Our Long National Nightmare is Over

David Perno fired Pitching Coach Brady Wiederhold after four seasons. This year, the Georgia Bulldogs had arms. Five Bulldog pitchers were drafted in the most recent MLB draft. However, the team had an absolutely absurd team ERA of 8.51 (8.48 in SEC play...so it was always bad...not just on weekdays) which was 12th best in the SEC. The 11th best pitching staff in the league had a team ERA of 6.92 and the 10th had an ERA of 5.88.

The low light for me was the 14 walk performance against Georgia Tech in Athens. The team had given up 12 walks before the end of the 5th inning, and the team's "closer" surrendered 3 consecutive walks after entering the game with the bases loaded.

When your ERA is 2.63 runs per game out of 10th place in your league, you're terrible. It would be different if there was no talent at that position. But that certainly wasn't the case.

I sincerely like Coach Perno, and I respect what he has accomplished overall in Athens. But this needed to be done. Badly. Rebuilding the pitching staff will take time, but this was the biggest no brainer termination in Athens in quite some time. Hopefully, more systemic changes are coming because there were problems with last year's team beyond just the pitching coach.

Onward and upward,

PWD

Your Expansion Update

For a situation in constant flux, here's your morning update:

• Last night the Houston Chronicle reported that the Texas A&M Board of Regents will meet as early as Thursday to vote to join the Southeastern Conference. The other Big XII schools are expected to join the Pac 10. AggieSports.com points out that all eyes are on TAMU this week.
  
  
• The Texas legislature really wants everyone to take a deep breath and slow down. That's one of the reasons they've set up Wednesday hearings on this to find out what's going on and why.
  
  
• One Aggie blogger weighs in on the possibility of losing the series with Texas. Personally, I don't think it will come to that...regardless of what league everyone ends up in.
  
  
• And Rivals.com weighs in on expansion as it relates to recruiting.

PWD

Hold that Dial

Orangebloods.com (who has been all over conference expansion like no one else) says that Texas is considering a proposal to keep the Big 12 together as a 10 team league. I still don't understand why the Big 12 AD is being so reactive in this. Why not offer Cincy and Louisville to replace Colorado and Nebraska? You'd be adding two new media markets and two quality basketball programs who badly need a home.

PWD

Like shooting fish in a barrel

This comment thread is too good to pass up.

PWD

Texas A&M Considering SEC

It's going to be very tough to pull off, but we're hearing that Texas A&M is receptive to joining the SEC with or without Texas. And the Longhorns, Sooners, Red Raiders and Cowboys are considering the Pac-10 offer with or without Texas A&M.

It'll be very hard for the Aggies to leave without Texas. They would likely need a commitment from Texas that they could still play each every year, but Gene Stallings and the TAMU president are looking at the SEC vs. Pac-10 decision in a very logical manner.

From the standpoint of distance for non-revenue sports and cultural fit, the move to the SEC is a no brainer. From a revenue standpoint, it's no worse than break even given that the Aggies would be able to sign their own TV / electronic rights deal outside of the SEC contract like UGA and Florida have ... both having long term deals worth more than $90 million.

If only the Aggies were added, the SEC would look to the East for the final piece of the puzzle with the most discussed name being Virginia Tech.

In my opinion, a 14 team SEC would move to a nine game conference schedule including a 6-1-2 rotation. All traditional cross divisional rivalries would be kept in place. The only sacrafice the league would be making would be in the area of non-conference scheduling. It would be incredibly difficult for schools like UGA, Florida and South Carolina to schedule non-conference games beyond their non-conference in state rivals and play a nine team SEC slate. But if we were adding Va Tech and Texas A&M to the mix....who cares about playing Oregon.

See Also:
-- The rift in Texas - Sportsline
-- Aggies listening to SEC - Orlando Sentinel
-- Texas has to listen to SEC - Tony Barnhart
-- A&M considering SEC - Sporting News
-- Texas won't hang around - ESPN
-- 16 team conference TV deals not a slam dunk - CNBC

PWD

Perno on Draftees & Coaching Changes

Coach Perno discussed the MLB draft's impact on the incoming baseball recruiting class with 960 The Ref Monday. The interview can be heard here. We're almost sure to lose RHP Ralston Cash, but Perno sounds optimistic on the rest of the drafted kids, including RHP Drew Cisco. We still have some recruiting to do with these guys, but Perno thinks the kids will hold fast for big money. If they don't get it, Perno thinks they'll play college ball rather than give in to the minors. Perno also noted that a lot of the big shot recruits we either didn't go after or went after and lost, all went high in the draft and are likely going to the minors instead of college.

Assistant coaching changes were raised in the interview, but Perno sounded like there won't be any. I hope these incoming pitchers have some serious talent.

Quinton

It's Official: Colorado Joins the Pac 10

The Pac 10 conference announced today that The Colorado Buffaloes are joining their conference. This announcement was made moments ago. (Source: ESPN). This is on top of the likely news within the next 48 hours that Nebraska is joining the Big 10.

According to ESPN (and this was also discussed last night by Pete Thamel of the NYTimes):

Texas and Texas A&M officials are scheduled to meet [today] at an undisclosed location to discuss the future of their athletic programs and the Big 12 amid speculation the league could be raided by rival conferences and broken apart.

Things are moving very quickly. One of the big problems with expanding to 16 teams is...how do you keep fans happy when they are fewer titles to go around? Well, the Pac 10 may have dreamed up a very obnoxious answer to that question (ht - blutarsky):

The coach said it's possible the Pac-16 would push for two automatic bids to the BCS, one for each division champion. That potential bonanza could open the possibility of the two division champs from one league playing for the national title, and it would eliminate the need for a conference championship game.

"The Pac-10 doesn't believe in a championship game," the coach said. "And coaches in the Big 12 don't like it anyway."

If they move in that direction, the Pac 10 is essentially not a single conference at all. It's a modified version of the Pac 8 meets the Southwest Conference in a marriage for TV purposes only.

Imagine the SEC applying this thinking and expanding to 16. You'd have a league whereby the SEC East and SEC West champs both earned a BCS slot automatically, but there would be absolutely no "settling it on the field" in that scenario as the two division champs wouldn't meet in Atlanta. Bizarre.

See Also:
-- Texas A&M and the SEC in talks? - SI.com
-- Scrambling to save the Big XII - NY Times

PWD