We know that the new college football playoff won’t be a champions-only affair.  We know that conference championships will, however, be a part of the criteria selection committee members will look at.

We also know that Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany is pushing for more weight to be given to conference winners, though he says he was never in favor of a champs-only model.

Well, here’s what Nick Saban had to say about the idea of a champs-only playoff structure… and those people pushing for a heavy emphasis on conference titles:

“(In basketball) Kentucky and North Carolina play a basketball game and one of them loses, but everybody wants to see Kentucky and North Carolina play in the championship game.  You know in the NFL you lose, you might not even win your division, you might be a wild card team, you still get in the playoffs and you still have a chance to win the Super Bowl.  So you still have to play your way to win…

I think, to be quite honest with you, whoever’s making the statement about conference champions is really making a statement against the SEC and against any league who has more than one good team who would qualify… trying to enhance the opportunity for someone from their league to get in.”

Ya think Saban liked Delany’s quote from earlier this year that he wouldn’t have much “regard” for a team that didn’t win its own division?

The trouble is — and we’ve been saying this for a while — if the selection committee has representatives from every league on an equal basis it’s probably not a good thing for the SEC because league reps will want to spread the wealth and let in four teams from four different leagues whenever possible.

Get ready for it.

So what’s the event “SEC Media Days” become?  Basically a circus.  From the fans gathered in the lobby and at the bottom of the escalators hoping for an autograph to the throng of media and fans-turned-media, the event has ballooned in size.  So much so that one of the most-respected college football writers in the country — ESPN.com’s Ivan Maisel — had this to say about its size:

“It’s Super Bowl Media Day times three ’cause there’s three days of this and it never gets any smaller.  It just keeps growing and growing.  We’re bulging out of this hotel.”

When a conference’s media event is said to be bigger than any Super Bowl-related event, you know that league has reached a new high.  The SEC is now as much spectacle as sport.  And, yes, Missouri and Texas A&M fans, this is what you can expect year-in and year-out.

Not Nashville.

Well, no kidding.

The Tennessean — that’s a Nashville newspaper, not just some guy from the Volunteer State — reports that the head of the Nashville Sports Council would like a college football championship game to be held in Music City, but he knows the odds are slim.  According to Scott Ramsey:

“Common sense is going to tell you that Super Bowl facilities that have 80,000 to 100,000 seats and retractable roofs and massive amounts of revenue that can be generated from facilities are going to put us at more of a long shot.  But if there’s an opportunity for us to get into that mix, we certainly will.  Until they can define how that process will go, we’re all just kind of sitting and waiting on that next step… We’ve probably got more questions at this point than answers.”

Except for the fact that Ramsey is absolutely correct that college football’s power brokers will be looking to make the most money possible and have guaranteed good weather.  So “Super Bowl facilities” are likely in the forecast.  As for domes and stadiums with roofs, those don’t get much bigger than 80,000.  So in reality, it’s about weather and modern luxury suites more than simple seating capacity.  Nashville boasts 69,000-seat LP Field which is an open-air facility.  Shame, because Nashville and its downtown entertainment district around LP Field would be a tremendous place to host a title game.

So far, several cities have already publicly stated that they intend to bid for the national championship game when the playoffs begin in 2014.  For kicks, let’s look at the cities that can currently offer a seating capacity of 65,000+ as well as good weather or a dome/retractable roof stadium.  We’ll also include any city that’s hosted or is scheduled to host a Super Bowl between 2001 and 2015.

Atlanta — Georgia Dome (dome), 71,228

Arlington/Dallas — Cowboys Stadium (retractable roof), 80,000

Detroit — Ford Field (dome), 65,000

East Rutherford/New York — MetLife Stadium (open-air), 82,500

Glendale/Phoenix — University of Phoenix Stadium (retractable roof), 73,719

Houston — Reliant Stadium (retractable roof), 71,500

Indianapolis — Lucas Oil Stadium (retractable roof), 70,000

Jacksonville — EverBank Field (open-air), 76,867

Los Angeles — LA Memorial Coliseum (open-air), 93,607

Miami — Sun Life Stadium (open-air), 78,468

New Orleans — Superdome (dome), 72,968

Orlando — Citrus Bowl (open-air), 65,438

Pasadena — Rose Bowl (open-air), 92,542

San Antonio — Alamodome (dome) 65,000

San Diego — Qualcomm Stadium (open-air), 70,561

St. Louis — Edward Jones Dome (dome), 66,000

Tampa — Raymond James Stadium (open-air), 65,847

That’s 17 potential host cities.  Weed out Los Angeles until the ancient LA Memorial Coliseum is replaced by a more modern (see: luxury-suite-filled) stadium.  East Rutherford is likely out, too, as most college football administrators aren’t likely to be as gung-ho about a New York championship game as NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.  Jacksonville would be a longshot as well as their Super Bowl didn’t go down as a smashing success.

Now we’re down to 14 cities and you should know that the St. Louis Rams are wanting a newer facility (with more suites) than the Edward Jones Dome.  The same can be said for the San Diego Chargers and Qualcomm Stadium.  The Alamodome — while in a touristy city — hasn’t hosted so much as a “major” bowl game, so it’s unlikely San Antonio would make the cut.  The Citrus bowl would also fall into this grouping if not for a multi-million dollar renovation project that’s just been begun in the hopes of landing a title game or one of the six biggest bowl slots.

That leaves us with just 11 cities that appear to have a realistic shot at landing the first title game in 2014: Atlanta, Arlington/Dallas, Detroit, Glendale/Phoenix, Houston, Indianapolis, Miami, New Orleans, Orlando, Pasadena, or Tampa.  Of those 11 stadia, seven are located within states in the SEC’s geographic footprint.  (Expect Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany to push hard for Detroit, Indianapolis and Minneapolis when it’s new domed NFL stadium opens.)

The best bet on the board?  Jerry Jones’ cash as well as his football showplace in Texas would be the odds-on favorite at the MrSEC.com Casino and Resort.

Fans and media love to overhype things.  We enjoy making grand declarations.  We want definitive answers.  So anytime we can attach the words “once and for all” to something, we do so.

John Calipari has a chance to prove “once and for all” that he’s a great coach tomorrow in New Orleans.  If his Kentucky team defeats Rick Pitino’s Louisville squad — and then wins again on Monday — he’ll be given a key to the Mt. Olympus of college basketball coaches.

If he loses?  Then we’ll know “once and for all” he’s not worth the hype and praise he so often receives.

Folks across the SEC and that nation have been beating that drum all week:


“A loss here not only would be a loss with the best team with a national championship in sight, but a loss to Pitino, of all coaches, at Louisville, of all teams.  It wouldn’t erase what Calipari has accomplished in three years, but it would leave those accomplishments receding quickly.”

– Eric Crawford, The Louisville Courier-Journal


“Bottom line: (Calipari) can’t lose this weekend.  Not Saturday or Monday.  Especially not Saturday.  Not to Rick Pitino.  Calipari has his own aura, but it’s in need of an upgrade that only a national championship can provide…

For all the games he’s won at different program, Calipari doesn’t have any national titles.  It’s time to correct that oversight.  It’s time to win the only game he’s never won.  The one that matters most.  The last one.”

– Kevin Scarbinsky, The Birmingham News


Personally, I like both of those writers’ work.  And I obviously understand where they’re coming from.  As noted above, we as a people love “all the marbles” type games.

But win or lose, Calipari’s career won’t end on Saturday or Monday.  He’ll coach another season.  And then another.  And then another.

We want the race to be run yesterday.  But to quote “Ben Hur,” the race goes on.

Take for example the 2009 Indianapolis Colts.  As they were preparing to face the New Orleans Saints in the Super Bowl, the national ESPN-driven theme of the week went something like this: “If Peyton Manning wins his second Super Bowl he’ll be the best quarterback ever.” 

But what if he’d gone back to the big game five more times and lost them all to finish with a 2-5 Super Bowl mark?  Think folks would still be saying “best ever?”

Ask Tom Brady.  He was 3-0 in Super Bowls and now, having lost two — one in the final minute and one on a failed Hail Mary pass — he’s written off as just another good quarterback. 

But what if Brady reaches five more Super Bowls and wins them all to finish with an 8-2 Super Bowl record? 

Granted, it’s doubtful Manning or Brady — as great as the are — will either one reach five more Super Bowls, but you get the point.

Calipari is in the same boat with Manning, Brady and every other player and coach in the country in this day and age — his last game is the ultimate decider.  Win and he’s legitimized (until he falls short again).  Lose and he’s a joke (unless he goes right back to the Final Four next year and wins a national title).

I get the size and scope of tomorrow’s game from the standpoint of fans in the Commonwealth.  It’s huge.  We’ve said that since Monday.  Another game this is not.  It’s massive. 

But it’s not the final exam for Calipari that we in the media and on the messageboards and on talk radio want to make it out to be.  Until he hangs up his thousand-dollar suits and his coaching whistle for good, he’ll still be writing his legacy.

That means next March many of the same folks talking about his legacy now, will be doing the same thing all over again.

Steve Spurrier may turn 67 in April, but he’s not interested in hanging up his visor just yet.  Speaking to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Carolina’s football coach said:


“I didn’t hear much about my retirement this year.  It was funny.  There were talking to Tom Coughlin.  We’re about the same age.  They asked him if he was going to hang it up after winning the Super Bowl.  He said I’m having more fun now than I’ve had in a long time, I’ve got plenty of energy and I’ve got several more years in me.  Of course, that’s what I say.  We’ve got the best group of players we’ve ever had at South Carolina since I’ve been here.  It would be hard to quit after you’ve accumulated and assembled a strong team that won 11 games last year.

If the time comes when we start going bad, oh don’t worry, I will be the first to say they need somebody else in here.  It won’t be any big deal or anything like that.  Right now, I’m doing pretty well, physically and mentally.  I feel as good as I did 20 years ago.  I still call the plays.  My mind is OK, I believe.  So I don’t know what else I would do right now except for coaching ball.”


In other words, opposing SEC coaches can stop with the “he’s not gonna be there very long” negative recruiting.  Not that that tack has worked too well in recent years anyway, as evidenced by the major upgrade in talent at Williams-Brice Stadium.

It appears most folks took Super Bowl Sunday off as there’s just not much going on around the league today.  We’ll jump into a few headlines to kick off the day…


1.  There were seven ex-SEC winners in last night’s Super Bowl (and 12 ex-SEC losers).  Congrats to Eli Manning and the G-men.

2.  Alabama’s football program has an NFL feel that appeals to recruits.

2.  Auburn’s 2012 roster will offer talent, more youth.

4.  Ole Miss isn’t taking advantage of opportunities to build its NCAA tourney resume.

5.  The Rebels face Mississippi State on Thursday and they’d better be wary of hot-shooting Jalen Steele (who’s hitting 40% from three-point range).

6.  Florida’s Mike Rosario is making an impact outside of scoring.

7.  If Kentucky’s ever going to be tested, it’s going to be this week against Florida and then at Vanderbilt.

8.  Cuonzo Martin says Tennessee has “the necessary pieces” to be successful this year (despite a 3-5 SEC record).

UPDATE #1 — These aren’t happening, but someone decided to have a little fun by Nike-ing up the SEC’s football helmets.  If you like any of them, I’ll be you’re under the age of 30. 

UPDATE #2 — The SEC has named its Player of the Week (Kentucky’s Anthony Davis) and its Freshman of the Week (Florida’s Bradley Beal).

UPDATE #3 — ESPN.com’s Andy Katz ranks the SEC’s hoops teams from 1 through 12… and that would be Kentucky through Carolina.

In more than three years of posting stories here at MrSEC.com, we’ve posted — to my knowledge — two videos from inside a school’s locker room.  In both cases, the video posted was released by the school or an alumni association as a promotion of their product.

The first involved Vanderbilt’s celebration after beating Ole Miss last September (the school posted the video).  The second involved Mississippi State’s postgame celebration after its Egg Bowl win last November (MSU’s alumni association posted the video).

Other than that, what happens in a locker room stays in a locker room, in our view.  We’ve seen leaked stuff before, but I sure can’t recall posting any of it.

Having been in college locker rooms after victories, I can tell you that what’s said there is a) said for the sake of the players, not the fans and media and b) similar no matter which locker room you’re inside.

After wins, boasting is the order of the day.  After losses, “we beat ourselves” is the mantra.

If a school releases something boastful or weepy, we find that newsworthy because that shows that the school/programs wants the information out there.  When MSU releases video of Dan Mullen saying his team will never lose to Ole Miss again, that is more a story than an exuberant Mullen saying the actual words.

However, when someone sneaks a video — one that the school isn’t pushing — then we’ve in the past backed away, not wanting to invade the private moments between a coach and his team.

Not everyone feels the way we do.  For some sites — that’ve proven time and again they would rather be the story than report the story — anything and everything is fair game.  Ask Tennessee’s Derek Dooley.

Dooley’s locker room was mighty celebratory on Saturday night after his Vols outlasted Vanderbilt 27-21 in overtime.  Someone recorded the celebration with a cell phone camera and the website OutkickTheCoverage.com posted it under the headline: “Derek Dooley Slams Vandy In Post-Game Locker Room Celebration.”

In the video below, if you listen closely, you can hear Dooley tell his team (in between wild cheers) that “The one thing that Tennessee always does is kick the s— out of Vandy.”

And that’s set off a s— storm in Nashville.  Asked about the celebration yesterday, Vandy coach James Franklin was not amused:

“That’s a wound that I’m going to leave open that’s not going to heal.  We’ve leave it open for a year and we’ll discuss it next year…

We’ll talk about it as much as you guys want to talk about it next year.  We’ll watch it as many times as we’ve got to watch it next year.

I look at it as respect.  Some people act like they won the Super Bowl, and they beat a team that the two previous years had won four games total.  Obviously, we are closing the gab and threatening some people and making some people uncomfortable.  We’ll see.  We’ll leave it at that.  We’ll move on.  But we’re have a lot of discussion about this next year when the time is right.”

Dooley was not thrilled that his postgame locker room chat was released to the public.  (Note to coaches: You might want to institute a “no cell phones in the locker room” policy.)

“I’m a little disappointed that a video is out on our locker room celebration.  But that’s kind of the world we live in.  It’s like there’s no sacred place.  I think probably all 120 (FBS) coaches out there in football have a side to them where they loosen up with the team that they don’t do in public.

You take those things for what they are.  It’s a postgame, emotional, have a little fun… and then you close the door on them when you leave.”

Well you can bet Franklin won’t be closing the door on them.  And he has every right to use Dooley’s words as a motivation for his team next year.  Just as Dooley has every right to put a foot in the rump of anyone posting video of UT’s pre- or postgame locker room talks.

That said, Tennessee does deserve a pass on part of their celebration.  The Volunteers sang the following song as noted in The Tennessean:

“We don’t give a damn about the whole school of Vanderbilt, the whole school of Vanderbilt, the whole school of Vanderbilt; we don’t give a damn about the whole school of Vanderbilt… we’re from Tennessee.”

Anyone who’s spent anytime at all around college football knows that that little ditty is a postgame tradition at about half the schools in the country.  As in: “We don’t give a damn about the whole state of Michigan, we’re from O-HI-O.”  Etc, etc.  It’s a staple of many SEC and Big Ten locker rooms and I can say that from personal experience.

When a college football job comes open, Urban Meyer’s name is connected to it.  When an article is written about the top candidates for jobs in 2012, Meyer’s name is on that list.

Read the internet and or turn on television or radio sports coverage and you’ll hear that it’s just a matter of time before the ex-Florida coach is back on the sidelines.

And we at MrSEC.com continue to say Meyer’s return will come later rather than sooner.

SI.com has posted a series of videos that shine light onto Meyer’s personal life.  In this clip from “Inside the Private World of Urban Meyer,” you’ll see how Meyer’s decision to walk away from football — twice in a year — impacted his wife and children.  Hint: They weren’t sad about it.

The lure of coaching is great, to be sure.  And Meyer may recharge his batteries and grab the reins at Ohio State in just a few short months.  But we think it’s more likely he’ll follow in the footsteps of fellow well-known workaholic Jon Gruden.  Rather than jump right back into coaching, the ex-Super Bowl winner has remained a broadcaster with ESPN much longer than anyone anticipated.  Don’t be surprised if Meyer doesn’t do the same.

Watch “Behind the Resignation” and we think you’ll understand why we feel the way we do.

It’s mid-May and Will Muschamp is still having to answer questions about why he chose Charlie Weis — long of the NFL and briefly of Notre Dame — to run his offense at Florida.

“The track record speaks for itself,” the coach said last week in Tampa.  “From a play-calling standpoint, a developer of quarterbacks; Matt Cassel, Tom Brady, four Super Bowl rings and 16 years of NFL experience speaks for itself.”

Yes, it does.  Weis might not have succeeded as a head coach in South Bend, but he has succeeded at just about every stop as an offensive coordinator.  In addition, Muschamp says he and Weis share many beliefs when it comes to offensive attacks.

“Philosophically, he and I are on the same page with what we want to do.  We want to be balanced on offense.  You have to be able to run the football to win games in our league consistently.  You can’t be a one-dimensional team in our league and survive the season.”

It’s interesting that of Muschamp’s two ex-NFL coordinator hires, Weis is getting more scrutiny than less-heralded D-coordinator Dan Quinn.  That wouldn’t have anything to do with the surly demeanor Weis often displays with reporters would it?

Kentucky has received a commitment from quarterback Patrick Towles from Highlands High School in Fort Thomas, Ky.

Towels chose Kentucky over offers from Vanderbilt, Louisville, Cincinnati and Illinois. He made his commitment to Kentucky after taking a visit to Lexington on Friday.

Towles has been taught at Highlands by a coach familiar to Kentucky fans – former Wildcat quarterback Jared Lorenzen.

“He was a great talent who played in the NFL, won a Super Bowl, and he’s been great for me,” Towles said. “He’s been supportive through this whole process. He didn’t put any pressure on me to go to UK, and he would have supported me if I went somewhere ese. But when I called him and told him I had committed (to Kentucky), he was excited.”

Lorenzon played quarterback at Kentucky from 2000-2003. He played in the NFL with the New York Giants from 2006-2007.

Towles is the third commitment for Kentucky’s class of 2012.