A few thoughts to jump start your Wednesday morning: IS TRE MANN ABOUT TO DROP OUT OF THE FIRST ROUND? At the beginning of May, nearly every mock NBA Draft had Tre Mann’s stock soaring. More than one NBA insider had Mann going at the late end of the lottery (picks 1-13), but it has been a slow slide ever since with several mock drafts placing Mann in the second round. Gary Parrish and Kyle Boone, both of CBS Sports, have Mann going in the first round. So does Jonathan Givony of ESPN, although curiously, ESPN has slipped Mann all the way down to the No. 47 prospect in the draft. Mann was ranked as the 15th-best draftable player back in March has slipped him all the way down to No. 47. So what gives? Nearly every NBA expert says Mann is one of the top shooters in the draft with almost unlimited range and the ability to score creatively off the bounce, but there are questions that he isn’t physically strong, has liabilities as a defender and he’s still learning how to play the point. Parrish has the former Gator going No. 28 to the Philadelphia 76ers, who already throw up a lot of 3-balls. This might seem to be a curious pick but the Sixers really don’t know what to do about Ben Simmons and the backup point guard (Tyrese Maxey) is a fine defender who doesn’t add much to the offense. Boone has Mann the final pick (No. 30) in the first round, going to the Utah Jazz. This actually seems to be a good fit since point guard Mike Conley and shooter Joe Ingles are both starting to age (34 years old). Givony sees Mann going No. 27 to the Brooklyn Nets, one of the better 3-point shooting teams in the NBA (39.2 percent as a team). The draft lasts two rounds (60 picks) and will take place Thursday night. DON’T SLEEP ON THESE GATORS Nobody seems to be talking about these five Gators but all five could be significant contributors in the fall. Ja’Quavion Fraziars, WR: He’s added 35 pounds of muscle since arriving from Dunnellon High School in 2020. He spent the 2020 season at UF toiling on special teams. He caught one pass in his seven games. He is a big, physical receiver who can be a mismatch against small corners on the outside and a speed mismatch for most safeties and linebackers in the slot. Khris Bogle, EDGE: Bogle was a skinny 210 pounds coming out of Cardinal Gibbons in Fort Lauderdale in 2019. He has since added 25 pounds of muscle and seems ready to rotate with Brenton Cox Jr. coming off the edge. In 11 games last season, Bogle came on strong in the second half of the season to finish with 27 tackles, including 4.0 tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks. Jedarrius Perkins, CB/Nickel/STAR: Perkins was a juco teammate of Diwun Black at Mississippi Gulf Coast. He spent the spring at Missouri, then elected to transfer out, ironically when it became clear that Black was going to qualify academically at UF. He’s a very physical corner who has the size, strength and speed to be used in a variety of ways. With Kaiir Elam and Jaydon Hill the likely starters at the corners, Perkins could step in as the nickel or play the STAR, which requires the physicality of a linebacker with a safety’s tackling and cover skills. He did not transfer to Florida to sit. He will be on the field. Derek Wingo, LB: Wingo arrived at UF with plenty of hype coming out of St. Thomas Aquinas, but he was undersized and spent most of 2020 on special teams. He’s bulked up to 224 pounds, has the benefit of spring practice and an offseason conditioning program so he has a legitimate shot to get on the field as part of the regular rotation. He’s probably a year away from competing for starting minutes, but should be able to contribute this season. Jace Christmann, PK: Christmann doesn’t have Evan McPherson’s thunder foot, but he’s a proven commodity as a placekicker in the SEC where he hit 12-14 field goals and 42-42 extra points as a true freshman for Dan Mullen at Mississippi State back in 2017. When he transferred in to Florida after the spring, he left Starkville as the school’s all-time leading scorer with 223 points. He hit 32-40 of his field goals and missed only one extra point. He was 9-14 on field goals beyond 40 yards with a career long of 51 yards. Kingsley Eguakun, C: Because Stewart Reese has played and started in the SEC at the other four positions on the O-line, he probably is the plug and play guy if there is an injury. Reese will start the season at center, but if he gets the call to take over somewhere else on the line, Eguakun will step in at center. He had a very nice spring and he’s a well-conditioned 6-4, 303 now, ready to play in the SEC. GATORS AT THE OLYMPICS Caeleb Dressel swam a 47.23 to win his heat in the 100 freestyle semifinals. He goes into tonight’s finals with the second best time. Bobby Finke set a new American record at 7:42.72 in the 800 freestyle to qualify third for tonight’s finals in that event. Kelsey Stewart, Aubrey Monroe and Michelle Moultrie won silver medals as the USA softball team lost the championship game to Japan. Canada advanced to Friday’s women’s soccer quarter-final against Brazil after a 1-1 tie with Great Britain. Gator Adriana Leon scored Canada’s only goal. UF-UCF WILL PLAY THREE TIMES The official announcement that the Gators and UCF have agreed to a three-game football series was made Tuesday. Florida will host UCF in 2024 and 2033 and play the Knights in Orlando in 2030. This is a deal that would have never been done if now Tennessee athletic director Danny White were still in charge at UCF. With Texas joining the SEC perhaps as early as the 2022 season, it eliminates the Longhorns as a non-conference opponent for 2030-31. The Gators are under contract to host Texas in 2030 and face the Longhorns in Austin in 2031. BOB STOOPS ON OKLAHOMA MOVING TO THE SEC Writing in The Oklahoman, the former Oklahoma head coach who was the defensive coordinator for Florida’s first national championship team in 1996, explained that Oklahoma’s move to the SEC was about doing what’s best for Oklahoma and that did not include dragging along Oklahoma State. “Let’s set the record straight: OU’s move to the SEC is what’s best for Oklahoma. The reality is that conferences are now more important than ever and, with limited spots, the strongest conferences would not accept OU if we were to retire OSU to join as well. By joining the SEC, we ensure the state’s flagship university will be represented nationally while protecting our rich football history for many years to come. To move forward in any other manner would be to the detriment of OU and the state of Oklahoma.” THE PERSPECTIVE FROM BIG TEN COUNTRY Writing for Saturday Tradition, columnist Ryan O’Gara torched Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren, who, in light of the Southeastern Conference adding Texas and Oklahoma, seems ill-prepared for the next season, much less the possibility of expansion: “Heck, the Big Ten doesn’t even know what it’s going to do yet about COVID this season (check back in August!). COVID has only been a thing for about 17 months now. If that’s the pace the Big Ten is moving, they are going to be left out in the lurch. “This past week made clear that the calendar flipping from 2020 to 2021 hasn’t changed the fact that the SEC is running circles around the Big Ten. The SEC outmaneuvered the Big Ten during the pandemic, and it’s happening again. And the Big Ten seems helpless to stop it. “When asked about the SEC adding Texas and Oklahoma, Warren talked about seeing ‘how that evolves and where it lands.’ By then, it’ll be too late. Here’s a question: If Texas and Oklahoma were looking to leave, why wasn’t the Big Ten looking forward and trying to add them? A better question might be, would Texas and Oklahoma even want to join the Big Ten after last year’s debacle.” PAC-12 COMMISSIONER GEORGE KLIAVKOFF TALKS EXPANSION Kliavkoff is brand new to the job, having recently taken over for the disastrous Larry Scott. At Pac-12 Media Days and to The Athletic, Kliavkoff discussed the expanding SEC and the expectation that conferences will expand, contract and realign in a wholesale manner in the next 12-24 months: “We do not think expansion is required to continue to compete and thrive. That said, the fallout from Texas and Oklahoma gives us an opportunity to once again consider expansion. We have already had significant inbound interest from many schools. We will work with our presidents and chancellors to evaluate these opportunities.” “I reject the idea that if someone else has 16 teams, we need to have 16. That just doesn’t make sense to me … I kind of like the schools we have. I like our opportunities, I like our unique geography and footprint. If there’s chaos happening elsewhere on the college football landscape, I think that helps us. If there’s consolidation, that helps us.” Kliavkoff may like the teams the Pac-12 has, but it’s fairly obvious television viewers don’t. Right now the league isn’t relevant and it needs to expand its footprint but there aren’t a lot of good options available. There isn’t a marquee football program to be had if the Pac-12 dips into the Big 12, and while San Diego State, Boise State and BYU would definitely improve the overall brand of football, those three schools are looked down on by the academics in the league. But something will have to be done or else the Pac-12 will be battling it out with the Big 12 and ACC to see who can be the least relevant. Here is something else that the rookie commissioner needs to seriously consider. What do the quarterbacks at Ole Miss (Matt Corrall), Alabama (Bryce Young), Georgia (JT Daniels), Spencer Rattler (Oklahoma), Clemson (D.J. Uiagalelei), Iowa State (Brock Purdy) and Ohio State (C.J. Stroud) have in common? They all played high school football deep in the heart of Pac-12 country and all of them chose to go east. Until Kliavkoff can figure a way to make Pac-12 football relevant and get league games on television at a decent hour on the east coast, the good quarterbacks will continue to go east. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Several new women have added their names to criminal complaints against Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson, claiming sexual assault or inappropriate behavior. I find it disgusting that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell hasn’t suspended Watson until these matters are cleared up. Goodell has issued more than 100 suspensions over the past 11 years, many for domestic violence, among them Greg Hardy (10-game suspension for beating up his girlfriend in 2014), Ben Roethlisberger (six games for sexual assault in a night club although no charges were ever filed) and Ray Rice (two games for aggravated assault against his fiancée). He fined the Washington Football Team $10 million for sexual and verbal harassment of women. And yet Watson hasn’t been suspended. Major League Baseball suspended Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer while investigations are ongoing regarding allegations he assaulted a woman. One woman, not the 22 women who claim Watson violated them. There is something seriously wrong with Roger Goodell’s idea of justice.

A few thoughts to jump start your Tuesday morning: AMID ALL THE SEC EXPANSION TALK, SOME GOOD NEWS ABOUT THE GATORS Edge rusher Brenton Cox Jr., who has been recovering from surgery for a fractured foot, says he is doing so well with his rehabilitation that he will be ready to go when Florida faces Florida Atlantic in the season opener in The Swamp on September 4. On his second day of running since the surgery, Cox tweeted out, “When we snap against FAU, I’ll be ready. I’ll be out there.” Cox, who had 4.0 sacks, 9.5 tackles for loss and 18 quarterback hurries in 2020, is an essential defender if the Gators are to rebound in 2021 from the statistically worst defensive year in school history. *** Former Gators Kelsey Stewart, Michelle Moultrie and Aubrey Monroe will be on the medal stand today at the Tokyo Olympics as the USA softball team goes for the gold against Japan. In Sunday’s final game of group play, Stewart hammered a walk-off home run in the bottom of the seventh inning to give Team USA a 2-1 win over Japan. *** Former Gator Caeleb Dressell swam the opening leg of the USA’s gold medal winning 4X100 freestyle relay team. Natalie Hinds picked up a bronze for her leg of the 4X100 freestyle relay. Current Gator Kieran Smith got a bronze for the 400 freestyle. *** Redshirt freshman Wyatt Langford earned second team honors for the Charlottesville TomSox in the Valley League at first base after hitting .345 with three homers and 20 RBI in the collegiate summer league. Wyatt had 10 multi-hit games and hit eight doubles and two triples. Wyatt is expected to compete for the starting catcher job at UF next spring. *** Ventrell Miller, who has led the Gators in tackles the last two seasons, has been named to the preseason Butkus Award watch list. Miller had 88 tackles in 2020 and has 158 tackles, 15 tackles for loss, 7.5 sacks and one interception in his UF career. The Butkus Award is given annually to the nation’s top linebacker. Named to the Jim Thorpe Award preseason watch list was cornerback Kaiir Elam, who had 39 tackles, 11 pass breakups and two interceptions in 2020. The Jim Thorpe Award is given annually to the nation’s top defensive back. TEXAS AND OKLAHOMA ARE A DONE DEAL, NOW WHAT’S NEXT? Any chance the Big 12 had for a Hail Mary that would keep Texas and Oklahoma in the league ended Monday morning when the two schools announced they will be departing, destination the Southeastern Conference. There will be a formal announcement, perhaps even by the end of the week. Make no mistake about it, this is a rubber stamp. If you think that any of this caught even one SEC school by surprise, then think again. Now, the discussions on adding Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC was on a strict need-to-know basis, but the people at the top of each school’s food chain knew exactly what was going on. Texas A&M is credited with leaking the story and spent a couple of days in Hoover, Alabama at SEC Media Days acting as if someone had stolen their puppy. But notice what happened over the weekend. The A&M president basically said, “Bring it on, Texas!” What does that tell you? That the outrage was all feigned, orchestrated to make the Aggie Nation believe their administration and athletic director were standing up to big, bad Texas and the equally heartless Greg Sankey. The Friday “How dare they!” dissolved rather quickly into Saturday’s affirmation that the SEC is about to grow by two schools. Texas and Oklahoma will have to pay an exit fee, estimated at $76 million apiece, which is no small chunk of change but will probably be covered once a few well-placed phone calls are made to some of the oil gozillionaires who are prominent boosters at both schools. The 2021 season will be their swan song in the Big 12 and both will be joining the SEC for the 2022 season per Matt Hayes, whose sources are among the best in all of college sports media. It does make sense for Texas and Oklahoma to depart the Big 12 as soon as possible, not just to save the animosity that would build up with two additional lame duck athletic years in a league they will soon depart, but also for the Big 12 which is attempting to stave off extinction. The longer the Big 12 waits to add the teams it will need to remain a viable league, the more likely it will sink to Conference USA or MAC levels. For Texas and Oklahoma to join the SEC for the 2022-23 athletic year, ESPN will have to buy out the last two years of the television contract held by CBS. That’s actually a small price to pay when the value Texas and Oklahoma bring to the SEC is taken into account. This is why we know ESPN was in on the negotiation to add Texas and Oklahoma when it began some six months ago. Had ESPN, which already had a deal with the SEC that will pay $300 million a year for 10 years starting in 2024, been blindsided nothing would have surfaced that Texas and Oklahoma want to join the SEC. There will be a new contract, that’s all. It will kick in a couple of years earlier and will include payouts to two more teams, that’s all. Matt Hayes does write that the new deal could pay out as much as $70 million per SEC team. The Big 12 doesn’t have a single option that can make up for the revenue loss or the prestige that Texas and Oklahoma bring in football, but as long as it can remain a league it does have autonomous voting rights as a Power Five conference within the NCAA. Because of that, schools from some of the other leagues will listen when the Big 12 comes calling. Probably the biggest problem for the Big 12 will be finding schools that are a geographic fit, particularly if Kansas and Iowa State bolt to the Big Ten, as has been suggested, and West Virginia goes to the ACC. Television money will certainly be reduced but travel expenses will almost certainly be increased. If expansion includes the likes of Arizona and Arizona State from the Pac-12 or South Florida and UCF from the American Athletic Conference it will help reduce the television impact even if those four schools aren’t exactly national powers. One thing the Big 12 can count on is any school from the American or Mountain West will gladly listen since even the league’s reduced payouts will be far more than they’re making right now. The entire American Athletic Conference paid out $73.2 million for all the schools in the conference at the end of the 2019-2020 athletic year. The conference total is less than any two Big 12 schools made from their contract. PAUL FINEBAUM SPEAKS … On the possibility of further SEC expansion: “I don’t think it can get too much larger for a very specific reason – money … Right now you have 14 schools sharing the pie. You add two more they have to be guaranteed that not only will they make an extremely large amount of money, but everyone else won’t lose any. Once schools start making a lot of money, they only care about one thing, making more. So you have to be a little bit careful.” On why going from eight to nine conference games in the SEC is a possibility: “You can go your entire cycle at any school and not see someone from the other side, and if you add two more, that’s going to be even more problematic.” On BYU as an option for the Big 12 and Pac-12: “There’s one other school out there who I thik is very valuable that could help either the Big 12 or the Pac-12 and that is BYU. I said Notre Dame is the biggest name out there; BYU is pretty close to being the second biggest.” A YEAR OF MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS IS AHEAD We’ve been hearing about the four 16-team super league concept forever, but that would cut out the Group of Five. When Greg Sankey and the College Football Playoff working group revealed their 12-team expansion proposal one of the key elements was ensuring the Group of Five would have chances to be a football Cinderella. There may be four 16-team super conferences in the very near future but they won’t be the only conferences involved in the playoff, not unless they wish to be taken to court as a monopoly or unless the Group of Five schools decide to form their own division and stage their own playoff. There is much more money to be had as part of the 12-team expanded playoff so don’t expect anyone suggesting a separate playoff for the Group of Five. It can be successfully argued that there may never be more than two or three teams at the most from the Group of Five capable of winning a playoff game, but that doesn’t change the fact that they will have to be given their shot and their slice of the revenue pie. The NCAA’s lack of success in the courts should serve as adequate warning that the courts aren’t going to stand for monopolies and cartels to exist, so the playoff will expand and the Group of Five, however it is reshaped by mergers and acquisitions, will be included. The format that has been proposed and is almost certain to be adapted will include the champions of the six highest ranked conferences and six at-large teams. Whether we will have five power conferences or that number is trimmed to four with a merger, the expanded playoff will have six conference champs. This is why we should expect leagues merging and expanding within the Group of Five. Schools in the right Group of Five conferences might enhance their chances of (a) making the playoff and (b) making more money. There are currently 130 teams in Division I, among which several have no business playing Division I football other than paychecks. I am of the opinion that within two years we will have somewhere between six and eight 16-team leagues that will contend for the six conference champions that make the playoff. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Jay Bilas, who is the leading college basketball analyst for ESPN, suggested Monday that Atlantic Coast Conference commissioner Jim Phillips needs to get on the phone immediately to call Greg Sankey to discuss merging the ACC with the SEC. Bilas pointed out all the natural rivals that would play in such a league but he doesn’t go into how you would pull off scheduling and the logistics of a 30-team conference (16 SEC, 14 ACC) that would stretch all the way from Boston to Austin. ESPN is going to be paying the 16 teams of the SEC more than $65 million a year with reports that the total could exceed $70 million. The ACC is stuck with its contract that paid out $32.3 million last year until 2036. I understand why Bilas would love to see the SEC share the wealth with their country cousins but I can’t imagine there is anyone in the SEC who thinks it’s a brilliant idea.

A few thoughts to jump start your Monday morning: “SANKEY IS THINKING 50 YEARS AHEAD OF ALL OF US” – POWER 5 ADMINISTRATOR Greg Sankey once again reminds us that great line from the movie “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” when Butch (played by Paul Newman) utters the line, “I’ve got insight and the rest of the world is wearing bifocals!” A year ago when Kevin Warren of the Big Ten was doing his best impersonation of someone who just had a lobotomy and Larry Scott was sitting in his San Francisco office drooling, Sankey had a plan to play football. The Southeastern Conference played a 10-game, conference-only schedule. He allowed wiggle room with midseason open dates so that games postponed due to COVID-19 could be made up. Counting the SEC Championship Game, 71 games were scheduled and 69 were played. Only after Sankey led and the ACC, Big 12, American, Fun Belt and Conference USA followed did Warren wake up from his coma. The Big Ten season was abbreviated, offered no wiggle room to make up games lost and, by all practical accounts, was borderline disaster. Larry Scott made Kevin Warren seem like Einstein reincarnated. When everyone was grumbling that the College Football Playoff was stale and too much of the same old, same old, Sankey was once again was way ahead of everyone else. Make no mistake about it, the expanded 12-team playoff that will invite the six highest ranked conference champs and six at-large teams was Sankey’s doing. It turns out he was working on this BEFORE there was such a thing as a COVID-19 pandemic. Last week, just when we starting to realize how name, image and likeness (NIL) is going to do a Lou (The Tailor) Rosanova on college sports by making permanent alterations, the bombshell that Texas and Oklahoma want to bolt the Big 12 for the SEC leaked out. Confirmed within hours, further investigation uncovered the fact the two schools had been working on this with the SEC FOR SIX MONTHS, which means Sankey has gotten this well past idle chat and into the serious stage. Further proof was the feigned outrage by Texas A&M, the purported leaker of the jailbreak. Feigned, because within 48 hours of the “leak” the Texas A&M president was saying “Bring on Texas!” or words to that effect. Barring a miracle of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace proportions that will keep Texas and Oklahoma in the Big 12, this is going to happen. Texas and Oklahoma will announce their intentions this week and within a matter of a couple weeks, if not sooner, the SEC presidents will do their best Price Is Right impersonations and shout out, “Texas and Oklahoma, come on down!” Now, money has plenty but not all to do with the move. With or without Texas and Oklahoma, every school in the SEC will be cashing yearly checks for $65 million (or more) every year when the new deal with ESPN kicks in. And speaking of ESPN, do understand this – there would be absolutely zero chance that this could get done without ESPN in on the negotiations almost from the beginning. All ESPN has to do is add $40 million a year to its deal with the SEC and everybody is happy. ESPN will make up the difference easily with advertising and have enough extra that every school in the league will get MORE than the guaranteed $20 million payout. As for Texas and Oklahoma, they’ll get a $27 million raise from the $38.3 million a year they get from the Big 12. When you think money, don’t be thinking in terms of greed because greed has very little to do with it. This is about survival pure and simple. Texas was forced to cut six sports because of COVID-19. Oklahoma was forced to cut $13.7 million from its athletic budget. The cuts at both schools were in addition to the lost revenue from a season with 1/4th capacity for home games. SEC schools also lost money, but salaries weren’t cut, budgets weren’t trimmed and not one sport was eliminated. During the spring, the SEC dipped into its substantial reserves and wrote a check to each school in the league to ease the pandemic pains. That, alone, says plenty about why Texas and Oklahoma are leaving. Then there is the matter of Sankey. He has become the single most powerful voice in all of college athletics. NCAA president Mark Emmert, only wishes he had Sankey’s vision and leadership skills. Sankey is busy seeking answers even before others know there is a question that must be asked. With so many issues confronting college athletics the future is cloudy, but with Sankey in charge you get the impression he’ll figure things out. Texas and Oklahoma aren’t willing to stake their futures to anyone but a leader who is 50 years ahead of everyone else. WHAT HAPPENS WITH THE BIG 12? Here are four scenarios for the future of the Big 12. 1. Poach 4 schools from the Pac-12: It has been suggested that the Big 12 lure Colorado, Utah, Arizona and Arizona State from the Pac-12. From a television standpoint, it makes some sense because it would add the large Phoenix, Tucson, Salt Lake and Denver markets to the TV markets in Texas, Kansas City, Oklahoma City and Tulsa. There isn’t a dominant football program in the entire group and you have that teensy problem of West Virginia. It’s 2,052 miles from Morgantown to Tucson. What would make this work would be for West Virginia to be absorbed into the ACC and for BYU be the replacement. 2. Form its own super conference with a merger with the American Athletic Conference: This 16-team league would have Texas Tech, TCU, Baylor, Oklahoma State, Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State and West Virginia from what’s left of the Big 12 merging with Houston, SMU, Tulsa, Tulane, Cincinnati, Memphis, UCF and South Florida. From a TV perspective, you have the Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas City markets adding markets in New Orleans, Memphis, Cincinnati and Florida, so this is a good footprint. It’s actually a better football market than you would get from adding the four teams from the Pac-12 since Cincinnati, UCF and Memphis are as good or better, plus you renew some of the old Southwest Conference rivalries like TCU-SMU. This merger would create a powerful basketball league with a core of Baylor, Kansas, West Virginia, Texas Tech, Houston and Memphis. 3. Become a 12-team league by adding four AAC teams: Cincinnati, Memphis, UCF and South Florida would jump at the chance to join the Big 12. Even with the Big 12 television contract taking a sizeable hit with the loss of Texas and Oklahoma, the new contract will still offer the four AAC teams a better deal than they have now. Adding the Florida markets would be the key to the TV deal but Cincinnati and Memphis add to the league footprint. Cincinnati, Memphis and UCF along with Oklahoma State, Iowa State, Kansas State and TCU aren’t the kind of football powers that make TV marketers drool, but they’re solid. 4. Form a 20-team super conference with the Pac-12: Other than hold a séance or pity party where they sit in a circle, hold hands and do their best Nancy Kerrigan (“Why meeeeeee?”) impersonations what do two conferences in deepest and darkest linguine do to make themselves attractive to a network? It is being suggested in some quarters that the Pac-12 and Big 12 could merge but this would be a logistical nightmare not to mention the fact that the Pac-12s academic people would consider this the equivalent of drinking Pabst at a wine and cheese tailgate. Assuming this merger is being considered, it could have some appeal to Fox Sports which might see real potential in combining the West Coast and Texas television markets. West Virginia would probably balk, but not if it could join the ACC. That could open the door for BYU, which has nearly seven million LDS church members who are BYU fanatics residing in the US. Consider this a longshot proposal but considering the state of desperation that both the Pac-12 and Big 12 are going to be in anything is possible. My conclusion: I’ll take door No. 2, Monty Hall. WHAT WILL THE ACC DO? The ACC finds itself in an almost no-win situation. It’s already a bottom feeder when it comes to money and if it elects to expand, its choices are extremely limited. Let’s start with the money. The SEC already pays out $13 million a year more than the ACC and that gap will widen to at least $30 million a year when the new SEC TV contract goes into effect in 2024. This is WITHOUT Texas and Oklahoma. Nobody is talking about it openly, but the panic alarms are loud and clear when ACC administrators talk to each other. New commissioner Jim Phillips openly courted Notre Dame at ACC Media Days but what incentives can the ACC offer to make league membership attractive for Notre Dame? Even if Notre Dame capitulated and joined, the money gap will be staggering. The Irish are members of the ACC in all sports but football. The price for membership is five football games against ACC opponents each year, which begs the question is there anything remotely appealing about adding three or four more ACC games? Given the choice between a home and home with Wake Forest or one with Southern Cal, Southern Cal wins every time. Joining the ACC would cramp their national schedule in a big way. The ACC can only hope that Notre Dame will feel its College Football Playoff opportunities will be squeezed by SEC expansion. At first the move to 12 teams (champs from the six highest ranked conferences, six at-large) favored Notre Dame but Texas and Oklahoma in the SEC could mean more SEC at-large teams in the playoff, shrinking the at-large bids for everyone else. If Notre Dame caves and joins the ACC for football, that’s the reason. Is there any team besides Notre Dame that can increase the ACC’s dollar value? West Virginia is a good geographic fit and would be very competitive in football and basketball but doesn’t offer anything else whether athletically or in adding scads of new television viewers. Cincinnati is as good a geographic fit as West Virginia and has an up-and-coming football program, but the Ohio TV market is owned by the Buckeyes. You can forget UCF or USF. Neither one has anything in the way of tradition or much in the way of strengthening the league in other sports. Because Florida State and Miami are already in the ACC, UCF and USF wouldn’t add anything in the way of television viewers. My conclusion: Even if the ACC adds Notre Dame it won’t do anything more than halve the gap with the SEC. At best the ACC will be the third best conference in the country. WILL THE BIG TEN JOIN THE EXPANSION FEEDING FRENZY? Thanks to the Big Ten Network, all 14 schools in the league got a $56 million payout prior to the pandemic. The network is so strong that even a boob like Kevin Warren can’t screw things up too badly. If Warren is smart, he will take a very conservative stance while the Big 12, Pac-12 and ACC scramble. The Big Ten doesn’t really need to expand so it can be afford to be patient and selective. Notre Dame is the only school that makes complete and total sense for the Big Ten, but if Notre Dame wants to join a conference it is contractually obligated to the ACC. Past Notre Dame, the choices aren’t great. Kansas fits the league academic profile and would add to the league’s basketball strength, but KU has plenty of baggage with the NCAA right now, particularly in basketball. The KU football program is light years from being competitive. Iowa State is another good academic fit and would be a strong football addition, but doesn’t offer much with the other sports or with television. Missouri, which is a geographic and academic fit, would have to leave the SEC. There would be a financial hit, although not that great. Travel expenses would be less, and Mizzou would be in the Big Ten West, which is weaker. The Big Ten flirted with Missouri 10 years ago and didn’t invite the Tigers to join. It’s highly doubtful there would be an invitation extended now. My conclusion: Kevin Warren lets things play out with the other conferences before deciding whether it’s smart to make a move. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: At SEC Media Days, first year Auburn coach Bryan Harsin went on the record that he will not even discuss COVID-19 vaccinations with his team. Harsin went on to say, “It’s deeply personal for a lot of people and so, that’s how we approach it: Here’s the information. You make the decision.” The SEC wants every team to be at least 80 percent vaccinated to prevent the kind of teamwide outbreaks that could result in games being forfeited and seasons disrupted. Right now, Harsin says Auburn is at 60 percent. It seems to me the head coach needs to do whatever he has to do to get his team within the minimum threshold. Anything less than a serious effort to get the team vaccinated is irresponsible.

Each team is—pardon the cliched pun—like a snowflake. The 2018 Florida Gators were not the 2019 Florida Gators who were not the 2020 Florida Gators. There were strengths and weaknesses on each team and those often didn’t translate to the following year. The same will be true for the 2021 version of the Florida Gators. For that matter, so much of this team is unknown. Its pundits, experts and fans alike have assumed Florida will take a step back, following its SEC East title last season. “I don’t even know what type of team we’re gonna have this year and I’m there every day,” joked Head Coach Dan Mullen to reporters during SEC Media Days this past week. But, as Mullen pointed out, that also means Florida can be a much better team that anyone could imagine. That has largely been the case since Mullen arrived ahead of the 2018 season. Each year, the Gators program has exceeded expectations set forth in the offseason. Last year, that meant a record-setting offense and disappointing defense. But the latter also had ample veteran experience. "But I mean, if you look at it , there's a lot to replace or there's a lot of excitement that guys get to go replace that and have been waiting for their opportunity to go do that,” said Mullen. So, being a different team than the 2020 squad could be considered a negative; or, as Mullen and the team see, it could also mean the ceiling is even higher. “We'll be a different team this year than we were last year,” continued Mullen, “but I think our guys also understand that we can adapt around the strengths of our players and our system and they don't have to fit into the team we were last year. They have to play to their strengths in order to be successful.” Playing to players strengths is a specialty of Mullen and his staff. So what are the strengths of this 2021 team? And for that matter—and perhaps just as important—what are the weaknesses? Because although Mullen might not know what type of team he’ll have this fall, he has seen enough to know which unit requires little worry, and which keeps him up at night. While in Hoover for SEC Media Days, GatorBait asked Mullen to break down which unit he’d apply to each category. “Running backs would be the least worried,” the coach answered, without hesitation. “I mean that's a good, deep room right now with some veteran players.” Seniors Dameon Pierce and Malik Davis both come to the field with two very different but complimentary styles. Pierce is more of a bowling ball bruiser, while Davis—who isn’t afraid to go north and south—is more of a lithe guy, even capable of playing in the slot if needed. Lorenzo Lingard, the Miami transfer, and Nay’quan Wright are both younger guys who Mullen commented have taken “big steps forward in the offseason” as well as “big leaps to compete” with Pierce and Davis. Lingard and Wright offer a yin and yang much like Pierce and Davis. Then to round out the group, there’s the former 5-star, sought-after Clemson transfer, Demarcus Bowman. Mullen confirmed in Hoover that Bowman’s transfer is complete and he is eligible to play. After losing so much production on the outside, with not as much there to replace the seven receivers put into the NFL the past two years, Florida could understandably go to the ground game more. Or, to put it another way, could go to a game plan that better utilizes the running back room. Mullen has proven he can work an entire game through that one unit, as the Georgia 2020 win would prove, aka the “Wheel Route” game.” In short, any of the five could be starters. Instead, they’ll look to form a cohesive group that is strong top to bottom, and versatile enough to carry an offense. It’s the least of Dan Mullen’s worries with the 2021 Florida Gators and understandably so. There’s a flip side of that though; a unit that Mullen can’t help but cast in worry. It’s the group that hindered the Gators last season but the coach’s reason for concern this fall is for a vastly different reason. “It would probably be the youth of our secondary,” admitted Mullen. He’s quick to follow that up with an explanation that it’s, “not as much depth or talent, as it is youth.” At corner, the Gators are led by a star; First Team preseason All-SEC corner Kaiir Elam. Opposite him was a revolving door last fall, but this year Mullen anticipates a healthy Jaydon Hill taking full control outside. “I expect [Hill] to jump into being a starter, being an every down player for us this season. So really excited to see that growth throughout his career. You talk about development and you look at the growth throughout their career, people get all excited, I want to see this guy play right away. I'm more excited in seeing consistent growth throughout your career, and Jaydon is a guy that's done that.” Behind Elam and Hill though stands a safety unit that is full of youth. And while the unknown can be exciting in many areas, there is still an uneasy hangover from last season, and Mullen isn’t ready to trust what he doesn’t know just yet. “I look and I say hey here's a talented group of guys; I think they do understand the sense of urgency of their growth and development and they got an opportunity late in the year last year, to kind of, ‘I’m gonna put you in a situation’ and they walked off the field and said ‘hey in recruiting I thought I was ready, now I realize I'm really not.’” That young group includes Rashad Torrence II, Donovan McMillion and Kamar Wilcoxson to name a few. The potential wildcard could be Trey Dean III. The senior was a corner his freshman season, the nickel for most of his sophomore season before being benched for Marco Wilson, then was put into a reserve role his junior season. It was a humbling experience that forced Dean to reevaluate what he meant to and could bring to his team. Even if that meant going back to safety, a position he last played in high school, where he’s the most natural, and now with a better understanding. “The overall adversity, it’s gonna help me,” Dean told GatorBait after the 2019 season. “Cause playing STAR allowed me to really understand the defense so now I know corner and STAR so if I were to move to safety, I already know what the STAR’s doing, I know what the corner’s doing so I kinda know where I need—ok I know what the quarterback’s seeing cause I know these spots gonna be covered if I jump this route.” With Dean back at safety and Elam at corner, they could provide the anchor to a unit that would otherwise be floating in the wind. If the young DB’s around them can match their talent to the speed of the game quickly, Dan Mullen will get a lot more sleep at night. Said Mullen, “I think that group now has the opportunity to go show what they can do and if they, if they mature quickly we can have a really good secondary.”

While at SEC Media Days, kicking off the 2021 football season, Florida Gators Head Coach Dan Mullen spoke about quarterback Emory Jones, how the Gators are dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, the possibility of playing Alabama more often and much more. As a valued GatorBait subscriber, we are offering this transcript in full. COMMISSIONER SANKEY: I'm back. I think it's afternoon now. Good afternoon. Our first coach of SEC 2021 Media Days is Dan Mullen. He enters his fourth season at Florida, 13th overall as a head coach in the SEC. A bunch of stats on here, and I asked Dan for permission. One of the unique things in life is the connections you make with people. There was a young man in Omaha I met who was there with his team. His name was Jeffery Simmons. You may recall many years ago being here, a lot of concern about Jeffery's entry. Jeffery was a remarkable story, remarkable to meet that young man. I just said to Jeffery how much I respected how, once he entered with the noise, he led his life as a person, and still, is as a person, and Dan brought him in, coached him for two years, and then had to play against him a third year. Jeffery is one of those instances, one of those many where we do things right. Some tough things, but some right things in college athletics. With that, Dan Mullen, the head coach of the University of Florida. DAN MULLEN: Thank you, Commissioner. It's great to be up here. Great to see all of you again. I know he asked me about that. Jeffery is an extraordinary young man and one of the reasons why you coach is to make a positive impact on people's lives. Hopefully, I was able to make a positive impact on Jeffery Simmons' life, and I can guarantee you he'll make a positive impact on a lot of people's lives for years to come. That's one of the reasons we coach. I know we don't always -- people don't see it that way or that part of it as the limelight, but one of the reasons, the biggest reason, really, a coach can make a positive impact on young men's lives. I want to say it's great to be up here. It's really exciting to be back, to see everyone here, and the excitement of Media Days, the excitement of the season coming up, being live in person again, not having to look at everyone through computer screens, and to do that. I'm really excited to be here, excited to get this season kicked off. We open up at home against Florida Atlantic. FAU is going to be a Saturday night in The Swamp, can't wait. I know the excitement, the energy. Last year was a hard year for everybody, but now as you start to see these different sporting events, you look at things that are going on with the Lightning winning the Stanley Cup and the energy in the stadium, and you realize how much you missed that, even getting to watch the College World Series in Omaha, seeing basically the entire state of Mississippi move to Omaha to cheer on Mississippi State and have them win that National Championship for the Southeastern Conference and for Mississippi State and the people of Mississippi. Winning that National Championship was amazing. But that energy in the stadium, those are things that we really missed, and I can't wait for that opening night in The Swamp to feel that energy and excitement of our fans and everybody coming out to see us come play again. A lot of exciting things going on for us right now. After coming off a great year, obviously, a little bit of challenge. Offensively it will be different this year. Two first rounders last year on the offensive side of the ball and a second rounder at quarterback. Guys leaving on to the NFL. It's great to see those guys have that success and go on to the next stage, but there's a lot of production to go fill offensively that we're really excited about on the offensive side of the ball. We have a couple quarterbacks that have experience. I know Emory Jones coming back and Anthony Richardson competing for that job with him, but if you look at those guys and what they've been able to do with the experience they have. If you get into statistics and go look at Emory Jones' statistics, he's a guy that's played a bunch of football. He's not coming in as a guy that's never played before. So I'm really excited about that. \We lost a lot of production at the receiver and tight end position, but we still have a lot coming back. We rotate those guys a lot. We try to do a great job at creating depth at those position. Media Days last year, I know you would have said: You just lost four receivers in the NFL Draft. How do you come back with production in the passing game? We're able to come back because of our system playing a lot of different guys, they've had experience. The next guys are going to have the opportunity to get the ball in their hands and make things happen. Then we also have a lot of veteran players on the offensive line, especially at the running back position this year. So that's going to be -- we'll be a little bit different offensively, but that's part of the fun of coaching is being able to adapt and change and build around the players that we have. Defensive attitude. Today we brought two of our defensive players with us, Zach Carter and Ventrell Miller. You look at the leadership those guys bring on defense that we have. We have some really young players in the secondary, but you have Trey Dean and Kyler Engel with some experience coming back there. Really to me the attitude of where our defense is at is what I'm really pleased with. The energy, we play a lot of guys defensively, roll guys through to keep them fresh and healthy, and I'm really excited of the mindset, the attitude that the defense as a whole is bringing to the table and the leadership that they have within our program. A lot of big things for this year. We've been to three straight new years six bowl games. Hopefully, we can get that one step further into a New Year's Six playoff game this year. I'd love the opportunity to get back to Atlanta to compete for another SEC Championship this year like we did last year. It was really exciting. We have progress coming along on the Heavener Football Complex, which is going to be really the premier facility in all of college football, and I hope next year we'll be in a brand-new facility with a lot of exciting things happening. On campus, a lot of exciting things happening. We have starting Friday with the Opening Ceremony, we'll have 30 Gators in the Olympics starting this Friday. So it's an exciting time. But the biggest excitement obviously is being here, seeing all of you in person again, and the excitement of knowing that here in six weeks away we're going to be back in and playing college football in front of the Gator Nation out there in The Swamp, and really excited to kick this year off and get that going. Q. What percentage of your team has been vaccinated for COVID? DAN MULLEN: I'm not going to get into the specific numbers right now, but I think we're doing very well with that, with those numbers. I think, when you look at COVID and what we dealt with last year, I think our medical staff, Paul Silvestri, our training staff, has done a phenomenal job of educating our players. Obviously, in the state of Florida, our governor has done an amazing job with the accessibility of the vaccine for quite a while now. And we have the UF Shands Hospital system, throughout the entire pandemic has done an amazing job of what we've done. So we're at a pretty high number of vaccinated players right now, but I think that the medical staff and really looking at Governor DeSantis, what he's been able to do, and the leadership of UF Shands Hospital system on campus has really been beneficial for our program and the university as a whole. We're getting close to the threshold numbers that you need to be at. Q. Given your quarterback scenario that you mentioned a moment ago, do you feel like you maybe go back to your bread-and-butter roots? Is there a tweak to your system that you think these guys will offer? DAN MULLEN: I guess after -- I think, as Greg mentioned, 13 years here, I don't know what my bread and butter is because we've been all over the place with every different style of quarterback. If you go back, even being a coordinator, you go back to the Alex Smiths and the Chris Leaks, through the Tebows, to Tyler Russell and Dak Prescott. There's been so many different variations. I think the key to it is, and one of the reasons we've been successful is, never try to take a square peg and put it into a round hole. It's identifying what our guys do really well and build around the strengths of not just the quarterback, but the offense as a whole. We will go to do that this year and build around the strengths of our quarterbacks. Q. I wanted to ask about a local kid from my community, Jaydon Hill, the progress he's made in your defense. I know the secondary is a big key for you guys to bounce back this year. And we know, obviously after the Missouri game last year, you're a Star Wars fan. What is your favorite movie of the genre? DAN MULLEN: Jaydon Hill is much easier than the Star Wars question, right? You can go so many different directions with the Star Wars question. Jaydon Hill has done an amazing job. You're looking at a young guy who was injured in high school, came in, played for us, got over that injury, has continued to work, has had a great mindset, a great attitude. Obviously really -- great family, high character, excellent student in the classroom, studies the game. You look -- I think he's going now into his third season with us. That first year, kind of learning and figuring it out. Second year you get the opportunity and take a growth to learn where you are. We really -- I expect him to jump into being a starter, being an every down player for us this season. So really excited to see that growth throughout his career. You talk about development and you look at the growth throughout their career, people get all excited, I want to see this guy play right away. I'm more excited in seeing consistent growth throughout your career, and Jaydon is a guy that's done that. Q. I want to ask about Mohamoud Diabate. What have you seen from him this off-season, and what do you feel he can do with the defense this year? DAN MULLEN: Mohamoud is a really great athlete, dynamic player with speed of burst coming off the edge. I think he's a guy, because of that, you've seen it. I love creating matchup issues. I think, if you watched us offensively last year with guys, we try to do a great job and spent a lot of time with Todd and the defensive staff and make sure we're creating positive matchups. Mohamoud is a guy who creates matchup issues for guys. Now, when you see him as he's growing into being a linebacker and you see him growing into the instincts of being an every down player, now is where the matchups become a problem because now I can be an every down player, a backer, but I can come off the edge, I can carry people in coverage, I understand the defense as a whole, and now I get to use my athleticism to become a dynamic playmaker. Q. Dan, do you think it's harder to win a championship now than when you guys did it at Florida when you were an offensive coordinator in '06 and '08? DAN MULLEN: I don't know. There's more teams in the league, so I guess statistically speaking it would make it harder. I think the league right now is -- that was at the beginning of where the league is today, so I think top to bottom, the league is probably even at a higher level now than it was then on top to bottom teams. So I think that part of it makes it a little harder. There were some unbelievable high-end teams back then. I remember going in '08, the SEC Championship game was No. 1 against -- I think we were No. 2 at Florida and Alabama was 1. I think we were 2 or 3. So when you're looking there, that the high end was still there of teams that are going to compete for the National Championship, but I think the depth has certainly grown in the league and made it more difficult on a week-to-week basis. Q. Coach, after the Bowl game last year and the opt-outs that you guys had, you said, hey, something's going to need to change with the postseason. Just wondering your feelings on the proposed 12-team playoff, and are you for that? DAN MULLEN: I don't know. You have to look at it. Honestly, I could pull up my Jurgen Klopp and say, that's a question for Commissioner Sankey. I'm just here to coach football. I think change -- I think, when the playoffs started, if you'd have asked me, you created the four-team playoff, I'm sure someone did, if you ever look back in the files. I said, it's going to change a lot of things about college football, not immediately, but it will in the long haul, it will change a lot of things about college football. I think eventually it will, and eventually we will end up getting to an expansion. I would imagine that would come sometime in the future. I think we're still learning. It's interesting to see. Last year we had several opt-outs during the Bowl game. Now, last year was also a very, very difficult year as a whole mentally and emotionally for players, and the previous two years we didn't have any opt-outs for Bowl games. When you look at it, I don't know if that was a one-off or how that was going to change in the long-term picture of how that will change things, but it's going to be interesting to see. I think college football will continue to evolve, and once the playoff system started, I think that was just the first step of the college football old Bowl system that you knew and the college football we knew changing into the future. Q. I was just wondering what your thoughts are on the name, image, and likeness now, how things are going with you guys at Florida? DAN MULLEN: It's a learning curve, obviously. You're looking at the state law that we have in Florida, and any time you're adapting to a new law within the state and a new law that directly affected our football program, there's a big learning curve. I'm really excited about it. I'm excited about the opportunities it presents our players. I think it's great for the players, but I think there is a big learning curve. We had a team meeting on it this morning, of continuing to educate ourselves, educate each other, continue to grow and learn within the law. What's the best way to help the players operating within the law and doing things the right way? So I think we're going to be on a learning curve here for a little bit of time as we get into it. I have to get special name, image, and likeness lawyers interpreting the state law to make sure that we get it set the right way. Q. What caught your eye initially about Emory Jones, like going back years ago? Where has he grown the most in all this time you've known him, and what are your expectations of him? DAN MULLEN: I think you know me with quarterbacks, I have very, very high expectations of my quarterbacks. My expectations are very high. It goes back to recruiting. When I got hired at Florida, I had a message that Emory sent me. I just sent him a text. He was committed to another school at the time, and he sent a text. And he says, "Coach, when this shakes out, be ready. I want to be your quarterback." And not, "I want to look at Florida, I want to consider this or I'm thinking about flipping schools." It was, "I want to be your quarterback." So that part, when you look at who guys are, is so critical and who they become. Then if you look at his progression -- I mean, he came in as a very celebrated high school player, highly ranked player, and I think for a couple years now, he's learned, he's grown, he's developed. He's a completely different player he was when he walked in, in his understanding of the game and in his maturity. I have a lot of respect for guys. I think, if you watch and you look at a lot of guys who have had success throughout the years, he had an opportunity to look at a Kyle Trask, who went from pretty much an unrecruited player, who came in and worked, prepared, bought his time, learned how to do it the right way, all of a sudden was a Heisman Trophy finalist and now is an NFL player and a second round draft pick in the NFL. When you look at that, you look at a Dak Prescott, who didn't play for his first several years on campus, and now is one of the highest paid athletes in the country this year. I think Emory has shown the maturity early on that it wasn't I have to play from day one, it's I have to continue to be developed from day one to prepare for my moment and my time, and that's what he's been able to do. As I said, you're looking at a guy, as he comes into the season, he's not coming in with a stat line of nothing. He's coming in with a stat line that he's played in key times in significant games. I think that's huge, and it's prepared him for this time. Q. Dan, what's the biggest reason that your defense never figured it out last year? DAN MULLEN: I don't know about that because I think, if you look in different games, we're a very maybe erratic defensively at different times, but there's a lot of different things that go into that. There's some games we played really, really well defensively. There's games where I thought we played well, but statistically maybe weren't great. And if you look in a lot of those games, if you were going to play us on the other side of the ball, you had to play a different style game maybe than you wanted to or expected to and take a lot of chances because we were going to try to score points and keep up with us, or we jumped out to a big lead and you were just kind of -- you know, just throw caution to the wind to try to put up yards and points as fast as possible. There's other games, one or two early in the year, I certainly think the learning curve of missing a spring practice and the time off and the speed of the game of going to tackle live for the players and the time off of not being able to do that, I think that showed early in the season, and that improved as the year went on. I don't know if there's one thing to say that it was statistically was not where we want to be, but when I look and I go through game by game situations, I think it's easy to identify in this game here were our issues, and it wasn't one specific thing. Q. Alabama will be visiting Gainesville for the first time given the quirks of the SEC schedule, first time in ten years. Just talk about the opportunity to play that game in sort of a non-neutral setting and have the home crowd for that game. DAN MULLEN: Yeah, I think it's really exciting. I don't want to get the commissioner in trouble here, but I'd love us to maybe do away with the permanent crossover team so you get these type of games more often. I think for the players, for the fan bases, I really think it's exciting to see some more of maybe mixing up the teams from the west and playing two different teams each year instead of a permanent crossover. I think that would be really exciting so you get this matchup. I think that's going to be an exciting day. It's going to be a great atmosphere. It's going to be a fun game to be a part of, and as you said, for ten years we haven't seen it. We'd love to see that more. There's ten teams that will visit -- there's non-conference teams that will visit The Swamp a lot more than conference teams. I think you'd love to see maybe a better rotation of those teams. Q. I also had a schedule question for you. Your take on this, it's interesting, you've got a front loaded kind of home schedule, and after October 9th, you don't play another conference home game. I want to get your take on how that might shake out. DAN MULLEN: Well, yeah, because our conference home game is in Jacksonville this year, and when you play a neutral site game, it kind of throws off your home and away schedule. We have one already set, I think you know. I mean, I don't know how you'd ever do it, but if the league ever wanted to go to a nine-game schedule, which I don't think anybody's jumping up and down about right now, but I guess what you do is play four home, four away, and a neutral site game, and you could find different ways or matchups that everybody got to do that. That would be one interesting way to do it. Then you have the same number of home and away games. But our one game in that stretch that would be that would be the Georgia game, and that's going to be in Jacksonville. Q. You mentioned Jeffery Simmons a little bit earlier, your overall tenure there at Mississippi State. How much do examples like him still stick out as something you try to incorporate with what you're doing at Florida? DAN MULLEN: Well, a ton. I think, when you look at players and you look at guys that have become successful, as I touched on earlier, the most rewarding thing about being a coach is seeing a young person become successful and accomplishing goals and living out their dreams. There is no -- to me, there's no more rewarding thing as a coach than that. We've won championships. We've won a lot of games, lost some games, but really the thing that sticks to me as rewarding is helping a young person accomplish their goals and their dreams in life. So those are the ones that stick with you. I had a lot of great players that played for me throughout the years, a lot of guys at Mississippi State that played for me, and when you see the success stories they have -- and I'm not talking about, obviously, Jeffery in his personal life, Jeffery in his football life, extremely successful, but you can go all the way. It's beyond football. It's guys on the field and the success they have off the field and the family men they are now is one of the things that makes you most proud of as a coach, and that's really the most rewarding thing that you get as a coach. Q. Wondering with Josh Heupel coming over from the state of Florida, if you can share any thoughts or insights on what you think about Josh Heupel. DAN MULLEN: I was going through my years. I don't know that I ever faced him. I know he's been successful everywhere he's been throughout his career, and so I think he'll bring a lot of excitement. I know offensively they're always a challenge. They're an exciting team to watch, have a great system, put up some big numbers. So it will be a great challenge to finally get the opportunity to go against him. Q. When you look at Alabama's recruiting success in the state of Florida, I think they've pulled more five stars from that state than any other school, even the Florida schools. How do you go about battling that? Are you concerned about that? How do you go about changing the tide of that? DAN MULLEN: A couple things. They've built the program. Nick's been there a long time and has done a good job of building a consistent program and consistency within his program. I guess the short answer of that is -- I mean, there's -- nobody asked my opinion on ratings. So maybe I'd rate everybody differently on who we go after and who we want, that way. But for us, I think the facilities that we're getting caught up with, when you look at the University of Florida now and you look at the only school in America that is a top ten public university academically and really considered a top ten football program consistently over the last three years, you're looking at that change. You look at the facilities we have academically, the opportunity to play in The Swamp, the opportunity now with name, image, and likeness and what that means to kids in Florida and how they'll be able to brand themselves within their hometowns in Florida. Then you look at the Heavener Football Complex coming up, now to catch us up facility-wise with other teams in America, that's really, I think, how it's going to change where, if you look at it, that's a school of saying, hey, I don't know if there's a better place you can go in America than Florida. If you want the complete package, if you want every aspect of it with alumni connections, with the education, with the opportunity to play for championships and the facilities, I don't know if there's a better place than Florida.

“Thinking about my friend Bobby Bowden tonight. He was a great rival and is a great man. I’ll be keeping you and your family in our prayers, Bobby.” Steve Spurrier. My heart is with Bobby Bowden today. Deion Sanders’ coach. He’s probably the main reason Deion would rather be called “Coach” than by his first name, or the trademarked super-moniker he picked for himself, “Prime Time.” Sanders walked off the set of an interview at SWAC Media Days in anger, feigned or otherwise, because the interviewer called him “Deion” and not “Coach.” While I respect that Coach Sanders is trying to give back to the Historic Black Colleges, it feels like he’s playing the disrespect card in order to leverage his preference of his title “Coach,” as compared to earning it or having it conferred upon him as an anointment. A man is entitled to be called what he chooses, but must the media be mandated to adopt it? No. “You wouldn’t call Nick Saban ‘Nick,’” said Sanders. Well, yes, you would, as many have. (And Nick said he really didn’t care. See below.) The word “Coach” is not mandated, perhaps like “Doctor” or “Senator” or “Mayor.” ‘Coach Deion’ walks off the set https://www.instagram.com/reel/CRl-ikZguVT/?utm_medium=copy_link What does all this have to do with SEC Media Days? Nothing. And Everything. The irony was that it happened on the same day it was announced that Sanders’ own coach was terminally ill. Just when it seemed the air in Alabama was sweet with anticipation, spiked by the joy of football’s return, a pall was cast over Hoover. The news of Bobby Bowden’s illness was a grim and painful reminder of how quickly things that really matter can change and become extracted from our lives. It almost took your breath away. Just when it felt like the grip of The Grim Reaper had been somewhat loosened came this. There was already other news galore breaking, and not all of it in Alabama. Nick Saban did a little pre-emptive shot before he got there by announcing that his quarterback, Bryce Young, was already entertaining offers of “nearly seven figures.” Which caused me to wonder: If Young stayed in Tuscaloosa four years, could he make $4-5 million before he ever turned pro? There was also the explosive report that two CFB powerhouses were eyeballing a new home in the SEC, already the most powerful conference in amateur sports. When a reporter at the Wynfrey Hotel confronted Texas A&M Coach Jimbo Fisher about the news of Oklahoma and Texas having interest in the SEC, he responded: “I guess they do! We’ve got the greatest league in Ball!” It also fell to Jimbo to field the first question about his late boss and friend – “friend” despite those rumors of their disdain for each other – and mentor. He won 12 ACC championships and two national titles, but Coach Bowden never won an SEC, mainly because he never coached in the league. But his influence was felt everywhere by everybody. Every single coach at SEC Media Days — and those who’d come before them — felt sad and compassionate. Even his staunchest rival, who posted the above photo with this message: “Thinking about my friend Bobby Bowden tonight. He was a great rival and is a great man. I’ll be keeping you and your family in our prayers, Bobby.” Steve Spurrier. I don’t expect everybody to recall every detail of the Florida-FSU rivalry in the Spurrier-Bowden Era, but as somebody who has watched every play of every game since the Florida-FSU series began in the late ‘50s, trust me on this: There has never been -- nor will there never again be -- anything like it. For a time the best CFB rivalry in the country. A corker! That was more than one main topic during Media Days, not news broken out of Hoover. And in many ways, the condition of Coach Bowden overshadowed everything. What was his illness? We didn’t find out until the Bowden family announced it was pancreatic cancer. Later, son Terry, head coach at the University of Louisiana Monroe, offered more specifics: "We've been preparing for this,” Terry told the Associated Press. “We know when you have pancreatic cancer, which is what the disease is, you're probably talking months, not years, so we know that. We just think we've got some more good days ahead, and we're going to enjoy those together. "I would plead that all people would respect the fact he needs to rest when he's up. He doesn't need a lot of phone calls, or a lot of people talking on the phone. You know my dad; he has never turned down an interview in his life. He'll be on his deathbed (doing) an interview the last minute like he does it. But, that's Bobby Bowden." In other news, as they say in the big-time, these snippets emerged: --Commissioner Greg Sankey informing us that teams which can’t muster enough players due Covid will have to forfeit games instead of rescheduling them. He is pushing for all the consider vaccinations as a deterrent. --Dan Mullen, first up after Sankey, looked relaxed and fit and tan, enjoying his new Jordan 3’s kicks, seemingly optimistic and confident, saying he couldn’t wait to go home and work on his wake-boarding. (The video of him doing a 360, popular online, was run several times by ESPN.) Mullen also chastised the “independent contractors” on last year’s defensive team and said they were not focused on playing “11-man defense.” But back to the appropriate title. For the record, since Coach Sanders brought it up, Saban clarified his preference, all of which makes the contention over the use of the title “Coach” seem churlish and pedantic. Someone finally asked Saban how we should address him. “I answer to just about anything. And I’ve been called just about everything.” He said he really doesn’t care what we call him. I’d say he should demand to be called The GOAT.

We have been down this road before. No one should be remotely surprised that the tidal waves of change in college sports usually have their origins in the Southeastern Conference. If the reports that originated with the Houston Chronicle on Wednesday are true, then the SEC is about to turn college sports on their ear once again. Many credible sources have confirmed the Chronicle report that Texas and Oklahoma are ready to bolt the Big 12 Conference to join the SEC, turning what is already the most powerful league in college athletics into a virtual King Kong, particularly for football. It seemed like nothing more than a juicy rumor when first reported Thursday morning but that rumor has grown legs and taken on a life of its own in less than a day, helped by SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, who essentially punted when asked if there was any truth to it. That was followed by both Texas and Oklahoma issuing rather bland, non-committal statements that neither confirmed nor denied their interest in making the move. Call them non-denial denials. Sankey never said, “That’s just a rumor.” He never said, “We’re quite content with our current 14-team league.” He simply said he was focused on the 2021 season. This is the most powerful man in all of college sports. Had he said there is nothing to the rumor, it would have died on the vine. By basically ignoring the question, his answer spoke volumes that there is already discussion going on to expand the SEC. When pressed for their comments, neither Texas nor Oklahoma offered a vote of confidence for the Big 12. They could have said, “We love the Big 12 and we’re eager to help negotiate a great new television contract.” They could have offered a flat-out denial, but they didn’t. They offered bland statements that essentially said they aren’t going to talk about rumors and speculation. To do so would have forced either a lie or confirmation and neither one were ready to do anything except live under the cone of silence. When Big 12 athletic directors held a conference call Thursday evening for the purpose of getting a commitment from all member schools to sign a 5-year extension to the current media agreement, neither Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte nor Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione participated. Their absence was like throwing a couple of 50-gallon gas cans on a bonfire to the SEC speculation. To the Big 12 hopes of staving off a raid of its two most powerful members, it was an 8-inch stiletto to the heart. That Oklahoma and Texas weren’t on the call spurred whispers from more than one industry analyst to say it’s all but a done deal that they will be leaving. If they do bolt, you can just about bet the farm that the ripples we are feeling now will soon become a tidal wave that will completely alter the college sports landscape. That the SEC finds itself at the cutting edge of the societal evolution that is college sports should be expected. After all, it was the SEC that was the first conference to expand to 12 teams for the purpose of staging a conference championship football game. Florida State and Miami were the first choices of SEC commissioner Roy Kramer but when both said no (FSU joined the ACC in 1991, Miami stayed in the Big East until 2004), South Carolina and Arkansas were added. The first SEC Championship Game in football was held at Legion Field in Birmingham in 1992 with Florida’s Shane Matthews lighting up Alabama and nearly springing the upset of the year before the Gators fell, 28-21. Less than a month later, Alabama ended Miami’s 29-game winning streak to take the national championship. Four years later, the Big Eight absorbed Texas, Texas Tech, Baylor and Texas A&M from the Southwest Conference to form the Big 12. The Atlantic Coast Conference added Florida State in 1991, then expanded again in 2004 to 12 teams. The Big Ten added Penn State in 1990 and expanded to 12 in 2011. The Pac-10 expanded to 12 teams in 2011 also. The SEC, ACC and Big Ten have since expanded to 14 teams. It was the SEC that first proposed the BCS as a way of determining a national champion in football. It was the SEC under Mike Slive that first proposed a playoff. It was shot down but it led to a better format than the BCS for determining the national champ. When it came to the creation of the current 4-team College Football Playoff, again it was the SEC that led the way. It is the SEC that has also produced four of the seven champions in the 4-team playoff era. Football is the twin V-12, 750 horsepower engines that drive the Good Ship SEC and the addition of a pair of schools that have combined to win 11 national championships (Oklahoma 7, Texas 4) will only make the SEC – winner of 12 national championships since 2003 – even more powerful than it already is. Football is the driving force behind the 10-year, $300 million a year contract the SEC has with ESPN that kicks in in 2024. That will provide a net increase of $17 million a year for each of the SEC’s 14 schools, bringing with it a payoff of $63 million a year or more per school. The network payout gap between the SEC and the Big 12 is about $7 million a year now. The Big 12 contract with Fox and ESPN expires in 2025 and there is no way a new contract will offer much more than the current $38 million-plus payout. The SEC won’t have to hold a gun to the head of the executives of ESPN/ABC to re-negotiate the TV contract to include Texas and Oklahoma, either. The extra $40 million a year to cover the cost of two new teams will be made up in advertising revenue when Texas and Oklahoma start playing the likes of Florida, Georgia, Alabama and LSU on a yearly basis. It’s a network scheduler’s dream scenario. The SEC Game of the Week is already the best in college football. It will be even bigger with expansion. Now throw in something like an Alabama-Oklahoma SEC Championship Game? Or Florida-Oklahoma? The ad revenues from that game alone would be monstrous. And football isn’t the only sport that would benefit. In addition to their 11 national championship history in football, Texas and Oklahoma bring a combined 82 national championships in other sports. The SEC won seven national championships in 2021. Texas won three and Oklahoma one. For example, the SEC would pick up Oklahoma’s championship level gymnastics and softball programs as well as Texas’ powerhouse baseball and swimming programs. Oklahoma has wrestling and men’s gymnastics so those programs would find a new league in the same way Florida and Vanderbilt lacrosse play in the American Athletic Conference and South Carolina men’s soccer competes in Conference USA. Texas and Oklahoma are the cash cows of the Big 12, which will shrink from 10 to eight teams if they leave. Commissioner Bob Bowlsby would have to make some unprecedented moves to save the league from extinction. It was suggested by Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports that the league could boldly go after Colorado, Utah, Arizona and Arizona State from the Pac-12 to expand to 12 teams and offset the loss of Texas and Oklahoma. That move would be far more palatable to a TV network like Fox or CBS than raiding the American Athletic Conference for Cincinnati, Memphis, UCF and South Florida but it still won’t equal what the SEC has to offer. If the Pac-12 were to lose four schools to the Big 12, it would face an expand-or-die mandate that might force the additions of San Diego State, Boise State, BYU and UNLV. Although those four don’t measure up academically to the rest of the Pac-12, survival will be at the core of whatever is next. Of course, the Pac-12 could move boldly and try to lure the three Texas schools – Baylor, TCU, Texas Tech – and add Oklahoma State to expand its television footprint. Kansas, with its basketball tradition, will be a prize that the Big Ten might try to pry away but Kansas and Kansas State have always been joined at the hip. Would the Big Ten be willing to add both Kansas schools? And what happens to Iowa State? At ACC Media Days Thursday, new commissioner Jim Phillips made it perfectly clear he’s been sending out overtures to Notre Dame, which is independent in football but an ACC member in all other men’s and women’s sports. The addition of Notre Dame and a cherry pick of West Virginia from the Big 12 would make a nice expansion to 16 teams for the ACC. *** The College Football Playoff is going to be expanding from four to 12 teams. An expanded playoff will benefit the Southeastern Conference if the league takes the right approach to league play. Currently, the SEC features two 7-team divisions. If the league were to follow the same format, it would essentially create a pair of separate conferences within the conference. Here is what a two-division league would look like: SEC EAST Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Alabama, Auburn SEC WEST LSU, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Arkansas, Texas A&M, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas Obviously, there would be seven games against division teams, but it would take at least three games against teams from the opposite division to make sure that every school in the league benefits from expansion. As we’ve seen from the current format, it takes years for a team from the SEC East to play all the teams from the West. This year, for example, Florida will be playing host to Alabama. The last time Alabama came to Gainesville for a game was 2011 and the last regular season meeting between Florida and Alabama was 2014 in Tuscaloosa. This might create an opportunity for the SEC to do something cutting edge like four 4-team quads that could ensure that every team in the league plays every single team home-and-home at least once every four years. It would mean a 9-game SEC schedule and would work like this: Using Florida as an example, joined by Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee in quad one. Florida would play Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee either home or away every single year. The Gators would then play two teams from the other three quads on a home-and-home basis. After two years, the Gators would play the other two teams from each quad home-and-home. With the 9-game schedule, Florida would still be playing Florida State on a yearly basis and would have room to add two other non-conference games. Here is what four 4-team quads could look like and what each quad would look like in terms of championship quality: QUAD ONE Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee National championships from this quad Football (8): Tennessee (1938, 1951, 1998); Florida (1996, 2006, 2008); Georgia (1942, 1980) Men’s basketball (2): Florida (2006, 2007) Women’s basketball (8): Tennessee (1987, 1989, 1991, 1996, 1997, 2007, 2008); South Carolina (2017) Baseball (4): South Carolina (2010, 2011); Florida (2017); Georgia (1990) Softball (2): Florida (2014, 2015) Men’s outdoor track (8): Florida (2012, 2013, 2016, 2017); Tennessee (1974, 1991, 2001); Georgia (2018) Women’s outdoor track (2): Tennessee (1981); South Carolina (2002) Men’s indoor track (6): Florida (2010, 2011, 2012, 2018, 2019); Tennessee (2002) Women’s indoor track (3): Tennessee (2005, 2009); Florida (1992); Georgia (2018) Men’s cross country (1): Tennessee (1972) Men’s tennis (7): Georgia (1985, 1987, 1999, 2001, 2007, 2008); Florida (2021) Women’s tennis (9): Florida (1992, 1996, 1998, 2003, 2011, 2013, 2017); Georgia (1994, 2000) Men’s golf (6): Florida (1968, 1973, 1993, 2001); Georgia (1999, 2005) Women’s golf (3): Florida (1985, 1986); Georgia (2001) Men’s swimming (3): Florida (1983, 1984); Tennessee (1978) Women’s swimming (10): Georgia (1999, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2013, 2014, 2016); Florida (1979, 1982, 2010) Gymnastics (14): Georgia (1987, 1989, 1993, 1998, 1999, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009); Florida (1982, 2013, 2014, 2015) Soccer (1): Florida (1999) Equestrian (6): Georgia (2003, 2004, 2008, 2009, 2014, 2021) QUAD TWO Alabama, Auburn, Vanderbilt, Kentucky National championships from this quad Football (19): Alabama (1925, 1926, 1930, 1934, 1961, 1964, 1965, 1973, 1978, 1979; 1992; 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2020); Auburn (1957, 2010) Men’s basketball (8): Kentucky (1948, 1949, 1951, 1958, 1978, 1996, 1998, 2012) Baseball (2): Vanderbilt (2014, 2019) Softball (1): Alabama (2012) Women’s outdoor track (1): Auburn 2006 Women’s cross country (1): Kentucky (1998) Women’s tennis (1): Vanderbilt (2015) Men’s golf (2): Alabama (2013, 2014) Women’s golf (1): Alabama (2012) Men’s swimming (8): Auburn (1997, 1999, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009) Women’s swimming (5): Auburn (2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007 Gymnastics (6): Alabama (1988, 1991, 1996, 2002, 2011, 2012) Volleyball (1): Kentucky 2021) Equestrian (6): Auburn (2006, 2011, 2013, 2016, 2018, 2019) Rifle (3): Kentucky (2011, 2018, 2021) Bowling (2): Vanderbilt (2007, 2018) QUAD THREE LSU, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Arkansas National championships from this quad Football: LSU (1958, 2003, 2007, 2019); Ole Miss (1960, 1962); Arkansas (1964) Men’s basketball (1): Arkansas (1994) Baseball (7): LSU (1991, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2009); Mississippi State (2021) Men’s outdoor track: LSU (1933, 1989, 1990, 2002, 2021) Women’s outdoor track: LSU (1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2008); Arkansas (2016, 2019) Men’s indoor track: Arkansas (1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2013); LSU (2001, 2004) Women’s indoor track: LSU (1985, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1999, 2007, 2008, 2011); Arkansas (2015, 2019) Men’s cross country: Arkansas (1984, 1986, 1987, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2000); Arkansas (2015, 2019) Women’s cross country: Arkansas (2019) Men’s golf: LSU (1940, 1942, 1947, 1955, 2015) Women’s golf: Ole Miss (2021) QUAD FOUR Texas A&M, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri National championships from this quad Football: Oklahoma (1950, 1955, 1956, 1974, 1985, 1985, 2000); Texas (1963, 1969, 1970, 2005) Women’s basketball: Texas A&M (2011); Texas (1986) Baseball: Texas (1949, 1950, 1975m 1983, 2002, 2005); Oklahoma (1951, 1994) Softball: Softball (2000, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2021); Texas A&M (1983, 1987) Men’s outdoor track: Texas A&M (2009, 2010, 2011, 2013) Women’s outdoor track: Texas A&M (2009, 2010, 2011, 2014); Texas (1986, 1998, 1999, 2005) Men’s indoor track: Texas A&M (2017) Women’s indoor track: Texas (1986, 1988, 1990, 1998, 1999, 2006) Women’s cross country: Texas (1986) Men’s tennis: Texas (2019) Women’s tennis: Texas (1993, 1995, 2021) Men’s golf: Texas (1971, 1972, 2012); Oklahoma (1989, 2017); Texas A&M (2009) Men’s swimming: Texas (1981, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2010, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2021) Women’s swimming: Texas (1981, 1982, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1991) Men’s Gymnastics: Oklahoma (1977, 1978, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018) Women’s gymnastics: Oklahoma (2014, 2016, 2017, 2019) Volleyball: Texas (1981, 1988, 2012) Wrestling: Oklahoma (1936, 1951, 1952, 1957, 1960, 1963, 1974) Using the four quad system, Florida’s schedule for the first two years of an expanded SEC would look like this: Game 1: Paycheck game with someone from the Sun Belt. Game 2: at South Carolina Game 3: Vanderbilt from quad two Game 4: at LSU from quad three Game 5: Tennessee home from quad one Game 6: at Texas A&M from quad four Game 7: Georgia from quad one in Jacksonville Game 8: at Auburn from quad two Game 9: Ole Miss home from quad three Game 10: Oklahoma at home from quad four Game 11: Paycheck game for homecoming Game 12: Florida State at home How schedules and formats for league play are worked out will be determined in the future, but one thing that seems rather certain at this point is the SEC is about to expand. And, when it does expand, college sports won’t be the same again.

A few thoughts to jump start your Friday morning: SEC EXPANSION, PART DEUX Wednesday, Texas and Oklahoma leaving the Big 12 for the SEC was a rather juicy rumor. Today it seems that it’s not a rumor anymore, but something that seems almost inevitable. Here are a few reasons why I think it will happen: 1. Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports, who is one of the college sports’ most connected sources for information, quoted an unnamed but high-ranking college official who offered this: “I think it’s going to happen, and it’s the beginning of a lot of dominoes.” I can’t disagree. I can’t see the SEC making a major move without leagues like the Big Ten and ACC making some sort of counter move. From the moment the announcement is made that Texas and Oklahoma are officially SEC-bound, the landscape of college sports is going to change once again. It’s already changed due to the aftermath of COVID-19, new transfer rules and now name, image and likeness (NIL) which is already creating teenaged millionaires like Alabama quarterback Bryce Young who has never started a collegiate game. 2. The cost to leave the Big 12 won’t be cheap – something like $76 million each, or the cost of two years of television revenue – but there are oil people at both Texas and Oklahoma who can write a check for that much without making much of a dent in their bottom lines. And, when you consider their yearly SEC paycheck will be something in the range of $25 million a year more than they’re making now in the Big 12 then it won’t take long to make up the difference. Money will not stop Texas or Oklahoma from leaving but it is definitely one of the deciding factors of why the SEC is so attractive. 3. Now, Texas A&M is rather perturbed that the SEC would dare add Texas. The Aggies think there is a gentleman’s agreement that makes them the only SEC team in the state of Texas, but this isn’t about any gentleman’s agreement. It’s all about the money. To prevent Texas and Oklahoma from joining the SEC the Aggies would have to find two more votes among their SEC brethren to halt it. Don’t count on that happening. The Aggies may not need the money but the presidents of the other 13 SEC schools are all too aware of the financial hit they took due to COVID-19 last year. That is why they’re all on board with expanding the College Football Playoff from four to 12 teams and that’s also why there aren’t enough votes to prevent Texas and Oklahoma from joining the SEC. The money that Texas and Oklahoma will help to bring in to the SEC coffers will help every single school make up for the lost COVID-19 dollars. 4. Who would the Aggies go after to stop expansion? Some think Arkansas might be opposed but Razorback fans will be overjoyed at the possibility of bringing back the Texas-Arkansas rivalry, which at one time was considered one of the top three or four rivalry games in all of college football. Arkansas has been in the SEC since 1992 and in many ways it’s still considered the league’s redheaded stepchild. It must also be noted that Arkansas is only a little more than three hours away from Norman, Oklahoma. Another suggestion is that Missouri, which was in the Big 12 prior to bolting for the SEC, would be opposed. First and foremost, Mizzou can’t afford to say no from a strictly financial standpoint. Secondly, if Arkansas is the redheaded stepchild of the SEC, then Mizzou is Little Orphan Annie. Mizzou fans probably find much more in common with former Big 12 brethren Texas and Oklahoma than they do Florida and South Carolina. 5. Andy Staples of The Athletic writes that there are only two conferences that Texas could join: The SEC and the ACC. The reason is the Longhorn Network which is in partnership with ESPN/Disney. The networks own the entire ACC media rights and will own the entire SEC media rights once the new deal with the SEC goes into effect in 2024. The ACC is tied into a mediocre deal until 2036 and can’t compete with the SEC, which will be making close to $30 million a year more per school than the ACC pays out. Texas and Oklahoma have nothing in common with the ACC and they’re not going to sign on with a league where they make less money than they are already making in the Big 12. Hellooooo SEC. 6. Texas is the most important sports franchise in the nation’s second most populous state. The Longhorns are bigger than the Dallas Cowboys or any other professional franchise in the state and they are a true national brand. Although Oklahoma only ranks 28th nationally in terms of population, the Oklahoma Sooners are also a national brand, certainly larger than all but Alabama, Florida, Georgia and LSU in the Southeastern Conference. In other words, the footprint of Texas and Oklahoma. 7. New Texas basketball coach Chris Beard has in a very short time put together a transfer class that will make the Longhorns a national championship contender immediately. Beard turned Texas Tech into a national power and if he can do that in Lubbock, then imagine what he can do in Austin. He made a Final Four at Texas Tech. He can win national championships at Texas. He’s that good a coach and he’s got a state that has an increasing number of top tier basketball players that he can recruit. Oklahoma replaced the retiring Lon Kruger with Porter Moser, who got Loyola of Chicago to an unlikely Final Four in 2019. If Moser can make the Final Four at a small Catholic school in Chicago, imagine the potential he has at Oklahoma. The Big 12 is a great basketball league, but the SEC is more than just Kentucky. This is league that is growing very strong from top to bottom and the addition of Texas and Oklahoma can only help strengthen the SEC in terms of national perception. 8. The SEC is already the nation’s top baseball and softball conference. Texas and Oklahoma bring a combined (Texas 6, Oklahoma 2) eight national championships in baseball. Oklahoma has won five national championships in softball. Texas has won an astounding 15 NCAA championships in men’s swimming and nine in women’s swimming. 9. One thing that tends to be overlooked when talking about Texas and Oklahoma leaving is game day atmosphere. In the Big 12, only Texas (100,119 capacity) and Oklahoma (80,126) have stadiums that seat more than the 60,454 at Texas Tech. If they joined the SEC, Texas would be the fifth largest stadium and Oklahoma would be 10th. Arkansas, Kentucky, Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Missouri all have larger stadiums than Texas Tech. 10. What will become of the Big 12 when – not if – Texas and Oklahoma depart? The league could create a scramble nationwide by going after Colorado, Utah, Arizona and Arizona State from the Pac-12 to get to 12 teams. Another thought is that Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby and American Athletic Conference commissioner Mike Aresco might agree to a merger but that would include eliminating some of the schools in the AAC. A 14-team Big 12 could emerge with Texas Tech, Baylor, TCU, Oklahoma State, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State and West Virginia remaining in the Big 12 and from the AAC adding Cincinnati, Memphis, UCF, South Florida, SMU and Houston. 11. Will the ACC and the Big Ten stand idly by while the SEC expands to 16? Notre Dame would be the ultimate prize for both leagues. Notre Dame is independent in football but has membership for all other sports in the ACC. All Notre Dame home football games are televised on NBC and the Irish have an agreement to play five games against ACC teams so it wouldn’t be all that difficult to change up the schedule to go full time in a league. It worked last year and could work again, but Notre Dame does have leverage. I’m not sure the ACC could offer enough money to lure Notre Dame. The Big Ten? They have the money and the nearby rivalries of Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State and Wisconsin to offer. Kansas has the basketball program that would fit well in the Big Ten. Adding Kansas and Iowa State might be an option for an expanded Big Ten. West Virginia to the ACC would make sense because of nearby rivalries with Pittsburgh, Virginia Tech and Virginia. Would the ACC be willing to add a school like Cincinnati, which fits into the geographic footprint due to its proximity to Pitt and Louisville? 12. Poised to be a big loser is the already weak Pac-12. Whether or not another league poaches some Pac-12 schools, the league is already struggling to keep up with the Jones’s financially. Other than people on the west coast, who’s going to want to watch an Oregon-Oregon State or California-Stanford game when ESPN can show The World’s Greatest Cocktail Party or the Red River Rivalry or the Iron Bowl or even the Egg Bowl? The Pac-12 could try to lure four teams from the Big 12 for an expansion to 16 teams but that would be a logistical nightmare. Expanding in the neighborhood only makes sense to add BYU, which would give Utah a true natural rival and would potentially add the 16 million members of the LDS church as TV viewers. But who else? UNLV? San Diego State? Fresno State? Boise State? The league already is losing so much talent to the SEC. If you add Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC, it’s only going to attract more west coast kids who know there is more exposure and a better chance to make the NFL from the SEC. As a side note, the quarterbacks at Alabama, Ole Miss and Georgia are all California kids as are the quarterbacks at Clemson and Ohio State. Oklahoma QB Spencer Rattler is from Arizona. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: The Olympic Games get cranked up in Tokyo today where COVID-19 protocols will mean empty stadiums. The parade of nations, always the highlight of opening night and the closing ceremony, will have a limited number of athletes marching. One of the things that’s always a highlight of the Olympics is the enthusiasm of fans who pack venues with the hope of seeing something or someone truly remarkable. I’ve always believed that the electricity that is generated creates adrenaline that pushes athletes to record-setting or winning performances. It’s very difficult to imagine there will be many records set or that much excitement generated in empty stadiums and halls. I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to watch. I need the excitement.

Florida fans love to call the University of Florida the “everything school”. And they have that right. As an athletic association, the Gators have captured national titles across 15 sports. From the ranks of men’s tennis, which was the most recent Florida program to be crowned champions, to to the combined six national titles that baseball, men's basketball and football have won, the University of Florida can boast 42 national championships. On top of national championships, the Gators have scrounged together a conference-leading 241 SEC conference championships across 20 sports. Florida’s lacrosse team, which competes in the American conference and previously competed in the Big East, has also tallied 10 conference championships since the program’s inception in 2006. However, as spread out as Florida’s athletic successes are, perhaps the Gators are better referred to as the “almost everything school.” This is because the Gators’ women’s basketball program continues to be a black eye for Florida’s athletic association. And to those who brush it off because “it’s just women’s basketball”, they shouldn’t. Like women’s sports around the country, college women’s basketball is growing in popularity. And if I’m the University of Florida, I want a piece of that pie. But what has transpired within the Gators’ women’s basketball program within the last week certainly doesn’t give Florida a good look. Just weeks after receiving a contract extension, which secured his job into the 2025 season, Florida Gators women’s basketball coach Cam Newbauer shockingly stepped down from his post on July 16. Newbauer’s departure hit the program just under 120 days before the Gators open their 2021-22 campaign in November. When Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin extended Newbauer in June, he spoke highly of the women’s hoops coach who came by way of Belmont University in Nashville. “Cam is building his program the right way and making steady progress,” Stricklin said. “It’s important that he have the time needed to continue that progress.” Newbauer, who was Stricklin’s first hire at Florida, replaced long-time coach Amanda Butler in 2017. Having been the only sport on campus which had yet to win a conference title, the goal was pretty obvious, but far from reached. In his tenure at Florida, Newbauer collected an overall record of 46-71 and 15-47 in conference play. Despite the less-than-impressive numbers, the program seemed to have been improving under Newbauer, who went 11-19 in his first year, 8-23 his second year, 15-15 in year three and then 12-14 last season. The 2019-20 season showed the most promise from the Newbauer-led Gators as they went .500 on the year and recorded six conference wins, which was as many as the previous two years combined. In the 2020-21 season, the Gators posed a six-game win streak, which for the state of the program, shouldn’t be understated. However, what has transpired in the last week erases even the smallest of victories that Newbauer accomplished during his time in Gainesville. Two days prior to Newbauer’s announcement, Florida’s star guard Lavender Briggs entered her name into the transfer portal. Briggs, who is arguably one of the best players to play for Florida out of high school, averaged 32.2 points per game in high school, which was a state record in her home state of Utah. The five-star recruit went on to lead Florida’s scoring efforts in her freshman (2019-20) and sophomore (2020-21) seasons. Briggs missed the last eight games of last season due to a foot injury. It’s unclear whether Briggs will withdraw her name from the transfer portal or if she will continue to seek other opportunities. However, tweets from Jordan Jones, a former Florida Gators women’s basketball player, indicate that perhaps Newbauer was the problem within the program. “The girls on the team now have been through a lot and only going to get tougher after I assume there will be a bit of turnover with the roster,” she tweeted. “Hire someone they can trust. Someone they can relate to. Someone that will be tough on them but not break them. It’s unclear what Jones knows about the program that others don’t, but signs point to a less-than-favorable culture within the program. In Newbauer’s official announcement he cited “personal reasons”. “After much reflection, my family and I have come to the difficult decision to step away. Gator Nation and the Gainesville community have accepted me, my wife Sarah and our three daughters from the day we arrived. We will greatly miss all of the people that have made our experience and make this place so special,” Newbauer said. "There are many people who I am forever grateful for, but I especially want to thank all of the players who I had the privilege to coach. I have no doubt that the program we built is poised for great success." Following Newbauer’s departure, Kelly Rae Finley was announced as the interim head coach for the 2021-22 season. Finley has been a part of Florida’s program for four years and was brought in by Newbauer. Prior to Florida, Finley assisted at Arizona, Colorado and Harvard. In her 13-year coaching career, Finley has built a reputation for herself as a recruiter. According to Scott Stricklin, Florida will hold off until the conclusion of the upcoming season to announce a long-term hire. For Stricklin, it will be the second women’s basketball coach he will have hired in his time at Florida. But this time, the importance of getting the right person into Gainesville feels to have a heavier weight to it. With the right person, the athletic association might finally be able to tweeze the women’s basketball-shaped thorn out of its side.

A few thoughts to jump start your Thursday morning: SHOULD THE SEC EXPAND IF TEXAS AND OKLAHOMA WANT TO JOIN? Okay, amid the report from the Houston Chronicle that both Texas and Oklahoma have reached out to the Southeastern Conference about leaving the Big 12 to join the SEC, let’s start with the obvious. Why do they want to leave a league where they are the two dominant athletic programs for the SEC? The answer is very simple: MONEY! As in starting in 2024 the SEC will have a guaranteed $3 billion coming in from its new deal with SEC and there are no such guarantees in the Big 12. Last year the Southeastern Conference distributed $44.6 million to its 14 schools from television and bowl money while the Big 12 distributed $38.3 million. That’s not exactly a huge disparity, but that will change in 2024 when the SEC’s new deal with ESPN kicks in, netting an ADDITIONAL $17 million per year per school in the SEC. Meanwhile the Big 12’s contract with Fox and ESPN runs out in 2025 and both networks have declined to extend the current contract. It’s doubtful there will be a two-network solution for the league and if it’s ESPN, how much money will there be available for the Big 12 when so much is dedicated to ESPN and it’s SEC Network affiliate? Rather than wait anxiously for some sort of answer to the Big 12 problem that the networks seem in no hurry to provide, Texas and Oklahoma reportedly are ready to tie their futures to the certainty of the SEC. When contacted to confirm the report Wednesday, both Texas and Oklahoma issued statements, neither of which denied there is any truth to the Houston Chronicle’s report. The Texas statement read, “Speculation swirls around collegiate athletics. We will not address rumors or speculation.” Oklahoma’s statement read, “The college athletics landscape is shifting constantly. We don’t address every anonymous rumor.” Notice that there was nothing in either statement that indicated happiness with the Big 12 or a willingness to work with the league to solve its network issues. When SEC commissioner Greg Sankey was asked about the report, his reply was, “I’m going to focus on the 2021 season, gentlemen.” As Stewart Mandel of The Athletic noted, Sankey’s statement didn’t include the words, “We’re perfectly happy to remain at 14 teams.” Is the SEC happy with 14 teams? Perhaps, but would the league be happier if it could expand its national brand by adding two teams that have combined to win 11 national championships in football (Oklahoma 7, Texas 4) and 82 NCAA titles in other sports (Texas 50, Oklahoma 32)? The SEC produced seven national championship teams in 2020 while Texas had three (men’s swimming, women’s tennis and women’s rowing) and Oklahoma one (softball). ESPN/ABC was silent Wednesday but given its financial stake in the future of the SEC it’s hard to imagine the network hasn’t already been contacted. If anything, behind closed doors, executives are probably giddy because it’s a lot less expensive to add an extra $40 million a year to the SEC contract by adding Texas and Oklahoma than it is to pay for an entire season of Big 12 football games. For some reason (a little sarcasm here) games like Kansas-Baylor or Iowa State-TCU just don’t have the same appeal as Oklahoma-LSU or Texas-Alabama. An SEC Championship Game that included Oklahoma or Texas from the West and Alabama, Georgia or Florida from the East would just about pay the increase. Now, Texas A&M has already stated that it’s none too happy with the concept of Texas in the SEC. The Aggies love being the only SEC team in the state of Texas . Being in the league has created an unprecedented surge in donations by its well-heeled boosters and an identity A&M didn’t have when it was in the Big 12. There could be further unhappiness, the kind that could wind up in court. Members of the Texas legislature with ties to Baylor, TCU and Texas Tech might threaten legal action to prevent Texas leaving the Big 12 just as Oklahoma legislators with ties to Oklahoma State might also go to court to keep Oklahoma in the Big 12. If Texas and Oklahoma do leave for the SEC, the Big 12 will die on the vine. It will have to expand. Cincinnati, Memphis, UCF and South Florida should have been added to the league years ago. Adding those four teams now wouldn’t soften the blow of losing Texas and Oklahoma and would almost certainly result in a television contract that is maybe only 1/3 of what the SEC pays its schools. And, finally, if the SEC expands to 16 teams, how long before the Pac-12 and Big Ten expand? For now, we can only speculate but this has been a summer of change in college sports and the drums of change aren’t about to go silent any time soon. Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC is just the latest salvo. SAY A PRAYER FOR BOBBY BOWDEN We learned Wednesday that Bobby Bowden has a terminal illness. A man of tremendous faith, the legendary Florida State football coach issued a statement that he’s “at peace” with the diagnosis. If anyone can be at peace with the inevitability of death, it is Bobby Bowden. The winner of 357 Division I football games, two national championships (1993, 1999) and 12 Atlantic Coast Conference titles, Bowden turned FSU from one of the worst jobs in all of college football into one that never finished worst than fourth in the final Associated Press poll from 1987-2000. As the sports editor of the Leesburg Daily Commercial, I talked to Bobby the morning he made the decision to leave West Virginia (HBC in Morgantown from 1970-75) for Tallahassee. After telling me he was taking the FSU job, I asked what was the deciding factor? “I walked down the driveway to get my morning paper when I stepped on some ice and dadgummit, I busted my butt,” he told me. “I checked the weather in Tallahassee and it’s warm and sunny. No snow. No ice. I’m gonna coach FSU.” In September that year, I had taken a job with the Miami News. A week after the Seminoles lost to Memphis in their season-opener, they faced Miami on a Saturday night in the Orange Bowl. Miami won that game, 47-0. In the locker room after the game, Bobby had his back against the wall. He kept gently beating his head rhythmically against the wall. He looked at me and said, “This was bad. Next week we’re at Oklahoma.” It wasn’t the mismatch that everyone anticipated. The 4th-ranked Sooners struggled to a 24-9 win. Two weeks later, FSU beat then 13th-ranked Boston College and the week after that, they gave 12th-ranked Florida all it could handle before falling, 33-26. FSU finished 5-6 that year, the only losing season the Seminoles had in Bowden’s 34 years in Tallahassee. Asked about Bowden, Texas A&M coach and former FSU offensive coordinator/head coach Jimbo Fisher at SEC Media Days said, “He’s one of the greatest human beings that’s ever coached and one of the great coaches that’s ever coached.” TALKING IT UP AT SEC MEDIA DAYS Nick Saban on how NIL has changed college football: “The college landscape changed to some degree when players got cost of attendance. We made rules that allowed them to go to summer school on scholarship, which we didn’t use to have. So most players with this additional money and the opportunity to advance their academic circumstance chose not to work. So all we’ve done is create an opportunity for players to work. The only thing is, the question is because it’s not going to be equal, and everything that we’ve done in college athletics in the past has always been equal. Everybody’s had equal scholarship, equal opportunity. Now that’s probably not going to be the case. Some positions, some players will have more opportunities than others. And how that’s going to impact your team, our team, the players on a team, I really can’t answer because we don’t have any precedent for it.” Nick Saban on how Lane Kiffin changed the Alabama offense when he was coordinator and then became a better head coach at FAU and Ole Miss: “So when he came in, I said, ‘Look, we want to change this. You need to research this. You’re smart. We can do this. He actually did implement that and was the first one to sort of change how we did things on offense. It enhanced our opportunity to score more points. So he did a really good job … a lot of people have sort of wondered what the relationship was, but we never really had a bad relationship because this was always a lot of mutual respect for the kind of play caller he was, the kind of coach that he was, and the job that he did. I actually said and told the people when he went to Florida Atlantic that Lane will be a better head coach than even he is an assistant because he has those kinds of qualities. Obviously, he hasn’t disappointed in the job that he did there or the job he’s done at Ole Miss. So none of this is a surprise to me. And I didn’t hear his comments, so I can’t comment on those, but I can say only from my perspective how much respect I have for him as a coach.” Jimbo Fisher on the need to expand the College Football Playoff from four to 12 teams: “I’m all for it. I think it’s necessary. I think it’s needed and not just because we finished fifth, but I think – here’s the point I want you to ask. Name me a sport in any collegiate level that, that expect for the top five conferences, which are about 60, where the other 60 teams have no chance to win the national championship. There’s not another sport in our world that is not – that can’t happen.” Mississippi State coach Mike Leach on expanding the playoff to 12 teams: “I think 12 teams is a huge step in the right direction. I personally would like to see 64, and you could format it out pretty easily. But I think it’s a huge step in the right direction and I look forward to it.” Mike Leach on some of the problems created by the transfer portal and new rules that make it so a first time transfer doesn’t have to sit a year: “… I don’t think all those guys are going to find a place to go. I think in the end they would have been better off where they started than not play, but in some cases, another opportunity, a better opportunity, I think that has to be carefully evaluated. I think that sometimes it is necessary to make a move. I think, also, though, it’s too each to transfer right now. I think that the people used to consider their situation more carefully when they had to sit out a year if they transferred laterally.” Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea on what would be a successful season for the Commodores after their oh-fer 2020 season: “So won’t place a win-loss record or won’t state a win-loss record; don’t believe in doing that in any semblance. We’ll say that every game we play we’ll have a plan to win, and we’ll measure our results off our execution of that plan to win. There are measurable things that show growth as a team, and there are things that can’t be measured. I think both are important. In the end, I’m a competitor, and I didn’t come to Vanderbilt to do anything other than win. So for me, it’s about how we design this team, how we design our tactics, how we develop as people and as teammates to put ourselves in the best position to win games in the fourth quarter. We can be the best physically and mentally conditioned team in the country. We can impose our will on our opponent late in the game. The vision is that there’s a fourth quarter game where we’re on our sideline looking across the field at an opponent that is wilting under pressure that we’re applying because we are the best mentally and physically conditioned team in the country, that we know on our sideline that we’re ready to pounce, and we understand that their margin for error is so small because of the pressure that we’re applying. Those are the kinds of things I’m looking for and how we measure performance as we get into the heat of this season, is that ability to find ways to win those games late.” ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: The Atlantic Coast Conference is holding its annual Media Days in Greensboro, North Carolina. If you weren’t aware don’t feel bad. With the exception of diehard fans of ACC football and media that would rather be in Hoover covering SEC Media Days, nobody noticed.

A few thoughts to jump start your Wednesday morning: IT WON’T TAKE LONG TO FIGURE OUT IF THE DEFENSE WILL BE BETTER The University of Florida’s 2019 defense ranked ninth nationally, allowing just 304.8 yards per game and 4.9 yards per snap. Those 2019 Gators gave up 15.5 points per game, which ranked seventh nationally, and 102.77 yards on the ground (3.19 per carry), which was eighth best. Florida’s pass defense allowed 202.1 yards and 6.7 per attempt, 32nd nationally. A year later, the Gators were 83rd nationally, allowing a school record worst 428 yards per game and a whopping 6.06 yards per snap. The Gators were 74th in scoring defense (30.8 per game), 71st against the run (170.5 yards; 4.56 per carry) and 100th (257.5 yards; 7.8 per attempt) against the pass. We could spend the next two days assigning blame for why top 20 talent performed like a bottom 20 defense most of 2020. The only thing that matters now is that it’s a new year and last year’s standby excuses of no spring practice, bad coaches in the secondary, a lack of contact work in August and during the season due to COVID-19 concerns, and too many of what Dan Mullen calls “independent contractors” won’t cut it in 2021. If coordinator Todd Grantham’s defense isn’t better this year, the Gators aren’t going to contend for the SEC East title and Grantham can expect to be looking for gainful employment elsewhere. It shouldn’t take long to figure out if the defense will be better. After what should be blowout wins in games one and two (Florida Atlantic and USF), the Gators will play three straight SEC games – Alabama and Tennessee at home, Kentucky on the road – that should tell us if the Gators are contenders or pretenders. Both Bama and Kentucky have huge offensive lines, talented running backs and the ability to pound teams into submission between the tackles. Tennessee’s new coach tries to get a snap off in 15 seconds or less which tends to wear out pass rushers and prevent anything but basic coverage in the secondary. A 4-1 or 5-0 record through those first five games should be a rather good indicator that the Gators will be contenders. Anything less does not bode well. There is reason to be optimistic. For one thing, it would be next to impossible for the Gators to be as bad defensively as they were last year, but secondly the “independent contractors” Mullen spoke about at SEC Media Days should be gone. If they haven’t been replaced, it’s another sign that things will be rotten. Prediction: The front seven will be substantially better with Zachary Carter teaming up with transfer tackles Daquan Newkirk and Antonio Shelton on the line and Diwun Black becoming a force for a linebacker crew that includes Ventrell Miller, Mohamoud Diabate and edge rusher Brenton Cox Jr. I’m of the opinion that better coaching will result in much improved play in the secondary. If Carter, Cox, Newkirk and Shelton can consistently deliver pressure without Grantham resorting to all-out blitz schemes, the Gators will have a top 30 – or better – defense. Do that and UF will contend. TALKING IT UP AT SEC MEDIA DAYS Coach O on what he learned when LSU went from national champs in 2019 to 5-5 in 2020: “Do it the way I want. That’s it. If it’s not done the way I want, I’m going to fix it. If I see something broke, I’m fixing it. LSU’s standard of performance, the way we have done things, this reminds me a lot of the 2018 season. There’s a lot of unknowns. There’s a lot of noise out there. You’ve got to block out the noise, a lot of predictions on this and this. That stuff doesn’t matter. It’s about our football team. It’s about me gelling this football team together, us playing together. I think leadership, not letting any outside influences affect us, the way we play, the way we perform.” LSU corner Derek Stingley Jr. on bouncing back from a 5-5 season: “I don’t think of it as a challenge. If anything, I would say it’s motivation, and it gives everyone on the team a chip on their shoulder because we want to be one of the top teams, like we usually are every year. That’s what we’re coming back for this year.” Kirby Smart on dealing with high expectations: “Success comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it. Say that again. Success comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it. That’s Henry David Thoreau. For me, that’s it. I’m too busy working. I’m too busy trying to do the next thing. I’m too busy traying to take the next step to give our team a competitive advantage to really worry about expectations. That’s you guys’ question today, that’s usually what people want to know about, but for me, I’m too busy working to worry about that.” Georgia QB JT Daniels on his greatest strength: “My strength and what I do best is being able to read the defense and determine the best place for the ball to go that’s going to help us move the chains and score points. Georgia DT Jordan Davis on declining to make money off NIL: “I haven’t touched it. I’m confused by it, honestly. It’s a lot. But yeah, I haven’t really done anything. My main focus is just playing because you can’t get an NIL deal if you’re not good at football. So the main focus is just playing football.” Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin on former boss Nick Saban and the success he’s had at Alabama in an era when all schools have an 85-scholarship limit: “My dad tells me the stories of coming in and having 75 freshmen in his class coming in. So to do what he’s [Saban] doing nowadays and every year, you guys say something that upsets him and gives him rat poison and makes him mad, and then we have to deal with that. So I don’t know what the story line is this year. It will be something that you did about losing too many staff guys or the quarterback or whatever, but he just finds a way, and it stars with recruiting. He just does a phenomenal job of recruiting. So when you’ve got the best players and you’ve got to go against them, that’s enough challenge, let alone before you ever get into how great he is as a coach.” Ole Miss quarterback Matt Corral on not getting yanked at Arkansas when he threw six interceptions: “Coach Kiffin and [quarterbacks coach Jeff] Lebby, they kept me in that game for a reason. They didn’t yank me. They made sure that I was the guy. They made sure that I knew that I was the guy, and I think that I was – that spoke volumes to me. That spoke volumes to the team. That gave me the confidence in myself that I could bounce back from it. Kiffin brought me into the room after that game, and he told me that there’s a reason he didn’t pull me. He said he believed in me. He said, ‘I believe what you can do. I believe in your ability. You’re our guy moving forward. Like there’s no issue with me. We’re going to get it fixed.’ So just having that relationship with him helped a lot.” Kentucky coach Mark Stoops on how UK football has changed in his nine years on the job: “I said when we got to Kentucky that we were going to develop, we were going to compete and I wanted to take this program to national prominence, and people laughed at me. We’re not there yet, but we’re on our way. I’m going to continue to work. I feel good about where we’re at. I think we have a very good team, and we have some things in place, and we’re constantly learning, constantly growing, and we’re getting better.” Kentucky left tackle Darian Kinnard on his mama: “I know about ya’lls mama. I know ya’ll love your mama but I think I might love mine more than ya’ll. That’s all I’m going to say.” South Carolina coach Shane Beamer on making South Carolina competitive again: “In the last ten years, or my last year at South Carolina, we played for the SEC Championship. We beat Alabama when they were No. 1 in the country at Williams-Brice Stadium. We beat Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, and our in-state rival all in the same season. Within the last ten years we’ve been in the midst of consecutive 11-win seasons. Within the last ten years we were in the midst of beating our in-state rival five years ago. We’re not talking about something that was 40 years ago. It was done recently here in South Carolina. We’re not far from getting back there and doing it again.” Tennessee coach Josh Heupel on his up tempo offense: “You look at what we’ve been able to do in our track record as a staff at the previous two stops at UCF and at Missouri, top five in basically every offensive category the last three years. The two years previous to that while wee were at Missouri, led the league in total offense. This is a quarterback-friendly offense that’s going to allow us to play and apply pressure to defenses every single Saturday that we step on the field. Obviously, we understand that in this league the line of scrimmage is extremely important, too, but I think the tempo on the offensive side of the ball gives us the ability to create an advantage in that aspect. Tennessee wide receiver Velus Jones Jr. on the Josh Heupel offense: “I’m so excited with my ability to catch the ball, to get yards after the catch and deep ball threat. It’s just like it’s a dream come true playing in this offense, especially speaking for my receiver corps and also my tight ends. Like, we’re really excited about this offense.” Tennessee defensive back Alontae Taylor on why he came back for his senior year: “As far as why I did stay, I’m the third in my family to go to college, and I told my mom that I would get my degree before I left. I tried to get that in three years last year, but it didn’t really work that way. That was one reason. And the second reason was this is my state. I’m from the state of Tennessee, and the University of Tennessee means a lot to me. Wearing orange and white is a privilege and it’s bigger than me, and wearing that Power T on my chest is bigger than me.” ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Bryce Young has never started a college football game. He played in nine games as a true freshman in 2020, all in mop-up duty for Alabama’s unbeaten national champions, completing 13-22 passes for 156 yards and a TD. He ran nine times for -23 yards. Not exactly the kind of numbers that you think would generate huge endorsement deals, but here we are six weeks from the start of the 2021 season and Young already has nearly $1 million according to what Nick Saban told the Texas High School Coaches Association convention. “And it’s like the guy hasn’t even played yet, but that’s because of our brand,” Saban said. Perhaps everything Young will earn has been cleared by Alabama’s compliance people and is completely on the up and up, but what happens at a school that lacks Alabama’s resources to verify the source of endorsement deals? When it comes to name, image and likeness there is no single set of rules that everyone has to play by. That opens the door for some unscrupulous individual or group to get their hooks into an athlete for the purpose of altering the outcome of a game. In case you don’t think that can happen, do some research on the Northwestern point shaving scandal of 1994 that involved both football and basketball or the one at Kentucky in the 1950s that forced UK to cancel its 1952-53 basketball season or any one of a dozen other scandals that involved college sports and gamblers. Don’t think for a nanosecond that it couldn’t happen again.

A few thoughts to jump start your Tuesday morning: ABBREVIATED DOCTOR DUTY DAY EDITION I spent the day traveling to and from Tampa on doctor duty with my almost 93-year-old mom, who thinks road trips are better if Arby’s crinkle fries are involved. So here are today’s abbreviated thoughts. THE MORE THINGS CHANGE THE MORE THEY STAY THE SAME It is not exactly a state secret that Florida’s offense will undergo major changes in 2021. Instead of throwing the ball almost from the time the bus stops and the Gator Walk begins like it did in 2019-2020, this year the Gators will more resemble the offense Dan Mullen ran in 2007-08 when Tim Tebow was his quarterback. Tebow threw the football 350 times (26.9 attempts per game) for 3,286 yards (9.4 per attempt) and 32 touchdowns during his 2007 Heisman Trophy season. The Gators ran the ball 37.5 times per game that year. During Florida’s 2008 run to the national championship, Tebow threw 298 passes (21.2 per game) for 2,746 yards (9.2 per attempt) and 30 touchdowns. The Gators ran the ball 38.9 times per game. The threat of Tebow running opened everything up for the rest of the offense. The Gator averaged more than 200 yards rushing both in 2007 and 2008 which led to plenty of wide open receivers who made pitch and catch seem quite simple. Tebow didn’t exactly throw the tightest of spirals with laser-like accuracy, but he didn’t have to. Defenses had to respect the run so much that secondaries couldn’t afford tight coverage on UF receivers. Tebow was a good decision maker, helped out by decent-sized windows in which to fit the football. If you’re interested in one of the main reasons why Tebow didn’t make it as an NFL quarterback, then simply cut out about 70 percent of the throwing window he enjoyed in college. With Kyle Trask the last two seasons, the Gators had the guy who threw with laser-like precision to six (Van Jefferson, Freddie Swain, Tyrie Cleveland, Josh Hammond, Kyle Pitts and Kadarius Toney) receivers who make their living on Sundays in the NFL. With that kind of quarterback and those receivers is it any wonder why Mullen’s play calls were at a 60/40 pass to run ratio. Trask has gone on to the NFL where he will apprentice under the greatest QB of all time, Tom Brady. That leaves the offense in what Mullen believes are the very capable hands of Emory Jones, the guy who came to Florida specifically to have Mullen teach him how to play quarterback. At SEC Media Days in Hoover, Alabama on Monday, Mullen recalled a text he received from Jones shortly after taking the Florida job in December of 2017. “He was committed to another school (Ohio State) at the time and he sent me a text,” Mullen said. “And he says, ‘Coach, when this shakes out, be ready. I want to be your quarterback.’ And not, ‘I want to look at Florida, I want to consider this or I'm thinking about flipping schools.’ It was, ‘I want to be your quarterback.’” Three years later after understudying for Feleipe Franks (2018) and Trask (2019-20), it’s Emory Jones time at UF. The change at the single most important position on the football field creates a dynamic shift in the way Mullen calls plays. Instead of wind up and chunk it all over the ball yard, the look will be quite similar to 2007-08 when Mullen was the offensive coordinator for Urban Meyer at UF. That starts with a dual threat at QB. Whereas Kyle Trask could see a two-yard opening and maybe get you three, Jones can take that same two-yard opening and get you 20 … or more. Jones will throw from the pocket as often as he will roll out and force corners and safeties to decide if they’re covering receivers or defending the run. When he’s not running the ball himself, Jones will be involving running backs and receivers in option pitches, more jet sweeps and more reverses. And, if defenses try to double down to stop the run, Jones can and will throw the football. He may not throw it the way Trask did, but he won’t need that kind of precision. If the run threat is as good as it should be, he will have wide windows in which to fit the ball. Former Gator QB Shane Matthews says Jones’ chief task in the passing game will be to complete the easy throws to open receivers of which there should be many. Jones will be operating behind an offensive line that heads into 2021 with a collective 85 career Southeastern Conference starts (Trask worked behind a line that had fewer than 20 in 2019) and he will have the best group of running backs Florida has had in years. On that front, Mullen broke the news Monday that former five-star recruit and Clemson transfer Demarkcus Bowman will be eligible in 2021. Although the dynamics of the offense will be different than what we’ve seen since 2018, the concepts will be quite similar to the spread option that worked so well during the Tebow years and then at Mississippi State when Mullen had dual threat quarterbacks. The play calls will favor the run, but that’s what the Florida personnel dictates. With Mullen, the play calls have always been and will always be dictated by personnel. “I think the key to it is – and one of the reasons we've been successful is – never try to take a square peg and put it into a round hole,” Mullen said. “It's identifying what our guys do really well and build around the strengths of not just the quarterback, but the offense as a whole. We will do that this year and build around the strengths of our quarterbacks.” So essentially, the more things change, the more things will stay the same. “We'll be a little bit different offensively, but that's part of the fun of coaching is being able to adapt and change and build around the players that we have,” Mullen said. SANKEY NEEDS TO BE RUNNING COLLEGE FOOTBALL Perhaps you heard. NCAA president Mark Emmert had a fairly well-publicized accident last week. An intelligent thought struck him. Last week Emmert spoke of de-centralizing college sports, essentially taking control out of the hands of the NCAA and placing that in control of the conferences and individual schools. For the most part, Emmert rarely offers anything substantial when he speaks and while the idea of de-centralizing all NCAA-sponsored sports might be a long way off, it does make perfect sense for college football to break away, the sooner the better. The sport would be far better off without the NCAA and its mindless legion of bureaucrats in control. The NCAA does a rather nifty job of running March Madness and despite the glitch that involved North Carolina State at the College World Series, it’s rather good at putting together most championship events. What the NCAA has never done well, however, is run college football. The NCAA’s bloated bureaucracy has over-regulated the sport with volumes of nitpicky rules and regulations that require far too much money spent on compliance that could be put to better use elsewhere. Television networks like ESPN and the bowls are far too powerful and the NCAA is too weak to stand up to them. Instead of being run by committees headed by people who are clueless when it comes to what makes college football successful, what is needed is a separate entity run by people who know and understand what best serves the needs of the kids who provide both the labor and entertainment for a multibillion-dollar sport. It has been suggested that the power five conferences plus Notre Dame need to leave the NCAA completely, set their own rules and stage their own championships. Sankey pretty much said that’s not going to happen any time soon Monday at SEC Media Days. Although he didn’t address the proposed expansion of the College Football Playoff to 12 teams, Sankey has been one of the movers and shakers behind ditching the current four-team format. Expanding to 12 includes the non-power conferences so leaving the NCAA isn’t an option. What is an option, however, is for college football to secede from NCAA control and turn the game over to a single commissioner instead of the current by-committee approach. There is no one better qualified to do that than Sankey, who saved college football from COVID-19 last year when he took the lead and put together a conference-only schedule for the 14 SEC teams. Adding in the SEC Championship Game, of the 71 scheduled games, 69 were played, by far the highest percentage of any conference in Division I. Sankey had insight while everyone else was wearing bifocals. He led at a time when Mark Emmert and the NCAA had nothing to offer. While addressing the media in Hoover on Monday, Sankey addressed everything from how the SEC will handle COVID-19 in 2021 to the NCAA’s inability to deal with schools and coaches that break the rules. He was eloquent and thoughtful as he spoke without once sounding boastful or overbearing. While Mark Emmert finds it impossible to speak without stepping on his tongue, Greg Sankey injects common sense and practicality when he dissects issues. He is the type who can bring opposing sides together to get agreement. College football needs to streamline itself and it can’t do it while working under the NCAA umbrella. The sport needs to secede for its own good and for the good of all the other sports for which it pays the freight. The one person who can connect all the dots and lead the way is Greg Sankey. Since taking over the SEC from the late, great Mike Slive, Sankey has made the league stronger in every way. College football is at a crossroads and Sankey can do for the entire sport what he’s done for the Southeastern Conference.