Not a whole lot of anything to talk about as the whole of LSU Sports comes off of the Finals break. The Football team is back at practice, but it's closed to the media and Miles probably won't be talking to anyone until after Christmas. As long as they stay out of Shady's there will be nothing to report.
Which is probably why our friend from the fictional town of Gannett, LA spent his weekend trying to create a quarterback controversy that doesn't exist. (No, I'm not linking to it) So quick is the man from Gannett to drum up support for Lee, especially after the SEC Championship week when he kept floating rumors that Lee might have grade troubles (a rumor that has since proven false.) I certainly don't want to restart that tired, old discussion about who should be starting at QB, mainly because Coach Miles has said plainly earlier this season that no amount of wailing from fans will impact his personnel decisions in any way. It's just a fool trying to fill lines on a Sunday, and by now I'd hope most of our readers know better than to take that kind of bait.
The only football news of note involves teams that were unable to go undefeated this season (which is to say, everyone else.) A&M hired Houston's Kevin Sumlin, who will join Mr Freeze in The Legion of Doom facing an uphill battle as hurry-up offense coaches in a defense first league. Also, Kansas has hired Florida OC Wies as their new HC and there are strong rumors that Colorado St. will be hiring away Bama OC McElwain. SB Nation is tracking all of the coaching changes this season here.
Tulane has announced plans to abandon the Dome and move back to the Garden District with a new on-campus stadium, a move that I actually like a lot. Though it will be built very close to the site of the old Tulane Stadium, it will be but a shadow of it's former self with a planned capacity of just 30,000.
There is one bit of LSU football news to share. The administration is yet again floating the idea of a South Endzone Upper Deck/ Suite Box expansion, along with some other cosmetic touches around the stadium. Why they want to add more seats to a stadium they already can't regularly fill for an SEC game is beyond me. The talk of sellouts this year was a joke, the Arkansas game was only time this season there weren't swaths of empty seats on either sideline, and that's not even talking about the empties in the Uppers. How about we take all this extra money we suddenly have lying around and put it to gameday cleanup so that some of us don't have to pay FORTY DOLLARS A FREAKIN' GAME just to park for half a day.
Mizzou fan and football stat nerd Bill Connelly is proving to be an entertaining addition to the conference. You can spend days contemplating the scenarios that he's dreamed up, like What if Mizzou and A&M were added to the league in 1992? Or What if the 2011 teams played the 1981 football schedule?
The Lady Tiger basketball team has had an up and down year so far, with wins over a ranked Georgetown team, but losses to Tulane and a ranked Ohio St squad. Tonight, the Ladies will host Coach Caldwell's former team UCLA in the PMAC. The game's at 7pm and will be carried live on Cox Sports.
The Men came home and handled Boise St. very well this weekend, winning 64-45. They've got UC-Irvine (GILLESPIE!) on Thursday.
We're only 66 days from baseball season, and thanks to the return of the NBA, there is some important news to share. Cox Sports has announced that they will be carrying all but one of the Hornet's games this season live, which puts a significant dent in the amount of LSU baseball that they could potentially pick up. I've compared the 2 schedules and these are the only remaining possibilities for LSU Baseball on Cox Sports.
Feb 17 Friday Air Force (Home Opener)
Feb 24-26 App St series
Mar 4 Sunday Dartmouth
Mar 6 Tuesday @ Tulane
Mar 11 Sunday Notre Dame
Mar 16 Friday Miss St (SEC Opener)
Mar 23 Friday @Auburn
Mar 30 Friday Arkansas
Apr 10 Tuesday Alcorn St
Apr 14 Saturday Bama
Apr 20 Friday @Kentucky
Apr 21 Saturday @Kentucky
Apr 25 Wednesday SELA
All remaining games after April 26th
The good news is that important games like the Home and SEC openers are on available dates, as well as both ends of the Tulane series and a large chunk of the SEC slate that happens after the end of the NBA season on April 26th (including Ole Miss, Vandy, and South Carolina) The bad news is that The Wally Pontiff Jr. Classic on April 11th (against Southern Miss again this year) directly conflicts with a Hornets home game that has the same start time. As we get closer to the season, more games will get picked up by other networks, especially by ESPN who seems to do more college baseball games every year.
In other baseball news, Nashville has plans for a new riverfront park with significant RV parking that could make a run at hosting the SEC Tournament someday.