1.  CBSSports.com’s Dennis Dodd says conference commissioners are leaning toward “floating” their new playoff’s semifinals to the bowl game of the higher-seeded teams.  (Assuming, of course, there will be a playoff.)

2.  Three SEC schools — Ole Miss, Auburn and South Carolina — are ranked on this list of the nation’s 10 toughest football schedules.

3.  The Sporting News lists LSU’s Tyrann Mathieu as one of its seven preseason Heisman favorites.

4.  Mississippi State AD Scott Stricklin has asked the SEC to extend the Cowbell Compromise.

5.  John Calipari has released a copy of a letter he’s written to his Kentucky basketball players.

6.  Tennessee’s Tyler Bray and Arkansas’ Tyler Wilson have been invited to the Manning Passing Academy.

7.  At least one Missouri writer seems pretty happy with the change in scenery provided by the SEC’s Spring Meetings.

8.  This writer believes some SEC school might find ex-Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino irresistible by the end of the next football season.

9.  One expansion-related note — this writer doesn’t think Clemson needs the Big 12 or the SEC.

10. And for all those who want a “blue ribbon panel” to decide which teams get into a new college football playoff — if there is a new college football playoff — here’s something to think about.  And, yes, we also point out every March that folks fume and scream over the basketball selection committee, too.

As word trickles out of Destin, we’ll keep you updated with a live blog right here:


1:41pm ET — Andy Staples of SI tweets that UGA president Michael Adams said: “It’s a good day to be in the SEC.  Everybody did the right thing.”

1:43pm ET — Mike Slive announced that the SEC has divided up $220 million this year with each school grabbing $18.3 million.  That’s a record total.

1:45pm ET — Slive says the SEC will take five proposals for roster management to the NCAA.

1:49pm ET — The SEC will have “oversight” on medical exemptions.  (Nick Saban won’t be pleased.)

1:50pm ET — The SEC did pass a 25-man cap on signing classes.  How’s that for a shocker?  Guess the football coaches don’t run the SEC after all.  (UPDATE — Summer school enrollees will count immediately toward that fall’s scholarship numbers.)

1:51pm ET — The SEC will ask the NCAA to follow its lead.

1:53pm ET — Slive said that the NCAA “should and will” follow the SEC’s lead.

1:54pm ET — The SEC has also nuked the exception allowing grad students to transfer into the league with less than two years of eligibility.  Looks like Russell Wilson will be heading elsewhere unless he is grandfathered in under the old rule.  The new rule takes effect October 1st.  (UPDATE — Wilson or anyone else this summer would be allowed to transfer into the league.)

1:57pm ET — Slive said the presidents vote on the 25-man limit was unanimous.

2:00pm ET — The cowbells will get another year at MSU as the great “Cowbell Compromise” has been extended.

2:15:pm ET — The SEC did officially nix the use of divisions in basketball.  A decision on future scheduling models is expected later this year.

2:20pm ET — The presidents voted unanimously to ban 7-on-7 camps on SEC campuses and SEC coaches can no longer attend them.