It’s said that a conservative is a liberal who’s been mugged. After “this year’s experience with the BCS,” UGA President Michael Adams wrote this week how his opposition to a playoff has melted, mailed his not-quite-95 theses to the NCAA, and made the heads of many Georgia fans explode as they reconciled their support for a playoff with the fact that Michael Adams might be the man to get the credit for it.

NCAA President Myles Brand responded to Adams’ letter on Thursday, saying

In a letter to me dated January 8, 2008, University of Georgia President Michael Adams requested that a discussion committee to the Division I Board of Directors be appointed to explore options related to postseason football. I will bring to the board that request at its meeting in Nashville on January 14. The structure of postseason football in the Football Bowl Subdivision rests with the presidents of those institutions.

That’s a long way of saying, “we got the letter,” but at least the item is now on the agenda at the annual NCAA convention.

There’s been a lot of griping in the wake of Adams’ proposal about the timing. How dare Adams try to steal LSU’s thunder before they can even enjoy their championship. But Brand’s addition of the request to the Board of Directors’ agenda shows how the date of the NCAA Convention forced the awkward timing. Making this proposal during the season or even during the bowls would have seemed even more inappropriate. As it is, the proposal will have less than a week to bounce around before it’s brought to the Board of Directors. If all of this outrage is over Adams waiting another day or two, that’s rather petty.

Even if the issue is raised next week, it might be DOA anyway. Adams faces quite an uphill fight even among his peers (h/t Get the Picture). Of a sample of 30 university presidents, 14 – including four other SEC presidents (including LSU, natch) – were opposed and remain committed to the BCS. 11 others were either undecided or didn’t want to commit to a specific playoff plan. Only five were on board with the idea. We saw similar opposition when Florida’s Bernie Machen tried to raise the issue over the summer.

Unfortunately the timing and the urgency of Adams’ proposal means that a lot of things haven’t quite been thought through. Rather than asking these questions, playoff proponents are just giddy to see that the subject is again in the spotlight. Conceptually a playoff seems right to me. It’s just that a lot of us look at playoff proposals the same way we would a fantasy football league. Pick eight teams, draw up a bracket, and go. For example, Adams proposes to use the four BCS bowls as the first round of the playoff. What do the bowls think of that? Do you think the Rose Bowl would be cool with just being a #3 vs. #6 quarterfinal?

That’s why the involvement of the NCAA in the college football postseason is central to any serious playoff proposal. As Brand said, the structure of the postseason is up to the presidents. In the case of a playoff, the task is to drag certain conferences away from the comfortable tie-ins and bowl relationships that seem beneficial enough to all parties that neither the bowls, the conferences, or the networks seem very willing to end. Adams notes the power of “conference and bowl commissioners,” but those conference commissioners already serve at the direction of their conference’s presidents. Is the steadfast opposition to a playoff from Jim Delany or Mike Tranghese contrary to the wishes of the Big 10 or Big East presidents?

The Football Bowl Subdivision has lots of schools who are not in BCS conferences. Their support of a playoff is key if the strategy is to have a majority of the FBS membership force change on the stubborn conferences comfortable with the current system. Will that support come easily? Likely not without 1) a cut of the pot and 2) better access to the playoff system than just “make sure you’re one of the eight seeded teams.”

Not ten years ago, you’d go to a Georgia basketball game on a January weekend to scan the crowd. It was official visit time for football recruits, and obsessive fans had to know who was there, who was hosting them, what snacks they got from the concession stand, and to what extent they were enjoying the game. The final month of the recruiting process was a zoo with almost half a class still to assemble. Each weekend brought a half-dozen or more high-profile prospects to Athens, and it was disaster if verbal commitments didn’t follow.

Here we are now a month from signing day, and crickets are chirping. Tumbleweeds. Georgia football recruiting is more or less finished. Recruitniks are already moving on to look at the early standouts in the 2009 class. There are just a few storylines remaining for what might well be the top recruiting class in the nation:

• Maintain those who have committed to date. That includes some like TE Dwayne Allen who have been looking around a bit, but the recruiting pundits don’t expect any defections.
• Maintain the commitment of A.J. Harmon. Harmon, one of the state of Georgia’s top line prospects, switched his commitment to Georgia from Clemson over the weekend. Harmon still shows a bit of indecision, but it’s clear that he has been thinking about committing to Georgia for some time. In fact, he tried several weeks ago only to be told that there was no room left. The subsequent transfer of Blake Barnes opened up a scholarship for Harmon. Depending on whom you read, Harmon is either solidly in the Georgia camp now, or just "kinda" committed.
• Watch the decision of Zebrie Sanders. The story of Sanders, a standout offensive tackle from Ohio, has taken an interesting turn recently. Sanders was more or less down to Georgia or Florida, but both schools have put him on hold within the past week.

Florida’s sudden change of heart with regard to Sanders might be explained by last weekend’s commitment of tackle Matt Patchan. If they were considering Sanders as an insurance policy in case Patchan went elsewhere, they can move on to other priorities.

Why has Georgia suddenly cooled on a four-star tackle like Sanders? The reason might be named Omar Hunter. Hunter, a defensive tackle from Buford rated the #4 DT in the nation by Rivals.com, pulled his verbal commitment from Notre Dame last weekend. It was assumed that Hunter would simply switch his pledge to Florida, but rumors this week indicate that Hunter is also showing some late interest in Georgia.

I don’t get that involved in crunching scholarship numbers. All I know is that Georgia manages to field a team every year with the right number of scholarship players, so I leave the worrying and accounting to those paid to pay attention to those things. That said, we know that Georgia is very close to its limit even with Sanders and Hunter hanging out there. There was room for Harmon only after Blake Barnes transferred, so were the Dawgs holding a final scholarship for Sanders? Has the interest of Hunter made Georgia apply the brakes? One source shows how that might be the case:

Sanders came to the Under Armour game set to announce a commitment to Florida or Georgia. The 6-foot-6, 275-pounder had hoped to commit on ABC…but a pair of phone calls changed the plan.

"I was supposed to commit today," Sanders said after the game. "I called Florida up and I called Georgia up. Coach Meyer and [Georgia] coach [Mark] Richt both told me that right now wouldn’t be the right time."…

…This could be a "slow play," meaning Florida and Georgia coaches are encouraging Sanders to wait as they sort out their scholarship numbers and determine if they have room for him in their classes. NCAA rules allow schools to bring in only 25 new players a year, and some may not even have enough open scholarships to sign that many. So Sanders will wait until Sunday before announcing his final decision.

So even in this relatively calm homestretch, there is some drama worth keeping up with. Things should settle pretty quickly; Sanders is still planning on committing on January 13th, and Hunter is expected to visit Florida this weekend. Excepting the always-possible signing day surprise, it should be a pretty quiet finish to a great class.

Beautiful…then comes the crash

If the Sugar Bowl was, as Colt Brennan said, the biggest Hawaiian event since statehood , the aftermath has been the biggest disaster to hit the state since…well, we won’t go there.

First was June Jones’ departure for SMU. Jones chose the scorched earth strategy on his way out of town by firing off a letter criticizing the athletic department for its lack of support. Only when SMU showed interest did Hawaii make an attempt to improve its commitment to the program, claimed Jones.

It didn’t take long for athletics director Herman Frazier to be forced out, and of course speculation centers on that fact that Frazier couldn’t pull several million dollars out of thin air to fund the Hawaii program to the level Jones wanted.

In the span of a week, the Hawaii program has gone from the feel-good "Bad News Bears" story of the 2007 season to smoldering ruins of a program. I was completely wrong last year when I thought that Boise State’s 2005 loss to Georgia would result in lasting trauma for that program, but here I go again. The Hawaii program was on the brink of being dissolved when Jones took over, and it took his unique scheme to get some success from the limited talent base and limited resources available to him.

Receiver Davone Bess will head to the NFL, and of course Brennan is gone as well. There are definitely some quality players coming back, but one wonders how long the new coach will be able to keep things going. The Hawaii wave looks to have crested, and there’s no telling now what gets washed up onto the rocks. It’s kind of sad to see – there was something fresh and enjoyable about the state using the team as a point of cultural pride.

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.

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.

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.

Last week we noticed how the local cable company in Hawaii was going all-out to provide HD service to customers in time for the Sugar Bowl. The saga continues…

Unfortunately for the cable company and especially for subscribers, cable service went out for 170,000 customers statewide during the second quarter.  Service was restored almost immediately for most, but several thousand households waited up to an hour into halftime for the problem to be fixed.

Cable operators are blaming vandals looking for valuable copper wiring.  We suspect a merciful Hawaii fan who had seen enough.

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?

Hawaii offensive line coach Dennis McKnight:

We didn’t block them. We didn’t execute. They’re no faster than guys we’ve played. Everybody has speed. We just didn’t do our job. We didn’t protect early. We didn’t play good at all on the offensive line. It’s that simple. We’re not trying to sugar coat it.

The standout quarterback who showed plenty of guts in the face of that pressure disagreed:

It was the hardest, fastest team I’ve ever seen.

Dennis Roland, Sr., father of former Bulldog offensive lineman Dennis Roland, passed away yesterday after a fight with cancer. Roland had coached at two schools in Gwinnett County, most recently Central Gwinnett, and had an impact on the communities in which he worked and lived.

Though tickets don’t seem to be much of a problem, one Hawaii cable company is going to some lengths to make sure that residents who can’t make the trip to New Orleans are still able to watch the Sugar Bowl in style:

Oceanic Time Warner Cable announced yesterday that 6,000 high-definition TV boxes arrived this week – in time for Christmas and the highly anticipated Sugar Bowl game between Hawai’i and Georgia.

The company had many of the boxes flown in to meet the growing demand for HDTV.

“Over 3,000 subscribers on a waiting list since the 1st of December will now get their boxes in time for the game,” said Alan Pollock, vice president of marketing at Oceanic Time Warner Cable.

No word yet on how the cable company plans on handling 5,987 returns on the morning of January 2nd.

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.

Grambling coach Rod Broadway has turned down an opportunity to take the vacant Florida A&M head coaching position, and the Tallahassee Democrat is reporting that Georgia receivers coach John Eason might be considered.

With Broadway now out of the picture, Florida A&M President James Ammons may now pursue John Eason, the associate head football coach and wide receivers coach at the University of Georgia. Eason, a standout wide receiver and a 1969 graduate of FAMU, has been with the Bulldogs since 2001.

Eason has caught criticism in the past from Georgia fans for drops and sub-par receiver play, but the receivers have generally been outstanding this year. Eason has also been instrumental in getting verbal commitments from two of the nation’s best receivers for the 2008 class.

From today’s AJC:

Tech played better than in most, maybe all, games so far, but Kansas’ talent and experience were enough that until the final five minutes or so, the biggest roar came at halftime.

That’s when new football coach Paul Johnson was introduced and said over the PA, “The one thing I have learned in the [first] seven days is, ‘To Hell With Georgia.’ “

Watching a loss in front of a crowd of 9,000 – he should learn to get used to that too.