Surprising to nobody, the BCS and big-time conferences have once again decided that they like their fat paydays better than they like the indentured servants on whose backs they're getting rich.

At a recent meeting, BCS officials shot down a "plus-one" proposal from SEC Commish Mike Slive. Apparently, the BCS folks "like where [they] are". They like it because the major conferences are making money hand-over-fist, and any move toward a play-off would mean a more even distribution of money.

The playoffs versus bowls argument has been done to death, and despite the overwhelming logic and reason behind moving to a playoff, religion is religion, and the fans of the bowl system continue to insist that the world is flat. When you dispense with all of the strawman arguments, though, what you're left with is a simple fact: the national champion is determined by journalists, coaches' assistants, and computers.

Of course, "ridin' dirty" has a looser definition in Alabama, where it can encompass having the audacity to put an Auburn license plate on the front of your cruiser while patrolling the Alabama campus, as seen here:



That picture comes from the blog Alabama Gameday, who also links to a thread on the TideSports fourm where a member says he emailed the Tuscaloosa chief of police and "addressed the issue of credibility (and the growing lack thereof), and asked that he check into it and have it removed if possible." The poster says the chief responded by having the tag removed from the unit.

Now, this all might seem kind of petty until you understand the growing unease of an Alabama fan base that has seen more players arrested (8) than wins (7) in the year since Nick Saban took over the program. Tuscaloosa seems to be one of the college towns where arresting a student-athlete is a trophy of sorts for the local po-po; a statement that anybody is fair game, but especially those who make headlines. That may or may not be a fair assessment, but it's a growing concern in places where high-profile students seem to get in more trouble than the average student.

Consider, however: if the Auburn-fan cop with the Tiger plate on his cruiser wasn't targeting Bama players before, he sure could be now that he's been singled out himself.

Note this is "disappointing," not "worst." We're not looking for the class with the absolute least potential to win D-I games but the schools that really should have done better than they did. So breathe easy, Buffalo. A further note: rankings here are all Rivals'; sometimes Scout disagrees vehemently but that's rare.

Without further adieu:

5. Texas. Perhaps a harsh assessment for Rivals' #14 class, but as the dominant power in the nation's most football-mad state Texas should never, ever have a class outside of the top ten, even when it's kind of small. Texas whiffed on the top three players in-state, all of whom ended up at hated Oklahoma. Striking out on national #1 RB Darrell Scott was the icing on a mildly crap sundae for the Longhorns.

It's not that Texas' class is bad, per se. It's actually pretty good. (You can tell by the #14 above. That's math.) But there's no school in the country with a better built-in advantage when it comes to high school talent, and there's no way Texas should strike out on four of the top five players instate.

Mack Brown will spring his revenge soon, no doubt: rumor is that the next next Vince Young, class of 2009 QB Russell Shepard, is soon to don burnt orange.

4. Michigan State. If there was ever going to be a year when Michigan State re-asserted itself as a threat to Michigan instate or to Wisconsin, Minnesota, and increasingly irritating Cincinnati around the Midwest, this would be it. Michigan suffered a humiliating series of losses and much of the state was operating under the foregone conclusion that Lloyd Carr would be retiring at year's end. When Michigan made a hire, Rich Rodriguez swept out all but one Carr assistant. Mark Dantonio's long association with Jim Tressel was supposed to give him the edge when it came to Ohio recruits.

The result? Detroit wide receiver Fred Smith and no other four-star players. Michigan State struck out on instaters Nick Perry (USC) and Mark Ingram (Alabama) late; Ingram's decision to flee is especially grating since his father was one of Michigan State's best wide receivers. Ohio linebacker Taylor Hill took an official visit to MSU and liked it so much he committed to Michigan on the way home. Hell, linebacker Yourhighness Morgan took a look at MSU and said "thanks, but I'm going to play for Florida."

Florida Atlantic.

MSU ranks 7th in the Big Ten, and this was both their new-coach-bump year and a year in which Michigan changed coaches. Michigan's little brother continues to bow down.

Not Paul Rhoads at right. I bet you know who that luxurious mustache belongs to.

Former Pitt defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads is Auburn's new DC, replacing enthusiastic Texas-bound Will Muschamp. This would seem an excellent hire by Auburn after Pitt's defense finished 5th in the nation and shut down West Virginia's spread 'n' shred in the epic upset that kept the Mountaineers out of the national title game.

But Pitt Blather has some kind of sobering numbers:

Year - Def. Ranking - Run Def. - Pass Def.

2007 -– 5th ---– 33d --– 3d
2006 - 87th --– 107th --- 29th
2005 - 31st --- 94th ---- 2nd
2004 -- 73d --– 48th ---- 100th
2003 - 79th --– 87th ---- 54th
2002 - 12th --– 24th ---- 18th
2001 - 7th --- 26th ---- 6th
2000 -- 29th -- 17th ---- 80th

Chas notes further that the defense's slide from good to real bad happened "minute the talent previously recruited started graduating" and follows it up with a wide array of links to previous stories about Rhoads' various failings as a coach -- no sour grapes upon departure these.

But... like, I dunno. That's four good years of seven at a program that's never had much in the way of support or talent until this recent inexplicable Wannalanche of high-profile recruits. As soon as Wannstedt's guys started seeing time with regularity, things bounced back up; Pitt Blather tends to blame Rhoads for the awful run defense when it could more properly be attributed to undersized and largely overlooked true freshman holding down key spots in the Pitt line in 2005 and 2006. At Auburn, Rhoads will not have the same issues.

If you're an Auburn fan looking to own a piece of your team's "legacy", you might want to check out eBay. Jason Campbell's ring from the 2004, 13-0 campaign.

Currently the auction has a $6,500 "buy it now" price, but has received almost a dozen other offers.

I'm not sure what's more interesting, that Campbell, a starting quarterback in the NFL, needed to sell his ring or that the ring is emblazoned with the words "NATIONAL CHAMPIONS". The seller must be getting some flack for that (I'm not sure why... after all, they were the "people's champions") as he says in his write up "I will not answer any questions regarding the 2004 'National Championship'. . . . So please spare me the questions and/or comments about USC, who the true champion is, this ring is a fraud, etc."

Happy To Be Here?

You know, back when I was in law school, I'd have to endure all kinds of bickering between Clemson and Auburn grads about which one of their fake empires was the better of the two, and I recall someone pithily summing it up thusly: "Clemson IS Auburn...but without the lake." Or the other way around. Whatever. Seems like these two kinda deserve each other in Atlanta. As far as Clemson goes, it has to be a pretty desirable outcome considering they were the Chick Fil-A Bowl gets the second choice in the ACC and the Tigers were #2 in their own division after squandering an opportunity to clinch at home against Boston College. All things told, a typically mixed-bag year for Tommy Bowden's crew, despite the emergence of Cullen Harper as the ACC's most efficient QB and the always dangerous Spiller/Davis combo in the backfield. While the Tigers lacked the total WTF? loss they're usually known for acquiring over the span of a season, their 13-3 loss at Georgia Tech isn't looking any better, to say nothing of Virginia Tech laying 41 on them at home.

Come Here Often?

You'd better believe that the Chick Fil-A Bowl will jump at any chance of getting Clemson, considering their regional proximity and their notoriously vocal and supportive fanbase. Tickets for this game sold out in about 48 hours, nothing unusual for the bowl that only ranks behind the Rose Bowl and Fiesta Bowl in terms of consecutive sellouts (take that Liberty Bowl!). While the last Clemson appearance was in 2004 (a win against Tennessee, a loss for anyone who rightfully despises orange), this will be their 7th appearance at the erstwhile Peach Bowl, tying NC State for the record.

It didn't take long for Tommy Tuberville to find a replacement for departed offensive coordinator Al Borges. On Wednesday night, just a day after Borges handed in his resignation, Auburn announced former Troy Trojans of Troy (they're from Troy) OC Tony Franklin will be calling plays as early as the Chik-Fil-A Bowl on New Year's Eve. The one-day turnaround is pretty quick -- unless you live in Bobby Petrino's world, in which it's an eternity. And since I couldn't get through an SEC coaching post without the obligatory Petrino reference, it's worth pointing out that Franklin is Auburn's sixth offensive coordinator since 2000, a list that includes Noel Mazzone, Petrino, Hugh Nall/Steve Emsfinger, and of course Borges.

In his first two years at Auburn, Borges had the Tigers' offense in the top two of nearly every statistical category in the SEC. Over the last two years, however, Auburn has finished in the bottom half of the conference in nearly all of those same categories. Meanwhile, Franklin's Troy team finished in the top 25 nationally in many offensive rankings this year, including total yards and scoring.

Also consider that Troy and Auburn had three common opponents in 2007: Arkansas, Florida, and Georgia (and all on the road). With considerably less talent, Troy put up more yards and more points than Auburn in each one of those games, and had a better yards/play average in all games except against Florida (and it was close -- AU averaged 4.7/play against the Gators, Troy had 4.3).

The regular season is complete and the SEC has represented itself well on the national scale.

The AP Poll is out: 6 SEC teams finish in the Top 25. Two finish in the Top 5, a third in the Top 10, and Tennessee, Auburn, and Arkansas came in with Top 25 honors.

1. Ohio State (50) 11-1 1,578

2. LSU (11) 11-2 1,519

3. Oklahoma (1) 11-2 1,423

4. Georgia (1) 10-2 1,421

5. Virginia Tech (1) 11-2 1,380

6. USC 10-2 1,346

7. Missouri 11-2 1,195

8. Kansas 11-1 1,164

9. Florida 9-3 1,071

10. Hawaii (1) 12-0 1,050

11. West Virginia 10-2 1,040

12. Arizona State 10-2 939

13. Illinois 9-3 797

14. Boston College 10-3 668

15. Clemson 9-3 614

16. Tennessee 9-4 554

17. Texas 9-3 517

18. Wisconsin 9-3 447

19. Brigham Young 10-2 439

20. Cincinnati 9-3 394

21. Virginia 9-3 344

22. Auburn 8-4 264

23. South Florida 9-3 246

24. Boise State 10-2 221

25. Arkansas 8-4 173

A successful year? It's looking that way; LSU has leapfrogged Georgia, as many expected, back into their familiar stomping grounds in the Top 2. Georgia, meanwhile, will likely be Sugar Bowl-bound should the BCS Rankings shake out the way that the AP Poll did. Most of these Southeastern Conference teams will play in January.

I'd say that's a darn good year for our lil' old southern-fried football conference.

Auburn offered head coach Tommy Tuberville an extension yesterday which is being billed as a $1.2m raise by folks like Phillip Marshall, who does freelance PR work for Auburn blogs AU Sports at Tracking the Tigers. While technically true, that sort of language is awfully misleading.

Tuberville's contract is set to expire at the end of the 2011 season. Up to this point, he's received a $200,000 automatic increase in salary every year. In his current contract, that automatic increase ends this year -- there would be no automatic bump for 2008, 2009, 2010, or 2011. The new contract extends through 2013 and re-institutes that automatic $200,000 raise. In other words, the new contract gives him exactly what he's been getting since the last time Tuberville and Auburn did this little song and dance.

12 hours after various media outlets started reporting that Tuberville was headed to Arkansas, things really aren't much more clear. That said, if we take a look at the coach-speak (the only language in which everything is simultaneously truth and a lie), it starts to look more and more like Tuberville wants to stay at Auburn, but some of the powers that be don't really think he's worth his asking price.

If we go back to the goings on surrounding the Texas A&M job, we've got a bit more to look at. For starters, it took forever for Tuberville to even address the swirling rumors that he'd be bolting for College Station. When he finally did, he only said that he hadn't been contacted and didn't expect to be. Later he expanded those comments, saying he'd stay at Auburn "as long as they want us."

Well, that settles it, right? In the language of regular people, there's no deal, Coach Tuberville doesn't want one, and it's Auburn or bust, right? As Lee Corso would say, "Not so fast, my friend..."