Last week, the university of Texas' regents decided to make Mack Brown the highest paid coach in college athletics by bumping his salary $2M a year to $5M total, running through 2016. This week, the Texas faculty council voted for a resolution declaring the move to be "unseemly and inappropriate" given the current state of the school's budget. The vote was informal, as not enough members were present for a quorum. Not that it made an ounce of difference.

It goes without saying that Brown's salary is paid for out of athletic department funds, which is separate from the academic side, and Texas' department is the highest earning in the nation with over $87M in revenues last year alone. In addition, the department has also donated $6.6M in funds to academics since 2005. Indeed, things are looking up for Mack Brown, and his successor in waiting, Will Mushamp.

But David Hillis, past chair of the council, believes that athletics are "destroying higher education in America". The amount that it donates to academics is far less than the proportion that research grants donate, by comparison. Hillis believes that this arms race of athletic spending cannot be sustained and that schools like UT are responsible for driving up costs nationwide, and that they can either be part of the problem, or part of the reformation.

Look. Athletics are their own little fiefdom on most campuses. As the old saying goes, basketball pays for itself and football pays for everything else. Is it fair for sport to hold so much sway over these large academic institutions? Probably not, but sway they do hold. Another old saying: "it's hard to rally around a chemistry exam". It's probably best to think of athletics as a little side family business--and a profitable one, especially considering that most FBS schools are heavily subsidized by state legislatures.

Would Texas be as successful now under the helm of a coach only compensated half as much as Mack Daddy? That's debatable, but is it not the same scenario as a CEO of a Fortune 500 company? Maybe the whole boardroom is on auto-pilot or maybe the president is flying the whole ship solo--albeit by the seat of his pants. The important thing is that his ass is on the line. Coaches live and die by performance--unlike so many of these tenured professors sitting in their ivory towers. When was the last time someone reviewed their compensation package as it pertains to how much they actually produce, teach or manage. Hmmmm.

If you believe in free markets, you have to trust that the market will correct itself eventually--assuming that it's even off. Yes, some of these escalating salaries are obscene, and so are most of the fees associated with trying to obtain football tickets these days. We all have to vote with our wallet. Maybe that's something that the Auburn AD should consider as they contribute with every increment to the rising cost of watching college football on the Plains.

Big 10 commissioner Jim Delaney has consistently said that conference expansion was a "back-burner issue". Now it appears that the conference will get more aggressive about finding a 12th member in order to qualify for a conference championship game. A conference official said this week that there is quite a "growing groundswell" of support for the idea now, an idea that has grown since the Big 10 meetings back in May.

Why the sudden push? Naturally, money comes into play, as a Big 10(12) CG could be worthas much a $5 million or more to the conference in additional revenues. Plus, some conference members are starting to feel a little left out, what with all three major conference CGs having been played December 5th. "We're irrelevant for the last three weeks of the football season because we're not playing," said Wisconsin AD Barry Alvarez. Back during the meetings in May, Joe Paterno said of a championship game, "Everybody else is playing playoffs on television. You never see a Big Ten team mentioned. So I think that's a handicap." But not everyone is for an immediate switch. Northwestern's coach, Pat Fitzgerald, appears to be a traditionalist and is dead set against it.

So where does Delaney stand? Although he was not interviewed for the above-referenced article, he was on the record in May withthis: "I'm agnostic. I could live with two divisions and a championship game, but I think that has a tendency to devalue the season-ending game and have a negative impact (in terms of at-large BCS selection) on your losing team in season-ending games.I don't want us to tear ourselves apart over the structure of football for the sake of expansion." Delaney also wants to add an "institution", not a team. That could mean a school which has a substantial athletic tradition and not a johnny-come-lately.

So who do they grab? That's not entirely easy to decipher. The logical choice is Notre Dame, but after being rebuffed by the Irish in 1999, the polictics of the matter seem too strong to warrant a revisitation of that scenario. JoPa summed it up quite nicely earlier this year: "There's some pressure, I would suppose, to maybe go back to NotreDame and ask again, which I would not be happy with," Paterno said in May. "I think they've had their chance."

So who else? Other than adding a service academy (which might be the best shot for the Big East) it's going to involve a poaching from another BCS conference, with the Big East being the most likley target. But not any conference is above being looted. Indiana blog The Crimson Quarry gives a breakdown of teams in the geographic area that may fit the bill.

Pittsburgh
Cincinnati
Rutgers
Louisville
Syracuse
West Virginia
Maryland
Kentucky
Iowa State
Nebraska

Although it's hard to imagine Kentucky walking away from SEC gold and Maryland leaving the frying pan for the fire, Iowa State and Nebraska provide interesting choices. Lest you forgot, the Big 12 is sewn together from remnants of the old Southwestern and Big 8 conferences, with the Huskers and the Cyclones being from the latter. With the exception of Nebraska--Oklahoma, there's not a lot of history there that wouldn't be worth losing. Either team could merge easily into a Big 10(12) schedule, but there's no doubt that Nebraska would be quite the coup d' etat.

As far as the usual suspects from the Big East, Pitt seems to be the favorite and we could finally see them and Penn State pick up their recently hibernated series again. But with yet another possible poaching in the works, the Big East would be wise to strongly consider expansion and attempt to lock in their existing members in an attempt to stave off a pick-pocketing attempt from their western neighbor.

More photos » by Butch Dill - AP

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 The Auburn game not withstanding, Mark Ingram had a solid year for Alabama

Marking the third straight year for a sophomore winning the Heisman Trophy, Alabama's Mark Ingramtakes CFB's top honor in the closest balloting ever, beating out the 1985 race between Bo Jackson and Iowa's Chuck Long. Ingram received 227 first place votes, barely edging Stanford's Tony Gerhart's 222. Ingram's point total was 1304, and Gehart's 1276. Third place went to Texas' Colt McCoy, 4th to Nebraska's Ndamukong Suh and 5th to former Heisman winner, Florida's Tim Tebow.

Ingram's win marks the first time ever for a player from the university of Alabama to win the prestigious award, which is very strange considering Alabama's place in the annals of CFB and the number of great players to come through that program. "The legacy of Alabama football certainly had a void filled," Tide coach Nick Saban said.

Showing a predilection for winners, this year's award marks the sixth time out of the last seven that the trophy winner has gone on to play in the BCS championship game. Both Ingram and Tony Gerhart enjoyed a late surge of support, catching perrenial favorite Colt McCoy, who would have definitely been a candidate in the 'body of work' category. Ingram, in spite of not winning the SEC rushing crown, ultimately was deemed to be more of a MVP for the undefeated Tide, a scenario that may have been enough to push him past the candidate from 8-4 Stanford.

The New York Times revealed yesterday that the NCAA is conducting a wide-ranging investigation into recruiting practices  by the University of Tennessee. Specifically, they concern the use of recruiting hostesses from the school's Orange Pride organization, an ambassador-like club directly affiliated with the university that is comprised of both men and women . They exist on most campuses and help serve as representatives to the school for many events, and also sometimes escort potential recruits in all sports around campus. It seems that the women of Orange Pride have attracted quite a bit of attention to themselves lately for their uncanny ability to successfully land recent football recruits.

The controversy surrounds an unspecified number of visits made by these women to some potential recruit's high school football games this fall--one over 200 miles away. In this specific incident, hostesses are reported to have brought signs that read 'Come to Tennessee'. The NCAA is conducting interviews with four potential recruits, including Marcus Lattimore of James F. Byrnes high school in Duncan, SC, who saw the signs. "I haven’t seen no other schools do that. It’s crazy," said Lattimore. He also described the hostesses as "real pretty, real nice and just real cool." He said he thought they had "a lot" of influence in two of his teammates' commitments to Tennessee. Often times, these hostesses exchange social networking information with recruits, like Myspace and Facebook, or send them text messages.

Since these hostesses are a formal part of the university, these alledged 'off-campus' visits could be considered secondary recruiting violations, if not more. Tennessee AD Mike Hamilton confirmed the investigation, but refused to elaborate further.

This incident marks the sixth time that secondary violations have been reported during coach Lane Kiffin's tenure. The NCAA's enforcement division gets involved if similar incidents continue to get reported. The investigation appears to revolve around if these visits were impromptu ones made by the hostesses, or if they may have been directed by the university in some fashion. Certainly the latter case, if true, would constitute a more serious scenario.

For me, I think the NCAA should clamp down on this pretty hard for all schools. It has the potential to get way out of hand, especially with all the electronic means of communication these days. We've even seen coaches themselves push that envelope. If they had the male hosts doing this, no one would care, but have pretty girls do it and the intent is pretty clear.

Hey, who snuck young Nancy Pelosi into the game?

 I knew it. Most of you knew it. I think even Tebow knew it--that his Florida Gators weren't hungry enough to beat Alabama two years in a row and play yet again in the BCS CG. Those tears on his face were all the proof that I needed. What a monumental game though. Numbers one and two--basically for a de facto national championship, being that all the other teams paled in the rankings. It didn't seem fair making them play so early--it should have been in Pasadena. Such is life in the SEC these days. The rest of the stable should relish this, but should better get busy living or get busy dying.

My hat's off to both schools. They represent the conference spectacularly. Never before in CFB have we had any conference play it's CG with the two top teams in all the land. Yet each team showed chinks in their armor throughout the year. Florida struggled with Tennessee and LSU. Alabama escaped the Vols and  a quick-out-of-the-gate Auburn squad. But great teams find a way to win and these are both great teams. The rest of us in the pack were merely bystanders this year, a fact only partly revealed in our records.

So, the unnoticed 362 pound defensive lineman in the room for Auburn fans today is the fact that Alabama is now playing for a national title--three years into The Process. Is this a glass half full or glass shattered against the brick wall scenario? Seriously, Auburn folk. We always compare ourselves to Alabama, right? Should we mock their newfound success because we look at football in the Yellowhammer state as a zero-sum game, or do we congratulate our cross-state cousins on their success? What a delima.

After wallowing in the coaching doldrums for a decade, Alabama threw the keys to the Capstone kingdom at Saban in Hail Mary fashion. We mocked their desperation, but the pass was completed. But it wasn't the last play of the game, but it was the first. Alabama fans started to believe from that point and they started to build momentum. Even those of us not as partisan curiously wondered why they thought they had hit a home run. What are you Bammers thinking? He's just a coach. Yea, he won a MNC in Baton Rouge, but this is Tuscaloosa--one of the most glamorous but THE most dysfunctional coaching stop in all of America--run by 8000 trustees. We scoffed as they backed up the Brinks truck even in front of Wayne Huizenga's. But it wasn't the money that lured Saban, it was the control. The Tide surrendered their Byzantine powerstructure to the sole hand of Saban. It was a risky move, but remember the old adage about what absolute power does. Okay, that AND it rocks absolutely as well.

The part I hated the most about Saban was the belief of many Bammers that he would eventually run off Tuberville. Little did they know that that appointment with the hangman was made long ago. The fact that they claim his scalp from that blowout of last year really bothers me. The cause and effect was totally wrong. Or was it? Did the Auburn powers just panic, and self-fulfill the Bammer prophecy? There might be some truth to that theory because I do believe that sometimes there appears to be some degree of an inferiority complex with Auburn as it compares to Alabama.

Alabama does have a vaunted program and we will be in their shadow for quite some time. That doesn't void our accomplishments and diminish the love and loyalty we have for our school. In the last 25 years, we have come close three times to claiming another MNC, but it didn't happen. We will get our success in time. But how should we treat the success of our most bitter rival? I honestly think that many fans from both teams don't begrudge the others' glory, but it's so hard to find when one will own up to being so magnanimous--especially on the internet.

There is a lot of value in having the SEC win their 6th crown of the12 BCS CGs played, including the last four in a row. Other conferences are being vastly overshadowed. The SEC champion is virtually a lock now for the national title game and it's all because of the dominance we have had since it's inception. Even Auburn played no small part by being the sacrifice in 2004. But does conference pride dictate that we should root for Alabama? Could it perhaps be a family thing? Their success this year and our conference's continued success will ensure that all future SEC champions will be a part of any national title scenario. Can Auburn fans bite their lips and look at the common good, see the big picture? Or will we wallow in misery, green with envy? Each of us has to decide.

I really don't know why they don't include the bowl season in the regular pick em--probably so they can have a Final Jeopardy crazy-like finale with the post season. Regardless, if you want to participate, go to Yahoo and sign up. You will need a yahoo email address, but you can have notifications sent to your regular one if you like. The name of our group is Track Em Tigers, but you need our group ID # which is 16831. The password for our group is meangene (but don't tell anybody).

I believe we're still limited to the first 50 pickers, so hurry up and join. Bowl season starts December 19th and ends some time before March Madness (I think). Although it makes it really easy to follow if you use the same yahoo name as your TET moniker, you can remain anonymous if you like, but for those of you who join, chime in below so we can get a head count. And as always, everyone is invited to join.

Ten SEC teams in the bowls! That's got to be a record. How many wins will the conference get? Place your bets!

BCS Bowls:

BCS NCG: Alabama and Texas

Rose: Oregon and Ohio State

Sugar: Florida and Cincinnati

Orange: Georgia Tech and Iowa

Fiesta: TCU and Boise State

 

Non-BCS Bowls:

Cotton: Ole Miss and Oklahoma State

Capital One: LSU and Penn State

Gator: FSU and West Virginia

Outback: Auburn and Northwestern

Liberty: Arkansas and East Carolina

Independence: Georgia and Texas A&M

Chick Fil A: Tennessee and Virginia Tech

Champs Sports: Miami and Wisconsin

Meineke: Pittsburgh and North Carolina

Sun: Stanford and Oklahoma

Papa Johns: South Carolina and Connecticut

Holiday: Nebraska and Arizona

Insight: Iowa State and Minnesota

Armed Forces: Air Force and Houston

St. Petersburg: Rutgers and Central Florida

Music City: Kentucky and Clemson

New Orleans: Southern Miss and Middle Tennessee

GMAC: Central Michigan and Troy

Eagle Bank: Temple and either Army or UCLA

New Mexico: Wyoming and Fresno State

Hawaii: SMU and Nevada

Little Caesar's Pizza: Ohio and Marshall

Emerald: Boston College and USC

Texas: Missouri and Navy

Alamo: Michigan State and Texas Tech

 

 

 

The final regular season SEC conference stats are in and the one we were all interested--best running back--has been decided. Bear in mind that the rushing leader isn't determined by total rushing yards, it's yards per game. Anthony Dixon of Mississippi State missed the first game against Jackson State, so he only had eleven games total, giving him a slight edge in YPG over both Mark Ingram and Ben Tate. It's academic anyway, given that Jackson State was the first game out of the gate for MSU and Dixon would have certainly padded his stats there.

While Tate and Ingram were dueling it out in the Iron Bowl, Dixon not only caught up with Ingram, but Montario Hardesty of Tennessee snuck past Tate to take third place in the SEC. I think it's certain though that if both Auburn and Alabama were interested in padding rushing stats, they would have given more carries to both backs in the late-season scrimmages against Furman and Chattanooga.

 

 

RUSHING		Cl	G	Att.	Yards	Avg.	TD	Long	Avg/G
1.	Anthony Dixon-MS	SR	11	257	1391	5.4	12	70	126.5
2.	Mark Ingram-UA	SO	12	221	1429	6.5	12	70	119.1
3.	M. Hardesty-UT	SR	12	264	1306	4.9	12	43	108.8
4.	Ben Tate-AU	SR	12	243	1254	5.2	8	60	104.5
5.	D. McCluster-UM	SR	12	147	985	6.7	6	79	82.1
6.	Derrick Locke-UK	JR	11	177	843	4.8	6	31	76.6
7.	T. Tebow-UF	SR	12	193	796	4.1	13	55	66.3
8.	Warren Norman-VU	FR	12	145	783	5.4	3	58	65.2
9.	J. Demps-UF	SO	12	95	729	7.7	7	62	60.8
10.	Charles Scott-LS	SR	9	116	542	4.7	4	34	60.2

 

Sorry for not putting the results up last week for week twelve, but with Iron Bowl week and Thanksgiving, it just fell through the cracks. Tebow's Last Stand was the winner that round with a record 17 games. For week thirteen, our very own Acid Reign finally broke through and won with 11 picks.

Week 14 is due in by Saturday and it is THE LAST WEEKEND TO PICK. Also, there are only EIGHT (8) games, so make 'em good ones. This is your last hurrah! And the standings going into the final week are:

The New York Daily News has broken the story that Charlie Weiss is out after five seasons in South Bend, where he dropped his last four games in a row and finished his career at 35-27. That would give him an even worse record than previous coaches Ty Willingham and Bob Davie. Weiss now claims to have no fewer than six offers for an OC position in the NFL.

Irish AD Jack Swarbrick informed the coaching staff of the decision earlier today. Further pending is the school deciding whether or not they wish to go to a bowl game with a 6-6 record. Player input will be part of that decision, but so will the appointment of an interim coach as well.

Much speculation was made after the Irish's loss to Stanford this weekend, where Weis refused to do halftime and post game interviews with the media. He allegedly also cleaned out his office on Thursday before the team even made the trip to California. Also curious is whether or not QB Jimmy Clausen is done as well, as speculation might have him declaring for the NFL draft after this, his junior year.

Now comes the circus that comes with filling the job that was formerly the biggest in college football. The rumor mill is still burning with one big name--Urban Meyer. Others being circulated thus far are Brian Kelly of Cincinatti, Gary Patterson of TCU and even Butch Davis of North Carolina. What? No Tubs?

In the crazy rumors section, I hear that the Domers *may* make a run at Saban, although I discount that tremendously. Smart money still says that they back a Brinks truck up to Meyer's door, but wouldn't it be funny  for the SEC title game this weekend that the winning coach goes to Pasadena and the loser goes to Notre Dame?