CBS releases 2013 SEC Game of the Week schedule, opens with Alabama vs. Texas A&M

Gary Danielson and Verne Lundquist return for another year of college football on CBS. Photo: CBS Sports

CBS is entering its 13th season broadcasting SEC football and this one is going to start with what could be the game of the year. The CBS SEC Game of the Week coverage begins Saturday, September 14 with the much-anticipated match-up of SEC West powers, Alabama and Texas A&M. The Aggies, of course, stunned the eventual BCS champions last year in Tuscaloosa so Nick Saban and his Tide will be looking for revenge. And you never want to face Saban under those circumstances, right? The game between potential BCS championship contenders (dare we say BCS Championship Preview?) kicks off at 3:30 pm Eastern in College Station, Texas.

In addition to 16 SEC games during the regular season, which includes a pair of double headers and the SEC Championship Game, CBS will also air the annual Army-Navy Game, Navy’s home game against Air Force, and the Sun Bowl. Each CBS broadcast will be led in to by a half hour edition of College Football Today to get caught up on the early action and preview the games still to be played. Here is the full CBS schedule at the moment, as provided by CBS Sports in a press release today:

• September 14: Alabama at Texas A&M (3:30 PM)
• September 21: SEC Game of the Week (Teams TBA, 3:30 PM)
• September 28: SEC Game of the Week (Teams TBA, 3:30 PM)
• October 5: Air Force at Navy (11:30 AM), SEC Game of the Week (Teams TBA, 3:30 PM)
• October 12: SEC Game of the Week (Teams TBA, 3:30 PM)
• October 19: SEC Doubleheader (Teams TBA, 12 PM, 3:30 PM)
• October 26: SEC Game of the Week (Teams TBA, 3:30 PM)
• November 2: SEC Game of the Week (Teams TBA, 3:30 PM)
• November 9: SEC Doubleheader (Teams TBA, 3:30 PM, 8 PM)
• November 16: SEC Game of the Week (Teams TBA, 3:30 PM)
• November 23: SEC Game of the Week (Teams TBA, 3:30 PM)
• November 29 (Friday): Arkansas at LSU (2:30 PM)
• November 30: SEC Game of the Week (Teams TBA, 3:30 PM)
• December 7: SEC Championship Game (4 PM)
• December 14: Army-Navy Game (3 PM)
• December 31: Sun Bowl (2 PM)

The future of CBS Sports and their place in SEC broadcast emphasis should be interesting to watch in the coming years. When ESPN debuts the SEC Network in August 2014 the network has a chance to become the true voice of the conference. It appears as though CBS is keeping a hold on their place covering games of the week, but long will that last as ESPN and the SEC Network move forward?

College Football Notebook – May 22, 2013

The American wants a bowl game too

If baseball won’t fill the seats, might as well give football a shot.

The SEC and Big 12 have their deal with the Sugar Bowl. The Big Ten and Pac 12 have the Rose Bowl. The ACC has a deal to stay in Miami with an Orange Bowl spot reserved. Now The American wants to stay in Miami as well, despite being essentially locked out of the Orange Bowl. With no spot available in the Orange Bowl, The American is looking to create a brand new bowl game, with Marlins Park potentially serving as the host site according to a report by Tampa Bay Times reporter Greg Auman.

The idea would mean we would have four bowl games being played in baseball stadiums. The Pinstripe Bowl (Yankee Stadium), Beef O’ Brady’s Bowl (Tropicana Field) and Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl (AT&T Park) have proven that hosting bowl game sin baseball venues is possible, and Marlins Park should be more than big enough to host a football game if this plan gets that far.

But two bowl games in Miami? That is an idea that may need a little more support from the city, although multiple bowl games in the same city is certainly nothing new. New Orleans will host up to three bowl games in some years between the Sugar Bowl and New Orleans Bowl and a BCS Championship Game every now and then. Orlando also has hosted multiple games with the Russell Athletics Bowl and Capital One Bowl. The odds of playing a second bowl game in Sun Life Stadium, the home of the Miami Hurricanes, Miami Dolphins and the Orange Bowl, are probably slim. This makes Marlins Park the obvious choice.

It also makes it the most likely to receive support from the city of Miami, which forked over a large sum of tax payer dollars to construct a baseball stadium that struggles to see 14,000 fans show up on a  regular basis. If baseball is not going to fill the seats, you might as well find as many ways to pack the seats as possible.

Whatever happens with a bowl game in Marlins Park, please do not let Jeffrey Loria have any role in it. … Continue Reading

College Football Notebook – May 21, 2013

I decided on Monday that I was going to start keeping a blog post open all day long on my end so that I can add quick links and thoughts in a running diary sort of format. Unfortunately I got side tracked on Monday so I’m starting this idea today. There will be some days when I skip this but I think this will serve as a good way to keep updated with fresh content on the site more consistently, as well as a nice way to link to some other links I have to share through some other outlets.

This post will be updated throughout the day as I see fit, so feel free to check back as often as you like during the day or just check in in the evening to see what you may have missed. Or, check in in the morning as you are checking to see the overnight scores and fantasy team results and more for a good round-up of college football tidbits from the previous day. We’ll see how this goes, and it begins now…

STARTED

— Johnny Manziel (@JManziel2) May 21, 2013

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Podcast: Skipping around SEC spring football

Butch Jones taking over at Tennessee is one of many stories in the SEC this spring. AP Photo.

For folks like you and me, college football never stops. Sure, the games may be months away and we are now two months removed from the final college football game of the most recent season, but there is always something to talk about.

Between recruiting, realignment and players creating headlines through their own fault or not, we always have some college football discussion going on. Perhaps in no other conference is this more true than in the SEC, where fans will eat and breathe college football year round. At times this comes in uncomfortable amounts, but at the core of it all we just want any excuse to talk about the sport we love.

That is why we saw a national debate over whether or not Jadeveon Clowney should play for South Carolina blow up one week. It is why so much attention was given to Texas A&M’s Johnny Manziel taking online courses. It is why shirtless photos of Steve Spurrier pop up and why Les Miles does the Harlem Shake.

But once you get past the Johnny Manziel madness and come to grips with the fact that Jadeveon Clowney is in fact going to play football this season, there is still a lot of ground to cover around the rest of the SEC.

When I want to talk about the SEC, Bleacher Report’s SEC writer Barrett Sallee is one of my favorite guys to reach out to. On today’s podcast Sallee discusses with me not only the life of Johnny Manziel but some of the key things to watch this spring around the conference. Some of the topics discussed include:

• How does Nick Saban keep his program grounded coming off a second consecutive BCS title?
• Manziel’s epic off-season aside, what does Texas A&M have to look forward to and work on this spring?
• Are we really overlooking the LSU Tigers?
• What is the next step for Ole Miss after making noise in recruiting?
• Is Gus Malzahn ready to turn Auburn around?
• Is it possible Florida finds an offense this spring?
• Can Georgia find a way to lock down on defense?
• Will the two-quarterback system be in play for the Gamecocks?
• Does sending 115 hand-written letters to a recruit actually work?

To hear what Sallee has to say about that and more, check out the podcast. Full audio is embedded below, or you can click here to listen.

One thing I did forget to mention was the recent story of Manziel allegedly pushing a graduate assistant after throwing an interception in a spring practice. I will not speak for Sallee, but it seems to have been a moment that blew out of proportion and has since been quieted by comments from Texas A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin chalking it up as a “things happen in practice” incident. I tend to agree with that based on what I have read to this point, but should a similar episode be reported again then there will be a time to take a closer look at it all.

Feel free to share your thoughts on Manziel or any other spring football topic covered here with a comment below.

Follow Barrett Sallee on Twitter. Follow No 2-Minute Warning on Twitter.

Don’t forget to subscribe to this podcast in iTunes. This podcast can also be heard anytime on Stitcher Radio (and click here for a promo code to get started and a chance to win $100)!

Podcast: Play in new window | Embed

2012 SEC Plays of the Year

Stop me if you have heard this one before. The SEC is the top dog in college football. It’s true and nearly indisputable  As if seven consecutive BCS Championships does not speak for itself, maybe their top bowl record this past postseason will. The SEC is also rich in history and tradition.

This week the SEC put together a fantastic highlight video that touches on many of the great plays seen within the conference this past season, from the opening week through the BCS Championship game with Johnny Manziel, Ace Sanders, Eddie Lacy and a cast of many more providing the highlights for your entertainment.

As you can see, it was a very good year once again in the SEC.

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