New-to-the-job Tennessee athletic director Dave Hart said the obvious today, but that’s still more than SEC commissioner Mike Slive might have preferred.  According to the AP, Hart said the SEC will expand again – no kidding — and that officials at each school need to have a number of frank discussions before moving forward.

Where he said that and who he said it isn’t covered in the three-paragraph blurb.

According to the writer, Hart said the acquisition of Texas A&M was a good one, “but the league’s leaders must take their next steps deliberately because the SEC will expand again.”  Those are the author’s words, not Hart’s.  He also said those talks will take place “in short order.”  (His words, not the authors.)

While everyone knows the league won’t sit at 13 for long, Slive and others associated with the SEC have been singing a “we’re happy at 13″ tune for the past week.  Hart has taken things a step further.

And the press being the press, his comments will make headlines across the country as though they’re shocking to the ear.  Hey, sadly, it’s what we do.

Hart came to Tennessee from Alabama earlier this month where he had been the CEO of Bama’s program.  He formerly served as the athletic director at Florida State.

The Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game between Georgia and Boise State is set to kick off at 8pm ET on Saturday, September 3rd, game officials announced today.  ESPN will carry the game live.

“With Boise State coming in as the winningest team in the nation over the last 10 years and Georgia delivering one of the strongest recruiting classes in the country, this really is a compelling match-up,” said Gary Stokan, the Chick-fil-A Bowl president and CEO.

The first three Chick-fil-A Kickoff Games were carried by ABC.  The game, as usual, will be held at Atlanta’s Georgia Dome.

New defensive coordinator Todd Grantham didn’t do Mark Richt any favors when he chose to give Florida kicker Chas Henry the choke sign on Saturday.

Richt is already on the hot seat and those who are frustrated by Georgia’s losses are now using anything they can against the man they blame.  Off-field arrests — Richt’s fault.  A coordinator who acts immaturely — Richt’s fault.

Richt is the CEO of Georgia football so the buck will indeed stop with him.  Fine.  But aren’t we going just a tad over the line on the Grantham thing?

The coach gave a choke sign to a player.  It was juvenile.  It was a bad example to set.

But it was most certainly not Woody Hayes clocking a kid on the sideline.

The word “overreactors” should be sewn onto our national flag.  It should be written on the bottom of our coinage.  And 90% of the overreactors out there are driven by talk radio hosts looking for ratings and bloggers who know they’ll get more eyeballs by feigning outrage.  At anything.  At any time.

The media stirs things up and a good chunk of media members don’t care whether their stirring is fair or not.  Ugh.

Listening to and reading some of the responses to Grantham’s choke sign, I’ve come to the conclusion that either Grantham, Richt or both should be fired for the heinous act that was perpetrated against Florida’s poor kicker on Saturday.  Double-ugh.

Grantham will have the choke sign pop up whenever he attempts to land a head coaching job.  Richt has had another log thrown on to the fire beneath his seat.  Trust me, the punishments have already been handed out.

So can we all please move on?  Grantham is a football coach, not a UN ambassador.  The guy’s whole life revolves around teaching one group of young men how to hit another group of young men.  We aren’t talking about brain surgery here.  So when Desmond Tutu gives someone the choke sign, alert me.  Then I’ll be shocked.

But a football coach?  Sorry.  Grantham acted stupidly.  That doesn’t mean the rest of us have to stupidly overreact.