The ongoing saga of college football realignment has gotten our buddies at SBNation.com thinking about how best to conceptualize the arms race to acquire the most valuable teams and array them in the most valuable constellations, and Jason Kirk's analysis of the values of college football teams to conferences from Monday is just about the best piece to come out of that effort.
And it's not just because Florida's second in the list of most valuable teams.
The Gators earn a composite 9.61 average, well behind No. 1 Texas' 6.53 but just enough to edge out No. 3 Ohio State's 9.67, and Florida's terrific marks in revenue and all-sports success pace the Gators. You can read Kirk's methodology, which I think does a really good job of combining all the disparate factors that go into ranking colleges' athletic programs, but it's far more important to do things like laugh at the rest of the SEC (Florida's the only top-five program), Florida State (No. 20 overall, and dragged down by a hilariously high academics rating that is the largest of any team in the top 33 of Kirk's rankings), I think.
Go take a look at Kirk's piece to see the full rankings, then come back here and tell me: Is Florida being overrated by this accounting, or are the Gators being assessed correctly?
You would be forgiven for paying attention to things other than the ongoing negotiations that are hammering out the playoff phase of the Bowl Championship Series' future this Friday, but there was big news from the SEC and Big 12 today: the two conferences announced a five-year agreement to pit their conference champions against each other in a bowl game on New Year's Day if those conference champions fail to reach the four-team playoff that is coming in 2014. And if those conference champions do make the national semifinals — as would have been the case for at least one of the two conferences' champions in every year of the BCS' existence — then the SEC and/or Big 12 would send "another deserving team" to the game.
That's important because it establishes the SEC and Big 12 as partners in the future of college football just like the Big Ten and Pac-12 — partners in keeping the Rose Bowl breathing and future all-sports competitors — and because it's the SEC and Big 12 making an end run around the current BCS bowls to establish the ground rules for their own game.
If the SEC and Big 12 feel comfortable hashing out accords that theoretically affect the Sugar (which currently gets the SEC champion in years in which the SEC champion doesn't play for the BCS title), Fiesta (same as Sugar with Big 12), and Capital One (traditional first pick beyond SEC BCS representatives) bowls at the very least, they realize they hold most of the bargaining power going forward.
But for Florida, this is only minimally relevant, and mostly as confirmation that they remain in the catbird's seat as one of the SEC's premier programs.
Florida redshirt sophomore defensive tackle Leon Orr was cited for knowingly driving without a license on Monday, as first reported by Gator Country's Thomas Goldkamp. The citation is available on the Alachua County Clerk of Courts website.
The citation is Orr's fifth run-in with the law in Alachua County since June 2010: he was cited for operating a vehicle with an expired license in June 2010; cited for operating a vehicle with a suspended license, a second-degree misdemeanor, in February 2011; issued a speeding ticket in November 2011; arrested on two misdemeanor marijuana possession charges in January 2012, and cited for knowingly operating a vehicle without a valid license, a second-degree misdemeanor, on Monday. An arraignment is set for June 6 in Orr's most recent case.
Under the terms of Orr's deferred prosecution agreement, he was bound to either pay a $150 fine or perform 12.5 hours of community service, and also obey all laws for six months. That case remains open in Alachua County, and it is unclear what effect Orr's Monday citation will have on it.
Orr's four misdemeanor charges have come in just 15 months; former Florida cornerback Janoris Jenkins' three arrests on four misdemeanor charges, one later dropped, came over the course of 23 months.
SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Rankings 2011
The Florida Gators come in at No. 27 in the post-spring BlogPoll, getting nudged out for the final spot in the top 25 by a Washington team last seen allowing five billion points (roughly) to Baylor in the bowl season and for No. 26 by Louisville. For the trusty Alligator Army ballot, hit the jump.
In news that is neither all that surprising to or damaging for fans of Florida football, UF announced that rising sophomore linebacker Graham Stewart will transfer after the end of the the spring semester, likely to be closer to his family.
Stewart also becomes the first Will Muschamp recruit to transfer from Florida, and the 12th to leave the Florida program since Muschamp was hired to replace Urban Meyer. A graduate of Xavier, Connecticut's Middletown High, Stewart was a four-star prospect according to Rivals and one of the final recruits in Muschamp's Class of 2011, his first as Florida's head coach.
If you were one of the approximately two Gators fans wondering where John Brantley would end up in the wake of the 2012 NFL Draft, wonder no more! Via Robbie Andreu:
Florida quarterback John Brantley just signed a free-agent contract with the Baltimore Ravens. Sounds very excited about the opportunity.
— Robbie Andreu (@RobbieAndreu) April 28, 2012
Brantley will go down as perhaps Florida's most star-crossed quarterback of the modern era. He came to Florida as a five-star recruit with all the promise in the world, and served as Tim Tebow's understudy, beating out eventual Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton for that role. But injuries and a scheme that he didn't fit hamstringing him as a junior in 2010 and injuries and a team bereft of talent sideswiped his 2011, leaving Brantley with only the 2012 Gator Bowl as his signature win.
Brantley should compete with Joe Flacco for the starting j ... I can't do that, even in jest. He'll be trying to beat out Tyrod Taylor and Curtis Painter for backup roles with Baltimore.
First-round projections for Janoris Jenkins have been fewer and further between of late, so it was a surprise to see Jenkins go in the first round of SB Nation's 2012 NFL Mock Draft. Here's what Pride of Detroit, the Lions blog that snagged the former Florida corner, has to say about their pick.
As tempting as it was to go defensive line in the first round for the Lions for the third year in a row and select somebody like defensive end Whitney Mercilus, I couldn't pass up the chance to improve the Lions' secondary. A year ago, when it was suspected that Janoris Jenkins would go pro, many people had predicted the Lions to take him with the 13th overall pick. Then he decided to stay in school and ultimately landed at North Alabama after being kicked out of Florida.
There are definitely several character concerns surrounding Jenkins, but the Lions have a very strong locker room, especially on defense. There are a lot of leaders on the team who would take Jenkins under their wing, and he is talented enough to select, even with the concerns. He has been compared to Asante Samuel, who the Lions nearly acquired last summer and were briefly linked to at the end of March. Rather than give up a few draft picks and a high salary to trade for Samuel, the Lions' best bet is to draft a player like Jenkins. He would fill a big need at cornerback and immediately improve the Lions' pass defense.
I don't know that I would put Jenkins in a locker room that includes as many strong personalities as the Lions locker room so casually, and I know that I'd be particularly leery about taking a guy with a documented problem with hiding his marijuana use from the law just a few weeks after Nick Fairley got hit with a possession charge, but Jenkins' talent is undeniable. And if the Lions do pick him, I'm going to groan, because I know he'll pick off Aaron Rodgers at some point.
Ronald Powell was the crown jewel of Florida's superb 2010 recruiting class, one of the nation's best defenders and a guy who aced the eye test in a split second. But Powell's struggled to make a consistent impact with the Gators, only coming on late last fall and, by many accounts, in this year's spring practice. That progress got sideswiped by fate on Saturday, however, as Powell suffered a torn ACL injury in his left knee, and will miss four to six months, according to GatorZone's Scott Carter.
Powell left the 2012 Orange and Blue Debut in the first half after apparently sustaining a knee injury, and did not return to the game. No further information was made available about his injury at that time, with Will Muschamp holding out hope that it would be no more than a sprain. That wasn't the case.
"Ronald is in good spirits and is very eager to do whatever is necessary to have a healthy, speedy recovery," Muschamp said Monday morning. "He has already started with prehab and once the swelling goes down and he regains his range of motion, he will have the surgery."
Powell missing four to six months would put his timetable for return at the beginning of fall practice in August at best and the beginning of Florida's October slate at worst, and he could be far from 100 percent for the fall even if he can return to the Gators swiftly.
Powell started 12 games in 2011, and accumulate 32 tackles and a team-high six sacks. His replacement at the Buck position could be anyone from Michael Taylor to early enrollee Antonio Morrison, one of the stars of the spring, to incoming freshmen Dante Fowler or Alex McCalister. Without Powell, possibly the best pure talent on Florida's roster, the Gators' defense could be severely diminished this fall.
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