The Men's team returns from the break tomorrow to face Arkansas. Actioncuse will have some more details later, but what you need to know now is that tickets are $5, it's Maravich bobblehead day, and most importantly, QUICK CHANGE IS THE HALFTIME ACT.

After being ejected from last weekend's game against Kentucky for a flagrant foul on Anthony Davis, Malcom White sent letters of apology to Davis and the Wildcats for his actions, saying the foul was caused by his own frustration and not any malice towards Davis. While praising White and coach Johnson for their actions, Kentucky fans are still wondering why the league didn't give him a suspension.

The Lady Tigers are now on a 5 game losing streak after dropping another game to Florida last night. They're at home again Sunday for #5 undefeated in SEC play Kentucky and tickets are only $1

Joe Dean Sr, former All-SEC basketball player and Athletic Director at LSU among other things, will be inducted into this year's National College Basketball Hall of Fame class.

Jordan Jefferson and Ken Adams are playing in the Players All-Star Classic in Little Rock this weekend. The game is Saturday at 3pm and will be on Cox Sports and Comcast Sports in some areas.

LSU Lacrosse will hopefully be the first team on campus to regain some of our honor, as they face Bama on the road at 7pm tonight, part of a full weekend of games for them.

The pitching staff is really taking a liking to new pitching coach Alan Dunn. They'll continue to have open practices throughout the weekend, weather permitting.

Despite being signed and cut for the 13th time last week, The Giants resigned Ryan Perrilloux to their practice squad again this week and as of this morning did not cut him. So he's eligible for a ring, along with NY teammates Chad Jones, Michael Clayton, and Corey Webster. Stevan Ridley and Kevin Faulk make up the LSU representation on the Patriots roster. If you're looking for hard-hitting analysis of what to expect in the game, SB Nation has the exact oposite of that.

Deuce McAllister may be joining the Ole Miss coaching staff.

Gary Crowton is bringing his brand of football to Canada.

There is an even better highlight reel of "Big Chested" QB Jeremey Liggins than you've seen, with an amazing soundtrack.

Sports Illustrated has an amazing behind the scenes look at the best recruiting class in Vandy history.

Thoughts and prayers this weekend with our friends in Ruston and New Orleans on the sudden death of La Tech RB Tyrone Duplessis.

We lead this morning with Lolo Jones and her fantastic comeback from back surgery this fall, because it was really the only thing good to happen in LSU Sports this weekend. The Men got walloped by Kentucky and now stand with the same conference record they had this time last year. The Lady Tigers also lost, on the road at Vandy. Even the Gym and Tennis teams had bad weekends.

The Kentucky game was (and will be) the largest crowd of the season by far, the perfect opportunity fora panorama inside the PMAC.

Tomorrow will be all about the 2012 signing class, but there was a brief amount of drama concerning the 2013 class yesterday as ATH Jeryl Brazil, LSU's only 2013 commit, decommited, then recommited within the space of an afternoon. Brazil says he's still strong with LSU, but wants to be able to take some recruiting trips. Can't say I blame a guy for wanting to see the rest of the SEC on other school's money for a year.

Ready for the Landon Collins story to get weirder? A blog that is part of an advice site for sports parents uncovered in an interview with Collins mother that she believes Collins' girlfriend had been given a job in Saban's office, presumably to help land Landon (you might recognize this as the ol' "Bear's Angels" trick). At this point, Collins recruitment has been so odd, I half expect him to sign with Auburn tomorrow.

Not sure how to use this to judge the talent level of this year's team, but 10 LSU baseball players have been named to rosters in this summer's Cape Cod League. Practice continues today with an open to the public scrimmage at 5pm today. There are some more interview videos from Media Day from Hunter Palmer of BBI and WAFB.com after the break.

There's one more College All-Star game to go this coming Saturday and Jordan Jefferson has made the South team roster. The game, Live from War Memorial in Little Rock, will be on Cox Sports at 3pm on Saturday.

TAMU is already looking to spend those big SEC checks and could play their 2013 or 2014 home slate in Houston while Kyle Field is having major renovations.

There has been a lot of turnover on SEC football staffs so far this offseason, CFN has a good wrap up.

The NCAA is looking into the possibility of further dividing the top tier of FBS football amid growing budget gaps. I shall affectionately call this new group D-1AAA.

UConn basketball is about as far off our radar as it gets, but their is an intriguing situation going on with one Ryan Boatright, who was recently cleared after apparently ratting out someone to the NCAA, which has now caused Boatright and his family to consider legal action against the NCAA after they released details of what he assisted them with. This thing is starting to look like Lester Earl all over again.

No longer just an image conjured up on a computer, Abita canned beer is a real live thing now.

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The men lost in Starkville in a game that ended much closer than expected, with LSU still having a chance in it's final possessions. Coach Johnson got a bench warning within the first two minutes of play, a Technical at the end of the game, and also learned how to levitate. I hate to make it sound like Saturday's home game against Kentucky is a make-or-break moment for the season, but it is.

I'm not sure what to do with TE DeAngelo Peterson's comments about LSU not using it's game plan or most of it's practiced plays against Bama other than to agree that the offensive playcalling was baffling. As much as I'd like to just erase the game from my mind, the offensive coaching situation going to keep coming up during the offseason, especially when it comes time to replace the open staff spot that was Billy Gonzales's.

Speaking of the oddities of the BCS game, I know this counts as ancient in internet years, but if you haven't heard it give a listen to a radio interview T-Bob Hebert gave in Georgia last week if you still think there was a locker room incident.

Speaking of T-Bob, he and Jarrett Lee were named Grand Marshalls for the Krewe of Zeus parade.

Meanwhile at the Senior Bowl, S Brandon Taylor is doing his best to impress the NFL scouts. The game is at 3pm Saturday on NFLNet. LSU has 3 players on the South roster: Peterson, Taylor, and OL Will Blackwell.

An old familiar name popped up in this recap of the East-West shrine game: DT Akiem Hicks.

LSU is spending 8 million on some cosmetic upgrades to the North and West exteriors of Tiger Stadium. I guess those parking permit fees aren't going away any time soon...

4 former Tigers are on the Super Bowl rosters this year: CB Corey Webster and WR Michael Clayton with New York and RBs Stevan Ridley and Kevin Faulk for New England. In addition, Chad Jones (WOOOOO!) is still on the Giant's special Injured Reserved list and Ryan Perrilloux, who at last count has been signed and released by the Giants EIGHTEEN TIMES this season, could still make their roster. Having players on both rosters guarantees LSU it's 11th straight Super Bowl victory. UPDATE: Nope, they signed and cut him AGAIN. Kevin Faulk, being the elder statesman of the group, took some time to reflect on his career.

We're just 21 days from first pitch as the team begins their first scrimmages today. The Coach's poll (which is the one ESPN uses for TV) has 6 SEC teams in the top 25, with UF and SCar starting 1-2, and LSU settling in at #14. Future division-mate TAMU is ranked 6th. Baseball America also released their Top 25 with 7 SEC teams (LSU at #8) and some great team previews. The Poster is also out for this season. While I think of myself as a bit more well-rounded LSU sports fan, change up some of the detail's from AUPPL's love letter to college baseball and it could really apply to any fan of the Ping (also check out his early predictions for a good preview of auburn baseball this year).

In our continuing efforts to be your number 1 source for news on LSU club sports (hockey, bass fishing, etc.) we bring you news that the LSU Lacrosse season begins today with a home match against TAMU, or rather it would have if the UREC fields weren't flooded. LSU competes in the MCLA's Lone Star Alliance South Division and has games from now through the beginning of April.

We're less than a week from signing day, so prepare yourself emotionally, and brush up on your vocabulary.

After being sighted at football preseason practice, Jamarcus Russell is back on campus this semester to finish his degree.

ESPN The Magazine has a great story in next month's issue about the backstory of the recruit we missed out on, Landon Collins.

Who's the most sought after QB for next season in the NFL? Matt Flynn, of course.

College realignment has wide reaching effects beyond football. Take for example the story of San Diego State's epic journey to a basketball game at Wyoming.

Thoughts and prayers this weekend are with Skip Bertman and his family on the loss of his daughter, Dr. Lisa Jo Pate, to cancer at the age of 44.

Our week of sorrows continued this weekend as the Men fell at Arkansas and the Ladies snapped a 10 game winning streak at Florida.

By the time you read this the deadline to file papers for the NFL Draft will have passed and as of late Sunday, only Rueben Randle, Michael Brockers, and Mo Claiborne have declared of LSU's eligible players. (they have 72 hours to back out, as Brandon Lafell once did). Thanks to one helluva re-recruting job by Les Miles, Russell Shepard will be back next year, while LB Trevon Randle (recently joined the basketball team EDIT: I have mistaken Trevon Randle for football walk-on Ronald Martin, who joined the basketball team this past weekend) and RB Jakhari Gore will not be on the team next year. WR Kadron Boone also appears to be transferring, but I've not seen official confirmation on that from any source or his potential destination.

Aside from Billy Gonzales officially taking the OC job at Illinois, there has been very little movement on LSU's coaching staff. Thanks to Billy leaving, Les Miles gets to take a few more in-home visits with recruits, so dont expect the vacancy to be filled anytime soon. Elsewhere, former LSU Special Teams coach Joe Robinson, who left to take the DL job at UNC just before Butch Davis was fired, as ended up back in the SEC as the ST coach at USC. TeamSpeedKills is keeping track of all the coaching changes in the SEC.

G Will Blackwell, S Brandon Taylor, and TE Deangelo Peterson were all named to the Senior Bowl roster. Meanwhile, Jarrett Lee will play in the Casino del Sol College All-Star Game tonight in Tucson (technically a rebirth of the old Blue-Gray Game), on a team coached by Houston Nutt. The game will be televised on some, but not all of the FSN stations at 7pm. Lee will also be playing in the NFLPA game later this month and LB Karnell Hatcher and OL Greg Shaw will play in the Battle of Florida.

Who's ready for the Mettenberger-Kiel QB controversy? (and what about Rivers?)

Now for the team that hasn't had a chance to disappoint us yet: LSU Baseball (33 days until first pitch) Practice began yesterday in Alex Box with a lot of new names throwing from the mound. Practices continue throughout the week and are open to the public. Coach Mainieri had a great interview with College Baseball 360's podcast covering a wide range of topics. Of course, If you'd rather sink back into your depression, you can read this sad tale of what's going on in Omaha these days.

One of the oddest stories I missed sharing in the days leading up to the game, Wright Thompson caught up with our old friend Edwin Edwards.

It's been a horrific week to be a sports fan in Louisiana, but as The Accidental Cajun reminds us, "Well, we haven’t had a hurricane in awhile."

Misery loves company, Ole Miss lost out on a CB recruit to Tulane.

SB Nation's Bill Connelly breaks down the Top 100 CFB games of the 2011 season. LSU makes 5 appearances, but none in the Top 20.

Spencer Hall has a special message for you about recruiting season, which is a good opportunity to bring up the fact that Crowley RB Davante Bourque has officially flipped to the Vols (he had decommitted from LSU back on January 4th)

After being fired from A&M, Mike Sherman sent out an amazing letter to Texas high school football coaches detailing his coaching philosophies that makes for a great, if long, read.

Good Morning, West Virginia just scored again.

LSU's bus trip to New Orleans had LIVE aerial coverage of the journey down I-10, which wasn't without problems. Les Miles had a short press conference after arriving at the hotel. It's posted after the break, along with comments from Saban, Rueben Randle, and Brandon Taylor.

Miles picked up another award yesterday morning, winning the Walter Camp Coach of the Year. He is the 2nd LSU coach to win the award, joining.....Jerry Stovall in 1982.

The player's time in New Orleans so far has been....interesting. I don't really care what establishments our players go to as long as it's not a place called Shady's. Meanwhile, our kicker is already on a lucky streak.

Fox Sports has an amazing story on Tyrann Mathieu's upbringing that's well worth your time.

DRINKING NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

In an update from Monday, it appears most of the 1210AM staff will land on their feet somewhere.

The Psychics are backing LSU.

Miles and Saban are both set to make MAD BANK off of this game.

AD Joe Alleva's got a new letter out, but there's nothing interesting in it

The greatest time sink you will see all year, it's the 2011 Top 50 Sports GIFs of the Year.

Terry Bowden is a wanted man in Alabama (for traffic tickets)

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Les Miles had one more meeting with the media before New Orleans, but it was more stand up routine than news. It's posted after the break. Jordan Jefferson also met with the media for the first time in a very long time (also after the break), which drug the fight back into prominence for a moment. SouthernMan has pretty much covered the thoughts I have on the matter.

With no worthwhile news coming out of the team, the biggest sports story in Baton Rouge is probably 1210AM The Score getting the rug pulled out from under it on New Year's Day. In one swipe, Jordy Hultberg, Jimmy Ott, Buddy Songy, and Richard Condon, along with all the other shows on the station are gone and the local sports talk market has been reduced to *looks around* Mascona's afternoon show on the ESPN station. I'm going to be honest and say that while I wasn't a fan of all of them, it was at least an alternative to the ESPN national shows (which, with the exception of Van Pelt, I don't enjoy at all).

The HS All-American games are getting underway this week (i'm sure Paul will have excellent coverage here as usual) and I'm proud to say that Gunner Kiel isn't embarrassing himself by worrying about what number he's wearing.

This may be the nicest thing The Man from Gannett, LA has ever written about Les Miles. It's a Christmas miracle.

Reaction to the release of the 2012 SEC FB schedule hasn't really been mixed. We all know Ole Miss is going to suffer and UGA somehow escapes playing any of LSU, Bama, or ARK again. When certain statistics are applied, the big winner in the schedule change appears to be...Vandy? The new schedule also leaves the Aggies with a few holes to fill.

Speaking of which, here's a cleaner version of the new conference map.

The Right Reverend Houston Nutt will coach again, in Tuscon of all places.

Of the lesser bowls you may have missed over the holiday, the most interesting thing to happen was the Skycam attacking an Iowa RB.

It's only 45 days until 1st pitch and Perfect Game has an excellent review of the Year in College Baseball.

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We are quite light on news today, as everyone's been off for the last few days. The football team got right back to work yesterday afternoon (no doubt indoors due to the weather) and sweated out the "extra turkey and stuffing" they brought back with them. Miles hasn't really had anything of note to say in the last few press conferences, which is a good thing. He did mention yesterday that he doesn't really have to do anything to motivate the guys in practice, even after coming right back from a holiday break. The full presser is after the break.

Gunner Kiel was supposed to commit somewhere before Christmas. Then it was Christmas day, which turned into yesterday with still no announcement. The only thing consistent between all of the different recruiting "sources" reports is that they've all been consistently wrong, which probably means that none of them really know anything. Supposedly, his top choices remain LSU, Vandy, and Notre Dame, with a heavy lean to LSU. As soon as we hear something concrete, we'll be sure to post about it here, but there's nothing to say for now.

There is also nothing to say about the 2012 SEC football schedule right now. And I do mean ABSOLUTELY nothing. All reports concerning the schedule have all come from "sources" who've said all sorts of things like A&M and Mizzou getting some amazing home slates for their 1st SEC seasons and the opposite division draws being reduced to 2 teams instead of 3. As these are the same "sources" who said we'd have a full schedule released on Monday, I trust these reports as much as the Gunner Kiel rumors. Wait and see is the name of the game this week.

The Louisiana Sports Writers Association All-Louisiana Team was announced this week and dominated byt LSU as usual, with Tyrann Mathieu and Brad Wing earning the Defensive and Freshman Players of the Year respectively while Miles was named Coach of the Year.

The BCS is quite the pyramid scheme. Thanks to the Superdome remodel, the bands can no longer be placed in special sections on the field level and instead have to buy regular tickets for the BCS title game. Combined with the price of lodging and transportation, LSU and Alabama will spend nearly $1 Million combined just for their bands to attend and give the BCS a free halftime show. As of a few days before Christmas, ticket prices on the secondary markets had fallen sharply, but still remain at a $2000 average.

For his efforts against Marquette and North Texas, Ralston Turner was named SEC Player of the Week. The Men's team returns to action Thursday night against Grambling.

Finally, here for no other reason than I forgot to post it on Christmas, is Jolly Ol' Saint Miles (via @LSUShep10)

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The team spent the last few practices working on fundamentals and early stages of the gameplan. Noted in the press conference is that OG Josh Dworaczyk, who is still appealing for a 6th year of eligibility, seems to have made his decision to only coach in the BCSCG and not attempt to make the field. It was mostly cheerful conversation, with Miles joking around as usual until the matter of another fatal crash at the LA-1 crossing in Addis was brought up, the same intersection where Miles' sister was killed last spring. The full press conference is posted after the break.

The team was sent home for Christmas, but not before being entertained by coaches Miles, Cooper, and Wilson at the team Christmas party.

via LSU SID Michael Bonnette

In one of the odder things to happen in conference realignment, LSU has taken an ad out in the Shreveport Times today, wishing good luck to Mizzou, who is playing in the Independence Bowl this weekend. They're playing UNC in a game i'm sorta ambivalent about, but it's the only game on TV on Dec. 26th, so we might as well have some rooting interest.

No one know yet where Gunner Kiel, the next GREATEST QB PROSPECT EVAR, is going but here are some highlights of why so many teams, including LSU, Notre Dame, and Vandy are after him.

Despite a slow start, the Men's Basketball team pulled away from North Texas last night, 67-58 in a great defensive performance. More from actioncuse later. The team is also off for Christmas.

The SEC announced this week that the Baseball Championship Tournament will expand to 10 teams this year and remain at that size with the addition of Mizzou and Texas A&M next year. The Tourney will start on Tuesday's now, and while it remains double elimination until the semi final round, a loss in the opening round means that a team would face the daunting task of pitching and winning everyday for the next 5 day, playing six straight days.

The SEC, in an interview with itself, believes the change will help it secure 10 bids in the NCAA tournament, while SBN Atlanta sees the move for what it is: a cash grab. Coach Mainieri, in an interview with Tiger Rag Radio, sees it as something that could have helped LSU make the field last year and also believes that the SEC will not expand past the 30 game conference slate.

Also this week, Collegiate Baseball release their preseason poll ranking LSU #12. Every team in the SEC was either ranked (including UF and SCar taking the top 2 spots) or in the also receiving votes category, except for Bama. Tulane, SLU, and USL also appeared in the also receiving votes list. 1st pitch is in 56 days.

UGA has self reported some minor violations to the NCAA that includes Mark Richt paying his staff salary bonuses out of his own pocket after being denied their pay raises by the UGA Board. It's the kindest violation ever.

A few days ago the NCAA released the regular season attendance figures for all of D-1A [PDF] and the results are pretty interesting. Of all of the non-BCS AQ schools, only 7 reported attendance capacities (sold seats/ stadium capacity) of over 90%: FIU, USL, Boise St., Navy, TCU, East Carolina, and BYU. The worst performers of each of the BCS conferences were ACC: Miami, 64%; SEC: Vandy, 82%; Big XII: Baylor, 82%; Big Ten: Northwestern, 70% PAC 12: UCLA, 62%, Big East: USF 67%. Interestingly enough, LSU Baseball's cumulative attendance last season [PDF] of just over ~400K would be enough to rank it as a Top 30 football program, ahead of some notable programs like Virginia Tech, Oklahoma State, West Virginia, Ole Miss, UCLA, and Mizzou, to name a few.

In coaching news, Terry Bowden popping up at Akron all of a sudden means that there is only one HC vacancy in D-1A: Penn State.

It would appear the Big East mess is only just beginning, as now two members are discussing plans to break off and form a basketball-only league (wasn't that the point of the Big East in the first place?) Meanwhile, Navy would like to join the Big East, but wont be able to soon due to numerous scheduling contracts it has to work out. Speaking of, no one really knows where WVU will be playing next year.

In some wide ranging interviews, the PAC-12's Larry Scott sees a future with a single 72-team Super Conference, while Mike Slive still supports a plus one system he envisioned years ago, even if the SEC is benefiting from the current system, and Mizzou AD Alden and Chancellor Deaton discussed how they came to the decision to move to the SEC.

SB Nation has put out their own All-American team. It didn't have a space for Punter on the ballot, just a line with Brad Wing written on it.

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