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http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/sports_college/2008/07/new-rule-change.html SEC associate commissioner Charles Bloom said Friday that the conference will implement three new rules to its football games in 2008. Bloom, speaking on behalf of the conference at the Florida Sports Writers Association media days in Tampa, said the primary changes include: The clock entering a 40-second count after the referee calls a dead ball; penalties assessed for grabbing the horse collar of a player (unless a quarterback or a runner is in the tackle box) and field goals will be reviewable. "The rules will provide expediency to the game and get it done quicker," Bloom said. "It's a way to manage the game in a certain time frame. Most people look at 3 hours, 15 minute or 3 1/2 hours for a game." Bloom said TV stations have expressed interest in expediting college games that tend to sludge along. Speaking of TV, Bloom said the SEC Network -- a conference-owned station dedicated strictly to SEC sports -- is still a possibility. orlandosentinel 7/18/08

http://blog.nola.com/lsusports/2008/07/lsu_football_adjusts_roster_sc.html BATON ROUGE - Kickoff for LSU football is more than a month away but things began shaking out in the program Thursday with the announcement offensive lineman Jarvis Jones had been tossed off the team. The decision by head coach Les Miles essentially came out of nowhere as Jones had not been involved in any embarrassing off-field incidents that might have made his future as a Tiger shaky. But after playing in seven games last year as a true freshman, Jones appeared to have lost a battle this spring with classmate Joseph Barksdale for a starting job at tackle. With most of that unit returning, the tackle position opposite junior Ciron Black was the only starting opening on the line in 2008. A Texas native, Jones had already returned home Thursday, LSU officials said, and the school will forfeit his scholarship. Several people associated with the football program said they had no clue what lay behind Jones' dismissal, and Miles did not elaborate in a statement issued by LSU. "The issues we had with Jarvis were internal and ones that we dealt with within the framework of our team," he was quoted as saying. "However, we just felt like it was time to go in a different direction. We wish him well in any of his future endeavors." The future endeavors of the team, meanwhile, also got shuffled a bit this week. The 2010 game against Louisiana-Lafayette was moved to 2009, leaving one opening on next year's schedule and two in 2010. times-picayune 7/18/08

http://www.ajc.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/ajc/bradley/entries/2008/07/17/why_uga_will_win_it_all_in_thi.html Citing the 10 reasons Georgia will win the BCS national title drew the predictable responses: Bulldog fans figured I’d jinxed them, while non-Bulldogs hooted and pointed to that road schedule as the reason this touted team will fail. And while I’ll admit to being wrong once or twice in my so-called life - the Braves were not, alas, in first place on the Fourth of July - I’ll also note something else: Mark Richt is a pretty fair road coach. His record on the opponent’s field is 25-4. More than simply good, that’s obscene. He’s 2-1 at Auburn, 3-0 in Columbia, 3-1 in Knoxville, 2-0 in Tuscaloosa. (OK, so he’s only 2-5 against Florida in Jacksonville, but that’s about to get a lot better.) Of those four road losses, one was to a team (LSU in 2003) that finished No. 1, and another (Auburn in 2004) was to a team that went undefeated. Urban Meyer is, I believe we can all agree, an outstanding head coach. (His performance in the BCS title game against Ohio State was the single greatest tactical job I’ve ever seen.) In three seasons at Florida, Meyer has lost more road games (five) than Richt has lost in seven seasons at Georgia. Think about that. I’m not saying the Bulldogs will win all five of their road games. Playing at South Carolina, at Arizona State, at LSU, at Kentucky and at Auburn is a daunting assignment, not to mention Florida in Jax. But Georgia seems stout enough to negotiate that path with only one loss - coming at Auburn on Nov. 15, I’m guessing - and one loss against that schedule will almost surely book passage to the BCS title game. Atlanta Journal Constitution 7/17/08

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/37979-college-football-can-the-sec-make-it-three-straight-national-championships The debate is done. The squabbles have ceased. All arguments about which conference is king of college football have now been bottled up. Over the past two seasons the SEC has flexed its collective muscle and proved to the country once and for all that it is the premier conference in the land. So now what? What do we as litigious college football fans have left to argue about? The Heisman trophy candidates? Nah, it’s still way too early to handicap that race. BCS format, perhaps? Been there, done that, and about sick of hearing ridiculous suggestions that will never come to fruition. So what’s left to debate? Must we return to the issue of conference supremacy so as to quench our thirst for quarrel? Alas, I think it is inevitable. Fortunately, I can think of one debate that hasn’t been beaten to death like so many others. Here it goes: Can the SEC succeed in capturing its third straight National Championship? To ponder this question, we must first separate the SEC’s contenders from its pretenders. Realistically speaking, only four teams have any chance at all to win the big one—those being Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and LSU. Of the remaining eight teams, Auburn and South Carolina would be closest to the BCS picture, but each has big enough question marks to keep it out of the National Championship discussion. So let’s break down each of the four contenders’ shots at making it to Miami, starting with the least likely. Alabama I’m putting all my money on Nick Saban’s pedigree for this pick. Back in 2000, Saban’s first year as head coach at LSU, the Tigers had a moderately successful season, winning eight games. Under year two of the Saban regime, however, LSU leaped into the national spotlight with an SEC championship game win and a subsequent Sugar Bowl victory. I think the stage is set for the same type of turnaround in Tuscaloosa. The highly anticipated number one ranked recruiting class has finally arrived on campus with super-stud Julio Jones as the face of the future. John Parker Wilson is all of a sudden the most seasoned quarterback in the SEC West after the departures of Brandon Cox and Matt Flynn. But does he have the winning mentality it takes (13-13 all-time as a starter) to push his team to the championship level? What will ultimately keep Alabama out of the National Championship game is its lack of winning experience and tough schedule. Will the Tide be able to emerge unscathed after road games against Georgia and LSU, a neutral site game against Clemson, and possibly a SEC Championship game? All signs point to no. Fortunately for Alabama fans, Nick Saban doesn’t seem to understand the meaning of the word no. LSU If you’re an optimistic LSU fan, you’re thinking to yourself, “Hey, we’ve won two National Championships in the past five years with an unproven quarterback each time. There’s no reason we shouldn’t do the same this year with redshirt freshman Jarrett Lee! Plus we’ve got a veteran offensive line to protect him and a whole heap of talented running backs to lean on. Not to mention our defensive line might be better than last year’s!” And if you’re a glass-half-empty LSU fan, you’re thinking to yourself, “Damn that Ryan Perrilloux! If he could have kept his head on straight for one measly year we might have had a chance to repeat. Now we’re stuck with a green-as-grass redshirt freshman and a Harvard transfer to take the snaps. There goes our season. Oh well, at least we get to beat up on Ole Miss at home this year.” It’s true. The Tigers are leaderless at the quarterback position. But with a talented defense and a multifaceted running game to rely on, LSU is as strong a team as any other. If they can find a way to successfully make it to Atlanta and defend their SEC title against Florida or Georgia, they’ll be right in the Miami mix. bleacherreport 7/15/08

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/38701-why-brett-favre-is-wrong I know there has been enough written in the past week about Favre to make it its own sport on Bleacher Report, but I feel like adding my two cents. During Brett Favre's illustrious career, especially during his resurgence last year, all you heard about Favre is, "he's like a little kid out there." It was one of his most endearing features, the sheer childlike wonder in which he approached the game, even as the sun of his career gradually set. Well, we're seeing more of the childlike Brett now, only it's not so endearing. Like a child, he changes his mind with every tick of the clock. Like a child, he tattles to the principal about how he is being mistreated, in this case, Greta Van Susteren. Except unlike a child, an entire NFL franchise is depending on his whims. Let's take a step back and see if this situation could have been avoided. After the NFC Championship game, Brett Favre decided to forego the usual summer drama and announce his retirement. What choice did the Green Bay Packers have but to begin their post-Favre lives as soon as possible? As legendary as he was, the Packers are a business, and their business is about winning. So they put Aaron Rodgers into the starting spot and drafted not one, but two marquee quarterbacks from college, Brian Brohm and Matt Flynn. What was the alternative for the Packers? Hope and pray that Brett decides to come back? Draft position players? If they did that and Rodgers doesn't do well, they're screwed for the next two or three years. Now all of a sudden Favre gets the itch again, and it puts the Pack in a no-win situation. They don't want Favre to start. He doesn't want to be a backup. They don't want him to play anywhere else. What if he goes somewhere and puts a team into a Wild Card berth? What if Rodgers bombs (not that I think he will, I was actually pretty impressed with him last year) and the Packers limp to a 4-12 finish? Imagine that pressure cooker in Green Bay. bleacherreport 7/17/08