The Rest of College Football

[hack]

the Big XII doesn't want to go beyond 12 teams.

Weirdos.

[entropy]

Tevin lawson has been committed to LSU for a year and they have just asked him to greyshirt. He is looking around.

SEC at its best

[entropy]

eyewitnesses see bama players using banned substances

The company that says it provided deer-antler spray, a product that contains a banned substance, to Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis also sold its goods to members of the 2012 national championship Alabama football team, according to a co-owner of the company.

And Christopher Key, the SWATS co-owner, told ESPN's Joe Schad on Wednesday he personally witnessed about five Alabama players spray what he sold them into their mouths.

"I showed them how to use it," Key said.

Key said about 20 players purchased the spray at a hotel room in New Orleans leading into the BCS national championship game against LSU. And he said he sold about 20 more bottles to players at the apartment of an Alabama player 10 days before the game.

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Sports Illustrated first reported the connection between SWATS, an Alabama-based company, and several SEC programs.

The Sports Illustrated story reported that Key filmed a sales pitch to a number of Alabama players two days before the 2012 title game in New Orleans. The article mentioned former Crimson Tide defensive lineman Quinton Dial and current players Adrian Hubbard and Alex Watkins as being part of the sales pitch.

Watkins made a YouTube testimonial for SWATS, and Hubbard was filmed in the hotel room saying he had the deer-antler spray, SI reported. Deer-antler spray contains a substance, IGF-1, which is on the NFL's banned list.

"Nothing we offer them will make them fail a drug test," Key said, when asked about the substance being banned by the NCAA. "This will make you heal faster. This will give you nutrients. There have been many clinical studies."

Key said he has received cease-and-desist letters from Alabama, LSU and Auburn demanding not to use current players' likenesses. Auburn spokesman Kirk Sampson said that school sent a cease-and-desist letter in 2011. "But you can't tell me I can't talk to your players," Key said. "We live in a free country."

Alabama, in a statement issued Tuesday night, said: "UA has been aware of this situation for some time, and we have monitored this company for several years. They have twice ignored cease-and-desist letters sent by our compliance office. We have maintained consistent education of our student-athletes regarding the substances in question and will continue to do so."

Key said players bought products at a rate he cited as confidential.

"They want to win," he said. "After the games they said they couldn't believe how they weren't tired and how much energy they had."

Key was quoted by SI as explaining the benefits of the spray to the Alabama players.

"You're familiar with HGH, correct? It's converted in the liver to IGF-1," Key explained, according to the Sports Illustrated report. "IGF-1, or insulin-like growth factor, is a natural, anabolic hormone that stimulates muscle growth. We have deer that we harvest out of New Zealand. Their antlers are the fastest-growing substance on planet Earth ... because of the high concentration of IGF-1.

"We've been able to freeze dry that out, extract it, put it in a sublingual spray that you shake for 20 seconds and then spray three [times] under your tongue. ... This stuff has been around for almost 1,000 years, this is stuff from the Chinese," Key said, according to the magazine.

However, a professor at Johns Hopkins University told the Baltimore Sun that, despite SWATS' claims, there isn't an acceptable scientific way that IGF-1 can be effectively delivered orally.

"If there were, a lot of people would be happy that they don't need to get shots anymore," Dr. Roberto Salvatori told the newspaper. "It's just simply not possible for it to come from a spray."

Key said he sold about 20 bottles of deer-antler spray to LSU players before the regular-season meeting with Alabama that year. Key said he has also provided healing hologram "chips," which are stuck to the body, to Auburn players during their national-championship season and this past season sold healing "bands" to players at Ole Miss and Georgia.

SI reported that the Alabama coaching staff was unaware of the meetings in the hotel room.

Key said he has initially reached out to many of his athlete clients through Facebook and Twitter. He would not comment on which players at which schools he sold deer-antler spray to this season. Key said at certain points, the strength staffs at Alabama and LSU said they did not endorse his dealings with players.

"I'm not trying to get anyone in trouble," Key said. "The whole idea is to compete without cheating. We're not bad guys."

Key said several players from SEC schools he claims to have sold products to reached out to him on Tuesday.

"They wanted more product," he said.




Post Extras:

[THE_WIZARD_]

:::shocking:::

[entropy]

SEC and Big 12 have had limited discussions about potential partnership

By Jon Solomon | jsolomon@al.com
on January 30, 2013 at 4:02 PM, updated January 30, 2013 at 4:24 PM

The SEC has engaged in limited dialogue with the Big 12 about a partnership that includes regular-season football scheduling, SEC Executive Associate Commissioner Mark Womack said today.

"That's a situation we would keep an open mind on, but we haven't had a lot of significant discussions at this point," Womack said. "There's a lot of different ways that could work. At this point, we're continuing to move forward with scheduling the conference as we've planned."

Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby told The Austin American-Statesman last week the league is actively exploring a possible alliance with the ACC and two other conferences. The idea would be to use scheduling, marketing and possibly even television partnerships to prevent further expansion in college sports.

The American-Statesman reported the Pac-12 is presumed to be one of those conferences because of its geographical challenges to expand. Another is the SEC, which teamed with the Big 12 recently to create a lucrative Sugar Bowl matchup within the future playoff structure.

Womack said a challenge series with another conference would be difficult because most SEC schools need seven home games and some teams play traditional rivals in nonconference games.

"The only advantage I think you find is you have an opportunity to create a nonconference schedule that could be attractive," Womack said. "But there would be a lot of issues on how you would play that out as it relates to the issues you face with your existing schedule."

The Pac-12 and Big Ten tried a scheduling partnership in multiple sports to stem the movement in conference expansion. That deal fell through. The Big Ten has since added Rutgers and Maryland and may not be done.

The Big 12 has expressed satisfaction at 10 members. Bowlsby told The American-Statesman that a partnership between the Big 12 and other leagues would include football and basketball, but could expand to other sports. The agreement could involve bowl participation and sharing postseason inventory to create more flexibility for better matchups.


"It's purely exploratory," Bowlsby told The American-Statesman.

Current bowl agreements expire after the 2013 season. The 2014 season will usher in a new postseason, including a four-team playoff in which participants are decided by a selection committee. Strength of schedule is supposed to be an important criteria.


Womack said the SEC has no timetable on completing its 2014 schedule and beyond "but the sooner the better." The SEC "at this point" continues to plan for an eight-game league schedule, but nine games "is probably something that will always be out there to look at," Womack said.

The Big Ten is considering moving from eight conference games to nine or 10. The Pac-12 and Big 12 already play nine conference games.

Womack said the next SEC scheduling model will likely be for four to six years, far less than the 10 to 12 years the league used to use. "Given the state of everything, we'd probably look at a shorter term," he said.

The SEC remains in renegotiation discussions with CBS and ESPN since adding Texas A&M and Missouri. The conference is expected to launch its own television network.

The SEC's television partners are most interested in dividing conference games evenly throughout the season to have quality inventory, Womack said.

"Scheduling is probably pretty difficult for everybody to figure out with all the issues facing people," he said.

E-mail: jsolomon@al.com.

[entropy]

wiz.. the SEC figured out having rules that benefit them collectively is better than rules benefiting one school. Texas never figured that out... and believed being king of the weak was better than king of the strong

[Hannibal]

Texas seems to have done pretty well for itself being King of the Weak.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Not lately.

[entropy]

Since robbing UNL of the championship, they've struggle in most sports. their basketball team is bad.

[Hannibal]

Overall though, it has worked out pretty well for them. They rode a mediocre coach to a national championship, another BCS championship appearance, and a couple of other BCS wins.

[entropy]

it did for a period of time.. I think, in the end, it has hurt them more than helped them.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Texas didn't make tthemselves stronger. They weakened everybody else in the conference.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Texas dodn't win an MNC. Vince Young did.

[lineygoblue]

I hate Vince Young almost as much as I hate Troy (lucky-me) Smith.

[Optimus Prime]

Polls are gone, selection committee it is.

http://aol.sportingnews.com/ncaa-football/story/2013-01-31/college-football-playoff-selection-committee-coaches-poll-bob-bowlsby