I’m proud to be part of this distinguished group.”

Alabama wide receiver commitment Deon Johnson from Spanish Fort (Ala.) High School has been arrested on charges of second-degree rape and sodomy.

Johnson, 18, turned himself into police on Thursday, a spokesman for the Daphne (Ala.) Police Department told AL.com.

Check the link above for more information on Johnson’s charges. See the arrest report here.

1. Tennessee quarterback Tyler Bray won’t be charged in a beer bottle throwing incident.

2. Here’s a look at Alabama’s group of wide receivers and tight ends.

3. AL.com has a breakdown of Auburn’s defensive backs.

4. That list doesn’t include Jonathan Rose, who won’t return to Auburn for his sophomore season.

5. The Alabama game will be “crucial” for Arkansas, according to coach John L. Smith.

6. The chances for ex-Georgia DB Chris Sanders to return to the Bulldogs appear to be finished.

7. Georgia’s tight ends are young but talented as they prepare to replace Orson Charles.

8. The Gainesville Sun‘s Pat Dooley believes Florida’s season will come down to the quarterbacks.

9. Florida coach Will Muschamp is “hungry” after losing six games last year.

10. Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin is proud the Aggies have arrived in the SEC.

11. Sumlin has a lot of work to do as his offense prepares for a new system.

12. Mississippi State’s shooting guard was arrested for bringing a BB gun into the dorm.

13. LSU coach Les Miles is ready to get the season started and move on from 2011.

14. Brishen Matthews is the 16th most important player on the Ole Miss football team.

15. Marcus Lattimore and Aaron Murray overrated? This writer doesn’t think so.

16. Arkansas running back Knile Davis is ready to run again in the SEC.