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Is Arkansas Latin for Florida?
Three more player arrests at Arkansas -- Marquel Wade, Maudrecus Humphrey and Andrew Peterson -- bring the number of players who have had an offseason encounter with Fayetteville's finest to six. Wade has the potential to play a key role in the Hogs' 2012 offense, and Humphrey could be expected to at least provide depth at wide receiver. In case you haven't heard (which means you haven't been paying attention), the Razorbacks lost essentially their entire wide receiving corps to graduation and the draft this year.
Oh, and there was that whole head coach fired for shuttling his university-employed mistress around town on a motorcycle thing.
One of the other arrestees, Kane Whitehurst, was also a wide receiver. So maybe the flexbone offense is looking good, no?
Because it's good to see Alabama finally win a championship
Does this make it a softball school?
THE STORY THAT NEVER ENDS: CONFERENCE REALIGNMENT
Can we get Baghdad Bob to help weigh in on this?
There are two important things to keep in mind when trying to figure out what is happening in the Florida State to Big 12 drama. The first is that everything vaguely related to government in Florida is almost certain to devolve into something resembling a banana republic. The second is that this trend is amplified in any college, which is overseen by varying degrees by the Florida Board of Governors, the institution's board of trustees and the Legislature.
So Florida State's athletics director said one thing, Florida State's board of trustees chairman said the opposite thing and head football coach Jimbo Fisher seemed to back the chairman. Then FSU president Eric Barron tried to walk it all back.
"Florida State respects the views of the Chair of its Board of Trustees that, of course, any university would examine options that would impact university academics, athletics or finances," Barron said in his statement that was released at 11:01 p.m. Saturday. "At the same time, Florida State is not seeking an alternative to the ACC nor are we considering alternatives. Our current commitments remain strong."
None of which is an actual denial that Florida State might move to the Big 12ish over the summer. My guess is still that the chances of that are relatively small, but this could be filed under "denials, non-denial variety."
So that's that. I'm sorry -- Chairman Haggard, you wanted to add something after President Barron's statement?
"All I tried to say was I think Florida State needs to keep an open mind," he said. "If the Big 12 or the SEC or any other conference wants to talk, we have an obligation to listen. If the Big 12 calls, should we hang up the phone? No.
"I'm not saying take it. I'm saying listen to it. Listen to what they have to say."
So glad we got that all straightened out.
It's official
This is a few weeks early, but the Texas A&M and Missouri banners have been raised at SEC headquarters in Birmingham.
Conference realignment destroys some rivalries. And starts others.
This is an interesting story about the discontinuing of the Kansas-Missouri rivalry -- which is Kansas' fault just like the end of the Texas-Texas A&M game is the Longhorns' fault. But I digress.
You have to hope that the Jayhawks and the Longhorns eventually get over whatever hurt feelings they have and realize that these rivalries are important -- not just to fans of their rivals or to college football fans, but to Kansas and Texas fans as well. If Georgia and Georgia Tech can play every year despite the Yellow Jackets having bolted the SEC decades ago -- no, "the tearing asunder of ancient rivalries" is no more new than realignment -- then Kansas and Missouri can continue playing their games as well.
But Missouri will eventually develop some SEC rivalries. Just like South Carolina had a natural fit in Georgia when it joined 20 years ago, Missouri has a natural rivalry with Arkansas. Texas A&M has one with LSU from having faced each other dozens of times.
Here's the thing: South Carolina is probably going to give up its "rivalry" game with Arkansas -- which was contrived at first but has lead to the Razorbacks being one of the teams I hate the most as a South Carolina fan -- so that Arkansas can play Missouri every year. The new cross-division rival for the Gamecocks is likely to be Texas A&M; here's hoping those teams also end up being nice enemies for each other.
Texas A&M pitcher throws no-hitter
I find this slightly odd that the feat came against San Diego State, since most baseball teams play conference series during weekends at this point of the season, but congratulations to Ross Stripling.