Congratulations to LSU.

For what it’s worth, Georgia finished #2 in the final AP poll and #3 in the final coaches’ poll. I’m among those who think Georgia’s final position matters; it’ll give the Dawgs a good starting position next season, and it’s something to recognize Georgia’s best AP poll finish since 1980. Congratulations to the Dawgs on a memorable and successful season.

The Atlanta Sports Council has brokered a nationally-televised game between Clemson and Alabama to be played at the Georgia Dome on August 30 at 8 p.m., according to the AJC.

The game invites two regional powers and recruiting rivals into the backyard of Georgia and Georgia Tech. Naturally Clemson and Alabama coaches are giddy over a beachhead into the talent-rich state of Georgia.

Coaches from both schools see the exposure generated from the game as beneficial to recruiting,

"I thought it was a win-win for both schools," said Clemson coach Tommy Bowden. "Once the TV platform, the exposure and the opponent were explained, it was a no-brainer."

Saban said, "I’ve always been an advocate of us playing in a game that can get us national recognition."

The Sports Council probably did try to talk to Georgia and/or Georgia Tech first, but there’s no advantage to either school in moving a home game to the Georgia Dome. I’m sure Stokan and the Sports Council are proud of themselves for arranging what amounts to a preseason bowl game for the city of Atlanta, but allow me to say what Mark Richt won’t: suck it, Gary. Thanks for nothing.

Three schools were moved ahead of Georgia by the pollsters in the final BCS standings. Two have played their bowl game. Both have lost in upsets. Just sayin’.

Hey, but at least they won their conferences…

Orangebloods.com, the Texas Rivals site, is reporting that the Longhorns will add current Auburn defensive coordinator and former Bulldog player Will Muschamp to Mack Brown’s staff. Three years ago Texas raided Auburn’s defensive coordinator, and Gene Chizik produced a national title defense for them in 2005.

If the move pans out, it will add to an offseason of churn on the Auburn staff. Tommy Tuberville has already replaced offensive coordinator Al Borges, but he wasn’t planning on shaking up his aggressive defense. Muschamp had been mentioned in connection with the Arkansas, Southern Miss, and Georgia Tech head coaching vacancies, but a lateral move as defensive coordinator wasn’t expected.

Muschamp had said just a week ago that, “I have a 6-year-old and a 2-year-old and a wife that likes living in certain places. Quality of life is very important.” You can’t really compare Austin and Auburn in that respect. As someone with head coaching aspirations, perhaps Muschamp sees Texas as a better stepping stone on a career path that has to settle down soon. Even with his young family, the Texas position would be his fourth job since the 2004 season.

From Petrino to Chizik to Borges to Muschamp, Tuberville has made some pretty good hires along the way, and his decision to demote Hugh Nall in favor of Borges in 2004 has been credited with saving Tuberville’s job. Muschamp’s replacement should be no less interesting of a decision.

I’m sure Georgia did learn a lot from their 2006 Sugar Bowl loss to West Virginia, but even before last night’s Fiesta Bowl I thought it was a mistake to put West Virginia in the “little guy” class with Boise and Hawaii. West Virginia has been a quality nationally-competitive program for three seasons now, and they’ve sustained a reasonably high level of play over that time (with the occasional slip of course). While I’m glad Georgia approached this year’s Sugar Bowl the way they did, I’m still confident that the team which sleepwalked into the 2006 Sugar would have won pretty easily on Tuesday night.

It’s not news that most Division 1 schools provide special admissions criteria for student-athletes. Even academic strongholds admit student-athletes with academic credentials far below typical incoming freshmen at those schools. This reality is one of the things we live with for the sake of interesting and profitable intercollegiate sports, and we make it easier to stomach by rationalizing that schools are providing educational opportunities for those who would otherwise have none.

The NCAA sets the bare minimum guidelines to prevent the admission of student-athletes from becoming a complete farce, and it’s up to the schools to apply their own admissions standards above and beyond those minimums. Many do, some don’t. The University of Georgia, for example, generally grants admission to any prospective student-athlete meeting minimum NCAA standards. In Georgia’s case, a faculty oversight committee is an additional quality control on character and honor code issues.

Tension between athletic and academic interests over admissions standards is also not a new development. Georgia decided to deny admission to Jamar Chaney not because of more strict academic standards but because of honor code concerns. Even that decision drew criticism from a small handful of fans who claimed that any standards other than the NCAA minimums placed the University at a competitive disadvantage in recruiting student-athletes.

Steve Spurrier made headlines earlier this year when he clashed with University of South Carolina officials over the school’s rejection of two incoming recruits who met NCAA requirements. Spurrier went so far as to threaten "to go somewhere else" if the policy wasn’t addressed. South Carolina eventually agreed to amend their policy and, more importantly, provide feedback much earlier in the process so that the football program could devote its resources to prospects who weren’t admissions risks.

The latest development in the blurring of the lines between athletics and admissions comes from Florida International. Coach Mario Cristobal’s contract includes language that places authority for the admission of student-athletes solely with the athletic director.

University shall admit to FIU all student-athletes meeting the NCAA Academic Eligibility requirement … provided the student-athlete has been cleared through the NCAA clearing house and been approved by the Athletic Director.

Taking Spurrier’s threat to leave one step further, FIU would be in breach of contract if they failed to admit a student-athlete who met NCAA minimums and who had been approved by the AD.

If it’s not Zook’s recruits, it’s his own top 1% of the top 1%: 

Well, for those guys who just put in their time and didn’t make any real contributions, it’s time for you to go. It won’t be hard to say goodbye to some of those guys who just went through the motions. Now for those kids who actually bought into the program, and who made some sacrifices and contributions — you know, like Bubba Caldwell….he’s a graduate of UF and had a great career — you’ll really miss those guys. But just because you’re a senior doesn’t mean you have any value.

We kind of felt like we had some answers early on and it took us awhile to figure out that we don’t,” he said. “Some young guys that we were counting on to play were not living up to the standards that we expect and I’m hoping that changes.

“Coach Carr made the comment after the game,” Meyer said, “that ‘One day you’re going to retire and your players are going to play as hard for you as they did for me today.’ ”  After such inspiring words from Meyer about his own troops, who could doubt Carr’s prediction?

The Senator raises today one of the downsides to a playoff. We’re to the point in the NFL season where coaches are deciding which starters to rest before the playoff run. It’s even worse in baseball where the best teams have 15-20 games to kill between the time they clinch a playoff spot and the start of the postseason. Get ready to see a AAA lineup.

I understand the concern, but I guess I’ve watched too many Duke-Carolina games at the end of a basketball season to wrap my head around this possibility. We can debate the bigger meaning of a Duke-Carolina game when the conference tournament wipes the slate clean the following weekend, but each meeting still carries the full emotional load of the rivalry even when both teams are assured of a postseason bid. I couldn’t imagine Georgia fans overlooking an otherwise meaningless loss to Tech or Alabama fans content with playing the B team against Auburn even if they were still alive for an SEC and national title. Irrational, maybe, but rationality has never been a trait of the sports fan.

For teams that don’t end the season with a rivalry game, there are still some other reasons not to lie down. Chief among them is seeding, and this factor keeps college basketball from dealing with meaningless final games. The pros slot the postseason positions based on record, and these positions are often decided well beforehand (as is the case this year). A seeding system means that you are auditioning right through your final game, and your last few results are often the most meaningful. Would you rather play West Virginia or Southern Cal in the first round?

With so few games in the college football regular season, conference titles are often still in question entering the final week. Only the Big East was settled before the final week this season. Though several teams might feel comfortable that their playoff invitation is in the mail, it’s reasonable that many teams will still be playing towards a conference title down the stretch of the regular season.

It was the can’t-miss bowl pick of the year.  Nearly 98% of ESPN’s College Bowl Mania participants had picked #24 Boise State to handle ECU – no other pick came close to its certainty.  So of course in this season of upsets, ECU had to win, and they did.  After blowing a 38-14 lead, the Pirates drove for a game-winning field goal with no time remaining.  It was Boise State’s turn to get a taste of the Cinderella medicine, and ECU has earned the right to enjoy life for a while after a couple of 1 and 2-win seasons recently.

Though the story last night was the record-breaking performance of ECU’s Chris Johnson, their leading receiver was a guy named Jamar Bryant.  Bryant, in fact, was ECU’s leading receiver for the season with 48 receptions for 704 yards and 6 TDs.   

You might remember that Bryant originally signed with Georgia in 2004 out of Rockingham, NC.  He did not qualify academically and attended Hargrave prep school during the 2004-2005 academic year.  Then things got interesting.

As late as May 2005, Bryant seemed poised to become a Bulldog.  “Jamar is qualified,” Hargrave head coach Robert Prunty told UGASports.com. “He got his paperwork in and he’ll be there (Athens) real soon.”

That wasn’t quite the case.  In July, with Bryant’s academic status still up in the air, Bryant requested and received a release from UGA. He enrolled at ECU in 2005 but did not join the Pirate football team until the next summer as he worked out lingering eligibility issues.  Though four years out of high school, he was considered a sophomore in 2007 and will return for his junior year as ECU’s established top receiver.

Georgia signed another prospect out of Rockingham in 2004, but the story of Dannell Ellerbe has turned out a lot better for Bulldog fans.

It’s been a great 2007 in Georgia athletics, and we begin a look back with – wait for it – the highlights of January.

January 3: Notre Dame was waxed in the Sugar Bowl. It would be the highlight of 2007 for the program.

January 5: Nick Saban arrived in Tuscaloosa. Soon the world would be introduced to Alana Colette Connell.

January 8: Stacy Searels was hired as Georgia’s new offensive line coach. The former Auburn lineman chose Georgia over an offer to join Nick Saban’s fledgling staff at Alabama. Though the addition of Searels was universally praised from the beginning, no one could have imagined how well it would go. Faced with only two returning experienced scholarship linemen, the Dawgs approached the season with a "fake it till we make it" outlook up front. By the end of the 2007, Searels and his young and inexperienced line had paved the way for the emergence of Knowshon Moreno while giving up only 15 sacks.

January 8: Florida won the national football title and more or less emasculated the Big 10.

January 15: Chan Gailey was a candidate for the Miami Dolphins job. I think both the Dolphins and Jackets wish this had happened.

January 17: Steve Newman’s improbable buzzer-beater completed a last-minute comeback at Arkansas.

January 18: Rep. Jack Kingston stood firm against the Gators in Congress.

January 20: The Dawgs followed up the Arkansas win with a devastating loss at Alabama. Though the game ended on a questionable no-call, the story was Georgia’s second half collapse after leading by 15 at halftime. In hindsight, this loss probably cost Georgia a trip to the NCAA Tournament.

January 22: Bruce Pearl gave the people what they wanted at a Lady Vols game.

January 24: The roller-coaster ride continued for Georgia basketball with an overtime win over Kentucky.

January 27: They did it for Brophy: with a buzzer-beating three-pointer, Georgia upset LSU on a day set aside to honor the memory of Kevin Brophy.

Steve Spurrier’s official site (spurrierhbc.com) is reporting that South Carolina will hire former Georgia defensive coordinator Brian Van Gorder. A press conference is set for this afternoon.

Brian Van Gorder will be announced as the new defensive coordinator for the University of South Carolina in a press conference on Wednesday afternoon. Van Gorder, most recently a linebackers’ coach with the Atlanta Falcons, held the defensive coordinators’ postion with the University of Georgia from 2001-2004. Video from Coach Steve Spurrier will be available this afternoon.

I’m sure Spurrier appreciates the chance to tweak the Dawgs while getting himself a capable coordinator. Van Gorder left Georgia in pursuit of a head coaching opportunity after the 2004 season, and the quest has taken him to the Jacksonville Jaguars, to Georgia Southern, to the Atlanta Falcons, and now back as an SEC coordinator in Coulmbia.

No doubt the Chicken Littles and Willie Martinez detractors out there will declare this move as a death knell for the Dawgs, but it’s setting up as a rather interesting experiment. Much of the Martinez vs. Van Gorder discussion centers around the talent level of the Georgia defense from 2002-2004. South Carolina will have an adequate level of defensive talent, but it won’t be on the same level as what Van Gorder had at Georgia. I guess we finally will get to see how much of Van Gorder’s genius was coaching and how much of it was right-place-right-time.

Ivan Maisel has a nice piece up (h/t Get the Picture) that is mostly about Michigan and Rich Rodriguez, but I’m also glad to see someone try to temper the celebration of parity that’s going on this season.

For all the talk of parity, the teams playing for the national title are 1) a team that played for the title last year and 2) one of the preseason picks. I also note that four of the six BCS conference champions were favored to win their conferences, and the other two – Ohio State and Oklahoma – aren’t exactly newcomers to the scene. The only real manifestation of parity in the BCS is Kansas.

It really has been a wild and incredible season, but something strikes me as wrong when people in the game are placing who lost above who’s winning. As entertaining as upsets are and as great of a story as Kansas is, I still prefer to see excellence shine through. The 2006 Rose Bowl was the ultimate as Bush’s Southern Cal slugged it out with Young’s Texas. Though there are exceptions, true excellence in college football is most likely going to come from a traditional power, and it’s better for the sport when programs like Michigan are doing well. As insensitive as it might be to say, it’s better for the game that Rodriguez is at Michigan than at West Virginia.

Exams are over, bowl practices are about to get going, and thankfully the lull in the news is about over.

I’ve been able to watch Hawaii several times this season thanks to their late starts. One thing that has struck me about them is their ability to pull out wins under any circumstances. In five of their games, they trailed in the second half. Four times they’ve required either overtime or last-minute heroics for the win. And yet in each game they’ve found the resiliency to bounce back and win. Their comeback against San Jose State was good background noise on a Friday night in Nashville – even a two-touchdown deficit with four minutes left wasn’t enough to bury them.

I understand the level of competition we’re talking about. Still, this is a team used to being able to turn games around. In short, assume that no lead is safe.

This game could go a lot of ways, but if Georgia finds itself with a second-half lead of any size, there is almost no appropriate time to let off the gas either on offense or defense. We can debate the best way to defend their attack, but I think we can all agree that a prevent-style defense that gives Brennan all day to pick apart the coverage isn’t going to be effective.

I’m not the biggest Bobby Petrino (or even Atlanta Falcons) fan, but am I the only one who finds all of the hyperbolic hand-wringing over his latest career change a bit much? I must admit I find it amusing how all of the Falcons players who have mailed in this season are now instant authorities on "being a man." If only they played that way.

It seems as if this new concept of loyalty when it comes to coaches is decidedly one-way. Owners and schools have no problem cutting a contract short even in the middle of a season. The difference of course is that a team is usually still on the hook to play the coach when the coach is fired. Teams could certainly build such clauses into the contracts when a coach decides to bolt, but that’s up to them. With fans and teams increasingly impatient for results given the big dollars involved, I can understand (though not necessarily admire) when a coach tries to stay ahead of the game. It makes you appreciate guys like Mark Richt.

When you have someone like Sean Salisbury more or less imploring prospects not to consider Arkansas, it’s clear that the reaction has long since become overreaction. Last year the Hogs got burned by players and coaches bailing on them; now they benefit from a similar move. Just don’t be surprised when Petrino installs a revolving door in his office.

For once, I would be fascinated to see if Lou Holtz weighs in on this once the bowl season punditry gets cranked up. If anyone knows about leaving a 3-10 pro team to coach at Arkansas, no one else is more qualified.

But it is SEC-related. Hey, you can always apply for the job yourself.

As I had hoped, Bobby Johnson’s interest in the Duke job was fleeting.

Now the Blue Devils are talking to Tennessee OC and former Ole Miss HS David Cutcliffe. Tennessee has had moderate success (particularly against Georgia) with Cutcliffe since he returned from Oxford, and he’s credited with the development of Erik Ainge.