Baseball tournament begins today. We'll have a thread up at 10 a.m. ET -- morning baseball? -- or one hour before the beginning of the first game.
Again, your slate:
No. 2 Florida vs. No. 7 Arkansas, CSS and XM 199, 11 a.m. ET
No. 3 Ole Miss vs. No. 6 Georgia, CSS and XM 199, 2:30 p.m. ET
No. 1 LSU vs. No. 8 Vanderbilt, CSS and XM 199, 6 p.m. ET
No. 4 Alabama vs. No. 5 South Carolina, CSS and XM 199, 9:30 p.m. ET
We'll be around from time to time.
Our long national nightmare is finally over. Until it begins again. Boy Wonder apologized by telephone to Pahokee High School and community leaders and managed not to further offend the town of Pahokee in doing so -- meaning the standoff has been settled. Peace in our time.
And to the Vols fans who think this was just a case of a high school principal working for his alma mater and grandstanding, the town (including lead fence-mender Vice Mayor Henry Crawford Jr.) seems firmly behind him.
"We got an apology," Crawford said. "That’s all we wanted."
Alejo, who until recently had a Florida logo underneath his bio on the school’s Web page, angered Tennessee fans by banning UT’s coaches from Pahokee’s campus. Crawford, however, supported Alejo’s response to Kiffin’s comments.
"I commend the principal for the steps that he took," Crawford said. "He had the best interests of the community at heart, his school and his football players. I don’t think he took it personally. He deemed the statements were inappropriate. I applaud him for taking steps to protect the school, our citizens and my community."
Leave the principal alone. If Steve Spurrier said the same thing about my hometown of Huntsville and I were the principal at one of the high schools, you bet I'd want a personal apology (not via the media) before I let his recruiters back on campus.
ghostofneyland reluctantly accepts Tennessee's efforts to make peace with Pahokee High School.
I'm so sick of talking about this issue. After all, the alleged comments came in the week following National Signing Day, which makes it a full three months ago. Yet, here we are in mid-May, and Kiffin, the Vols and this story are getting dragged up and down the interstate between Knoxville and South Florida.
I'm sure many Tennessee fans are sick of Pahokee. But this is what happens when you have a coach that mouths off at every possible opportunity. Words -- especially negative words -- have importance. They hurt people, sometimes deeply. You can't cheer Boy Wonder's "passion" and how it helps RECRUITING and also want immunity when his comments cross the line or the discussion goes on "too long." The publicity and, yes, the one-upsmanship by a Florida high school are the consequences. Prepare to deal with them, or tell your coach to shut up.
Right on cue, Tennessee will report yet another secondary violation involving Boy Wonder -- this one about mentioning a player on his Twitter page.
Tennessee athletic director Mike Hamilton said it wasn't actually Kiffin who penned the post in question but an employee in the football office who was updating Kiffin's Twitter page for him.
The post was up for about an hour during the afternoon before being removed by Tennessee officials. It read: "It's a beautiful day in Knoxville, Tennessee today. I was so exited to hear that J.C. Copeland committed to play for the Vols today!"
So when the Twitter said "I was so exited ... " did that mean Kiffin or the ghost tweeter? Really, guys, Boy Wonder gets himself in trouble enough. He doesn't need any help.
At least he might still get Robert Marve, right? You don't say.
It might hotter for you, but it's also more profitable. Reasons to keep the Georgia-Florida game in Jacksonville? Florida has 1.5 million of them. And if you don't like those, the Gators have 5,000 more.
I have to wonder what will happen if this reaches an impasse. The game has to be played -- it's in the conference rules. Would it automatically remain status quo? Or would it switch to home-and-home? And might that be Georgia's real motive here?
John who? Some guy named John Wall signed up to play some sport for Kentucky, and A Sea of Blue is quite giddy about this.
But it means John Calipari has more roster trimming to do. He could get some pointers from Alabama, which moved toward opening up another roster spot, though the Tide still has some work to do.
'Hey. Today is ... sorry. Got something else I want to do.' Arkansas fans are trying to get Bobby Petrino on board with the whole Twitter thing. Actually, you would think 140 characters would be a perfect match for his attention span.
Recommended reading. And the Valley Shook with some interesting thoughts on whether coaches should turn in each other. Phil Fulmer would be pleased.