Sprints Is Vuvuzela-Less and Julianne Hough-Less // 06.28.10

Thoughts and prayers: Chad Jones
It looks like he's on as good a track as could be expected right now.

Whit Merrifield is a lucky man
The Gamecocks outfielder will take the field tonight at 7:30 p.m. ET with the rest of his teammates in Game 1 of the College World Series Championship Series. Hopefully he'll be able to concentrate.

As far as the whole Erin Andrews thing goes, I met (country singer/pro dancer) Julianne Hough and I met Erin Andrews so as far as the women standpoint, it’s been a victory for me this year.

I do not remember college being that interesting.

SEC saved from the vuvuzela
Apparently, all those statements about the possibility of the cheap plastic horn buzzing at league games this autumn were wrong.

"Our policy allows for ‘traditional' artificial noisemakers to be allowed in stadiums and played during specific times. Other forms of artificial noisemakers are not allowed. I do not believe a vuvuzela is tied traditionally into one of our institutions."

So to review: Cowbells are okay, but plastic horns are too much. I agree with both in a way, but it's not to hard to see the contradiction.

Good point, but give credit where credit is due
Jerry makes a good case that a possible solution to the proliferation of cupcake games in the SEC is a ninth conference game. (Though removing Kentucky could also cut the number of FCS and bad FBS opponents roughly in half.) The key part of that, of course, would be ensuring that some teams don't use that as a reason to play no nonconference games of consequence.

One point I would make is that Jerry gives too much credit to LSU and too little credit to South Carolina. The Bengals did not schedule their game against North Carolina -- ESPN did that and promised the Gamecocks an equitable replacement when the Tar Heels balked at playing both LSU and South Carolina, which has been eager to play one of the North Carolina teams in addition to Clemson since Steve Spurrier took over. That's when Southern Miss came into the scheduling picture for the Gamecocks. The Golden Eagles are a somewhat legitimate opponent, and South Carolina is essentially only playing them and not a BCS-league opponent because ESPN got involved.

Maybe because some of the championships were won during the day?
John Calipari had an interesting take on Kentucky's big draft night, during which five players were selected in the first round.

"I'd like to say it is the biggest day in the history of Kentucky's program," he told ESPN's Heather Cox during the network's telecast of the draft. "... the biggest day for the University of Kentucky."

Oh. Okay. So Kentucky obviously hasn't won any conference titles ... I'm sorry; that's wrong. Maybe they just lack a national champio-- nope. Wrong again.

UK all-time scoring leader Dan Issel wins this round:

"If the goal is to be a feeder team for the NBA, maybe that was the greatest day," Issel said. "I thought the goal was to win a national championship."

Which, of course, it is. Even for programs that might objectively have no chance to do so at the beginning of the year, the goal is always to win a championship. (Especially with the new 286-team field, anyone can dream.)

But former UK player Kevin Grevey maybe puts the right perspective on the statement.

"This is probably the greatest moment in John Calipari's history," Grevey added. "It's a huge milestone for him."

The question is whether Calipari knows the difference.

South Carolina president wants to be ready for next round of realignment
But Harris Pastides' statement might alarm Dan Beebe -- assuming that Beebe gets his news from anything other than what his secretary tells him, which isn't clear.

But I think in the now, let’s assume we’re going to be quiet for about a year -- maybe longer -- but figure a year. I think it gives the league more time to prepare more fully for what we really want.

But, again, blame all speculation about conference realignment on The Blogs.

Three UCLA players have been arrested for stealing ...
Really. Click through. You wouldn't want me to ruin the surprise.