Some SEC teams are taking a break from the stressful Saturdays that await on future weekends and have lined up the obligatory “take your whipping and your paycheck” games this weekend.
Five SEC teams are favored by at least 13 points and LSU is a 34 1/2-point favorite to defeat UAB from Conference USA. No odds are posted on the five games against FCS opponents.
Among the cream-puff games:
- Vanderbilt will give Austin Peay $300,000 one week after Austin Peay collected $450,000 from Tennessee. The Governors will open a new stadium next season, so they need all the dollars they can gather.
- Mississippi State will provide $350,000 to Alcorn State.
- Ole Miss will entertain Southeast Missouri State for $375,000.
Vanderbilt coach James Franklin saw that the Commodores had a losing record over a 10-year period in nonconference games when he arrived and has made an effort to build a “creative” schedule that “makes sense for Vanderbilt” and that will result in bowl berths. And they’ve been to two consecutive postseason games.
By comparison, when Georgia hosts Conference USA member North Texas next week, the Bulldogs will hand over a check for $975,000.
LAST DANCE
Florida at Miami on Saturday may be the last time the schools meet in football.
“You never say never, but it’s really, really difficult,” Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley said, citing a possible move to a nine-game SEC schedule as lost revenue from home-and-home series. “When you take a home game out of here, it cost you significant dollars.”
Florida set aside $700,000 over the past four years to offset the loss of a home game in 2013, he said.
RECRUITING CHATTER
Alabama’s 2014 recruiting class gained another major boost as the nation’s No. 1 prospect Cameron Robinson, of West Monroe, La., committed to the Crimson Tide during a televised ceremony on ESPN at his high school. Robinson is rated as the No. 1 recruit in the nation regardless of position for the class of 2014. He said the recent commitment of Monroe, La., recruit and childhood friend, wide receiver Cameron Sims, to Alabama influenced his decision to choose the Tide as well. Robinson will graduate in December and enroll in the spring in Tuscaloosa.
NO SEC FAN
Stanford coach David Shaw, speaking for, oh, another 100-plus college football head coaches who do not draw a paycheck from an SEC school said this when asked about comparing his team with SEC teams: “I don’t necessarily take that as a compliment.” And this: “We play the style of football I grew up with. It’s not because that’s the way they play at Alabama or LSU. That means nothing to us.’’
SEEKING QUITTERS
CBS broadcaster Gary Danielson said last season that Alabama’s goal was to pound you and wear you down and force you to submit. Alabama center Ryan Kelly admitted as much as he described the Crimson Tide mood after topping Virginia Tech 35-10. “We knew as a team afterward that we didn’t make them quit. We felt like they walked away with a better sense that they didn’t let Alabama take control of them. I think that’s what everybody was disappointed about.”
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