There wasn’t a ton of news going on last week so we skipped the “This Week In College Football” weekly column in order to bring you more SEC coverage. This week there was a lot of news so we are back to discuss the biggest stories with you and give you our take. We are gearing up for the college football season at the site and you should be too so make sure you check out our expanded SEC coverage and our Top 25 countdown. Over the last week we’ve touched on the QB Battles in the SEC, the biggest storylines of fall camp and added a fun column predicting the outcome of the season for each SEC team by giving them a song that describes their season. We are also deep into our Top 25 countdown. Check out the bottom of this column to see if you missed any of our Top 25 previews. Enough with the intro, let’s talk some college football:
TEXAS A&M AGGIES LOOKING TO SECede FROM BIG 12
The story that has been dominating the news and the social media sites this week has been Texas A&M and their apparent desire to leave the Big 12 behind for the rugged SEC. The Texas Longhorns move to establish their own Longhorn Network has ruffled some feathers over at Texas A&M and that seems to be the straw that broke the camels back in their relationship with the Aggies. The Texas A&M Board of Regents meets on Monday to discuss whether or not they should make the jump to the SEC. Also meeting are the SEC Presidents, as they meet today to discuss conference expansion. All signs point to go for me and I think you can count the Aggies in as the newest addition to the SEC. It should happen sooner but if it doesn’t then count on it happening later.
We’ve stayed away from discussing conference expansion too much here at the site but a few weeks back I did get into a pretty good discussion in the comments section of one of our stories with a loyal reader and Texas A&M fan. If you want to check that out you can go here. I think the Aggies are a pretty good fit for the SEC, every bit as much as Arkansas was back in the day and the addition of A&M will open up the Texas TV market to the SEC which could be huge. We will definitely be watching this over the next few days and if the Aggies do secede to the SEC then the next questions are who comes with them and how many schools come with? Conventional wisdom has a Big 12 school like Oklahoma and/or Missouri coming with A&M and then if the SEC expands to 16 the ACC looks like it will be the next one poached. This one move by A&M could signal the start of the move to Super Conferences which might be the best thing for college football in the long run. This is a big story that we will be watching so make sure to chime in with your thoughts and we will check back with you when we get more news.
OHIO STATE RECEIVES A SECOND LETTER FROM THE NCAA
Unless you have been living in a cave (which in this day and age probably still has wi-fi) then you know about all of the issues the Ohio State Buckeyes have had this year. A couple of weeks ago the NCAA accepted the Ohio State Buckeyes self-imposed sanctions and the entire Ohio State Buckeyes fanbase let out a huge sigh of relief. Well, now it’s come to light that it might not be over that easy and Ohio State has received a second letter from the NCAA. On Friday, the NCAA continued it’s investigation by interviewing Gene Smith and Jim Tressel in Indianapolis. The initial penalities for Ohio State seemed light when compared against the likes of USC but this is the NCAA so it’s hard to take one situation and compare it with another because that’s not how they operate. Trying to ease it’s issues with the NCAA the Buckeyes also announced this week that they would be returning their share of the money they earned from the Sugar Bowl this past season. It’s a nice gesture but it might be too late. This is a very interesting story (unless you are a tOSU fan or grad) that we will probably still be watching as the season starts.
KNILE DAVIS OUT FOR THE SEASON
In some horrible news, Arkansas stud RB Knile Davis injured his left ankle this week in practice and he is out for the season. Last season, Davis broke out as the go-to back for the Hogs as he ran for over 1,300 yards, scored 13 TD and did so at over 6.4 yards per carry. That was extremely impressive, especially when you consider that he didn’t get double digit carries until the fifth game of the season. Once getting the starters job he ran for over 100 yards in six of the Razorbacks last seven games. Davis will be a huge loss this year as he helped balance out the sometimes pass happy Hogs. Bobby Petrino still has two good backs in Ronnie Wingo Jr and Dennis Johnson but in this mans opinion neither brings as much to the table as a pure runner as Davis did. This is a setback for the Hogs but they are stacked on offense. Will this be the difference in them making a run at Bama and LSU in the SEC West? It could just be…
QUICK HITS:
– Boise State fired it’s long-time athletic director Gene Bleymaier this week. The school was unhappy with recent sanctions that happened during his watch and showed him the door.
– New Indiana Head Coach Kevin Wilson was set to make an appearance on the Zakk & Jack show in Indianapolis. Before he got on the show the hosts ran down the Indiana program. Wilson took issue with this and his visit was very short with the radio guys. I’m in Wilson’s corner on this. If you have a radio show and are interviewing a Head Coach, who doesn’t have a lot of free time, show him so respect. The guys on Zakk & Jack really showed their ass on this one. Thumbs down to those bush leaguers.
CFBZ Top 25 Countdown (13-25)
#14 Mississippi State Bulldogs
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