Top 10 Football Revenue Schools for 2007-2008

1. Texas $72.95 million
2. Georgia $67.05 million
3. Florida $66.1 million
4. Ohio State University $65.16 million
5. Notre Dame $59.77 million
6. Auburn $59.67 million
7. Michigan $57.46 million
8. Alabama $57.37 million
9. Penn State $53.76 million
10. Louisiana State University $52.68 million

For comparison sake, the Longhorns were also number one for football revenue in 2003... with "just" $47.55 million. Missing since the 2003 top ten? Tennessee. I'm also a little surprised that Oklahoma wasn't into the top ten.

So... who's making the most for all sports?

Texas was the overall top sports earner -- shock! -- with $120.28 million, followed by Ohio State with $117.95 million and Florida with $106.03 million. The biggest surprise in the top ten for all sports? Oklahoma State at #10 with $88.6 million.

Note to new Auburn coach Gene Chizik - you got screwed on the contract, dude. Just sayin.

After being leaked yesterday, the findings of the NCAA investigation into the University of Alabama's self-reported textbook scandal are finally in. There are no scholarship losses or post-season ban in any of the 16 sports involved in the investigation, which centered around 200 different athletes. Instead, Alabama will be forced to vacate victories in select sports where ineligible athletes participated, including some football games from the 2005, 2006 and 2007 seasons.

As a repeat offender, the University will remain on probation for an additional three years. Of all the athletes investigated, 125 were found to have unintentionally violated the textbooks policy, which generally meant that the value in each case was under $100. Only 22 athletes were found to be intentional wrongdoers, with 14 coming from the track team, 7 from football and 1 from tennis. The monetary amount of the violations ranged from $32 on the low end to almost $4000 on the high end. Alabama will also have to pay a fine to the NCAA of almost $44,000.

Although the NCAA considered heavier sanctions against Alabama, they praised the school for coming forth on their own. It is entirely possible that the penalties would have been much more severe had the violations occurred in a single sport as opposed to be spread out in all sports across the board.

The Alabama Shakespeare Festival's play, Bear Country, about the life of legendary Alabama coach Paul Bryant and the last days leading up to his retirement, is coming to Birmingham later this summer after a successful run in Montgomery earlier this year. The play has been a rare hit for the ASF, which has suffered along with other businesses in these lean economic times. Previously, they had to cancel Les Miserables due to poor ticket sales. But for Bear Country, tailgaters have even shown up before events. No mention yet if Nick Saban will perform a stint as guest director. Seems he's too busy trying to write his own comedy/tragedy in Tuscaloosa.

So considering the success that the performing arts have received from the infusion of Crimson Tide lore, I think the Shakespeare festival can only benefit if we succinctly write the Capstone into your normal Shakespearean fare. Bama fans, not normally known for their love of the classics, can't be spoon-fed this culture knowingly . We have to give it to them subliminally, by slightly altering the Bard's dialogue to include the Alabama football references.

So what we do is to take some of the more common Shakepeare quotes from all his great works and give them the delicate re-write that will make them fan favorites from Legion Field to Bryant Denny:

JULIO CAESAR:

"Friends, Bammers, countrymen, lend me your ears: I come to bury Tuberville, not to become finger number six!"

"Beware the national signing days that occur in March!"

"Et tu, (ex-Auburn LB coach) James Willis?

"Cowards die many times before their deaths, but we lost to Louisiana-Monroe only once."

"Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war, and the recruiting limo stunt from your fingers..."

AS YOU LIKE IT:

"All the world's a stage, but none smell like the urine and bourbon of Bryant-Denny!"

HAMLET:

"To be or not to be, under NCAA investigation. THAT is the question..."

"Neither a borrower nor a lender be, especially as applies to player-provided textbooks."

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks. But can someone please give Collette Connell a ride home?"

"Give every man thy ear, and few thy voice, and you still won't be half the ear that Tuberville is."

TEMPEST:

"He that dies pays all debts, but still keeps his season tickets..."

KING RICHARD III:

"Now is the winter of our discontent, but we can start text messaging recruits after Christmas."

"A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse! But only a buck twenty for Albert Means?

ROMEO AND JULIO:

"What's in a name? That which we call recruiting, at any other school, by any other name, would not pass the smell test."

"O Julio, O Julio! Wherefore art thou for thy sophomore year, Julio?"

"Parting is such sweet sorrow. We hardly knew thee, Tubs!"

KING HENRY IV:

"The better part of valor is discretion, of which Mike Price's strippers had none."

MEASURE FOR MEASURE:

"What's mine is yours, and what is yours is mine, but neither of us will get our $4 million worth."

MACBETH:

"Something wicked this way comes. NCAA probation..."

h/t: OU-Ron

.

Wait. The SEC, the premier conference in college football, is meeting 45 minutes from my home? What the heck, right? I got ideas, worse case nothing happens right? So after work I went to Hilton Sandestin Beach Golf Resort and Spa. This was a time to wear my "Utah Utes perfect season" tee shirt if there ever was one.

I enjoyed a Yuengling Lager at Barefoots Beachside Bar and Grill and a Captain and Coke at Sandcastles Lounge. The SEC was in a meeting, something about their image. Rumor has it the Rose Bowl officials were there.

There was another conference going on also so I wasn't likely to be able to tell who from whom. Anyways, I ran out of drink before the SEC would finish their meetings and would need to drive home eventually, so I went to the outlet malls to sober up fully, as I know the roads between there and home are one continuous DUI trap. That and the view was better. Something about the gender ratio and the warm humid weather. I also enjoyed seeing people do a double take to see if they really just saw a Utah fan. I really need to get more Utah apparel.

No Utah apparel was available at the outlet stores but I do highly recommend Rocky Mountain Chocolate. Didn't get to advance my ideas any, but it was fun. Can't say I didn't try.

Ok, back on track.

Slive laid down the law about the recent public bickering amongst the football coaches. Apparently there is a place to have these discussions, and the media is not that place. Though no names where mentioned it was made clear who was under the gun. Shame on Kiffin, Spurrier and Meyers. Indeed some leaks prior to the meeting suggested a Kiffin rule might be made to handle this.

With the news of the AFCA deciding to conceal the final ballet starting after 2010, Mark Richt and Steve Spurrier both expressed surprise and disappointment at the decision. Though not present for this meeting, BCS commissioner John Swofford appears to feel likewise.

The MWC proposal was discussed. I get the feeling the SEC is sympathetic with the idea, but a plus one appears to be gaining some more support, with Nick Saban publicly jumping on board. So the SEC is inching closer to full support of a plus one.

Which may be why the Rose Bowl was there, as if to say we will take our conferences away if you do.

The Rose Bowl does have a point. USC is a championship caliber team that might compete with an SEC team if they ever actually played one, unlike the Big 10 teams that get decimated every bowl season by whichever SEC team they face.

If the highest paid (and presumably best) coach can't get Alabama's players and fans excited about playing in a bowl with the rich history of the Sugar Bowl, if USC fans contend that it would be better for them to get out of the Rose Bowl deal to actually play one of the top SEC teams in a bowl game rather than beat down another Big 10 team, isn't that the most compelling reason to advocate for a change to the current post season system?

[note: some hyperbole was used in reference to the recent Big 10 vs SEC bowl performance, but not much]

Some highlights:

- Ohio State "won" the annual spring game attendance battle. Although there is a growing tendency towards hyped & inflated numbers, there's little doubt that the Buckeyes had a huge turnout. The Ohio State University announced the crowd as 95,722.

- The SEC averaged 37,936 per game. TBN notes that is "more than 55 Division I-A schools averaged in 2008 regular-season attendance." Damn.

- Despite big numbers by tOSU and Penn State, the Big10 only managed second in average attendance (30,117), followed by the Big 12 (20,449), ACC (14,715), Big East (10,130) and Pac-10 (7,842).

- According to TBN, 26% of the BCS schools charged admission, up from 24% last year. In most cases the tickets were $10 or less, with many schools donating proceeds to charities or campus projects.

2009 ANNOUNCED SPRING GAME ATTENDANCE

1. Ohio State 95,722
2. Alabama 84,050
3. Nebraska 77,670
4. Penn State 76,500
5. Florida 65,000
6. Tennessee 51,488
7. Michigan 50,000
8. Auburn 45,381
9. Texas 44,000
10. Georgia 42,458
11. Virginia Tech 41,000
12. Florida State 36,000
13. Mississippi State 31,606
14. Notre Dame 31,104
15. LSU 30,532

A complete PDF of spring game attendance is online here.

The House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection hosted the hearings. Of the twenty-nine House members on the committee, three showed up to participate

The hearing leader, Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), introduced the key guest, BCS coordinator John Swofford, as the commissioner of the Athletic Coast Conference. Rep. Rush, I pretty sure it's the Atlantic Coast Conference, although they do play athletics, so I guess we'll give you partial credit, Congressman.

Craig Thompson was introduced as the commissioner of the West Mountain. Seriously? The West Mountain? Is Thompson the chief ski lift operator there or something? Could someone not point out to the leader of the BCS committee hearing that MWC is an acronym for the Mountain West Conference and not West Mountain?

None of the congressmen attending the hearing was aware that all eleven major conferences are members and financial benefactors of the BCS.

I mean... seriously... is this how our congressmen prepare for an on-the-record House hearing? I cringe to think what would happen if the discussion was the future of medicare. In the words of Britney Spears, "Ding dang, y'all!"

Rep Joe Barton (R-Tex.), an outspoken advocate for scapping the BCS in favor of a playoff format, demonstrated his grasp of playoff proposals by insisting that a March Madness style bracket format may be the solution for college football.

"You could have a playoff system with 64 teams, and use every bowl that's currently in there," Barton said Friday. "You could do that."

No you couldn't.

"We'd still be playing," Alamo Bowl CEO Derrick Fox quipped.

Congressman, if 64 teams are play in a single-elimination format... then it takes 63 total games to determine the winner. That's how it works.

Barton has proposed legislation that would forbid the BCS from awarding a "national championship" trophy. Within the bill, any organization would be barred from "the marketing, promotion, and advertising of a postseason game as a 'national championship' football game, unless it is the result of a playoff system. Violations of the prohibition will be treated as violations of the Federal Trade Commission Act as an unfair or deceptive act or practice."

Let me see if I understand the implication: Since the BCS does not award a National Championship trophy... the BCS would continue unchanged. Yep. The American Football Coaches Association would still hand out the Coaches Trophy. The AP would still crown its own champion as well. In other words, Barton's legislation would permit the BCS to continue unchanged.

So... Barton's bill means nothing to the BCS... at all? Well, yeah. Congressman Barton told Swofford during the hearing that the BCS wouldn't be obligated to institute any change.

"You don't have to change it. Our bill doesn't say you have to change it."

(That said... I would still love for someone to start handing out the "Barton Cup".)

Later Barton -- who's bill was the entire basis for the hearings -- left the committee meeting to catch a flight home.

Now maybe it's just me, but when you introduce a bill to change the BCS... that you GO OUT OF YOUR WAY to explain will not change the BCS... and then you leave your own hearing to fly home... I'm going to have a hard time taking you seriously. Maybe it's just me.

Rep. Rush went on to ask the Athletic Conference and West Mountain conference commissioners if they believed the current BCS system was fair. Thompson stated that the current system was "grossly inequitable." Swofford said that the revenue distribution "represents the marketplace", which is really just a nice way of saying some BCS teams are drawing 70,000+... for their spring practice games. Blutarsky points out that Georgia drew 42,458... which would have ranked them 54th in attendance last season (pdf!), just ahead of... UTAH!

Was Thompson hoping for a federal bailout with the "grossly inequitable" comment? Seriously, man... some of your schools don't even offer ESPN on campus cable networks??

But Thompson got in his own polite comment when asked if he believed Congress should intervene in the BCS.

"The U.S. Congress represents fans and constituencies," Thompson said. "Our university presidents work with that same group of constituents."

In other words, they guy who is paying lobbyists to push for an eight-team playoff would kindly like Congress to mind its own business and stay out of college football.

Well said, Commissioner. Well said.

The full hearing is posted online at CSpan, but -- I'm warning you -- regardless of where you stand on this one, you're probably going to hate yourself for enduring this.

They appear to update it as new polls come available, so this should be a good link to check out when the college football withdrawn pangs strike.

I have ported the data to excel to represent a more traditional vote count and compute a standard deviation. My average figures do not exclude the highest and lowest values, swapping FSU and Cal and a few ORV's.

The following data is static. For a current picture go here.

Top 25:

Team (FPV) Points, AVE, SD
1) Florida (11) 323, 1.15, 0.38
2) Texas (2) 307, 2.38, 1.12
3) Oklahoma 295, 3.31, 1.38
4) USC 276, 4.77, 1.96

5) Alabama 254, 6.46, 2.79
6) Oklahoma State 238, 7.69, 2.56
7) Virginia Tech 231, 8.23, 4.57
8) LSU 229, 8.38, 3.20
9) Ohio State 220, 9.07, 3.01
10) Ole Miss 214, 9.53, 3.60

11) Georgia Tech 176, 12.46, 1.85
12) Penn State 163, 13.46, 3.26
13) Oregon 149, 14.54, 5.75
14) Georgia 132, 15.85, 3.73
15) Boise State 130, 16.00, 6.26
16) Florida State 116, 17.08, 5.77
17) Cal 114, 17.23, 4.2

18) TCU 89, 19.15, 5.06
19-T) Utah 86, 19.38, 3.23
19-T) Iowa 86, 19.38, 5.22
21) North Carolina 74, 20.3, 6.17

[Note: If you are not one of the above teams nor play at least three of these teams you have no chance of at the 2009-2010 national title.]

22) Pittsburgh 51, 22.08, 5.19
23) Kansas 45, 22.54, 3.61
24) Notre Dame 41, 22.84, 4.88
25) Texas Tech 32, 23.54, 2.82

Others receiving votes:
Nebraska 29, Miami(FL) 23, Oregon State 19, Clemsonn 15, BYU 14, East Carolina 11, West Virginia 7, North Carolina State 6, Minnesota 5, Cincinnati 5, South Florida 5, Tennessee 5, Auburn 2, Boston College 2, Michigan State 2, Arkansas 1, Houston 1, Rutgers 1, Vanderbilt 1

Conference tallies:
SEC: 5
Big 12: 5
ACC: 4
PAC 10: 3
BIG 10: 3
MWC: 2
WAC: 1
Big East: 1
IND: 1

This looks be a fairly reasonable estimate of the staring positions for 2009, one I like a lot. I really want to see a #3 undefeated Big East champion lose to a #10 one loss MWC champion in the Orange Bowl this year. This smells like TCU's year to me.

[EDIT]: Remember, you heard it here first. - zac

Notre Dame might even go 9-3 and get a BCS Berth.

Now I am off to figure out the physics of Red Matter... (Warning, mild Star Trek spoiler)

College Football Coaches who Twitter

ACC Coaches
@DavidCutcliffe - Duke Blue Devils Football Coach David Cutcliffe
@CoachSwinney" - Clemson Tigers Football Coach Dabo Swinney

Big East Coaches
@CoachStewart - West Virginia Mountaineers Football Coach Bill Stewart
@jimleavitt - University of South Florida Bulls Football Coach Jim Leavitt
@dougmarrone - Syracuse Orange Football Coach Doug Marrone

SEC Coaches
@CoachUrbanMeyer - Florida Gators Football Coach Urban Meyer
@LSUCoachMiles - LSU Tigers Football Coach Les Miles
@LaneKiffinUT - Tennessee Volunteers Football Coach Lane Kiffin
@rollwiththetide - University of Alabama Crimson Tide Football Coaches (collectively)
@MarkRicht - Georgia Bulldogs Football Coach Mark Richt

Big10 Coaches
@Play4brew - Minnesota Gophers Football Coach Tim Brewster
@RonZook - Illinois Illini Football Coach Ron Zook
@UM_CoachRod - Michigan Wolverines Football Coach Rich Rodriguez
@JayPaterno - Penn State University Nittany Lions Assistant Football Coach Jay Paterno

Pac10 Coaches
@CoachSark - Washington Huskies Football Coach Steve Sarkisian
@PeteCarroll - USC Trojans Football Coach Pete Carroll
@CoachWulff - Washington State University Cougars Football Coach Paul Wulff

MAC Coaches
@coachbeckman - Toledo Rockets Football Coach Tim Beckman
@ron_english - Eastern Michigan Football Coach Ron English

Conference USA Coaches
@CoachFedora - Southern Miss Football Coach Larry Fedora
@UCFFootball - University of Central Florida Football Coaches (collectively)
@CoachCollins - University of Central Florida Knights Assistant Football Coach Geoff Collins

Mountain West Conference Coaches
@KyleWhittingham - Utah Utes Football Coach Kyle Whittingham

Sun Belt Conference Coaches
@coachdavidelson - Western Kentucky Hilltoppers Football Coach David Elson

Independent Coaches
@NDHFC - Notre Dame Football Coach Charlie Weis

Know of other college football coaches who use Twitter? Send us a tweet @fanblogs!

If you don't know exactly what Twitter's all about, that's okay. I'm not really sure either. Distilled down as much as possible, its a microblogging service in which you can keep up with friends, family, and whomever else you decide to "follow" via their 140 character updates that they can make as often as they like.

When someone updates via Twitter, its referred to as a "Tweet". You can update your page from your own small, personalized website, or-most popular-via a simple text message from your phone. Most folks also choose to "follow" someone and receive their updates via text message as well.

Yours truly signed up for one right around the New Year, and I honestly just did not find much use for it. That is, until I found out that college football coaches were using Twitter as a means of connecting with recruits, their fanbase, and the world in general.

Of course, my favorite has to be @LSUCoachMiles. LSU's head coach sends out all sorts of interesting things. This past weekend, we found out Miles eldest daughter-nicknamed "Smacker"-finished first in almost all of her events at her swim meet (consequently, I might add that Smacker is in position to make the 2012 US Swim Team & compete for the United States in the Olympic Games in London, England).

We later found out that Coach Miles went to VooDoo Barbecue, afterward, and wanted to go the movies later. I know what some of you are thinking (Did he take a dump once he got home? Will JoePa start Tweeting his gerontologist office visits?), but instead...Think about this. How many times do you get the opportunity to know the head coach of your school's weekend family itinerary?

Earlier this week, Miles mentioned taking the NCAA Recruiting Test and getting that out of the way, as well as talking with future Tigers & spending time with the family.

I'm not sure why, but I'm simply fascinated by these updates. Did any of us as college football fans picture this level of access and connection with our own head coach? Receiving a text close to half a dozen times a day on what he was up to? The details, whether simple and unrelated to football or specific to the program and gridiron grounded, are interesting fare.

Of course, the goal of this service isn't for Les Miles-or any other coach-to be able to express his latent sense of exhibitionism. No, this is yet another way to stay connected to the lifeblood of any program...The recruits. For them to know what's going on, when, where, & how their potential head coach moves through his day, its an appealing prospect for younger set.

Many coaches have jumped on the Twitter bandwagon. Pete Carroll is just one example of a BCS Conference School Head Man who Tweets often. USC's head coach has over 15,000 other users following him, and his posts are as frequent as one would assume for a man of such frenetic pace and boundless enthusiasm.

I will admit, however, that his "Song of the day! Miss you by the stones... Because I'm missing all the coaches who are out on the road recruiting right now," Tweet from May 6th was a tad on the creepy side, though.

Of course, there are some notable exceptions to the bandwagon. It's not just dinosaurs like Joe Paterno who haven't embraced Twitter, either. Alabama Head Coach Nick Saban is definitely not Tweeting from the looks of things (Is that even him, or a fanboy?)...

Which brings me to my questions...Do you guys think this is just a fad? Will @LSUCoachMiles still be updated regularly by next year? Hell...by next month? Better yet...does this phenomena have an impact on the recruits at all? Is there any advantage to Tweeting that others aren't picking up on? What say you, Fanblogs?

(Author's note: Kevin is hard at work on the redesign here at Fanblogs, and the rumor is that Twitter will be tightly woven into said redesign, both for commenting & contributing. It could result in far more contributions from our commenters, which I think can be a very good thing. I'm just stressing the hell out thinking of how I'll truncate my truculent takes towards folks around here. I mean...140 characters or less? Sheesh!)

OF COURSE Alabama claims this "championship". After all, they've "claimed" quite a few over the years.

Wonder what the 95,722 have to say about this in Columbus?

HT: Jerry at the Car Wash

If you go to the big sports schools like Michigan, North Carolina and Texas, you'll be able to buy a Snuggie with your school's logo on it this Fall. The price will be $19.95 and will be sold on television, in drug stores and, in some cases, campus stores, according to Crystal Sims, director in non-apparel marketing of the Collegiate Licensing Company, the IMG firm that represents nearly 200 schools on licensing endeavors.

Between the logo Snuggie and Crocs, Tim Tebow will never have to wonder what to wear to class.

According to his own words, Mississippi football coach Houston Nutt is looking for football players who will NEVER qualify academically to sign letters of intent with the Rebels, so as to stock the depth charts of junior colleges that are friendly to Ole Miss.

"It's going real smooth right now because you've got about seven guys right now that we know for sure aren't going to make it academically," Nutt said last week at a news conference to discuss spring practice. "However, they love Ole Miss and so what we're doing, to help out Mississippi junior colleges, is we are going to place them in the schools."

...

"There are about four or five that are on the fence and probably won't make it academically," Nutt said. "The relationship you build with Mississippi junior colleges is important to me because we won't ever be a staff that will sign 15 to 16 junior college kids a year. We won't do that, but we will sign some needs."

Dr. Saturday says that Nutt is building a farm-system.

He may not use the term, "farm system," but otherwise Nutt is putting the blueprint out there. It's one thing to sign a kid on the fence and later find out he's falling short; Nutt is the first coach I know of who's publicly wide open to kids who are certain to fail academically.

...

But to the extent that the JUCO-bound players remain betrothed to Ole Miss for "taking a chance" on them or something, intentional oversigning disingenuous in light of the scholarship restrictions, and inherently sketchy: To some extent, Nutt has to be actually looking for red flag academic cases to fill the excess roles. Then these kids "sign" with no intention -- in some cases, probably, no chance -- of ever enrolling at Ole Miss, and everybody in the system must know it. Their inclusion is a sort of charade -- if it wasn't, they (or one of their qualified classmates) wouldn't be included, because there's not enough room to risk oversigning with actual qualifiers.

Many, many, many schools will sign borderline players in hopes they qualify. If they don't, they may go to a JUCO, become eligible (hopefully), and honor their letter of intent. FSU, OU, Texas and almost all of the SEC were ridiculously good at this over the last twenty years.

But that isn't what Nutt is doing. He's actually recruiting to make the JUCO teams better with players that will *never* make it to Ole Miss. In doing so, Nutt is raising his profile with high school & JUCO coaches as well as raising the competitiveness at his JUCOs. In return, Nutt is counting on getting a few players that do regain eligibility swung his way, either some that he signed to LOI's or players that would have gone elsewhere, but their JUCO coach nudged them towards the Rebels.

It is genius and/or madness, but certainly better explains the 12 non-qualifiers signed in Nutt's class of 37 recruits in this year's class.

Now the question becomes... how many non-qualifiers will your school recruit next year? Will 40 LOI's be the new 25?

Graham Watson:

BYU offensive line: The Cougars will have to fill four of the five starting spots on the offensive line, but do have some depth there since several players received playing time due to injuries and some shuffling last year.

Boise State wide receivers: Boise State lost its three starting receivers, including Jeremy Childs, who left early for the NFL. Childs led the team in receiving yards and receptions last year and now quarterback Kellen Moore is going to have to break in some new playmakers.

Brian Bennett:

Louisville: The biggest bunch of newbies are at quarterback, where there are four candidates for the job but not one who's seen any significant playing time at this level.

South Florida: Look no farther than the offensive line, where four of five starters need to be replaced.

Tim Griffin:

Oklahoma offensive line: The departure of starting center Jon Cooper, tackle Phil Loadholt and guards Duke Robinson and Brandon Walker means that Sam Bradford will have an inexperienced group protecting him next season. Trent Williams moves to left tackle and Bob Stoops likes his incoming talent, if not its early work habits.

Texas defensive line: The major question dogging the Longhorns' national title hopes will be rebuilding a defensive front that loses All-American defensive end Brian Orakpo, defensive tackle Roy Miller, defensive tackleAaron Lewis and defensive end Henry Melton from last season.

Texas Tech offensive line: New quarterback Taylor Potts will be relying on a retooled offensive line protecting his blind side after left tackle Rylan Reed, left guard Louis Vasquez and center Stephen Hamby all departed from last year.

Chris Low:

Alabama: The Crimson Tide are replacing three-year starter John Parker Wilson at quarterback, but losing the threesome of Andre Smith, Marlon Davis and Antoine Caldwell on the offensive line leaves the biggest void. They were at the crux of just about everything Alabama did on offense last season.

Georgia: Much of the focus this spring will be on Joe Cox and the quarterback position, but the Bulldogs' most glaring weakness is the lack of a dominant pass-rusher from the defensive end position. They've got to find somebody who can consistently get to the quarterback.

LSU: Jordan Jefferson started the final two games at quarterback last season as a true freshman and enters 2009 as the favorite to win the job. His main competition will come from another true freshman, Russell Shepard, who graduated early and is going through spring practice.

Heather Dinich:

GEORGIA TECH -- Having lost three of four starters on the defensive line, it's easily one of the greenest groups in the whole conference.

MIAMI -- The Canes are still young everywhere, but remember quarterback Jacory Harris has only started two games and his backups have no collegiate experience.

NORTH CAROLINA -- The Tar Heels lost their top three receivers and will be counting heavily on inexperienced players to replace Hakeem Nicks, Brandon Tate and Brooks Foster.

Ted Miller

Arizona State -- QB: Combined starts of the five candidates to replace Rudy Carpenter at quarterback? Zero.

Oregon -- DT: Both starting defensive tackles are gone and this unofficial depth chart shows 14 combine tackles for seven potential replacements.

Oregon State -- DE: Sackmasters Victor Butler and Slade Norris and their 41.5 combined sacks over the past two seasons are gone. Sophomore Kevin Frahm and senior Ben Terry, who split two sacks between themselves in 2008, are in.

Adam Rittenberg

Ohio State's offensive line -- Don't be shocked if Ohio State enters 2009 with three sophomores (Mike Brewster, Mike Adams, J.B. Shugarts) and a transfer (Justin Boren) on its starting line.

Penn State's defensive ends -- Jerome Hayes should be back from another knee injury, but Penn State will be on the lookout for a proven pass rusher after losing Aaron Maybin, Maurice Evans and Josh Gaines.

Purdue's wide receivers -- New coach Danny Hope made wide receiver a peak priority in his first recruiting class after losing Greg Orton and Desmond Tardy, who combined for 136 receptions and 1,596 yards last year.

Wisconsin's defensive line -- The Badgers lose three multiyear starters (Matt Shaughnessy, Mike Newkirk and Jason Chapman) and don't return many proven players aside from ends O'Brien Schofield and Dan Moore.

And -- of course -- everyone's favorite green unit:

Birmingham News writer Kevin Scarbinsky recently took Alabama to task for not disclosing to this year's recruits that Alabama was facing a disciplinary hearing with the NCAA from the textbook scandal from 2007.

Although failing to disclose scheduled hearings and possible NCAA sanctions to recruits is not itself a violation of NCAA rules, Scarbinsky questions the moral obligation a team has to tell recruits and the recruits' coaches.

Put aside legal obligations and the public's right to know for a moment.

Didn't recruits and their families have a right to know?

"If it was my son being recruited," Corner High School coach Brent Smith said, "I would want to know about it."

Smith didn't have a son sign with Alabama in February, but he did have a player join the Crimson Tide. Before his recent return to Corner, Smith coached at Clay-Chalkville, where he coached Alabama signee Quinton Dial. Smith said no Alabama coaches told him - or, as far as he knows, Dial - of the impending Infractions Committee appearance.

Personally, I don't think the Tide did anything wrong. Aren't players supposed to do a little due-diligence on their own to find out about the schools they seek to attend? This infraction has been known for a year and a half, and hadn't been resolved through the NCAA yet. Certainly one of the Tide's recruits did a little investigating?

How's your college investigation coming along, huh? Got a big stack of papers on Alabama? Got the 12 national championships, the Bear, and the coaching carousel? Know about probation and habitual violations? Got a compelling coach in Saban? Some teams become enemies, some become friends? No, no, you just take their word for it...

However, why exactly did the latest hearing date, February 20, 2009, occur so long after the infraction itself?

The NCAA sent Alabama a letter of preliminary inquiry dated Nov. 20, 2007. The NCAA sent Alabama a notice of allegations dated May 19, 2008.

And 16 days after signing day.

If the Tide manipulated the dates to get beyond National Signing Day, I believe that would be a moral failure, in spite of not being a legal one. Alabama officials and Saban aren't talking, but if Alabama did game the system, could there be any doubt that The Saban Rules are in effect--barely skirting above tree-top level with the rules to gain an advantage? It's just part of The Process. Indeed...

Alas, if the hearing results in scholarship losses, none of the new recruits will be affected. Neither will Alabama's recent recruiting national championship...

h/t: OU-Ron

Here's the complete rundown:

Alabama 22/1
Arizona 100/1
Arizona State 150/1
Arkansas 150/1
Auburn 150/1
Boise State 100/1
Boston College 100/1
California 60/1
Cincinnati 90/1
Clemson 60/1
Colorado 100/1
Florida 7/4
Florida State 30/1
Georgia 50/1
Georgia Tech 50/1
Illinois 80/1
Iowa 75/1
Kansas 75/1
Kansas State 175/1
Kentucky 125/1
Louisville 150/1
LSU 20/1
Maryland 200/1
Miami 35/1
Michigan 120/1
Michigan State 100/1
Missouri 90/1
Nebraska 55/1
North Carolina 45/1
North Carolina State 100/1
Notre Dame 30/1
Ohio State 17/2
Oklahoma 5/1
Oklahoma State 50/1
Oregon 20/1
Oregon State 100/1
Penn State 35/1
Pittsburgh 60/1
Rutgers 125/1
South Carolina 100/1
South Florida 80/1
Tennessee 100/1
Texas 8/1
Texas A&M 150/1
Texas Tech 60/1
UCLA 150/1
Utah 125/1
USC 5/1
Virginia 100/1
Virginia Tech 20/1
Wake Forest 80/1
Washington 200/1
West Virginia 75/1
Wisconsin 100/1
Field (Any Other Team) 20/1

And remember... entertainment purposes only... of course.