Yes, please!

According to al.com, “In addition to Cox, Finebaum has other, national suitors, including discussions with ESPN that include both television and radio (and would allow Finebaum to appear on 97.3 The Zone), and talks with SiriusXM Satellite Radio about being the exclusive provider of “The Paul Finebaum Radio Network.” SiriusXM had simulcast Finebaum’s show when it was on WJOX.”

Can you imagine Tammy or I-Man or Legend or maybe even All-Stars from the old days like Phyllis from Mulga or Don from Downtown on camera?

We could witness the “country-boy ass-kickings” live and in HD. The possibilities make the old Geraldo show and Jerry Springer look like Captain Kangaroo and Sesame Street.

OK, maybe that isn’t what ESPN has in mind, but the most recent update on the Paul Finebaum saga from al.com makes the imagination run wild.

A Paul Finebaum television program could form the foundation of the much-anticipated SEC television network. What is more SEC than the most powerful media figure in the SEC and his band of faithful listeners? It would rivet attention year-round on the promised cable network.

That is probably a dream that will never happen, but it would be must see SEC TV.

Whatever Paul Finebaum decides to do with his show, WJOX’s days as the dominant sports talk station are clearly numbered. The Opening Drive is a joke when compared with 97.3’s morning show with Kevin Scarbinsky. Scarbinsky has an opinion unlike former Alabama quarterback Jay Barker—who rarely has an opinion on anything and appears to be the most unprepared radio personality in Birmingham. The Roundtable is not much better. LT is clearly the best part of that show, but his co-hosts steal too much airtime with their generic conversation.

Who lands Finebaum is open for speculation. The Birmingham News reported Finebaum has offers from at least three players.

There are some strikes against Cox and its handling of the entire The Zone launch. First, Cox executives talked too much too early about landing Finebaum for a show on The Zone. Did this complicate the legal proceedings between Finebaum and Cumulus? Perhaps. At the least, it showed management lacked a certain finesse needed to navigate the complicated contractual situation. Second, The Zone’s handling of the Eli Gold and Stan White show left much to be desired. While the station and hosts of the morning show said the hosts ended the show for personal reasons, it was clear the station did not support the show sufficiently during the critical formative time for the station. It takes time to build an audience in the Birmingham sports market. Ultimately, the move worked out as Scarbinsky is doing a superb job in the morning slot. However, these issues raise real questions about Cox management at the local and regional level.

Despite this, it is clear Finebaum has several real options for the next big move of his career.

Finebaum has mastered investigative journalism at the Post-Herald, mastered the art of commentary as a Post-Herald columnist and while at WERC and WJOX became the master of sports talk radio in Alabama.

More Finebaum on television could let him master that too.

The only question, will it be Finebaum as a talking head on typical ESPN sports product or will we get to see Finebaum and his radio cohorts.

Whatever happens, it will be fun to watch.

According to Nielsen, “Alabama beat Notre Dame on the field and in average TV viewership by 27 percent over the 2012 season. Alabama had 7.2 million viewers on average during nationally televised games, while Notre Dame had 5.7 million viewers.”

Also, the BCS Championship Game between Alabama and Notre Dame drew 26,380,000 viewers while the Rose Bowl drew 17,024,000 viewers and Fiesta Bowl posted 12,306,000 viewers. The SEC Championship Game between Alabama and Georgia drew 16,228,000 viewers, according to the report.

Another SEC school in a championship game in the NCAA basketball tournament also posted high numbers as the Kentucky Wildcats game against Kansas drew 20,869,000 viewers.

Nielsen also analyzed how conference realignment affected ratings. According to the report, SEC games featuring Texas A&M and Missouri accounted for nine telecasts and earned an average of 3,926,000 viewers while SEC games featuring original SEC teams accounted for 28 telecasts averaging 3,957,000 viewers.

There is considerably more information in the Nielsen report. If you are interested in the business of sports and particularly college athletics, then check it out for more information on ad spending and how viewers are responding to broadcast network’s Saturday night college football games. You can access the report at Nielsen’s website.

Alabama Football Coach Nick Saban interviewed on SEC Digital Network live at SEC Spring Meetings in Sandestin

If you watched video of the SEC Spring Meetings then you likely watched it via the SEC Digital Network. The Digital Network live streamed interviews with coaches and SEC Commissioner Mike Slive during the first day of the annual meetings at the Sandestin Hilton. The live broadcast is part of how the SEC’s online presence has evolved since its Digital Network launched in 2009. This increased use of technology has led to greater coverage of sports like softball and gymnastics and the SEC Football Media Days.

This is a radical change to the delivery of sports news and entertainment content. It is truly disintermediation; the SEC is now in direct contact with its fans. In this case, the SEC has removed the middleman and gained greater revenue and a chance to shape the story through its partnership with XOS.

“Through the efforts of XOS, the SEC has been able to provide unparalleled coverage of its 20-sponsored sports and institutions on the internet,” SEC Associate Commissioner for Media Relations Charles Bloom said. “XOS’ technological means have allowed for increased video capability on the site and increased the league’s exposure using multi-media sources such as Smart TV, mobile applications and the affiliate network.”

In this Q&A with Ben Godwin, General Manager of the SEC Digital Network, you will find out how a live event is webcast, the reasons for doing these broadcasts, some history of the Digital Network and how the SEC and the Digital Network cooperate.

Q: The SEC Digital Network has increased its number of live events, what is driving the increase in live coverage?
Ben Godwin: “As you just heard the Commissioner speak this league has a following and a passion unlike any other. Fans want it 24/7, so we try to look at the SEC calendar and look at some of those events that maybe their larger partners have not been able to get into yet such as Media Days, the soccer championships, the Olympic sport championships that are available.

“From the Digital side from a live standpoint and a postproduction standpoint, we try to make sure we are there and covering and providing that exposure. It is really part of our charge, behind the huge TV packages to make sure we fill in the gaps where the conference needs additional coverage to complete the full network of coverage. On the Digital side, we are often filling in some of those gaps and making sure we are there to cover some of those events that maybe are a little bit smaller or a little more niche or have not been covered in the past.

“There has never been any coverage here at the Spring Meeting, so it is something cutting edge for us, but we are also developing new live content for the conference.”

Q: What goes into the production of these types of live streams?
Ben Godwin: “We really have two channels going. We have a typical live team that comes with the cameras and a live-stream setup and a pre-produced graphics package. The other channel is we work with the conference to prearrange all these guests. It looked like a live show with all these coaches just showing up, but all of that was pre-organized and time slotted working through their media relations department so we were able to fill out a schedule of 2 and ½ hours.

“Within that it was very strategic. We try to balance it out. Everything we do, and you hear this from a conference perspective, is balance from covering the different sports to making sure everybody gets exposure. As the Commissioner mentioned, everything they do is trying to share equally and that goes with coverage as well.”

Q: How many people are involved in a webcast like this and what type of infrastructure is needed to handle this type of broadcast?
Godwin: “Typically, it would take a production crew of three to four folks and we will have an editorial staff of one or two that will lineup guests, prepare questions and all the graphic and prep work done ahead of time. Then we will have one or two talent. So you are looking at anywhere from five to six people.”

Q: What was the first live event broadcast on the SEC Digital Network?
Godwin: “The Digital Network’s first live event was the 2009 SEC Soccer Championship from Orange Beach, which was a little bit of a challenge since it is a bit of a remote location. We will be back there again this fall. The championship match is on ESPNU, the semifinals and quarterfinals are not covered nationally on live television, so we broadcast them and will do so again this fall.

“When we talk about a stream, everything we do is streamed across a platform. The website just happens to be a channel. We have the mobile app. We have the SEC YouTube channel. We have an affiliate network that has 330 embedded players on partners across the country. The final platform is SmartTV. All of our SmartTV apps get a live feed. So, whenever we do a live stream, we are talking thousands and thousands of eyeballs across multiple platforms. It is not just on the website.”

Q: Is there a metric for how broad the exposure of your network?
Godwin: “We really look at metrics of impressions and user engagement and views to completion or length of engagement per stream.

“Our highest viewership is for SEC Media Days. We always have an exclusive live room of coverage at media days. We average about three minutes per viewer, which in live stream world with three minutes for each coach is very high per user to stay engaged. Normally, we average between 65,000-75,000 unique viewers in those three days. It is our highest traffic days and highest livestream event.

“We will (be back this year). We will have an exclusive room and get each coach for ten minutes. We will be the only live stream from that room. ESPN is also there, but they zip in and out.

“This is another thing, the Digital Network is directly involved and associated with the conference while sometimes ESPN has to move on and cover other things, other sports. We are solely focused on the SEC. Our goal is similar to an MLB Network or an NFL Network or NBA TV—go into depth that sometimes the national partners can’t provide that much coverage.”

Q: How independent is the SEC Digital Network from the conference?
Godwin: “There is a mix. We try to maintain a third-party production group, but at the same time we lean on the conference and they are there to help us at times grow and at events such as today helping us lineup guests, helping us reach out.

“We are the voice of the conference, but at the same time when it comes to topics, editorial, we have to be fair. We are treated as a media outlet at times. We don’t necessarily get special answers or news before anyone else. Do they help us with access at times and with helping lineup guests and access to do shows? Absolutely, they do treat us as the conference network. We also follow some of the same editorial procedures and guidelines as the everyday industry.”

Q: Who oversees the editorial?
Godwin: “We work directly with Charles Bloom, the associate commissioner of media relations and Commissioner Slive is involved. Typically, day-to-day we run all editorial through Charles Bloom.”

Q: You mentioned MLB Network. This seems to be a trend with conferences involved in the coverage.
Godwin: “Absolutely. It gives them an opportunity to tell. We are not always in the breaking news business. Sometimes ESPN needs to break the news, or all media needs to get the news at the same time. But we are an aspect of the conference that sometimes we can tell a story that maybe a national network cannot tell or does not have the time. If there is a great Olympic sport story or new coach or student-athlete experience that is involved with the community or academics, sometimes we can go and spend time and cover that.

“We get great interaction from the schools and from the Olympic sport coaches because they know we are out trying to generate stories that sometimes don’t get told.”

Q: When did the SEC Digital Network launch?
Godwin: “Fall of 2009. When (the SEC) redid the TV deal the first time around with CBS and ESPN, for the first time the conference brought its copyright in-house. Up until that point, the networks controlled it. The game ends on CBS and CBS controlled it. Now, everything moving forward and everything historic, the conference owns. The SEC needed some group to manage that and they also wanted a digital play and technical play, so that is where XOS came in as a digital and technical partner, but we are going to manage that copyright as well and go in and digitize all of that copyright and organize it for the conference.”

Q: Is there a way to gauge the value of the SEC Digital Network to the conference?
Godwin: “I think there are several ways. There are some that do not have a monetary value. Our charge is protect, archive and then somewhat monetize the conference copyright.

“So, over the past three-and-a-half years, we have transferred 25-30 years of archives from TBS, ESPN and Raycom to digitally stored archives. So protect and archive the conference history that is football, basketball, baseball, softball, Olympic sports in a digital format so they can always have a library the schools can access. Secondly, distribute and tell the stories of the SEC. That is fan engagement. And to create a new platform that is a little bit of a standalone conference network. Finally, to use technology. The conference’s charge to us was, ‘We don’t want to wake up in five years and be behind. We always want to be in front and exploring new technologies. Maybe it is figuring out YouTube and what is the best strategy for YouTube. What is the best strategy with mobile and tablet apps? We got in the game so early, we have been able to experiment with paid apps versus free apps and we now feel like we have a winning formula with our mobile and tablet apps. We have been able to always keep the conference at the cutting edge with technology and that is part of our charge.”

Q: How do you bring video and written content together?
Godwin: “What we have found with Twitter, with social media is that fans want more snackable content. Fans want continuous content. There is no offseason. There is no news cycle that is 9-5. Fans want content all the time. We have both with video and written content moved to snackable content. It may only be a paragraph or two, but is breaking news or constant news that with today’s social media you can almost take news to the fans and they don’t have to come to you.”

1. What goes into the production of a typical segment for the SEC Today?

Hannah Chalker: “The SEC Today is all about the fans. On a typical day I go in and usually go through the SEC Digital Network site to see what is going on, and that site really gives a lot of information about what is happening in the SEC right now. The first question I ask myself is, ‘What would fans most want to hear about today?’ because without the fans, the SEC doesn’t exist or the hype of it doesn’t exist.

“So, for me a typical morning is finding a story. Then what goes through my head next is, ‘Who can I interview? Who would know the most about this the sport, this topic or championship?’

“Then I go down the line of trying to track these people down, and that is always interesting. I literally will get thrown to ten different people. ‘Here talk to this media person. Here talk to this SID.’ You just go all down the line. It is either hit or miss. All you can do is ask. I’ve really stretched it. I know I’ve only been in the sports industry out of college for less than two years and I’ve really stretched my abilities and gone after some awesome interviews and I’ve gotten them. All you have to do is ask, and all they can say is ‘No.’ But most of them don’t say no and you get a really, really great story out of it.

“So, that is usually the hardest part—getting the interview. Then from there, I do the research and that can take a little bit of time too, write the script, get the set ready, report the news on camera, go behind the camera and transfer the files, produce the piece and then finally send it out to all platforms. So, it is kind of like an all day thing when you are doing it by yourself.”

2. Seems like it can be kind of irregular hours?

Hannah Chalker: “I was emailing Chrysta at 1:30 at night about stuff and she even said what is my new favorite quote, ‘Sports does not sleep.’

“Sports definitely does not sleep. We were up until 1:30 a.m. last night cutting the baseball highlights, producing pieces. You have to be ready when there is an SEC Baseball Championship months in advance and that your scheduled is clear that weekend. It is Memorial Day Weekend, but who cares. Work comes first. I know a lot of people don’t see that, but I am also new and hungry and humble, so clear the calendar for SEC baseball.

3. You have worked for Fox News, ESPN U and the SEC Network on television, how does the webcast compare to your experience in other types of broadcast?

Hannah Chalker: “It is a lot different. I know I worked with those three media outlets closely and it was so much fun. Hopefully, one day I can be somewhere major like that. With live news like that, everything has to be done timely and quickly. When stories break, you have to be ready if you are live tv production. People, fans in the public are expecting that news. They want the news now.

“With web it is fun because you get to sit back. You get to create the story. Instead of worrying about the timeliness, you get to think about the whole picture and the quality of the story rather than the speed of the story. You kind of get to sit back and gather your thoughts before releasing any information.

4. Your bio lists your job as Talent/Producer. The talent portion is clear, that is on-air work, but what does a producer do to create these reports?

Hannah Chalker: “I like to call my work with the SEC Digital Network 70-30. A lot of people would think, ‘Just another girl trying to get on camera.’ But that is not it at all. I take such pride in my producing. The 70-30 meaning, 70 percent production and 30 percent on camera work if even that. It could be 80-20.

“Although, I have greatly improved my on-camera delivery, I am really proud of my production skills. I know that I will produce a football hype piece or an NFL draft hype piece and people will be like, ‘That girl can edit and it is not even an on-camera piece.’ You lay down a piece of music, you cut some tracks and you get it to the music and match the sound up and it is one of those things that is like wow, I produced that one year out of college and one year in the industry and this is being embedded and picked up all over the place.

“I do a lot of producing and really what goes into it is the Nat sound, having a feel for the music and even though it is XOS, I mainly work with the SEC Digital Network and so I think graduating from an SEC school has really helped me with the kind of passion for my work in that way.”

5. This question we’ve asked people who worked for the on-air Big Ten Network and it is something of a growing trend— reporters working for the entities they cover. As a trained journalist with a bachelor’s degree from The Meek School of Journalism and New Media at the University of Mississippi, how do you balance reporting with working for the official online product of the SEC?

Hannah Chalker: “It is so hard being a journalist and fresh out of college when you know breaking news and you are sitting on it for weeks and you are just dying to get it out there to the public because that is what you just learned and that is what you are hungry for, but with the Digital Network it is also fun learning a different side, to sit on it, wait and create a quality story with interviews, sound bites, really sit back and make a quality story and releasing it rather than just pushing it out there.

“It is different. I like it. I absolutely love my job and I would not change anything about it. So, I think, I’ll have my chance for breaking news one day, but I would say that is the most difficult thing is having to sit on breaking news, but that is with any web company, I think.”

6. How is live reporting at an event like SEC Media Days different from studio work?

Hannah Chalker: “It is different. We’ve done a couple of live broadcasts at SEC Media Days and the SEC Championship Game and we are going to Media Days again this year. Last year we were trying to do a standup and you have fans waving in the background, screaming ‘Roll Tide Roll’ and finally, I was like, let’s get the fans involved in this. Let’s not do this standup in front of them, let’s get them involved.

“While we were on camera, I turned around and asked, of course I know what RTR stands for, but these people were yelling it, and I ask, ‘Hey guys, what does RTR stand for?’ And they all just yelled, ‘Roll Tide Roll.’ It was just so awesome. You kind of have to think in the moment. It is not prepared. Yeah, you could be prepared, but when things like that happen, you have to go on the fly. You have to have trust in your delivery. Trust in your cameraman, your producer to get the shot that you have in your head. I just went on the fly like that and was hoping he would follow me, and of course he was all over it. It is kind of things like that.”

7. Any memorable interview stories or events that you’ve covered?

Hannah Chalker: “My favorite story so far, we interviewed both Coach James Franklin and Coach Joker Phillips for a Black History Month piece. I am sure you know and lots of SEC fans know, it is a big milestone for the SEC with two African-American football coaches playing against each other for the first time last year in Vanderbilt-Kentucky. Of course, Vanderbilt won, but both were great sports. Called and had great conversations with both of them about it. It was on SEC Today. Interviewed them both, wrote the story, researched, pulled clips, had really great Nat sound of them shaking hands in the beginning. It was just a great story and definitely my favorite one.

“I had another favorite one. I have done a ton of these stories, but the two that stand out the most are that one and when I interviewed David Cutcliffe. With Eli Manning winning the Super Bowl, he was the former Ole Miss coach who recruited Eli and coached Eli and was at the Super Bowl still coaching Eli—not really, but Eli called him after the game. He talked about his whole experience with coaching him and watching him through his success. I stayed on the phone with him about an hour and just chatted. Completely cleared my schedule and it was one of those interviews that I will never forget. It was really cool.”

8. What can fans expect for the upcoming football season from you and the SEC Digital Network?

Hannah Chalker: “This is an awesome question because I personally cannot wait. On top of being the six-time defending national champs, potentially going for a seventh BCS title this year, I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but maybe, we are also adding two new institutions and two new fan bases with Missouri and Texas A&M. I know they are excited. We are excited and we are creating a bunch of SEC hype videos that will be going out.

“The SEC Digital Network is the number one source for SEC news. These fans, whether you are a seasoned fan, a new fan, people really need to be checking out our site. We are all over. We are always at every championship. We have exclusive interviews. All the reporters on the site, all of our bloggers, do a great job and it is all for the fans. The site wouldn’t exist without the fans. People need to be checking it out because it is all going up from here for the SEC Digital Network.”

Details of the new media deal with ESPN were released by ESPN and the ACC today. Of course, the ESPN press release left off the most important point—the cash. According to a Tweet from John Ourand, “ESPN’s new ACC deal comes out to 15 years for $3.6 billion. That comes out to a whopping $17M per school.”

The ESPN deal includes football, basketball and other sports including Olympic and women’s events. Of course, football and basketball are the most important revenue elements. Clearly, the expansion of basketball games available for television and football games helped sweeten the pot.

“The conference’s planned increase to an 18-game conference men’s basketball schedule and the additions of Pittsburgh and Syracuse will bring an increase of 30 conference men’s basketball games per year and two more conference tournament games,” according to the ESPN release. “In football, 14 more conference-controlled games will be televised each year. Per the extension, ESPN has the right to televise three Friday ACC football contests annually which will include a standing commitment from Boston College and Syracuse to each host one game as well as an afternoon or evening game on Thanksgiving Friday.”

The deal runs through 2026-2027.

What does this mean for the SEC?
This comes on the heels of a Broadcasting & Cable report that CBS was “getting substantial price increases for its Southeastern Conference schedule” for the upcoming football season.

What is driving the demand? Sipmly put, the SEC’s brand dominance.

According to the report, “CBS’ SEC package has a limited number of high-rated games with top-ranked teams and the threat of a potential sellout is pushing agencies to do business now and pay CBS’ price.”

This type of demand following conference expansion and the SEC’s talks with ESPN and CBS should serve as another boost to the SEC’s negotiations. Couple this with the bounty just given to the ACC, the SEC stands to gain substantially thanks to Mike Slive’s expansion with Missouri and Texas A&M

Here is the Q&A with Finebaum about the state of these SEC football programs relative to where they were four years ago.

Q: Is Alabama football better off today than four years ago?
Finebaum: “Yes, and maybe better off than it has ever been. That is a sacrilegious statement to make, and I only covered Coach Bryant’s last two years, but I really don’t know if Alabama has ever been more important in football.

“I may read this in a couple of days or weeks and wonder why I said what I just got through saying. Even Alabama in the mid-60s had other peers. I think Notre Dame was on the same level, Penn State, Texas and depending on the year, maybe Oklahoma. Alabama always had major competitors.

“I think, right now, Alabama is really standing alone in college football. If you say what is the most important program it is Alabama. If you say who is the most important coach it is Nick Saban. It is not like there is a debate. Even back then, as great as Coach Bryant was and I make no bones he was the greatest coach in college football history, but there were other people in the conversation, Ara Parseghian in the 60s, Bob Devaney, at other points Joe Paterno. Is there anyone else in the conversation right now? The answer is no.”

Q: Is Auburn football better off today than four years ago?
Finebaum: “I’d say Auburn is in better shape. Auburn four years ago was hemorrhaging. It had a paper tiger as a leader; it had someone who had checked out three or four years earlier. I think (Gene) Chizik is respected by a lot of people. There is reason to debate whether he will be overly successful, but I don’t think there is any debating the program is in better shape today than it was under Tuberville.”

Q: What about the some other SEC teams is LSU football better off today than four years ago?
Finebaum: “I think so, but I don’t think that is an easy answer to make. I think four years ago, they were in a transitional stage coming off a national championship and you really didn’t know where they were going. I think LSU is still a very prominent program under Les Miles as hard as it may be to believe. I think they are better off, yes.”

Q: Is Florida football better off today than four years ago?
Finebaum: “No, Florida is woefully worse off. Four years ago, Urban Meyer pretty much had the most important program in the country going, and now I don’t think Florida is going anywhere under Will Muschamp.”

Q: What about Tennessee?
Finebaum: “Tennessee is a train wreck. I hear from various people at Tennessee all the time, and I don’t think anyone believes Derek Dooley has a clue and I don’t think anyone believes Derek Dooley will be there in a year.”

This is part of our Q&A series with Paul Finebaum. You can read other installments including Finebaum’s thoughts on the decline of reporting and how many reporters get their leads from message boards like Tider Insider.

Different day, but the same routine from Nashville’s Travis.

Travis shared his opinion of Kentucky and the coach on Birmingham’s WJOX and Paul Finebaum replayed the piece during his popular afternoon show. You can listen at finebaum.com and pick the second installment of the podcast with C.M. Newton to hear all about it.

“I think Calipari is dirty as hell,” Travis said in the piece played on the Paul Finebaum Radio Network. “I believe he is buying players.”

The response from former Alabama basketball coach and former Kentucky Athletic Director C.M. Newton was vicious.

“Who is Clay Travis?” Newton asked. “I don’t even know him, and where the hell did he ever coach?”

If only everyone were as fortunate as Newton to not know about Clay Travis. For some unknown reason some people at WJOX love to promote Travis and his hate.

It is irresponsible.

Travis was exposed as a buffoon last season when he released photographs of Alabama players wearing suits. It was lame.

Since Travis failed as an Internet fashion reporter, he has moved on to attack Kentucky.

The Travis attack allowed Newton to present a defense of Calipari as a coach and a person.

“I know Cal,” Newton said. “And I know him very well. Is he smart and does get over into what I call the gray area, but he doesn’t step over the rules. He understands the rules. He understands the system…He is a very, very good man. He is an honest man.”

Kentucky fans should watch for Travis and his operatives (rival fans who hate Kentucky) to camp out at suit stores near campus in an effort to snap damning photographs of Kentucky players wearing mismatched socks.

On the other hand, maybe Travis will get busy in an effort to have Tennessee fire Coach Derek Dooley. I’m sure the folks in Knoxville would appreciate his help.

If only SEC fans had the luxury of not knowing Clay Travis! Unfortunately, WJOX insists on foisting him on the listening public.

The last year wasn’t good for Travis the fan. He launched the 2011 football season by attempting to get Alabama football players declared ineligible by posting pictures of various Crimson Tide players in suits. These photographs illustrated exactly nothing.

Nothing other than Travis’ obsession with black athletes and their sartorial choices.

Travis sucked as much at prognostication as he did at being a fashion reporter/investigative journalist. Just enjoy these lines from Travis’ December column after LSU won the SEC Championship Game: “That’s why the LSU Tigers are your 2011 AP National Champions. We don’t need them to play another game to prove that.” (SOURCE)

For the record, LSU was not the 2011 AP National Champions. I guess that is why we play the games and don’t take someone’s word for it.

Of course, Travis went further with his anti-Alabama hope: “Every single breathing person who isn’t wearing crimson-colored glasses — and even some Bama fans will admit it — knows that LSU is the best team in the country.” Oh, and this piece of excellence: “LSU could lose to Alabama and a 13-1 LSU team with a division and SEC title would still be better than a 12-1 Alabama team with a head-to-head split and a bowl win.”

Alabama 21 LSU 0.

A mauling. A thrashing.

And it wasn’t even as close as the score.

Travis did his best to harm Alabama in 2011, and all it yielded was another national championship trophy in Tuscaloosa—the ninth of the poll era and 14th total, and yet another loss by his beloved Tennessee Volunteers to the Alabama Crimson Tide.

Many Alabama fans naturally wonder what drives someone like Travis to such a lunatic obsession with the University of Alabama. We’ve been wondering the same thing about the Atlanta Journal Constitution’s weird Saban obsession. The basic answer is fear, but there is more to Clay’s rage.

The answer is in Clay’s own writings. Travis confesses Alabama made him cry.

Travis admitted, “Throughout my youth, year after year, Alabama beat Tennessee. It didn’t matter how bad the teams Bama trotted out wearing crimson jerseys were, the Tide won. That culminated in a 9-6 loss in 1990, a defeat so crushing that it represented the last time I ever cried over a sporting event.” (SOURCE)

Based on Clay’s rage, one doubts that was the last time he cried over a football game.

The 2012 BCS Championship Game was likely the most recent in his seasons of tears. Five straight losses by his beloved Volunteers to the Alabama Crimson Tide have turned Travis into a full-time crybaby on a mission. He tried to hurt Alabama with those lame pictures. When that didn’t work, Travis turned his attention to the dangerous influence of Nick Saban and Alabama within the Tennessee Athletic Department.

Travis wants to purge the Saban influence by firing coach Derek Dooley and getting rid of all those other persons tainted by an association with Alabama or Saban—persons like athletic director Dave Hart.

Another loss by his beloved Tennessee team might send him over the edge into further McCarthyesque witch hunts in Knoxville.

Here is hoping it happens this football season.

Typical for the Atlanta paper and pathetic.

Carvell showed his true motives when he quotes two respected sources (Mr. SEC and Every Day Should Be Saturday) but included reaction from four enemies of Alabama football. Those enemies are a Yankee that knows nothing about football, two Auburn fans with one disguised on CBSsports.com and the other at the independent source of information operated by smear-expert Jeffery Lee, and the AJC’s own Jeff Schultz—as we’ve already established, the AJC has a history of anti-Alabama bias going back to its employment of libel-writing, “Bear” Bryant-hating Furman Bisher.

Journalistic standards? Don’t look for that at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. What you will find at the AJC is an anti-Alabama marketing campaign driven by fear of the colossus that is Nick Saban.

Carvell is sad that he and his cohorts won’t be able to market four-year scholarships as a wedge to drive recruits against Alabama since Saban carefully negated that anti-Alabama marketing strategy.

There is a long list of rules and plans to unseat Nick Saban as the king of college football recruiting. Have any of those plans slowed Saban down? Remember the Saban Rule? He just used technology to get more face time with recruits. The sad thing is that a four-year scholarship won’t hurt established programs like Alabama. This four-year plan will harm teams with the greatest need to do roster management, ie: teams not named Alabama and LSU.

These plans only serve to make coaches like Nick Saban more valuable. Saban is his own brand with enormous name recognition among recruits. Recruits know that Saban is a path to the NFL—for confirmation just look at the NFL draft. Saban has stockpiled some of the best talent in the nation and separated himself by winning three BCS crowns. He works harder, and more importantly, smarter than his rivals.

Marketing campaigns assisted by the lame AJC won’t slow Saban down.

All it does is make newspapers look worse than fan-run websites. And media experts wonder why there is declining trust of newspapers.

Alabama’s tough coach wasn’t up to the panty-wearing, progressive thinking of the New South’s newspaper of record and its libel-writing sports reporter Furman Bisher. So, what better way to punish Alabama than to criticize one of the best college football coaches? The Atlanta sportswriters began a wholesale war on Alabama over what Bisher described as “brutal” football.

Bryant believed the Atlanta media was out to destroy him, and according to Bryant biographer Allen Barra, “As for the Atlanta writers trying to destroy him, future events would indicate that Bryant was not entirely paranoid,” (The Last Coach, p. 254).

Atlanta Journal sportswriter Bisher’s fingerprints were all over the Saturday Evening Post’s smear that accused Paul W. “Bear” Bryant and Wally Butts of fixing the Alabama-Georgia game. Bryant was quoted as saying, “the story was so wrong, so filled with errors…” (SOURCE: SI). One of the most damning comments about Bisher as a journalist was this, according to Bryant, “Of course, neither Bisher or anybody else ever came around to ask me about all this stuff beforehand.”

Ouch. So much for any journalistic ethics or getting the other side of the story. How could the Atlanta Journal-Constitution continue to employ Furman Bisher after he wrecked the Saturday Evening Post by working on the libelous anti-Bryant campaign? Was there an agenda at play at the AJC?

As Bisher demonstrated, never let the truth get in the way of a good smear against Alabama or Bear Bryant.

The latest attack on the Alabama Crimson Tide and Coach Nick Saban is eerily similar to past Atlanta smears on Alabama. Anyone reading the recruiting dispatches of Atlanta sportswriter Michael Carvell should note the similarity to the infamous Furman Bisher’s smears on legendary Alabama coach Paul W. “Bear” Bryant.

Bisher alleged Bryant “discarded athletes” and would call these players “riff raff” when they were no longer of any use to the Alabama coach (Source: The Last Coach, p. 266).

Carvell has a definite anti-Saban and anti-Alabama bias that demonstrates itself in his recruiting coverage. Carvell attempted to turn the Darius Philon and Justin Taylor grayshirt offers into a “Grayshirt scandal.” According to Carvell, Alabama’s Nick Saban didn’t need these guys who were injured once Alabama “upgraded” at the positions. (SOURCE: AJC).

In other words, Saban is leaving behind a trail of discarded athletes.

The anti-Alabama Birmingham News led by an Auburn-fan publisher and its website al.com were only too happy to contribute to the attack on Nick Saban and Alabama over the grayshirting offers.

But shoddy reporting is nothing new to the pro-Auburn media in this state. Shoddy reporting is nothing new to Atlanta either.

What is new is the extent that newspapers have turned to the Internet to spread their agenda. Using their blogs and column postings the anti-Alabama Birmingham News/Mobile Press-Register/Huntsville Times and the Atlanta Journal Constitution work as an echo chamber shouting their propaganda louder and louder into the Internet’s ether.

Carvell is not as bad as Bisher’s smear attacks, but his actions are transparent. In a reckless attempt to get hits to his website, Carvell will say bad things about Saban in an attempt to agitate both Alabama and Georgia fans. He attacks Saban to get a rise out of Alabama fans, and he intimates that Mark Richt isn’t working hard enough in order to get Georgia fans worried, ie: “Unfortunately for UGA, Mark Richt was not available to meet Foster or the other star-studded recruits in person because he reportedly out of town for family reasons.” (SOURCE: AJC)

Carvell is committed to trying to stop Saban’s raid of the state of Georgia for football talent. Carvell’s feckless attack today was to accuse Saban of trying to “steal” one of UGA’s star commitments while one of Alabama’s commitments continues to “flirt” with UGA’s coaches. (SOURCE: AJC). In other words, that mean old Nick Saban doesn’t respect commitments and will say anything to get them to commit to Alabama.

It didn’t stop “Bear” Bryant in the 1960s and it won’t stop Nick Saban today. Bluntly, the Atlanta newspapers just don’t matter enough to slow down Saban.

Alabama Fax Girl from National Signing Day 2011 Fax Cam

The University of Alabama will use Tide TV to present coverage of Alabama’s 2012 National Signing Day. Anchoring the live coverage will be Chris Stewart and Christopher England. Unfortunately, there is no mention of Fax Girl in this year’s coverage package. There will be a stream of the updating commitment board, and that means there might still be a slim element of hope. That stream goes live at 7 a.m. and is separate from the 9 a.m.-11 a.m. show.

Here is the official release via UA Media Relations:

TideTV will Air National Signing Day Show from 9-11 a.m. Wednesday

Alabama head coach Nick Saban will meet the media at 4 p.m. in the Naylor Stone Media Room
The University of Alabama will produce a two-hour National Signing Day Show on TideTV that can be viewed from 9-11 a.m. on RollTide.com and beginning at 11 a.m. on WVUA. Alabama head coach Nick Saban will then wrap up the day’s proceedings with a press conference at 4 p.m. in the Naylor Stone Media Room.

The TideTV production will be hosted by Chris Stewart and will include biographical information on the signee as well as video highlights. Joining Stewart will be TideTV’s Christopher England, who will introduce Alabama’s latest signee and have phone interviews with a select group of those signees.

There will also be a separate stream of the “Big Board” that will give fans immediate knowledge of the Crimson Tide’s latest letters of intent. The “Big Board” stream will go live at 7 a.m. on TideTV.

ESPN will also be on site in Tuscaloosa and reporting throughout the day with live signing day coverage.

Biographical information and links to signee highlights will be immediately available at RollTide.com. The latest NLIs will also be tweeted out @AlabamaFTBL and posted to Facebook at Alabama-Football as soon as they are available.

Compare that with other morning sports talk shows where the standard conversation is “Uhm.”

Over the last couple of weeks, I listened to several hours of the show and came away impressed with both Alabama’s Eli Gold and Auburn’s Stan White.

Eli Gold’s interest in sports is deep and diverse. He can speak intelligently about a range of sport topics. One segment featured college football (with an emphasis on the Alabama and Auburn coordinator searches), pro football and baseball.

The coordinator situation at Alabama allowed Eli and Stan to discuss potential ramifications on the BCS National Championship Game.

One of the best examples of Eli’s ability as an interviewer happened last week prior to the Poinsettia Bowl game between TCU and Louisiana Tech. Eli asked Louisiana Tech broadcast crewmember Dave Nitz about the difference between Sonny Dykes and former coach Derek Dooley. The answer provided insight not only on Dykes, but on Dooley’s serious and business-like approach to coaching. It was a small detail in a larger interview about a college football game, but it provided insight into the psychology of a rival SEC coach.

Stan White always has something to contribute to the conversation. Want to talk about conditioning for LSU heading into the BCS National Championship Game? Stan White is prepared to offer his opinion from a football player’s perspective. Want to talk about tonight’s bowl game between Baylor and Washington? White will share his thoughts that RG3 will dominate. Want to talk about concussions in football? Stan White has experience with that and will share his opinion on that too—players in the NFL are paid for taking the risks associated with playing the game.

This is one reason that Eli Gold and Stan White work. They can have an intelligent conversation about sports without resorting to the nonsense on display on certain other morning shows.

Your football intellect improves when listening to Eli and Stan.

Here is video of Erin Andrews after getting showered with Gatorade as Baylor defeated Oklahoma. Andrews shared this Youtube video via her twitter (SOURCE).

And she shared this image also via twitter:

Erin Andrews after a Gatorade Bath following Baylor's win over Oklahoma

Speaking of Erin Andrews, in case you missed the Country Music Awards here are a few images of ESPN’s sideline reporter dazzling fans.

Erin Andrews dazzling in sexy dress at CMA photo via Twitter

And one more Erin Andrews photograph from the CMAs. This one backstage.

Erin Andrews backstage CMA

That is the question that should be on the mind of fans thanks to the errant publication of a press release and series of stories from the SEC and its SEC Digital Network about Missouri’s acceptance into the Southeastern Conference.

The documents released even included a Q&A with Tony Barnhart.

Maybe our questions should be, what did Mr. College Football know and when did he know it?

Since Tony Barnhart was quoted in some of the errant documents posted by the SEC’s website, it makes one wonder about his role as a journalist.

Is Barnhart an employee of the SEC or a journalist? What is his role on CBS?

Since the postings were dated October 22, Mr. College Football must have known for some time.

According to the Columbia Daily Tribune’s website, Barnhart had this to say about Missouri’s joining the SEC in a Q&A feature: “I think people have to remember that, as recently as 2007, Missouri was ranked No. 1 and in a position to play for the national championship,” Barnhart responds. “If they beat Oklahoma in the Big 12 Championship game, they were in a position to play for it all. Gary Pinkel has been as consistent of a coach as they’ve ever had. Missouri knows what good football looks like.
“The thing that people keep asking: ‘Is Missouri a cultural fit?’ I don’t think there’s any question that they are. People forget that there were questions about South Carolina and Arkansas. South Carolina had always been in the ACC or an independent, and Arkansas had been a founding member of the Southwest Conference, as far west as they were. People wondered if they would be a cultural fit. Once you bring somebody into the SEC family, after 3-4 years from now, that question will never be raised. They become a part of that family by being invited.”

Can we trust Barnhart to be an unbiased source? Or, is Mr. College Football a pro-SEC talking head?

You can thank the new media order for this. A generation ago, there was a clear line between reporters and the organizations they covered.

Today, these barriers aren’t so clear.

In some respects, the NFL and major college conferences like the SEC and schools like Alabama have succeeded in disintermediation; there are fewer barriers between consumers of information and the sports owners.

Today, Alabama can tweet its press release or the NFL commissioner can post a letter that reaches the masses without the filter of the New York Times or ABC/ESPN.

With new conference networks and digital properties, conferences can earn dollars from covering themselves. In some ways, this is good. Fans have more access to information about the NFL than ever before with the emergence of the NFL Network and the NFL’s excellent website.

Of course, the coverage could be shaped by the person who writes the checks, but fans know this when they visit the site.

But what about fans who watch these journalists on CBS or listen to their calls on sports radio shows like Paul Finebaum?

No doubt, this new media order causes headaches for journalists who now answer to many different employers.

This isn’t a perfect world, and the latest SEC and Missouri news shows just how confusing it can be.

UPDATE: Today Mr. College Football tweeted about his answers in the Q&A. According to Barnhart’s tweet, “Fair question. I was asked by XOS to respond to a hypothetical of Mizzou joining SEC. Had no inside knowledge or would have reported it.” (Source)

Fair enough. However, it doesn’t really eliminate the questions about reporters who work for conferences directly or indirectly on these conference channels and conference-owned websites.

Brooks posted a long list of documents showing that Trent Richardson’s family moved to Alabama. This move was something the Pensacola newspaper already reported. Why the need to post all those useless documents? Who knows. It wasn’t a secret. But, this is where it gets interesting.

And very disturbing.

Brooks writes, “With the Richardson family of modest means, it isn’t unreasonable to think that the the (sic) funding of their now-documented move from Pensacola to various locations within the state of Alabama may be outside of NCAA rules.” (Source)

It isn’t?

By Brooks logic, we can reasonably assume that poor people can’t afford to move?

Or, is it that black people can’t afford to move?

Or, maybe poor black people?

Which is it? Because a couple of these reveals a serious problem in the author of this Internet nonsense.

With Brooks’ assertion it isn’t unreasonable to assume he is a racist.

People of “modest means” can afford to do more than you think. Living in Leeds, Alabama is not expensive–it isn’t Vestavia Hills or Mountain Brook or even Hoover. How difficult is it to rent a home? I know people of “modest means” do it on a daily basis. How expensive is it to move? Even poor people can find ways to do it.

Brooks needs to move beyond the plantation mentality and realize this is a new age. It is an age where black people can do all sorts of things. Even when they are of “modest means.”

This latest post by Brooks is disturbing.