Success With Hyperlinking Is Hitting The Books

And away he goes.

"Student-Athlete." Both a student and an athlete. What a novel concept. The NCAA has used APR (Academic Progress Rate) for years to track the classroom performance of each member school's student-athletes. Schools could be penalized for having an APR below 900 over a rolling four year span, but those penalties never had any affect on the on-field product until the third consecutive year of a sub-900 APR (For a full explanation and list of penalties, consult here). That's changing, as the NCAA has decided that from now on, an APR below 930 will leave an institution ineligible for post-season competition, including bowl games. For those of you wondering, the APR scores for the Penn State football team between the academics years 2006/2007 and 2009/2010 are 964, 976, 974 and 972. To look up any other programs, go here.

WE'RE SERIOUS THIS TIME, YOU GUYS! The rumors of Texas A&M heading to the SEC have been percolating for quite some time, but were fully brought to a head Thursday night when AggieYell, the TAMU Rivals site, ran with the headline "GOOD BYE, BIG 12. Yep, that's confirmation. What hasn't been confirmed is whether they're full of crap or not, as this is the same site that said A&M-to-the-SEC was a done deal last year. If this move does come to pass (and it seems right now like it's only a matter of time), this could trigger some serious national realignment. However, any move would have to be approved by the A&M Board of Regents on August 22nd. Until then, we'll wait and see if AggieYell has any shred of credibility left. NOW WHO WANTS TO TALK ABOUT SUPERCONFERENCES FOR THE NEXT THREE WEEKS/MONTHS/YEARS?!

Eep. Alabama linebacker Dont'a Hightower broke his hand in practice Thursday. He'll be participating in practice today without missing any time. My thoughts:

/tips cap. This is going to be Howard Schnellenberger's last season coaching college football. The man is a legend, and he almost single-handedly changed the way that college football programs recruit, all while building a small private school into a national power in Miami. He also has a mustache so thick and luxurious that pictures of it are used as currency in most third world countries. It's been real, Schnelly.

Kevin Wilson is just so. damn. real. Sports radio idiocy should be treated with this level of disdain at all times. No it wasn't professional, but I appreciate the fact that he's not willing to endure potshots at his program.

Bad math. The USA Today preseason Sagarin rankings have been released. Ohio State is #3 and Florida is #6. BRB, hitting Jeff Sagarin's computers with a cricket bat until the evil ceases.