During a teleconference on Wednesday to discuss an embarrassing breach of conduct in the NCAA enforcement department's investigation of Miami, a reporter prefaced his question to Mark Emmert with a courtesy: "Good afternoon, how are you?" "I've had better days," the NCAA president replied. For your sake, Mark, here's hoping you've had a better 26 months.
The BCS just put a bow on its 15th season of action and Athlon has dissected the numbers and reviewed the tapes of all six BCS conferences in order to rank the best each league has had to offer. Which Oklahoma team was the best of the decade? Which Florida team was the toughest to stop? How do you rank the Florida State teams of the late '90s? Which Miami team was the best? How about those loaded USC teams? Alabama vs. Auburn? The debates will rage on for decades, but here is Athlon's two cents. Here are the Top 15 SEC teams of the BCS Era (1998-present):
Recruiting is reaching a fever pitch as the college football machine churns toward National Signing Day 2013. The first Wednesday in February is the NCAA’s version of Christmas morning for fans and coaches alike. Great coaching is the key to winning, but so are great players. If your team has better athletes, generally speaking, it will win the game more often than not. That doesn’t mean that every five-star is an All-American or every two-star is a Sun Belt third stringer. Athlon Sports continues its analysis of recruiting over the last 10 years by evaluating the most important player on the field. The quarterback position has evolved dramatically over the last decade and it has made scouting the game’s most intricate position that much more difficult. Every year isn’t created equally and the Athlon Consensus 100 proves this quite obviously. Since its inception in 2008, two quarterbacks have been ranked as the top player in the nation — Terrelle Pryor (2008) and Matt Barkley (2009). In 2010, however, Jake Heaps was considered the nation’s best quarterback, but was ranked No. 42 overall. Jeff Driskel was the top signal caller in 2011 and was No. 17 overall. Some quarterback classes are deeper and more talented than others. Here is how Athlon Sports ranks the quarterback classes over the last 10 years:
Charlie Strong of the Louisville Cardinals now has one of the nicest looking contracts in all of college football at eight years and $3.7 million a year, making him the highest paid coach in either the Big East or the ACC.
Our group of ESPN scouts are down in Mobile, Ala., checking out all those lovely Senior Bowl practices. A bunch of SEC players are out competing and here's a little of what people are saying about them: