A few thoughts to jump start your Tuesday: A WISH LIST FOR BILLY NAPIER Now that spring has sprung, the expected avalanche of transfers has yet to happen. For Billy Napier to have a workable roster that is in compliance with the NCAA-mandated 85-scholarship limit, there has to be some movement and we’ve seen none. Maybe some players have exited already, but if they have, they aren’t in the portal and Napier and his staff haven’t announced their departures. Someone has to go, though, for Napier to give five walk-ons scholarships, which he said he would be doing after one of his press conferences during spring football. And, someone has to go if he’s to add double-digit transfers, which he also said he was going to do. Now the transfer portal is starting to heat up again, in all probability because a lot of players have been waiting to either graduate or make sure their academics are in order before they put their names in the portal. The guess here is that Napier’s “army” is all over it with their own list of players who could fulfill a need at UF. I have no idea who’s on or who’s off any list that Napier’s people have put together, but here is my personal wish list for 10 transfers: Wide receivers (2): I think UF has some guys who can catch the ball and move the chains. I want to see a couple of guys who make safeties play 15-20 yards off the line of scrimmage so they can help the corners. Offensive linemen (2): Landing monstrous juco tackle Jordan Herman may have solved the issue at right tackle, but the Gators need two more to have the depth they’ll need in the fall. Defensive tackles (3): I think the Gators will be all right on the edge, but other than Gervon Dexter, I don’t see a tackle who can play every down. Inside linebackers (2): Getting Ventrell Miller back was huge and I think Diwun Black is going to have a breakout year, but I don’t see a lot of 240-250-pounders who plug holes and put people on the ground. Safeties (1): There is a lot of young talent, but I want to see someone back there who puts the fear of God in any receiver who comes across the middle. SAMANTHA BOHON NAMED UF SOCCER COACH Samantha Bohon, one of Duke’s greatest during her collegiate playing days and a member of the 1999 US National Team that won the 1999 World Cup, is Florida’s new soccer coach. She’s been an assistant at Duke and for the last 15 years the head soccer coach at Embry-Riddle, where she compiled a 157-72-14 record while transitioning ERAU from NAIA to NCAA Division II. Bohon, who has two degrees from Duke and a master’s from North Carolina, created an exceptional soccer culture at ERAU, which is one of the reasons Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin hired her. Former coach Tony Amato was dismissed after problems that caused numerous players to transfer out. During her 15 years at ERAU, Bohon never had a player transfer to another program. Bohon was under consideration for the Florida job after Becky Burleigh retired from coaching, but the timing wasn’t right. When Stricklin called this time she was ready. "Honestly, I was in a really good place in my career, had just finished my 21st season [as a coach], and was just really appreciative of the experiences I've had. There weren't many openings that would have taken me from my current situation," Bohon told Chris Harry of floridagators.com. "But when Florida calls, you pick up the phone." GATORS FACE FSU TONIGHT When the Gators (32-19) take on 20th-ranked Florida State (32-18) at the Condron Family Ballpark tonight (7 p.m., SEC Network), it’s more than a chance to win the season series with a bitter rival. Winners of nine of their last 11 games, the Gators are looking for some momentum to carry over into the weekend when they finish up the regular season at home against South Carolina. Head coach Kevin O’Sullivan, who is looking for a fourth starter before the Gators begin postseason play in the SEC Tournament and beyond, will probably send redshirt freshman righty Tyler Nesbitt (2-3, 4.56 ERA) to the mound against the Seminoles. In his last two outings – two innings against South Florida and four against Bethune-Cookman, Nesbitt has given up no runs, five hits and struck out six while walking only two batters. D1Baseball top 25: 1. Tennessee 45-7; 2. Oregon State 40-11; 3. Virginia Tech 36-11; 4. Stanford 33-14; 5. Texas Tech 35-16; 6. Texas A&M 33-16; 7. Arkansas 37-14; 8. Oklahoma State 34-17; 9. Miami 37-14; 10. Louisville 35-15-1; 11. Gonzaga 32-13; 12. Virginia 37-13; 13. Texas State 41-11; 14. Notre Dame 31-11; 15. Maryland 41-10; 16. UConn 42-10; 17. Southern Miss 38-14; 18. UC-Santa Barbara 37-11; 19. Auburn 35-16; 20. Florida State 32-18; 21. Vanderbilt 34-16; 22. Texas 35-17; 23. UCLA 33-18; TCU 32-18; 25. Grand Canyon 36-17 Collegiate Baseball top 30: 1. Tennessee 45-7; 2. Oregon State 40-11; 3. Virginia Tech 36-11; 4. Stanford 33-14; 5. UC-Santa Barbara 37-11; 6. Arkansas 37-14; 7. Texas A&M 33-16; 8. Miami 37-14; 9. Louisville 35-15-1; 10. Texas State 41-11; 11. Vanderbilt 34-16; 12. Texas Tech 35-16; 13. Arizona 35-18; 14. UCLA 33-18; 15. TCU 32-18; 16. Oklahoma State 34-17; 17. UConn 42-10; 18. Notre Dame 21-11; 19. Virginia 37-13; 20. Ole Miss 31-19; 21. East Carolina 34-18; 23. Auburn 35-16; 24. Florida State 32-18; 25. Rutgers 39-12; 26. Southern Miss 38-14; 27. Georgia 33-18; 28. FLORIDA 32-19; 29. Gonzaga 32-13; 30. Grand Canyon 36-17 UF MEN’S GOLF: GATORS TIED FOR FIFTH AT PALM BEACH REGIONAL After one day of play at the NCAA Palm Beach Regional, the Gators (-6) are tied for fifth with College of Charleston, nine shots off the front-running pace set by Vanderbilt (-3), but only four shots behind second place South Florida (+2). Notre Dame (+4) is in third with Davidson (+5) in fourth. Fred Biondi led Florida with an even-par 72, good for a 5-way tie for 10th place. Yuxin Lin and John Dubois both shot 1-over 73, good for a tie for 15th. UF TRACK: WOMEN NO. 2 NATIONALLY, MEN NO. 4 Following their SEC championship over the weekend, Florida’s women moved up one spot to No. 2 in the latest USTFCCC poll. The Florida men, who finished fourth in the SEC, dropped one spot to fourth nationally. USTFCCC Women’s Top 25: 1. Texas; 2. FLORIDA; 3. Texas Tech; 4. Texas A&M; 5. LSU; 6. Arkansas; 7. Kentucky; 8. Oregon; 9. Baylor; 10. Colorado; 11. Ohio State; 12. Florida State; 13. Washington; 14. BYU; 15. New Mexico; 16. North Carolina State; 17. Ole Miss; 18. Southern Cal; 19. Auburn; 20. Arizona State; 21. Oklahoma; 22. North Carolina A&T; 23. Duke; 24. Georgia; 25. South Carolina USTFCCC Men’s Top 25: 1. Texas; 2. Alabama; 3. Georgia; 4. FLORIDA; 5. Oregon; 6. LSU; 7. Texas Tech; 8. Baylor; 9. BYU; 10. Texas A&M; 11. Oklahoma; 12. Florida State; 13. Stanford; 14. Washington; 15. North Carolina A&T; 16. Southern Cal; 17. Tennessee; 18. Ohio State; 19. Princeton; 20. Arizona State; 21. Arkansas; 22. Virginia; 23. Iowa; 24. Kentucky; 25. TCU PAUL FINEBAUM ON OUR COUSINS FROM THE ALMOST COMPETITIVE CONFERENCE On WJOX in Birmingham Monday morning, Paul Finebaum weighed in on the Atlantic Coast Conference and its commissioner, Jim Phillips. Phillips, if you recall, has stood in the way of College Football Playoff expansion even though his conference needs the revenue since it ranks dead last among the Power 5 leagues in annual distribution. On the ACC as a diminished conference: “It’s been marginalized for a lot of reasons, but the biggest is that their television contract, which has a long way to go, I think another ten years before it opens back up again, is about to become significantly behind everyone else that matters which is the Big Ten and the SEC. And I say that because the SEC’s deal is done, everybody knows that. The Big Ten is about to sign a mega, multi-billion dollar deal. There was a time where everybody was reasonably close, but the ACC is going to be so far behind that it’s going to affect them.” On ACC commish Jim Phillips: “I also question the leadership of the ACC and Jim Phillips. I’m surprised by this because he was really a great athletic director at Northwestern, but he has led the ACC down a very dark and dangerous road by getting in bed with the Big Ten and the Pac-12 on this alliance. Now I know the question had to do with them talking about divisions and other things, but that’s the state of college athletics. Really, whatever the ACC says is great but it’s more their position in the sphere of college athletics that concerns me the most.” SEC FOOTBALL/BASKETBALL Alabama: Safety Kaine Williams, whose only time on the field in 2021 was on special teams, has transferred to Nebraska. He has four seasons of eligibility remaining. Auburn: Morehead State transfer Johni Broome has officially withdrawn his name from the NBA Draft. Missouri: Josh Landry, a 6-1, 285-pound defensive tackle, is transferring in from Baylor … Jack Abraham, who was a starting QB at Southern Miss before transferring to Mississippi State, is joining the Mizzou program as a walk-on with a chance to earn a scholarship. Because of the COVID year and an injury hardship, this will be Abraham’s seventh collegiate season. Ole Miss: The Rebels added wide receiver Jaylon Robinson (5-10, 170) from UCF. Last season Robinson caught 18 passes for 322 yards (17.89 per catch) and two touchdowns. In 2020, Robinson caught 55 passes for 979 yards (17.8 per catch) and six touchdowns. South Carolina: Devontae Davis (6-5, 250), who had four tackles in eight games on the South Carolina D-line last fall, is transferring to Virginia. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Take a moment and contemplate the words of Matt Hayes, who pretty much sums up the panic that is resonating throughout the world of college athletics in his Monday column for Saturday Down South: “We’re deep into the most transformational time in college Sports, an era of change moving so quickly and freely, it has handcuffed those comfortable with the typically glacial movement of the past. The panic and desperation is real. “And – I know this will shock you – it all revolves around money. “For more than a century, universities had complete control of an unimaginably unfair system that in no certain order: “ – Generated billions and billions of dollars, turning collegiate conferences into private Fortune 500 companies under the umbrella (and government financial protection) of higher education. “—Traded higher education for those billions, allowing students who excel at sports access to the university ahead of those who didn’t – and used that access as the flagpole of an argument they called ‘the amateur model.’ “—Proclaimed education and professional sport-specific development was a fair tradeoff for the billions and billions of dollars generated. “—Restricted movement of student-athletes from one university to another by forcing a season of ineligibility for those who tried to move, while university presidents, athletic directors and coaches – those with the most power in the process – moved at will from one university to another. “This scam didn’t care about race of gender; it was an equal opportunity offender. Don’t get caught up in hot-button narratives or inflammatory verbiage used to enrage those ignorant within the process. “This is all about money. The battle for it, and the desire to keep it.” He goes on to talk about how NIL is re-directing money that used to go directly to university athletic departments to the athletes themselves. Whether you agree or disagree with some or all of the points Hayes makes, there is no mistaking the fact that money is indeed what is turning the college sports world on its ear. We can point fingers of blame in any direction and find something or someone guilty of something that has created turbulence that isn’t likely to go away anytime soon. What dismays me the most is to see the NCAA and others in the college sports establishment asking Congress to intervene. As if Congress can fix anything. Instead of going to Congress to find solutions, I have a great idea: Why don’t college administrators, athletic directors and coaches sit down with the athletes and begin a dialogue that could lead to practical answers to these complex issues? Or does that make too much sense?

“Billy Napier, you’d better be real. Because you’re already winning the hopes and affections of Dan Mullen refugees …” By BUDDY MARTIN GatorBaitMedia.com Editor This ain’t Bear Bryant’s football anymore, in case you haven’t noticed. To a neurotic football fan, all this change feels risky, with egg-shell vulnerability, hanging by a thread to a trundled pickup truck lashed to a Rocky Mountain Boulder in a stiff chinook wind. Well, you get the idea in all that over-blown hyperbole. It was a long way up, and it’s a long way down. Don’t look! It could go either way. Oh, the fragility of Florida football fortunes. Gaze only at blue skies, eye level. This is for the despairing Gator fans who were often trapped by Covid, clinging to a shred of hope, sometimes almost broken in spirit, sitting at home in the pandemic stupor, watching Hallmark movies while eating from a gallon of butter pecan or cherry Garcia, appealing to their better angels in orange and blue. It ain’t easy. Is that you? You have waited patiently. You all want better. You see a bright shiny thing on the horizon, hoping against hope it is not Fool’s Gold again. Billy Napier, you’d better be real. Because you’re already winning the hopes and affections of Dan Mullen refugees, all the while seeking a lost treasure chest of Gator football. There is an upside to this new regime called trust. And it’s starting to trend upward. Even Napier confessed to a group in Tampa the other day that he likes his new job more than when he arrived on Dec. 5 – a job that seems to change daily in the whirlwind of transfer portal/NIL horrors and opportunities. Loyalty and long-term commitment are on the endangered species list these days. There’s a whole lot of tire-kicking by both athlete and school, over-the-table deals that once came under it in McDonald’s bags -- only the bags have gotten bigger. Publix-size. I am confused, yet optimistic. Is this the bigger, better game we wanted, the Super Conference many people (like me) have envisioned as sort of a junior NFL? Did I miss the episodes or chapters where the good guys ride in on white stallions and assure us all is going to be well? There is a truth about The Great Game that can only be settled out behind the barn on Saturday, in the trenches and the end zone. September 3, we need you to hurry up and get here. I confess my sins. A long time ago, I yearned for that CFB Super Conference — wrote about it, campaigned for it, endorsed it, even predicted it. Now I am beginning to feel somewhat conflicted -- if not complicit -- in the abject confusion created by the growth and expansion of the game that I love. Frankly, a lot of my football-apostle pals and I are starting to get nervous about the state of things. And I’m sorry I took for granted what our forefathers built -- the pure joy of the game that has elicited our loyalties, captured our hearts and inspired regions and communities all these years. It was in a weak moment in the vast CFB wasteland of New York City that I began to dream up a way of perhaps making the game more relevant in The Big Apple: Something that would compete with the NFL. This was in the early 1980s when the NFL was on the rise, when only Penn State, Syracuse and maybe Army on occasion were worthy of sending our reporter to cover them. The college football package needed more relevancy, which meant more eyeballs for TV, which meant more inter-conference games, which meant a better playoff system than the bowls had to offer. When I was sports editor of the largest New York City newspaper and worked with my friend Larry Klein, a former NCAA publicist, we would sit and plot ways make CFB more attractive nationally in a manner that those old Notre Dame-Army games in Yankee Stadium did back in the day. In that 1946 Fighting Irish-Black Knight classic, tickets priced at $1 were being scalped for as much as $250 apiece on gameday. We thought for a minute the BCS might become that. We almost made it. Some days I now worry about the game imploding. Because the NCAA and CFB couldn’t get their acts together on how to share revenues with the players or assemble a competent body to govern a playoff system, we have this chaos – “four teams, six teams, 12 teams, a dollar, all for an expanded playoffs stand up and holler!” To quote that Nike slogan, “JUST DO IT!” Back to Billy Napier. For weeks now I have challenged myself and my guests on The Buddy Martin Show to take off their Ray Bans and, just for a moment, look into the orange and blue prism of optimism and tell me if they can see beyond their impartiality any good news in the tea leaves. This may sound easy, but it’s not. It’s like challenging a physician to forgo his or her Oath of Hippocrates. Fans are often not fond of fair and objective beat-writing journalists because they don’t raise their pom-poms and would prefer to see the bottle both half full and half empty. Objectivity is often viewed by fans as disloyalty, disrespect or even ignorance. On our live streaming show, we often stretch the limits of inquiring about the journalists’ neutrality and, for the most part they play along. Some have gotten in trouble with their editors for what is perceived by them as over-the-top opinions, but we’re not trying to be Sixty Minutes, here, only create good dialogue and conversation. This recent week we had Allan Taylor of The Athletic on, one of our favorite journalists with a high football IQ who studies every move of this Gator football program and offers keen insights. The first bit of good news I’d seen for Gator fans lately was one of the early betting lines that has Napier’s team favored by 2.5 points in its opening game Sept. 3 vs. highly rated Utah, who right now sits in the lower half of the Top Ten pre-season projections. “Since Napier came aboard, I think that’s the one upset pick I could make for Florida,” said Taylor. “Because no one will have seen what Napier and his staff are trying to do at Florida yet. Number two, I like the geographical advantage of Utah having to come down here and play in that steamy atmosphere of The Swamp.” What Taylor also projected was that he could see Anthony Richardson’s potential favorably compared to that of Cam Newton’s pack mule-like antics of 2011 when he carried Auburn on his back to a 12-0 season and national championship. Not at the same level, of course. “I could see Richardson having a breakout year -- not necessarily a Heisman year – but enough to win a couple of games and elevate their chances. But again, I’m just not sold on all the pieces around him.” Some of those missing pieces are a speed burner wide receiver, another offensive lineman or two and some depth in the defensive line. At the same time, it’s been a consensus that Patrick Toney’s defense will be smarter, less mistake-prone and more productive in takeaway turnovers. One reason is the acumen and teaching skills of cornerbacks guru Corey Raymond. Meanwhile, Napier’s reputation as a brilliant planner, strategist and solid recruiter has been noticed among his peers and his name is often being mentioned as a rising star. After interviewing about a dozen of Napier’s players personally, it feels to me like he has made a buy-in connection and his era has started off on the right foot. And he agrees. “I’ve had a chance to live in the house a little bit, look around a little bit, ask a lot of questions, do a lot of listening and start solving some of these problems that we have,” he recently told a group of avid Gators in Tampa. “The University of Florida is a very capable place. It has done it before, and it has potential to do it again.” “Capable” was just the right word, but it also fits their new coach. The only difference is that the school has already done it. Will Billy Napier do it, too?

A few thoughts to jump start your Monday morning: GATORS GET NO. 14 NCAA SOFTBALL SEED, HOST REGIONAL When the Gators dropped a 4-1 decision to eventual SEC champ Arkansas Friday night, it all but ended any chance UF would have to host both an NCAA regional and super regional for the first time since 2007. The Gators (43-16) will host a regional starting Friday at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium, but they are a No. 14 seed, so the only way they’ll host a super regional will be to win the regional and for No. 3 seed Virginia Tech (41-7) to lose its regional. The Gators open up play in the Gainesville Regional Friday at 4:30 p.m. against Canisius (32-16). In the other Gainesville Regional game, Georgia Tech (37-19) will face Wisconsin (28-19) at 2 p.m. It’s double elimination so the advantage goes to the team that wins its first two games. The Gators have made the NCAA Tournament every year it has been played (no tournament in 2020 due to the pandemic) since Tim Walton became the head coach in 2006. UF was the No. 16 seed in 2006, No. 13 in 2007. Every other year UF was a top five national seed. Twelve of the 13 SEC softball teams made the 64-team NCAA field with Arkansas (4), Alabama (6), Tennessee (11), Florida (14) and Missouri (15) earning national seeds. Texas A&M is in the (1) Oklahoma regional; Mississippi State in the (2) FSU regional; Kentucky in the (3) Virginia Tech regional; Ole Miss in the (5) UCLA regional; LSU in the (8) Arizona State regional; Auburn in the (10) Clemson regional and Georgia in the (12) Duke regional. SEC Tournament honors: Freshman outfielder Kendra Falby and senior second baseman Hannah Adams were named to the All-SEC Tournament team. UF TRACK: WOMEN WIN SEC, MEN FINISH FOURTH The SEC women’s championship came down to the final two races Saturday night in Oxford and the Gators came through in the clutch. Parker Valby, running 5,000 meters outdoors for the first time in her collegiate career, broke the UF school record to earn a silver medal and the 4X400 relay team finished fifth. Those 12 points gave the Gators a 107-103 advantage over Arkansas for the seventh SEC outdoor title for the UF women in school history. It was a big weekend for Jasmine Moore, who became just the third athlete in SEC history to win both the long jump and triple jump titles at both the indoor and outdoor championships. The other two to achieve that feat were Shara Proctor and Yanis David, both Gators. The UF men’s team won the 4X100 and 4X400 relays on the final day to finish in fourth with 78 points. UF TENNIS: GATORS BLANK UNC, ADVANCE TO NCAA QUARTER-FINALS The No. 2 seeded Gators (26-2) won their 21st straight match in the sweet 16 round of the NCAA Tournament Friday when they took out 15th-seeded North Carolina, 4-0. It was the fourth straight 4-0 win for the Gators, three in the NCAA Tournament. The quest for a second straight NCAA Tournament continues Thursday in the quarter-final round against 7th-seeded Virginia in Champaign, Illinois. The Gators defeated Virginia, 4-2, earlier in the season in the ITA National Team Indoor Championships. UF LACROSSE: GATORS ADVANCE TO NCAA QUARTER-FINAL ROUND The 7th-seeded Gators (17-4), winners of their last 15 games, get a second crack at Maryland when they face the 2nd-seeded Terps Thursday in College Park in the quarter-final round of the NCAA Lacrosse Tournament. Earlier this season, Maryland defeated the Gators, 18-8, in College Park. To get to the quarterfinals, the Gators eliminated Mercer, 19-12, and Jacksonville, 15-10 in rounds one and two. Danielle Pavinelli scored four goals in the win over Mercer and five in the win over JU. UF BASEBALL: GATORS TAKE TWO OUT OF THREE FROM MIZZOU Although a sweep of Missouri would have been nice, by winning the weekend series the Gators inched closer to finishing the regular season with at least a .500 record in SEC play, something that seemed totally beyond their capabilities three weeks ago. By taking game three, 4-3, the Gators improved to 32-19 overall, 13-14 in SEC play. Florida is now just a game behind Georgia (33-18, 14-13 SEC) and Vanderbilt (34-16, 14-13 SEC) in the SEC East standings with one final weekend series remaining. Too many things needed to happen for the Gators to not only move into second in the SEC East but to close in on a top four finish overall in the regular season, which would mean a double bye. Tennessee (22-5 SEC), Arkansas (17-10 SEC) and Texas A&M (17-10 SEC) are assured of double byes so they won’t play until Friday in Hoover no matter what they do in the final regular season series. For Florida to get the final spot, the Gators have to sweep the Gamecocks while Auburn (15-11 SEC) gets swept by Kentucky and both Georgia (vs. Missouri) and Vanderbilt (vs. LSU) go 1-2. It's not impossible, but it’s improbable. SEC EAST Tennessee (45-7, 22-5 SEC): The Vols have won the SEC regular season championship no matter what happens this weekend. Next weekend: at Mississippi State (25-27, 9-18 SEC) Georgia (33-18, 14-13 SEC): Georgia and Vandy are tied for second in the East, with the Gators looming one game behind. The Bulldogs get the advantage of playing Missouri in Athens, but they will need a sweep to assure a second place finish. Next weekend: vs. Missouri (26-22, 8-19 SEC) Vanderbilt (34-16, 14-13 SEC): Vandy is still in the hunt for second in the SEC East after taking two of three on consecutive SEC weekends against Georgia and Arkansas. Next weekend: vs. LSU (33-18, 14-13 SEC) FLORIDA (32-19, 13-14 SEC): The Gators have won nine of their last 11 games, 7-2 in SEC play. Next weekend: vs. South Carolina (26-24, 12-15 SEC) South Carolina (26-24, 12-15 SEC): The Gamecocks have yet to win back-to-back SEC series this season. They head to Gainesville on the heels of taking two of three from Kentucky. Next weekend: at Florida (32-19, 13-14 SEC) Kentucky (27-23, 10-17 SEC): Two wins next weekend will clinch one of the final two spots in the SEC Tournament. Next weekend: vs. Auburn Missouri (26-22, 8-19 SEC): The Tigers still have a chance to get to Hoover, but it’s a longshot since they’ll have to beat Georgia three times on the road. Next weekend: at Georgia (33-18, 14-13 SEC) SEC WEST Arkansas (17-10, 37-14): The Hogs’ once comfortable lead in the SEC West is no more. After losing two of three to Vandy, Arkansas is in a tie with the Aggies in the race for the West title and second seed in Hoover. Next weekend: at Alabama (27-24, 10-16 SEC) Texas A&M (33-16, 17-10 SEC): If the Aggies and Arkansas wind up in a tie for the SEC West title, the Aggies will get the No. 2 seed in Hoover based on taking two of three from Arkansas earlier in the season. Next weekend: at Ole Miss (31-19, 13-14 SEC) Auburn (15-11, 25-16): With a sweep at Kentucky next weekend, Arkansas could secure the double-bye for the SEC Tournament. Next weekend: at Kentucky (27-23, 10-17 SEC) LSU (33-18, 14-13 SEC): Getting swept by Ole Miss knocked the Tigers out of the double-bye in Hoover. Next weekend: at Vanderbilt Ole Miss (31-19, 13-14 SEC): The Rebels have picked themselves up off the mat after a midseason swoon. Can they cool off the Aggies and knock them out of the SEC West race next weekend? Next weekend: vs. Texas A&M (33-16, 17-10 SEC) Alabama (27-24, 10-16 SEC): Alabama is in a better spot than Mississippi State, Missouri or Kentucky heading into the final weekend of the regular season, but the Tide probably needs at least one win to ensure a trip to Hoover. Next weekend: vs. Arkansas Mississippi State (25-27, 9-18 SEC): For the Bulldogs to even make it to Hoover, they will need to sweep the Vols and pray for a miracle. Next weekend: at Tennessee UF MEN’S GOLF: GATORS BEGIN NCAA REGIONAL PLAY The Gators tee off at 7:30 a.m. this morning as the No. 2 seed in the Palm Beach Regional of the NCAA Tournament. Top seed in the regional is Vanderbilt, the same team the Gators took to the wire in a 3-2 loss in the match play portion of the SEC Tournament at St. Simon’s Island. Other notable seeds in the 14-team regional: (3) Notre Dame, (4) Florida State, (5) Purdue and (7) South Florida. The top six teams from the regional will advance to the NCAA Championships in Scottsdale starting May 27. SEC FOOTBALL/BASKETBALL Alabama: Brylan Lanier, a cornerback who signed with Georgia State before walking on at Alabama, is transferring to Indiana. Arkansas: Wide receiver Matt Landers, who began his career at Georgia before transferring to Toledo, is on the move again, this time to Arkansas. He caught 20 passes for 514 yards and five TDs at Toledo … Former Wichita State guard Ricky Council IV, the American Athletic Conference Sixth Man of the Year in 2022, is transferring to Arkansas. He averaged 12 points and 5.4 rebounds per game last year. Eric Musselman has six freshmen and five transfers coming in for next season. Auburn: Defensive back Craig McDonald, who had 41 tackles and two interceptions last season at Iowa State, is transferring to Auburn. Georgia: When it comes to tampering to land transfers, Kirby Smart told Paul Finebaum, “It’s part of the game. I don’t believe there’s as much tampering as people think. I think there are kids who grow up thinking if it doesn’t work out here, I should go somewhere else. Tampering comes from the player that’s searching somewhere else, not from a coach reaching out.” Kentucky: A warrant has been issued for All-SEC running back Chris Rodriguez, who was a no show for a court arraignment Friday. A statement by the UK athletic department says there was a scheduling mistake with Rodriguez’s attorneys … Defensive back Zion Childress, who has three seasons of eligibility remaining, is transferring from Texas State to Kentucky. LSU: Guard Adam Miller, who missed last season with a torn ACL after transferring from Illinois, has decided to remain at LSU. He averaged 8.3 points per game as a freshman at Illinois. Mississippi State: Defensive back Jay Hampton is transferring to Southern Miss. Ole Miss: Josh Mballa, who averaged 13 points and 8.6 rebounds at Buffalo last year, is transferring to Ole Miss. Texas A&M: Dexter Dennis, the American Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year in 2022, is transferring to Texas A&M. In four years at Wichita State, Dennis averaged 8.8 points and 5.0 rebounds per game. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Nick Saban actually said this while talking to Paul Finebaum: “One of the things I’d like to see us be able to work back to is everything in college football has always had parity: same scholarships, same academic support, healthcare, whatever it is. I don’t think we have that balance right now which could affect the parity of college football and athletics as a whole.” News flash, Nick. There has NEVER been parity in college football. NEVER. Yes, it’s true that the NCAA, in its infinite wisdom, says everybody can only have 85 scholarship football players, 10 assistant coaches, minimum GPA requirements and there are at least a zillion ticky tacky rules all designed with the I’m okay, you’re okay philosophy in mind to make equality look achievable to the academics in charge of the NCAA. Looks are deceiving. Here is reality: A scholarship at Bowling Green, for instance, isn’t the same as one at Alabama. Bowling Green could have 300 on scholarship and they might have one good enough to have a scholarship at Bama. Take it a step further. Of Bowling Green’s 85 on scholarship, maybe 15 of them would be good enough to be on scholarship at Vanderbilt and in the SEC, Vanderbilt is everybody’s favorite homecoming opponent. Compared to Doyt Perry Stadium at Bowling Green, Vanderbilt Stadium is a palace that could host a Super Bowl. Those are just a couple of examples. There have been numerous attempts to bring about equality in college football such as General Bob Neyland and Delaware coach Tubby Raymond essentially forcing one-platoon football on us in the 1950s (reversed in 1964) and scholarship limits to keep Bear Bryant from hoarding all the good players once the SEC integrated back in the 1970s. But have any of those attempts actually worked? Has taking away athletic dorms made it equal? Or the silly 25-counter rule? No matter how hard the pointy headed geeks in charge of the NCAA try to apply socialism to football and basketball, it’s not going to work. It never has. It never will.

Todd Golden’s roster rebuild isn’t complete just yet, but it added another vital piece to the ongoing puzzle Friday when the Gators signed Kyle Lofton (6-3, 185), a grad transfer from St. Bonaventure who was one of the more highly regarded point guards in the portal. With the addition of Lofton, the Gators have 11 scholarships filled with two still open. “Kyle has experienced a lot of success both from a team and individual standpoint during his time at St. Bonaventure,” Golden said. “He’s a proven winner and leader. He makes others around him better and cares only about one thing: winning.” In four seasons at St. Bonaventure, Lofton scored 1,613 points, averaging 13.9 points, 3.0 rebounds, 5.2 assists and 1.6 steals per game. As a senior last season in leading the Bonnies to a 23-10 record, Lofton averaged 12.8 points, 3.6 rebounds, 5.9 assists and 2.0 steals per game. He was money at the foul line, hitting 82 percent of his free throws. He ranked ninth nationally in assists per game. He had a season high 17 assists in a win over UMass Lofton was a three-time All-Atlantic 10 Conference performer. Lofton’s strengths are getting the ball to shooters whether in the half court or running the floor on the break and protecting the basketball. He is a creative passer who excels at getting into the paint, drawing defenders and then dumping off to big guys. Lofton prepped at Putnam Science Academy (Putnam, Connecticut) along with Osun Ossiniyi (6-10, 220). The two became teammates at St. Bonaventure and both entered the transfer portal. Ossiniyi remains a priority target for the Golden, who needs to add one more big guy to the front court roster. At St. Bonaventure, Ossiniyi was the two-time Atlantic 10 Conference Defensive Player of the Year and a member of the Lefty Driesell Defensive All-America team. Last season he averaged 11.3 points, 7.5 rebounds and 2.9 blocked shots per game. The chief target for the final spot on the rebuilt roster is wing guard/forward Riley Kugel (6-5, 185, Orlando, FL Dr. Phillips), a high school teammate of UF signee Denzel Aberdeen. A former Mississippi State commitment and a 4-star recruit, Kugel averaged 16.5 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game for Dr. Phillips, which won the 2021 state championship and finished runner-up in 2022. The Florida roster as of May 13, 2022 BIG GUYS (3) Colin Castleton (6-11, 240, 5th Year): Back for a COVID year, Castleton is recovering from surgery to repair a torn labrum. He’s made All-SEC two straight years. Averaged 16.2 points, 9.0 rebounds and 2.2 blocked shots per game. Jason Jitoboh (6-11, 285, 4th Year): Jitoboh averaged 4.1 points and 2.4 rebounds per game before suffering a season-ending eye injury that required surgery. He has two years remaining. CJ Felder (6-7, 231, 4th Year): Injuries and illness curtailed his effectiveness last season when he averaged only 3.5 points and 2.3 rebounds. He has a 7-1 wingspan and can guard multiple positions. He actually shoots well from 3-point range, which should make him a good fit in the new offense. It’s his fourth year, but he has two years of eligibility remaining. WINGS (3) Niels Lane (6-6, 206, JR): Lane emerged as a defensive stopper who wasn’t afraid to guard four positions on the floor. He got three starts, averaged 7.6 points per game in the final five games of the season and had an impressive 16 points and nine rebounds against Texas A&M in the SEC Tournament. Kowacie Reeves (6-6, 182, SO): The second half of the Texas A&M game where he scored 21 points to lead Florida back from a double-digit deficit to force overtime was a prelude of things to come. It’s puzzling why Mike White didn’t play him more. Reeves averaged 5.5 points and 1.4 rebounds per game. Alex Fudge (6-8, 190, SO/TR): Fudge has the scoring range of a guard and a 7-foot wingspan that allow him to defend small and power forwards. A 5-star recruit out of Jacksonville Lee, Fudge averaged 3.3 points and 3.2 rebounds as a freshman at LSU last year. GUARDS (5) Myreon Jones (6-3, 175, 5th Year): Mike White’s stagnant offense had a lot to do with Jones hitting only 32.1 percent of his 3-pointers and averaging just 8.3 per game after he was a long range bomber who averaged double figures two straight years at Penn State. Recently Golden said, “I feel like he’s got his confidence and swag back.” Kyle Lofton (6-4, 185, GR/TR): Golden loves to surround the big guys with shooters and that requires a facilitator, which is exactly what he’s getting in Lofton. Lofton is a pass first point guard who gets the ball to shooters. His career average of 5.2 assists per game would rank third at UF (Nick Calathes 6.28, Andrew Nembhard 5.48). Trey Bonham (6-0, 170, JR/TR): At VMI, Bonham averaged 13.6 points, 4.4 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game. He is water bug quick and a driver who gets into the lane regularly, he looks to pass first and score second. Will Richard (6-5, 195, SO/TR): Richard is very capable of playing three positions, which makes him an ideal fit in Golden’s offensive and defensive schemes. He averaged 12.1 points, 6.0 rebounds and 1.8 assists at Belmont, which won 25 games in the same league as Murray State and Morehead State. Denzel Aberdeen (6-4, 180, FR): Aberdeen played the point at Dr. Phillips but he’s more of a natural wing. Signed by Mike White last November, he hasn’t wavered from his commitment to Florida since the transition from White to Golden.

A few thoughts to jump start your Thursday morning: IT SEEMED LIKE OLD TIMES FOR HANNAH ADAMS It didn’t take long for Hannah Adams to do what she’s been doing for what Texas A&M coach Jo Evans says seems like the last 10 years. With leadoff hitter Kendra Falby standing on first base after legging out a single in the bottom of the first inning, and everybody in the Texas A&M infield keenly aware that Adams was going to bunt, Florida’s All-American second baseman delivered the perfect bunt smack dab in the middle of pitcher Grace Uribe, third baseman Trinity Cannon and catcher Haley Lee. Lee got the ball on a short bounce but by the time she turned and made her throw to first, there was no chance to get Adams. Falby, meanwhile, made the turn at second base and sped to an unoccupied third base. It was an instinctive play for Falby, who is among the Southeastern Conference leaders in hits and stolen bases, the kind that Tim Walton trusts her to make even though she’s just a freshman. “If I tell her to come it’s too late; if I tell her to stop it’s too late,” Florida coach Tim Walton said after the 5th-seeded Gators (42-15) took out the Aggies (29-26), 4-1 in the Southeastern Conference Softball Tournament at Katie Seashole Pressley Stadium. “She saw it; felt it. The bunt obviously was a great bunt by Hannah to be able to get it down enough with the timing of the ball, just a little bit in the air. Everybody was in the perfect spot for that kind of a play.” One pitch later, Adams took off for second base and when the throw went through, Falby raced home, sliding in ahead of the relay for Florida’s first run of the game. After a groundout by Skylar Wallace moved Adams to third, Charla Echols took a pitch on the outside half of the plate and drilled it to left field to score Adams. One inning later, with Falby on second after an opposite field double into the left field gap, Adams took her first full cuts in a live game since she broke a bone in her hand against Ole Miss back on April 15. Her line drive to right field scored Falby with Florida’s final run of the game. It was the perfect return for Adams, who got in the batting cage last Sunday morning to start swinging the bat again. Walton said, “At 8:10 on Mother’s Day, she sends me a text message, ‘Hey I’m going to come to the batting cages.’ That was the first days she’s swung, Mother’s Day.” Adams finished the game 2-3 at the plate with a run scored, a stolen base and an RBI. In the field, Adams was flawless, making every play look routine. Being away from the game for nearly a month made Adams embrace every moment on the field Wednesday night. It also made what Tim Walton says is a life lesson to be taught to every player he will ever coach or recruit. “Never take for granted any opportunities you have to play softball, to play the game, because you never know when those opportunities are going to be taken away from you,” Walton said. “She’s taken full advantage of it and has made everybody in this program a heckuva lot better now that she’s back on the field.” With the Wednesday night win, the Gators advance to the quarter-final round of the tournament against 4th-seeded Kentucky at 5 p.m. today. Wednesday’s scores 11 Mississippi State (33-23) 7, 6 LSU (34-21) 4; 9 innings 7 Missouri (34-19) 1, 10 Auburn (39-15) 0 5 FLORIDA (42-15) 4, Texas A&M (29-26) 1 8 Ole Miss (39-16) 9, 9 Georgia (40-16) 5 Thursday’s games 12 noon: 11 Mississippi State (33-23) vs. 3 Tennessee (38-15) 2:30 p.m.: 7 Missouri (34-19) vs. 2 Alabama (41-10) 5 p.m.: 5 FLORIDA (42-15) vs. 4 Kentucky (35-16) 7:30 p.m.: 8 Ole Miss (39-16) vs. 1 Arkansas (41-9) UF WOMEN’S GOLF: GATORS MISS NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS BY 1 STROKE The Gators had their chances but couldn’t make up enough ground Wednesday in the Albuquerque Regional of the NCAA Tournament. Florida shot a 3-over par 291 on the last day to finish at 875 for the three days of the regional, one shot behind fourth place TCU and a trip to the championships in two weeks. Only the top four teams advance to the championships in Scottsdale, Arizona in two weeks. Marina Escobar Domingo shot a final round 73 to finish -3 (213) in a three-way tie for third place. UF TRACK AND FIELD: SEC CHAMPIONSHIPS BEGIN IN OXFORD Both the Florida men and women’s teams have a legitimate chance to bring home SEC track and field championships this weekend at the SEC meet which begins today in Oxford. The Florida women, who won the NCAA indoor championship, come into the meet ranked third nationally. The Florida men, also ranked third nationally, finished fifth at the indoors. SEC FOOTBALL/BASKETBALL Alabama: Responding to allegations from Louisville head coach Scott Satterfield that Alabama tampered with wide receiver Tyler Harrell, Nick Saban said Wednesday, “We don’t tamper with anybody, so I don’t know about anything or anybody that tampered with him.” Asked if he knows of any schools that have tampered with Alabama players who have transferred out, Saban said, “I don’t really know that anybody’s really ever tampered with our players. I just think sometimes when things happen it makes you wonder. So I’m not making any accusations against anybody that’s done anything with our players and I don’t have any knowledge of anybody that’s done anything with any of our players.” Arkansas: Nick Smith (6-5, 175, Sherwood, AR North Little Rock), one of three 5-star recruits (Jordan Walsh and Anthony Black are the others) for basketball coach Eric Musselman’s 2022 class, got the No. 1 individual ranking for 247Sports. Auburn: Bryan Harsion offered this take on NIL: “It’s just so new, so there’s really not a good answer – you know, how everybody’s handling it, because I don’t think anybody’s got a great handle on it. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing; it’s just new, so everybody’s kind of working through it. It’s part of our world right now.” Georgia: Jaxon Etter (6-4, 200), who started 22 games last season for Tom Crean while averaging 5.1 points and 2.9 rebounds, has withdrawn his name from the transfer portal. Mississippi State: Shakeel Moore (6-1, 180) has withdrawn his name from the transfer portal and will remain at Mississippi State. He averaged 8.7 points, 3.0 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game last year. South Carolina: The Gamecocks are replacing Liberty on their 2023 football schedule with Jacksonville State … Forward Benjamin Bosmans-Verdonk (6-8, 235), who averaged 1.6 points and 2.1 rebounds last year, is transferring in from Illinois. Texas A&M: Hassan Diarra, who averaged 6.2 points, 1.8 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game last season, is transferring to UConn. Vanderbilt: Shooting guard Gabe Dorsey (6-6, 215) is transferring to William and Mary. He averaged 0.7 points and 0.3 rebounds per game last year. JOSEPH GOODMAN OF AL.COM ON NIL Here is an excerpt from a column Al.com’s Joseph Goodman wrote about NIL: “Play nice, pretty please, the NCAA said to boosters in its latest memo on NIL. “Or else the NCAA will do what, exactly? Form another sub-committee working group to talk about the good ol’ days when players’ careers were controlled by universities and their conferences instead of by the players themselves in this new free market economy? College sports have never been a more accurate reflection of American idealism than right now at this moment in history, and all the NCAA can think about doing is trying to regulate it. “I’m just going to go ahead and say the silent part out loud. The Black kids who have built college football into a multi-billion dollar industry, and have launched enrollments of mega-universities to record numbers, suddenly went from making no money at all to making way too much from NIL collectives and now the NCAA wants us all to believe that’s going to be the thing that destroys college sports.” POINTING FINGERS … Pete Thamel of ESPN is reporting that University of Pittsburgh football coach Mike Narduzzi is convinced that Southern Cal tampered with wide receiver Joseph Addison before he was in the transfer portal. Thamel tweeted that Narduzzi “has called USC coach Lincoln Riley to express his displeasure.” Addison, who caught 100 passes for 1,593 yards and 17 touchdowns last season, is in the transfer portal now. Alabama is thought to be the leader to obtain his services. Here are a couple more accusations of tampering involving transfers: Florida State coach Mike Norvell: “We had conversations, there were a couple guys on our team that have had people from the outside talking. They were not in the portal, but they’re trying to make decisions on certain things for their future. That’s what’s unfortunate. But grateful for the guys we have and the team that we’re going to be able to move forward with. But for college athletics, we want to be together here moving forward.” Boston College wide receiver Zay Flowers speaking to ESPN regarding big money offers to transfer: “For a kid like me from a household of 14 with one parent, that's life-changing money. I talked to Coach Hafley and we went through what was going on. I talked to my dad. My dad would love me to stay at BC, and I wanted to stay at BC. It was a decision I had to make, and the decision I made was to come back to school." ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: If you haven’t read a rather insightful piece of writing by Chris Vannini of The Athletic, then take a few minutes out of your schedule and read his piece “How Joe Moglia would fix college sports: The ex-coach/CEO on NCAA, coach contracts and more.” Joe Moglia, if you aren’t familiar, is the former CEO of TD Ameritrade and the former head coach at Coastal Carolina. He went 56-22 as Coastal’s head coach before turning the program over to Jamey Chadwell, who has gone 22-3 the last two seasons. He understands business, understands football and understands this basic concept: you can’t have a bunch of academics who know little to nothing about business running college football, which is indeed big business. In the Vannini article, these are the concepts Moglia would use to save college football from itself: (1) Executive committee to run the sport; (2) eliminate the signing period; (3) fix the coaching contract market; and (4) reorganize Division I. Of the four concepts, the one that intrigues me the most is No. 3. Here’s what Moglia has to say: “(Right now), if you have a great year and somebody wants you, you can leave the next year, and with the portal the way it is, all your best players can come with you,” Moglia said. “The school you’re leaving is decimated. … If you sign a five-year deal, you’re supposed to be there for five years and nobody can poach you. Nobody should even be allowed to talk to him unless there’s six months left or something. If a guy is doing great and you want to extend him, the guy has to make a real decision. If he thinks he can get a bigger job, he might hold off.” If Moglia’s idea had been in place a few years back, Auburn probably wouldn’t have given Gus Malzahn that 7-year contract at $7 million per that ended up costing $21 million in buyout money. Would Scott Stricklin have given Dan Mullen a $12 million buyout if Moglia’s rule No. 3 had been in place? I think not. Will it be implemented? Doubtful, because it makes way too much sense, but we can hope can’t we?

A few thoughts to jump start your Friday morning: GATORS HALFWAY HOME TO AN SEC TOURNAMENT TITLE Pitching and defense, Tim Walton says, are the hallmarks of this Florida softball team. In Thursday night’s 9-3 win over 4th-seeded Kentucky (35-17) in the quarterfinals of the Southeastern Conference Tournament at Katie Seashole Pressly, Tim Walton got the pitching and the defense, but for a second straight night there was exceptional offensive production, which bodes well as the Gators moved one game closer to claiming their sixth tournament title in Walton’s 17th year on the job. The pitching came in the form of a solid start from Elizabeth Hightower (16-7, 2.39 ERA), who settled down after giving up two homers, five hits and three runs in the first two innings to hold the Wildcats hitless in the next 2-1/3 innings. Hightower threw an efficient 59 pitches and didn’t walk a batter. Rylee Trlicek (1.86 ERA, 4 saves) came on to get the save, holding the Wildcats scoreless while giving up just two hits in the next 2-2/3 innings. Trlicek walked just one. “If you ask me what are the keys for the Florida Gators, it’s pitching and defense,” Walton said. “I heard them on the set [of the SEC Network] talk about our lack of home runs and I heard them again, ‘Woa, we just broke out with a bunch of hits again,’ but we pretty much hang out hats on our defense. We have a lot of players who work really hard on defense. I think the key is just make the routine plays and then make the special plays along the way but I haven’t seen anybody make as many special plays as we’ve made. We only struck out two batters tonight. We don’t strike out a ton so there’s a lot of balls put in play. I think they enjoy playing defense. We’ve got some really good defenders making some really good plays.” The special plays on defense were back-to-back gems by catcher Emily Wilkie in the third inning and a running grab by second baseman Hannah Adams in the bottom of the fifth. Wilkie got the second out of the third inning when she gunned down Erin Coffel at second with a laser of a throw from her knees. When the next batter hit a little tapper in front of the plate, Wilkie barehanded the ball and whipped it to Avery Goelz at first in one motion for the final out of the inning. In the fifth, with the Gators leading 6-3, Kentucky’s Lauren Johnson singled to left field. Coffel hit a soft liner up the middle that seemed destined to sneak through for a hit but Adams literally outran the ball to make the catch in center field to end the inning. The Gators backed up Hightower and Trlicek with an 11 hit attack that was supplemented by seven walks, a hit batter and one Kentucky error. The first seven batters in the Florida lineup were a combined 11-18 with Kendra Falby and Reagan Walsh each delivering three. Falby had two infield hits and a high bouncer over third base against a drawn in infield. She scored three times and stole a base. Walsh drove in three runs, two with a first inning single and one with a liner to left field in the second. Charla Echols had a 2-run ground rule double that missed clearing the fence in dead center field by about two feet. Skylar Wallace hit a sixth inning home run to dead center, her team-leading seventh of the season. Perhaps the play that best showed what speed at the top of the lineup will do for you was a sixth inning double into the left center field gap by Adams. Falby had reached on a two-bounce grounder to shortstop that she simply outran the ball to first. Adams followed with an opposite field gapper. On the relay back to the infield, UK tried to catch Adams getting back to second base rather than try to gun down Falby at home. The throw sailed wide and wound up in the Kentucky dugout, allowing Adams to score. “Hannah hits a ball in the gap with two strikes,” Walton said. “The shortstop did a really good job – most shortstops throw that ball to the plate to try to get that kid [Falby] but she recognized it, tried to back pick Hannah Adams at second base. Fortunately for us, Hannah had her foot on the bag and that’s when she threw it past the second baseman into the dugout. That kind of stuff. A normal runner she throws to the plate and there’s no extra run potential. She [Falby] just changes the way you play because you have to play faster.” The win over Kentucky moves the Gators into the tournament semifinals against top-seeded Arkansas, a 3-0 winner over Ole Miss Thursday night. Through two games the Gators are already halfway home toward a championship. The Gators are certain to host an NCAA regional next week but with a win over Arkansas, which holds down the No. 5 national ranking, it could put UF in the conversation to also host a super regional. Thursday’s scores 3 Tennessee (39-15) 1, 11 Mississippi State (33-24) 0; 13 innings 7 Missouri (35-19) 3, 2 Alabama (41-11) 0 5 FLORIDA (43-15) 9, 4 Kentucky (35-17) 3 1 Arkansas (42-9) 3, 8 Ole Miss (39-17) 0 Friday’s semifinals 3 p.m.: 7 Missouri (35-19) vs. 3 Tennessee (39-15) 5:30 p.m.: 5 FLORIDA (43-15) vs. 1 Arkansas (42-9) UF BASEBALL: GATORS TRAVEL TO MISSOURI With Tennessee’s 5-2 win over Georgia Thursday night, the gap between fourth place Florida and second place Georgia in the SEC East narrowed a bit. Should Georgia (32-17, 13-12 SEC East) lose at least one more to the No. 1 ranked and SEC East champ Vols this weekend and the Gators (30-18, 11-13 East) earn a sweep at last place Missouri (25-20, 7-17 SEC East), the Gators have a chance to climb into second, something practically unheard of just three weeks ago when UF was swept by Tennessee. Here is what has to happen for the Gators to take over sole possession of second: Tennessee (44-6, 21-4 SEC East) sweeps Georgia; Vanderbilt (32-15, 12-12 SEC East) drops two out of three to Arkansas (36-12, 16-8 SEC West). Should Georgia lose all three to Tennessee, Vanderbilt wins only one of three at Arkansas and the Gators take two of three at Missouri, there would be a three-way tie for second heading into the final weekend of SEC play. The Gators are expected to go with a weekend rotation of Brandon Sproat (6-4, 4.26 ERA), Brandon Neely (2-0, 3.45 ERA) and Nick Pogue (2-2, 4.96 ERA this weekend). UF LACROSSE: GATORS FACE MERCER IN NCAA FIRST ROUND Winners of their last 13 games, Florida’s 7th-seeded Gators (15-4) face Mercer today at Donald Dizney Stadium (noon) in the first round of the NCAA Women’s Lacrosse Tournament. The Gators own a 19-5 regular season win over Mercer. In the other first round game at Dizney, Stanford and Jacksonville will square off. SEC FOOTBALL/BASKETBALL Alabama: Corner Eli Ricks, who transferred to Alabama from LSU, was charged with driving 91 in a 70 zone, no auto insurance and possession of one gram of marijuana valued at $20 when he was arrested earlier in the month ... Basketball coach Nate Oates says potential transfers have shied away from considering Alabama. At a pro-am golf tournament in Birmingham, Oates told reporters, “Couple guys we’ve gone after have gotten a little scared of our current roster. We need somebody that’s willing to fight for minutes. We’ve got a pretty good roster right now.” Arkansas: Guard Jaxon Robinson, who had four starts and averaged 3.4 points an 1.3 rebounds last year, has transferred to Texas A&M. Auburn: Charles Barkley on the difference Bruce Pearl has made for Auburn basketball: “I never thought we would get to the point where we win an NCAA game and people would be disappointed. That’s a credit to him.” Georgia: The contract for Trayvon Walker, the No. 1 pick in the recent NFL Draft, is for four years for $37 million, fully guaranteed. Missouri: Wide receiver Javian Hester, who was the top ranked player in Missouri’s 2020 recruiting class, is transferring to Oklahoma. Last season he caught 12 passes for 225 yards and two touchdowns in seven games for Mizzou. THIS NUGGET FROM ACC COMMISSIONER JIM PHILLIPS “Just because you have the most money doesn’t mean you win all the time.” Phillips actually said that at the ACC Spring Meetings over at Amelia Island this week. Perhaps Phillips was alluding to the fact that he helped torpedo expansion of the College Football Playoff. He would like the playoff to be eight teams even though an 8-team model won’t substantially increase revenues (12 will) and he’s the commish of a conference that desperately needs revenue. The SEC most recently distributed $56.4 million to each of its 14-member schools. Forbes Magazine estimates that when Texas and Oklahoma join the SEC the revenues per team will exceed $80 million. The Big Ten will once again distribute more than $50 million and some economists believe the conference could wind up with the first billion a year television contract within the next couple of years. Meanwhile, the ACC distributed something like $33 million last year, currently the worst distribution of any of the Power Five conferences. ACC television revenues won’t exceed $200 million per year until 2025, which means the ACC won’t see any dramatic increase in revenue distribution for quite awhile. And lest we forget, the ACC a television deal that ESPN refuses to renegotiate that runs through 2036. From a purely Florida perspective, within three or so years, the Gators could be taking in more than $50 million per year than their ACC cousins in Tallahassee and Dade County. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Gary Barta, the well-intentioned athletic director at the University of Iowa believes he can slow down both NIL and transfers with one simple legislative act: Repeal the one-time transfer rule that allows players transferring the first time to move to another school without having to sit out a year. Here is what Barta said on the “Fight Iowa” podcast: “The transfers – again, allowing a student to transfer without having to sit a year – if it wasn’t for NIL, it’s a good move, a good idea. Now, when you combine it with NIL, it has become what many have called it: the ‘Wild, Wild West.’ One idea, and I’m pursuing this and throwing it out [there] is if we can’t totally control NIL, then let’s go back and put a one-year [sit out]. If you transfer you don’t have to lose your scholarship but you must sit out a year because we can control that. And I think would slow down the NIL deals because a booster isn’t going to offer a student-athlete a big sum of money if they know they come to their university and have to sit out a year.” Theoretically, Barta is 100 percent correct. If athletes have to go back to sitting a year when they transfer, there will be fewer transfers. If athletes have to sit a year, boosters in these NIL collectives will be less inclined to offer inducement money to get a kid to transfer. In theory, you can’t argue those ideas and win. Two things to keep in mind: NIL is here to stay and so is the transfer portal. There may be some ways to add rules and regulations to NIL but it won’t change the fact that the kids who play the game now have access to money. Changing the transfer portal would almost certainly result in lawsuits that would argue – probably with great success – that this would restrict an athlete’s opportunities to make money. So you can all but rule out either of these ideas being adapted. Something needs to be done, for sure, but it will have to be something that can actually work in reality and not just in theory.

By FRANZ BEARD GatorBaitMedia.com “You know, I'd like to quit thinking of the present, like right now, as some minor, insignificant preamble to something else." – Cynthia Dunn from the movie “Dazed and Confused” Dazed and confused. Is there a better way to describe exactly what is going on in college sports these days? The current dazed and confused condition that college sports finds itself in right now is so absolutely chaotic that it does indeed seem like an insignificant preamble to something else. Something else. As in if you think things are bad now, brace yourself. It’s only going to get worse. The toothpaste that is out of the tube – also known as NIL and the transfer portal – isn’t going to go back in. Please do not ask who’s in charge of this mayhem because then it would require going into some lengthy monologue about Mark Emmert, the man to whom the university presidents who allegedly have the final say in NCAA matters gave a contract extension and a raise to something like $5 million a year. Emmert is an academic allegedly in charge of the organization that is supposed to regulate and maintain order of the multi-billion-dollar college sports industry. Allegedly is appropriate because if Emmert could actually lead, then he would have done something intelligent. When it comes to sports, at least, if Mark Emmert actually had a functioning brain he would take it out and play with it in his spare time. Mark Emmert is the personification of The Peter Principle, whose abiding truth is that people in high places will continue to be promoted until they reach a level of total incompetence. Emmert probably was a good university president. As the CEO of a sports business? An utter disaster. It is precisely because (a) Emmert has no clue what he’s supposed to be doing and (b) the university presidents who voted Emmert the big raise and contract extension know even less that we have a fine mess of NIL and an out of control transfer portal that seemed to have joined forces to become a lethal 1-2 punch that threatens to send the NCAA and its bloated bureaucracy into Never Never Land. Not that Never Never Land for the NCAA is such a bad idea. It may, in fact, be the best idea. Blow the damn thing up. Start fresh. Put real people with real ideas and solutions in charge, but understand this: The toothpaste is OUT of the tube and it’s NOT going back in. That isn’t to say there aren’t some potential solutions that could make NIL and the transfer portal more workable for everyone, but we aren’t going back to the NCAA’s antiquated “amateurism” model about which Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in NCAA v. Alston, “Nowhere else in American can businesses get away with agreeing not to pay workers a fair market rate on the theory that their product is defined by not paying their workers fair market rate. And under ordinary principles of antitrust law, it not evident why college sports should be any different. The NCAA is not above the law.” Despite Kavanaugh’s cruise missile fired across the bow, you just know that the NCAA will not be able to resist another court case. You would think the NCAA would have learned its lesson by now. Every time they choose to fight in court they lose and if they try to make a court case of the mess they’ve made with NIL, in particular, they’ll lose again. But something should be done, or at least we think something should be done. Perhaps it’s because we’ve grown so accustomed to the old way of doing things that we cringe at the thought of not only true free agency, which the portal has given us, but NIL which makes it so that recruits of all types – high school, juco or transfers – can sell their services to the highest bidder. Nobody likes it, but what can be done to make sense of it all? Last week Southeastern Conference commissioner Greg Sankey and Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff went to Congress to ask for help. Perhaps it was at the behest of the NCAA or maybe they simply have thrown their hands in the air at the ineptitude of the NCAA and figure that any solution Congress could offer couldn’t be worse than what we have now. Or could it? The men and women in charge in Washington can’t seem to agree on anything, so how could they possibly come up with something that could forever change college sports in a positive way? The NCAA, meanwhile, put out a memo that it thinks will reel in these NIL collectives run by boosters. The NCAA cleverly worded the memo and its proposed guidelines to say it’s all for athletes making money off their name, image and likeness, but it’s the boosters – the people putting up the money in the first place – that they’re after. Just to show how tough they are, the NCAA is threatening to sanction the boosters and the schools whose boosters pay players to gain a recruiting advantage. Oh really? Lest anyone forget, the NCAA was gifted all this lovely testimony under oath and evidence in the form of FBI wiretaps to put a whole passel of schools that were cheating. Six years later, we’re still waiting for the NCAA to actually go toe-to-toe with the likes of Kansas or Arizona or LSU or Louisville. Oh, sure, they’ve issued these tough-sounding, we’re gonna get you and nail your hide to the wall notices of allegations, but nobody has actually gone before the Committee on Infractions or the Independent Accountability Resolution court. What this means is the NCAA is good about sounding tough, not so good when it comes to enforcement. That is only one reason why the lawyers who work for and in some cases run these collectives can barely contain their giggles. “I think it’s adorable that the NCAA is acting as if they’re going to crack down on anything,” said Russell White, a sports agent based in Utah who runs Oncoor Athlete Marketing told Stewart Mandel and Nicole Auerbach of The Athletic. White has 80 or so athletes under contract. He’s willing to go to court with the NCAA and he is not exactly worried about losing. Nor is attorney Mike Caspino. Several recruits he represents have landed NIL deals with booster collectives to different schools with deals alleged to be worth six and seven figures. “The moment they come to try to interfere with one of my clients’ deals – the next day is the moment they get hit with an antitrust lawsuit,” Caspino told Mandel and Auerbach. “They’re saying there’s a whole class of people [boosters] who can’t participate in the market for athletes’ NIL rights. That’d be like saying red-haired people can’t buy meat. That’s antitrust.” Even coaches find it comical that the NCAA wants everyone to believe they can go back to being the scary bullies they were back when Walter Byers ran the organization. “They’re talking a big game, but they always have talked a big game about that,” Notre Dame basketball coach Mike Brey said at the ACC Spring Meetings at Amelia Island. The NCAA stance is to play the role of the threatening tough guy only history says they’re not that tough and incapable of mounting a successful defense when challenged in court. And you know there will be challenges, particularly since it was the NCAA that unleashed NIL on us without any structure to it. To put structure to something structureless might have worked in the past before players were able to cash in but the times have changed. Now players can make money and trying to scale back what a collective can offer might cross that antitrust line that Justice Kavanaugh drew in the dirt in NCAA v. Alston last summer when he said the NCAA is “conspiring with competitors to pay no salaries to the workers who are making the schools billions of dollars on the theory that consumers want the schools to pay their workers nothing.” We have a dilemma on our hands for which no one seems to have a clue how to come up with a structure that certainly won’t please all the people all the time but may, potentially, please enough of the people enough of the time. A majority of people seem to think this current way of doing things is unsustainable so obviously we need solutions. Here is what football’s equivalent of The Godfather – Alabama’s Nick Saban – has to say about what’s at stake if something isn’t done and soon. Speaking to reporters Wednesday before a golf pro-am in Birmingham, Saban said, “College football has always created a parity with players and competition, which I think every league already has, whether it’s with the NFL salary cap or whatever. And you know, now, I think NIL is great for the players, they should have an opportunity to earn money – I’m fine with all that – but if we don’t maintain some level of parity. We’ve always had the same (number of) scholarships, same Alston money, same cost of attendance, same academic support, same medical attention for everybody. And if we don’t create that balance, I think it’s going to affect the competitive standard of the game in the future, and probably affect other sports. So hopefully somebody will be able to figure that out.” NIL when coupled with free agency – what else can you call the transfer portal – seems to be the 8-inch stiletto stabbed multiple times into the heart of the NCAA. This is another mess entirely of the NCAA’s making and just like NIL, it’s one of those toothpaste out of the tube things. How do you tell players who have been given the right to transfer to another school without sitting a year that it was all just a big joke, that they have to go back to the old way of doing things? And, now that players in the portal can shop their services for the best NIL deals, it’s a double whammy. Stopping it may be a great idea in theory, but it’s only going to take one lawsuit – you know there will be hundreds – to put the kibosh on the notion that players can’t shop for the best deal or that collectives and boosters can’t offer incentives for transfers to come to their schools. Iowa athletic director Gary Barta says that if players had to sit out a year, it would slow down NIL. Maybe, but is the NCAA willing to lose another court case over the transfer portal? You know they’ll lose and in this case it’s a certainty because how can it be justified that a coach can leave at any time without consequence but a player who wants to leave is back to the old sit out a year model? Former TD Ameritrade CEO and Coastal Carolina coach Joe Moglia offers a solution that won’t shut down the transfer portal but it could at least eliminate the flood of freshmen who seem to make up an inordinate number of portal entries. Moglia proposes that once a kid signs his scholarship, he is bound for one year to the school before entry in the transfer portal is allowed. “I love the idea of student-athletes, but right now, a good student-athlete is up for auction any time he wants, and that’s a ridiculous way for a college or a business to operate” Moglia told Chris Vianny of The Athletic. “Professional sports don’t operate that way.” Moglia is correct. Professional sports do not operate that way. Professional sports have contracts. Professional sports have structure. Professional sports have a sustainable model. It seems quite obvious that both the transfer portal and NIL were simply thrown out there without being given a whole lot of thought to consequences. If a lot of thought was given then whoever was doing the thinking should be fired on the spot, but knowing the NCAA, that person will be given a promotion. After all, that is exactly the way The Peter Principle works. There are people who believe that the only solution to the dilemma we now face is to make athletes employees of the schools they represent, which would give coaches the right to hire and fire as well as giving athletes a chance to unionize and bargain for benefits. There are plenty of holes that can be punched into that argument because not all states have the same rules and regulations for unions, employee rights, etc. There does seem to be consensus that the only possible way to get anything done will be to ditch the NCAA completely and start all over with a brand new organization headed either by a commissioner with absolute authority in the Pete Rozelle template or a board of directors that are football/sports people and not clueless academics. Run the new organization the way a professional sports league runs things. It makes plenty of sense but to make it work it would require the academics who run sports today to take their thumbs off the model. We’ve heard it for years that those that can do, those that can’t either teach or climb the academic administration ladder. No organization in the world better illustrates a measure of truth to that statement quite like the NCAA. It’s time to let the people who can do what they can do and for the academics to go back to writing papers and congratulating each other on how brilliant they are. Ditching the NCAA would certainly be a nice beginning to resolving the issues facing college sports, but no one seems to be offering a plan for secession much less a leader or board or directors that can transform college athletics into a modern, streamlined organization. The need is for an organization that is capable of improving the games on the field and putting together a rulebook that doesn’t require 10 lawyers in compliance departments at each school to translate all while dealing with the ever-changing needs of the kids who make the games possible. At some point in time there will have to be a replacement for the NCAA, which is like the Titanic, ignoring all the warning signs that it’s about to hit an iceberg. As practical an idea that may be, it’s not a quick fix, at least in the current mindset. It seems that everyone is waiting for someone to do something. There is plenty of rhetoric, lots of ideas that might work if combined with other good ideas to form a workable plan, but no one is taking the lead and saying the gig is up for the NCAA and here is what we’re going to do to make fundamental and lasting changes. Until someone bold enough to lead the way steps forward with a plan that can generate enthusiastic support from at least the schools that make up the Power Five, then we’re stuck with the chaos we now have. Donkeys may fly before the NCAA escapes its own shadow and does something that makes sense. So, until a Messiah is found for college sports, get used to well-heeled boosters buying players, whether high school, juco or transfers, and for transfers to make decisions based on the old line from “Jerry Maguire” – “Show me the money!” The toothpaste is out of the tube and we can’t put it back in.

By KYLE CURTIS GatorBaitMedia.com Florida baseball has found its groove here at the right time. Is it too little too late though? Coming off a hard week where the Gators lost their star pitcher, Hunter Barco, for the rest of the season, Florida had nothing to lose. The Gators had to travel to Starkville for a weekend series with the defending national champs with their postseason hopes on the line. After a stellar performance from Co-SEC player of the week B.T. Riopelle the Gators were able to go into Starkville with a much-needed series sweep. This is the Gator's first sweep of an SEC opponent on the season. Additionally, Florida also added a midweek win against Bethune Cookman to complete the season sweep of the Wildcats of Bethune Cookman. What does this mean for the rest of the season outlook? The hot streak the Gators have put together over the past week or so is what all Gator Nation has been waiting for all year. Different guys showing up on any given night but always finding a way to get the job done. Talent has never been an issue with this group, it is just finding how to fit all the puzzle pieces together to create the perfect picture. Is this late push going to be enough to vault Florida into the postseason? The short answer is yes. After their strong showing, the Gators are sitting right outside of the top 25 in the 26-30 range on different college baseball ranking outlets. This would put the Gators in a fine position to crack a regional field, although it is still a stretch that they host. Gator fans have been spoiled with the illustrious career of O’Sullivan and the 17 times the Gators have hosted the NCAA Regional tournament. While they may not host this year, at least they have a good shot of dancing. The Gators currently are 11-13 in the Southeastern Conference with an overall record of 30-18. If the Gators can pick up series wins against Missouri and South Carolina over the next two weekends, that should be enough to put Florida in great shape for their postseason outlook. Additionally, Florida will also get a chance to take the season series and rival for their midweek matchup next week when they host Florida State for the final time. Florida State has had an up and down season, like Florida, although they have been hot recently and find themselves sitting nationally ranked at 21. O’Sullivan has stated that he believes the offense is now hitting its stride and this is the kind of baseball you want to be playing this time of year. O’Sullivan also may have found lightning in a bottle with freshman hitter Jac Caglianone who has been red hot since entering the lineup. Pitchers Brandon Sproat and Nick Pogue have also seemed to step up in the absence of Barco. As stated earlier in the season amidst the slump, there is no ceiling for this Gators squad if it can just find all the puzzle pieces to create the picture.

By LOREN MEADOWS GatorBaitMedia.com The campus of Ole Miss was scheduled to be full of Gators hunting bounty the weekend -- the Florida Gators Track teams. By Sunday they no doubt will have their quarry. Both teams were poised for big finishes that could lead to both individual and team championships – the men in second chasing down Alabama and the women Texas A&M. For the men, the Gators have the fastest times in the conference in the 200m Dash, 400m dash, 4x100m relay, and the 4x400 relay. The 200m dash could feature one of the top races in the nation this weekend as defending national champion Gators Joseph Fahnbulleh will be challenged by Georgia’s Matt Boling with whom he shares the nation’s fastest time of 19.92s. Fahnbulleh bested Boling head-to-head earlier this season at the Pepsi Florida Relays in Gainesville, so a possible rematch could take place for the SEC Title in Oxford. Fahnbulleh should most likely anchor the nation’s fastest 4x100m relay team as well. The Gators could be challenged by both LSU and Alabama who have run 38.85s and 38.86s respectively less than a half second of the Gators time of 38.47s. LSU bettered the Gators two weeks ago when the Tigers capitalized on poor handoffs by the Gators to win the relay at the LSU Invitational. Depth could be key as the Gators feature a combination of five runners that could participate in the relay. The Gators will also look to score big in the 400m dash as both Champion Allison and Ryan Willie are tied for the SEC lead at 45.16s. If both run, they could possibly be part of the 4x400m relay team that has already set the collegiate record this year at 2:58.53s. Allison and Willie could be joined by Jacob Miley and Jacory Patterson to take another run at NCAA history. The Gators also have the team depth to run multiple combinations in this event as well. The Gator women begin the postseason looking to add the SEC Outdoor title to an already impressive year. The 2022 National Indoor Champions feature a diverse roster that showcases the athleticism of the roster. Florida’s most versatile athlete, Anna Hall, was crowned the USATF National Champion at last week’s Combined Events National Championships earning her a spot on the US National Team. Hall will take a break from the heptathlon and compete in the 400m hurdles where she currently has the second fastest time in the nation and SEC behind Britton Wilson from Arkansas. Hall will also compete in the long jump where she ranks fifth nationally with a jump of 22 feet, 1.5 inches. Along with Hall, Florida athletes Grace Stark, Jasmine Moore and Natricia Hooper are in the top five nationally in their events going into the weekend. Grace Stark is the reigning Indoor National Champion in the 60m hurdles. She ranks third nationally in the 110m hurdles and should challenge Alia Armstrong of LSU and Kaylah Robinson of Texas A&M for the outdoor title. Armstrong dealt with disqualification and false starts during the indoor postseason so an outdoor showdown could be one to watch with a clean start by all three ladies. Moore and Hooper give the Gators an opportunity to score as many as 18 points in the triple jump. Hooper and Moore are first and second nationally with jumps of 46 feet, 6.25 inches, and 46-2 respectively. The duo finished first and second in the triple jump in the indoor conference and national meet to help the and will look to repeat the feat at the outdoor conference meet. Moore is the reigning SEC and national champion in the triple and long jumps. Outdoors she is ranked second with a jump of 22 feet, 5 inches. She will be challenged by Deborah Acquah of Texas A&M who leads the SEC with a jump of 22-7.25. Florida could also find scoring in the event from Claire Bryant who ranks fourth in the SEC with a jump of 22-1.

A few thoughts to jump start your Wednesday morning: GOLDEN EMBRACES THE DONOVAN LEGACY Here are some excerpts from Florida basketball coach Todd Golden on Jon Rothstein’s College Hoops Today podcast: On the pressure of the Billy Donovan legacy “I got the job on Friday. I called him on Saturday. He called me back and we talked for 30 minutes on that Saturday and straight from the get-go he was saying how happy he was for me to get this opportunity and that he was willing to help as much or as little as I wanted. He just wanted me to know he was rooting for me and he wanted me to be successful. It meant a lot, someone who had such great success here at Florida – won back-to-back national championships – and really put this program on the map, everything from our practice facility to the rehabilitation of the O-Dome back in 2016. All those things were done because of Coach Donovan. Sometimes people ask me are you worried about living up to Billy, are you worried about the pressure? I’m embracing that. He’s one of the best coaches to ever to do it in the college game. I would love to be the next Billy Donovan. That is my goal. My goal is to get this place back to where we’re competing for national championships, playing in the second and third weekend of the NCAA Tournament and to know I have his support means a lot.” On the conversations with Scott Stricklin that led to getting the Florida job “We hit it off quickly. We both felt it was a really good fit. For me, once Florida became an option some of these other programs that had shown interest, they didn’t interest me nearly as much as Florida. I think this is an incredible job, one of the top ten jobs in the country. When Scott and I realized that we would be able work together and shared a similar vision in terms of what this program needs to be it was really a no-brainer for me and my family and it was easy to commit to this opportunity.” On the roster he inherited plus the transfers/recruit he’s added so far “We return six guys that are going to become great, really impactful players for us. You look at Colin Castleton, first and foremost, a guy who had a chance to go play pro after graduating this summer. We were able to get him to buy into our vision, of what we plan to do to get back into the tournament next year.” After mentioning Myreon Jones – “I feel like he’s getting his confidence and swag back” – and the other four players (Kowacie Reeves, Jason Jitoboh, Niels Lane, CJ Felder) how he sees the roster “You’ve got some really good pieces there, guys you can build around … With the guys we’ve added (Alex Fudge, Will Richard, Trey Bonham, Denzel Aberdeen) I think we have a really solid nucleus as we head into next year and we’ll had a couple more guys before summer starts.” His expectation for next year and beyond at Florida “Definitely to get back to the NCAA tournament. I think this is a place where the expectations should be to make it every year and then as you build your program and as you add depth and get the right people on board, our expectation is to play deep into the NCAA Tournament. I don’t expect us to go to the Final Four every year, but I expect us to be in contention to be in the Sweet 16, to be a team that’s getting really good seeds, having an opportunity to wear home jerseys the first couple of rounds of the NCAA Tournament. This is a top 10 job and our expectation as we build this program back up in the next couple of years will be to be deep in the NCAA Tournament.” SEC SOFTBALL TOURNAMENT: GATORS WILL FACE AGGIES TONIGHT Texas A&M (29-25) will be the opponent tonight (5 p.m., SEC Network) when the 12th-ranked and 5th-seeded Gators play their first game in the Southeastern Conference Tournament. The 12th-seeded Aggies advanced by taking out South Carolina (26-30), 5-3. During the regular season, the Gators beat Texas A&M two out of three games in College Station. In taking that weekend series, Elizabeth Hightower (14-7, 2.30 ERA) was the winning pitcher in the first and third games. Hightower figures to get the ball tonight while the Aggies will probably go with Makinzy Herzog (9-7, 2.47 ERA), who shut out the Gators on three hits in College Station. Florida’s hopes to host both an NCAA regional and super regional depend on what the Gators do this week. at the Southeastern Conference Tournament at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium. Right now, the Gators are ranked 12th in the USA Today Coaches Poll but 13th in RPI. That bodes well for hosting a regional, but to host a super regional as well, the Gators probably need to win at least three times this week to leap some teams for a No. 8 overall seed. Wednesday’s SEC Tournament games 12 noon: 11 Mississippi State (32-23) vs. 6 LSU (34-20) 2:30 p.m.: 10 Auburn (39-14) vs. 7 Missouri (33-19) 5 p.m.: 12 Texas A&M (29-25) vs. 5 FLORIDA (41-15) 7:30 p.m.: 9 Georgia (33-19) vs. 8 Ole Miss (38-16) UF BASEBALL: HOT GATORS SHUT OUT BCC, 7-0 Tyler Nesbitt, Nick Ficarrotta and Blake Purnell combined to limit Bethune-Cookman to five hits Tuesday night as the surging Florida Gators won their 30th game of the season, 7-0, at the Condron Family Ballpark. The win was the fifth straight and seventh in the last eight games for the Gators (30-18), who travel to Missouri this weekend. Nesbitt (2-3, 4.56 ERA) gave up four hits and struck out four in the first four innings. Ficarrotta (3.67 ERA) followed by giving up one hit while striking out six in four innings and Purnell (2.45 ERA) followed up with a strikeout in a spotless ninth. Patience at the plate paid off as the Gators supplemented their seven hits with nine walks. Wyatt Langford (.355, 50 RBI) hit his 16th homer of the season while Sterlin Thompson (.351, 9 HR, 43 RBI) had a single, a double and two RBI and Josh Rivera (.276) had a pair of hits. Thompson extended his on-base streak to 17 consecutive games. UF WOMEN’S GOLF: GATORS DROP TO FIFTH IN ALBUQUERQUE REGIONAL It was a rough day for the Gators Tuesday as they shot a collective 8-over par to drop to fifth place in the Albuquerque Regional of the NCAA Tournament. Heading into today’s final round, the Gators are at 584, a single shot behind fourth place TCU and 16 behind first place and top seeded Oregon. Only the top four teams advance to the NCAA Championships in Scottsdale, Arizona. Florida’s Marina Escobar Domingo shot a 72 Tuesday. She is in third place, six shots off the individual leader’s pace. Here are the top ten team scores: 1. Oregon 568; 2. Georgia 576; 3. Texas 577; 4. TCU 583; 5. FLORIDA 584; 6. (Tie) Arizona and Sam Houston State 588; 8. Louisville 591; 9. Oklahoma 602; 10. North Texas 603. SEC FOOTBALL/BASKETBALL Alabama: Keon Ambrose-Hylton, who scored 32 points and pulled down 22 rebounds last season, is transferring to SMU to play for former Gator assistant Rob Lanier. Georgia: The Bulldogs rank No. 122 out of 130 Division I football teams for percentage of returning production on the defensive side of the ball. LSU: Bradley Ezewiro, who had seven points and six rebounds in seven games last season, is transferring to Georgetown. Missouri: Bradley Sternberg, who scored six points in seven games, will transfer from Cleveland State to Mizzou as a preferred walk-on. He is the third former Cleveland State player to transfer to Mizzou to play for Dennis Gates. Texas A&M: Marcus Williams, who averaged 7.9 points, 2.2 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game last season, is transferring to San Francisco. CHARLES BARKLEY ON ACADEMICS AT AUBURN On the Monday night “Inside the NBA” broadcast on TNT, former Auburn star and Hall of Famer Charles Barkley told host Ernie Johnson that he wasn’t much on math but was more into science when he was a student at Auburn. Johnson then asked Barkley what was his major at Auburn? “Music Appreciation,” was Barkley’s response. “They played music and I said, ‘I appreciate it’ and they gave me an A.” ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Sir Isaac Newton, credited with the theory of gravity, once wrote, “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” Football hadn’t been invented yet so he couldn’t have been talking about NIL and the transfer portal, the two issues that plague the NCAA these days which plans to fight back. Perhaps you think it’s good that the NCAA, in its infinite wisdom, will fight hard to get this NIL thing under control by reigning in the booster-dominated collectives. Maybe you think the NCAA, while it’s about it, can find enough bubble gum to plug up all the holes in its transfer legislation. Perhaps you still believe in Santa and the Easter Bunny. You must if you think the NCAA is going to come up with a practical solution to issues that are bad enough individually, but intertwined are like a wrecking ball that is crumbling the structure of collegiate sports’ guiding body in such a way that it probably won’t exist in three or four more years. Monday the NCAA talked about coming up with rules and enforcement to put the kibosh on booster-dominated collectives that are nothing more than a legalized version of what the NCAA rulebook says is cheating. Cheating was then. NIL is now as in “Now It’s Legal.” Since the NCAA can’t stay out of its own way, it will try to legislate control of NIL collectives. You should know the lawyers representing the collectives are sharpening their knives, ready to take on the NCAA in court, where the NCAA will inevitably lose. It always loses and this will not be an exception. The NCAA losing in court is like death and taxes. You know it’s unavoidable. Hours before the NCAA’s proposed crackdown on collectives was announced Monday, Paul Finebaum of the SEC Network weighed in on how NIL is changing recruiting on WJOX in Birmingham. “I spent the early part of my career thinking I could play a role in maybe cleaning up the cheating in college athletics,” Finebaum said. “I’m on the other side of that right now. If I’m at a school that needs players, I’m going to go out and get those players, guys. Why not? “We’re not talking about Nick Saban and Kirby Smart and Jimbo Fisher here. We’re talking about coaches that need star players to maintain their viability. I think everyone is pushing the envelope as much as you can and some are obliterating the line between good and evil here. There’s no one in charge.” The key phrase here: “There’s no one in charge.” As my grandmother Ivey Van Sickle would have put it, “They’ve got squirrels in their attic.” NIL and the transfer portal are messes of the NCAA’s own doing. Instead of thoughtful, well-thought out rules for dealing with these issues, the NCAA basically threw them out there, perhaps taking the politically correct “being nice will solve everything” approach. Nothing has been solved. We have chaos that will only become more chaotic. In the meantime, Finebaum offers this gem: “If you’re trying to get a player right now, like the guy from Pittsburgh, you have to cheat. You’re not just going to call that guy up and say, ‘Mr. (Jordan) Addison, we’d love for you to come visit our school, we want to show you around, the academic center, show you the library, show you the research and development. You basically have to do one thing: you have to show him the money. That’s where we are right now.” Show me the money. That’s where college sports are. Get used to it.

A few thoughts to jump start your Tuesday morning: ARE 35-36 REGULAR SEASON WINS OUT OF THE QUESTION FOR UF? The low point was the Tennessee series. The Gators, who had lost two of their three at Vanderbilt the weekend before, lost all three games to the Vols. Game three, a 6-4 loss in 11 innings, hurt the worst because UF had a 4-2 lead with two out in the ninth and then lost in the 11th on a 2-run homer. The Gators were 23-17 at that point, 6-12 in SEC play and looking like a team that might not make the SEC Tournament much less the NCAA. Fast forward to tonight’s game with Bethune-Cookman (23-26) at the Condron Family Ballpark and that same Florida (29-18, 11-13 SEC) team everyone was ready to give up on is looking for its 30th win of the season. Instead of looking like a team that might not make it to Hoover for the SEC, the Gators have a shot at finishing second in the SEC East, unheard of three weekends ago. With an SEC road trip this weekend to Missouri (25-20, 7-17 SEC) and a homer with South Carolina (24-22, 10-14 SEC) to close out the regular season, a 15-15 SEC mark is entirely possible. A 16-14 record in league play will have the Gators in the hunt for second place in the East. A 17-13 record probably earns a second place finish since Georgia (32-16, 13-11 SEC) has to play Tennessee (42-6, 20-4 SEC) this weekend. Winning five or six of the final eight games (six SEC, two non-conference) will get the Gators to 35 or 36 wins, a number that may not be enough to host an NCAA regional without some extraordinary happenings in Hoover, but it would certainly put UF in the conversation. For Florida to get to the 35-36 win level, Kevin O’Sullivan is going to have to find two pitchers to go with starters Brandon Sproat and Brandon Neely. Nick Pogue, in his best outing since his freshman year in 2019, had a fine start against Mississippi State in the Sunday game. He looked the part of the third starter. The fourth could be freshman righty Tyler Nesbitt (1-3, 5.40 ERA), who will face Bethune-Cookman tonight. The Wildcats are expected to start left Alec Mendez (0-1, 3.68 ERA). Riopelle SEC Co-Player of the Week: Catcher BT Riopelle, who hit two home runs and three doubles while driving in eight runs in the Mississippi State series, was selected SEC Co-Player of the Week with LSU’s Dylan Crews. For the season, Riopelle is hitting .312 with 14 homers and 45 RBI. D1Baseball top 25: 1. Tennessee 42-6; 2. Oregon State 38-9; 3. Oklahoma State 34-13; 4. Arkansas 36-12; 5. Virginia Tech 33-10; 6. Miami 35-12; 7. Louisville 33-13-1; 8. Stanford 29-14; 9. Texas Tech 32-16; 10. Texas A&M 30-16; 11. Gonzaga 29-13; 12. Virginia 34-12; 13. UConn 40-8; 14. Southern Miss 6-12; 15. Texas State 38-11; 16. Notre Dame 28-10; 17. LSU 32-15; 18. Maryland 37-10; 19. UC-Santa Barbara 33-11; 20. Auburn 32-15; 21. Florida State 28-17; 22. Texas 34-17; 23. UCLA 30-17; 24. Vanderbilt 31-15; 25. Grand Canyon 33-16 Collegiate Baseball News top 25: 1. Oregon State 38-9; 2. Tennessee 42-6; 3. Oklahoma State 34-13; 4. Arkansas 36-12; 5. Miami 35-12; 6. Louisville 33-13-1; 7. Virginia Tech 33-10; 8. UConn 40-8; 9. UC-Santa Barbara 33-11; 10. Stanford 29-14; 11. Texas A&M 30-16; 12. Texas State 38-11; 13. Arizona 33-17; 14. Ball State 32-14; 15. UCLA 30-17; 16. Vanderbilt 31-15; 17. Notre Dame 28-10; 18. Virginia 34-12; 19. LSU 32-15; 20. Southern Miss 36-12; 21. Auburn 32-16; 22. Rutgers 37-11; 23. Maryland 37-10; 24. Grand Canyon 33-16; 25. Georgia 32-16; 26. FLORIDA 29-18; 27. Florida State 27-18; 28. TCU 28-18; 29. Gonzaga 29-13; 30. Texas Tech 32-16 UF SOFTBALL: CAN THE GATORS GET HOT AT THE RIGHT TIME? The last time the 13th-ranked Gators (41-15, 13-11 SEC) were the No. 5 seed at the SEC Tournament the year was 2019. UF finished the regular season with a 12-12 league record and on a sour note when they dropped two out of three at home to Mississippi State in the final SEC series of the regular season. Heading into the SEC Tournament in College Station, the Gators were longshots to even host an NCAA regional much less a super regional, but four games later, UF had disposed of South Carolina, LSU, Auburn and 4th-ranked Alabama to claim the tournament championship. That performance impressed the NCAA Softball Tournament Selection Committee so much that the Gators not only got to host the regional but the super regional as well. The Gators went 3-0 in regional play and then took out Tennessee two out of three to win the super regional to advance to the Women’s College World Series. That 2019 team got hot at just the right time, but it helped enormously that Tim Walton could send Kelly Barnhill out in the circle. All she did in 2019 was go 34-12. For her career she was 104-22 with a 1.17 ERA and 1,208 strikeouts. In the Gators’ 10 games leading up to the WCWS, Barnhill went 7-1 with five shutouts. There is no Kelly Barnhill capable of taking the ball and dominating for seven innings on this 2022 team, but Walton does have Elizabeth Hightower and Natalie Lugo, who both pitched in the post season in 2019 and were a combined 12-4. This year Hightower is 14-7 with a 2.29 ERA and Lugo is 9-5 with a 2.23 ERA. Florida’s third pitcher is Lexie Delbrey (13-2, 2.30 ERA), who can be a dominator when she’s throwing strikes. She has walked 52 batters and hit 17 in 91-1/3 innings. Hightower has issued 59 walks and hit 10 in 147 innings. The Gators are going to make the NCAA Tournament and most likely host a regional. For UF to have any chance at hosting a super regional as well, the Gators probably have to do a repeat of 2019 by going 4-0 at the SEC Tournament. The SEC Tournament opens at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium tonight with South Carolina facing Texas A&M with the winner advancing to face the Gators at 5 p.m. Wednesday. D1Softball top 25: 1. Oklahoma 48-1; 2. Virginia Tech 40-6; 3. Florida State 48-5; 4. Arkansas 41-9; 5. Arizona State 37-8; 6. Alabama 41-10; 7. Duke 40-7; 8. UCLA 40-8; 9. Oklahoma State 38-12; 10. Northwestern 39-9; 11. Tennessee 38-15; 12. Washington 34-13; 13. FLORIDA 41-15; 14. Kentucky 35-16; 15. Texas 37-16-1; 16. Clemson 37-14; 18. Notre Dame 39-9; 19. Auburn 39-14; 20. Michigan 34-15; 21. Georgia 40-15; 22. Louisiana 42-11; 23. LSU 34-20; 24. San Diego State 35-13; 25. Ole Miss 38-16 UF WOMEN’S GOLF: GATORS THIRD AFTER ONE DAY AT ALBUQUEQUE REGIONAL The Gators came in at even par (288) Monday to finish day one of the NCAA Albuquerque Regional four shots behind 2nd-ranked Oregon and one behind second place Texas. Marina Escobar Domingo led the way for the Gators with a 4-under par 68, good for a 4-way second place tie on the individual leaderboard. Annabell Fuller shot a 69 for sole possession of sixth place. The top four teams will advance to the NCAA Championships in Scottsdale, Arizona. Top 10 team scores: 1. Oregon 284; 2. Texas 287; 3. FLORIDA 288; 4. (Tie) Georgia and TCU 292; 6. Arizona 293; 7. Louisville 295; 8. North Texas 296; 9. Oklahoma 299; 10. (Tie) New Mexico State and Sam Houston 302 UF TRACK AND FIELD: MEN, WOMEN REMAIN NO. 3 Heading into the SEC Track and Field Championships which begin in Oxford Thursday, both the Florida men’s and women’s teams continue to hold down the No. 3 position in the USTFCCCA national rankings. The Gators are seeking their first SEC outdoor titles since both the men and women brought home the conference championships in 2018. USTFCCCA Men’s top 25: 1. Texas; 2. Alabama; 3. FLORIDA; 4. LSU; 5. Georgia; 6. Texas A&M; 7. Oregon; 8. Southern Cal; 9. Texas Tech; 10. Baylor; 11. Stanford; 12. Tennessee; 13. BYU; 14. North Carolina A&T; 15. Kentucky; 16. Princeton; 17. Florida State; 18. Arkansas; 19. Washington; 20. Iowa; 21. Ohio State; 22. Arizona State; 23. Oklahoma; 24. Virginia; 25. California USTFCCA Women’s Top 25: 1. Texas; 2. Texas A&M; 3. FLORIDA; 4. LSU; 5. Arkansas; 6. Texas Tech; 7. Kentucky; 8. BYU; 9. Oregon; 10. Ohio State; 11. Baylor; 12. New Mexico; 13. North Carolina A&T; 14. North Carolina State; 15. Washington; 16. Arizona State; 17. South Carolina; 18. Stanford; 19. Oklahoma; 20. Ole Miss; 21. Southern Cal; 22. Auburn; 23. Duke; 24. California; 25. Colorado UF LACROSSE: GATORS MOVE UP TO NO. 5 The Gators (15-4), who won the American Athletic Conference tournament championship over the weekend, have won 13 matches in a row, which is why they have moved up to fifth in the latest Inside Lacrosse/IWLCA top 25 poll. The Gators will face Mercer in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday. Inside Lacrosse/IWLCA top 25: 1. North Carolina 18-0; 2. Maryland 17-1; 3. Boston College 16-3; 4. Northwestern 13-4; 5. FLORIDA 15-4; 6. Syracuse 13-5; 7. Rutgers 15-4; 8. Stony Brook 14-2; 9. Denver; 10. Loyola Maryland 18-1; 11. Princeton 14-3; 12. James Madison 13-4; 13. Duke 15-3; 14. UConn 13-4; 15. Johns Hopkins 10-8; 16. Southern Cal 13-4; 17. Notre Dame 9-9; 18. Virginia 9-9; 19. UMass 16-3; 20. Michigan 10-6; 21. Jacksonville 13-4; 22. Temple 11-6; 23. Ohio State 9-7; 24. Penn State 6-9; 25. Yale 11-6 ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: The NCAA, in its infinite wisdom, is expected to try to crack down on NIL collectives run by boosters that are attempting to lure recruits or transfers to their school or keep kids from transferring out by offering them financial incentives to stay. You’ll have to excuse the lawyers for some of these collectives if they find it difficult to muffle their giggles. Utah-based sports agent Russell Smith is so frightened that the NCAA may come after him that he told this to Nicole Auerbach and Stewart Mandel of The Athletic: “I think it’s adorable that the NCAA is acting as if they’re going to crack down on anything.” Another lawyer, obviously shaking in his shorts, is Mike Caspino, who represents recruits who have landed six- and seven-figure deals with booster collectives that represent certain schools. Here’s what he said: “​​The moment they come to try to interfere with one of my clients’ deals – the next day is the moment they get hit with an antitrust lawsuit. They’re saying there’s a whole class of people (boosters) who can’t participate in the market for athletes’ NIL rights. That’d be like saying red-haired people can’t buy meat. That’s antitrust.” Three things to keep in mind here: (1) The NCAA is something like oh-fer-its-last 100 in court cases; (2) in the beatdown the NCAA took at the Supreme Court last summer, the one that opened the NIL floodgates, Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in the 9-0 decision, “The NCAA’s business model would be flatly illegal in almost any other industry in America.”; and (3) how does the NCAA propose to enforce these new rules? Yes, indeed, how will the NCAA enforce the rules? Remember, this is the same organization that, armed with under oath testimony and wiretap evidence from a Federal trial that took place six years ago, hasn’t been able to drop the hammer on institutions or basketball coaches caught up in the biggest cheating scandal in decades. The NCAA will never have such a mountain of evidence clearly on its side and yet it still hasn’t managed to punch out the likes of Kansas, Arizona, LSU, Auburn, South Carolina, Alabama, Creighton, Louisville, Oregon and others involved in the college basketball corruption trials. If the NCAA can’t put cheaters on probation when it has this much evidence at its disposal, I can’t imagine its lawyers will be bright enough to enforce any NIL rules.

A few thoughts to jump start your Monday morning: ARE THE GATORS BECOMING THAT TEAM NOBODY WANTS TO PLAY? Wasn’t it just a couple of weeks ago that folks were lamenting the demise of the Florida baseball program, thinking it would take a miracle for the Gators to even make the NCAA field? D1Baseball had the Gators as their last team when they dropped to 23-17 (6-12 SEC) after getting swept by Tennessee. Just a few days ago D1 had the Gators sitting on a No. 3 seed in the Coral Gables region in its NCAA projections. Now that they’ve won six of their last seven games including an impressive weekend sweep of Mississippi State in Starkville, the Gators (29-18, 11-13 SEC) are starting to look like a team capable of a rather surprising finish. At this moment, UF is not looking like an NCAA regional host, but there are still eight games to go including an SEC road trip to Missouri next weekend and a regular season ending set with South Carolina so things could change if the Gators can maintain this hot streak. A break-even SEC record seemed next to impossible after losing three straight to Tennessee, but now that UF is 11-13 a 15-15 mark is very do-able and a 16-14 league record isn’t out of the question. Throw in the possibility of a pair of non-conference wins over Bethune-Cookman (Tuesday) and Florida State (next Tuesday in Gainesville) an 35-37 wins in the regular season doesn’t seem far-fetched. The key to Florida’s sudden upturn is young pitchers finally starting to grow up and throw strikes. This is one of the younger pitching staffs in the entire country so it has taken awhile for the kids to figure things out. We tend to forget how few freshmen make the jump from high school to the SEC without a few speed bumps along the way. Since Hunter Barco went down with an elbow that will require Tommy John surgery, Kevin O’Sullivan has found his Friday and Saturday starters in redshirt sophomore Brandon Sproat (6-4, 4.96 ERA) and freshman Brandon Neely (2-0, 3.45 ERA). Both have been impressive in their last two starts. O’Sullivan may have found his third weekend starter in the familiar face of redshirt freshman Nick Pogue (2-2, 4.96 ERA), who missed last year because of Tommy John surgery. Pogue got the win against South Florida earlier in the week and that earned the start Sunday against Mississippi State. He gave the Gators five innings of 1-run baseball, finishing the week with nine innings, nine hits allowed and only two earned runs. Redshirt freshman Ryan Slater (3-3, 5.10 ERA, 3 saves) picked up a save Friday night, then got the win in relief Saturday. Sunday, freshman Fisher Jameson (1-0, 2.70 ERA) went four innings for the win in relief of Pogue. Phil Abner (1-1, 8.35 ERA), got a critical strikeout Friday night and pitched the Gators out of a jam Saturday night. The pitching is starting to come around and the Florida bats came through with 24 runs in Starkville. Wyatt Langford, moved to leadoff, came through with a 7-14 weekend with a home run and three RBI; Sterlin Thompson, moved to second base from right field, went 4-8 with a homer and three RBI; BT Riopelle went 6-11 with two homers and three RBI; freshman Ty Evans, given a start in right field Saturday and Sunday, went 3-9 with a homer and three RBI. There are still eight games to play and it’s possible the Gators lay an egg, but don’t count on it. If they can keep up this newfound mojo, they might be that team nobody will want to play in the month of May. Twelve of the SEC’s 14 teams make the tournament in Hoover. Here is what SEC baseball looks like with two weekends remaining in the regular season. SEC EAST Tennessee (42-6, 20-4 SEC): The Vols have clinched the SEC East and need three wins to win the regular season SEC title outright. They host Georgia this weekend and finish up at Mississippi State. Georgia (32-16, 13-11 SEC): The Bulldogs are just one game ahead of third place Vanderbilt and two ahead of the Gators. They travel to Tennessee this weekend and finish against Missouri. Vanderbilt (31-15, 12-12 SEC): The Commodores have the toughest finishing stretch of any team in the conference. They’re at Arkansas this weekend and they finish with LSU. FLORIDA (29-18, 11-13): The Gators travel to Missouri this weekend and finish the regular season at home with South Carolina. South Carolina (24-22, 10-14 SEC): The Gamecocks could assure themselves of making the SEC Tournament if they can sweep Kentucky this weekend. They travel to Florida to finish up. Kentucky (26-21, 9-15 SEC): The Wildcats stunned Tennessee by winning the series. Now they have to travel to South Carolina and finish up against Auburn. They need to get to 13 wins somehow to assure that they’ll make the SEC Tournament. Missouri (25-20, 7-17 SEC): Can the Tigers go 6-0 in their final two series at home against UF this weekend and at Georgia to close it out? That’s what it’s going to take to make the SEC Tournament. SEC WEST Arkansas (36-12, 16-8 SEC): The Hogs have a two-game lead over LSU and A&M with six SEC games to play. Four wins should secure the SEC West title and the No. 2 seed in the SEC Tournament. LSU (32-15, 14-10 SEC): The Tigers get Ole Miss this weekend and then finish up at Vanderbilt. They need 18-19 SEC wins to secure second place in the division. Texas A&M (30-16, 14-10 SEC): The Aggies will make the SEC Tournament. They probably need to go 5-1 against Mississippi State and Ole Miss to secure second in the SEC West. Auburn (32-16, 13-11 SEC): The Tigers could blow by LSU and the Aggies for second place if they could close out 6-0 at home against Alabama then closing out at Kentucky. Ole Miss (27-19, 10-14 SEC): The Rebels were once ranked No. 1 in the nation. Now they’re fighting just to make the SEC Tournament. They need to win three out of six at LSU and then at home against the Aggies. Alabama (26-22, 10-14 SEC): The Tide has lost seven of their last nine against SEC teams. They finish at Auburn this weekend before closing out with Arkansas. They need at least three wins to stay ahead of Mississippi State to make the tournament. Mississippi State (25-23, 9-15 SEC): The Bulldogs are at Texas A&M and then finish out at home with Tennessee. Anything less than a 4-2 finish and there’s no chance they make the SEC Tournament. UF SOFTBALL: GATORS GET A NO. 5 SEED FOR THE SEC TOURNAMENT Florida’s 41-15 record (13-11 SEC) may be good enough for the Gators to host an NCAA regional, but to host a super regional as well will take some work at this week’s SEC Softball Tournament which will begin Tuesday at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium. The 5th-seeded Gators will play their first game Wednesday at 5 p.m. against the winner of 12th-seeded Texas A&M (28-25, 6-18 SEC) and 13th-seeded South Carolina (26-29, 3-21 SEC). Win that and the Gators will face 4th-seeded Kentucky (35-16, 13-11 SEC) Thursday at 5 p.m. The Gators and Aggies didn’t play during the regular season. The last time the Gators were a No. 5 seed in the SEC Tournament was 2019, when they finished with a 12-12 record in league play. At the SEC Tournament, the Gators went 4-0, disposing of 4th-ranked Alabama in the championship game. That 4-0 run earned the Gators a top eight national seed, which they rode all the way to the Women’s College World Series. UF TENNIS: NO. 2 MEN, NO. 16 WOMEN ADVANCE TO NCAA SWEET 16 It was just a couple of days at the office for Florida’s men’s and women’s tennis teams in the first two rounds of the NCAA Championships at the Ring Tennis Complex. The 2nd-ranked UF men (25-2) won their 19th and 20th consecutive matches in disposing of New Orleans and Miami by identical 4-0 scores. The Gators face 15th-ranked North Carolina Friday in a Sweet 16 match at the Ring complex. The 16th-ranked Florida women (21-6) took down South Alabama, 4-0, and Florida State, 4-1, to earn a trip to the Sweet 16 next Friday against No. 1 North Carolina in Chapel Hill. UF LACROSSE: GATORS EARN NO. 7 SEED FOR NCAA TOURNAMENT On the heels of their American Athletic Conference Tournament championship win over Vanderbilt, the Gators (15-4) were awarded a No. 7 national seed and host of the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament. The Gators, who have won 13 in a row will open play with Mercer Friday at 5 p.m. Win and the Gators face the winner of the 7:30 p.m. Jacksonville-Stanford matchup. Danielle Pavinelli had six goals and an assist and Emily Heller had four goals and an assist to lead the Gators past Vanderbilt, 18-7. UF WOMEN’S GOLF: GATORS BEGIN NCAA PLAY IN ALBUQUERQUE The Gators are No. 11 in the Golfweek rankings, but they are the No. 2 seed at the NCAA Albuquerque Regional largely on the strength of their runner-up finish at the Southeastern Conference Championships. No. 2 ranked Oregon is the top seed at the regional which also includes Georgia (5th-seed, 27th nationally). UF TRACK: ANNA HALL WINS USATF HEPTATHLON Anna Hall scored 6,458 points to win the USATF heptathlon championship over the weekend, the second highest score in collegiate history. Hall’s victory assures her of a spot in the World Championships this summer. Hall’s big weekend also bodes well for the 3rd-ranked Florida women, who will be participating in the SEC Championships in Oxford starting Thursday. The UF women won the NCAA Indoor championship earlier this year. SEC FOOTBALL/BASKETBALL Alabama: Offensive lineman Dayne Shor, who is in the transfer portal, released a statement that he needs a fresh start, particularly after dealing with serious depression the past couple of years. “The feeling of wanting to take your own life is a feeling like no other, and a feeling I wish no one else to ever feel,” Shor said in a statement. “The voices in my head would often take control of my life.” Arkansas: Former Razorback KK Robinson, a former 4-star recruit who was considered the 10th-best point guard in the country out of high school, is transferring to Texas A&M. Kentucky: Running back Chris Rodriguez faces multiple charges including DUI after a traffic stop over the weekend. Rodriguez ran for 1,379 yards and nine touchdowns in 2021 and has 26 career rushing TDs. LSU: Voicing his concerns about NIL on ESPNU radio, HBC Brian Kelly said, “We’re looking at guys entering the transfer portal because they want to get paid to play but that’s not name, image and likeness was intended to do and so there’s going to have to be corrections. It’s not a sustainable model from that perspective.” Vanderbilt: Wide receiver Amir Abdur-Rahman is transferring to Ball State for a super senior season. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Leave it to The Pirate to offer a new perspective on why the College Football Playoff needs to be expanded. After watching 80-1 longshot Rich Strike run down favorites Epicenter and Messier to win the 148th running of the Kentucky Derby Saturday, Mississippi State HBC Mike Leach offered up this gem: “That horse winning the Kentucky Derby today is a good example of why an expanded college football playoff is needed. That horse hadn’t won all the races leading up, but it got its chance and that’s what happened.” The playoff is going to expand and the only questions remaining are whether it will be an 8-team model which is favored by ACC commissioner Jim Phillips or the 12-team model favored by everyone else with a functioning brain. Leach, however, has a different perspective on that as well. He wants college football to adapt the NCAA Basketball Tournament model of 64 teams. That isn’t going to happen because it would add six games to the schedule of the team that wins the playoff and would be a logistical nightmare. Even the 12-team playoff is going to pose serious logistical questions, but it’s do-able, particularly if games with D1AA opponents are eliminated and those games are played in the spring instead. An 11-game regular season schedule, conference championship game and then a playoff that means any team that isn’t a top four seed would have to play four games makes more sense and has a decent chance of becoming the law of the land.