Morning Six Pack: July 02, 2012

Cold, clear, crisp and refreshing is the best way to describe these six college football stories from around the country.

Risky Business

To those who think they want a seat on the selection committee once a college football playoff goes on line, I offer one word of advice:

Kevlar.

You’re going to need all the protection you can get. This isn’t politics. This isn’t religion. This is college football. And hell hath no fury like a fan scorned.

Circling dates on the calendar

The Alabama-Michigan game to be played Sept. 1 in Arlington, Texas, as a matchup of highly ranked teams from different conferences, figures to be among the most anticipated games involving the Southeastern Conference this season. But is it THE game on the calendar?

Welcome Texas A&M and Missouri

Aggies and Tigers, welcome officially to the SEC family. We're still getting to know you and you're still getting to know us, but it's going to be a unforgettable ride together. Gig 'em, and M-I-Z, y'all. Let's do this.

Gus Malzahn snags a good one

I just love the entire coaching staff, and that is my main reason for committing," Square told RedWolfReport.com. "Coach Malzahn is just a cool guy. I feel like I can talk to him about anything, and I know I will always get a straight answer from him. He is a good man, and you can tell a lot about him and where he wants to take his team. I just want to be a part of that."

Alabama's All-Time Records Against SEC Opponents

As of this morning, an Alabama record that stood for more than four decades fell as the Southeastern Conference now includes a team with a winning record against the Crimson Tide.

Quotable:

Penn State certainly pushed that "good" image, but it was hardly alone. Most schools do. No one has to look far for examples of programs that cite their "family atmosphere" or proclaim themselves "a shining beacon on a hill." Alabama isn't exempt from that, by any means.

When Isaiah Crowell, the Georgia running back, got into trouble last week and was ultimately dismissed, how many fans took that as proof that their program was "better" than Georgia's? Certainly, the scorn being heaped on Penn State today is justified, but how much of it contains a tiny bit of "it-couldn't-happen-here" smugness? Hopefully, it couldn't, not in Tuscaloosa or anywhere else, but the statistics aren't on the side of this being an isolated incident.

If there is anything other than evil to come out of the Sandusky case, it has to be the lessons that can be learned. First, protect the defenseless. Second to that should be a heightened awareness that it can happen to any program, no matter how "good" it perceives itself to be. This isn't an issue of one place, one school, one program being better or worse than another. It is an issue, as Arendt observed, of how we are going to live in this world - not some of us, not those who wear the same colors, or pull for the same team. Not just the perpetrators and the victims, but the spectators. Which means all of us.

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