SEC Football

There is reportedly some belief that Auburn will fire head football coach Bryan Harsin if the Tigers lose to Missouri on Saturday.

Bruce Feldman of Fox Sports said during Saturday's Big Noon Kickoff (h/t Barkley Truax of On3) that there is a "really good chance" Harsin will be fired as soon as Monday if Auburn can't beat Mizzou.

Feldman added that Harsin getting fired at some point in 2022 has felt like a "real inevitability" and would reach new levels if Auburn falls to 2-2 on the heels of last week's 41-12 blowout loss against Penn State.

After Harsin went 69-19 in seven seasons at Boise State, Auburn hired him prior to the 2021 season. His first year with the Tigers was largely disappointing, as they went just 6-7 and lost to Houston in the Birmingham Bowl.

Harsin's short tenure at Auburn has also been marred by controversy, as the university launched an investigation into his conduct as head coach after the 2021 season ended.

The investigation started after 18 players and five assistant coaches left Auburn following Harsin's first season at the helm.

Auburn decided to keep Harsin for the 2022 season, and Harsin later called the inquiry into his conduct "unfounded" and a "personal attack" on himself, his family and Auburn's football program.

While Harsin survived the investigation, Feldman suggested Saturday that there isn't a great deal of support for him within the Auburn program anymore.

Feldman made reference to the fact that Allen Greene, who hired Harsin, was forced out of his role as athletic director last month and replaced by Rich McGlynn on an interim basis.

Harsin isn't helped by the fact that Auburn has the No. 56 recruiting class in the nation and the worst-rated recruiting class in the entire SEC, according to 247Sports, which is a rarity for a program that is usually a contender in the SEC.

One thing that has perhaps saved Harsin thus far is the financial implications that would come along with firing him.

Per Feldman, Auburn will owe Harsin a $15.3 million buyout if it fires him, and half of it would be due within 60 days of his firing.

Entering Saturday's home game against 2-1 Missouri, Auburn was a 7.5-point favorite to win.

Mike Leach is casting doubts on reports of Texas spending $280,000 on a recruiting trip highlighted by quarterback Arch Manning.

“Have you ever been to or heard of rooms that can eat up that much of $280,000? I haven’t,” Leach said Thursday on his weekly radio show, per Stefan Krajisnik of the Mississippi Clarion Ledger. “Let’s make them really expensive. There’s eight recruits, hypothetically. Let’s make those rooms $3,000 a piece. Right there you still haven’t even dented it.”

“I think this is embellished. … But I would be curious if someone managed to be creative enough to find a way to spend that much money in that period of time on that number of people. I’d be curious exactly how it was done and what they did. I have some serious, serious, serious doubts about this.”

Leach said he read the article in The Athletic that highlighted the expensive recruiting visit, which featured eight high-level prospects and their families.

If Leach read the article, however, it's hard to see why he would have trouble believing the amount spent. Texas did not send out a press release bragging about spending over a quarter-million dollars on the trip; reporter Sam Khan Jr. obtained receipts and invoices via a public records request.

The amount spent would be verified by those receipts.

The report also details exactly how the money was spent, including comments from parents of the recruits who were on the trip. Texas laid out a 5-star red carpet for top recruits, and all parties took full advantage of the open checkbook.

This all seems like a pretty cut-and-dried situation.

LSU football will have one-year probation plus a self-imposed $5,000 fine for recruiting violations committed by former offensive line coach James Cregg, per Brett McMurphy of Action Network.

Cregg was with the Tigers from 2018-20 before parting ways in June 2021. He later admitted to an NCAA enforcement official that he visited and provided gear to a prospect during the COVID-19 recruiting dead period.

Cregg, who is now the assistant offensive line coach of the San Francisco 49ers, received a three-year show-cause penalty as a result of the NCAA investigation.

LSU was ordered to pay Cregg $492,945.20 after a lawsuit argued his termination was from "a cause that did not exist."

The Tigers won the national championship in 2019 with a 15-0 record led by Heisman Trophy winner Joe Burrow. The offensive line was a key part of the success, winning the Joe Moore Award for the Most Outstanding Offensive Line Unit in college football.

Things went south quickly for the program, however, as it finished 5-5 in 2020 before posting a 6-7 record in 2021.

The school announced in October last year that head coach Ed Orgeron was in his final season with the team, just 21 months after winning the title.

In March, the NCAA delivered a Notice of Allegations to LSU in regards to rule-breaking activities with both the football program and men's basketball team.

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey is optimistic about what the expanded College Football Playoff will do for the sport's popularity.

Speaking to ESPN's Chris Low, Sankey said the impetus behind increasing the playoff field from four teams to 12 was to give more fan bases a rooting interest late in the season.

"We want college football to be strong nationally," he explained, "and I think that's the responsibility we all have."

After years of speculation, the College Football Playoff board of managers unanimously voted to approve expanding the field to 12 teams earlier this month.

It's unclear at this point when the change will be implemented, but it won't happen any later than 2026.

"If everyone wants to get there [by 2024], they will," one person who will be in the room told CBS Sports' Dennis Dodd.

According to Low, the decision made last month by USC and UCLA to move to the Big Ten brought a "renewed push to expedite" the 12-team playoff format to 2024.

Sankey's perspective is the increased field will help make college football less of a regional sport.

"I'm fine if we win the championship every year, but we have a responsibility to think about the game from a bigger picture," Sankey told Low. "I want to win and am not going to apologize for that, but I'm also going to challenge myself and us collectively to think about the big picture."

It's hard to think of college football as a regionalized sport anymore. A 12-team playoff could lead to a television contract worth $2 billion per year, according to Alan Blinder of the New York Times.

The 2022 College Football Playoff Championship Game between Alabama and Georgia was the most-watched non-NFL sporting event since 2020.

Expansion of the playoff will allow for more teams and conferences to have an opportunity to compete for the championship. Only 13 programs have made the College Football Playoff in its current four-team format since its inception in 2014.

The chief operating officer of Beyond Meat was arrested Saturday after allegedly biting a man's nose in a parking garage near Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

According to C.C. McCandless of KNWA/FOX24, Doug Ramsey was charged with terroristic threatening and third-degree battery.

The alleged incident occurred after Arkansas' 38-27 win over Missouri State.

Per McCandless, Ramsey was attempting to exit the parking garage when the driver of a Subaru made contact with his vehicle's front tire on the passenger side. Witnesses said Ramsey then exited his car and "punched through the back windshield of the Subaru." That led to a physical altercation between Ramsey and the Subaru driver, during which he allegedly bit the person's nose.

CNBC's Amelia Lucas reported neither Ramsey nor a representative for Beyond Meat provided a statement when asked to comment on the matter. University of Arkansas campus police also would not provide a comment to CNBC, "citing an ongoing investigation."

The Razorbacks trailed 17-0 midway through the second quarter Saturday before turning the tables on the Bears. KJ Jefferson threw for 385 yards and two touchdowns in the victory, while Raheim Sanders ran for 167 yards and one touchdown on 22 carries.

With the victory, Arkansas maintained its perfect start (3-0) and remained No. 10 in the AP Top 25 poll.

Alabama added another top prospect to its 2023 recruiting class, with defensive lineman Jordan Renaud announcing his commitment Monday, per Hank South of 247Sports.

Renaud was also considering Oklahoma and had offers from Georgia and Auburn, among other top teams, but Alabama stood out in his recruitment:

Let me just be for real. I feel like me personally, I picked Bama because it’s going to stretch me to the max. Like, I don’t want anything to be handed to me. I feel like they get the best out of their players. I feel like a lot of people just see the glitz and the glamour of Bama being Alabama. But they’re grinding in the dark and in the mud at night when the lights are off and doing it like that. But when showtime Saturday comes, they’re diamonds, they’re gold. With them staying down and keeping their heads down, just grinding, by the time they get on TV and they come through and they say their 'Roll Tides,' it changes the energy and the demeanor. That’s why — because they work. I chose Bama because they work. That culture and that culture of competition attracted me to that.

The Texas native is the seventh-ranked defensive lineman and No. 69 overall player in the 2023 recruiting class, per 247Sports' composite rankings.

The commitment adds to the Crimson Tide's No. 1 recruiting class, which now features nine of the top 100 players in the rankings.

Alabama consistently has one of the best teams in college football under head coach Nick Saban, winning six championships in the last 13 seasons. Stocking up on defensive line talent will help the squad remain dominant in the always-competitive SEC.

The Crimson Tide have also helped numerous players reach the NFL, especially on the defensive line with recent stars like Quinnen Williams and Jonathan Allen. Since 2016, nine different Alabama defensive linemen have been drafted in the first two rounds.

Renaud could be among the next in line if he lives up to expectations with his new team.

Four key freshman on the Texas A&M football team—Denver Harris, Evan Stewart, Chris Marshall and Smoke Bouie—have been suspended by the program and ruled out for Saturday night's game against No. 13 Miami, per Marshall Levenson of On3.com.

The suspensions are related to a curfew violation, according to ESPN's Chris Low.

It was a tough break for the Aggies, who entered Saturday's game coming off an embarrassing 17-14 loss to the Appalachian State Mountaineers at College Station last weekend.

Both Stewart and Marshall, former five-star wide receiver prospects, had played a large role in the Aggies' offense through the first two games of the season. Stewart had caught 10 passes for 105 yards and Marshall had caught four passes for 41 yards.

Harris, a former five-star cornerback prospect, had also made an impact on defense, posting five tackles in two games. Bouie has not recorded any statistics but did appear in the team's season opener against Sam Houston State.

With Stewart and Marshall sidelined, wide receiver Ainias Smith, running back Devon Achane and tight end Donovan Green saw more action in the passing game Saturday night. At the end of the third quarter, the trio had combined for nine catches for 134 yards and one touchdown.

Texas A&M, ranked 24th nationally, entered Saturday with a 1-1 record following its loss to App State. The Aggies have not lost back-to-back games at Kyle Field since 2017.

The Aggies will face No. 10 Arkansas next weekend. It's unclear if the four freshman suspended for the Miami game will be available for that matchup.

The University of Tennessee and head football coach Josh Heupel reached an agreement in July on a one-year contract extension through January 2028 that includes a $1 million raise.

UT officials confirmed details of the updated contract, which includes a $5 million base salary, to ESPN's Chris Low on Friday. Word of the deal comes after the Volunteers opened the 2022 campaign 2-0 with wins over Ball State and 17th-ranked Pittsburgh.

Adam Sparks of the Knoxville News Sentinel reported that Heupel signed the extension paperwork July 24, but it didn't become public until Friday.

Tennessee hired Heupel in January 2021. It marked his second head coaching job after he spent the previous three years at UCF.

The former Heisman Trophy finalist—he finished second in the voting in 2000 as a quarterback for Oklahoma—compiled a 7-6 record, including a 4-4 mark in SEC, during his first season with the Vols.

Heupel went 28-8 with the Knights, including the 2018 season when UCF finished No. 11 in the final Associated Press poll after a 12-1 campaign.

The 44-year-old South Dakota native inherited a Volunteers program that recorded three losing seasons over the four years before his arrival.

UT has showcased steady progress under his guidance, and the 2-0 record this season is joined by a promising start to next year's recruiting class, which ranks 11th in the country, according to 247Sports' rankings.

The Vols jumped to No. 15 in the AP poll following last week's victory over Pitt.

"Man, it's a big win for our football team in just, to me, the steps that we took and the ability to compete as hard and as long as we possibly can," Heupel told reporters after the 34-27 overtime thriller.

Tennessee is a heavy favorite at home Saturday against Akron, which is coming off a 52-0 loss to Michigan State, but several major tests of the Volunteers' progress await.

Their group of opponents between now and early November includes No. 1 Georgia, No. 2 Alabama, No. 9 Kentucky and No. 18 Florida. That's life in the SEC in a nutshell.

The Vols are trending in the right direction, but that stretch will illustrate how much work remains to find themselves among the elite once again. UT last won a national title in 1998.

Oklahoma will no longer play Georgia in football in 2023 and 2031 with the team set to join the SEC, per ESPN's Pete Thamel.

The Sooners will instead host SMU in 2023, with the return game scheduled for 2027, per Nicole Auerbach of The Athletic.

OU's planned game against Tennessee in 2024 will also be canceled.

Both UGA and UT were previously scheduled as highly anticipated nonconference games, but these opponents will now become regularly part of its conference schedule.

Oklahoma and Texas were voted into the SEC in 2021 and are expected to join the conference in 2025.

In both cases, one of the games would have been played before Oklahoma joins the SEC, but the return game would take place after 2025.

Oklahoma initially scheduled its series against Tennessee in 2017, planning games in 2020 and 2024. The 2020 version ended up being canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the SEC moving to a conference-only schedule that year.

The teams planned to reschedule, but it will now come too late.

Oklahoma and Georgia announced their home-and-home series in 2019, with the 2023 version likely to become one of the bigger nonconference matchups in the country. Unfortunately, the return game would be well into the Sooners' time in the SEC and that was enough to cancel the series.

The Sooners also have future matchups against Alabama and LSU that will likely need to be adjusted.

The squad still has several quality nonconference games on its slate, with matchups against Michigan scheduled for 2025 and 2026 and a future home-and-home against Clemson.