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7-year-old Jack Hoffman celebrates ‘last day of chemo’ with fans at College World Series [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: June 18, 2013, 6:24 pm] Jack Hoffman, the 7-year-old cancer survivor who made an inspiring touchdown run at the Nebraska spring game this year earning him more than 8 million views on Youtube, made an appearance at the College World Series on Monday and told the crowd his final chemotherapy session was scheduled for today. That news was greeted with a roar of applause as fans watched his spring game highlight again on the big screens at a game between Mississippi State and Indiana. Hoffman, who has been fighting brain cancer, and his family have used the fame and attention they've received from Jack's memorable spring game sprint to try to raise awareness and support for pediatric brain cancer research. Jack signed a few autographs during his time at the CWS. He was given a baseball glove, batting gloves and a custom baseball with his face on it. âWe don't know why he's had the magnitude of blessings in his life, but we want to do something with them,â Jack's father, Andy, told the Omaha World-Herald. - - - Follow Kyle on Twitter @KyleRingo Want to join the conversation? Hit us up on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/YahooDrSaturday">@YahooDrSaturday and be sure to "Like" Dr. Saturday http://www.facebook.com/DrSaturday">on Facebook for football conversations and stuff you won't see on the blog. Researchers show students subsidizing college sports at alarming rates in some conferences [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: June 18, 2013, 5:25 pm] Billion dollar media rights deals and packed stadiums and arenas have protected students at most of the power conference schools from forking over big bucks in student fees for athletics, but their counterparts at schools in lesser conferences haven't been so lucky. This isn't exactly shocking information, but it's another interesting look at how uneven the playing field is in college athletics and the folly of some of the little guys trying to keep pace. It provides more ammunition for those who say it's time for another division for the schools with the biggest budgets. According to research reported in this Bloomberg story, students paid more than $2 billion in student fees for athletics two years ago at only the 227 NCAA Division I public institutions. The research done by Jeff Smith at South Carolina Upstate showed students at schools in power conferences with better academic reputations paid far less in fees than those at schools in other conferences struggling to keep up with the big boys, While all students pay the fees, only a small percentage participating on intercollegiate athletic teams actually benefit. Research done at Ohio University by David Ridpath found that students had little knowledge of how much they were paying in fees for athletics. Some of these students are taking out loans to pay for their education and they aren't happy to learn they're paying more than $1,500 annually at some schools toward athletics fees. Smith's research showed the students at the six public schools in the Big South were paying 25 times more in student fees than their peers at the public schools in the Big Ten. That is bound to make writing that student loan payment a little more painful each month. - - - Follow Kyle on Twitter @KyleRingo 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. UCLA declares itself Linebacker U, confusion follows [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: June 18, 2013, 2:50 pm] When someone says âLinebacker U,â what is the first thing you think of? Is it Penn State, the traditional answer, with legendary players at the position spanning from Jack Ham to Lavar Arrington to NaVorro Bowman? Or perhaps youâd take a program thatâs had a lot of memorable names in the last decade-plus, like Miami (Ray Lewis, Jonathan Vilma) or USC (Clay Matthews, Rey Maualuga). Would you say UCLA? No? Oh, theyâd like you to consider it: #linebackeru pic.twitter.com/psyVu1hswP â UCLA Football (@UCLAFootball) June 17, 2013 First question: Why is the âUâ in apostrophes? Is it an ironic U? Second question: Should a school be proclaiming itself Linebacker U when their last game involved giving up 49 points in a bowl? Teams with linebackers that good should probably be better at defense, no? I would wager that the impetus of this campaign is to help hype pass rusher Anthony Barr, who notched 21 tackles for loss (13 sacks) last season and finds himself on every preseason All-American and Heisman watch list. Inside linebacker Eric Kendricks had 149 tackles last year, and while thatâs a potent duo, itâs a long way from this kind of branding or nickname. Penn State fans â who are sticklers for defending traditions â are handling this well, with their SBNation site simply responding: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... (breathes).. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA RT @UCLAFootball: #linebackeru pic.twitter.com/yG0SUFGb5S â BSD (@BSDtweet) June 18, 2013 UCLA has jumped the gun on this type of premature marketing before, taking out a full-page in the L.A. Times to declare that âThe Football Monopoly in Los Angeles is Officially Over,â then losing the next four games to USC by a combined score of 134-28. - - - 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. Bret Bielema is not a fan of the no-huddle offense, proposes rule change to slow it down [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: June 18, 2013, 1:08 pm] Arkansas head coach Bret Bielema wants everybody to just slow down for a minute. Bielema, echoing some of his SEC rivals, according to AL.com is proposing a rule change that would mandate a 15-second substitution period after every first down, allowing coaches to make defensive substitutions. This would severely limit the effectiveness of no-huddle offenses, a trend that is continuing to spread around college football. His reasoning? The health and safety of players: âNot to get on the coattails of some of the other coaches, there is a lot of truth that the way offensive philosophies are driven now, there's times where you can't get a defensive substitution in for 8, 10, 12 play drives," Bielema said, according to AL.com. "That has an effect on safety of that student-athlete, especially the bigger defensive linemen, that is really real." The coattails heâs talking about are those of Alabama coach Nick Saban and Florida coach Will Muschamp, who have also spoken out about the potential dangers of not being able to give their defensive players breathers against relentless opposing attacks. The argument is essentially that if players are gassed on the field, they wonât maintain form or protect themselves as well, thus leading to injury. Not surprisingly, coaches who have found success going up tempo are against the idea of a 15-second cessation of offensive hostilities. Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin, Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze, Auburn coach Gus Malzahn and Tennessee coach Butch Jones have all used or plan to use up-tempo attacks in the SEC and donât agree with Bielemaâs argument. âI'd say that's probably more of an in-shape issue than anything else," said Malzahn, who deployed Cam Newton within a lethal up-tempo attack as Auburnâs offensive coordinator to help win the 2010 BCS title. South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier, who won a national championship with the Fun 'nâ Gun at Florida, proposed a different solution to dealing with the no-huddle offenses pr Mike Gundy did eventually lift Wes Lunt’s transfer restrictions, but Gundy was still in the wrong [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: June 18, 2013, 11:20 am] It turns out that Mike Gundy did lift some of the restrictions on Wes Lunt's transfer, but that shouldn't matter. This should be the case to bring about change, if the NCAA is not too busy screwing up the Miami case to notice that the "student-athletes" it says it protects are being held hostage by some vindictive coaches. Gundy put significant and unnecessary restrictions on Lunt's transfer from Oklahoma State. It was spiteful to a quarterback who wanted to move on (and did, picking Illinois) and go to a school where he thought he had a better chance to play. That happens. And Gundy should not be lauded for eventually lifting the restrictions, as reported by Channel1450.com (via PistolsFiringBlog.com). Lunt told Channel1450.com Gundy did so only about a week ago, well after they were put in place in mid-May, and by that time it was too late. By the time Gundy called Lunt's high school coach to let him know, Lunt said he had lost contact with the other coaches he had been previously restricted from. "It was frustrating," Lunt told Channel1450.com. "I understand the Big 12, that's obvious. The others, it was a little frustrating, but that's part of it and I understand it. It's all good." Here's the whole interview: Lunt deserves credit for taking the high road, but it's a mistake to sweep this under the rug just because it seems everything worked out. Lunt grew up about 90 minutes from Champaign, and the fit seems good. Good for him. And maybe that's where he would have gone, restrictions or not. That should not be the point. This case has to show that the NCAA needs to stop siding with powerful coaches and actually help out the young players who generally have no other voice. Lunt said Vanderbilt and Alabama were two schools that showed interest, but he couldn't talk to. "Alabama would have been cool to check out, but I couldn't talk to them," Lunt told Channel1450.com. Lunt was a highly regarded recruit and looked good at times as a freshman before getting hurt. Looking ahead to college football: Week 2′s five games to watch [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: June 18, 2013, 9:57 am] The college football offseason is long and arduous, but its end is almost in sight. Weâre going to take a look at five games you have to look forward to for every weekend of the season. (This is also a handy guide to decide how to RSVP for any autumn weddings.) All times are Eastern and all games are played on Saturday unless otherwise noted. These games take place the weekend of September 7th. Florida at Miami (12 p.m., ESPN) â As it currently stands, this is the last scheduled regular season match up between these two teams, who last met in 2008. That should add some extra drama to the proceedings, as Al Golden continues to mold what was an extremely young Hurricane team in 2012. Will Muschampâs Gators were ahead of schedule last year with 11 wins, and while they have to replace big playmakers like Matt Elam and Sharrif Floyd on defense, they seem to have finally solved the post-Tebow quarterback conundrum with Jeff Driskell. The Miami offense could be elite this year, as they return all five starting linemen, senior quarterback Stephen Morris, most of their productive wide receivers and all-everything tailback Duke Johnson. There will be a lot of youth on the field, but a whooole bunch of talent, per Sunshine State requirements. Additional note: Heaven help those who attend this game, as I can only imagine how awful it will be sitting in early September afternoon heat. Why isnât this a night kickoff?! South Carolina at Georgia (TBD) - Youâll notice this isnât the easiest opening slate for the Bulldogs, who go from facing Clemson in week one to taking on the other South Cackalacky power in week two. The Gamecocks absolutely embarrassed the Dawgs last year, going up 35-0 before Georgia finally got on the board in the waning minutes of the game. This is the SEC opener for both teams, and neither can afford starting the conference gauntlet 0-1 or being on the wrong side of a head-to-head tiebreaker in the tightly contested the East Division. It will Navy moves forward on sexual assault case involving football players [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: June 18, 2013, 8:38 am] President Barack Obama spoke of a sexual assault issue at the Naval Academy's commissioning ceremony last month, which makes the latest accusation of sexual assault involving Navy football players look even worse. The academy's superintendent decided to move forward with the sexual assault case to Article 32 proceedings, the Associated Press reported. That hearing will determine if there's evidence to proceed to a court-martial. A female midshipman said she woke up after a night of drinking with bruises, and found out that three football players she considered friends claimed to have sex with her while she was passed out, the AP said. She claims the incident took place last year in an off-campus house. The incident is concerning because, as AP writes, there have been a string of sexual assault cases in the military, and many involve alcohol. Military.com reported that all three football players will face an Article 32 hearing, although their names haven't been made public (because service academies have their own judicial system it is very difficult to get information on cases, which seems odd because unlike civilian schools, taxpayers are picking up almost the entire cost of the education of these individuals). Navy football went 8-5 last year and played in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl. - - - 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. Rich Rodriguez and the Arizona staff dress up for an old Western video [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: June 18, 2013, 7:54 am] Rich Rodriguez is your huckleberry. The Arizona staff got together, dressed up in full old West garb and did a promotional video in an old Western theme for the 2013 season. This is the beauty of the offseason. Check out the video for "Hard Edge" (we especially like tight ends coach Charlie Ragle showing off his acting chops getting thrown out of a saloon, and the executive producer credit at the end to Rita Rodriguez, Rich Rod's wife): GoAzCats.com points out that Rodriguez has said he's a fan of the 1976 Western "The Outlaw Josie Wales," so he probably had a blast doing the video. It actually looks like the entire staff was having fun, which makes it entertaining. And, there's Rich Rod in a full costume, which is worth it by itself. So, to honor "Tombstone," which obviously takes place in Arizona and ranks somewhere in the "Caddyshack," "Animal House," "Rounders," "Old School," and "Big Lebowski" annals among most quotable movies, we have to wonder how they could miss a scene with Rodriguez yelling, "The Sun Devils are finished, you understand? I see the devil horns, I kill the man wearing it! So run, you cur. Run! Tell all the other curs the Wildcats are coming! You tell 'em I'm coming, and hell's coming with me, you hear? Hell's coming with me!" Maybe they're saving the Tombstone dialogue for the sequel. - - - 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. Former Oklahoma State quarterback Wes Lunt decides on Illinois [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: June 17, 2013, 2:21 pm] Wes Lunt is heading home. The former Oklahoma State quarterback has chosen to transfer to Illinois, deciding on the Illini over Louisville. Lunt hails from Rochester, a ninety-minute drive from Illinoisâ campus in Champaign. From ESPNâs Joe Schad: "I know it's a team game and I can't do it all by myself," Lunt said. "I do hope we can add some more good recruits." Lunt called Illinois coach Tim Beckman on Monday to inform him of his decision. "I am OK with how I left Oklahoma State," Lunt said. "God had a plan for me. No hard feelings with Coach (Mike Gundy)." The hard feelings with Gundy could have potentially sprung from the fact the Cowboysâ head coach put restrictions on Luntâs potential landing spots last month. Despite Oklahoma State being in the Big 12, Gundy refused to let his freshman quarterback transfer to Vanderbilt and Tennessee, which are in the SEC. He also restricted Lunt from transferring within the conference or to Southern Miss, where former OK State offensive coordinator Todd Monken is now the head coach. Gundy hasn't elaborated on the reasons for the specific restrictions. Lunt won the starting job out of camp last year as a true freshman, replacing Brandon Weeden as the trigger man in Gundy's vaunted offense. He battled injuries all year, which led to a quarterback carousel in Stillwater, featuring Lunt, J.W. Walsh and Clint Chelf. Lunt threw for over a thousand yards (including a 436-yard effort against Arizona) in his six games of action. Walsh, Chelf and transfer Daxx Garman will compete for the job, although Chelf â who started the final five games of the season â was briefly named the starter by Gundy earlier this year. Lunt will have to sit out this fall, per NCAA rules on transferring. This is quite a coup for Beckman, whose team ranked 104th in the nation in pass efficiency during last yearâs 2-10 season, his first as head coach in Champaign. (Another of Beckman's previous stops was at Oklahoma State, where he served as de Alabama putting a (small) waterfall in its locker room [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: June 17, 2013, 1:00 pm] When you're the best college football program in the nation, how do you improve the experience for your players? Apparently, by adding a waterfall to the locker room. The news of Alabama's new waterfall got out when quarterback prospect David Cornwell tweeted about it. And in fairness, Twitter was pretty much invented so people could tweet about football teams installing a waterfall in the locker room, right? That waterfall in Bama's locker room is about to be legit! C'mon who has a waterfall.. No one! â DC5 (@DavidCornwell5) June 17, 2013 Now here's where we get serious, but only for a second. We asked Alabama spokesman Jeff Purinton, who confirmed that yes there's a waterfall coming in, but it's not a big deal. There will be a system that will allow water to fall over into the hot and cold tubs from a few feet, he said. So yeah, they're not exactly building Tuscaloosa Falls in the Crimson Tide locker room. Even though it's a nice little stream of water that will probably look nice and be very feng shui and in the long run is not a very big deal, we're going to just turn off reality and imagine this is AJ McCarron jumping into the Alabama hot tub after practice: - - - 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. Video: Every uniform option in ‘NCAA Football 2014′ [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: June 17, 2013, 12:44 pm] If you wanted to be a curmudgeon and complain about how back in the day teams didn't need seven different uniform combinations and walked uphill in snow both ways to the stadium, pointing to this video could really help your case about the sartorial absurdity in college football. The folks at Compete4ever - an eSports community - put the above together, taking the time to scroll through every preset uniform in EA Sports' upcoming game. It takes 35 minutes. I think watching the entire thing would put you into some sort of trance, so maybe just check on your favorite school and of course Oregon, which has approximately 20 designs to choose from. - - - 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. Six degrees of coaching separation: Kevin Sumlin’s offensive background comes from Mike Price [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: June 17, 2013, 11:23 am] There's an interesting book if you're a fan of football history called "Blood, Sweat and Chalk" which traces the history of various formations and famous plays from Pop Warner through the Wishbone triple option to the modern day spread offenses. A theme throughout the book is that it's almost impossible to figure out the true origin of any Xs and Os innovation because every coach borrows at least part of their schemes from someone else. So when Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin gets credit for his offensive brilliance (which he should), just know that he had to steal some of his ideas from another coach. That's how it has gone throughout football history. And in Sumlin's case, it seems his offensive lineage started with Mike Price. Price, who unfortunately is probably better known for the fiasco that led to him being fired at Alabama before he ever coached a game, was in the middle of a great run at Washington State when Sumlin learned the offensive foundation he uses today. Sumlin, who played linebacker in college, wanted a defensive coaching job but Price thought he should be on the offensive side of the ball. The San Antonio Express-News talked to Sumlin about it, and this is what he said Price told him: âFirst thing I want you to do is move to offense, and we're a little bit different than a lot of people on that side of the ball. We'll have one back and no backs and motion and all kinds of stuff that a lot of people don't really do, and a lot of them don't understand. But it gives us a chance to win. If you learn what we're doing and you want to coach, you'll have a job forever.â Sumlin's ascent to coaching stardom is interesting because he's known for dynamic offenses even though he played on defense ("What position did Tony Dungy play in college?" Sumlin said in an interview this month, waiting to hear that defensive genius Dungy played quarterback in college). It turns out Sumlin owes plenty to Price, who probably picked up his philosophy from another coach Looking ahead to college football: Week 1′s five best games [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: June 17, 2013, 10:08 am] The college football offseason is long and arduous, but its end is almost in sight. Weâre going to take a look at five games you have to look forward to for every weekend of the season. (This is also a handy guide to decide how to RSVP for any autumn weddings.) All times are Eastern and all games are played on Saturday unless otherwise noted. Ole Miss at Vanderbilt (9:15 p.m., ESPN, Thursday) â Two of the trendiest coaches and programs in the game squaring off in their conference opener on the first night of football? That will do nicely. James Franklin is cleaning up on recruits (19th in the Rivals rankings in 2013 after finishing 70th in 2011) and wins at Vanderbilt, guiding the Commodores to a 9-4 record and Music City Bowl victory in his second season. At Ole Miss, Hugh Freeze is bringing in five-star recruits left and right, building off of a debut season as Rebels head coach that saw the program appear in (and win) its first bowl game since 2009. Both of these programs have bright futures but razor-thin margins of error in the loaded SEC, which should make this a dandy of a game to help kick off the 2013 season. Georgia at Clemson (8 p.m., ABC) â We are blessed with a great crop of quarterbacks this season, as a lot of talented, productive signal callers either chose to skip the draft or were too young to have the option. This game features two that could have left but decided to come back, and their opening week matchup will almost surely include plenty of fireworks. For Georgia itâs Aaron Murray, who came painfully close to shedding the âCanât win the big oneâ monkey from his back against Alabama in the SEC title game, but comes into 2013 with a myriad of weapons to utilize. On the other side you have Tajh Boyd, who was masterful for most of 2012, including a come-from-behind win against the vaunted LSU defense in the Tigers' bowl game. The Tigers may have a slight advantage here, as they return some key players to their defensive front seve Looking ahead to college football: Week 1′s five games to watch [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: June 17, 2013, 10:08 am] The college football offseason is long and arduous, but its end is almost in sight. Weâre going to take a look at five games you have to look forward to for every weekend of the season. (This is also a handy guide to decide how to RSVP for any autumn weddings.) All times are Eastern and all games are played on Saturday unless otherwise noted. Ole Miss at Vanderbilt (9:15 p.m., ESPN, Thursday) â Two of the trendiest coaches and programs in the game squaring off in their conference opener on the first night of football? That will do nicely. James Franklin is cleaning up on recruits (19th in the Rivals rankings in 2013 after finishing 70th in 2011) and wins at Vanderbilt, guiding the Commodores to a 9-4 record and Music City Bowl victory in his second season. At Ole Miss, Hugh Freeze is bringing in five-star recruits left and right, building off of a debut season as Rebels head coach that saw the program appear in (and win) its first bowl game since 2009. Both of these programs have bright futures but razor-thin margins of error in the loaded SEC, which should make this a dandy of a game to help kick off the 2013 season. Georgia at Clemson (8 p.m., ABC) â We are blessed with a great crop of quarterbacks this season, as a lot of talented, productive signal callers either chose to skip the draft or were too young to have the option. This game features two that could have left but decided to come back, and their opening week matchup will almost surely include plenty of fireworks. For Georgia itâs Aaron Murray, who came painfully close to shedding the âCanât win the big oneâ monkey from his back against Alabama in the SEC title game, but comes into 2013 with a myriad of weapons to utilize. On the other side you have Tajh Boyd, who was masterful for most of 2012, including a come-from-behind win against the vaunted LSU defense in the Tigers' bowl game. The Tigers may have a slight advantage here, as they return some key players to their defensive front seve Five games to watch in 2013: Week one [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: June 17, 2013, 9:27 am] The college football offseason is long and arduous, but its end is almost in sight. Weâre going to take a look at five games you have to look forward to for every weekend of the season. (This is also a handy guide to decide how to RSVP for any autumn weddings.) All times are Eastern and all games are played on Saturday unless otherwise noted. Ole Miss at Vanderbilt (9:15pm on ESPN, Thursday) â Two of the trendiest coaches and programs in the game squaring off in their conference opener on the first night of football? That will do nicely. James Franklin is cleaning up on recruits (19th in the Rivals rankings in â13 after finishing 70th in â11) and wins at Vanderbilt, guiding the Commodores to a 9-4 record and Music City Bowl victory in his second season. At Ole Miss, Hugh Freeze is bringing in five-star recruits left and right, building off of a debut season as Rebels head coach that saw the program appear in (and win) its first bowl game since 2009. Both of these programs have bright futures but razor-thin margins of error in the loaded SEC, which should make this a dandy of a game to help kick off the 2013 season. Georgia at Clemson (8pm, ABC) â We are blessed with a great crop of quarterbacks this season, as a lot of talented, productive signal callers either chose to skip the draft or were too young to have the option. This game features two that could have left but decided to come back, and their game one matchup will almost surely include plenty of fireworks. For Georgia itâs Aaron Murray, who came painfully close to shedding the âCanât win the big oneâ monkey from his back against Alabama in the SEC title game but comes into 2013 with a myriad of weapons to utilize. On the other side you have Tajh Boyd, who was masterful for most of 2012, including a come-from-behind win against the vaunted LSU defense in their bowl game. The Tigers may have a slight advantage here, as they return some key players to their defensive front seven (Georgia lo Recruit uses elaborate video, baby sister to commit to Alabama [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: June 17, 2013, 8:35 am] When you consider some of the tactics that have been used by high school recruits in their commitment ceremonies â tattoos, live animals, black outs â we should not be surprised that a human child would become prominently involved. Weâve seen it a few times before, like when Richie Brown tasked his infant nephew with helping him choose Mississippi State, but La Salle (Cincinnati) wide receiver Derek Kief took his ceremony to a whole other level. Kief has been very active in keeping folks informed about his recruiting, updating DerekKief.com and releasing his top five of Notre Dame, Kentucky, Ohio State, Alabama and Northwestern in an elaborate poster incorporating the logos of all five schools. When it came time to make his choice, he did not disappoint. In a sharply produced video that included covers of Lil Wayneâs âHow to Loveâ and Lynyrd Skynyrdâs âSweet Home Alabamaâ and his entire family donning Tide gear, Kief displayed his sister Zoey wearing an Alabama shirt to declare his commitment. After that you get a plethora of slow motion hugs to celebrate, a thank you from Derek and a photo of him posing with Nick Saban. It was a successful recruiting weekend for Saban and the reigning champs, who also got a verbal from four-star QB recruit David Cornwell Friday. - - - 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. In recent poll, 83 percent of SEC fans say average fans being priced out of attending games [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: June 17, 2013, 7:42 am] The SEC is proactive in the battle to keep fans coming to the stadium and has looked into creative ways to keep attendance high, including adding WiFi to their stadiums. One thing that didn't come up as much was fixing the increasingly overwhelming cost of going to games. And â spoiler alert! â don't expect that to be high on the priority list for any school. But many fans do feel the price of going to college football games is overwhelming. AL.com did an informal survey of SEC fans from around the country, and even some outside the United States, and the most interesting finding is 83 percent replied yes to, "Do you believe average fans have been priced out of attending college football games?" That's a problem. The survey was quite interesting, and worth a read. Another interesting tidbit was of fans who said they attend games, 70 percent spend more than $500 a year on those games and 45 percent said they spend more than $1,000 a year. Those figures are not too surprising either, if you've attended a big-time college football game. Of course the high price would seem more fair if they had to pay the players who are providing the entertainment and risking their health every week. Or if they weren't dragging in billions of dollars on television deals. The way it is, it just feels like gouging. The good news for college football is fans still prefer going to games. Even with the comforts of watching at home, 61 percent told AL.com they prefer watching games in person. But in the same poll, 54 percent said they are attending fewer games than five years ago. It's a significant issue, just not one that most schools are going to move to fix until they've tried every other possible solution. - - - 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. Florida linebacker arrested for allegedly punching a bouncer, ‘I am Antonio!’ becomes instant classic [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: June 17, 2013, 7:11 am] Florida linebacker Antonio Morrison has some legal problems to deal with, but at least along the way he provided one of the funnier lines of the year. Morrison got to the Kava Lounge and apparently did not want to pay a cover charge. Then, according to the Associated Press, like a misplaced signature line from a movie superhero, he identified himself. "Do you know who I am? I am a UF football player. I am Antonio!" Morrison said, according to the AP. "I am Antonio!" did not get Morrison out of the cover charge, though it should have. That's gold. We imagine it went down something like this: Upon being told he was still going to have to pay full price, Morrison reportedly punched the bouncer in the head, because that's the normal reaction. He was charged with simple battery and arrested at his dormitory, the AP said. Who is this masked man trying to avoid cover charges with a single bound? He played all 13 games as a freshman for Florida last year, had 34 tackles and started three games. Maybe that gives someone the "Do you know who I am?" status in Florida, but it seems unlikely. And, apparently the bouncer and a witness did not know who "Antonio!" was, considering the AP report said they identified him by looking him up on the school's website. Morrison was expected to start the season on Florida's defense. We will certainly remember his name. - - - 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. Johnny Manziel tweets he ‘can’t wait to leave College Station’ [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: June 16, 2013, 9:43 am] Here we thought Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel was too busy attending the NBA Finals to be harassed in College Station. Apparently something happened in the early morning hours on Sunday to tweet â with an expletive â that he was very ready to be done with his college experience at Texas A&M. He has since deleted the tweet but it was grabbed by a few of his 360,000 followers, including @tverdeur04 (link has uncensored tweet), which we saw via the Houston Chronicle: He had a seemingly related tweet that he did not delete: Don't ever forget that I love A&M with all of my heart, but please please walk a day in my shoes â Johnny Manziel (@JManziel2) June 16, 2013 We don't know what set off the angry tweets, and we won't take an early-morning message to mean anything more than temporary frustration. It's not exactly a formal declaration that he's leaving for the NFL draft early or anything. But Manziel's life at Texas A&M has to be pretty unusual. We've written about how he didn't feel he could take classes on campus in the spring, but also about how he appeared to be having a great time taking pictures with fellow students one night out around school. He has a level of celebrity that would be hard to match for any current college student, and at times apparently feels it's too much. And he doesn't mind expressing it on social media, either. - - - 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. With new bowls forming and the BCS ending, will schools be forced to follow the old rules? [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: June 14, 2013, 11:27 am] Earlier this week we looked at the possibility of smaller conferences creating new bowl games in 2014 to ensure their eligible teams didnât get left at home for the postseason. It didnât take long to get some specifics on the first candidate: If approved, "Rice Bowl" in Little Rock, Ark., will pit MAC vs. Sun Belt starting in 2014. Would be 36th bowl â Brett McMurphy (@McMurphyESPN) June 14, 2013 If youâre wondering what rice and Little Rock have in common, Arkansas produces more of the crop than any other state. But what interests me here isnât the MAC/Sun Belt match up â although I will obviously watch next December if it becomes a real thing â but the details of the contracts schools are signing with the bowls. As it currently stands, the bowls are in an incredibly sweet spot (which is how you end up with 35 of them with more on the horizon). ESPN pays them handsomely for the broadcast rights, as live events â especially sports and especially football â become more and more valuable because theyâre mostly DVR proof, meaning viewers might actually watch the commercials. The bowls also donât even have the responsibility to sell that many tickets because schools are forced to immediately buy thousands of them as soon as they commit to the game. For some games, this is not a big deal. To take the most extreme examples, Notre Dame reportedly had 100,000 applicants for 10,000 championship game tickets. But on the other side, you have UConn, who lost 1.6 million on their Fiesta Bowl trip a few years ago. Earlier this week, The Gainesville Sun reported that Florida didnât just lose the Sugar Bowl in January, but lost nearly a million dollars to play in the game. Schools are forced to buy these tickets at full price (usually triple figures for the bigger bowls) and if the game isnât a popular draw, fans can buy tickets at a fraction of the cost on the secondary market. When Florida State squared off with Northern Illinois in the Orange Bowl, a S |