Crimson Tide fans in Alabama can finally exhale as the NCAA is set to officially announce at 2PM Central, the long awaited sanctions from the textbook case. 

According to an article in The Birmingham News, Alabama's football program will be forced to forfeit victories involving the guilty players from 2005-2007 which should result in a total of 10 victories.  Their win over Tennessee and the bowl victory will remain intact.  Also, the program will return to probation for 3 years, but will not lose any scholarships or any future post-season appearances. 

While the sanctions may seem harsh for the crime (especially considering some other major programs under more serious scrutiny such as USC and Memphis) the violations in the case occurred within the "repeat offender" window from the previous probation period.

It should also be noted that the university self reported these violations a year and a half ago and Coach Saban suspended the players involved for four games during that time.

Read more about the textbook case.

Auburn stunned the nation this weekend with the hire of its former assistant as the program's new head coach, Gene Chizik.  Most people, myself included, thought that if Auburn was willing to fire a coach with 80+ wins in the last 10 seasons, then they were going for a homerun in their coaching hire.  Instead what they hit amounted to no more than a bunt...probably not even a bunt single.

During the search, Jay Jacobs interviewed several mediocre candidates including some minority coaches.  While most thought these were just "token" interviews done to please the media, most thought that the most legitimate of the coaches interviewed was Turner Gill.  Gill's Buffalo squad was coming off a surprise win against a then undefeated Ball State to win the MAC title.  Other names began popping up including Spurrier and, yes, Bobby Petrino.  Most thought that while Jacobs was conducting the "token" interviews, the real powers that be were working behind the scenes to get their real coach.  No one was prepared for the announcement of Iowa State's Gene Chizik as Auburn's new head coach. 

This hire has to be one of the most enormous failures in college football history.  It is a testament to how out of touch both the Auburn boosters and the athletic director are with their fanbase and the SEC in general.  Coming off a 36-0 loss to arch-rival Alabama in the Iron Bowl, Jacobs and his cronies...or should I say Auburn booster Bobby Lowder and his cronies, fired Tuberville and tried to make the world believe the coach had resigned.  Nobody bought it, yet they're sticking to their story.  Then, they go out and interview coaches who really shouldn't have been legitimate candidates in the first place.  Finally, they settle with Chizik in one of the biggest blunders ever.

So why does this set the program back 100 years?  Where do I even begin?  First Auburn attempts to make the "appearance" of a school ready to take a progressive direction and give a minority coach a shot in Turner Gill.  While no one expected Auburn to hire Gill, everyone expected them to pick a head coach that was actually better than Coach Gill.  Still, the actual hiring of Gill could have turned things around on so many levels.  It could have shown a school from the deep south willing to step up and make the hire of an African American coach.  Gill also has the talents to actually turn things around in Auburn.  Just look at what he did in his short stint in Buffalo.  There was no reason to believe he couldn't accomplish the same thing in a recruiting hotbed and major program like Auburn.  Instead, they go in the absolute opposite direction and choose the good ole' boy, Gene Chizik.  The same good ole' boys who tried to oust Tuberville the first time in 2003, but were caught, were standing by Chizik's side as he arrived into Auburn including the legendary Pat Dye who had virtually disappeared from the program after the embarrassment of his involvement in the coup to get rid of Tuberville 5 years ago. 

Aside from the issue of race, the program is set back further because Chizik has already had a head coaching gig and proven himself a monumental failure at Iowa State.  The Cyclones went through the Big 12 North, the weaker of the two divisions this year, without a single win.  Not one conference win.  Worst of all, they didn't even play the big 3 in Oklahoma, Texas, or Texas Tech.  Chizik is often credited as a defensive guru.  True enough he did serve as an assistant on Auburn's 2004 undefeated squad and followed that up with a stint in Texas the following year when the Horns won the National Championship.  But this season, the defensive genius gave up an average of 33 points per contest.  Sure, he didn't have much to work with in Iowa State, but 33 points a game?  Did the team even show up? 

Auburn, and the entire state of Alabama, has been set back 100 years as a result of this ridiculous hire.  Often African Americans have a hard time making a legitimate complaint when they aren't considered and another coach, with a better record and more experience, gets a job as a head coach.  Auburn can't make that argument to justify its hire.  Plain and simple, Turner Gill was more qualified than Gene Chizik.  In fact, it wasn't even close.  It's hard enough in this day and age to get rid of the stigma associated with our history here in Alabama.  Auburn just took all that work and flushed it down the toilet.  Way to go Jacobs...oops...I meant Lowder.  Not like they really care about all that anyway.  

While it hasn't really been a subject of major scrutiny nationally, the Auburn coaching search has been underway for a full week or so now and still the Tigers aren't any closer to hiring their head coach than they were when they fired Tommy Tuberville. 

Jay Jacobs made a trip to New York to interview several candidates but none of them have had that homerun quality you'd expect from a hire of this magnitude.  The general consensus in this state was that if you were going to fire Tubs, you'd better be able to hit one out of the park and land a major coach that could compete with Saban.  So far, the list of interviewees has been less than impressive with the most prominent name being Turner Gill, the head coach for the Buffalo squad which upset Ball State for the MAC title.  Other candidates have included Patrick Nix of Miami, LA Tech's Derek Dooley, and Ball State's Brady Hoke.  Now, Jacobs has left New York and the coaching search is still on...or is it?

Make no mistake, while Gill and Hoke could have success at a school like Auburn, it is unlikely that either would have a legitimate shot at the job.  Jacobs is stalling.  He's interviewing people and extending this out further than it needs to for one reason; in hopes that the media attention will die so they can make their real hire after the new year.  That man, I believe, will be Bobby Petrino.

Petrino, as many will remember, was the coach the boosters wanted back in 2003 following the "jetgate" scandal.  That clandestine meeting between the former athletic director and Petrino was exposed and Tuberville came out smelling like roses.  But Petrino has always been the guy they wanted.  While Jacobs is the new athletic director he's still nothing more than a puppet of prominent Auburn boosters such as Bobby Lowder, whose plane was used during the now infamous jetgate.  Those boosters wanted Petrino then and they want him now.

The problem in the scenario is Petrino's massive buyout which sits currently at over $8 million.  As of January 1st, 2009, which is fast approaching, that number will drop by $2 million making the buyout much more reasonable, if you call $6 million reasonable, that is.  Arkansas made sure to put in strict stipulations in case something like this happened and while $6 million is a large sum, Jacobs and co. have already stated that "money is no option." 

Jacobs isn't interviewing heavy hitters because he's stalling.  The Auburn powers-that-be are waiting for the media to forget about this coaching search.  This is all part of a big show to cover all the bases.  Make the interview process seem as in-depth as possible and interview as many minority candidates as realistically believable.  In the end, when the smoke clears, the new head football coach will be Bobby Petrino.  I'd be stunned if it were anyone else.

Update: It was mentioned by bamaboy22 in the comments section that Bobby Petrino has a non-compete clause in his contract.  This is discussed in full here.  While the clause may exist, I still believe he will somehow find himself as Auburn's head coach after the new year.  I don't believe Arkansas would sue him nor seek compensation other than the terms in his buyout agreement.

On the cusp of one of the greatest college football seasons in recent memory, the BCS has given us one of the most non-compelling bowl seasons ever.  Outside of Florida/Oklahoma for the BCS National Championship, none of the matchups look that interesting.

First up to really get the shaft was Texas Tech.  No disrespect intended for Ole Miss.  They were, after all, the only team to beat the Gators this year, but after playing a fantastic season, going 11-1 with wins over Texas and Oklahoma State, the Red Raiders got the shaft, in this writer's opinion, with a matchup against the SEC's 3rd or 4th best team.  Wouldn't a Texas Tech/Bama game be more interesting?

Speaking of Bama, the reward for finishing as the only major BCS school to go undefeated in the regular season is a matchup against Utah.  Sure, the Mountain West had some good teams this year.  Utah is 12-0 and on paper the matchup looks interesting.  But a closer look at their schedule will reveal that the Utes struggled against teams like Air Force and New Mexico.  Their biggest win came against an Oregon State team that was pretty much overrated.  Sure they went into Ann Arbor and beat Michigan, but the Wolverines were awful this season and they only won by 2.  I realize that these "BCS buster" games bring in a level of attention, but did they have to play Bama?  Why not let the Buckeyes have a shot against the Tide, if you're going to let them in the BCS anyway? 

Speaking of the Bucks, Texas gets to take on Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl.  Texas, who has a very legitimate argument to have played in the Big 12 Championship and maybe the National Championship, gets rewarded for losing to a pretty good Texas Tech team by playing an Ohio State team that won NONE of its big games this year. 

This brings us to the Orange Bowl and Virginia Tech against Cincinnati.  This will likely be the least watched bowl game in years.  Virginia Tech sneaks in because they're the ACC champs and Cincy won the Big East.  Sure Cincy had a great year, but no one cares to see either of these teams play each other. 

Of the BCS matchups, only two look to be really spectacular games.  The Rose Bowl pits two one loss BCS schools against one another by de facto thanks to the Big-10 vs. Pac-10 traditional matchup.  USC and Penn State could prove to be the best bowl game of them all, outside of the National Championship.  Then again, the way USC has been destroying opponents defensively, this could be a blow out.

Finally, we have the BCS National Championship game.  Many believe Oklahoma doesn't deserve to be there.  No one is questioning the fact that Florida has earned its spot there.  After Tebow and the Gators' 4th quarter comeback against the #1 Crimson Tide, there was no doubt they'd earned their spot.  No matter what you think of Oklahoma sneaking in, you can't argue that it will be an interesting matchup.  In fact, it may be the only interesting matchup of the major bowl games.

This isn't all the BCS' fault however.  Most of these bowl matchups are due to the fact that they have to matchup particular conferences.  We can't see Bama play USC because USC gets an auto bid to the Rose Bowl while Bama gets the auto bid to the Sugar Bowl.  We can't see a more compelling Orange Bowl because the ACC champ gets the lock.  The Fiesta pits the Big 12 against an at large and with all the other great teams locked in their own respective bowl games, the pickings become slim.  Still, it can't make the fans feel any better about this year's bowl season.  Hopefully, these matchups will indeed prove to be great and I'll be proven wrong.   

No one is giving Alabama a chance at beating Florida in the SEC Championship on Saturday.  Vegas has an unprecedented spread with the Gators as the 9 1/2 point favorite over the top ranked Tide.  All the monikers have began popping up in the media: speed vs. power, offense vs. defense, Frazier vs. Ali.  In what could turn out to be the most significant SEC Championship in history, The number 1 Crimson Tide come in ranked 3rd in the nation in defense with 11.5 points per game given up.  Florida is right behind them at 12.3.  The fact is, while Bama's defense is one of the best in the nation, so is the Gators'.  Florida also has the better passing defense having intercepted 23 passes to Bama's 15.  Bama's a bit better against the run and that's really where their edge on defense ends.  In contrast, Florida's offense is one of the best in the nation.  They rank 3rd in the country in points per game scored with 46.3.  Bama can score as well, however, as they're averaging 32 points per game. 

So, while Bama fans can complain that the Tide isn't getting the respect it deserves as being the underdog as the top ranked team in the country, numbers don't lie.  All indications point to one logical outcome setting aside all bias: Florida should win this game...handily.  But with all the numbers, there's one thing you can't measure that gives Bama the edge in this game.  Those little intangibles that can make a big difference in a college football game of this magnitude.

For instance, Florida has dominated their opponents all season.  Their closest game came against Ole Miss, a game which they lost 31-30 in The Swamp.  Bama, on the other hand, has played at least 3 close games.  Sure, those probably shouldn't have been close games, but they were and they won nonetheless.  Kentucky gave the Tide a run but ended up losing a close one 17-14.  Ole Miss, the only team to beat Florida, came back from a huge deficit against the Tide and almost won.  The Tide held them off 24-20.  Then the battle in Death Valley in which John Parker Wilson came of age and won the game for them in OT (thanks to an interception).  The point is, Bama has played in close games and won.  Florida has rarely been in that situation.  If the game stays close until the end, the obvious edge goes to Bama because they've been in the situation before. 

Next, is the fact that Bama has played a game in the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.  Their first game was against an overrated Clemson team there which they completely demolished.  The players are familiar with the turf and the field.  Florida has not had the luxury of playing there this year. 

Another intangible is not recorded in the stat sheet. The "big plays" have carried Florida most of the season.  Be it big plays on defense or offense, the Gators are capable of going out there and making that one huge play to get them in the end zone quickly.  With respect to some of Florida's opponents, they have yet to play against a defense as solid as Bama's this year.  Bama does not give up the big play.  Which leads to another intangible.

Bama has the ability to control the tempo of a game.  They play old school SEC football.  They beat you on defense forcing 3 and outs and then they pound the ball with run plays on long sustained drives leading to points.  It's not flashy, but with their style, they don't need flash.  In order for Florida to win, they have to keep Tebow on the field.  Bama knows this and won't let them control the clock. 

I've been watching both of these teams play all season.  I know what each are capable of on both sides of the ball and I can say with full confidence that this game will not be a blow out.  In my opinion, it could go either way, but don't write off the Tide just yet.  They're 12-0 for a reason.

There's a lot on the line for both teams.  Not only their conference championship but a shot at the BCS title game.  Not since Ohio State vs. Michigan a few years back have we seen a game of such importance.  Already being dubbed "the game of the century" it's easy to understand why.  

Prediction: Bama 23
                     Florida 20