Lane Kiffin: Sexiest Woman Alive
I really have no idea what exactly to say about this, other than kudos to Esquire for finding an original take on the Kiffin story. Lane Kiffin is currently a No. 16 seed in the magazine's Sexiest Woman Alive bracket, facing No. 1 seed Natalie Gulbis. (How she is a No. 1 seed for the sports region, which includes the likes of Danica Patrick, Anna Kournikova and Lindsey Vonn, is beyond me.) Erin Andrews is also in the bracket, but she's not even the most intriguing matchup for Kiffin -- that honor would belong to Matthew Stafford's girlfriend, a situation that would give Tennessee fans no way to win. (HT: Everyone)
Not that any of them could view a Tennessee practice
Amazingly, Derek Dooley is still off to a better start in Knoxville than Kiffin even when you count this.
The discord began in mid-February when Dooley cleared UT's indoor practice facility of all visitors not involved in the upcoming conditioning drills.
Unbeknownst to Dooley, former UT players were in the group escorted from the building, according to senior associate athletic director David Blackburn.
Blackburn said that Dooley has since spoken to the board of UT's Lettermen's Club and sent a letter to former players, mostly to welcome them on campus -- with a few stipulations.
For example, former players are expected to check with the football office first. This might be because Dooley is actually interested in staying around long enough to, you know, know people.
AFTER THE JUMP:
- SEC Expansion?!?
- LSU's green uniforms
- Play Ball!
SEC expanding again?
In answer to speculation by West Virginia coach Bill Stewart -- widely regarded as one of the game's deepest thinkers -- Mike Slive doesn't exactly deny talk of another round of SEC growth.
"Any national issue we follow on a regular basis. We pay attention, we read what you read, we hear what you hear, and we listen to it," he said. "But expansion for us -- it's always been a topic of conversation, but never a front-burner issue." ...
"First off all, something may happen, something may not happen," Slive said. "So hypothetically, we'll just watch. We'll continue to watch."
In other words: Wait your turn, Mountaineers. We know you're interested and we'll be interested if necessary.
Perhaps this is just coming from someone who doesn't mind as much since his team is now in the SEC, but 12 strikes me as the right number. Fourteen is getting on the very edges of what would be workable both logistically and traditionally. And I would much rather see Clemson bring its South Carolina and Georgia rivalries into the SEC East and find another team -- Texas? Missouri? -- for the West. (Unless you really want to shuffle things around and put West Virginia and Clemson in the East and move Kentucky to the West.)
In Arkansas, saying goodbye is never easy
Or maybe it's not goodbye. Nobody knows, but the tweets on the wall aren't looking so good.
Why?
Your humble correspondent remembers years ago, when the first Yankees caps with neon and other decidedly non-Yankees colors were made. It was already a terrible idea at that point. Now, teams do hats to celebrate all sorts of holidays, and only the July 4 / 9-11 hats seem like a good idea. (Although one wonders why the Blue Jays participate, but I digress.) The idea your humble correspondent likes least? Green hats for St. Patrick's Day. LSU has taken this to a new level of fashion faux pas by changing the logo and color numbers to green as well. This is just a train wreck of Georgian proportions.
Play Ball!
LSU is now unanimously not No. 1, so the athletics department Web site looked on the bright side: "Baseball Ranked in Top 10 for 28th-Straight Poll." Worked on that one for a while, didn't you, guys?
In actual baseball Monday, Kentucky lost 7-5 to Murray State, which is not an unexpected outcome when you commit six errors. Florida defeated Army 9-3.
Your Tuesday chart:
| This Week (BA/CB/USA) |
Last Week (BA/CB/USA) |
Team | Today |
| 7/3/3 | 2/1/1 | LSU | NA |
| 6/11/11 | 6/9/8 | Florida | vs. Florida State, 6:30 p.m. ET |
| 13/16/15 | 14/19/16 | Arkansas | NA |
| 21/20/19 | 18/18/17 | Ole Miss | vs. Arkansas-Pine Bluff, 7:30 p.m. ET |
| 16/23/NR | 19/23/NR | South Carolina | at Furman, 7 p.m. ET |
| 22/26/20 | 22/24/22 | Kentucky | NA |
| 19/18/16 | 24/27/20 | Vanderbilt | vs. Western Kentucky, 7 p.m. ET |
| NR/21/21 | NR/30/25 | Alabama | vs. Minnesota, 7:35 p.m. ET |
| NA | NA | Georgia | at Georgia Tech, 7 p.m. ET |
| NA | NA | Auburn | vs. Alabama A&M, 7:30 p.m. ET |
Hooray playoffs! Brackets are ... in this case, terribly done
Kansas is the No. 1 seed in the entire NCAA tournament. They have less than a 22 percent chance of winning based on some computer formulas that are even more incomprehensible than the BCS. Duke has a nearly 25 percent chance of winning. Not only that, but Duke is in a bracket with just one other team that has a better than 2 percent chance of winning, while the Jayhawks are in a region with three such teams. So much fairer than the BCS.