1641

Tell me about it. I spent three years at Bama earning a law degree and really considered trying to like the Tide. It wasn’t happening. :)

However, my partner, who is from Minnesota, has wholeheartedly adopted Auburn as her favorite college team and is able to dog Bama and its fans like she’s been doing it her whole life. It makes me proud.

1642

Malzahn staying at Auburn. Got a raise to $1.3M per year. Not only is he the highest-paid assistant in the nation, he’s also higher-paid than many Div I head coaches, including Slick Rick at UCLA.

1643

Wow - this whole thing was handled pretty badly by Vandy. By confirming they were trying to get him, they 1) just gave Malzahn more leverage in his negotiations with Auburn, and 2) let their second choice know, in no uncertain terms, that he was their second choice. Aren’t searches usually done a bit more discreetly?

Glad to see him staying at AU, though.

1644

Vandy’s new to this big-time coach search thing.

1645

So there is talk that Mack Brown has been planning to walk away for a few years (depending on circumstances) and that his failure to do so is why Muschamp bailed for Florida. Supposedly Brown said he was going to retire if Texas won the National Championship versus Alabama, and then said he’d coach one more year, but changed his mind because he didn’t want to go out on a bad season.

Now I see why Rimbo is so upset. ;-)

1646

Well, failure to provide a timeline was an issue. If there’d been a solid one in place, Muschamp would still be around.

There’s been talk of UNC DC Everett Withers as a potential replacement. With 13 years in college and 7 years in the NFL, he’d also fit the description in the job ad.

1647

It also means that the second (or third, or fourth, or fifth) choice can try and demand Malzahn money, knowing Vandy was willing to go that high.

1648

Did Vandy actually make it public though? Seems like it got leaked. I never saw official word of anything. You can’t really keep these kinds of move secret anymore. Plus, you probably need permission to even talk to another team’s coach. So how would you have done things differently, if you were Vandy?

Seems odd to turn down 3 million for 1.3, though, assuming that’s what happened. College football can be fickle. If Auburn doesn’t look as good once Newton leaves, Malzahn may not see another offer like that. I’m not saying Vandy is a great job. It isn’t. But that was a LOT of money to turn down.

1649

Vandy confirmed to the press that they were trying to get him - that they hoped the Malzahn rumors would come true. That’s a little unusual, isn’t it? I would have expected a “no comment.”

I suspect Malzahn’s agent was the leaker.

If Auburn and Malzahn have another good year without Cam (and that’s a big IF), his head coaching opportunities will open up. Vandy would have been a tough place for him to go for his first collegiate head coaching job and might very well have been career suicide, as it has been for other coaches who’ve passed through Nashville.

1650

The host of a major national sports radio show today said he was told this weekend by a non-SEC coach that they stop going after players when they hear they are being recruited by an SEC school because they can’t compete with all the shady under the table stuff that goes on. Basically, he told the host that the alleged Cam Newton thing (players being paid to choose a particular school) is pretty common in the SEC.

That could just all be sour grapes, but it wouldn’t surprise me either. Except for Vandy, of course. They obviously aren’t playing that game, which is why they have such a hard time. ;-)

1651

It might have been entertaining to see the coordinator shake up if Malzahn had been hired at Vandy. Think of it: Florida, Auburn, Vanderbilt, Miami and Texas all scrambling to fill their staffs in this prime recruiting season. A whole lot of people would be making a bunch of money real quick. Most of all, Jimmy Sexton, I suspect.

1652

The Big 10 utterly fails on its new logo and division names.

“And the leader of the Leaders division is…”

1653

Dammit, Rimbo, I posted it on your FB wall only to see you found it several hours before me. Anyway, interested candidates can apply here. :)

1654

Yeah, pretty much old news. The modern SEC is the old-school SWC. The only reason the schools don’t turn each other in is because they all live in glass houses.

1655

That’s why I was pretty skeptical of this. Assuming you could get Vandy to two consecutive bowl games, he’d be considered a genius and AD’s would be tripping over themselves to get him. The downside is that he’s operating in a completely different world than the rest of the SEC (higher academic standards, less appetite for the more shady recruiting practices, etc), and failing to pull off a couple of 7 to 8 win seasons would be, while not career suicide, at least putting a millstone around his neck for for a low probablity upside.

I don’t mean any of this as disparaging to Vandy; I just didn’t think this made sense.

1656

Where is the 12 hiding? Did they announce what the 10 is supposed to mean now?

1657

Man, you’re taking this whole demise of Texas thing pretty hard. Cheer up! Isn’t your last name Jones? Everyone is just trying to keep up with Texas, or so you have told us all numerous times from your pulpit of Rimboism. Except the one’s leaving for better opportunities. heh

1658

I don’t think you deserve a reply until you proclaim yourself a Legend or a Leader. No fence sitting on this one.

Seriously, the idiots that came up with this, and I can almost imagine them in their focus groups now, should be…made to understand the last 100 years of college football so they might get a tiny ounce of perspective??

And the Big Ten school presidents…well, congrats, you now are second rate in both football and marketing. Well done!

1659

I love how UT destroyed the Big 12 to get its TV network, and then falls flat on its face the next year, at the bottom of its division. And the top team in Texas (the state) goes to the Big East conference. Karma’s a bitch.

1660

I was reading a Michigan board and they’re so confused. The word “Leaders” shows up in their fight song, and so of course they’ve been slotted to the Legends division.

Larry Scott, the Pac-10/12 commish, would have slaughtered this idea in the cradle. To him, it’s all about trying to keep the marketing as simple as possible, which was why he was a big opponent of the zipper divisions. He wanted North/South or nothing.