2013 SEC Media Days: Recaps, reactions, and all our live coverage

A theme spanning the major-conference media events this month is the call for significant changes to the structure of the NCAA. The commissioners from the SEC, ACC and Big 12 all have touched on the subject in some form or another, and to varying degrees.

SEC commish Mike Slive was the first to weigh in, taking shots at the NCAA’s rulebook, which he considers antiquated.

The scheduling issue has also been a frequent bone of contention for Steve Spurrier recently, because South Carolina has drawn more challenging opponents from the West than Georgia has (although the shoe is on the other foot this year).

The obstacles to fair (or at least truly random) non-conference scheduling are the Alabama-Tennessee and Auburn-Georgia rivalries. Offer a Georgia fan fewer games with Auburn and more games with the Mississippi schools, and he won’t be pleased. But offer those fans a three-week period of top SEC opponents playing one another, and he might see a worthwhile trade-off.

The dye-job: fresh, immaculate, and an unnatural shade of brown-red you only find in expensive furniture made from tropical wood.

The pace? Brutal, as in the first five minutes featured Spurrier throwing gasoline on Notre Dame, the inability of institutions to share even paltry sums of money with players, and SEC scheduling inequities. Gigging the Bulldogs? Yes, via mentioning how badly they played against South Carolina and perhaps also by noting their easy schedule. Reminder of how much younger he is than other people his age? Yup, by noting that most of the people at his 50th high school reunion were asleep by 9:30 while STEVE SPURRIER JUST WANTED TO ROCK.

Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron and Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel probably don’t hate each other. In fact, almost all outward indicators they’ve given make it seem as if they’re friends. But that doesn’t matter, as narrative is in the process of taking over.

But this succumbs to storyline: Manziel is the brash young gun who has made the bitter mistake of acting like a 20-year-old, McCarron is the focused championship machine sportswriters fawn over. And it just so happens the one time they played, Manziel’s team won, McCarron’s only loss of the year.

The job of the SEC football coach or player at SEC Media Days: say nothing that could ever be used against you in a court of law or before a football game.

Often, this means nobody says anything at all. No one remembers a single thing said by Gary Pinkel, Mark Stoops, or Butch Jones this week, and that’s fine. The event was survived, and the locals are happy their guys looked well-dressed on camera.

Gooood morning! We’re once again live from Hoover, Alabama, where a few of the SEC’s heaviest hitters (yes, James Franklin will hit you very hard) have been saved for last.

The SEC’s already announced some business, releasing its media preseason poll and its All-SEC teams, plus announcing August 31, 2014 as the SEC Network’s official start date.

When asked about changes to his mechanics made by new offensive coordinator and QB coach Cam Cameron, LSU quarterback Zach Mettenberger responded with comments that included a bit of a, uh, critique of Tim Tebow.

Now see, that’s just not very nice, Zach. Have a heart, man. (But at least Tajh Boyd is amused.)

Head coach Mark Richt, on the other hand, readily admitted that Clowney is a large and terrifying individual. There is no shame in that, coach.

Dabo Swinney was quick to deny the notion that Boyd is afraid of anyone, but the Clemson quarterback didn’t bother with a direct response of his own. He initially had planned to tweet out a retort, according to Dan Wolken of USA Today, but then thought better of reacting in that way.

The last day of SEC Media Days started with the conference releasing its media preseason poll and all-SEC teams, and there isn’t a whole ton of drama towards the top of college football’s strongest conference. But who the media chose to contend with Alabama is intriguing: they picked Georgia to win the Eastern Division and gave 11 first-place votes to Texas A&M to win the conference instead of the Crimson Tide.

The media released three separate polls: one poll for each division’s finish, where voters picked each side of the league from top-to-bottom, and one poll for the winner of the conference, ranked by number of votes. Last year, they picked LSU to win the conference over Alabama, who went on to become the national champions.

We’re back, live in Hoover, for Day 2 of SEC Media Days. Things of note and renown are anticipated.

In the chat gadget below, Steven Godfrey, Brandon Larrabee, and I will be commenting on items of note. We’ll also chat with you in the comments, if you like.

He drinks water. This is now a GIF on the internet. This is news.

Courtesy of Brian McAlister at AL.com.

Believe it or not, there are Aggies besides Johnny Manziel at SEC Media Days. Jake Matthews, perhaps the country’s best offensive lineman, and Toney Hurd, a senior defensive back who made a number of big plays last year. This was Hurd’s gathering in the room before the main room:

It stepped up a bit in the central hall, but his attendance was still dwarfed by Manziel’s and smaller than Matthews’. He was just as well-coached and thoughtful and surely more entertaining, though.

Naturally, Manziel thinks he’d be fine:

Texas A&M and South Carolina don’t play during the regular season, so the only way these two can be on the same field this year is if they meet in the SEC Championship Game. I think that matchup may draw some interest. South Carolina has better odds (+425) to make the title game than Texas A&M (+1050), as it doesn’t need to finish ahead of Alabama to get to Atlanta.

Manziel denied being hungover at the event where he was a coach, and refused to get into the details beyond that he overslept. He did say that he made mistakes, but that he’s looking forward to going back to the camp next year. Manziel’s father claimed that his son left the camp due to “dehydration.”

On the topic of how he’s been portrayed in the media this offseason, Manziel said “I’ve brought a little bit on myself.” He also said that he feels a little bit like Justin Bieber with all the attention he’s drawn, which should draw out a coordinated Twitter attack from Beliebers worldwide for having the audacity to compare himself to the singer.

When Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney was told of Clowney’s comments, he offered a rebuttal, saying Boyd wasn’t scared.

• Loads of SEC Media Days coverage, live from Hoover

He exited the womb at near-supersonic speeds, bounced clean off the floor, and lassoed the lights with the umbilicus before landing a snarling dismount on the infant scale.

This is the Florida coach’s way of answering questions: listing the entire depth chart, addressing changes in personnel and then attempting to preempt any further questions by listing every single piece of information he knows about his football team. It’s blitzing while keeping men in coverage, just what a defensive coach would do. And sometimes one of those men gets to the quarterback, metaphorically speaking:

Hoover, Ala. -- Thundering toward you like a thousand elephants is SEC Media Days, the year’s first sign that college football is very near. SB Nation has a slew on the scene, with Spencer Hall, Brandon Larrabee, and Steven Godfrey sharing some Golden Flake fellowship with me.

Brandon, Steven, and I will be chattering in the widget directly below as SEC commissioner Mike Slive likely drops a news nugget or two and Florida, Missouri, Ole Miss, and South Carolina face the genteel music.

Asked to clarify that comment, Franklin indicates he meant to reference a particular Missouri fan, who issued “the worst comment I got,” not all Missouri fans.

“I definitely don’t wanna repeat what he said,” Franklin said with a glowing smile. He said everything with a glowing smile, as well as yes ma’ams and yes sirs. Just want to emphasize the glowingness.

Commissioner Mike Slive kicked off SEC Media Days on Tuesday, addressing a number of significant issues affecting the SEC and college athletics.

The biggest issue Slive touched on during his speech was the matter of the NCAA. He didn’t say that the NCAA has completely failed, but he did say “the NCAA has not been successful” in meeting the needs of student-athletes, and that he and other conference commissioners seem to be on the same page regarding the positives of full cost of attendance scholarships.

Last month, someone at Ohio State turned Florida into the NCAA for a minor recruiting violation. Whether Urban Meyer was involved, who knows. But there’s one thing Will Muschamp knows Ohio State knows.

From a gathering immediately prior to his SEC Media Days presser:

The SEC announced the TV schedule and kickoff times for the first three weeks of the 2013 season on Tuesday at SEC Media Days.

We already knew the Sept. 14 showdown between Texas A&M and Alabama would be the CBS afternoon game, and a selection of the SEC’s ESPN/ABC TV times were already set. Some other notable matchups include South Carolina at Georgia (4:30 p.m. ET on Sept. 14 on ESPN) and Louisville at Kentucky (Noon ET on Sept. 14 on ESPN).

Buckle up, friends. We’re in store for some SEC football tropes.

Keep your ears to your TVs and your eyes to Twitter and your teeth on some Dr. Pepper and Golden Flake-brand pickle chips. Play along here in the comments and on Twitter! If you win, you get a non-committable scholarship offer to the university of your choice.

Football is a brief six weeks in the future, and that means it’s time for one of college football’s most college football events: SEC Media Days, when hordes of media, media-like people and -- in a phenomenon unknown to other conferences -- fans descend on a hotel in Hoover, Ala., from Tuesday to Thursday to listen to the conference’s coaches and players discuss the upcoming season.

Spencer Hall, Jason Kirk and Steven Godfrey of SB Nation, as well as Brandon Larrabee of SB Nation’s Team Speed Kills, will be on hand to provide coverage of the event, which I’m told will feature jokes.

Manziel was in Louisiana over the weekend to serve as a counselor at the Manning Passing Academy but left the camp early because of his apparent illness. The early departure didn’t come without controversy -- rumors were rampant about a late night on the town Friday being responsible for the early exit. Manziel was also spotted out in College Station’s bar district Saturday night, which didn’t help quell the speculation.

Manziel’s media day press conference is scheduled to begin early, and naturally the jokes are underway.