1. South Carolina assistant coach G.A. Mangus gets punished where it really hurts - in the wallet.

2. Breaking down the Florida linebacking corps.

3. The last 26 times LSU has appeared on an ESPN network, it has won the game.

4. “mark ingram glovs”(sic) and the T-Town Menswear controversy

5. Gene Stalling and Pat Dye get buried in sand together.

Extras

6. 10 of 29 Letter of Intent signees – no-shows.

7. Did you know?  Yahoo! Sports draws more unique visitors than ESPN.com.

8. Want to win at fantasy football?  Learn to manage risk.

9. Oklahoma fan and a Texas fan – both in the hospital with one in critical condition – after getting into a knife fight.

Mike Slive should just go ahead and pull the trigger.  After all, with rumors swirling of a potential Texas A&M move to the SEC we’re forced to cover the Aggies as though they are already the league’s 13th member.

As you know by now, Texas’ new partnership with ESPN — the Longhorn Network — has threatened to disturb the Big 12′s tenuous peace.  A&M and other league schools are worried about Texas using the network as a recruiting tool.  They’re also worried about UT putting league games on the network.

A&M officials stoked the flames of discontent yesterday during Big 12 Media Days in Dallas.  According to Jason King of Yahoo! Sports, Texas A&M would not allow Aggie football coach Mike Sherman to speak on camera with reporters from the Longhorn Network.

When asked to talk about his rival’s new toy, Sherman said: “I’m not talking about it.  I’m not talking about it.  I have enough on my plate getting my team ready to play.”

Yep.  That sounds like one big happy family.

Earlier today we told you that ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” program reviewed the video and DVDs LSU purchased for $6,000 from Willie Lyles and found that much of the video was old or of poor quality.  In fact, some players featured on the DVDs were already playing college football when LSU received the video.

Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports has also pointed out — via Twitter — something regarding Lyles and LSU that seems to have been forgotten by many:


“As Yahoo reported weeks ago, LSU paid for CA, KS Juco package, but per Will Lyles: ‘all they wanted to discuss was Texas high schools.’”


No doubt Tiger fans will discredit Wetzel and Lyles.  That’s really standard operating procedure when someone points out something negative about a team (whether the something pointed out is true or not). 

But the problems for LSU are as follows:


1.  The NCAA is already asking questions about Lyles.

2.  The NCAA is already asking questions to LSU about Lyles.

3.  The NCAA watches ESPN just like the rest of America, so they will likely ask why LSU paid $6,000 for bum DVDs.

4.  NCAA officials can read the Lyles quotes just as easily as you can.  They also can compare those quotes to what LSU officials have said.


None of this means LSU is guilty of a thing, mind you.  That’s not the point here.  The point is that LSU — by having any connection to Lyles at all — is under the microscope.  And that’s not a place where you ever want to be.

The chances of Enes Kanter being cleared to play college basketball were slim.  That’s why the vast majority of colleges — and even prep schools — didn’t try to ink the big man from Turkey.

But John Calipari did try.  And he succeeded in getting him signed.  But he couldn’t get him cleared.

Kanter told Yahoo! Sports yesterday that not playing hurts him.

“I cry when I watch the game.  When I watch them play, I’m sad because I cannot help my teammates.  When I see them losing, it’s frustrating.”

As for the NCAA’s ruling, Kanter voices his displeasure with class.  “They’re just trying to do their job, but I think they’re wrong.  I didn’t want to be a professional.  That’s why I came here.”

“(International players) should come over here because basketball, education and everything is two times better.  But after they heard about me, they’re going to be scared and say, ‘Enes could not play so maybe we can’t play.”


Three quick points:

1.  As we’ve said before, we would have liked for the NCAA to have given Kanter’s family a chance to pay back the money they made from a European club team… thus allowing Kanter to play college ball.

2.  When he’s snapped up in the NBA draft this year, he’ll be able to dry his tears with hundred dollar bills.

3.  Does it make us xenophobic to say that in the long run, the college game might be better off by not bringing in even more one-and-doners — in this case — one-and-doners from overseas?

When the 2010 college football season began, Arkansas quarterback Ryan Mallett was the A-1 NFL quarterback prospect in the SEC.  Cam Newton was just another guy.

Fast-forward a few months and things have flip-flopped.  Now Newton’s draft stock is soaring while Mallett’s is in decline.  The ex-Razorback, sadly, hasn’t helped his own cause while Newton has.

Mallett has announced that he will throw at the NFL combine this week, but that he’ll hold off and do a number of other conditioning-type drills on the Arkansas campus.  Lots of players do that.  Scouts and GMs just don’t like it.  And Mallett needs to be winning people over right now.

For months there have been rumors of marijuana and cocaine use by the former Hog QB.  Yesterday, former St. Louis Rams and Carolina Panthers executive Tony Softli said in his new radio gig that “heavy rumors of drug use and possible addiction kept (Mallett) from coming out for the 2010 draft.”

Ouch.

Mallett needs to do himself a favor and do anything and everything that scouts ask him to do.  First, he’ll need to be open and honest with league execs when they ask him about drug use and perceived leadership issues in interview sessions.  If he’s evasive or shows anger, Mallett’s stock could really plummet.  Second, he needs to do the drills scouts ask him to do.  When your stock is rising, you can set the schedule.  When it’s not, you need to win some people over.  Mallett needs to win some people over.  If NFL GMs say, “Jump,” Mallett should say, “How high?”

Newton, meanwhile, has aced the run-up to the combine.  His decision to hold a media-only workout — at first criticized — turned out to be a brilliant move.  According to ESPN analyst and former NFL quarterback Trent Dilfer, the skills Newton displayed in San Diego will have scouts drooling at the combine in Indianapolis.  And Newton plans to participate fully in Indy. 

For Newton, his size, strength and skills will all go into the plus column.  Now he just has to ace the interviews.  For starters, he might want to tone down the bravado.

This week, Peter King of SI.com reported that Newton told him in a phone interview: “I see myself not only as a football player, but an entertainer and icon.”  He sees himself as an icon?

Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports also chatted with Newton and asked him about the fact that he played just one year as a starter in college.  “I’m aware of that statement,” Newton said.  “I don’t want to sound arrogant but I did something in one year people couldn’t do in their whole collegiate careers.  We had a chance go do something great and we did it.”

Good thing he doesn’t want to sound arrogant.

At least Newton has his body on his side.  He’s working from a position of strength and needs to avoid undercutting his own draft stock with his mouth.

Mallett needs to get himself back into the race.  He needs to show off skills — all of them — and use his mouth to explain away the fears many teams have about him.

Newton’s stock is great.  Mallett’s stock is not.  Who would have seen that coming back in August of 2010?

Over the weekend, it was reported in a tweet — there’s a reason I don’t believe “tweeted” reports — that Auburn had hired former chairman of the NCAA Infractions Committee Gene Marsh.

According to Charles Robinson of Yahoo! Sports, Auburn “intend 2 fight it all the way.”  Meaning the Cam Newton allegations, of course.

But according to Kevin Scarbinsky of The Birmingham News, Auburn has not hired Marsh. 

You take your pick.  Do you trust a tweet?  Or a man who doesn’t limit himself to 140-character bursts?

In other off-field news, Auburn does not have any avenue for appeal regarding the one-half suspensions handed down to Mike Blanc and Michael Goggans for tossing punches in Saturday’s win over Georgia.

When you throw a punch, you’re automatically ejected and you automatically sit for the next half.  In Auburn’s case, their two defensive linemen will miss the first half of the Iron Bowl a week from Friday.

There is no appeals process at the SEC or NCAA level.

Lesson?  Don’t throw punches.

Asked this afternoon if Cam Newton would play for Auburn tomorrow, athletic director Jay Jacobs said: “We’re not commenting.”

Other reports have said that Newton is still on track to play tomorrow, but Charles Robinson of Yahoo! Sports tweeted this afternoon that the NCAA has now informed Auburn of a potential eligibility issue with regards to the Tigers’ star quarterback.

Stay tuned…

Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports with the latest on the Cam Newton situation:

“NCAA has made Auburn aware of potential eligibility issue. Now Auburn decides whether to risk playing him. Their risk.” via Twitter