HOOVER, Ala. — SEC adviser Larry Templeton, who is heading up a transition committee that is dealing with scheduling issues caused by the conference’s expansion to 14 teams, said the intradivisional home and road games this season will have no bearing on 2013.
“Nothing matches up in ’13,” Templeton said during SEC media days last week.
“We’re not even looking at the ’12 schedule when we’re starting with ’13.”
That means Arkansas might repeat some of its Western Division schedule in the next two seasons.
The Razorbacks have been playing at home against Alabama, LSU and Ole Miss in even-numbered years and at home against Auburn, Mississippi State and permanent East rival South Carolina in odd-numbered years since joining the SEC in 1992.
The key change in 2013 involves establishing the rotating cross-division opponent for each school, which will trigger a 12-year rotation if the league remains at 14 schools. (Each of the six teams from one division, not counting a team’s permanent cross division rival, will play a home-and-home series against the other division.)
Arkansas will pick up Missouri as its permanent Eastern Division rival in 2013, but it will not necessarily return this year’s home game against Kentucky with a visit to Lexington.
Some SEC coaches, notably Alabama’s Nick Saban, have advocated a nine-game conference schedule, but the conference agreed this spring to remain at eight for the near future.
“To say we’re not going to continue to evaluate where we are, this league has always been proactive and I think we’ll continue to evaluate [the eight-game SEC schedule],” Templeton said.
Project SEC
SEC Commissioner Mike Slive didn’t reveal details, but he hardly hid the notion of an imminent television network for the conference, an idea he called Project SEC.
“There has been a whole lot of speculation about Project X,” he said. “Is it still a secret? I don’t think so. But we now call it Project SEC.
“Our objective, long term, is to work with our television partner to provide fans with greater access to favored teams, more opportunities to watch rivals, and more insight into who we are: a conference of 14 great universities.
“I’d love to say more. I know you want me to say more. I won’t say more.”
Blue Ribbon pick
Arkansas is ranked No. 10 to open the 2012 season by Blue Ribbon College Football Yearbook. The Razorbacks are the fifth highest rated team in the SEC by the publication, behind No. 2 LSU, No. 3 Alabama, No. 7 Georgia and No. 9 South Carolina.
Helmet removal
The only rules changing in college football this season involve player safety, as there was a one-year moratorium in place on new legislation. One of the new rules calls for a player who loses his helmet to come out for the next play, and to risk a 15-yard penalty if the player continues to engage in the play after his helmet comes off.
That rule would have applied to a couple of notable Arkansas plays last season: when defensive tackle D.D. Jones was involved in a tackle after losing his helmet, and when Missouri State deep snapper Kaleb Mueller chased Joe Adams down the field helmetless during Adams’ 69-yard punt return for a touchdown in the season opener.
Another rule change involves allowing for what SEC supervisor of officials Steve Shaw called a “modified halo,” a 1-yard space around punt returners that cannot be violated until after the return man touches the ball. Also, players will not be allowed to leap over blockers for the punting team.
Spicy Spurrier
South Carolina Coach Steve Spurrier got in plenty of jabs during SEC media days.
In addition to dogging Georgia’s cross-division schedule, and insulting Ole Miss at the same time, he got in other pokes, such as one on three-time national championship Coach Nick Saban with ESPN’s Chris Low.
“He’s got a nice little gig going, a bit like [Kentucky basketball coach John] Calipari,” Spurrier said.
“If he wants to be the greatest coach or one of the greatest coaches in college football, to me, he has to go somewhere besides Alabama and win, because they’ve always won there at Alabama.”
Spurrier also gave his thoughts to Low on the Georgia-South Carolina game shifting from its standard Week 2 to Week 6 this year.
“I sort of always liked playing them that second game because you could always count on them having two or three key players suspended,” he said.
Spurrier also got in a jab at his own program, saying “I remember in [his earlier seasons] we might have had five guys in the fourth year there. Nobody stuck around much. Nobody stuck around much. If you stuck around four or five years ... you were a good solid citizen.”
DGB’s status
Missouri Coach Gary Pinkel said celebrated receiver Dorial Green-Beckham, the nation’s No. 1 prospect according to some analysts, would “start at the bottom of the list” and have to work his way up the Tigers’ depth chart when fall camp opens.
Pinkel said that’s the way things work for his Tigers, though he recognizes Green-Beckham is an extraordinary talent.
“Some of the players that come by my office, they talk about Dorial, they talk about what a great kid he is,” Pinkel said. “I think that’s really the reason why he has a chance to become a great player, because he’s humble, he wants to learn and he’s a great competitor.”
No Cam?
South Carolina Coach Steve Spurrier, asked about the small number of big time passers in the league last season, concluded that there had not been an All-America quarterback in the SEC in a while.
“Who was the last one?
I guess [Tim] Tebow has to be?” Spurrier asked.
Informed that Auburn’s Cam Newton was an All-American in 2010, Spurrier said sheepishly, “Yeah, I guess he was an All-American, Heisman winner.”SEC welcome
Texas A&M Coach Kevin Sumlin said his welcome-to the-SEC moment came early in his tenure, at the SEC meetings in late May.
“When you walk into a room with 13 other head coaches in the SEC and Mike Slive, they close that door behind you, it’s just you guys in there, that’s when you know it’s real,” Sumlin said.
Missouri Coach Gary Pinkel, the other SEC newcomer, didn’t sound quite as awestruck. “You know, I was in the Big 12,” he said. “For me, I know two-thirds of those coaches sitting in that meeting [and] they’re friends. ... It was, ‘How you guys doing?’ and ‘Let’s go to work.’ ”Not here
Arkansas’ Knile Davis and Tyler Wilson, considered potential Heisman Trophy candidates, wound up being two of the biggest names at SEC media days, along with Alabama lineman Barrett Jones, the reigning Outland Trophy winner as the nation’s top interior lineman, and Tennessee quarterback Tyler Bray.
Among the prominent SEC players who were not brought to the event by their coaches: Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray, South Carolina tailback Marcus Lattimore, LSU cornerback Tyrann “Honey Badger” Mathieu, Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron and Missouri quarterback James Franklin.
Champions Bowl
The SEC has been pushing for a playoff since 2004, Commissioner Mike Slive said, when unbeaten Auburn was denied a shot at the BCS title game by unbeaten Southern California and Oklahoma.
Now that a four-team playoff is reality, beginning in 2014, the SEC’s next postseason idea is taking shape. The Champions Bowl, which will pit the highest-ranked SEC and Big 12 teams not in the BCS playoff, is set to start in 2014 as well.
Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, is a logical venue for the Champions Bowl. The first game is scheduled for Jan. 1, 2015, Slive said.
Sports, Pages 24 on 07/22/2012