Former Gator Wil Dalton Raises Awareness for Mental Health May is mental health awareness month, and June is men’s health month. 1 in 5 adults struggle with mental health problems each year. It could be your neighbor, your best friend, your mom, the cashier at the grocery store or your favorite athlete. Yet, you may never know. Why is that? There is a certain stigma surrounding mental health. Some think you’re weak if you speak up. Some think you’re soft if you can’t get out of your own head. However, in reality, it takes strength in any situation to admit what’s going on - to admit you need help. The only way to end the stigma surrounding mental health is to speak up. Wil Dalton did just that. The former Florida Gator was drafted in the eighth round of the 2019 MLB Draft by the Boston Red Sox. Dalton was assigned to the Salem Red Sox on May 4 of this year. Then, on June 17, he was moved up to the Red Sox High-A team, the Greenville Drive. In April, he took to Instagram to express his own struggles. Watch below for Maddie Schmidt's full video interview with Will Dalton on the importance of mental health being prioritized, especially in athletes.

A few thoughts to jump start your Wednesday morning: A WANDERING MIND GATHERS NO MOSS, PART DEUX Depending on who you believe … : There are three stories out there regarding University of Florida athletic director Bill Arnsparger and the hiring of Steve Spurrier as the football coach in 1990. Story No. 1, which some choose to believe, is that Arnsparger did an extensive search for a new head coach but zeroed in on Spurrier, who had led Duke to an improbable Atlantic Coast Conference championship in 1989. Story No. 2 is that Arnsparger wanted to take over as Florida’s head coach when he fired Galen Hall midseason in 1989 but wasn’t allowed to hire himself. Story No. 3 is that Arnsparger wanted to hire Mike Archer, the LSU head coach who succeeded him when he left LSU to become the Florida athletic director but only agreed to hiring Spurrier after a meeting with megabooster Ben Hill Griffin. At the meeting, Arnsparger supposedly told BHG he was opposed to hiring Spurrier to which BHG responded, “Bill, Steve Spurrier is going to be the head coach here next year. You don’t have to be the athletic director.” No matter which story you choose to believe, do understand this: Spurrier was the overwhelming choice of Florida boosters and fans to come bring sanity, stability and almost as important, a measure of unpredictability to an unimaginative offense. In 1988, offensive coordinator Lynn Amedee told the late, great Jack Hairston that Willie McClendon was a far better running back than Emmitt Smith and that the Gators were just too dumb to pick up his sophisticated offense. Perhaps that explains Whitey Jordan in 1989. His idea of sophistication in the offense was Emmitt left, Emmitt right and Emmitt up the middle. I’ve heard all three scenarios and I’m of the opinion, based on the word of people who knew BHG, that all or part of story No. 3 is true. What further convinces me is that Arnsparger resigned as Florida’s athletic director following the 1991 football season to take the job of the defensive coordinator of the San Diego Chargers. From AD in charge of one of the nation’s top athletic departments to defensive coordinator? Something about that just doesn’t compute. One thing I do know for sure: Florida fans would have been ready to tar and feather Arnsparger if he had hired anyone but Steve Spurrier. After the NCAA probation of 1984, the firing of Hall and the firing of basketball coach Norm Sloan just prior to the start of the 1989 season, Florida fans needed something positive and Spurrier was exactly what the doctor ordered. From the moment he was announced as the head coach, there was a sense of anticipation that had been missing for years and in the subsequent 12 years, Spurrier didn’t disappoint, going 122-27-1 with six SEC titles, one national championship and 12 years in which the Gators won at least nine games. Justice was not served 37 years ago: There is no debating that Florida committed recruiting and other violations that led to NCAA probation in 1984. We can debate whether or not Florida deserved some of the harshest sanctions ever handed out by the NCAA, particularly when some of the heinous crimes committed on Charley Pell’s watch were Dwight “Hoss” Adams buying Dale Dorminey a Sprite and a pack of Juicy Fruit at the Gainesville airport while waiting on a delayed flight and Mike Shanahan lending his car to Roger Sibbald to drive to Dunnellon to deal with a family emergency. Sibbald returned the same day so it’s not as if there was any sort of advantage gained. Obviously, there were worse violations and Florida got caught. The injustice from 37 years ago is how the Southeastern Conference has chosen to deal with Florida. The Gators won the SEC championship on the field in 1984 with what amounted to an NFL team recruited by Pell. Florida went 9-1-1 and by season’s end, there wasn’t a team in the country that could have beaten the Gators who the NCAA declared ineligible to go to a bowl game. The New York Times gave the Gators a national championship trophy. Florida doesn’t claim the 1984 national championship although it’s more legitimate than some of the ones claimed by Georgia (1942 by something called the Williamson System and the Billingsley Report), LSU (1962), Tennessee (1938, 1940, 1951, 1967), Ole Miss (1959, 1962) and Alabama (1930, 1934, 1941). When the Gators beat Kentucky to win the SEC title in 1984, it set off a celebration like no one had ever seen in Gainesville. Thousands awaited the UF plane returning from Lexington and thousands more lined University Avenue to greet the conquering heroes. The party was still raging into the wee hours of Monday morning. Well after the season concluded, the Southeastern Conference voted to strip Florida of the championship. Georgia and Tennessee are known to have voted to take the title away from the Gators (they did it again in 1990 for the violations that cost Galen Hall his job). LSU, Auburn and Alabama supposedly were supportive of UF. If stripping the Gators of the title is justice, then why didn’t the SEC strip Alabama of the 1999 SEC championship when the NCAA took away 21 scholarships? Why didn’t the SEC strip Auburn of the 2010 SEC title when it was clear that Cecil Newton (Cam’s father) had for all practical purposes auctioned his son off to the highest bidder? And, since we’re on the subject of injustice, why hasn’t the University of Florida athletic department made that 1984 team feel welcome. That’s just wrong. The constant in Florida’s 2006-07 NCAA basketball championships was Taurean Green: In addition to winning the Most Outstanding Player Award for leading the Gators to the 2006 NCAA basketball title, Joakim Noah was known to suck all the air out of the room by the sheer force of his dynamic personality. Whether it was talking about his grandfather back in Cameroon offering sacrifices on behalf of the Gators or dancing for the whole world to see after the 2007 SEC Tournament title, Jo was always a story in the making. Al Horford was quiet and reserved. He played his best basketball when the stakes were the highest. Interview him and he always had an intelligent, well thought out answer. Corey Brewer was an athletic freak who could win games with his defense or his shooting. He always wore a gigantic grin. Lee Humphrey broke games open with his lethal 3-point shooting and underrated play on the defensive end. Not bad for a guy who heading into his junior year had people asking if he even belonged in the SEC. And then there was Taurean Green, who wasn’t even Billy Donovan’s first choice as a point guard when he was recruited. The first choice was Jordan Farmar (went to UCLA) and the second choice was Darius Washington (went to Memphis). Taurean wound up with two championship rings. Farmar and Washington went oh-fer their careers. During Florida’s two national championship seasons, the one starter who never missed a game because of injury or illness was Taurean Green. That’s important because Florida didn’t have a real backup point guard. Taurean was the ball handler, the Gators best foul shooter, a clutch 3-point shooter and rock solid defensively. Ask Farmar (2006 national championship game) and Darren Collison (2007 semifinals), both of whom played a lot of years in the NBA, just how much of a lockdown defender Taurean was. Now, in those championship games, the Gators couldn’t have won them without any one of the four starters, but over the course of two seasons, Taurean Green was the one indispensable Gator. Florida never gets to the Final Four twice much less wins back-to-back national championships without him. Maybe I’m just old, but I still think Jack Nicklaus is the greatest golfer of all time: I’m not trying to take anything away from Tiger Woods, who did some absolutely amazing things when he was healthy and had his head together (pre-divorce), but for my money Jack was, is and will always be the best of all time. Even before his pro career that delivered 18 major championships, Jack won the 1956 Ohio Open against pros when he was 16, qualified for the US Open at 17, finished 12th in his first non-major PGA tournament when he was 18, won the US Amateur at 19, tied for 13th at the Masters at 20 in 1960, tied for second at the US Open that same year, tied for seventh at the 1961 Masters, won the NCAA title and US Open in 1961, and tied for fourth at the US Open in 1961. Not many in Jack’s era could match him off the tee when he hit 275-yard drives and an occasional monster that went 300. That was with persimmon head drivers that aren’t nearly as forgiving as the drivers used these days. Nobody hit the ball 330-350 yards which you see with regularity on today’s PGA Tour. Maybe a bigger challenge was winning golf with balls that sliced and lost their round shape easily. The golf balls of today are probably a bigger advantage than the drivers and forgiving irons. In an interview he did for Golf magazine back in 2020, Jack said, “I think the equipment we played was far more challenging and rewarded us more for hard work than the equipment of today. I may get a little static about that because the average golfer actually likes the equipment for today, and I understand that.” A FEW NOTES FROM THE SEC Kyle Pitts signed his first NFL contract. The Atlanta Falcons are paying him $32.9 million over the next four years with all the money guaranteed. That’s nice work if you can get it. The College World Series is tied at 1-1 after Mississippi State bounced back to take game two from Vanderbilt, 13-2, Tuesday night. For Wednesday’s championship game, Vandy will be starting Kumar Rocker on four days rest and Mississippi State will start Will Bednar on three. Darius Days (6-8, 240, SR) has withdrawn from the NBA Draft and will return to LSU for his senior season. Josh LeBlanc (6-7, 230, SR) is transferring from LSU to UAB. Redshirt freshman quarterback Chayil Garnett is transferring from Auburn to Tennessee State. Garnett put his name in the transfer portal as soon as TJ Finley transferred from LSU. Kentucky football chief of staff Dave Berezowitz was arrested on misdemeanor 4th-degree assault charges over the weekend. Tennessee defensive lineman Greg Emerson, a 4-star recruit in 2018, is the latest Volunteer to transfer out. Missouri linebacker Gerald Nathan, a former 3-star recruit in 2018, is transferring. He has been in on two tackles in his Mizzou career. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: The NCAA Division I Board of Directors is expected to vote today to allow athletes to earn money off their name, image and likeness. This comes one day before NIL laws going into effect in several states. The NCAA calls this an interim measure to hold over until there is federal legislation introduced or else the NCAA comes up with a brand new set of rules. The NCAA tried to kick the NIL can down the road in hopes that Congress would come up with a plan but that hasn’t happened. It’s opened the door for a worst case scenario that some are calling Armageddon for the NCAA and an almost as bad scenario that others are calling a Pandora’s box. It is really hard to imagine this turning out well, either for the NCAA or for college sports. Like it or not, college sports as we know them are about to change. I’m not sure we’ll recognize college sports in 10 years.

A few thoughts to jump start your Tuesday morning: A WANDERING MIND GATHERS NO MOSS Spring has sprung and summer is here, days when writing a 5-day a week column requires a good memory and a certain amount of creativity. Here are a few things that have wandered through my mind in the past couple of days. The touchdown dance was invented at Florida Field September 20, 1969: A year after Florida demolished Houston, 59-34, in the season opener at Florida Field in 1969, the crowd of 53,807 that had witnessed the 70-yard touchdown pass from John Reaves to Carlos Alvarez – forever known as “The Pass” – on the third play of the game had swelled to somewhere in the neighborhood of 750,000. It’s like Henry Aaron’s 715th homer. At least a couple million people were there that night in Atlanta. Don’t believe it? Just mention that night to someone who is at least 60 years old sometime. Houston was predicted by Anson Mount to win the national championship. At least one national publication predicted Florida and its Super Sophs would finish among the 20 worst teams in the country. Unbeknownst to Houston, a pair of dive plays on first and second down were setups for a Reaves to Alvarez bomb, planned by Fllorida offensive coordinator Fred Pancoast since the spring. On third and seven, Florida flopped its tight end to the left side and split Alvarez out five extra yards. The Houston safety had to take responsibility for the tight end and the extra five yards meant he would have no chance to give over the top help on Alvarez. Reaves and Alvarez had practiced the pass so many times in the summer they could almost complete it blindfolded. Reaves took a seven-step drop. Alvarez, who was the state sprint champion at North Miami in his prep days, blew by the corner who had no help from his safety. It was an easy pitch and catch for a TD, the first of five TDPs for Reaves. Alvarez caught six for 182 yards and had a second TD catch. Everybody remembers that. What few remember is Houston wide receiver Elmo Wright. On that day when Houston QB Ken Bailey matched Reaves with five touchdown passes, Elmo Wright invented the touchdown dance in the north end zone. It was after his first TD catch when he slipped out of the grasp of UF safety Steve Tannen that Wright danced in the end zone. It was like he was sprinting in place. Some wondered if he was mimicking an Indian war dance. Florida fans booed. So next TD catch, Wright did it again, this time more pronounced. He did it a third time that day. And a bunch of times in 1969 when he had eight touchdown catches of at least 50 yards and averaged 20.2 per reception. Elmo continued his touchdown dancing when he got to the NFL although most believe it was Billy “White Shoes” Johnson who made the end zone dance an art form. Tee Martin still hears the footsteps: It was September 19, 1999, time for the annual renewal of the Florida-Tennessee rivalry that dominated the Southeastern Conference in the 1990s. I remember standing outside the north end zone at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium pregame with my stepfather beside me when perhaps 50 Hare Krishnas came by in their saffron colored robes that lot like the creamsicle jerseys worn by the group of six Vol fans standing to my right. As the Krishnas danced and twirled, banging their drums and cymbals, I remarked, “I’m glad Tennessee brought the marching band.” The Vol fans spewed what smelled like an enhanced Coca-Cola. One of them looked at me and said, “That was just cruel. Funny as hell, but cruel.” What was cruel that night for the Vols, the 1998 national champions and owners of a 14-game winning streak, was what Alex Brown did to Tee Martin. Alex was penalized for a late hit on the third play of the game, a precursor to what was going to happen the rest of the way. By the time this one was over, Brown had five sacks, two batted passes, an interception and a forced fumble as the Gators took down the 2nd-ranked Vols, 23-21. The Gators had given up 784 yards in the first two games of the year, easy wins over The Citadel and Northeast Louisiana. Tennessee managed only 278. Tee Martin still hears the footsteps. Florida’s defense at the 2006 and 2007 NCAA basketball Final Fours: Larry Shyatt, who served as Billy Donovan’s minister of defense, preached that good defense began with your heels touching the 3-point line. Shy was willing to make teams earn their points shooting tough twos, but he wasn’t about to lose a game because the Gators couldn’t defend the 3-ball. Never was that more evident than in the Final Fours in 2006 and 2007. In the 2006 semifinal matchup with George Mason, a game the Gators won 73-58, UF held the Patriots to 23-56 shooting overall and just 2-11 on 3-pointers. George Mason would have gladly tried to take more threes since they couldn’t get the ball inside on Al Horford and Joakim Noah, but the Patriots couldn’t even get a decent look from the outside. In the championship game (Florida won 73-57), everyone remembers Noah dominating with six blocked shots, but Taurean Green and Lee Humphrey absolutely ate the Bruins guards alive. Jordan Farmar, who had actually been Billy Donovan’s top choice for a point guard back when he was being recruited, was horrible from the outside (1-8 on threes) against Green, who was Donovan’s “consolation” prize. Humphrey took on Aaron Afflalo and held him to 2-7 as UCLA went a miserable 3-17 (17.6%) from the 3-point line. A year late in the semifinals, the Gators met up with UCLA in a rematch. UCLA didn’t fare any better. UCLA hit 20 of its 41 twos but for a second straight year the Bruins were locked down at the 3-point line. Green handled Darren Collison (1-6 from the 3-point line), Humphrey stifled Afflalo (3-9) and Corey Brewer shut out Josh Shipp (0-4). The Gators wound up holding UCLA to 5-23 (21.7 percent) from the 3-point line and won easily, 76-66. On Monday night against Ohio State, Florida’s strategy was to run Horford, Noah, Chris Richard and Marreese Speights at Buckeye big man Greg Oden to make him work for everything he got (finished the night with 25). If not for a couple of late 3-balls after the game was pretty much in the bag for the Gators, Ohio State’s 4-23 shooting would have looked even worse in the scorebook. Green held Mike Conley to 1-3 shooting from the 3-point line. Jamar Butler went 1-6 against Hump. Ivan Harris was 2-8 against Brewer. The Buckeyes hit 26-41 (63.4 percent) on twos but an abysmal 17.4 percent from the 3-point line. As good as the Gators were offensively those two 2007 games – 50-98 overall from the field and 19-40 from the 3-point line – I’m still amazed at how tough UF was defensively. For the four games of the Final Four in Florida’s two NCAA championships, the Gators held opponents to 14-74 shooting from the 3-point line. You win a lot of games when opponents hit only 18.9 percent of their 3-pointers. The best college shortstop I ever saw: Watching the College World Series reminded me of 1969 when Ole Miss came to Perry Field to beat the Gators for the Southeastern Conference championship. My senior year at Gainesville High School was winding down and I was working as a correspondent for Jack Hairston of the Jacksonville Journal. I sat in the bleachers (Perry Field wasn’t exactly a palace in those days) next to Atley Donald, the former New York Yankees pitcher turned Yankees scout, who I had met during my family’s three-year exile to Mississippi when he was scouting McComb’s Freddie Brister and Ted Milton. On this day, Atley was in Gainesville to watch Ole Miss All-American third baseman Whitey Adams and sophomore shortstop Archie Manning. Archie was already well on his way to becoming a football legend but at the time he was actually considered a better professional prospect as a shortstop. There wasn’t a play he couldn’t make defensively and if he got to the ball, he had an absolute gun to first base. He was a gap hitter who led the SEC in doubles in 1969 and triples in 1970. He also led the SEC in stolen bases in 1969. Two plays stood out that day in Gainesville. The first was a bouncer up the middle that had single written all over it. Archie gloved on the outfield grass and with his momentum taking him out to right field squared his shoulders and gunned out the Gator at first. The second was a slow roller that Archie gloved and seemed to throw all in one smooth motion. Atley looked at me after the second play and said, “I think he loves football but Archie Manning is a better baseball player than he is a football player. He could be in the big leagues in two years. He’s already better than half the shortstops up there.” Obviously, the Major League Baseball teams thought so. Archie was drafted in the second round by the Kansas City Royals and in the third round twice by the Chicago White Sox. If I picked a broadcasting hall of fame: Well, Beth Mowins wouldn’t be on it, but here are 10 who would. (1) Cawood Ledford, Kentucky basketball; (2) Vin Scully, Los Angeles Dodgers; (3) Keith Jackson, ABC college football; (4) Al Michaels; (5) John Ferguson, LSU football; (6) Jack Buck, St. Louis Cardinals baseball; (7) Ray Scott, CBS football; (8) the NBC college basketball broadcasting team of Dick Enberg, Billy Packer and Al McGuire; (9) Ernie Harwell, Detroit Tigers baseball; (10) the original Monday Night Football team of Frank Gifford, Don Meredith and Howard Cosell. Honorable mention: Pat Summerall, CBS football; Woody Durham, North Carolina basketball; Chuck Thompson, Baltimore Orioles baseball; and John Ward, Tennessee. I’ve never heard anyone who could call a basketball game better than Cawood Ledford, who made you feel as if you were watching the game with him. Vin Scully carried on a conversation with you and the baseball game was just part of the entertainment. Keith Jackson, “Whoa Nelly!” Al Michaels, “Do you believe in miracles? Yes!” John Ferguson made you think Tiger Stadium was situated in a foggy swamp. Nobody anticipated what a pitcher was about to do better than Jack Buck. Ray Scott had the voice of God. Enberg, Packer and Al McGuire … no one has ever made college basketball more fun. Ernie Harwell made you feel like you were at the park eating a hotdog. I still don’t know how Frank Gifford kept a straight face while letting Dandy Don and Howard go at it. I miss those guys. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Attendance at Vanderbilt’s 8-2 win over Mississippi State at the College World Series was 21,883, which the NCAA was quick to tweet out. Among the better responses from fans who don’t find the NCAA very amusing for the way it handled sending North Carolina State home was tweeted out by someone with the handle Funny Bone, who offered this: “How man of the 21,883 were tested for Covid? B/c the pandemic is raging and the virus is so deadly, I assume everyone wore masks. And the game must have been held in a 120,000 seat stadium to allow for safe social distancing. Don’t reply immediately. You can wait until 2:30 AM.” Maybe there wasn’t a better way to handle NC State than to send the Wolfpack home, but the NCAA absolutely blew it with the way they kept everyone in the dark and then didn’t have the decency to hold a press conference in which they made it perfectly clear how agonizing the decision was.

A few thoughts to jump start your Monday morning: LOOKING AHEAD: UF BASKETBALL ROSTER AND A FEW RECRUITS TO KEEP AN EYE ON Awkward. That’s the best way to describe the roster management issues Mike White will be facing over the next year. He loses only two players for sure – graduate transfers Plandrous Fleming Jr. (from Charleston Southern) and Brandon McKissic (from Missouri-Kansas City) – but thanks to the NCAA mandate that didn’t count 2020-21 against anyone’s eligibility, seniors Anthony Duruji and Tyree Appleby have the right to come back for a sixth season. Then we have Keyontae Johnson, Colin Castleton and transfer Myreon Jones (from Penn State). Technically speaking, this is their fourth year, but since last season didn’t count they have options. They can graduate, transfer to another school or stay around for at least one more season. Johnson, for example, could get a hardship waiver for last year so if he is healthy enough to continue playing he could stick around two more years. Because it’s up to the school to determine if it wishes to extend scholarships to players who were given that extra year of eligibility, it creates issues for recruiting. Does White sign two for the recruiting class of 2022? Or does he sign as many as five? It’s awkward. 2021-22 Roster as of June 27, 2021 Graduates (2): Phlandrous Fleming Jr. (6-4, 210); Brandon McKissic (6-3, 195) Seniors who could come back for a sixth year of eligibility (2): Anthony Duruji (6-7, 220); Tyree Appleby (6-1, 170) Seniors with at least one more year of eligibility beyond 2021-22 (3): Keyontae Johnson (6-5, 229); Colin Castleton (6-11, 231); Myreon Jones (6-3, 180) Juniors with two or more years of eligibility (2): Jason Jitoboh (6-11, 285); CJ Felder (6-7, 230) Sophomores (2): Neils Lane (6-5, 206); Samson Ruzhentsev (6-7, 192) Freshmen (1): Kowacie Reeves (6-6, 180) 12 recruits to keep an eye on Point guards (3) Chase Cormier (6-3, 180, Decatur, GA Greenforest Christian Academy): He’s got serious quickness and an explosive first step. He is a lefty shooter who knocked down eight jumpers in a row at a recent AAU event. Florida was his first high major offer and the Gators have been at the top of his list since last summer followed by Xavier. Georgia, Arkansas and Auburn have been trying to get his attention. Tre Donaldson (6-2, 190, Tallahassee, FL Florida State University School): He’s a 4-star safety and a 4-star point guard who wants to play both sports in college, which makes sense when you consider his basketball coach is Charlie Ward, who won the Heisman at FSU in football and played 10 years in the NBA as a point guard. Both Florida and Auburn have told him he can be a two-sport guy. Apparently, those two teams are the ones to beat. DeVontes Cobbs (6-3, 180, Phoenix, AZ Hillcrest Prep): He’s from Milwaukee originally, moved to Arizona in the ninth grade and will be at his third high school this fall. He’s an athletic freak who can wow you with his dunks. He’s a very good passer in transition. His most favored list has Arizona State and West Virginia, both of whom already have three underclass points on the roster so the Gators are in good shape. Wings (3) Ven Allen Lubin (6-7, 215, Orlando, FL Orlando Christian Prep): Florida has been in on him from the beginning but his recruiting is really starting to heat up. He is going to play outside in college although he’s strong enough to be effective on the inside, too. He’s a streaky shooter who can carry a team from the outside when he starts feeling it. Very good defensively and a really underrated rebounder. With Florida State putting its focus on Dillon Mitchell (6-7, 210, Tampa, FL Bishop McLaughlin), Lubin is Florida’s to win or lose. Jaylen Martin (6-6, 190, Tallahassee, FL Florida State University School): For the longest time he was thought to be a mortal lock for Georgetown but he recently made an unofficial visit to Florida, which offered him last October. He’s a very good shooter who can get to the rim off the dribble but his best work is done defensive where he can guard three positions. Josh Reed (6-7, 210, Atlanta, GA Pace Academy): Reed has grown an inch and put on 15 pounds in the past year. Florida offered last week and five other high major schools including Florida State, Arkansas and Clemson have offered in the month of June. There is a lot to like about Reed because he is as comfortable playing outside as he is inside where he rebounds and defends taller than his height. Big guys (6) Ernest Udeh Jr. (6-10, 230, Orlando, FL Dr. Phillips): Florida was one of the first schools to offer Udeh more than a year ago. He’s big, strong and runs the floor extremely well. He catches the ball easily, turns and wastes no time powering up to the rack where he’s a fearsome dunker. He has a very good relationship with Mike White. Kansas has gotten into the mix in a big way thanks to a Joel Embiid and Udoka Azubuike, both of whom prepped in Florida and then made their way to Lawrence. NCAA problems for KU and Bill Self could steer Udeh Florida’s way. Tarris Reed Jr. (6-10, 225, St. Louis, MO Chaminade Prep): He’s from the same high school that gave the Gators David Lee and Brad Beal. He plays for Brad Beal Elite (formerly St. Louis Eagles) on the AAU circuit. He’s grown two inches in the last year. He is a very good midrange shooter, has good footwork around the rim and uses his long arms to defend in the paint at a high level. Michigan State is working him very hard and seems to have the inside edge. Florida, Illinois and Creighton are right behind. Felix Okpara (6-10, 225, Lagos, Nigeria/Chattanooga, TN Hamilton Heights Christian): He’s from the same high school that gave the Gators Jason Jitoboh and Samson Ruzhentsev so Florida has been in on him for a long time. Okpara doesn’t have a great offensive game outside five feet. He’s one of the most intimidating shot blockers in the country and that’s why his recruiting stock is really starting to rise. Kentucky, Tennessee and Ohio State are working him hard but Florida is very much on his radar. Brenen Lorient (6-8, 210, Ocala, FL/Fort Lauderdale, FL Calvary Christian Academy): Lorient is an Ocala native who played at Forest last year. He recently transferred to Calvary Christian where he will team up with Gregg Glenn III (6-7, 210), Clemson commit Ben Middlebrooks (6-10, 200) and UCF commit Taylor Hendricks (6-9, 210) for what will be one of the top prep front lines in the country. Lorient has had an excellent spring playing for Nike Team Florida so his recruiting is really heating up. Eric Dailey (6-7, 225, Tampa, FL/Bradenton, FL IMG Academy): One of Dailey’s IMG teammates and buds is Jett Howard (6-6, 190, Ann Arbor, MI/Bradenton, FL), son of Michigan coach Juwan Howard. There is an assumption that because they’re buddies Dailey will wind Michigan. The only problem is Michigan only has two scholarship openings and there’s probably no room at the inn. Alabama has come on hard. Same problem as Michigan. No space. So, Florida may end up a default winner here. Dailey is a nice combo forward who can shoot well enough to play on the wing and physical enough to run the baseline or play the high post. Malique Ewin (6-10, 230, Lilburn, GA Berkmar): Ewin is one of the most physical bigs in the country. Total power guy who owns the paint. He’s very unselfish and knows how to pass the basketball. He was thought to be leaning heavily to Illinois until Orlando Antigua joined the Kentucky staff. Kentucky hasn’t offered yet and may not. Georgia Tech is salivating over him. Georgia will probably be hiring a new coach after the disaster that awaits next season. If Ewin doesn’t go all-in for Georgia Tech, Florida might have a decent shot. MULLEN SEALED THE DEAL FOR THUNDERFOOT 2022 PLACEKICKER Recently committed placekicker Trey Smack (6-2, 200, Severna Park, MD) recently made 16-day tour of Michigan State, Virginia Tech, Florida, Auburn, Georgia and Georgia Tech before committing to the Gators. He cancelled visits to Texas A&M and Florida State. Smack, who hit six 56-yard field goals in a row at the National Scholarship Camp in Gatlinburg, Tennessee last summer, decided that Florida was the place after extensive time spent with Dan Mullen during the time in Gainesville. Speaking to G. Allan Taylor of The Athletic, Smack’s mom, Libby Swarr, a former Penn State field hockey player, said, “We got to meet with some head coaches for five minutes, and sometimes we didn’t meet the head coach at all. But Mullen was there the whole time. He set the bar. Trey was wowed by the sincerity and how he took the time to get to know our family.” Taylor writes that it was after a meeting with the Georgia staff that Smack told his mother, “Mom, I know you’re gonna love Florida. I wanna be a Gator.” VANDY VS. MISSISSIPPI STATE IN AN ALL-SEC COLLEGE WORLD SERIES It’s an All-SEC affair that starts tonight in Omaha as the College World Series starts its Championship Finals (best two-of-three) with Vanderbilt (48-16) and Mississippi State (48-17). Mississippi State earned its way into the championship by beating Texas Saturday night in a winner-go-home game. Vanderbilt’s in the championship series via the forfeit route. The NCAA declared Saturday’s elimination game with North Carolina State a forfeit because of COVID-19 protocols. North Carolina State only had 13 players available Friday when Vanderbilt took a 3-1 win to force a winner-goes-home game on Saturday. North Carolina State went home, but only because of positive tests for the virus and contact tracing. It’s advantage Vanderbilt heading into the championship series. By not having to play Saturday, the Commodores got a full day of rest for their entire pitching staff. Jack Leiter (10-4, 2.08 ERA) didn’t have to pitch Saturday and will open against Mississippi State tonight. Leiter was the losing pitcher to North Carolina State last Monday night despite 15 strikeouts. Mississippi State had to play and use its ace Will Bednar for 6-1/3 innings Saturday night so he won’t be available to make a start in the championship series. He may be available for an inning or two if it goes to game three on Wednesday. The final 2-2/3 innings Saturday were logged in by closer Landon Sims, who did get Sunday off, but will he be available and effective if he is called on tonight? Mississippi State does have the confidence that it knocked Leiter out of the box back on April 24. A night earlier, Vanderbilt took a 6-2 win over tonight’s expected Mississippi State starter Christian MacLeod (6-5, 4.61 ERA). MacLeod hasn’t pitched well since a May 20 win over Alabama. He’s won only one of his last four starts while giving up 19 earned runs. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Kendall Rogers of d1baseball.com, probably the best reporter in the country when it comes to the college game, has put together a timeline of how the NCAA reached its decision to declare the forfeit and advance Vanderbilt. Two things stand out: (1) On Friday, several prominent unvaccinated North Carolina State players were removed from TD Ameritrade Park and taken to the Marriott where they tested negative … the players, some of them prominent starters, were not allowed to return even though there was plenty of time; and (2) there were eight positive tests but due to its protocols, the NCAA viewed it would be impossible for North Carolina State to continue the tournament (they brought 27 players with them). I’m not a doctor nor am I an expert on COVID-19, but the NCAA can allow more than 20,000 fans into the stadium without masks or proof of vaccinations and can’t allow a team with a chance to win a championship to play? Perhaps the NCAA did the right thing, but its lack of communication doesn’t lend itself to feeling warm and fuzzy about this decision. Rather than issue a statement, Mark Emmert should have personally taken charge, held a press conference and offered the NCAA’s reasoning. Anything less than that stinks.

I recently sat down with Urban for our first episode of “Best Fridays in Football” – a term he once adopted for his day-before-game protocol for his team hanging out at the hotel. And I asked him why he made the decision to pursue an NFL coaching career. Urban Meyer wanted to quit coaching and go to law school, but Shelley wouldn’t let him. Urban’s mentor/friend Earle Bruce had been unceremoniously fired by Ohio State and his coaching apprentice job went with him out the door. “Not yet,” said his wife Shelley. “Give it one more try. You could do this! It’s your passion!” And even more importantly, it was going to become his purpose. So Urban stayed the course, gave up his wannabe real life dream as Perry Mason and moved on to the next job with Bruce in Fort Collins, Colorado, where Shelley says Urban added the spirituality component to his repertoire. Then on to the Golden Dome. Growing up watching courtroom movies and TV shows, like "Jagged Edge", planted the seed of an idea that he could be a decent lawyer, and given that keen analytical mind, perhaps he could have been. But Urban wasn’t really looking for a job per se. This wasn’t even about just his passion. It was about his purpose. He found that purpose in teaming up with Shelley to help young men get better at life. At Notre Dame under Lou Holtz, Urban became head coaching material. And when he was offered his first head job, Urban was disappointed that wasn’t a very good deal. When he complained to Holtz, Lou told him: “Of course not! Otherwise, why would they be calling you?” Oddly enough the guy who was getting those crappy offers from the Kent States of the world for chump change now commands a salary approximated north of $9M (unconfirmed). And as extravagant as that seems these days Urban Meyer’s life is so NOT about money. When you’ve got it all and the only thing you don’t need is job stress, why, then decide to coach an NFL team that won one game last year and at times has appeared to be a franchise on life support? In the past year I have spoken to Urban more than anybody else in the media as we launched the first year of our “Best Fridays in Football Podcast.” I have a new appreciation for the depth of his thinking, his ability to quickly absorb knowledge and information on new subjects and new surroundings and the commitment that he’s taken on with the Jaguars. Frankly, over the more than 15 hours we spoke during 2020, I never saw him launching a new career in the NFL on the horizon. “When and if Urban leaves Florida,” one of Meyer’s closest friend once told me during the research for a book, “it won’t be for the NFL – or maybe even another school. It’ll be because Urban collapses and is carried off the field, because he left his guts out there.” His friend, of course, was partially right, but mostly wrong – twice now. Urban did coach his guts out and was virtually carried off. When he quit Florida because of health and went to work for ESPN, there were no immediate plans for him to return. Not to re-litigate the past, or re-ignite the fire of Urban haters, but I say without hesitation that despite conspiracy theorists, I know for a fact a decision to return to coaching really wasn’t in his plans. It evolved. Well into his first football-less season at ESPN in 2011, I visited Urban at his Gainesville home in mid-fall, toured his home studio and brought up the fact that most likely Luke Fickell wasn’t going to be retained by Ohio State. So how would that impact his future? Jim Tressel had resigned under fire in late May after being charged with covering up NCAA violations involving players and a tattoo parlor. Although he commented confidentially that he might like to try coaching again someday, it had not yet resonated at that point with him that there would be an immediate pathway to Columbus and he thought it might be too early to return to coaching. But as Bear Bryant once said when asked why he was returned to coach Alabama, “Mama called.” The fact that the Buckeyes would crash and burn, losing their last four games of the season to finish 6-7 – the seventh to Florida in the Gator Bowl – helped expedite Fickell’s demotion to defensive coordinator. There was further bad news when the NCAA came calling about previous violations under the regime of Tressel. The Buckeyes needed somebody on a white horse. Enter Urban to go 83-9 with another national championship. Once done at Ohio State, with a secure financial future, a starring role on Fox TV college football, the respect as one of America’s greatest football coaches, beautiful grandchildren, expensive homes in Jack Nicklaus’s quaint village of Dublin, Ohio, and the high-end section of Sarasota, Florida, two restaurants and a single digit handicap at the best courses, what else could a man want? I recently sat down with Urban for our first episode of “Best Fridays in Football” – a term he once adopted for his day-before-game protocol for his team hanging out at the hotel. And I asked him why he made the decision to pursue an NFL coaching career. “It would have to be a good situation,” Meyer said. “I have a great life. I was healthy and working at an incredible place at Fox (Big Noon Kickoff).” Urban stated plainly that he needed to step up and seize a good opportunity while it was afforded him. He cited a recent confab with a group of CEOs where he came away with the mantra: “Opportunities are only opportunities if you take advantage of them.” The stars were aligned on this one. His owner/boss was a big plus. A generational quarterback, Trevor Lawrence, was availablle. Salary cap money was plentiful. "And I absolutely love Jacksonville," he said. Everything fell into place, Urban tells us on the upcoming podcast, which kicks off on the Jaguar Radio Network and on The Buddy Martin Show Friday, July 30. The podcast will feature personal insights from Urban and while it is intended to “celebrate the great game of football, its people and events,” the content is unscripted and most of the interviews will center on personal and/or philosophical insights. There will be, however, plenty of football talk. One of the most popular segments will likely be “Ask Urban,” in which readers and fans can submit questions which will be considered for airing. You can be assured that among the most-asked will be about a tight end who is fighting for a roster spot, Tim Tebow. Over the years, we’ve seen the mercurial rise of Urban Meyer and witnessed his step-backs from football over health issues, plus the controversial domestic abuse charges leveled against assistant coach Zach Smith whom he admitted he and wife Shelley tried to help. Remember that “purpose?” One thing Urban has never shied away from was loyalty to his players and assistant coaches, which has been the underpinning of his coaching career. He was feeling healthy again, none worse for the wear, however, as he emerged in TV as the bright, shining star of Big Noon Kickoff. He was on his way to a lucrative future when he met with owner Shad Khan and resigned from Fox, to be replaced this fall by Bob Stoops. “He is one of the most selfless people I’ve ever met in my life,” Meyer said of the 71-year-old Pakistani-American billionaire owner, who has since announced plans for a new waterfront stadium. Meyer made it plain he wanted an upgrade in facilities in what he called “The culture of excellence.” According to a recent Associated Press story by Mark Long, Khan took a big step in that direction this month when the Jaguars announced: “Plans to develop downtown Jacksonville. The proposal includes Khan funding half of a $120 million performance center that’s essentially a stand-alone football facility. The first of two phases would break ground by the end of the year and take four years to complete at an estimated cost of $441 million.” I told Urban all I was only hoping to suggest with the book title “Urban’s Way” when I wrote his authorized biography was that they would name a street named him in Gainesville, “but Shad Khan is building half a city around your projected success.” We both laughed. But it’s true. Now THAT’s a purpose!

“Come gather ‘round people wherever you roam And admit that the waters around you have grown And accept it that soon you’ll drenched to the bone If your time to you is worth savin’ Then you better start swimmin’ Or you’ll sink like a stone For the times they are a-changin’” -- Bob Dylan Two weeks ago, four of the most powerful men in college sports unexpectedly announced a plan to expand the College Football Playoff from four to 12 teams. It wasn’t so much that SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby, Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick and Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson had cobbled together a plan to expand the playoff that was surprising. It was the number of teams and the sense of urgency that accompanied their plan. Two weeks later the United States Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of the plaintiff in the case of the NCAA vs. Alston. That the NCAA would lose another case before the Supreme Court surprised no one. That it was a 9-0 vote instead of the usual conservative/liberal split was surprising to the public, unnerving for the NCAA. Two events, two weeks apart. Seemingly unrelated or so it seems at a casual glance. The reality is expansion of the College Football Playoff and a Supreme Court decision that signals the NCAA is sinking like a rock are tied together by an unseen umbilical cord. The Supreme Court decision wasn’t about the playoff, but because of this and the many other court cases lining up against the NCAA – many of them more consequential than the NCAA vs. Alston and all of whom the NCAA is about 99 percent certain to lose – an expanded playoff is a necessity. To understand the significance of both events, start first with the playoff. Even before Alabama’s crushing victory over Ohio State to win the national championship in what can only be described as the final game of perhaps the most bizarre season in college football history, there were warning signs that the four-team playoff format in place since 2014 was grinding to a pedestrian standstill. Television ratings, which skyrocketed in those first two playoffs when Ohio State won in 2014 and Alabama took the 2015 title, were leaking like a sieve, largely because it had become so repetitive that you could almost pencil in three of the yearly final four participants – Alabama, Clemson and Ohio State. There is nothing wrong with saying Alabama, Clemson and Ohio State have elevated their programs to a level that is far superior to the rest of the country but their success at the expense of the other 127 teams that make up Division I football has had a numbing effect on everyone else. Back in the 1300s, the English poet/author Geoffrey Chaucer wrote in The Canterbury Tales, “Familiarity breeds contempt.” College football hasn’t yet reached the contempt stage but continuation of the same old, same old will have that effect. The College Football Playoff Board of Managers, the 11 university presidents who actually run the playoff, were all too aware that some changes needed to be made and this was before they understood the far-reaching financial catastrophe caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic which wreaked such havoc with athletic department budgets that even a heavily endowed school like Stanford felt the need to axe 11 of its 36 scholarship sports. The adverse effects of the pandemic and concerns that the NCAA is a sinking ship have created a sense of financial urgency like never before. The four-team College Football Playoff, which generates somewhere in the neighborhood of $600 million annually of which $97 million finds its way to the 65 teams that make up the Group of Five, won’t be able to compensate for the huge loss of revenue by every Division I team. That is why the Board of Managers appointed the working group to come up with an expansion proposal more than a year ago. By making Thompson, a Group of Five conference commissioner, part of the working group it was a clear indication that an expanded playoff had to be more inclusive. Inspiration was drawn from the one thing the NCAA does consistently well – the Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament, a cash cow that generates more than $1 billion a year. While the tournament was the exclusive domain of conference champions and select independents through 1974 when only 25 teams filled out the brackets, the decision to expand to 64 teams was an absolute stroke of genius. March Madness has become a three-weekend event that completely captivates the country. The usual suspects – champions from the power conferences – win the tournament every year but one reason so much excitement is generated is the hope that one of these years a true Cinderella will go unbeaten for three straight weekends and dream the impossible dream. The four-team format of the College Football Playoff snubs its nose at Cinderella. UCF went 14-0 in 2017 without so much as a sniff of the playoff. When the Knights bushwhacked Auburn in the Peach Bowl, then UCF athletic director Danny White declared the Knights national champions since they were the only undefeated team still standing in Division I. UCF ran the regular season table in 2018 and won the American Athletic Conference championship game but even a 27-game winning streak couldn’t get a seat at the playoff table. A year ago both Cincinnati and Coastal Carolina were unbeaten in the regular season. Cincinnati got a New Year’s Six bowl game as a consolation. Coastal had to settle for something called the Cure Bowl in Orlando. The argument against expanding to even a four-team playoff was that it would dilute the importance of the regular season. The task for the working group was to find a formula that would neither take away from the regular season or diminish the playoff by adding teams that don’t stand a chance of winning. Of course, these same arguments were made when the NCAA expanded the basketball tournament to 32 teams and each step of the way until the magic number of 64 was found. Even before Alabama routed Ohio State for the national title back in January, the working group was privately narrowing down playoff formats. Their very existence was on a need to know basis but quietly they explored numerous avenues to determine a format that would infuse much-needed revenue to all 130 teams in Division I. It was thought for the longest time that when the playoff expanded it would take a walk before you run approach, starting with six or eight teams to set the stage for eventual expansion to 16 teams. Sankey and the group concluded that six teams was too few, eight didn’t allow for enough at-large teams and that 16 was too many. When they came out with their 12-team proposal, initial reaction was it was awkward, but further investigation showed they got the number just right. There are no automatic bids. The champions of the six highest-rated conferences will be invited with the brackets completed by six at-large teams. Since there are only five power conferences, it means at least one Group of Five champ will be included every year, hence Cinderella has an invitation to the ball. Had the 12-team playoff been in place in 2020, both Cincinnati (American Athletic Conference) and Coastal Carolina (Sun Belt) would have been in the tournament and Pac-12 champ Oregon would have stayed home. The top four seeded teams will receive a first round bye. First round games will be played on campus, hosted by teams seeded 5-8. Until Notre Dame elects to join a conference the Irish will never be one of the top four seeded teams and can only host a first round game if seeded 5-8. The proposal has been submitted to the Board of Managers which gave it a rubber stamp to find and eliminate flaws so that a workable scenario can be presented to ESPN, which has exclusive negotiating rights until the current contract expires. ESPN can reject the 12-team proposal but at the risk that when their contract with the CFB expires they may be outbid by another network, or avoid the possibility of losing by tearing up the existing contract and possibly doubling or tripling the money. Some economists project the television rights could sell for as much as $2 billion a year, offering a hefty cash infusion to all 130 teams that make up Division I. Thompson almost certainly wouldn’t have been part of the working group if the Group of Five weren’t assured of a larger slice of the financial pie than they are in the current contract. The ruling by the Supreme Court in NCAA vs. Alston explains why playoff expansion, future court rulings and even the continuing existence of the NCAA are all tied together. While this ruling doesn’t address name, image and likeness (NIL) and paying athletes, this was a torpedo to the bow of the Good Ship NCAA. The ruling only addressing the NCAA’s ability to cap benefits of an educational nature to student athletes. Under current rules, a scholarship can only provide room, board, tuition, books, fees and cost of attendance. The NCAA vs. Alston decision says a school like the University of Florida has the right to pay for things like laptop computers, more tutoring and academic support, semesters abroad and anything else that falls under the educational umbrella for a student athlete. The cost of additional educational benefits won’t come cheap, nor will NIL or paying players for what amounts to a full-time job while they go to school. The model that has been the foundation of college athletics for decades is about to be completely scrapped. Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh’s written opinion in the Alston case pretty much sums up how the court is likely to vote in future cases and it doesn’t look good at all for the NCAA. Kavanaugh wrote, “The NCAA business model would be flatly illegal in almost any other industry in America. It is highly questionable whether the NCAA and its member colleges can justify not paying student athletes a fair share of the revenues.” After all, it is the athletes who take all the risks and provide the entertainment that results in television contracts, full stadiums occupied by fans who pay premium ticket prices, booster fees and advertising and sponsorship dollars that are worth collective billions. It is also the athletes who, under current NCAA rules, can’t get school-provided health care after eligibility is expired for injuries suffered while representing their school. Under the current rules, it’s a violation to pay for the continuing education of an athlete who didn’t graduate before eligibility was used up. It doesn’t seem to matter to the NCAA that sports are, for all practical purposes, a 40-hour (or more) work week that makes school almost of secondary importance. These aren’t new issues. They’ve been around for decades. Had the NCAA addressed long term health care and continuing education some 25 years ago when athletes were literally begging for change, the organization wouldn’t necessarily be on the verge of going belly up. Rather than sit down, talk to athletes and adjust the rules to meet changing times, the NCAA chose to fight change in court where it has met consistently with defeat. And, with each lost court case, the NCAA has lost its ability to prevent athletes from going after what they see is their fair share of the revenues. The kids aren’t dummies. They see athletic budgets like the ones at Texas and Texas A&M in excess of $200 million a year. They see coaches such as Mike Kryzyzewski (Duke basketball), Nick Saban (Alabama football) and John Calipari (Kentucky basketball) being paid more than $9 million a year and flying private jets all over the country. And, until the NCAA vs. Alston, it was impossible for their athletic department to buy them a laptop that is necessary for classes. This is precisely why the College Football Playoff has to expand, the sooner the better. What’s ahead for every athletic department in Division I will come at a price and doubling or tripling the revenues from the playoff might not cover the cost. But, it is the most logical place to begin. That brings us to the final question: What is going to happen to the NCAA? The beatdown at the Supreme Court is just setback for the NCAA and its bloated bureaucracy. At some point you would think the colleges and universities that make up the membership of the NCAA would demand better leadership than what Mark Emmert has provided. Emmert, like predecessors Cedric Dempsey and Myles Brand, chooses to do battle in court where it inevitably loses. It’s an organization that even with insurmountable and indisputable evidence in the college basketball corruption trial from FBI wiretaps and Federal Court transcripts can’t seem to send a Notice of Allegations to LSU. Even with an overwhelming majority of coaches in every sport complaining that recruiting rules need to be streamlined with a large measure of common sense applied, the NCAA only adds to its ridiculously large rulebook. That forces every school in Division I to spend money on lawyers for compliance that could be spent addressing the needs of its athletes. College football pays the freight for the 130 teams that make up Division I football. This latest Supreme Court decision and decisions that will soon be coming down the pike should tell the conference commissioners, school presidents and athletic directors that it’s time to leave. Division I cannot stay hitched to an incompetent organization that is more concerned with going to court than it is with finding practical solutions. As Bob Dylan wrote, the times they are-a changing. It’s unfortunate that the NCAA hasn’t changed with the times because it is a horse and buggy in an era when Tesla is going to manufacture an electric powered roadster capable of going from 0-60 in 1.9 seconds. College sports as we know them today won’t exist in another five years. If they exist at all it will not be because the NCAA did anything to save them but rather common sense prevailed and they departed the organization to strike out on their own, leaving the NCAA to do its marvelous Don Quixote impersonation by charging up a hill to do battle with a windmill.

A few thoughts to jump start your Friday morning: FIVE BEST WINS OVER GEORGIA SINCE 1990 1. Florida 49, Georgia 10 (2008): This was the payback game for Urban Meyer. Georgia rushed the field after its first quarter touchdown the year before, a move that Mark Richt said was spur of the moment by his team. Replay tells a different story. When the Poodles rushed the field, Richt and his staff didn’t make a move to stop them. Georgia players taunted the Gators and it’s only a miracle that someone didn’t start a brawl. Georgia won that game, 42-30. Afterward and then at SEC Media Days, Richt proclaimed rushing the field wasn’t orchestrated but just a spontaneous act of joy on his team’s part. On the televisions in the locker room and Florida football offices, replay of Georgia rushing the field played over and over again. Meyer hinted that there would be payback but never tipped his hand. From the moment the 2008 game started, the 5th-ranked Gators were emotionally and physically superior. On the second play from scrimmage, Brandon Spikes decleated Knowshon Moreno, a telltale sign that it might be a long day for Georgia. The Florida defense intercepted Matt Stafford three times. On the offensive side, Tim Tebow ran for three touchdowns and passed for two. In the final minute, Meyer exacted his revenge by calling time out twice. Each time Mark Richt was caught looking longingly at a scoreboard that read Florida 49, Georgia 10. 2. Florida 26, Georgia 24 (1992): Seventh-ranked Georgia not only lost this game, but for all practical purposes, Garrison Hearst lost any shot at the Heisman Trophy as the Florida defense held him to 41 yards. After the game, Florida players took turns striking Heisman poses in the Gator Bowl end zone. Shane Matthews threw for 300 yards and two touchdowns as the 20th-ranked Gators kept Georgia from clinching the SEC East championship. Florida, which lost two of its first three conference games, went on to win the East and played eventual national champion Alabama in the first SEC Championship Game. 3. Florida 20, Georgia 13 (2002): Georgia came into the game ranked fifth and unbeaten, expecting to put a double digit beating on the Gators, who came in at 5-3 in Ron Zook’s first year on the job. There were two big stories in the game. The Florida defense, which had been torched badly by both Miami and LSU, held Georgia to 0-13 on third down. Rex Grossman rarely threw anything more than a 10-yard pass but his short, quick throws to Kelvin Kight, Carlos Perez and Ben Troupe helped UF control the ball. Grossman completed 36 passes for 339 yards and two TDPs. Guss Scott ran an interception back for a TD. This was Georgia’s only loss of the year and it prevented the Poodles from playing Miami in the national championship game. 4. Florida 52, Georgia 17 (1995): This game was played in Athens during the rebuilding of the stadium in Jacksonville for the first season of the NFL Jaguars. Florida was unbeaten and ranked 5th nationally in a season the Gators won the SEC title and played Nebraska for the national championship. What made this game memorable was Steve Spurrier running up the score intentionally. Spurrier has a long memory and he never forgot how Georgia’s Vince Dooley had humiliated Ray Graves in 1968 by a 51-0 score so this was all about paybacks. Danny Wuerffel threw five touchdown passes but backup Eric Kresser got the one Spurrier wanted when he threw a touchdown pass to Travis McGriff with 1:10 left to put the score over 50. Spurrier remarked post game that he wanted to hang “half a hundred” on Georgia in Athens. After the game Spurrier called Graves to tell him this game was for him. 5. Florida 41, Georgia 44, Georgia 28 (2020): This game makes my memorable list because Georgia came into the game feeling quite confident, especially after scoring two quick touchdowns for a 14-0 first quarter lead. The Florida defense only gave up one TD after that (Georgia got a TD in the second quarter on an interception return). The vaunted Georgia defense was destroyed by Kyle Trask, who completed 30-44 passes for 474 yards and four touchdowns. Much of Florida’s damage was done after Kyle Pitts was knocked out of the game on a vicious, helmet-to-helmet hit in the second quarter. Nothing will ever convince me that wasn’t intentional. Pitts had two catches for 59 yards and a TD when he took the hit. Georgia didn’t have anyone who could handle him. Georgia’s defense never figured out how to stop a simple wheel route as Malik Davis caught five passes for 100 yards, Nay’Quan Wright had three for 71 and Dameon Pierce had two for 41. THE ATHLETIC RATES FLORIDA BASKETBALL NO. 9 IN THE SEC NEXT SEASON Despite what he calls “one of the better transfer hauls in the league,” Kyle Tucker of The Athletic ranks the Gators No. 9 in the SEC for the 2021-22 season. Tucker rates the conference like this: (1) Kentucky, (2) Tennessee, (3) Arkansas, (4) Mississippi State, (5) Alabama, (6) Auburn, (7) LSU, (8) Ole Miss, (9) FLORIDA, (10) Texas A&M, (11) Missouri, (12) South Carolina, (13) Georgia, (14) Vanderbilt. STEWART MANDEL ON COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF EXPANSION Stewart Mandel, The Athletic’s college football editor-in-chief believes expansion of the College Football Playoff is rather complicated but predicts it will happen sooner than 2026 (current contract with ESPN and most of the bowl games runs through 2025). Writes Mandel: “The most complicated hurdle will likely be the Rose Bowl, which, under the proposed plan, will almost certainly have to sacrifice something it currently holds sacred. If it wants to stick to its traditional Jan. 1 time slot, then it’s going to have to withdraw from the semifinal rotation and only host quarterfinals. And it’s either going to have to end its traditional Big Ten vs. Pac-12 matchup altogether or settle for often hosting the third- or fourth-best teams from those leagues. “But if I had to predict, ESPN will pony up and make it worth everyone’s while to begin three years sooner — and the Rose Bowl will accept that this is just how it’s going to be if it wants to remain nationally relevant. Because every major party is all in on expansion.” OVER, UNDER, AROUND AND THROUGH THE SEC Alabama: In an interview with Joe Smith of The Athletic, Nick Saban discussed what goes into the winning football culture he’s established at Alabama. Saban said, “We don’t have any signs that say, ‘Win a National Championship’ or ‘Win the SEC Championship’ … I tell the players that outcomes are distortions. Let’s just focus on the details. As soon as you worry about winning as opposed to the next play, that’s when you get in trouble” … NCAA basketball champ Baylor will visit Alabama in the SEC-Big 12 Basketball Challenge. Arkansas: SEC Pitcher of the Year Kevin Kopps is a finalist for the Golden Spikes Award as the nation’s top amateur baseball player ... West Virginia will visit Arkansas in the SEC-Big 12 Basketball Challenge. Auburn: JT Thor (6-10, 205), who left Auburn after averaging 9.4 points as a freshman, has made a strong enough impression at the NBA Combine in Chicago that he could sneak into the first round … The Tigers will face Oklahoma at home in the SEC-Big 12 Basketball Challenge. Georgia: JT Daniels is Phil Steele’s second team All-SEC quarterback … Arch Manning, grandson of Archie and nephew of Peyton and Eli, made an unofficial visit to Georgia. Kentucky: Kentucky governor Andy Beshear has signed an executive order that will allow athletes to make money off their name, image and likeness. Given Kentucky’s rabid basketball fan base, figure the Wildcats just picked up a huge recruiting advantage ... Pro Football Focus named UK running back Chris Rodriguez one of its top five running backs for the 2022 NFL Draft ... The Wildcats will travel to Kansas in the SEC-Big 12 Basketball Challenge. LSU: LSU will announce Jay Johnson as its baseball coach today per Kendall Rogers of D1Baseball.com Johnson, who led Arizona to the College World Series as the 5th-seeded team, was 208-114 at Arizona and 316-172 as a head coach with previous stops at Point Loma Nazarene and Nevada ... Domestic violence charges have been dropped against former LSU running back Derrius Guice, who was waived by the Washington Football Team and didn’t play in the NFL in 2020. Guice was charged with felony strangulation and four different misdemeanors. LSU removed his stats from the record book and has banned him from the football facilities ... LSU will travel to TCU in the SEC-Big 12 Basketball Challenge. Mississippi State: The Bulldogs (47-16) will Texas today in the College World Series, needing just one win to advance to the best-of-three championship series. Texas will have to beat MSU twice to advance ... The Bulldogs will visit Texas Tech in the SEC-Big 12 Basketball Challenge. Missouri: Mizzou will go on the road to face Iowa State in the SEC-Big 12 Basketball Challenge. Ole Miss: Matt Corral is Phil Steele’s first team All-SEC quarterback. Left tackle Nick Broeker is on the second team with running back Jerrion Ealy and wide receiver Dontario Drummond named third team ... The Rebels will play host to Kansas State in the SEC-Big 12 Basketball Challenge. Tennessee: Freshman quarterback Kaidon Salter, who was suspended from the team during spring football practice, has been dismissed from the program following a charge of misdemeanor possession of marijuana stemming from a Saturday morning traffic stop. Salter was a 4-star recruit and the No. 18 quarterback in the 2021 recruiting class. Salter is the fourth recruit with at least a 4-star ranking that is already gone from the class. Defensive lineman KaTron Evans, running back Cody Brown and defensive end Dylan Brooks were released from their letters of intent … Former Vol Keon Johnson broke the all-time vertical jump record at the NBA combine with a leap of 48 inches ... The Vols will visit Texas in the SEC-Big 12 Basketball Challenge. Texas A&M: Theodor Melin Ohrstrom, a tight end from Sweden of all places, came to camp in College Station and performed so well that he got a scholarship offer. Vanderbilt: After their come-from-behind win over Stanford Wednesday night, Vanderbilt (37-16) will face North Carolina State (37-18), needing to win twice to advance to the championship series in the College World Series … Vanderbilt pitchers Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter are two of the three finalists for the Golden Spikes Award. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: It is entirely possible that the NCAA will announce what it calls a waiver from current regulations that prevent athletes from profiting off name, image and likeness. Like everything else recently for the NCAA, this is too little, too late. The NCAA has known this is coming for more than a year and has had plenty of time to enact some sort of legislation but instead is only doing something now that eight states either have NIL legislation enacted or days away from becoming law. The only reason the NCAA is acting now is because it got its clock cleaned by the United States Supreme Court earlier in the week on a unanimous 9-0 decision. How is it that an organization this inept has survived this long without its member colleges and universities revolting? That’s one of the great mysteries of life.

Every four years—or five if there’s a global pandemic—the most elite athletes from around the world gather for two weeks of intense competition. In one of the oldest traditions in civilization, they compete for their home countries in the Olympic Games. And each Olympic Games, especially in the Summer games, the Florida Gators are incredibly well represented. Over the next few weeks, you’ll notice a decidedly Olympic tilt to GatorBait Magazine. We want to take this time to shine a light on some of the best athletes the program has produced. Due to their sports, they don’t always get the most recognition or media coverage. But they’ve more than earned it and we want to give it as such. Each week, we’ll look at current and former Gators who are representing both the United States of America and International countries at this years Olympic Games. Before we dive in to them individually though, we bring you this primer. A breakdown of which Gators will be competing in this summer’s games…and even some who notably aren’t. SWIMMING AND DIVING Perhaps no sport is better represented by the Gators than swimming and diving. Florida has a long legacy of sending Olympians to the pools, where they have set world records—Caeleb Dressel, Ryan Lochte, Dara Torres and Elizabeth Beisel to name a few. And former Head Coach Gregg Troy spent years as the Team USA coach. As of now, three current Gator swimmers and two former swimmers are set to represent their respective countries at the Olympics. At the Team USA Olympic Trials this week, Gator swimmers swept the Free races. *This will be updated as other countries complete their Olympic trials. Kieran Smith will swim the 200 Free, 400 Free and 4X200 Free Relay Bobby Finke will swim the 800 Free and 1500 Free. Caeleb Dressell will swim the 50 Free, 100 Free, 100 Fly and 4X100 Free Relay. Natalie Hinds will swim the 4X100 Free Relay. Alfonso Mestre will represent Venezuela in the 800 meter. Enzo Martinez-Scarpe will swim the 50 Free for Uruguay. Head Coach Anthony Nesty will serve as Assistant Head Coach to Team USA. Read Ainslee Lee’s full report on the Gators domination in the free swims here. BASKETBALL Former Gator great Bradley Beal will be a part of the 12-man Team USA roster in the Summer Olympics. This is his first Olympic Games and Beal—the three time NBA All-Star—will be the first Gator basketball player to compete with Team USA basketball. Although credit to Florida Gators Senior Associate Athletics Director Mary Howard for this gem of a piece of trivia. “While Beal will be the first men’s basketball Olympian from the Gators, he will not be the first former UF men’s basketball player to compete in the Olympics. Harry Winkler, who played at Florida from 1965-68, competed in team handball at the 1972 Munich and 1976 Montreal Olympics.” TRACK AND FIELD The Team USA Track and Field trials are still ongoing in Oregon. An extreme heat wave has forced trial officials to postpone weekend events and so the roster for Tokyo is yet to be set. However, there are three Gators who have already secured their spots. Taylor Manson, Will Claye and Cory McGee will all represent Team USA on the track this summer. *This will be updated as other countries and Team USA complete their Olympic trials. Follow along for live updates here. Taylor Manson – 4x400 Relay Cory McGee – 1,500 meters Will Claye – Triple Jump McGee made Team USA team after she finished second in the 1,500 meters finals. The UF record holder finished with personal-record time of 4:00.67. Claye made the team for the third consecutive time in the triple jump and once again became the American champion. It was a close competition that came down to his last jump, in which Claye secured the win with a leap of 17.21 meters. Manson finished seventh in the 400 meters and was named to the 4x400 relay pool Sunday night. Manson logged a new personal-record time of 50.79 seconds, the third-fastest time in school history, to make her first Olympic team. While there are still events to finish, it's expected Gator great and reigning world champion Grant Holloway will represent the red, white and blue in the 110 meter hurdles. The 2020 (2021) games will take place in Tokyo, Japan and begin July 23.

Florida State can hold the distinction of Free Shoes University, while the University of Florida can call itself Freestyle University after four current and former Gators swimmers swept the slate of freestyle events at the U.S. Olympic Swim Trials in Omaha, Nebraska last week. Caeleb Dressel, who graduated from the University of Florida in 2018, made his second Olympics team after winning four events in Omaha. Affixed to the side of the arena in downtown Omaha is a picture of Dressel. "All the fluff that comes with it, your name on the building, is cool," Dressel said. "But it adds a little bit different pressure to it.'' But the pressure didn’t seem to affect the former Gator. Dressel qualified for the 50 free on the final night of the trials, tying the American record of 21.04 seconds – a record in which he owns. Prior to his performance in the 50 free, the former Gator also qualified in the 100 free, 100 fly and 4x100 free relay. On day five of the trials, Dressel notched his opportunity to represent the Red, White and Blue in both the 100 free and 4x100 free relay with a swim of 47.39, tying the U.S. Open record that Ryan Held set in 2019. "It's a huge weight off my shoulders," Dressel said after qualifying in his first event. "I'm excited to get the job done and move forward.'' The following day, Dressel touched the wall in 49.87 seconds in the 100 fly, winning the event by more than a full second. Dressel is widely viewed to leave behind a legacy similar to Michael Phelps. The 24-year-old is still a green swimmer, especially in comparison to fellow former Gator Ryan Lochte, who missed the cut for his fifth Olympics. Lochte is 36 years old. While the sun is seemingly setting on Lochte’s career, Dressel is just getting started. The native Floridian, who settled down in the quaint town of Micanopy in February, isn’t expected to have an opportunity to haul in eight gold medals like Phelps did in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but he could bag up to seven in Tokyo. "You can't win five, six or seven medals if you don't qualify for the events,'' he said during the trials. "I'm focused on qualifying right now.'' Aside from Dressel, Kieran Smith, who is currently a junior at UF, also qualified for a handful of events – making way for his first Olympics appearance. Smith was the first Gator to qualify for the U.S. Olympic team, doing so in the first day of Trials. Swimming in the 400 free, after Smith leapt off the dive block and entered the pool, he never gave up the lead en route to his 3:44.46 finish. "I just had to tell myself that I belong here and I do," Smith said following his qualifying performance. "I think that 3:44.00 is pretty good for now, but I know I still need to do a bit more work and I know I can give more in the back half of the 400 free.” Two days later, Smith posted another dominant performance. This time in the 200 free. Notching a new personal best, Smith touched the wall in 1:45.29, securing his second Tokyo race. "Kieran opened the night with an excellent 200 Free swim,” Florida swim head coach Anthony Nesty said. “He came prepared and executed that race perfectly. It was a fantastic performance and he has secured a second US team position.” With his individual performance in the 200 free, Smith also made the 4x200 free relay team for Team USA. Fellow Florida junior Bobby Finke also secured his first Olympics berth last week after qualifying in the 800 and 1500 freestyle. Finke swam the 800 free on day five of the Trials and scored a swim of 7:48.22, a time that led the field. "Bobby Finke had a fantastic 800 Free, winning the Final with a 7:48.22 and punching his ticket to Tokyo. He swam that race perfectly,” Nesty said of the first-time Olympian. “I am extremely proud of him. He trains with purpose and it shows.” Finke went on to swim in the 1500-meter freestyle prelims, often referred to as the mile, the very next day. In his preliminary race, the current Florida Gators standout swam a 15:04.66, giving him first place seeding going into the finals on the next day. “That race is an extremely tough race and to be able to swim it twice, one day right after another, at the end of a weeklong meet requires a tremendous commitment to training which Bobby has willfully accepted and done so with tremendous passion and focus,” Nesty said of the long-distance event. On Sunday night, the final day of the Trials, Finke swam a tremendous race, beating out his preliminary time by nearly 18 seconds. Finke’s 14:48.70 finish beat the finals field by 15 seconds and securing a new personal best en route to qualifying for his second race in Tokyo. Former Florida Gator Natalie Hinds silently snuck onto the U.S. Olympics swim team after her performance in the 100 free. Hinds, who missed her shot at the 2016 Olympics by a long shot, earned her Team USA berth behind a fourth place, 53.84-second swim in the 100 free. "This is such a dream come true for me,” Hinds said. “It’s such a tough field.” From the pool deck, Florida swim head coach Anthony Nesty was named as an assistant coach for Team USA. Nesty, who recently assumed the role of head coach for both the men’s and women's teams at the University of Florida after former women’s coach Jeff Poppell left to lead the South Carolina Gamecocks, will return to the Olympics after 33 years. In 1988, Nesty became Suriname’s first gold medalist after winning the 100-meter butterfly. "I am very honored to be appointed to the United States Olympic Staff as a Men's Assistant Coach", said Nesty. "I am thrilled to be with our athletes on this journey and we will all do our best to represent the Gators and the United States admirably. We have some work to do and we will do our best to get ourselves on the medal podium in Tokyo."

A few thoughts to jump start your Thursday morning: THINKING OUT LOUD ON A THURSDAY Florida’s defense will be vastly improved: Let’s start with the fact that because of COVID-19, 2020 was a football season like none other that we’ve ever experienced, particularly on the defensive side. While offenses didn’t suffer all that much, nearly every defense in the country took a hit. In 2019, six SEC defenses (3. Georgia; 9. Florida; 14. Missouri; 20. Kentucky; 21. Alabama; and 23 Tennessee) ranked among the top 25 nationally. In 2020, Georgia was the only top 25 defense and the Poodles ranked 12th, giving up 46 yards and 7.4 more points per game than they did in 2019. Florida’s defense went from giving up 304.8 yards and 15.5 points in 2019 to 428 yards and 30.8 points in 2020. Florida only survived because the offense was prolific and the UF defense did show up to play one game – Georgia. It’s not an excuse to say that the Gators were seriously hurt by a lack of spring practice and offseason workouts nor is it an excuse to say the Gators were hurt by a serious cutback in the amount of contact work in both August and game weeks during the 2020 season. Those are facts, just as it is a fact to say defensive coordinator Todd Grantham had a year to forget and that the coaching in the secondary was AWOL. Despite plenty of calls for his scalp, Grantham is returning with the understanding that if there isn’t drastic improvement in 2021 he will be looking elsewhere for gainful employment. He’s replaced his secondary coaches with Wesley McGriff (safeties) and Jules Montinar (corners). After the year the UF secondary had last year (allowed 257.5 yards per game and 28 touchdown passes), it’s difficult to imagine McGriff and Montinar aren’t a significant step in the right direction. Everything points to a vast improvement in 2021. Here are five reasons to believe the Gators are going to be better on defense: 1. The defensive line will be much, much better thanks to the return of Zachary Carter and the transfer tackles Antonio Shelton and Daquan Newkirk. Sports Illustrated ranks Carter as the No. 6 defensive end in the country. Shelton and Newkirk can collapse the pocket from the inside and they are significantly better against the run than either Kyree Campbell or Tedarrell Slaton were last year. The backups are bigger, stronger and faster. I expect Gervon Dexter, Dante Lang and Princely Umanmielen to be major contributors in the rotation. 2. Add Diwun Black to a linebacker room that already had Ventrell Miller, Brenton Cox Jr., Mohamoud Diabate, Amari Burney, Jeremiah Moon and Ty’Ron Hopper and you have the best depth and the most talent at the position since 2012 when UF had Antonio Morrison, Jon Bostic, Jelani Jenkins, Lerentee McCray and Neiron Ball. Mel Kiper Jr. ranks Miller as the No. 7 inside linebacker for the 2022 draft and Cox as his No. 6 outside linebacker. Black was the top junior college linebacker in the country. He can play inside, outside, in space or off the edge. He is a difference-maker. 3. Kaiir Elam is Mel Kiper’s No. 2 cornerback. He is poised for a big year as a lockdown capable of taking away one side of the field. Jaydon Hill or freshman Jason Marshall will probably line up on the opposite side. Jadarrius Perkins didn’t transfer in to sit. His combination of size and cover skills should lock up the nickel. The depth behind these guys is young but guys like Tre’vez Johnson, Avery Helm and Kamar Wilcoxson don’t lack for talent, just experience. Elijah Blades might be transferring in from Texas A&M, adding experience and talent to a very strong position. 4. Ever since his freshman year, we’ve expected big things out of Trey Dean III. Consider this his contract year. If he plays the way he did in the spring and the way he’s led in the offseason workouts, he will have a great year at one of the safeties. If you’re looking for answers at the other safety figure it’s going to be one of two freshmen – Donovan McMillon or Corey Collier Jr. Depth could be a problem here, but if the Gators stay injury-free safety will be solid. 5. Don’t sleep on kids like Chief Borders, Jeremiah Williams, Christopher Thomas or Desmond Watson. This was a defense-heavy recruiting class and these guys came to Gainesville to play. If Desmond Watson can get his body weight to less than 400 he can be a two-gap guy at the nose like Terrence (Mount) Cody was at Alabama. I’m not being a Gator homer when I say the defense will be vastly improved. Any improvement will be welcome but I’m of the opinion that last year was an aberration and that Todd Grantham hasn’t forgotten how to coach. If he can get the Florida defense anywhere close to what it was in 2019, it could turn the Gators into contenders. Do not assume the Gators are doomed for a second place finish in the SEC East: Whether it’s a preseason college football magazine, a sports website or a newspaper poll, the story is going to be the same – Georgia will win the SEC East and Florida will finish second. Georgia, they all say, is capable of beating Alabama and going to the College Football Playoff. Some of those same folks say the Poodles could actually win the national championship. None of them give the Gators a chance. Nowhere is the so-called gap between Georgia and Florida more pronounced than at Lindy’s preseason magazine. In the position rankings for the SEC, Georgia ranks either No. 1 or No. 2 at every position except receivers (No. 3) and secondary (No. 4). Nationally, Lindy’s has Georgia top 10 in every position group except secondary. Here is where Lindy’s ranks Florida in the SEC – Quarterbacks 6, running backs 9, receivers 6, O-line 9, D-line 7, linebackers 5, secondary 4, special teams 12. Based on those rankings, the Gators probably shouldn’t bother to show up in Jacksonville on October 30. I know a lot of folks will accuse me of seeing things through orange and blue colored glasses, but this Florida team shouldn’t be under-estimated. I’m of the opinion that far too much is being read into those last three games and not enough attention has been paid to a roster that, unlike the one Dan Mullen inherited when he arrived in 2018, has quality players and depth at every position. I’m also of the opinion that Mullen, who has always coached with a chip on his shoulder, will play the disrespect card to the hilt. Hungry teams are dangerous teams and this Florida football team is going to be very, very dangerous in 2021. Dangerous enough to win the SEC East. Sporting News ranks the top 25 quarterbacks in the country: Sporting News has published its quarterback rankings for 2021 and to no one’s surprise, the top two are Spencer Rattler of Oklahoma and Sam Howell of North Carolina. Rattler and Howell are ranked 1-2 at Lindy’s. At Athlon, it’s Howell first and Rattler second. Sporting News gives a much higher ranking to Ole Miss QB Matt Corral (No. 4) than Lindy’s (No. 9) and to UCF’s Dillon Gabriel (No. 5 while Lindy’s has him at No. 16). Georgia’s JT Daniels is No. 3 at Lindy’s and No. 9 at Sporting News. Florida’s Emory Jones cracks the top 25 (No. 21) at Sporting News. He’s not even on the Lindy’s radar. Here are the Sporting News top 25 QBs: (1) Spencer Rattler, Oklahoma; (2) Sam Howell, North Carolina; (3) D.J. Uiagalelei, Clemson; (4) Matt Corral, Ole Miss; (5) Dillon Gabriel, UCF; (6) Kedon Slovis, Southern Cal; (7) Desmond Ridder, Cincinnati; (8) D’Eriq King, Miami; (9) JT Daniels, Georgia; (10) Brock Purdy, Iowa State; (11) Bryce Young, Alabama; (12) Grayson McCall, Coastal Carolina; (13) Michael Penix Jr., Indiana; (14) Jayden Daniels, Arizona State; (15) Carson Strong, Nevada; (16) Malik Willis, Liberty; (17) Phil Jurkovec, Boston College; (18) C.J. Stroud, Ohio State; (19) Malik Cunningham, Louisville; (20) Spencer Sanders, Oklahoma State; (21) EMORY JONES, FLORIDA; (22) Tanner Morgan, Minnesota; (23) Jarret Doege, West Virginia; (24) Bo Nix, Auburn; (25) Dorian Thompson-Robinson, UCLA. The 12-team playoff will make a hotter seat for a lot of coaches: Since the advent of the College Football Playoff, three of the four spots have been occupied by usual suspects Alabama, Clemson and Ohio State. That’s one of the reasons the playoff is going to expand to 12 teams. Expansion will increase the number of teams involved and create more interest in college football. An unintended consequence of expansion is going to be making a lot of Power Five coaches’ already hot seats even hotter. With a four-team playoff of which you can almost pencil in three of the teams, coaches of schools not named Alabama, Clemson and Ohio State figure they’ve got a one in 62 shot at getting that fourth spot. In a 12-team playoff in which the same three teams figure to be in along with probably two from the Group of Five, there are seven more spots available. It’s a lot easier to justify why you weren’t one of the four than why you weren’t one of the 12. Maybe I’m old-fashioned but I liked Olympic basketball better when the US sent its college players: Once again the United States will be represented in Olympic basketball by a team of NBA All-Stars like Kevin Durant, Draymond Green, Jayson Tatum and former Gator Bradley Beal. Although this won’t be the 1992 Dream Team that included future Hall of Famers such as Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Patrick Ewing, Charles Barkley, David Robinson, Karl Malone and Magic Johnson, the United States team should still be the most talented in the field and favored to take home the gold medal. I actually liked it better in the days when the United States sent its college players rather than a pro all-star team. I will never forget how Dean Smith coached the US to the gold medal in 1976 in Montreal or how Michael Jordan led the US to the gold medal in Los Angeles in 1984. I remember how angry I was when the US was cheated at Munich and the USSR won the gold medal. I didn’t like it when the US lost to the USSR in the semifinals in Seoul in 1988, the last year the US sent a team of collegians, but as much as I was unhappy with the loss, I always liked that our college kids typically beat the pros the rest of the world was sending. I know we will never see those days again, but I do miss them. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Philadelphia Phillies manager Joe Girardi is getting a lot of heat for asking the umpires to check Washington Nationals ace Max Scherzer for an illegal substance Tuesday night. Scherzer said Girardi’s suspicions were unfounded and ridiculous but if I’m Joe Girardi and my team has to face a pitcher with Scherzer’s stuff, I’m going to do whatever it takes to get under his skin even if it means asking the umpires to check to see if he’s loading up the baseball. If Scherzer can’t handle it, that’s his problem.

A few thoughts to jump start your Wednesday morning: GATORS RANK EIGHTH IN SPORTING NEWS PRESEASON TOP 25 Sporting News released its preseason top 25 on Tuesday with the Florida Gators coming in a surprising No. 8. To no one’s surprise, the top five are Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, Oklahoma and Georgia, which are pretty much the same no matter whose publication you choose to read. Writes Sporting News college football expert Bill Bender on the Gators: “The Gators flopped in a Sugar Bowl beatdown vs. Oklahoma, and key components of that potent passing attack — quarterback Kyle Trask, tight end Kyle Pitts and receiver Kadarius Toney — are headed to the NFL. That said, Dan Mullen has led three consecutive runs to New Year's Day 6 bowls, and the offense will change with Emory Jones under center. The other challenge is rebuilding the offensive line. The good news is the defense is loaded with Zachary Carter, Brenton Cox, Ventrell Miller and Kaiir Elam. This season will test whether Florida can reload and consistently compete for an SEC championship.” TOP 25: 1. Alabama; 2. Clemson; 3. Ohio State; 4. Oklahoma; 5. Georgia; 6. Notre Dame; 7. Texas A&M; 8. FLORIDA; 9. Iowa State; 10. Cincinnati; 11. LSU; 12. Southern Cal; 13. Texas; 14. North Carolina; 15. Indiana; 16. Oregon; 17. Oklahoma State; 18. Iowa; 19. Miami; 20. Wisconsin; 21. Ole Miss; 22. Auburn; 23. Coastal Carolina; 24. Army; 25. Penn State. FIVE GATORS PRIMED FOR A BIG 2021 1. Lorenzo Lingard, RB: Between Covid-19 and an ankle sprain, Lingard never factored in Florida’s offense in 2020. Finally healthy in the spring, Lingard showed that he still has the speed and the moves as he kept breaking long runs in scrimmages and practices. Combine Lingard with Demarkcus Bowman and the Gators have a pair of running backs capable of turning a four-yard opening into a 30-yard (or more) gainer. Lingard was a 5-star recruit when he signed with Miami originally. He will show why he was ranked that high in 2021. 2. Justin Shorter, WR: He spent 2020 running drag routes while Kyle Pitts, Kadarius Toney and Trevon Grimes got to run the deep routes. He had 25 catches for 268 yards and three touchdowns. He’s 6-5, 230 pounds and runs a sub-4.5 40. He will see the ball downfield this year and will be the matchup nightmare that Pitts was last year. Too big for corners. Too fast for safeties and linebackers. Like Lingard he will show why he was a 5-star recruit when he signed with Penn State originally. 3. Stewart Reese, C: He transferred in from Mississippi State last summer and didn’t have the benefit of an offseason workout program which had everything to do with why he played a biscuit or two under 370 and had to play guard instead of right tackle. With Brett Heggie graduated, Reese (6-6, 354) is back for one more year, this time at center. He’s shed the weight and has the kind of strength to handle the monster nose tackles like Georgia’s Jordan Davis. With Reese in the middle flanked by Ethan White (6-5, 345) and Josh Braun (6-6, 352), Florida will have the interior power to grind away in the run game and eliminate the up-the-gut blitzes. 4. Gervon Dexter, DT: Dexter had a somewhat forgettable true freshman year in 2020 when it seemed for every good play he made there were two bad ones. There won’t be nearly as much pressure this year. For one thing he will benefit from the offseason strength and conditioning program that will eliminate the stamina issues of 2020. Secondly, with the arrival of transfer tackles Daquan Newkirk and Antonio Shelton, Dexter won’t feel nearly the pressure to produce that he felt last year. There is no doubt he has the size (6-6, 306), strength and speed to become a third and most important cog in the interior D-line rotation. 5. Trey Dean III, S: Dean has always had the physical talent to be extraordinary but he’s been plagued by inconsistency. From all accounts, it’s a new Trey Dean who is setting the example as the hardest worker on the team in the offseason. When the Gators ran stadiums because they lost to LSU in The Swamp, Dean was the first one to finish. It’s this dedication and willingness to be the best that has everyone excited to see what happens on the field in 2021. Look what that kind of hard work and dedication did for Kadarius Toney. SHOULD WE CALL A PRIEST TO PERFORM LAST RITES FOR THE NCAA? Following the United States Supreme Court’s 9-0 decision that ruled against the NCAA in NCAA vs. Alston, here are a few comments from around the country: Dennis Dodd, CBS: “If this was the real world, the NCAA would be out of business. The only thing tethering it to any kind of logical business model is March Madness. Just don’t deny the athletes their share while the association is taking in $1 billion per year. “… You know what’s coming, right? NIL is going to be a monster the NCAA can’t control. It certainly can’t hint at capping compensation. It is begging Congress for legal protection not only on NIL but for any athlete in the past who wants to sue. That’s a huge ask for an organization that just got blown out in the Supreme Court.” Dan Wetzel, Yahoo Sports: “Monday was a bad day for the NCAA status quo. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously against it in the case NCAA vs. Alston. That decision isn’t a major one, it simply prohibits the association from blocking schools from providing student-athletes with so-called “education-related expenses” – laptops, internships, academic awards and needed scientific equipment for example. “However, the ramifications of that ruling could prove significant. And it was easily avoidable. It was the NCAA that fought all the way to the Supreme Court. This was the hill it wanted to die on – denying a college athlete a laptop? This needed to be litigated?” Andy Staples, The Athletic: “In other words, the NCAA’s rules against schools paying athletes outright have not been declared illegal yet, but they will be if anyone would like to challenge them. So it would be best if the school sand the NCAA started adjusting their rules now so they will survive an antitrust challenge.” 12-TEAM PLAYOFF CLEARS ANOTHER HURDLE The College Football Playoff Board of Managers met Tuesday and gave the expected rubber stamp to begin working with the bowls and ESPN, which holds the television broadcast contract through 2025, to study the feasibility of expanding the playoff from four to 12 teams. Expansion of the playoff is inevitable. At this point it’s a matter of when it expands and not if, but there are issues that will have to be worked through. ESPN probably won’t oppose the expansion. By approving an expanded playoff, the network won’t have to get into a bidding war with CBS, NBC, Fox or some of the streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu or Amazon. The bowls may dig in their heels to stay relevant, and there is the matter of on campus games. In the format that has been proposed, the top four seeded teams would get a first round bye but would play their quarterfinal matchups at neutral site of a bowl game. You can bet the farm that won’t settle well so that’s an area that will have to be tweaked. My expectation is that ESPN will agree to a 2023 expanded playoff, that the first two rounds will be played on campuses and that the bowl games will see their relevance continue to shrink. TRE MANN, SCOTTIE LEWIS MEASUREMENTS AT THE NBA COMBINE It was tale of the tape day at the NBA Combine in Chicago Tuesday. Tre Mann measured 6-3.25 in his bare feet, 6-4.25 in his shoes while weighing in at 177.6 pounds. Mann has a standing reach of 8-2.5 and a wingspan of 6-4. Lewis measured 6-4 in his bare feet, 6-5.25 in his shoes. He weighed in at 187.6 pounds with a standing reach of 8-5.5 and a wingspan of 7-0. OVER, UNDER, AROUND AND THROUGH THE SEC Arkansas: Mike Ekamen, who spent the last two seasons as the director of scouting at Texas A&M, has been hired by Eric Musselman as the director of player development. Ekamen worked with Musselman at Nevada in 2018-19. Auburn: Tommy Sheehan, who started 35 games at Notre Dame, is transferring to Auburn. Sheehan pitched only eight innings in 2021 before undergoing elbow surgery. He is 10-11 for his college career with a 4.83 ERA. Georgia: Tony Baldwin, for the last nine years an assistant to Lu Harris-Champer, is Georgia’s new softball coach. Kentucky: Power forward Isaiah Jackson has withdrawn from the NBA Draft Combine but will remain in the draft. He has hired an agent. LSU: Power forward Josh LeBlanc (6-7, 230, JR), who averaged 3.2 points and 4.4 rebounds per game after transferring in from Georgetown, has put his name in the NCAA transfer portal. Of the 13 scholarship players on the LSU roster last season, four have gone pro and six have transferred out. Mississippi State: It’s not necessarily how you start a baseball game but how you finish. Held hitless for the first seven innings by Virginia’s Griff McGarry, the Bulldogs (47-16) got a two-run homer from Kellum Clark and a three-run homer from Tanner Allen in the eighth as they overcame a 4-0 deficit to take a 6-5 win at the College World Series. Mississippi State is idle until Friday when they face the winner of Thursday’s elimination game between Texas (47-17) and Virginia (36-26). South Carolina: Third baseman Brandon Millone, who started 35 games in 2021, is transferring. He hit .216 with two home runs. Tennessee: The baseball season came to an end for the Vols (50-18) in Omaha with an 8-4 loss to Texas in an elimination game. With seven of the eight position players all but gone the question that should be looming large for Vol fans will be can Tennessee hold on to Tony Vitello? LSU is expected to make a run at Vitello and AD Scott Woodward has shown he’s willing to break the bank (see Kim Mulkey) to get a coach he wants. Vitello makes $600,000 a year. Texas A&M: R.C. Slocum, the winningest football coach in Texas A&M history, is hospitalized with Hogkins lymphoma. From 1989-2002 Slocum went 123-47-2 with three Southwest Conference championships and one Big 12 title. Slocum is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame. Vanderbilt: Vanderbilt (46-16) faces Stanford (39-16) in a loser goes home game at the College World Series with the winner facing North Carolina State (37-18) on Friday. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: The NCAA, in its infinite wisdom, has given Creighton basketball a slap on the wrist even though former assistant coach Preston Murphy was given a two-year show cause for accepting $6,000 from an undercover FBI agent as part of the college basketball bribery scandal. That’s a Level I violation but there is more. Upon being told about the incident by basketball coach Greg McDermott, Creighton athletic director Bruce Rasmussen not only failed to inform his compliance people but didn’t act on the evidence until Creighton was named in a federal indictment against Murphy. In other words, if the FBI hadn’t indicted Murphy, Rasmussen would have done the ethical equivalent of no body bag, no foul. This should have been a no-brainer for the NCAA. They didn’t even have to investigate because the FBI already did it and then there were court transcripts from under-oath testimony. So, what does the NCAA do? They dock Creighton one scholarship a year for the next two years, cut the basketball budget by one percent and give two years probation without a postseason ban. It’s not like the NCAA was wringing its hands and wondering what to do. Creighton had already self-imposed these sanctions. The NCAA’s defense of letting Creighton off the hook? Creighton hadn’t ever been on probation in more than 100 years of basketball. I’m not making this up. And the fine folks at the NCAA wonder why they are so despised.

A few thoughts to jump start your Tuesday morning: SUPREMES 9, NCAA 0 … NCAA GETS RUN-RULED Monday’s unanimous 9-0 ruling by the United States Supreme Court might explain why Mark Emmert was given a five-year contract extension complete with a raise to continue running the organization that we will soon know as the late, great NCAA. When you have the perfect fall guy in place why go to all the trouble of hiring somebody new to try to explain why the organization didn’t see disaster on the horizon? Now, Mark Emmert isn’t solely responsible for the trouble that the NCAA is in, but he is indeed someone who is being paid an enormous amount of money to navigate the organization through trying and difficult times and he’s not very good at his job. If Mark Emmert had been either Meriwether Lewis or William Clark the expedition to explore the Louisiana Purchase and beyond would have never gotten any farther than Council Bluffs, Iowa. It’s not fair to place all the blame for the NCAA troubles on Emmert. The winds of change in college sports have been blowing for years, and long before Emmert became the leader predecessors Cedric Dempsey and Myles Brand didn’t exactly forge an enlightened path. Neither did Dempsey and Brand oversee the NCAA at a time when it was raking in such staggering amounts of money, either, and if not for the money, college sports might not be at the crossroads it’s at today. Athletes aren’t stupid. They see their coaches getting multi-year contracts that pay millions. They see schools like Texas and Texas A&M with athletic budgets heading to $200 million per year and beyond. They see conferences like the Big Ten distributing more than $50 million a year to member institutions. So, do we even have to ask why athletes have become more vocal, questioning why it is they take all the risks and provide all the entertainment while all this money is being made and issues such as their long-term health care aren’t addressed? I’ve been writing about college sports for more than 50 years and I’ve had more conversations than I can count with athletes who have lingering health issues from injuries they suffered playing college sports and their former school isn’t allowed to lift a hand to help them. I am reminded of the Ray Graves era at the University of Florida. Athletes whose eligibility expired before they graduated could come to Coach Graves who would find them jobs, help them get apartments and do whatever he could to ensure they could finish up classwork for their college degree. What he did back in the 1960s is a violation that will get a coach fired and a school put on probation these days and times. That’s something the NCAA could have and should have addressed decades ago but didn’t. Had the NCAA addressed just these two grievances – long term health care and continuing education – we might not have all these court cases lining up that threaten to put an end to college sports as we know them. Rather than face the problems head on and deal with them, the NCAA has instead gone to court and in one case after another gotten its proverbial butt handed to it on a platter. That’s what happened Monday. In issuing their scathing rebuke of the NCAA, the Supremes said the NCAA can’t cap the amount of compensation any one school can offer its athletes as long as it pertains to educational benefits. Based on the Monday ruling, the University of Florida, for instance, can offer scholarship athletes computers, more access to tutoring, internships, semesters abroad, guarantees of continuing education after eligibility is expired and other benefits that are related to education. The NCAA has been saying this is excessive compensation. The Monday ruling was not about athletes getting paid for their work nor was it about name, image and likeness. Those issues will be addressed in court all too soon and judging by the written opinion of Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh, the NCAA will lose those cases, too. Here is what Kavanaugh wrote: “Nowhere else in America can businesses get away with agreeing not to pay their workers a fair market rate on the theory that their product is defined by not paying their workers a fair market rate. And under ordinary principles of antitrust law it is not evident why college sports should be any different. The NCAA is not above the law.” The changes that are about to take place involve issues that could have been dealt with years ago. Rather than working with athletes to find solutions, however, the NCAA has been trying to defend indefensible positions all the way to the Supreme Court where it has an abysmal record. It didn’t have to be that way. If the NCAA had good sense it would have long ago hired a leader who understood that the times are changing and if the organization doesn’t change with the times, its days are numbered. But that might explain exactly why Mark Emmert was given a raise and a contract extension. Why bring in someone else to take the fall when you all you have to do is extend the contract of the certifiably incompetent leader you already have in place? WHERE ARE THEY NOW (GATORS IN MAJORS AND MINORS) Major Leagues Pete Alonso, 1B (New York Mets): Hitting .247 with 11 HR, 35 RBI. Harrison Bader, OF (St. Louis Cardinals): Hitting .219 with 4 HR, 9 RBI, 3 stolen bases. Anthony DeSclafani, P (San Francisco Giants): 7-2 record with 3.01 ERA, 71 strikeouts in 80.2 innings. Dane Dunning, P (Texas Rangers): 2-6 record with 4.71 ERA, 71 strikeouts in 6 5 innings. Jonathan India, 2B (Cincinnati Reds): Hitting .258 with 6 HR, 29 RBI, 4 stolen bases. Jackson Kowar, P (Kansas City Royals): 0-2 record with 18.00 ERA, 2 strikeouts in 5 innings. Darren O’Day, P (New York Yankees): 0-0 record with 3.00 ERA, 9 strikeouts in 9 innings. Richie Martin, SS (Baltimore Orioles): Hitting .170 with 1 RBI. Brady Singer, P (Kansas City Royals): 3-5 record with 4.71 ERA, 71 strikeouts in 68 innings. Mike Zunino, C (Tampa Bay Rays): Hitting .193 with 14 HR, 30 RBI. Minor Leagues Shaun Anderson, P (Round Rock Express, AAA): 0-0 record with 9.35 ERA, 8 strikeouts in 8-2/3 innings. Michael Byrne, P (Chattanooga Lookouts, AA): 1-2 record with a 1.00 ERA, 1 save, 15 strikeouts in 9 innings. Wil Dalton, OF (Salem Red Sox, A): Hitting .241 with 4 HR, 17 RBI, 4 stolen bases. Tyler Dyson, P (Wilmington Blue Rocks, A): 1-2 record with a 2.77 ERA, 26 strikeouts in 26 innings. Alex Faedo, P (Erie Sea Wolves, AA): Injured, Tommy John surgery. Taylor Gushue, C (Iowa Cubs, AAA): Hitting .239 with 3 HR, 23 RBI. Dalton Guthrie, 3B (Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs, AAA): Hitting .222 with 3 HR, 13 RBI, 2 SB. Eric Hanhold, P (Norfolk Tides, AAA): 1-1 record with 6.14 ERA, 1 save, 8 strikeouts in 7-1/3 innings. Mark Kolozsvary, C (Chattanooga Lookouts, AA): Hitting .292 with 2 HR, 15 RBI. Deacon Liput, SS (Great Lakes Loons, A): Hitting .214 with 3 HR, 16 RBI, 5 stolen bases. Nelson Maldonado, OF (Tennessee, AA): Hitting .273 with 1 HR, 12 RBI. Brady McConnell, SS (Columbia, A): Hitting .202 with 3 HR, 16 RBI, 3 stolen bases. Scott Moss, P (Columbus Clippers, AAA): 0-3 record with a 5.79 ERA, 19 strikeouts in 14 innings. Bobby Poyner, P (Worcester Red Sox, AAA): 0-0 record with a 9.53 ERA, 12 strikeouts in 11-1/3 innings. A.J. Puk, P (Las Vegas Aviators, AAA): 0-0 record with 4 strikeouts in 3-1/3 innings. Buddy Reed, OF (Las Vegas Aviators, AAA): Hitting .262 with 9 RBI, 2 stolen bases. Mike Rivera, C (Akron Rubber Ducks, AA): Hitting .186 with 1 HR, 8 RBI. Frank Rubio, P (Richmond Flying Squirrels, AA): 1-2 record with a 3.77 ERA, 14 strikeouts in 14-1/3 innings. JJ Schwarz, C (Midland RockHounds, AA): Hitting .265 with 2 HR, 8 RBI. Logan Shore, P (Toledo Mud Hens, AAA): 2-2 record with a 4.44 ERA, 20 strikeouts in 24-1/3 innings. Kirby Snead, P (Buffalo Bisons, AAA): 1-0 record with a 1.45 ERA, 2 saves, 25 strikeouts in 18-2/3 innings. Danny Young, P (Columbus Clippers, AAA): 1-1 record with a 5.75 ERA, 27 strikeouts in 20-1/3 innings. OVER, UNDER, AROUND AND THROUGH THE SEC Alabama: Forward James Rojas, who averaged 2.9 points and 2.6 rebounds in 11.2 minutes per game last season, will require surgery for a torn ACL. It’s the second time in three years Rojas has torn his ACL. Arkansas: Shot-putter Ryan Cruser, who set the world record with a throw of 76 feet, 8-1/4 inches at the Olympic trials, is a volunteer on the Arkansas track coaching staff. Auburn: Auburn has scheduled home-and-home football games with Miami with Auburn traveling to Miami in 2029 and Miami playing at Jordan-Hare Stadium in 2030. Georgia: On WJOX in Birmingham Monday, Paul Finebaum of the SEC Network said he likes the chances of Kirby Smart to win a national championship in 2021 more than Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley or Ohio State coach Ryan Day. Finebaum said, “I think it’s Kirby Smart because I think of those three he’s got the best chance this year, and by the way not by much over Lincoln Riley. I think this is an Oklahoma team that finally is capable but I see the same fate for Oklahoma as always.” LSU: Who does LSU turn to next in its search to replace retiring baseball coach Paul Manieri? Kevin O’Sullivan, Pat Casey and now Mike Bianco have just said no to Scott Woodward. East Carolina coach Cliff Goodwin has been interviewed but hasn’t been offered the job. Media outlets in Louisiana have reported that Woodward is eyeing Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin and Tennessee coach Tony Vitello. Mississippi State: The seventh-seeded Bulldogs (46-16) face unseeded Virginia (36-25) tonight in a winner’s bracket game at the College World Series. Ole Miss: Rather than lose baseball coach Mike Bianco to LSU, Ole Miss gave him a four-year contract extension complete with an undisclosed raise. Bianco, who made $1.2 million this past season, is an LSU grad who has been the head coach at Ole Miss since 1999. South Carolina: Combo guard Seventh Woods, who spent the 2020-21 season at South Carolina after transferring in from North Carolina, is on the move again, this time to Morgan State. Woods averaged 5.4 points, 1.7 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game for the Gamecocks last season. Tennessee: The No. 3 seed Vols (50-17) will try to stay alive in the College World Series today when they face No. 2 Texas (47-16) in an elimination game at 2 p.m. Texas A&M: Texas A&M has created an entire department to help athletes profit off name, image and likeness. Vanderbilt: Jack Leiter pitched a four-hitter and struck out 15 North Carolina State batters Monday night at the College World Series in Omaha. On just about any other night that would be a winning performance, but one of the hits left the yard and it was the only run the Wolfpack needed to send Vandy (46-16) to the elimination bracket. The Commodores will face Stanford (39-16), a 14-5 winner over Arizona (45-18), Wednesday afternoon with the loser goes home game. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Connor O’Gara of Saturday Down South recently wrote, “Imagine being as bad at cheating as Arizona State was. Allegedly, of course.” He follows that up with this rather insightful statement: “Imagine if that thing happened in the SEC.” Arizona State, if you haven’t been following, has been accused of bringing in dozens of football recruits during an NCAA-mandated dead period with head coach Herm Edwards to host recruits in his office. It’s a big story, for sure, but imagine, as O’Gara wrote, if something this blatant happened in the Southeastern Conference. There is this national perception that the SEC has cornered the market on old fashioned cheating when it comes to recruiting. Does cheating happen in the SEC? You would be foolish to think otherwise. Is it as bad in the SEC as it is in the rest of the country. Once again, you would be foolish to think otherwise.