New Alabama Closer Rick Vaughn (Career ERA 3.78, 733 IP, 189 APP, 5 saves) assists fellow Alabama students in recovery efforts. Due to NCAA transfer rules, he is ineligible to play this season.

The streak is alive at 5 wins and things are clicking for the TIgers on offense better than they have all of conference play, but now is the time to see who really has the TIGERBLOOD in their veins and who wants to keep #WINNING

(This concludes the required Charlie Sheen jokes. In all seriousness, the dude is doing awesome things to help out the people of Alabama and that should be commended)

For Alabama (28-19, 10-11 in SEC) the season started off well in SEC play before running into the juggernaut that is Vandy. They were swept by the Dores and also lost the next 2 series against Tennessee and Florida before rebounding win an inspired series win at Mississippi just days after the tornadoes hit. With the division lead up for grabs in an extremely tight SECW race, Bama can ill afford to fall behind the pack.

Offensively, Bama has only 6 regular starters. Led by SS Jared Reaves (.357, 61H, 36R, 15 2B, 2HR, 36RBI) the Tide is batting .247 as a team and have just 2 more Homers (14) than Mahtook does. They also have issues with starting pitching, namely finding a Sunday starter. Friday and Saturday's Killcrease and Morgan have decent ERAs and favorable BB/K ratios. Jonathan Smart (2.22 ERA, 44.2IP in 23 App, 9BB/27K, 8 saves) is the closer to look out for.

LSU will unfortunately have to play spoiler at a time when the folks in Tuscaloosa really need things to start going their way again. Admission to all 3 games is free with a donation to the Red Cross and various local restaurants will be feeding those now living in shelters behind the right field wall. It hopes to be an uplifting weekend, but when you are only 2 games out of a Hoover spot, someone has to be the bad guy.

Weather: Clear to partly cloudy without a hint of rain, high in the low 80's all weekend

TV: Due to a time change on the Saturday game, Cox Sports will not be carrying Game 2 of the series. However Cox 4 will carry the entire series live in the BR, NOLA, and Laf markets. For those outside of LA, Friday and Sunday will be on Jumbo Sports affiliates and Saturday will be on most CSS stations and on ESPN3.com in most markets.

SEC Slate

UGA @ AUB

Vandy @ UK

UF @ ARK (Thursday series, ARK won GM1 4-3)

S Car @ Ole Miss

Miss. St. @ Tenn.

In a western division where things are so close, the rooting interests are simple. Root East over West and hope for sweeps. If LSU can take care of it's own business, we could rocket all the way up to a tie for 2nd place in the division.

The rest of the National slate this weekend is just more conference play, with the exception of #9 TCU travelling to #22 Okie State. The 1st bid to the NCAA tourney will be decided as Princeton, who we took 2 of 3 from earlier this year, will play Dartmouth for the Ivy League title and auto-bid. Also, keep an eye on the Dallas Baptist @ #11 TAMU series, as DBU has several midweek win against many of the best teams in Texas.

PITCHING MATCHUPS from LSUSports.net
Game 1-6:30pm-Cox 4
LSU - Fr. RHP Kurt McCune (5-3, 3.34 ERA, 70.0 IP, 21 BB, 54 SO)
UA - Sr. RHP Nathan Kilcrease (5-3, 3.12 ERA, 69.1 IP, 15 BB, 58 SO)

Game 2-3pm-Cox 4, CSS
LSU - Fr. RHP Kevin Gausman (3-5, 4.36 ERA, 66.0 IP, 21 BB, 62 SO)
UA - Jr. LHP Adam Morgan (4-4, 4.30 ERA, 67.0 IP, 17 BB, 55 SO)

Game 3-1pm-Cox 4
LSU - Sr. RHP Ben Alsup (6-4, 4.17 ERA, 58.1 IP, 20 BB, 35 SO)
UA - TBA

As some of you may or may not know, the interwebz favorite sports play-by-play man, Gus Johnson, finds himself newly unemployed after he and CBS were unable to come to terms on a new deal. It's cool, CBS can probably use that money for CSI: Cleveland. I don't think Noah Wyle or Eriq La Salle have been doing much since ER went off the air anyway.

That being said, on behalf of the ATVS Family and myself, we would like to offer a simple plea to the SEC's wonderful corporate sponsor, ESPN.

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Yvette Girouard's final regular season series as coach at LSU will be this weekend at home against S Car. Having already secured a spot in the conference tourney, the Lady Tigers will look to continue a dominant 9 game win streak into the post season and send Coach Girouard out on a high note. Friday and Saturday's games will be carried live on Cox Sports.

Don't look so surprised that baseball's post-season is no longer in jeopardy. Some think the SEC could get 10 teams in, including the entire western division. 

A'Trey-U Jones has secured  a nice 68-32 lead in the 1st round of the NOTY. The 2nd round should start sometime next week.

New women's coach Nikki Caldwell has finalized her new staff, and unfortunately, long time assistant Bob Starkey is not among them. Caldwell is on a charity motorcycle run from South Dakota to Vegas this weekend to raise money for breast cancer.

There was a grat profile in the New York Times this week of LSU sprinter Gabriel Mvumvure, who grew up in Zimbabwe.

The Pac-12 signed a HUGE TV deal with Fox and ESPN this week, averaging out to over 20 million dollars per school per year, a higher total than even the SEC makes. It will also put more of their games in East Coast primetime and put a championship game on a Friday night with no ratings competition. Of course the real loser in this is the last conference to make a new deal, now hoping for the last available TV spots, the Big East.

An Ole Miss Rebel has finally made it to Omaha. 

Unbeknownst to me, back in March the only decent Tulane blog in existence shuttered. I would to if I were a Greenie. Speaking of the wave, with the lockout now back on, the Saints players have been using their facilities to conduct organized practices on their own.

The Oregon Ducks have suspended their would-be starting middle linebacker Kiko Alonso Lewis after he was arrested on felony burglary charges. Addicted To Quack looks at what effect it will have on their defense.

It is officially the preseason, and Doc Saturday has penned the first of many team previews that thinks LSU has the talent to make a title run, if only we could lose less than 2 games this year/find a reliable QB

I've shared links in the past about the costs of recruiting in the SEC, but how does it compare to other leagues, like the ACC?

LSU has one of the highest student-ticket prices for football in the conference at just over $100 a season, but they also have one of the highest amounts of student reserved seats.

This list of scholarship types is missing "Taffyshirted"

It's been a good few weeks for EA Sports. First they signed a deal to lease out a yet to be completed testing facility on campus at LSU. Then they were dropped from the Ed O'Bannon class action suit of former NCAA players seeking compensation for the use of thier likeness (the suit will continue against the NCAA and it's licensing company).  

The Justice Dept. got some headlines this week for sending some questions about the BCS to the NCAA. As TeamSpeedKills points out, the answer, as always, is the university presidents.

All of our hard work has been for naught. Our Hero Gus Johnson has parted company with CBS, headed for parts unknown (well, not so unknown).

The football off-season has become so barren, you may resort to watching artificial grass grow.

Our Bama counterparts at Roll Bama Roll have put together an awesome, cross-country donation drive/road trip. keep an eye out for a big Penske rental truck on I-20 with Bama magnets on the side if you're in North LA. Those in the Baton Rouge area should be aware that LSU is doing a fundraiser/donation collection of it's own. The SEC also announced that it will be donating $500,000 to the university's recovery efforts.

Also in real life news, The American and Louisiana flags that fly over the parade grounds were burned on Sunday night, reportedly by a student from Colombia, who later turned himself in. The flag pole was also damaged, but the ROTCs were quick on the scene and are posting a volunteer guard until it is fixed.  And with the Mississippi continuing to rise and the threat of the Morganza Spillway being opened, life is about to get very difficult for many of you.