College Football

MWC commish: Playoffs won't stay at four teams

Report: Boise's Ukwuachu transferring to Baylor

The NCAA Division I Infractions Appeals Committee has upheld a three-year show-cause order for former Texas Southern football coach Johnnie Cole.

The Georgia Bulldogs rolled into Columbia, South Carolina on the evening of October 6, 2012 sporting a 5-0 record and ranked #5 in the nation. They rolled out after a bitter 35-7 loss to the 6th ranked South Carolina Gamecocks, a loss in which the Classic City Canines' weaknesses were laid bare. About the best that can be said of the game is that it was the low point in an otherwise excellent season, the one performance which essentially all fans and players would agree they'd like to have back. This wasn't a moral victory. It wasn't a good effort spoiled by bad breaks. It was a bad performance dropped at a bad time against the wrong opponent. The 'Dawgs laid an egg, unruly "fans" followed suit, and a bad night was had by all. Frankly, all the signs were there. The 'Dawgs came out on fire the prior week against a struggling Tennessee squad before a series of crippling turnovers, special teams gaffes, and defensive letdowns led to an absolute dogfight to the end. It was an ugly win, the kind which you can expect even the best teams to have at least one of. But in this case it wasn't so much an outlier as a harbinger of things to come. The Gamecock faithful were amped for this one, and to their credit, the student athletes from Columbia didn't disappoint them. The 'Cocks came out clawing, and this one was over almost before it began. The vaunted Georgia offense, led by legendary strategic genius Mike "The Chessmaster" Bobo, had averaged 48.2 points and 536 yards per game in its first 5 contests. On this night, when South Carolina fans showed up early and raucous, the offense never looked in sequence. The 'Dawgs totaled only 224 yards of offense, their lowest total since 2006. Even more demoralizing, they were held scoreless until Ken Malcome plunged over the goal line with 1:55 left in the 4th quarter. The Gamecocks on the other hand put 21 on the board in the first 10 minutes of game time en route to the largest margin of defeat ever dolled out by the Palmetto State Poultry over the good guys. The Bulldogs came in knowing that they needed to slow down All-American tailback Marcus Lattimore. Ironically, Lattimore was among the least of Todd Grantham's worries, gaining a pedestrian 109 yards on 24 carries. It was everybody else in garnet and black who was the problem. QB Connor Shaw hit Damiere Byrd and Bruce Ellington on early touchdown passes against a Georgia defense that, in hindsight, was ripe for the picking. With several key contributors coming back from suspension the red and black defenders looked confused, lost, and ultimately just a little defeated. In fact it wasn't until senior Shawn Williams called them out prior to the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party that things really seem to have fully turned around. But that fine day was still weeks away as Mark Richt and crew left South Carolina's capital. At the time it seemed that their national championship hopes had been dashed. Ultimately that wasn't the case. But a small segment of the Bulldog fanbase did not know that, and reacted . . .very poorly. Oh, and it turns out that Murray's uneven performance followed his finding out that his father was about to undergo cancer treatment. It was, in a lot of ways, about as bad as things could get. Redemption was around the corner, but no one knew that at the time. All we knew was that on this night Mark Richt's Bulldogs had managed to lose a third game in a row to the South Carolina Gamecocks for the first time in series history, and that it seemed that our shot at playing for a national title had passed once again. But it turns out that it is in fact a long season, and there were a lot of triumphs and just a little more heartbreak yet to be had. But those are other stories for other days. For now let it only be said that October 6, 2012 was perhaps the most disappointing evening in recent Dawg Sports memory. And I shall thank you to never, ever mention it again. Until later . . . Go 'Dawgs!!!

Tornado hits 'close to home' for Sooners' Stoops

Ah, jeez. Finebaum, the polarizing personality of college football’s signature call-in show, is leaving the Birmingham, Ala., market where his contract expired in January, for Charlotte, N.C., and a national forum: ESPN. His multi-tiered platform will include a radio program on ESPN networks, 100 televised appearances annually on ESPN and a TV simulcast of his radio show on the ESPN-owned SEC Network launching in August 2014. It was inevitable, I suppose.  What sucks is that now I’ll be stuck paying for him to be on the air. Filed under: ESPN Is The Devil, PAWWWLLL!!!, SEC Football

As if the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry couldn’t get anymore ridiculous — the schools won’t even refer to each other by their correct names — Michigan has taken it to a whole new level. Wide receiver Bo Dever posted a photo of the Wolverines new footballs and while they are made in the USA (wooo, patriotism), they are not manufactured in Ohio. See, it says so on the ball. Because a Michigan man would never, ever be caught playing with a football that was produced in that God forsaken state… Or so I’m told. Personally, I’m not above finding this sort of pettiness between “The School Up North” and “Ohio” entertaining. Branding footballs is mildly ridiculous, but it will no doubt solicit an equally ridiculous reaction from Ohio State. - - - H/T r/cfb Want to join the conversation? Hit us up on Twitter @YahooDrSaturday and be sure to "Like" Dr. Saturday on Facebook for football conversations and stuff you won't see on the blog.

This offseason we will count down various topics from Monday through Friday, bringing you the top five of the important and definitely some not so important issues in college football. It's the Doc Five, every week until we will thankfully have actual games to discuss. PLAYERS WHO COULD KEEP JOHNNY MANZIEL FROM ANOTHER HEISMAN NO. 4, JAMEIS WINSTON Before you get too worked up ... The last six Heisman Trophy winners have come out of the blue to win. Some were entirely off the radar (Johnny Manziel, Cam Newton). Others were coming off solid seasons but weren't considered Heisman contenders. HeismanPundit.com does a very good preseason watch list every year, and none of the last six winners were in the preseason top 10 (here are the lists if you're interested: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012). The last Heisman winner who appeared in HeismanPundit's preseason top 10 was Troy Smith, and he was considered a darkhorse at No. 3 behind clear favorites Brady Quinn and Adrian Peterson. The last player to enter a season as one of the clear favorites and actually win the award might be Matt Leinart in 2004. All that is to say, maybe you haven't heard of Jameis Winston, who will start at quarterback as a redshirt freshman for Florida State this season. Maybe you have heard of him and you think it's ridiculous to think he could win the Heisman. But there's a pretty good chance someone is going to come out of nowhere to either win the award or come very close, so why not the dynamic Seminoles quarterback? Lack of experience didn't bother Manziel, who was a freshman last season, or Newton, who had 12 career FBS passing attempts coming into his Heisman campaign. And by all accounts, Winston has the talent to have a huge impact right away for the Seminoles. He was the top dual-threat quarterback in Rivals' rankings of the class of 2012, and a top 10 overall recruit. There has been a growing buzz about Winston, and that was before his great spring game. On Winston's first throw of the spring game he hit walk-on David Tyrell for a 58-yard touchdown, beating defensive back Lamarcus Joyner, a first-team all-ACC pick last season. He completed 12-of-15 passes for 205 yards and two touchdowns. After the game Clint Trickett, a pretty good quarterback himself, decided to transfer. He was honest with himself. Everyone could see Winston isn't the future, he's the present. Oh, and did you know Winston plays baseball? He has a 1.99 earned-run average and opponents are hitting just .174 off him, and he helped the 44-12 Seminoles to an ACC Atlantic Division title. He plays the field once in a while too, and had this amazing throw from right field: So we know he has an arm. There are plenty of reasons to think Winston can have a special season and wind up in the Heisman conversation. He's already getting a lot of hype before he even plays a game. His baseball exploits make him interesting, and that generates additional publicity. He has the talent to put up big numbers passing and running, which has been the formula for each of the last three Heisman winners. He plays in an offense that produced pretty good numbers for E.J. Manuel, and for a team that is consistently in contention for a BCS bid. You can't dismiss the idea of someone who is not considered a Heisman candidate now emerging to win the award, considering how many times it has happened recently. Given his talent and circumstances, Winston is as good of a pick as any to be the next one. Previously on "Doc Five" 5. Jadeveon Clowney --- Want to join the conversation? Hit us up on Twitter @YahooDrSaturday and be sure to "Like" Dr. Saturday on Facebook for football conversations and stuff you won't see on the blog.

The Detroit Lions are expected to create and operate a new bowl game at Ford Field starting in 2014, which would eliminate the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl after this season, sources said Tuesday.

What’s the best way for a new coach to introduce himself to fans? Well, hand delivering them their favorite fast food might be a good start. New Wisconsin coach Gary Andersen spent his lunch hour working at Culvers. Anderson took a special interest in a fan whose car was sporting a Minnesota Gophers sticker. According to @BadgerFootball, the man told Andersen it was his sister’s car. Anderson even tried his hand at the grill. #Badgers Coach Andersen has taken over the grill Culvers vine.co/v/b9dgw0UOKKl — Badger Football (@BadgerFootball) May 21, 2013 Andersen's day of food peddling is for a good cause. @footballscoop @culvers "Day of Giving" today. All proceeds from sales go to Badger Honor Flight which pays to fly vets to memorials in DC — Badger Football (@BadgerFootball) May 21, 2013 - - - Want to join the conversation? Hit us up on Twitter @YahooDrSaturday and be sure to "Like" Dr. Saturday on Facebook for football conversations and stuff you won't see on the blog.