Yes, it’s the middle of summer, but there is some basketball news and talk.

Kelly Quinlan of UGASports.com has a long feature up ($) that gets Dennis Felton’s thoughts on several current events. We’ll get to that in a moment.

One of the big takeaways of Quinlan’s piece was that Mike Mercer appears to be on track to play this season. My reaction isn’t so much cynicism as it is amazement. We all saw the injury. I don’t doubt Felton’s assessment of Mercer’s progress, but I’m going to remain skeptical anyway. With an injury that severe, I’m just going to be glad if he can contribute anything in the SEC part of the schedule. If before the end of 2007 he is able to be nearly the player he was becoming at the time of his injury, chalk one up for the miracle of modern medicine.

Back to Felton and recruiting. Felton has developed a bit of perspective aboout recruiting due to his relative longevity (already the longest-serving Georgia hoops coach since Hugh Durham), so it’s interesting to read him reflect on the landscape. Felton is concerned about the trend for earlier and earlier commitments for several reasons. Though physical development during high school is more of a concern for football than basketball, it’s still a factor in basketball recruiting. But Felton has a bigger concern. "The thing I am more worried about is decommitments because that is becoming more common," he said. "More and more kids are becoming comfortable with decommitting."

Though basketball recruiting can hardly be described as a clean business, commitments have traditionally meant the end of the process. That understanding might be changing. Decommittments are more of a concern in basketball because of the limited number of scholarships. If a football prospect decommits, that’s one of 25 spots that a football coach must scramble to fill. It’s a problem, but it can be absorbed through depth in an 85 scholarship situation. In basketball, that one decommitment might represent 1/3 to 1/4 of an entire recruiting class and affect, say, your point guard position for several years. "I hope we do not go to where football has been where commitments do not mean anything. It is more dangerous for basketball because there is a smaller pool of recruitable players at this level of talent," Felton continued.

Read the whole thing if you’re able. It’s a good read, and you can sense Felton becoming more comfortable in his position. "I am really excited and thankful for the support Damon Evans, our president Michael Adams, and our fans at Georgia have given me, our staff, and our players as we have rebuilt the program," he concluded.

Georgia Sports Blog has a look at the possible field in this season’s Rainbow Classic. Though none of the field really blows your socks off, it should present a decent slate of mid-level RPI opponents. In other words, winning the tournament won’t make many waves, and losing a game probably won’t be disastrous. Georgia will seek its real RPI impact games elsewhere – in Madison, Wisc. for example.

There’s an interesting discussion going on at the UGASports.com hoops board about the future of Stegeman Coliseum. With the practice facility project all but wrapped up, it’s time to begin thinking about what comes next. With SEC peers like Auburn looking at facilities improvements, the issue will start to heat up. While the breadth of ideas runs from simple remodeling to the pipe dream of bulldozing the site and starting over, the optimal plan will probably come from a convergence of money, timing, and grace.

Money – what’s available? Can additional private funds be raised? Naturally the scope of the plan will be limited by resources. With athletic association debt near $100 million recently, is more debt financing out of the question? Timing – is the program at a point where it’s easy for enough fans to get on board with the chosen plan, and will the support be resilient enough to survive the possibility of something like a year or two in Gwinnett? Additionally, will the timing be right relative to other athletic department projects and priorities? Grace – the most recent (and most expensive) major expansion to Sanford Stadium cost $33 million over two years. With $30 million already spent on a practice facility, an additional investment in a major coliseum project any time soon would be an act of incredible vision and investment in a group of sports that have historically fought for scraps not only from administrators but also from Georgia fans. A positive in this area is that it seems as if Damon Evans could be the right leader for this kind of vision and commitment down the road.

Rather than get into long and protracted conference arguments, I’m just going to apply the Stewart Mandel rule whenever an SEC coach tries to lean on the strength of his conference relative to another: he’s just laying the foundation for an excuse. Mandel writes…

So what, then, was the motivation behind his unexpected boisterousness? Here’s a guess: He’s covering his butt.

Yep. That’s right. Miles’ comments were one big excuse-in-the-making. He’s seen the prognostications. He knows the experts are projecting a USC-LSU matchup. He knows his fans are foaming at the mouth for just such an outcome. And he’s trying to diffuse those expectations — and temper the possible letdown — by saying, “Hey, I’d love to play USC, too, but if they get there and we don’t, it’s because we had to play Florida while they got to play Stanford.”

Now Nick Saban’s joined the club. Saban’s under tremendous pressure at Alabama. The man who only once lost fewer than three games at talent-rich LSU is expected to start bringing conference and even national titles back to Tuscaloosa. I’d want the job to appear as challenging as possible too.

At least it’s a change away from the recent slew of alcohol-related incidents. Incoming freshman tailback Caleb King was arrested Monday night for two misdemeanor traffic violations, one of which was driving with a suspended license. As these kinds of violations don’t carry the automatic penalties that alcohol-related arrests do, it’s not yet known whether King will face additional discipline from the team.

You would think that this kind of thing would go away once Mudcat and his car left campus.

With the annual inevitability of offseason suspensions, just who is in the penalty box at the beginning of the season can get blurry from year to year. No, Ellerbe isn’t suspended – that was last year. No, nothing has come out yet about Chandler’s fate.

The recent high-water mark for preseason suspensions was 2003 where eight players were sidelined for the Clemson game. That was also right in the middle of "Ring-gate" where a few players had caught trouble for selling their 2002 SEC Championship rings. Things aren’t quite to that level this season, but there are still some suspensions and additional possible suspensions to deal with. Some key positions (linebacker and offensive line in particular) have been hit especially hard by offseason events. If you see anything inaccurate or missing here, please leave a comment.

Long-term suspensions:

• Akeem Hebron. Hebron is technically suspended for the fall semester by the University and would not be eligible to play this season following two alcohol-related incidents. He has transfered to Georgia Military College for the 2007 season but could return to Georgia as early as the 2008 spring semester.
• Ian Smith. Smith is suspended for the first five games of the season due to his second alcohol-related arrest in late 2006. Smith was also suspended for the Chick-fil-A Bowl. His infractions came before a new University policy mandating a semester-long suspension for any student with two alcohol-related violations. Hebron wasn’t so lucky.

Pending/possible suspensions:

• Tripp Chandler and Blake Barnes. The two were arrested on alcohol-related charges in June, but no decision has been announced yet concerning any disciplinary action. Their suspensions could range from one to two games.
• Tripp Taylor. The man who made the "wham" position famous last season faces misdemeanor simple assault charges for his role in a brawl at Lake Allatoona in May. According to a post his father made on the DawgVent around the time of the incident, Taylor was more involved in breaking up the fight than anything else, but we’ll see what comes of this story as the summer goes on.

What about…?

• Tanner Strickland. Strickland was arrested in March for misdemeanor possession of a fake ID as part of a larger investigation. He was accepted into a pre-trial diversion program and will not face a suspension from the team.
• Seth Watts. Watts had been suspended for the Chick-fil-A Bowl and decided to leave the team in the spring to focus on academics.

Wake Forest got tremendous basketball recruiting news yesterday courtesy of the state of Georgia.

Forward Al-Farouq Aminu and center Tony Woods, two of the top in-state prospects for the 2008 class, committed to the Demon Deacons yesterday. Though either could have played for most any team in the nation, Aminu had been a top target for Georgia Tech (his brother plays there), and Georgia was among the finalists for Woods.

The duo adds to what might be the nation’s best recruiting class. They’ll certainly have the nation’s best incoming frontcourt. Better Wake than Tech or Florida.

There was one very troubling thing. The SI article linked above includes this line:

Woods said he considered Georgia until "I saw their true colors come out during the recruitment. I like the Ivy League education at Wake.

I’d be very interested to hear more about what he means. Those two sentences together imply something about the quality of a University of Georgia education, but it could also mean any number of things. This puzzling quote is just a few weeks after Woods had said,

“The coaches from Georgia have made a good impression on me,” he said. “I like their approach. They’ve been real persistent, but in a good way. Sometimes coaches can be persistent, but annoying. They’re not like that. I feel like we have a good relationship.”

San Diego selected Georgia cornerback Paul Oliver in yesterday’s NFL supplemental draft. The Chargers forfeited a fourth-round pick in next year’s NFL draft for the right to select Oliver.

The outcome is not as good as it might have been had he been able to return for his senior season, but he was at least picked up by a quality team and appears to have a chance to stick. He left a bit of money on the table (assuming he could have improved on his fourth-round status with another season in college), but he has a positive attitude and is looking to the future now.

"The biggest thing for me was that I was picked by a legitimate Super Bowl contender and I could not be more excited about getting a chance to play for the Chargers," said Oliver. "This marks the end of a great chapter of my life at Georgia and now the chance for a great start in San Diego. I’m just ready to go out there and play."

Congratulations to Paul. He joins four other drafted Dawgs and several others signed as free agents who will be entering the NFL this season.

World Champs! (Houts is bottom row, second from left)

Georgia point guard and reigning SEC Freshman of the Year Ashley Houts was the only rising sophomore named to the USA U21 national team this summer. That team just won the 2007 FIBA U21 World Championship, and Houts was an important contributor off the bench for the national team. Though she was just a reserve, she quickly found a role as a spark that could pick the team up and get them through some rough patches. Teammates credited her for turning around a sluggish performance against Hungary. Stanford All-American Candace Wiggins said,

Ashley’s (Houts) shot and her defense in general gave us a lot of momentum going into the second half. We were able to take that energy that we ended the first half with and build on it in the second half. I think that was the biggest change of the game. Our defense intensified and you could just feel it.

Yep, that’s the player we came to love last year, and it sounds like someone ready to step into a leadership position when she returns to Georgia.

Houts kept a journal during the tournament:

• Final installment
• Installment #4
• Installment #3
• Installment #2
• Installment #1

We also learned this week that senior forward Tasha Humphrey was selected as one of 12 players to represent the United States in the Pan American games held later this month in Rio. Humphrey’s participation is very significant. Not only is it a great honor and recognition of Humphrey as an outstanding player, it’s also one of the first opportunities she’s had in several years to really work on her game. Tasha has spent the past couple of summers doing more rehabilitation than anything else. While her game has remained strong thanks to natural ability and the work put in during the season, missing that offseason work has slowed down her own development.

With the various injuries Humphrey has battled over her career, she’s often had to spend the first part of the season just getting back into playing condition. That was the case last year, and the situation was exacerbated by the suspension which kept her out of the first five games. By the time Humphrey had started to round into top form, we were into the SEC season. Things could be different this year. If she’s staying injury-free and playing against top competition at the Pan Am games, she’ll be that much better and ready to go out of the gate in November. With all eyes on her as a senior, a summer like this is just what the doctor ordered.

Blame this guy when Oklahoma doesn’t have 3rd string long-snappers in 2009

Oklahoma got what I consider to be a slap on the wrist yesterday for the Rhett Bomar business. Other than the loss of two scholarships for a couple of seasons and some minor recruiting restrictions, the only other penalty was the requirement that Oklahoma forfeit its 2005 season. When boosters are paying players, the penalties can be much more severe. Still, Oklahoma will appeal.

Is forfeiting games the most toothless penalty there is? It’s like not being able to pay the tab at a restaurant and, as punishment, having to say that you really didn’t eat the meal.

Rogue boosters are the worst nightmare for any program, and there are often few consequences for them when NCAA rules are violated. It’s usually the current student-athletes who have to pay the piper, and that’s the case again here. Bomar took the improper benefits, but the Oklahoma teams three and four years removed from Bomar’s transgression will be the ones to suffer.

The Falcons’ capable color man Dave Archer has signed on with Lincoln Financial to be part of the broadcast team for the regional SEC Game of the Week broadcasts. Archer replaces Dave Rowe. He’ll join Dave Neal and Dave Baker for the 12:30 broadcasts. This change is definitely an improvement.

I guess the AJC felt as if they couldn’t let Mark Bradley’s column go unanswered, so they woke Furman Bisher up to write some sort of response. The result is one of the more timid, mealy-mouthed, and noncommittal columns you’ll ever read from someone paid to be an opinion columnist. Of course it’s July and we don’t know what Tech and Georgia will look like in November. Who cares about Saratoga? This is the South, the preseason magazine have hit the stands with their prognostications, and we’re talking college football a month before practice starts. Either dive in and embrace it or go into hiding until the British Open.

But Bisher quickly leaves the subject of this year’s Tech-Georgia game and turns wistful as he joins in the "what if Taylor Bennett had played more" fantasy. It’s not the first time Bisher’s been down this road. He declared that Chan Gailey owed the Tech old guard an explanation after the Gator Bowl.

In Bisher’s efforts this time to paint this picture of a golden arm left "chained to the sideline", he takes some pretty big liberties with recent history. First, he lauds Bennett for "(keeping) the ship afloat against Connecticut," a game in which Bennett completed 11 of 30 passes for 142 yards against the formidable Husky defense.

I can’t believe that I’m not piling on Reggie Ball here, but it’s not as if he was without accomplishments after his freshman season. It’s true that he didn’t have the expected progression from that impressive debut to a mature, consistent, and efficient signal-caller. He was famously bad against Tech’s most important opponent. He did manage to beat teams like Clemson and Miami twice, added a win this season on the road over Virginia Tech, a second win over Auburn, and got his team into the ACC Championship Game. He reminded no one of Vince Young or even Joe Hamilton, but Bisher’s claim that Ball "was better when he got there than when he left" doesn’t stand up.

Bisher makes a reference to the 2004 Georgia game. "When Ball was crashing — and oh, how many crashes he had, not the most crucial of which was losing count of the downs and making a throwaway pass against Georgia — why not Bennett?" Well, for one, Bennett was redshirting in 2004 as a true freshman. He didn’t see his first game experience until 2005. Placing that "crash" completely on Ball is another questionable recollection. That series was a meltdown of the entire Tech offense, culminating in Ball’s blunder but highlighted by confusion on the sideline where offensive coordinator Patrick Nix inexplicably ordered Ball to spike the ball on third down.

That 2004 Georgia game does provide a good lesson in this grass-is-greener game. Bisher asserts that "Chan Gailey stubbornly stuck with Ball," but Gailey did try someone else when Ball was struggling, even if it wasn’t Bennett. Damarius Bilbo got a chance against the Dawgs and was even worse. 3 completions, 10 attempts, and 29 yards. Gailey eventually gave up and went back to his starter. The quarterback position was up for grabs several times during Ball’s four years, and each time he held off the competitors. Against challenges from Bilbo, Pat Clark, and Bennett, Ball stood out time after time. Tech’s own official site declared the position up for competition entering the 2005 spring practice, but Ball emerged again with a clear-cut victory.

We finally come to Bennett’s masterpiece – the 19-for-29, 326 yard performance in the Gator Bowl. I’ve talked about that game here recently, so we’ll avoid going back over that ground. What Bisher doesn’t tell us is that Bennett’s "dazzling day" in the Gator Bowl fizzled as the game went on. The nascent Young-to-Rice of Bennett-to-Johnson combination was held scoreless for the final 28 minutes of the game.

Bisher believes that "Georgia Tech hadn’t seen a passing combination like (Bennett and Johnson) since Joe Hamilton and Harvey Middleton." Hmm. Johnson’s performance against West Virginia certainly was a great final performance. He had 9 receptions, 186 yards, and 2 touchdowns. It was also hardly his only explosive performance of the season. He had six receptions for 115 yards and 2 touchdowns against a much better Virginia Tech defense. He had 9 receptions for 168 yards against NC State. He shredded Virginia for 165 yards and 2 more touchdowns. Was it really the quarterback?

We’ll let Bisher build Bennett up and watch Tech fans cling onto the hope that it just has to get better with Bennett. Behind Choice and another quality defense, I think they’ll be rather good actually. Bennett might just turn out to be better by default if he avoids the disasters that plagued Ball, but I’m not convinced that Bennett will be the right answer in those times when Tech needs the quarterback to carry them. It will be an entertaining story to watch in the fall especially knowing that the best quarterback in the state still is in Athens.

Why is everyone so hung up on schedules?

No, I know it’s July and we have little else to talk about. Scheduling debates are right up there with playoff proposals when it comes to pointless offseason parlor games. This week alone, scheduling – weak, strong, or otherwise – is mentioned in no fewer than three pieces in CFR’s weekly must-read Pundit Roundup.

So what is it about scheduling that has everyone weighing in? For most, I think it comes down to plain, old machismo. Manhood. Basically you have fans and pundits across the country calling each other chicken.

"Playing NW Georgia State, huh? Must be afraid to go outside your ZIP code for a real opponent."

"Oh yeah? At least we’re playing someone else who’s seen the Top 25 this decade. When was the last time that Wyoming Tech beat anyone?"

"We have to play them. They’re our traditional rival. It’s not our fault that they’re not Miami. ESPN still says we have the #20 schedule."

And so it goes. You’ve seen or heard that same "debate" countless times on message boards, talk radio, and so on, and now it’s bleeding into the punditry. Challenging a diehard fan’s manhood (in this case, their team’s schedule) is a quick and surefire way to provoke a response and generate some spirited discussion. But does it really change anything if you’re able to prove to the world that you really do have a tough schedule?

Who you schedule really doesn’t matter nearly as much as winning. Unless we’re dealing with a true BCS outlier like Boise, Utah, etc., an undefeated team from a BCS conference will almost always trump a team with a loss regardless of who the undefeated team scheduled out of conference. The quality within most any major conference (yes, even the PAC 10) will take care of that. Even when two teams share the same record, it’s my belief that their relative preseason rankings matter more than a strength of schedule metric.

A team certainly doesn’t need a grueling schedule in order to win the national title. In fact, Florida is the only champion in the 2000s with a Top 10 schedule. Most of the others were in the high teens to 20s. It should be noted that the strength of Florida’s schedule last year came from its conference schedule which required the Gators to play LSU, Auburn, Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia (plus two other bowl-bound teams in Kentucky and South Carolina). Florida’s nonconference schedule in 2006 was quite unremarkable with a struggling FSU as its highlight.

With that in mind, why aim to have a tough schedule at all? In terms of the goal of winning a national title, what is the payoff versus the unnecessary risk of a loss? If Texas can go through the Big 12 undefeated this year, I can virtually guarantee them a spot in the national title game even though their nonconference schedule consists of Arkansas State, TCU, Central Florida, and Rice. Sure, they’d have to have someone like LSU or Southern Cal lose along the way, but we rarely have multiple undefeated BCS teams. With this year’s Narrative already shaping up though ("USC and LSU have to play for the national championship this season. It is no longer possible to envision any other satisfying conclusion,") would bulking up the Texas schedule really do anything to sway a punditry already selling us on an LSU-Southern Cal title game? Nope.

So what does Mack Brown care if Mark Schlabach or I or some Dallas talk radio station or Raleigh sportswriter thinks that the Texas schedule is weak? All he knows is that if he wins, he’s in the national title game. Texas or any other major program won’t be lacking for exposure and airtime. What’s his incentive for another series with Ohio State or a similar team? Put in another light, if "the regular season is our playoff", why wouldn’t you make your "bracket" as easy as possible?

I will admit that I’ve come around just a bit on this subject. Though I still think that seeking out a regular season matchup between two Top 10 teams isn’t very rational (though it might be great for fans), I’m no longer 100% sold on the "path of least resistance". I can see the place for regional rivalries. I accept that you do have to placate the fans sometimes and schedule a game in South Bend. I can even buy that a tougher opponent might prepare you for other challenges down the road – perhaps even in a different season. Is it coincidence that Georgia’s three recent SEC Championship appearances have come in years when they’ve had a "real" opening game opponent? Probably, but I’m hoping that’s the case again this year.

Those unhappy with this scheduling reality can complain about weak schedules all they like and try to change things with a campaign of shame, but in the end we have to get down to talking about incentives. Which behaviors get rewarded (in terms of titles and money), and which are penalized?

Even though he was admitted by UGA and is enrolled in classes at this very moment, the NCAA Clearinghouse has ruled that incoming freshman defensive back Vance Cuff of Moultrie did not have the required number of core classes to meet their eligibility requirements. There was confusion whether a “Oral/Written Communication/Speech” course would be accepted by the Clearinghouse. Cuff was eligible by every other standard (indeed, even Georgia’s).

I don’t think this story is finished yet. Was the Clearinghouse unclear or misleading about this course being accepted? Cuff’s people seem to think so. They claim that similar courses in nearby counties have been accepted. Was the academic counseling Cuff received at Colquitt County up to par? I sure hope so.

This leaves Cuff in a bit of limbo. He’s enrolled at UGA, but the worst case is that he’d have to drop out and attend a junior college in order to meet NCAA eligibility requirements (for want of a single high school core class).

Everyone’s pointing to Mark Bradley’s latest (and greatest). I agree that it’s more flamebait than anything else, but it’s still our flamebait, and the replies from Tech fans are pure gold.

I’m glad to see someone a little more high-profile than I questioning the popular assumption that things can’t get worse than Reggie Ball. "Georgia’s No. 1 quarterback beat out three teammates for the job. Tech’s No. 1 quarterback couldn’t beat out Reggie Ball." Yep.

While we’re enjoying the current of muck flowing in the other direction, Dawg fans should pay close attention to Bradley’s point #7.

For all the fuss made over Jon Tenuta’s defense, it should be noted that the Georgia D, coached by the unappreciated Willie Martinez, finished ahead of Tech last season in total defense, scoring defense, pass defense and turnovers created.

Tenuta is a very good defensive coordinator, appreciated by both Tech and Georgia people. But many Georgia fans would take Tenuta (or just a car Tenuta once owned) over Willie Martinez in a second. They’re morons.

The AJC’s Michelle Hiskey recently spent a day on the UGA golf course with our resident BFFs Matthew "I never slice" Stafford and Joe "Wang, no offense" Cox. Don’t worry, those red tees don’t mean what they usually mean.

It’s a great story. Is it more than coincidence that this aw-shucks piece runs just a few months after that amusing account of Matt and Joe’s weekend in Talladega this past April? Whatever UGA’s SID role was in arranging this interview with the dynamic duo, they have to be a little more pleased with the outcome of this appearance in the paper.

Hiding just beneath the surface in this whole Les Miles / Southern Cal dustup is the story of the 2004 Auburn team. That team of course finished the season undefeated but neither played in the BCS championship game nor finished first in a major poll.

It bugs me a bit whenever I see the story of that Auburn team used in the context of conference strength or strength of scheduling discussions. To me, Auburn’s story is simply a lesson in the value and importance of preseason polls. This sidetrack into recent history might be a little random, but I might as well get this out while it’s at the top of my stack.

It’s not that I think that the 2004 Auburn team wasn’t deserving of a shot at the national title. Of course they were. I’m not going to say that they were better or worse than Southern Cal or Oklahoma because reasonable arguments could be made either way. But watching from my perch at Jordan-Hare Stadium while Auburn rolled over a Top 10 Georgia program, they looked pretty damn good to me.

The whole Auburn strength of schedule thing is the part that always rings very hollow with me. There’s the implication that Auburn was punished for a weak nonconference schedule, but I have never bought it. To understand why, you have to go back to the end of the 2003 season. LSU beat Oklahoma in the BCS Championship game and earned the #1 ranking in the ESPN/USA Today coaches poll. Meanwhile, Southern Cal beat Michigan in the Rose Bowl and claimed the #1 ranking in the AP poll. It was a split title. Auburn, on the other hand, had what was considered a disastrous 2003 season and nearly fired coach Tommy Tuberville (remember that whole Petrino debacle?).

That 2003 controversy aside, the results meant that Southern Cal, Oklahoma, and LSU started the 2004 season at the top of the polls. Pretty reasonable, right? Southern Cal was #1, Oklahoma was #2, and LSU was #4. Auburn started the season around #10. OK so far?

So SoCal and Oklahoma started the year #1 and #2 and went undefeated. Not only that, but SoCal had been left out of the BCS Championship in the previous season, and Oklahoma was a title game participant. With those facts in mind, I maintain that Auburn could have played three NFL teams as its nonconference opponents and still not have jumped Southern Cal or Oklahoma. There was no way that an undefeated Southern Cal team snubbed the year before was going to be left out. That left Oklahoma, and as a runner-up the previous season and preseason #2 in 2004 they got the benefit of the doubt and got another crack at the title game. That’s it. It had nothing to do with conferences and nothing to do with the quality of the teams’ respective schedules.

Does that mean I believe that Oklahoma and Southern Cal were better than Auburn or that Auburn’s perfect season was less impressive than any we’ve seen in the past decade? Again, no. That’s what sucks about the whole thing. The table was set for the national title game in July and August. As long as the preseason favorites kept winning, there was nothing that Auburn or any team behind them could do to have a part in the process. You know where this is headed. "Every game counts," my ass.

When Les Miles "said Auburn was the victim of an injustice and repeated his assertion that an unbeaten SEC champion should play for a national championship," we have to be careful just what kind of "injustice" we’re talking about. Auburn didn’t get jobbed because they were Auburn or from the SEC or played some directional Carolina schools. Interestingly, LSU might be the beneficiary of a similar outcome this year. We have a while until the "real" preseason polls come out, but if the consensus holds LSU appears to be #2 heading into the season. If they and the Trojans just win, it won’t matter what West Virginia or Michigan or anyone else does – Miles will see Southern Cal up close and personal, and it won’t be because he’s coaching an SEC team. But there’s a lot of football between now and then.

In hindsight, I’m just glad that it was Auburn and not Georgia. The Dawgs started the 2004 season at a consensus #3 and would have been in the same boat as Auburn had the Dawgs won out. That’s not a pain I would have liked to have known.