Georgia Sports Blog: August 2008

August 31, 2008

Was it just me or was that a ridiculously tough ticket?

I couldn't believe how tough of a ticket the GSU game was on game day. My mom accidentally gave away my dad's tickets to the game earlier in the week...grounds for divorce if you ask me. So I spent some time trying to scalp a ticket on Saturday for the old man.

(Image: Even Churchill needed two)

About 3 hours before the game the scalpers wanted $75-80 which seemed high for on site scalping for a Div I-AA game. So we waited. About 1 hour before the game, we started our march towards the stadium. It seemed that the price was rising with every step.

As we approached the bridge, the prices had risen to $100, $120 and $150...that was IF you could find a scalper with tickets to sell. When we got to the bridge, I saw more people with fingers in the air and no tickets than any time since probably the 1993 Auburn game. That game saw about 20,000 Auburn fans show up in Athens to watch their undefeated and untelevised Tigers. That was the toughest ticket I had ever seen.

So we kept moving. We made it all the way to the graduate student parking lots behind the Baptist Student Union with prices consistently quoted at $120-150 when Dawgnoxious calls us with a single for $35. We can't believe our luck.

Turns out...it's a student ticket. lol. Kind of tough to sneak in a 63 year old, bald guy on a student ticket. Luckily my brother passed for student, and we made it in. All of which makes Dawgnoxious the player of the game as far as dad is concerned.

Did anyone else notice it being a tougher than normal ticket?

See Also:
-- Georgia Home Game Tickets - Stubhub
-- Get 'em while you can - Blutarsky

PWD

The Day After

Overall, I feel pretty good about things. I agree with much of the positives and negatives from Quinton's posts yesterday. Although, I mostly agree with Jeff Schultz who said,

"When a team starts low and climbs, it avoids some of the pitfalls of expectations. Start the season No. 1, and it’s a little different. People look for flaws. Here’s a thought: When a team leads 38-0 in the third quarter, it’s not worth the analysis yet."

So I doubt I'm going to add much to this that Quinton and all the media folks have said already.

Most of my pre-season concerns looked less of an issue. Tailbacks depth isn't likely an issue, the kicker smoked the hell out of a 52 yard field goal, the wide receivers caught pretty much everything, Stafford looked poised and sharp (mostly), and the offensive line pass blocked pretty well when the better players were there. Like Quinton said, the run blocking still needs work and bigger plays were there for the taking in the passing game if we had execute them.

And like Q, I still have concerns. Pre-season everyone said, 'Yeah...but can they stay healthy." Losing Owens for what looks like the season, is a big loss. The good news for Owens is that he's eligible for the medical redshirt. The other good news is that Kade Weston should be healed up by the South Carolina game.

I think the coaching staff can work through the absurd number of penalties. The defensive lapses in the second half I attribute mostly to far too many players missing far too much practice time due to injuries, and GSU being a weak opponent. And honestly...the GSU offensive and defensive lines were so weak that who knows what to make of the UGA counterparts' performances.

But, I don't care that GSU put up 21 points in garbage time. I don't really care that we didn't dominate them from start to finish. That's not atypical for us or many top teams. For all the buzz about Southern Cal looking dominating against UVA, I would retort...so what. It happens. Consider:

When USC went undefeated and won for the national title in 2004, they beat a 4 win Stanford team by 3 points and a 6 win UCLA team by 5 points.
When Texas won the title in 2005, they were down 28-9 to Oklahoma State before waking up.
When Ohio State won the title in 2002, they only beat 7 loss Cincy by 4 points, beat 6 loss Purdue by 1 play and rarely looked dominating against anyone

All that matters is winning and improving from week to week.

Iron Chef Turducken nailed the overall situation. "The season doesn't start until Sept 13th in Columbia. This is all just warm-up." For a warm-up, it went about like I expected.

PWD

August 30, 2008

The Q Report

To lead off, I haven't seen anything official, but I fear Jeff Owens is out for the year with a knee injury. We'll have to wait for an MRI for a definitive answer, but the rumors aren't optimistic. Richt said he didn't expect him back "anytime soon" and there was mention of a medical redshirt. If so, that is very bad news. We have depth, but Owens was our best run stopper. Someone needs to step up and fill Jeff's big, big shoes. (Image: georgiadogs.com)

What looked really good:

Knowshon. Take all of his red practice jerseys away and keep him in green. He looked primed. His first run was the best nine yard run you will ever see and he embarrassed a DB by crushing him on a screen pass. The other backs looked good at times, but Samuel had a fumble and Caleb completely wiffed a protection that almost got Stafford blindsided. All the backs ran well and I'd expect the battle for the No. 2 spot at running back will continue.
The receivers. Not a lot of obvious drops and I thought MoMass displayed excellent hands. I can only remember a couple of balls that could have been caught that weren't. A.J. and Durham each almost made great catches deep in traffic, but came up a tad short. A.J. on fade routes is going to score a lot this season. When Southerland comes back, we should be terrifying in goal line situations. Demiko, Durham, and Mike Moore looked much more reliable than last year.
Blair Walsh placekicking. When you nail your first college field goal with room to spare, and from 52 no less, you've had a good day. I hope it looks just as simple in Baton Rouge, down by two, with five seconds left. Speaking of special teams, I thought Asher Allen looked real good on punt returns (even if he had a muff) and Reshad Jones can go if Asher's too overworked.

What looked like slop:

Defensive line penalties. I lost count of offsides penalties. Jeremy Lomax was offsides twice on a single play, inducing the Willie Martinez furor gauge to redline, popping his eyes out of their sockets. Got to do better than that boys. I know you want a good jump, but after three yellow hankies, just start looking at the dang ball.
Tackling. It may be that we have grown accustomed to sure tacklers, but our DB tackling was completely substandard. We wanted to nudge rather than wrap guys up. On a single play in the first quarter, three of our guys missed a GSU receiver. That has got to get better. It's early and I'm confident that Willie will get that worked out.
Blair Walsh kickoffs. I don't know if Walsh will be our kickoff guy all year, but he had some very short kickoffs. I understand that we prefer to kick the ball in the corner, cut off the field and force a short return, but I doubt we want the kickoff to be fielded at the twenty. Walsh's first kick was great, driving the ball well into the end zone. The short kick, though, is going to get us hurt. Walsh himself had to make a tackle on a long GSU return.

Everything else was average. Considering the O line was playing together for the first time, they did fine, especially in pass protection. But, they struggled at times to open holes against a D line they should have blown off the ball. It was a good start, but nothing to get too excited about. We'll get a better feel for the line when Boling returns.

Some of you will no doubt bring up Stafford's career day. I agree that for most of the game, he looked sharp, but he missed two wide open guys on a single play in the first quarter before Walsh's long field goal. He also floated a couple of other balls that went incomplete. The completion percentage was good and he didn't turn it over. He was solid, but nothing spectacular.

One coaching decision I didn't get at all was inserting the second team backfield on our third possession. Those guys looked confused and Samuel quickly turned it over. I understood the Shockley, Greene rotation was to get D.J. some snaps and show the defense some different looks, but Stafford and Cox don't draw similar comparisons. Let Stafford have it until the game is in control. I hope that Cox is not a regular fixture on the third possession. It's no knock on Joe, who I think did a good job, but Stafford is clearly our starter. Don't bring in the back up just to bring him in.

Overall, it wasn't anything special. Even Uga VII slept through a good portion of the game. I didn't think that it was appreciably different than other openers against Georgia Southern. Get a big lead, get a bunch of penalties, get somebody important hurt, and then let the scrubs give up some TDs. Keep it in perspective, though. It's the first game and it's got to be hard to get excited about playing GSU. We played a lot of young guys and some of them played like freshmen. (Imagine that.) We'll be fine.

So, was that the performance of a No. 1 ranked team?

Quinton

August 29, 2008

Uga VII News and Notes

GeorgiaDogs.com has photos and news about Uga VII's introduction on Saturday. Included in the press releases are photos of the new mascot (see right as well). His name is "Loran's Best."

Apparently, Uga VII will be introduced before the 12:34 pm kickoff, but the announcement doesn't plainly spell out "be in your seat X minutes before kickoff." I guess just get there about a half hour early.

A video tribute to Uga VI will be shown on the stadium scoreboard prior to the official introduction of Uga VII.

Georgiadogs also has a photo album and story about Uga VII's new fully equipped, state of the art doghouse. The doghouse was built by McCar Homes using materials from LP Building Products. (ht - the LP PR team)

Separately, the Dawg Walk is about 1:45 before kickoff.

See Also:
-- The Scoop on Uga VII - Macon Telegraph

PWD

Scouting the Gamecocks: Our Spies Hit the Road

Mike Floyd, long time Dawg fan and occasional poster here at the Georgia Sports Blog, was at the South Carolina vs. North Carolina State game. Below is an up close and personal opinion on last night's action. Good stuff. (image: Tommy Beecher/Photo by Erik Campos TheState.com. See all photos)

By Mike Floyd:

I went on a recon mission to Columbia last night and was not the least bit impressed by what I saw.

NCSU Thoughts:
First off, let’s talk about NC State for a minute. If these guys win a single league game, I’ll be entirely surprised. I’ve seen some bad teams in my day, but D-A-M-N. Truly, staggeringly awful. I’ll also add that working up a good, frothing hate for NC State would be about the same thing as randomly disliking Methodists or going on a rampage against vanilla ice cream. I’ve never seen a team or group of fans with less identity.

As for the Gamecocks...
They very clearly have a quarterbacking problem. Aside from McKinley, their receivers had a very hard time getting open. And for most of the game, it was a total jailbreak in the South Carolina offensive backfield, with NC State defenders running roughshod over the Carolina offensive line.

Oh, and let’s not forget that fans began booing – loudly, clearly and with no mercy – each time Beecher came into the game after his second interception. Stay classy, Gamecocks. It only took twenty minutes into his first game as a starter for the boobirds and cussing to start raining down from all over.

Apparently, their fanbase is far less friendly to the team when it is required to donate an additional $95 to the university when it comes time to buy season tickets. I must have heard them bitching about cost of tickets a hundred times night...they are utterly clueless about what other fans pay at schools like Florida, Georgia and LSU, among others.

Defensively, Carolina has a unique set of problems in that they’re hugely talented, but unsure of how to get it all on the field at the same time. If you wanted to put together a team full of defensive ends, then you could cherry pick five or six great ones in Columbia. Cliff Matthews (total stud, by the way…what a shame he’ll be playing in Columbia instead of Athens), Clifton Geathers, Justin Lindsay, Eric Norwood and Jasper Brinkley are all excellent players, but there’s only room for two defensive ends on the field so Brinkley and Norwood are being asked to hold down the linebacker position, where they’re badly out of place.

The ‘Cocks apparently don’t have anybody else at the position. Brinkley looks like he did his rehab at BoJangles, while Norwood might be even bigger. Teams with a lick of speed at tailback are going to run around the ends on South Carolina all season long.

They have no idea where to play Clifton Geathers...he lined up all over the field last night. Again, DE would be the ideal spot, but I suspect he’ll end up playing interior defensive lineman this year.

Yes, I’m well aware that Carolina usually plays Georgia tough. And, yes, I’m well aware that you can’t make too many bold predictions after one game. But from what I saw last night, Georgia may blows the doors off those guys in two weeks.

Well...what were your thoughts on the game?

See Also:
-- Georgia Bulldogs vs. South Carolina Gamecocks Tickets - Stubhub

PWD

Mother Nature Scoffs At Your Practice Bubble

Mother Nature has struck back at Arizona State. The Sun Devils had tried to grow immunity to her searing desert heat by building a multi-million dollar, air-conditioned practice facility out of synthetic fabric and air pressure. It looked like a giant pillow. But, angry thunderstorms popped the practice bubble last night. Pitchfork Nation has the pictures to prove it. Be safe, Arizona.

More photos (before and after from AZCentral.com. Click on the images for more pics)

Quinton

(PWD Note: The facility had been open for less than 1 month. Damn. Imagine that phone call to their insurance agents. "See...what happened was...")

Countdown: 1

PWD

SEC and ACC Bowl Predictions

Bowl Predictions from Quinton and Westerdawg. Comments below. (sorry. meant to post this yesterday)

Bowls	Westerdawg's Picks	Quinton's Picks
National Title	Ohio State vs. Oklahoma	Southern Cal vs. Oklahoma
Rose	Southern Cal vs. Wisconsin	Arizona State vs. Ohio State
Fiesta	Missouri vs. BYU	Missouri vs. BYU
Sugar	Georgia vs. West Virginia	Georgia vs. Wisconsin
Orange	Clemson vs. Florida	Clemson vs. West Virginia

Capital One	Auburn vs. Illinois	Florida vs. Illinois
Outback	Alabama vs. Penn State	LSU vs. Penn State
Cotton	LSU vs. Texas	Auburn vs. Texas Tech
Chick-Fil-A	Tennessee vs. Virginia Tech	Tennessee vs. Virginia Tech
Music City	South Carolina vs. Miami	South Carolina vs. Virginia
Liberty	Ole Miss vs. Southern Miss	Ole Miss vs. Tulsa
Independence	Miss St. vs. Oklahoma St.	Miss St. vs. Texas A&M
PapaJohns.com	At-Large vs. Rutgers	Alabama vs. Cinncinnati

Other ACC Bowls
Gator	UNC vs. Nebraska	Wake Forest vs. Notre Dame
Champs	FSU vs. Michigan	UNC vs. Michigan
Meineke	Wake Forest vs. USF	Boston College vs. Pitt
Humanitarian	Maryland vs. Fresno State	Florida State vs. Boise State
Emerald	Boston College vs. Arizona	Maryland vs. California
Congressional	Georgia Tech vs. Navy	At-Large vs. Navy

Westerdawg Comments:

Quinton Comments:

Thoughts?

PWD and Quinton

August 28, 2008

Final Reminder: Picks are Due

374 of you are in the pool. If you want to join, now's the time. A few of you need to get those picks in.

PWD

We're almost there now....

I agree with Chris Low of ESPN...I can't wait for Larry Munson's Call to Arms on Saturday.

PWD

Countdown: 2

NY Times Pre-Season Review of Our Opponents

Almost everyday The Quad, the NY Times College Sports Blog, has provided a season preview of a different team while unveiling their full rankings. They are up to #4, and they have completed our schedule. For reviews of all our opponents check below.

Opponent: Ranking

Interesting that Central Michigan gets rated 28 spots over Georgia Tech. Ouch.

PWD

The Option Market Speaks

Adam Smith's invisible hand decides all sorts of things for us: the price of oil, traffic patterns, your salary. Every time markets move through a price adjustment, market participants get a bit of information. If a good's price goes up and one assumes stable supply, it usually means that the market as a whole values the good more than it did before the price change. After all, someone is willing to pay a higher price for the commodity. If the price drops, one can assume the market values the commodity less because you can buy it for less.

At firstdibz.com, the market gets to buy and sell national championship aspirations. The site sells options on BCS Bowl tickets. You buy an option on tickets by team. So, if you buy a Georgia option and UGA makes the title game, you get to buy a ticket to the BCS Bowl for face value. If Georgia doesn't make it, your option is worthless and they keep your money.

This market should tell us who ticket purchasers think will make the title game. Fans and ticket scalpers should pay the most for the team option most likely to pay off in the end. Only two options, those team options entitling the holder to a valuable ticket, will have any value in December. What does the market say? Right now, the options market predicts USC ($140) and Ohio State ($156) will meet again in January's national title game. The backups are Florida ($135) and LSU ($122). Georgia comes in at $82, well below the top of the market, tied with Texas, Tennessee, and West Virginia.

"Impossible!" you say. That system simply rewards the team with the largest and most dilusional, arrogant fanbase. Are you saying the market is wrong? How dare you question the numerous varible assumptions of the science of economics? How dare you question the mechanism that said Enron was a rock solid retirement investment? That your house really was worth the value of that mortgage? That Kirk Ferentz is a better coach than Mark Richt, Mack Brown, and Steve Spurrier? The market has spoken. Sit back and accept its conclusions.

Quinton

August 27, 2008

UGA Highlight Video Part 2

Baba O'Riley. Uploaded by 1UGADWG

PWD

UGA Highlight Video Part 1

Give it a minute, and then it really gets cranked up. From 1UGADWG

PWD

Recent Player Profiles

Some articles focusing on different players.

Asher Allen: Kamikaze

Remarcus Brown: Player to Watch

Rennie Curran

Akeem Dent: Under the Radar

Kris Durham: Making Strides

Reshad Jones: Safety Tradition

Caleb King back at #2 RB

Tavarres King: Impact Freshman

Chris Little out for the season

Mohamed Massaquoi: Leader

Knowshon Moreno: Won't return punts

Stafford and Moreno: NFL Beckons

Vince Vance

Profiles of the whole team:

Attack in Doubt

Happy to talk about the game

Living up to the hype

PWD

Arizona State Game Bulldog Club Parties, Bars & Events

Here are the events in the Tempe area that we're aware of.

Official UGA Alumni Association Pre-Game Gathering
The UGA Alumni Association gathering in Tempe will be at Gordon Biersch on Mill Avenue. It is only about 2-3 blocks from the stadium. The Phoenix Chapter President will be planting a Super G flag in front of the restaurant/bar at 11:30 am local time, and we will start taking over the place at 11:31am. There will be UGA door prizes raffled throughout the day.

Mill Avenue Area Info

Gordon-Biersch - Tempe

This is the official UGA Alumni Association event.

Other Events

UGA at ASU Tailgate Party
Saturday, Sept. 20th at Noon

Sanctuary at Camelback Mountain

Indoor / outdoor party will be thrown at the Sanctuary at Camel Back before the UGA vs. ASU game. A private bus will be available for the trip over to the game. There is no cost, but bring your own beverages.

Space on the bus is limited to the first 47. If you will be providing your own transportation to the game, you are welcome to join the party, but both options require reservations to insure that enough food is available. RSVP to JBerdeen@gmail.com

Post Game Dinner and Party
The San Diego Alumni Club is playing host for a post game party in Tempe. After the last touchdown meet other Georgia graduates and fans at GameWorks to celebrate! Space is limited so reservations are a MUST. To register, click here.

GameWorks is within walking distance to the ASU stadium.

Countdown: 3

Catching Up with Scott Howard

Earlier this week, I briefly touched base with Scott Howard to see how things are going in anticipation of the 2008 season. We talked about Munson, last year and the '08 season.

PWD: Have you talked to Larry Munson lately? How's he doing?
Scott Howard (SH): I've talked to Larry a few times lately. In fact, I saw him last week, and he seems to be doing very well. He's counting on doing the home games again, and he looks great.

PWD: I enjoyed your first season doing play by play for away games. What was your most memorable moment?
SH: The Georgia / Florida game was blast, and the Alabama game was a lot of fun. From a radio standpoint, we had a great product to work with because we had fun exciting games to call. The Bama game...to get a finish like that to call was unreal.

PWD: Are there any times where you felt self-conscious about any Larry comparisons?
SH: That doesn't really pop into my head. I do things the way I know how to do it, and I don't try to be anybody else. I just call what I see, and I try to interact with Zeier as much as I can. He brings a lot more from his color position than I can add there.

PWD: What games are you most looking forward to this year?
SH: The schedule is so loaded that I'm looking forward to all of them. Arizona State stands out because of the magnitude of that one and because we haven't traveled out of the Southeast in so long. Obviously, LSU and Florida are both big. At home, Alabama and Tennessee are huge with Larry scheduled to do [play by play for] those.

PWD: When you talked to him, what's Munson most worried about?
SH: Everything! (Laughed) He's worried about the offensive line. He's worried about the schedule because it's so loaded. He's worried about being ranked #1 and having a big target on their back. Larry is Larry. He's worried about everything from injuries to which movie he's going to see this weekend.

PWD: What are your expectations for the season?
SH: I'm like everybody else. I think Georgia is going to do very well. I think we're going to challenge for the division and the conference title. If you do that, you'll challenge for the national title. I'm expecting good things because this is a very talented team.

You can catch Scott Howard doing color for home football games, play by play for road football games and all men's basketball games. You can also hear Scott each afternoon with George Mason Dixon from 2- 7 pm on WGNC 106.1 FM in Athens.

PWD

August 26, 2008

Pre-Season 2008 Video: Mission Possible

UGAMummra is at it again. Mission Possible.

PWD

Reminder: College Football Pick'em For Our Readers

As mentioned over the weekend.....we are running a college football pick 'em contest. Let's find out who is really the best prognosticator of the pigskin.

Currently, we have over 225 members in the pool with classic usernames like Urban Meyer Says These Picks Are A Bad Deal, ChrisMarsDawg (a play on my username which is genius), Evil Richt's Picks, Pick'em Like a Booger, TheMoreshinos, Eat the Meek, etc.

Each week we'll have about 10-15 games for you to pick - we'll be picking the winners only - no spreads - but you'll also have to assign confidence points to your picks. If you're right, you'll get the amount of confidence points you assigned to a game. We'll be picking games that include UGA, the other SEC teams, GT and some of the best other games of the week as well.

To participate, just join our pool. It's completely free to play, and FunOfficePools.com is spam-free as well. The pool is open now to join, and first picks are due by August 28th - so sign up now. The pool will run the whole regular season, concluding on December 6th with, among other games, the conference championship games. Let's get as many of you signed up as we can, and find out who really is the best at picking winners in football.

I will also be awarding a prize to the overall winner, and a few prizes throughout the season. The overall winner will receive a UGA T-Shirt from SportsCrack.com. They will also be providing the in season prizes. I haven't yet figured out how I want to handle tie-breakers. So we'll figure that out later.

If you've already signed up, click here to go to the FunOfficePools main page and log in.

Thanks.

Paul Westerdawg
Georgia Sports Blog

David Ching moving to the Athens Banner Herald

David Ching will be moving to Athens to become the Sports Editor of the Athens Banner-Herald. Ching was formerly the UGA beat writer for the Columbus-Ledger before briefly moving to the Auburn beat at the paper.

It's a big opportunity for David, and it brings another talented writer back into the Bulldog picture. I touched base with David about the move. He says he's "extremely excited about the opportunity and looking forward to finally living in Athens full-time."

He starts to work with the Banner-Herald on Friday. As sports editor, he won't be writing as often as he did during his beat writer days in Columbus. However, he'll still have commentary and articles of some variety. More on that later from David after he gets settled in at his new gig.

PWD

(ht Richard Hyatt)

Countdown: 4

Weather Forecast for Athens on Saturday

As of 2:00 am tonight (tonight's steak is sitting on me like a ton of bricks and fighting sleep back), the weather looks about typical for a season opener in Athens.

Weather.com - The Weather Channel calls for a high of 91 degrees with a 20 percent chance of showers.
Accuweather - These guys predict a high of 91 degrees with a heat index of 94. They also show a 25% chance of an afternoon thunder shower. Like I said, typical Game 1 or 2 weather.

PWD

SEC and ESPN TV Deal: The Reaction

As Blutarsky pointed out earlier, the total payout for the SEC Teams prior to this new deal was roughly $120 million per year. With $205 million in total TV payouts starting in 2009, we're talking about incremental $140-150 million more for the SEC's members per year. Or said differently. Damn.

(Image: Mike Slive is a badass)

Before you read anything else, read Tony Barnhart's take on the deal.

My Take on the Positives:

Full Coverage - Every SEC Football and Men's Basketball game will be available via some CBS or ESPN avenue starting 2009. Last season nine conference football games and 41 total games did not make it on the air.
ESPNU is moving to HD - To prepare for the deal in 2009, ESPNU is going High Definition (HD) this season.
Vested Interest - ESPN's interests are now aligned more tightly with the SEC's interests. In fact, the future of the ESPNU network is directly tied to the success of this partnership.
Near U - Tony Barnhart reports that ESPN and Comcast are in discussions to add ESPNU to as many as 14 million new homes in the coming months. The addition is rumored to be a part of basic cable packages. ESPNU is currently in 22 million homes primarily via DirectTV, Dish Network, Cox, Time Warner and others. The biggest provider that had not accepted ESPNU was Comcast.
More Night Football Games - The ESPNU games are not a replacement for the Raycom Sports 12:30 pm games. Instead, it appears that ESPNU will be a nightly prime time "game of the week" which will be selected after CBS, ESPN and ESPN2 games have been slotted. I don't have an exact on this, but I'd guess this gives the league at least 6-10 more total prime time night games.
Triple the basketball coverage - Self explanatory.
Better regional coverage - The old Raycom Sports TV structure was a syndication style deal. Raycom would call on individual stations or groups of TV stations like WB36 in Atlanta. They would contract with them to air the 12:30 pm SEC game of the week. ESPN Regional TV is not a "network" just like Raycom isn't a network. It's more like a paperwork entity that's charged with finding a home for SEC 12:30 pm games (and other SEC content) for the season. ESPN feels confident that they will get better/broader distribution than Raycom landed...particularly beyond the SEC's nine state region. Translation: If you live outside of the SEC footprint, this deal is a win for you. The quality and distribution of the 12:30 game should improve.
SEC TV Show - ESPNU will create and air a weekly SEC TV show. Imagine a mini / weekly version of SportsCenter for the league. (My analogy not ESPN's analogy)

The Negatives

Coverage - Will Comcast get the deal done with ESPN to expand the footprint of ESPNU...particularly for BASIC cable. The success of this venture is riding on ESPN's ability to do the deal with Comcast. The Big10 Network and the NFL Network both struggled to negotiate with Comcast on the issue of basic cable distribution. However, neither network has anywhere near the power of ESPN. They have 11 months to iron this out.

Here is some reaction from around the blogosphere and interwebs.

Full Teleconference Transcript

SEC/ESPN Deal

We're Rich

Value. It's all Value

SEC Got Paid Y'all

Did ESPN just kill Raycom

PWD

August 25, 2008

2008 Georgia Bulldog Previews

From the Dawgnation and beyond. Headlines from the weekend.

Best shot at a title

Dogs won't win because of kicker

Full ABH Preview

Barnhart lists Dogs in Title Game

Teams that came close

UGA #6 in Nation

Great Expectations

UGA #5 in Nation

What you need to know about the SEC

Scouting the SEC East

Why UGA Will win it All

Why UGA won't win it all

Topping the Polls

Previewing Georgia - Memphis Commercial Appeal

PWD

Matthew Stafford Headlines

Image: Hipple
Last night, we linked to a bunch of Moreno headlines. For lunch, we've got Stafford headlines from around the country. Most of the articles are form this weekend.

Historic Battleground

At the top of his game

Stafford steps up as leader for UGA

How does Stafford Measure Up

Schedule Reason for Anxiety. Not QB

Striving for Perfection

PWD

ESPN Pays $2.25 BILLION for SEC TV Rights

This story is developing. According to Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal, ESPN has agreed to pay the SEC $2.25 billion over the next 15 years for all remaining TV rights not currently owned by CBS. Per Sports Business Journal

Combined with the 15-year, $55 million a year that the SEC will receive from CBS for the over-the-air package of games (SportsBusiness Journal, Aug. 18-24), the conference will bring in an average of $205 million annually in media rights beginning in 2009-10 and running through fiscal 2025.

That’s nearly three times what the SEC had been receiving in TV revenue as part of its current deal, which runs out next spring. That amounted to around $70 million per year.

The deal is staggering in its nature, but the much bigger news relates to Comcast and ESPNU. Those two entities appear close to reaching a deal which would put ESPNU on 7 million additional Comcast basic cable packages.

According to Wes Durham on 790theZone this morning and confirmed via the Comcast news linked above, ESPN will use the new SEC deal to bring ESPNU into the mainstream. A likely SEC TV schedule next year (during a typical week) would be:

The move is a massive blow to ESPN-SEC Conspiracy Theorist who believe that the World Wide Leader doesn't promote SEC teams because they don't have enough of a financial vested interest. Even the most cynical viewers would have to say that $2.25 billion would force the ESPN talking heads to give our teams their props.

With this cash infusion, we could essentially buy out Georgia Tech and sell their program for spare parts.

This deal has been executed about 10x more effectively than Jim Delany's Big 10 TV deal. Also, the last Notre Dame / NBC contract was rumored to be worth $9 million a year. Their recent extension of the deal to 2015 doesn't have announced terms. But how much better can it really be than the $15-17 million per team deal that the SEC teams just inked?

In other words, does Mississippi State now have a more lucrative TV deal than Notre Dame? (ht - Matt at SportsCrack for that question)

More later today.

PWD

Countdown: 5

SEC Schedules: Timely Bye Weeks

Way back in April, we looked at the UGA schedule and pointed out that no UGA opponent will have an off week before their game with Georgia. The same can not be said for some of our rivals. A quick look at the full schedule shows:

Tennessee -- The Vols face four SEC East foes coming off their bye weeks in UF, Georgia, South Carolina and Kentucky. Basically, 4 of 5 SEC East opponents get a breather before facing the Vols. That's brutal scheduling, and I love it.
Florida -- Arkanasas, Vanderbilt and LSU each get an off week before facing the Gators. The LSU game is sort of balanced out by a get well break before facing UT. The Gators also have a break before UK.
Alabama -- Auburn, Mississippi State and Ole Miss all have a week off before playing the Tide. The Iron Bowl shouldn't be impacted because both teams have that week off. In other words, a great Tide friendly flow of off weeks.
Auburn -- Alabama is the only SEC team has a bye before playing Auburn. The Tigers also have a bye before the Iron Bowl, and they get 12 days of rest to get ready for their trip to Morgantown (Thurs Night game) followed by nine days to get ready for Ole Miss. The bye weeks work out extremely well for the Aubies.
LSU -- No SEC teams have an off week before playing LSU. The Tigers get a bye before their games against UF and Ole Miss.
South Carolina - No one gets a bye week before playing SC. The Gamecocks get their own bye weeks before facing Tennessee and Clemson, but they have to face LSU, Tennessee, Arkansas and Florida to close their season. There's nothing positive about their scheduling structure. It's just too back loaded.

Or put it this way...I don't think the SEC did the Vols any favors. The off week before facing UGA last year saved their season. They'll pay for that this year.

What's your take?

PWD

Knowshon Moreno Headlines

Image: Hipple
Some good Knowshon clips from the weekend. The New York Times starts things off with a large feature piece on New Jersey tailback. Also check out this classic photo gallery from the NY Times of pics from his Jersey home, family and high school.

Other Moreno headlines:

Long Train Ride was right for Moreno

Cool as Koolata

Heisman Odds

Moreno as Elder Statesman

PWD

Georgia Bulldogs vs. Central Michigan Tickets Nearing Face Value

If you're looking for Georgia vs. Central Michigan tickets, the price on Stubhub.com has come down. They are now available starting at around $50-75 each (as of the time that I wrote this).

I saw some pretty decent deals on lower level seats and 300 level tickets.

Separately, the price for UGA at South Carolina tickets look reasonable given the demand. Particularly if you only need a single.

PWD

August 24, 2008

Dawgs on TV - Aug. 25 to Sept. 2

It's been a while since I compiled a Dawgs on TV listing. Now that the sports season is upon us after a summer of replays, it's time to set your TiVOs and neglect your loved ones. There are ball games on the tube!

Please remember, I live outside of Georgia and don't get CSS. I know they replay games and have a slew of other Bulldog programming. If you get that channel, be happy, but you won't find those listings here just yet. I may work on figuring those out later.

Monday - 8/25 - 5:00AM - CBS College Sports - Georgia v. LSU (2003 SEC Championship Game) - One of the most complete losses of the Richt era. Saban's storm troopers disrupt the offense all night and Justin Vincent outruns our beat up secondary for over 200 yards.
Tuesday - 8/26 - 1:00PM - ESPN Classic - Georgia v. Alabama (2007) - Britney Spears goes nuts after watching Stafford to Henderson in overtime.
Wednesday - 8/27 - 7:00PM - CBS College Sports - Georgia v. Florida (2003) - Another heart breaker in Jacksonville. Replays: Thursday at 12:30AM, 9:00AM, Friday at 12:30AM.
Friday - 8/29 - 9:00PM - The BYU Channel (374 on DirecTV) - Georgia v. BYU in women's soccer - The 18th ranked soccer team goes west to beat some Mormon women. Replay 6:00PM on 9/5.
Saturday - 8/30 - 12:30PM - Pay-per-view in Georgia, ESPN Gameplan and ESPN360.com outside of Georgia - Georgia Southern v. Georgia - The football season opener looks like a scrimmage. Please show me A.J. Green and Richard Samuel so I can heap unrealistic, superhuman expectations upon them.
Sunday - 8/31 - 1:00PM - FOX Sports South and check local listings for networks - The Mark Richt Show - Chuck and the coach discuss Saturday's scrimmage.

Quinton

Countdown: 6

August 23, 2008

College Football Pick 'Em for Georgia Sports Blog Readers

We are excited to announce a new feature. In conjunction with FunOfficePools.com, we will be running a college football pick 'em contest. Let's find out who is really the best prognosticator of the pigskin.

Each week we'll have about 10-15 games for you to pick - we'll be picking the winners only - no spreads - but you'll also have to assign confidence points to your picks. If you're right, you'll get the amount ofconfidence points you assigned to a game. We'll be picking games that include UGA, the other SEC teams, GT and some of the best other games of the week as well.

To participate, just join our pool. It's completely free to play, and FunOfficePools.com is spam-free as well. The pool is open now to join, and first picks are due by August 28th - so sign up now. The pool will run the whole regular season, concluding on December 6th with, among other games, the conference championship games. Let's get as many of you signed up as we can, and find out who really is the best at picking winners in football.

I will also be awarding a prize to the winner as well. More on that later this week. (Note: It won't be a trophy as nice as the one pictured...that much is for sure).

If you've already signed up, click here to go to the FunOfficePools main page and log in.

Thanks.

Paul Westerdawg
Georgia Sports Blog

Countdown: 7

August 22, 2008

Mark Richt interview on NFL Network

College Football Now asks him about the left tackle situation, quarterbacks, wide receivers, the schedule and the defense.

PWD

Countdown: 8

Most Obnoxious SEC Football Fans....

Mark Bradley lists the SEC's most obnoxious fans. It's a topic that has gotten play in Alabama, Louisiana, Kentucky and elsewhere. Here's his list (full article):

I could quibble with the placement of a variety of teams, but I'll just start with this one statement. LSU at #8, are you frigging kidding me? What is your definition of obnoxious that doesn't have the Lunatic Tiger Fans ranked higher than 8th? As BamaReport said, "Many LSU fans would be offended by being ranked this low."

Brace Yourself
I will now shock you with the following comment. I don't think the Gator fans are the most obnoxious in the SEC. Sure, they can be Doucheous-Maximus, and their most obnoxious and unforgivably trait is the refusal to acknowledge that football wasn't invented in 1990. Beyond that, I can deal with their fans at the Cocktail Party easier than I can deal with my personal #1 ... Gamecock Fans.

There's not a more petty, small, whiny, humorless, chip on their shoulders, sh*t a$$ lot than the Gamecock fans I frequently encounter during my visits to Williams-Brice-Richt Stadium.

If I were doing my rankings, it would look like this:

Latest Arriving Tailgaters and Nicest Fans - Arkansas Razorbacks
Most Like Looking at Our Retarded Poorly Constructed Clone - Auburn
Most Inflated Sense of Themselves - Florida ("The tradition of Wake Forest and the Arrogance of Notre Dame" - Orlando Sentinel)
Most Likely To Talk Smack About the Wrong Sport - Kentucky
Most Unnerving / Scariest - LSU
Best Looking and Possibly Drunkest - Ole Miss
Least Prosperous and Most Baffling Not a JUCO - Mississippi State
Biggest Whiners / Least Fun to Party With - South Carolina
Fattest - Tennessee
Most Irrelevant- Vanderbilt
Most Bear - Alabama

Am I wrong? What are your SEC Superlatives?

PWD

August 21, 2008

Media News -- Radio and TV info

If you're looking for quality college football talk, I have two recommendations for you.

790theZone - Tony Barnhart and Wes Durham's College Football show airs on Thursdays from 11 am to 1 pm each week. They almost always pull quality guests, and the two of them have great on-air chemistry. I would list it as the top College Football radio show in the Atlanta market by far.
680theFan - Jim Donnan now has a weekly two hour radio show on 680theFan. His show airs from 1:00-3:00 pm every Monday. He recently interviewed Georgia's offensive coordinator Mike Bobo. He was asking Bobo about his plans for Moreno this year in terms of special packages, sets or schemes. Bobo's response (paraphrase): "Coach, we only tell Knowshon two things every week. 'Bus leaves at 3:00, and don't fumble the ball.'" Comedy. Donnan's dry humor actually comes off really well in this setting. Although, I must admit that I keep hoping someone will call in and ask Donnan about Quincy in the same twisted way that I always hoped someone would ask Skip Carey about the Infield Fly Rule. Kidding.

And one more tidbit:

WSB-TV - UGA grad and long time sports anchor Bill Hartman, Jr. is retiring from WSB after 35 years on the air. In his final column on WSB's web site he lists his top three memories as a broadcaster. I thought #2 was really interesting
My second favorite event you would have never guessed. It was UGA's first national tennis championship in 1985. The Bulldogs had always been a regional powerhouse but had never captured an NCAA title. I was at the stadium in Athens that day they clinched the championship and it brought tears to my eyes. Coach Dan Magill had finally grabbed the brass ring. Dan had been one of my late father's closest friends. He had taught me to play the game. I had spent my summers taking care of the courts before playing for three hours every day. When I became an adult, I worked for him and even lived next door to him for a while. Dan Magill's triumphant was one of the greatest days of my life.
Good luck to Bill in his retirement.

Update: One more item of note that I missed over the past few days. The Athens Banner Herald has dramatically renovated their DogBytes UGA page. They've finally brought it into the 21st Century, and I love it.

PWD

Big Hits Video

This was uploaded to youtube by TheTrueDevinHester .

Countdown: 9

August 20, 2008

GTU unveils new old gold uniforms

Just when you think you've seen all the yellows of the rainbow, GTU unveiled yet another color scheme in its "new" uniforms. Call it new old gold. While we don't give a particular rat's ass about Tech's uniforms, it gives us an opportunity to point out one of the plethora of reasons they are a second rate football program: lack of consistency, whether on the football field or on the players.

Pick a color scheme and own it. We cannot pretend to understand how or why the ~~Gold~~ Yellow Jackets picked "old gold" for their color. But whatever. Pick a color, and keep it.

As a pre-season public service, the Georgia Sports Blog Presents: know your ~~yellow~~ ~~gold~~ ~~mustard~~ old gold.

Is old gold the shade of the helmet or the shade of the jersey?

Is old gold the color of the backdrop, or the color of the podium insignia?

Which of these losers is wearing old gold? Or is this a trick question?

Definitely gold. Definitely a new color for the palette. But is it old?

Including these yellow jerseys above, I count eight shades of old gold, although Reggie Ball only counts seven.

Which brings us to this season's new old gold uniform (below). The new and improved Yellow Jacket old gold is a little darker, and reminds me of a campus odor (not urine, the other one).

However, this color scheme is not a ~~tickle pile~~ happy accident. Tech specifically selected its latest yellow of the rainbow to match its most popular tailgating dish...

UGA Fan Submits for "A Season in the Stands"

Recently, we helped ESPN put the word out for a student to step up and represent UGA in their "A Season in the Stands" program. Here's the first submission from Danny Hunt.

Comedy.

A worthy post that stands alone

Some things need no introduction. This is one of those things.

PWD

SEC Power Poll: The Coaches

Garnet & Black Attack is coordinating the second year of the SEC Power Poll and we're leading off the voting by ranking the coaches of the SEC. My criteria was championships, consistency, and wins. I tried to focus only on what a coach has done at his SEC program, but past jobs had an impact on my rankings. I wasn't as analytical as some, but these are my picks, so I can set the criteria as arbitrarily as I want. After all, college football is all about subjectivity. Here are my rankings:

Les Miles - (1 MNC, 2 BCS wins, 1 SEC Title) - I know I'm going to catch hell for this, but just look at the buffoon's numbers. Since arriving at LSU, he has won at least 11 games every year, unmatched by any other SEC coach. In last year's BCS Bowl, he coached circles around Jim Tressel, who enjoys a much better reputation. He has hired fantastic coordinators, like Gary Crowton and Bo Pelini. He is often overlooked as simply a caretaker for Saban's recruits, but this criticism is misplaced. Miles has recruited better than Saban did while at LSU. Plus, as a fan, who doesn't want a swashbuckling, trash-talking, cocky coach heading the program and winning in the most exciting fashion? LSU's players, except for a certain transfer to Jacksonville State, don't get in much trouble and don't embarrass their university. No doubt he comes across as an idiot, but the guys has consistently produced. Have a great day!
Urban Meyer - (1 MNC, 2 BCS, 1 SEC) - Before coming to UF, Meyer won a BCS game with Utah. Utah, for God's sake. At UF, he has fielded offensive powerhouses, coached a Heisman Trophy winner, and got the much maligned Chris Leak to a national championship. His offense is innovative and has changed college football. He also recruits like a demon. The knocks on him are discipline and defense, neither of which Meyer is particularly familiar with.
Mark Richt - (2 BCS, 2 SEC) - Richt has been a consistent winner and turned Georgia into a perennial challenger for the SEC crown instead of third in the East every year. Richt always recruits well. The only thing keeping Richt from the top is that every year Georgia seems to mysteriously drop a crucial game that costs them a shot at bigger things (UF 2002, UT 2004, South Carolina 2007). There is just something holding him back from his rightful place among coaching's elite. Last year, Richt showed how good he could be unleashed from playcalling responsibilities. Perhaps this is the year Richt breaks through.
Tommy Tuberville - (1 BCS, 1 SEC) - Tubs always fields tough teams who are well coached. He has a great, great eye for coordinator talent. Auburn always churns out NFL draft picks, despite rarely landing top 5 recruiting classes. The knock on Tubs is similar to criticisms of Richt. Auburn always has a puzzling loss every year that keeps them from Atlanta. But, to his credit, Tuberville always seems to pull an upset no one sees coming.
Steve Spurrier - (1 MNC, 4 BCS, 6 SEC) - If Spurrier were still at UF, he'd be an easy No. 1. History will show Spurrier to be the second best coach in SEC history, but right now he's languishing in Columbia. Shiny Pants still knows how to coach, but he's learning the inherent limitations of some recruiting bases. It seems like the league has caught up with him. Carolina has pulled some great upsets under Spurrier, but he has failed to increase Carolina's normal slot in the conference bowl order.
Nick Saban - (1 MNC, 2 BCS, 2 SEC) - This may be a shock for the world's most powerful coach, barely cracking the top half of my list. But consider that Saban has won 10 or more games only twice in his career. I grant that he has made those years count, but that number is well below many other coaches. Other than 2003, Saban has been good, but not great. His rep keeps getting bigger despite not turning in consistent results.
Phil Fulmer - (1 MNC, 1 BCS, 2 SEC) - It's amazing that a coach who has nine season of 10 or more wins has so little to show for it. Fulmer is a consistent winner, but only has two conference crowns, despite an immense flow of talent through Knoxville. Like Richt and Tubs, he is consistently good, just not great. Plus, he's probably the most universally disliked coach in the conference.
Houston Nutt - Nutt enjoys a great reputation for doing big things on small talent bases. This reputation is well earned, but remember that Nutt had a lot of really good players during his stint in Fayetteville. There were several times when Nutt's game management and play calling at Arkansas seemed really odd. If Nutt can lead Ole Miss to a few bowls, I start buying into Nutt's rep more easily.
Bobby Petrino - (1 BCS) - Petrino has proven he can coach, winning big at Louisville. He still has to prove he can coach against consistent quality competition, something he didn't see in the Big East. It will probably take a year or two for Petrino to start inching his way up this list.
Sly Croom - Croom has slowly built up State to an opponent teams must respect again. He is somewhat of a relic, adhering to the Bryant, Dooley, Neyland school of power running and strong defense while others have moved to spreads and deep passing attacks. If Croom can find a potent offensive weapon, he could challenge the big boys.
Rich Brooks - Brooks has done well for UK, but last year may have been his zenith. He has laid a solid foundation at UK, improving recruiting and giving the bluegrass faithful a glimpse of wins over top flight competition. It's doubtful, however, that Brooks will ever top last season, which saw the Cats win a minor bowl game.
Bobby Johnson - It's a shame Johnson is number 12 on this list. He's beaten Tennessee, South Carolina, and Georgia in the past three years and came within a phantom flag of beating Florida in the Swamp. Vandy has produced NFL draft picks and graduates its players, almost all of them. But, with the star power on the SEC sidelines, someone, even a good coach, has to be last.

So, I know I'm stupid for putting Miles on top, but where else have I showed my mental limitations?

Quinton

Countdown: 10

Offensive Line Talk

If I described to you Team A, and I said that they have:

No senior offensive linemen so leadership is a question mark
No returning player that will be at the same position as last year
Starting three sophomores and a true freshman
The only junior starter has been playing OL for only two years
And you're going to see them play the toughest schedule in the country

What would you say? Be honest. If I told you that was UF, AU or UT, would you believe that was a Top 10 team? What if I told you that was the #1 team in the country?

The OL situation worries me. It's not a talent issue. We have talent coming out of our ears. It's just an experience question.

It's true that a group with less depth and less overall physical ability lead Georgia to an 11 win season last year, but that group took some time to develop. It also had great senior leadership. I think this group will be pretty amazing later in the year. I just hope they can hang on and gel through the early games.

Thank heavens for Stacey Searels. I'm not trying to be doom and gloom. The news on the isn't bad...it's just that 75 years of SEC history says OLs this young usually don't win titles.

That said...you have to love this quote from Richt's media days (paraphrase b/c I saw it in the video, and I can't find it in anyone's article)...on Cordy Glenn. "He's got a big body, and when we run people at him..they don't seem to get very far. So yeah...he's going to play."

See Also:
-- Josh Davis settles in at RT - DawgPost
-- Searels lets his work do the talking - AJC
-- Practice Notes - David Hale
-- Vance Making Strides - ABH (very good news)
-- Glenn moves up the Depth Chart - ABH

PWD

Westerdawg Labs: Disposable Flask Product Review

PWD NOTE: The following is not a paid endorsement.

A couple of weeks ago, I was contacted by the folks at Xela, LLC, the makers of the "Original" Disposable Flask. They wanted me to review their product. Given my love of booze, tailgating and football, this seemed like the perfect product for me to investigate.

Their Sales Pitch:

"Stop carrying bulky metal flasks and cumbersome containers. Disposable Flasks are the most convenient and inexpensive way to transport your favorite spirit or other liquids. Our flasks fit comfortably in your pocket or jacket.

The flask is durable, compact, collapsible and lightweight. It stands freely when filled, empties completely flat and freezes safely."

My Review:
I put this product through its paces for my readers. I tested fluid capacity, leakage, temperature tests and "wearability." (All while drinking bourbon.)

Fluid Capacity - The web site lists a max capacity of 7.5 fluid ounces, which translates to 5 shots of liquor. In my tests, you could put 7.5 ounces of fluid into the flask; however, that much fluid really pushes the flask to the limits of overflow. It also makes it a bit more difficult to hide. I found the ideal capacity to be around 6 fluid ounces (4 shots). Score: B- (it's big enough)
Leakage - The company sent me three flasks. I filled all of them with water and shook them for as long as 60 seconds. I also stored them over night upside down. No leakage. The two most important factors in a traveler are lack of leakage and ability to hide it. Score: A
Temperature Test - I have no idea why anyone would freeze their flask, but the web site says it will freeze safely so I tested that too. Score: A
Wearability - To put the flask through its true game day test, I put on my game day pants and shirt. I walked around the house with the flask in the front pants pocket, back pocket, small of the back, ankle/sock and behind the belt. I generally wear pants to games, and I felt like security would be able to see the line of the flask from the front pocket. However, the back pocket (shirt untucked), behind the front of the belt and behind the leg worked great. I didn't notice any visible flask lines in any of those places. I didn't like the way it felt in the small of the back.

The lid area around the mouth of the flask is solid so it provides a little less slippage when placed behind your belt. The contours of the plastic flask also make the behind the leg (calf area) in the sock a more natural fit than the ankle area. It would be much easier to hide this thing in any of those locations than a bulky metal or hard plastic flask. Score: A
Pourability - If you've been drinking for a few hours, ringing the tiny mouth of a small flask is a bit dicey. You're going to want to buy a tiny funnel. They sell those on the site,or you can do the old folded paper plate trick as well. Score: B (If sober) C (If drunk)
Cost - The price starts at $1.99 each and it drops as you purchase more flasks. Score: A
Colors - They have a red and black flask. Score: A+

Overall:
The 6+ oz size is a nice amount for one solid first quarter drink in one of big collectors cups available at Sanford Stadium. If you sneak two flasks in, it should reasonably help even big fellas hold a nice buzz through the game. However, if you're looking to get drunker as the game goes on vs. simply maintaining a buzz, you need to consider re-enrolling in college....or a much bigger flask.

Compared to ZipLock baggies, metal flasks or the way too large plastic flasks that they usually sell at liquor stores, this is just about the ideal size. I'd use it.

PWD

DISCLAIMER: Your experience with this or any product may vary. If you get thrown out of the stadium, arrested, if it leaks on you, or if you don't like it, that's between you and the vendor. It's against the rules to sneak booze into the stadium. That's why it's called "sneaking."

August 19, 2008

More SEC TV Headlines

The Chattanooga Free Press has some more insight into the SEC/CBS TV Deal. Here's the money quote as it relates to football:

CBS will keep using 3:30 p.m. Eastern [Time] as its time slot and will continue to broadcast one additional game at noon, one at 8 p.m., one game the Friday after Thanksgiving, and the league title game.

To me that means two double headers per year...or basically the same deal as this year except that ESPN won't get any first picks. I think the exception to the rule will still be Weeks 1 or 2 when CBS is showing the US Open Tennis Championship.

CBS also said, that it "experimented last season by televising Alabama-Florida State and Alabama-LSU at 5 p.m. but...that will never happen again."

On the basketball TV contract with CBS, the money quote is:

Aresco said his network now averages between 18 to 19 telecasts per season but will show 14 under the new agreement. In addition, CBS will no longer televise the SEC tournament title game.

That answers MemphisDog's questions around the Hoops Contract.

Ian Rapoport of the Birmingham News also found the same early copy of the SEC TV Schedule that Quinton found for our site. His info came via the polar route...well via Seattle anyway. Ours came straight off the Sportsline.com site. I'm not sure why CBS didn't just say, "It was on our site by accident." The leaked copy that is referenced in Ian's article, even has the same typo about the ND vs. Navy game that Quinton's link had...although, our version was in EST instead of CST.

PWD

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