When it comes to pastries, no SEC school takes as many trips to the corner bakery as Ole Miss.  Over the past five years, the Rebels have played a whopping six schools from the FCS level.  Worse, their non-conference schedule has featured just two schools — two in five years — from BCS automatic-qualifier conferences (ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big XII, and Pac-12).

No one in the SEC — not even Mississippi State — has feasted on as many cupcakes and creampuffs as the gang from Oxford.  And MSU has nibbled on its share of sponge cake.

On the other end of the spectrum are Vanderbilt and Georgia.  Some might say that the BCS-level foes they’ve scheduled haven’t always been atop their conferences, but at least they’re playing power-conference competition.  Both schools have scheduled 10 games against squads from BCS automatic-qualifiers over the last five seasons.

For comparison’s sake, we’ve gone back through the 2008 season to see which SEC schools have done the best and worst jobs of non-conference scheduling.  We’ve decided to include Missouri and Texas A&M even though they’ve spent just one year in the SEC.  But keep in mind the Big XII played nine league games in 2011.  So both A&M and Mizzou faced one less non-conference foe between ’08 and ’12 than their new SEC roomies.

In addition, please remember that those recent matchups between Texas A&M and Arkansas were non-conference games until last season.

One last note: We’re well aware of the schedule quirks, broken contracts, and state legislators’ desires that have forced your favorite school to line up games with tin cans on occasion.  And to paraphrase a Tommy Lee Jones’ line from “The Fugitive,” we don’t care.  Below is a simple look at how the SEC’s teams have handled non-conference scheduling in recent years.  It is what it is.

The categories used are “actual competition” (BCS conference foes), “cannon fodder” (teams from non-AQ FBS leagues or independents), and “cupcakes” (FCS-level opponents).

Enjoy…

Alabama

Actual Competition: 6 — Clemson, Duke, Michigan, Penn State (2), Virginia Tech

Cannon Fodder: 10 — Arkansas State, Florida Atlantic, Florida International, Kent State, North Texas (2), San Jose State, Tulane, Western Kentucky (2)

Cupcakes: 4 — Georgia State, Georgia Southern, UT-Chattanooga, Western Carolina

Thoughts: Nick Saban has been pushing the SEC to add another conference game.  He’s also in favor power-conference teams playing only other power-conference teams.  But he’s not an idiot.  Until everyone gets on the same page, he won’t be trying to lead the way with Bama’s schedule.  Still, he’s been more than willing to open seasons against name competition.

2013 Schedule: Virginia Tech, Colorado State, Georgia State, UT-Chattanooga

Arkansas

Actual Competition: 5 — Rutgers, Texas, Texas A&M (3)

Cannon Fodder: 10 — Eastern Michigan, Louisiana-Monroe (3), New Mexico, Troy (2), Tulsa (2), UTEP

Cupcakes: 5 — Jacksonville State, Missouri State (2), Tennessee Tech, Western Illinois

Thoughts: Meh.  The Hogs haven’t exactly lined up the best of the best of the best over the last few years.  (Hey, another line from a Tommy Lee Jones’ flick.)  Texas and pre-SEC Texas A&M were good games, but Arkansas’ cannon fodder games were truly that.  Then you toss in five games against FCS cupcakes.  Was any Razorback fan happy to plunk down cash to see any of the last 10 schools on that list?  Happily Bret Bielema and AD Jeff Long are locking up future non-conference games against quality foes from the Hogs’ old Southwest Conference days.

2013 Schedule: Louisiana-Lafayette, Samford, Southern Miss, Rutgers

Auburn

Actual Competition: 5 — Clemson (3), West Virginia (2)

Cannon Fodder: 10 — Arkansas State, Ball State, Florida Atlantic, Louisiana-Monroe (3), Louisiana Tech, New Mexico State, Southern Miss, Utah State

Cupcakes: 5 — Alabama A&M, Furman, Samford, UT-Chattanooga, UT-Martin

Thoughts: The same as above.  Auburn had five marquee non-conference games in the last five years.  Their remaining 15 non-conference contests were dreck.  This year’s non-con slate looks to provide more of the same.

2013 Schedule: Washington State, Arkansas State, Western Carolina, Florida Atlantic

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Maybe we should call this one a “Who Said It?” instead of a “They Said It.”

Over the weekend, Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald included an interesting blurb from an unnamed ex-Miami assistant coach as part of a catch-all blog post.  Miami, of course, is under NCAA fire thanks to the accusations of former booster — and current prison inmate — Nevin Shapiro.

According to Jackson:

“One former UM coach accused of wrongdoings complained privately that what the ex-UM coaches allegedly did paled in comparison to unreported violations committed in the SEC.”

That’s it.  End of blurb.

While it’s short, you can be sure Mike Slive isn’t happy to read it.  Slive worked hard to improve the image of the Southeastern Conference upon his arrival and for a while his efforts seemed to be working.  But then came a textbook scandal at Alabama, John Calipari brought his reputation to Kentucky (whether his reputation is deserved or not), Lane Kiffin and Bruce Pearl drew NCAA attention at Tennessee, and Auburn, well, pick a scandal.

So the SEC’s reputation is once again that of a shady league.  Winning seven consecutive BCS crowns has also led jealous folks from other region to conclude that school’s Down South must be cheating.

But in this case, who is the coach who made the above claim to Jackson.  If the person is current Missouri hoops coach Frank Haith that would be a story.  But I think we can all agree is probably not Haith.

Did the coach making the claim have any evidence of wrongdoing in the SEC?  Had he himself coached in the league and seen illegal activities firsthand?

Until we know who was talking to Jackson — and it’s likely we never will — it’s impossible to take such a claim seriously.  From here it sounds like the same ol’ types of cries we often hear from schools’ supporters whenever the NCAA comes snooping around their favorite campus: “But other schools do a lot worse than what we’ve done!”

Yeah, yeah.  Tell it to the judge.

Andy Kennedy’s Ole Miss Rebels just can’t seem to get over the hump (or “The Hump,” considering the Rebs’ loss at Mississippi State’s Humphrey Coliseum on Saturday.)  Year after year Kennedy’s squads manage to win 20 games… and still miss out on the NCAA Tournament.  With a terrible strength of schedule number and some gut-punch losses this season (like the one to MSU), it looks like history will repeat itself once more.

But for those UM fans who feel Andy is the worst Kennedy to impact Ole Miss since Jack, a quick look across state should work as a calming tonic, as a soothing balm, and as a warning.

Rick Stansbury had led Mississippi State to 293 wins in 14 seasons as the Bulldogs’ head coach.  He’d won 20 games 10 times, including in 2011-12.  A perfect coach?  No.  His last three teams failed to reach the NCAA Tournament.  Also, the turbulence in and around his program during his final two seasons was self-created as the coach chose to sign and coddle controversial team-killer Renardo Sidney.

State fans had had enough.  Stansbury saw the writing on the wall and resigned last spring as MSU’s all-time winningest coach and the SEC’s ninth-winningest coach all-time.

Despite dreams of landing a big-name coach, the best MSU could do was hire Clemson assistant Rick Ray as Stansbury’s replacement.  Ray inherited a mess as most of the Bulldog team pulled up stakes and left as soon as their old coach stepped down.  This season has been one of misery in Starkville — an 8-20 record, a 3-13 mark in the SEC, and a 13-game losing streak that was finally snapped on Saturday.

Ray might turn out to be the best coach in history of college basketball, but it appears the rebuilding job before him will be a difficult one.  Certainly more difficult than what Stansbury would have faced had he not been pressured to resign.

If Ole Miss fans are upset that Ray finally ended his team’s long losing streak against their Rebels, that’s perfectly fair.  But they should compare the two squads’ overall records — 8-20 versus 21-8 — before dialing up a call-in show to demand Kennedy’s scalp.

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Ole Miss has gotten off to a tremendous start on National Signing Day.  But the day hasn’t been perfect. 

The #1 player in the country — Robert Nkemdiche who announced he would go to Mississippi early this morning — filled out part of his Letter of Intent incorrectly.  UM officials have sent him another letter to fill out correctly.

No biggie, but Rebel fans want Nkemdiche signed, sealed, and delivered.  As soon as possible.

Personally, I’m not a big believer in handing out raises and extensions after a coach’s first season on the job.  Oh, if you have to fend off other schools, I see the logic in fighting to keep your guy.  But one year could be just that… one year.  Who’s to say Coach X is going to ever have a season like his first?  And if he doesn’t and his school has given him a raise, then the ol’ buyout’s probably going to be larger than it should be.

In this instance, Coach X is Hugh Freeze and the school is Mississippi.  He’s getting a half-million dollar pay raise and will make $2 million next year.  His deal was also extended to last the state-maximum of four years once again.  Ole Miss is also going to increase Freeze’s cash for assistant coaches by 10% and it’s renovating its indoor practice facility.

The list of SEC coaches who had a better season than Freeze — relative to their rosters — is awfully short.  The Rebels were expected to be the worst team in the West Division and maybe the worst in the league.

Instead, UM finished 6-6 overall, 3-5 in conference play, whipped Mississippi State in the Egg Bowl (snapping a three-game losing streak to the Bulldogs), and are going bowling against Pittsburgh in the BBVA Compass Bowl.  Freeze’s up-tempo offense also finished fifth best in the SEC.

There’s reason for optimism in Oxford and Freeze is that reason.  And in this day and age — and with Jimmy Sexton as his agent — it’s no surprise that Ole Miss gave it’s coach a raise and extension.  But his first year isn’t even over yet and he could still finish with a losing record.

I believe it might have been smarter business to just guarantee the coach $500,000 in further improvements to his program’s facilities.  That would reward the coach with a bonus — though not a cash one for his wallet — and yet the upgrade would be an investment in the overall Ole Miss football program.  If Freeze were to have another good year in his second season, then give him a nice raise and extension.

But as it stands, if Freeze stumbles and it turns out that his first season remains his best season, Ole Miss will likely have thrown extra cash down the drain rather than into its program.

This is no knock on Freeze, mind you, or on the Rebels’ willingness to support their coach.  I’ve praised Freeze’s work all year.  He and Johnny Manziel were the biggest surprises in the SEC this year.  But handing him a raise and extension after a single season?  UM had better hope he’s not the next Derek Dooley or Joker Phillips, two coaches whose best seasons were their first, who never returned to a bowl after their first season, and who were fired after their third seasons.

Yep, that’s why I’m against the one-year-on-the-job raise/extension.

In June, the University of Missouri — which goes by MU instead of UM for some reason — announced that it would spend $200 million to improve its athletic facilities as part of its move to the SEC.  One of the first projects scheduled for completion is a renovation of Memorial Stadium’s east side.  The school plans to add 5,000 bleacher seats as well as 1,200 premium seats.

Renderings of the new exterior have now been made public:

The school will also convert some media areas on the west side of the stadium into club/luxury suites.  The west side work should be completed by August.  The east side project is expected to be ready in time for the 2014 football season, on year sooner than originally planned.

There are many Ole Miss fans who can’t/won’t understand why the school’s administration has worked so hard to distance itself from the racial strife of the 1960s and the school’s own symbolic ties to the 1860s.  Many wondered aloud why ESPN chose to run “Ghosts of Ole Miss,” a documentary about UM’s racially-charged 1962 football season, in the middle of the 2012 season.

Here’s the reason: Because when your nickname is Rebels, you’re located in the heart of the old Confederacy, and you still have racial issues on campus… it’s a problem.  For the school.  For athletic recruiting.

It’s a problem.

In case you’re unaware, “Hundreds of Ole Miss students exchanged racial epithets and violent, politicized chants in response to the announcement of the re-election of President Barack Obama” on Tuesday night.  That according to Ole Miss’ student newspaper and its website.  “What began as an argument around midnight quickly spread across campus,” the paper reported.

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On Tuesday of this week, the Southeastern Conference handed Ole Miss defensive back Trae Elston a one-game suspension for a wicked lick he made against UTEP receiver Jordan Leslie in the fourth quarter of a 28-10 Rebel victory last Saturday.

Here’s the hit in question:

The league’s press release regarding the suspension read as follows:

“This action was the result of a flagrant and dangerous act which occurred at the 3:18 mark in the fourth quarter.  The action is in violation of Rule 9-1-4 of the NCAA Football Rule Book, which reads, ‘No player shall target and initiate contact to the head or neck area of a defenseless opponent with the helmet, forearm, elbow or shoulder,’ and Rule 9-1-3 which states, ‘No player shall target and initiate contact against an opponent with the crown (top) of his helmet.’”

Ole Miss fans weren’t happy.  Others out there began to smell a conspiracy.  Heck, in what might be the single silliest thing I’ve ever read — prepare to laugh Vanderbilt fans — one sports radio host penned a piece suggesting that SEC commish Mike Slive might have suspended Elston while ignoring a hit Vandy’s Andre Hal put on South Carolina’s Justice Cunningham because Ole Miss is bad “while Vandy under second-year coach James Franklin was becoming a media darling.”

In terms of all the “Slive and the media are out to get us” emails I receive — and I get two or three every day — most come from Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Auburn, Kentucky, Tennessee and Vanderbilt fans.  Way ahead of the rest of the pack.  So I know Commodore fans will howl at the idea that Slive and SEC were looking out for VU.

Just for comparison, let’s look at the hit Hal put on Cunningham:

Nasty.  And in my view, that play could have resulted in a suspension, too.

But for kicks, let’s look at one more hit that ended with a suspension last season.  This one resulted in Arkansas’ Marquel Wade being ejected from the game and suspended.  (I’m pretty sure Arkansas was one of the league’s top teams and James Franklin hadn’t become a media darling yet, so I’m not sure what the conspiracy theorists would say about the one below.)

More on that one in a minute.

I wanted to get to the bottom of why one play earns a suspension and another doesn’t.  How does the SEC determine who sits and who plays?  (And for the record, I believe the league should absolutely be consistent in its rulings.  I also believe that there is never anything wrong with erring on the side of player safety.)

SEC associate commissioner and chief PR guy, Charles Bloom was kind enough to share some info with MrSEC.com.

“1.  Every game gets reviewed by the Coordinator of Officials (Steve Shaw).  Coaches are invited to send in specific plays for additional review and they get an explanation as to the play.  Any communication is between the school and the conference office.

2.  Differences between the UM/UTEP hit and the Vandy/Carolina hit:

a) In the UM hit, the defender has his head down prior to contact and makes contact with the crown of his helmet into the facemask of the receiver.  In the VU hit, the defender has his head up prior to contact and while there was initial contact with the helmet, it was at the side of the helmet.  The crown was not used by the defender.

b) A flag was thrown in the VU-USC hit and should have been thrown in the UM-UTEP hit.

c) By rule, the definition of a defenseless player is ‘A receiver whose focus is on catching a pass.’  NCAA Playing Rule 9-1-4 states, ‘No player shall target and initiate contact to the head or neck area of a defenseless opponent with the helmet, forearm, elbow or shoulder.  When in question, it is a foul.’  Also, NCAA Playing Rule 9-1-3 states, ‘No player shall target and initiate contact against an opponent with the crown (top) of his helmet.  When in question, it is a foul.’

d) The NCAA has made ‘Protection of Defenseless Players and Crown-of-Helmet Action’ a point of emphasis this year.”

Now, I’ve received dozens of emails from people saying that in the photo of the hit I posted Tuesday,  Elston’s shoulder is buried in the chest of the UTEP receiver.  I wrote on Tuesday that it looks to me like the crown of Elston’s helmet is hitting the receiver right in the neck/throat beneath at the base of his facemask.  According to Bloom’s response, it seems the SEC office apparently saw it that way, too.

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Fresh off a surprising 2-0 start, Hugh Freeze and his Rebels got a bit of bad news from the SEC this morning.  The league has announced that freshman defensive back Trae Elston will be suspended for this weekend’s game against Texas due to an illegal hit he doled out in last week’s Ole Miss/UTEP game.

According to the league’s release:

“This action was the result of a flagrant and dangerous act which occurred at the 3:18 mark in the fourth quarter.  The action is in violation of Rule 9-1-4 of the NCAA Football Rule Book, which reads, ‘No player shall target and initiate contact to the head or neck area of a defenseless opponent with the helmet, forearm, elbow or shoulder,’ and Rule 9-1-3 which states, ‘No player shall target and initiate contact against an opponent with the crown (top) of his helmet.’”

To be sure, many Rebel fans won’t like it, but we give the league a thumbs-up on this one.  When it comes to player safety, MrSEC.com is a big proponent of doing anything and everything to protect the athletes on the field.  (And we’ll make the point again later today.)  The video below shows that at least one UM fan was proud of the fact that Elston teed up a defenseless receiver.  More than likely, that same fan would have decried such a vicious hit had a UTEP player endangered a Rebel receiver in the exact same manner.

Take the rah-rah team stuff out of it and no player should be allowed to launch himself in the manner below at a defenseless foe.  And that has as much to do with the safety of the person launching himself as it does the person being targeted.

UPDATE — As expected, I’ve already gotten six emails from angry Ole Miss fans.  All said Elston’s hit was legal.  Two actually said they’re tired of this pro-Mississippi State website.  Gotta love some folks.  Write something that doesn’t jive with their school and the writer must secretly “hate us” or “love our rivals.”  Yeesh.

This was not a legal hit.  Read the rule — already posted above — and look at the stills below.

“No player shall target and initiate contact…

to the head or neck area of a defenseless opponent…

with the helmet, forearm, elbow or shoulder.”

Elston could have seriously injured another player with that hit.  That doesn’t make him a bad guy, just means he made a bad play.

If there’s a fanbase in the country that should realize that athletes’ safety must come first, it’s that of Ole Miss.  Unbelievably, it seems a few folks in Oxford need to be reminded that the bronze bust players rub before taking the field at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium is that of former Rebel Chucky Mullins, paralyzed during a game in 1989.

Or maybe Mullins has become nothing more than a lucky charm for current Rebel players and fans.  I’m disgusted that in a situation like this — where a player is suspended for clearly violating a league rule — so many people will defend him and curse the decision simply because the color jersey he was wearing.

And the ol’ “Well, they didn’t suspend this guy” argument that’s now popping up in our comment boxes doesn’t hold water, either.  The league needs to be consistent in its rulings, no doubt.  I agree completely.

But if I get a ticket for driving 90 miles per hour, it’d be hard for me to use the “but that guy was also driving 90″ defense.  A) Because I was indeed driving 90 miles per hour and B) because the police officer would have clocked me, not him.  Fair?  Maybe not when compared to other driver.  But when held to the actual legal standard, absolutely fair.

Having served as an aide to Ed Orgeron at Ole Miss, Hugh Freeze knew the UM football program.  Born in Oxford, he knew the big picture challenges faced by the Rebels, too.

Well here’s hoping Freeze knew what kind of a major mess he was walking into in Year One when he accepted the Ole Miss gig last winter.

The Rebels are near the bottom of the pack in the SEC when it comes to veteran talent.  Roster depth is an issue at almost every position.  (Grades were an issue, too, until Freeze got things straightened out on that front.)  But now that fall camp has begun, UM is seeing valuable starters go down with injuries and there just aren’t many bodies behind them that are ready to move up to take their places.

Yesterday, Ole Miss had four starters leave practice while another was considered to be in the “walking wounded” category.  If he didn’t know before taking the job, Freeze is certainly aware of how paper thin his roster is right now:

“It keeps me up at night.  I hate injuries.  But we’re at a state in our program where we better learn to compete.  I don’t know how to do it.  We don’t take them to the ground too much, but we do have a lot of physical play right now.  We got to get that.  We just got to pray we can get everybody healthy by gametime.”

If Freeze errs on the side of safety, it could burn the Rebels come gametime.  After all, two seasons ago Georgia’s Mark Richt decided to ease up in preseason camp in order to avoid injuries… only to come back at the end of a seven-loss season and say his team hadn’t been toughened up enough.

On the flipside, if Freeze continues to instill physicality in his squad, he may well be left with a depth chart resembling swiss cheese.

Freeze might be walking into the toughest SEC job since Derek Dooley took over a Tennessee program decimated by two coaching changes in two years.  Hopefully UM fans will be patient in 2012, but beyond that it’s doubtful.

Sure he’s making good money, but if you were going to change jobs with any SEC football coach, I’m pretty sure Freeze would not be your man.