Quarterback Jeremy Johnson from Carver High School in Montgomery, Ala., has committed to Auburn.

“It feels great,” Johnson told AuburnSports.com. “I feel like Auburn is the best choice for me.”

Johnson chose Auburn over LSU, Ole Miss and Mississippi State.

Johnson is the third quarterback this month to choose an SEC school over LSU. Cooper Batemen (Alabaa) and Connor Mitch (South Carolina) are the others.

Johnson is the ninth prospect to commitment to Auburn’s class of 2013 and the first quarterback to do so.

Sorry for the long list of headines today.  Business takes me elsewhere.

1.  The Chick-fil-A Kickoff games for 2014 are set: Alabama-West Virginia and Ole Miss-Boise State.  (Gee, I wonder which game will get the best time slot.)

2.  The NCAA is working on a number of rule changes…

3.  But transfer rules won’t easily be lifted. 

4.  College basketball refs are getting a refresher course on block/charge calls.

5.  Alabama and West Virginia have never played each other in football.

6.  Tony Barbee has lined up games in Chicago and Charleston for his Auburn Tigers this season.  (Chicago’s great, but give me Charleston.)

7.  Mike Anderson has added a juco star to his basketball squad at Arkansas.

8.  NikeBlog.com has a teaser photo suggesting the Razorbacks could be trotting out new football uniforms this year… complete with two different helmets and what appears to be a navy/charcoal/black design.

(Sidenote — Another tradition goes up in flames as Michigan’s going to be using more uniform variations this fall.)

9.  Bobby Petrino broke even in selling his $600,000 lake home.

10.  LSU’s coordinators don’t want their players to forget their BCS Championship Game loss to Alabama.

11.  Speaking of not forgetting that night… the Alabama fan videotaped placing his genitals on the face of a passed-out LSU fan has been indicted on sexual battery and obscenity charges.

12.  Ole Miss is trying to find and grow new revenue streams.

13.  Here’s a look at Florida’s offensive line coming out of spring practice.

14.  No surprise: tailback Isaiah Crowell will be an important man at Georgia this fall.

15.  UGA has named a long-time Georgia high school coach as the football program’s new director of on-campus recruiting.

16.  Kentucky hoops transfer target Montrezl Harrell has been given a release from Virginia Tech.

17.  This writers says Joker Phillips is one of several SEC coaches who need to rally before 2013.

18.  This writer believes the SEC wants to get to 16 teams and will do so soon.  (We disagree and from everyone we’ve spoken to at SEC schools, they’d prefer to see how the additions of Mizzou and A&M play out first.)

19.  The Florida State-Big 12 story won’t go away…

20.  Even though Bobby Bowden thinks FSU should stay put.

LSU will hope to receive some immediate help on offense in 2013 from wide receiver Quantavius Leslie.

The Hinds Community College prospect announced his commitment to LSU on Wednesday.

I will be an LSU TIGER. #geauxtigers

— Q.Leslie (@hi_i_q) May 16, 2012

Leslie is LSU’s 10th commitment for the 2013 class and first from the junior college ranks. His offer list included Arkansas, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Washington.

Alabama has found its quarterback for the class of 2013: Cooper Bateman from Cottonwood High School in Salt Lake City.

Bateman, whose offer list included Auburn, Florida, LSU and Washington, released this statement to announce his commitment:

“This has been a great time in my life, I have had the rare opportunity to be able to choose from many great schools that would allow me to get a college degree and continue to play the game that I love. This has been a very difficult decision only because I was able to meet and get to know so many wonderful coaches at so many great universities. I have chosen to attend the University of Alabama. I am honored that I will get to learn from Coach Saban and Coach Nussmeier and will get to represent Alabama, the state and the University. I want to thank my coaches at Cottonwood for all they have done for me and mostly to my parents who have made this all possible.”

Bateman, who is Alabama’s 12th commitment for the 2013 class, is ranked the nation’s No. 6 pocket passer and 61st overall prospect by ESPN RecruitingNation.

Oh, this story just won’t go away.

In January, a South Carolina trustee cooked up a plan for the SEC to adopt an NHL-like point system for counting wins within the league — one full point for a divisional win, one half point for a cross-divisional win.  That idea came and went.  Maybe because the SEC region is such a hotbed for professional hockey.

Steve Spurrier then came out last month and suggested that division games only should count toward determining division champs.  This would make the SEC the first major league or conference, college or pro to play games that didn’t really count in its standings.  South Carolina-Auburn last year — ultimately, the game that cost USC a trip to Atlanta — would have been nothing more than an exhibition when it came to the SEC leaderboard.

LSU’s Les Miles then came out in support of Spurrier’s plan.  Vanderbilt’s James Franklin did likewise late last week.

Now, if you read this site, you know that we’re part of the vocal majority who can’t imagine the league doing any such thing.  Even commissioner Mike Slive has said he would have a hard time conceiving a plan in which some SEC games meant more than others.  And Georgia’s Mark Richt said he didn’t think Spurrier’s plan would pass muster.  

(Perhaps this debate is another reason for the SEC to petition the NCAA to drop divisions as a pre-requisite for a championship game and to just go divisionless.)

As we’ve pointed out, there are scenarios possible under Spurrier’s plan that are much more troubling than what his Gamecocks went through last year.  Say Carolina (or LSU or Vandy) goes 7-1 in league play overall.  Subtract the two cross-divisional wins which are meaningless and the Cocks (or Tiger or Dores) would finish 5-1.  Now let’s say their loss comes to a divisional foe.  The foe wins the rest of its division games and thus holds the tie-breaker over Carolina (or LSU or Vandy).  But if that opponent drops its two cross-divisional games and finishes 5-3 in league play, don’t you suspect Spurrier (or Miles or Franklin) would quickly complain that the teams weren’t really 5-1 each… their team was 7-1 while the other guy’s squad was just 5-3.

At least Alabama’s Nick Saban seems to get it.  Like yours truly, he understands that opponents rotate year to year and what might be an easy schedule this year might not be next year: 
“I just think that’s one of those things that’s not always going to be controlled.  It’s not manipulated with who you play.  We have a rotation, we have to go through it. 

I think the other division games you play on the other side are important to our fans and there’s a lot of tradition involved in some of those games.  I think if you minimize the importance of those games, that wouldn’t be in the best interest of our league.”

The Tide coach went on to say that he would listen to Spurrier’s proposal in Destin in a few weeks.  Here’s hoping the majority of coaches and athletic directors agree with Slive and Saban and Richt rather than Spurrier, Miles and Franklin.  If they don’t, we’ll just be addressing this issue from a “change it back!” perspective the first time some team gets “jobbed” (in their view) by the new system.

Interestingly, many supporters of Spurrier’s plan say they favor it because it would create fair scheduling.  How long would it take, though, for cries of “Why do we have to play three tough games on the road while they get their toughest games at home” to ring out?

Not long.

There’s no such thing as a “fair” schedule.  Until the SEC mimics English soccer’s Premier League and everyone in the conference plays everyone else twice — home and away — there’s nothing even close.  And even then teams would still play on different dates.  Injury factors, weather factors, and discipline factors would all play a role in keeping schedules uneven.  ”You got ‘em when they were weak, but we played ‘em when they were healthy!”

Spurrier, Miles and Franklin can speak their minds in Destin.  But God help the league if they win over their fellow coaches and the ADs and the presidents and the commissioner.  We’ll guarantee you right now that such a change would only lead to more belly-aching from more coaches in the future.

SEC games that don’t actually count as SEC games?  Yeesh.

Three coaches and 14 players were elected to the College Football Hall of Fame today and three of them have connections to schools now in the SEC:

Former Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer – who posted a 152-52 record at his alma mater before being forced out — joins a host of Vols already in Hall, including ex-UT coaches Robert Neyland and Doug Dickey.

Former Texas A&M coach RC Slocum — who posted a 123-47-2 record before being forced out  – says his election is “validation of the players, the assistant coaches and the entire staffs I was so fortunate to work with here at Texas A&M.”

The election of former LSU tailback Charles Alexander — a two-time All-American and Heisman Trophy finalist — “is an important recognition for one of the legendary figures in LSU athletics history,” according to Tiger AD Joe Alleva.

Congratulations to all three men.  You don’t get much higher honors than being voted into your sport’s hall of fame.

Let’s play bank examiner and use USA Today’s latest financial data report to see how SEC athletic budgets (meaning: expenditures) have changed over the years.

Below you’ll find the total expenses for each public SEC school — as a private school Vanderbilt doesn’t share its budget — from 2006 through 2011.  In the end, we tally the numbers to see who’s spent what on athletics over a six-year span.

Remember, Missouri and Texas A&M were Big 12 schools during this stretch.  So here are your total athletic expenses year-by-year for 13 of the SEC’s 14 schools:

Observations:

* Combined, the SEC’s schools have spent $5,595,974,982  on athletics since 2006.  That’s billion with a B.  Somewhere an economics professor just fainted.

* It’s no surprise that the traditional “Big Six” football programs in the SEC — Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, LSU and Tennessee — would have been the top six spenders if not for the addition of Texas A&M.  (Before sending angry emails about my reference to a “Big Six,” note that the SEC in 1992 put Auburn in the West Division and Vanderbilt in the East Division despite geography in an effort to put three powers in one division (Bama, Auburn, LSU) and three in the other (Florida, Georgia, Tennessee).

* It is surprising that Arkansas’ athletic outlay has been so low compared to its SEC rivals, but remember, numbers can be tweaked.  As any Hog fan can tell you — and will likely shout at you — the UA athletic department never goes into debt thanks to donors who are down with paying up front, in cash (in most cases).

* How long before someone in the Magnolia State reads this chart, sees that Ole Miss and Mississippi State have spent about $350,000,000 less on athletics over the last six years, and starts a push for those schools to leave the SEC for the Big 12?  (Kidding, of course.  The SEC’s even-Steven revenue share actually aids those schools.)

Now let’s take a look at the increase in athletic spending for each school from 2006 to 2011, just those two years.  And since we’re looking at those two years only, the percentage increase we’ll show you should be used as only a ballpark indicator of budget growth.  Mississippi State, for example, had been remarkably steady in its growth until making a big jump in 2011.  That doesn’t mean they will spend the same amount of cash in 2012.  You can see in the chart above that several SEC schools have seen spikes and declines over the past six years.

Still, here’s a look at the total dollar increase from 2006 to 2011 along with the percentage growth for each school:

As you can see, the percentages can be a little bit deceiving.  Mississippi State basically doubled it’s budget from 2006 to 2011.  But the Bulldogs grew from just — just? — $25 million in ’06 to $36 million in ’10.  In 2011 came the bounce to $51 million.

Similarly, big-spending schools like Florida and Tennessee didn’t show a big percentage growth, but overall they’ve been the league’s spendthrifts over the last six years.

After looking at all these numbers, it becomes more and more evident why the board of trustees at Missouri pushed their school toward the Southeastern Conference.

Well, it was only a matter of time.  Yesterday we told you that Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany had said that he doesn’t “have a lot of regard for that team,” when asked about a hypothetical national champ that didn’t win its own division.  ”That team” was an obvious shot at Alabama.

It took a day, but Nick Saban has responded.  Asked yesterday about the Delany’s comment, Bama’s coach said, “Don’t be so self-absorbed,” while not naming Delany directly:

“Too many people are about their own self-preservation rather than doing what’s best for college football.  The whole reason we are talking about doing this is for the fans, and the fans want the four best teams.  To come up with a plan where, instead of having Numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4 playing but you have Number 1, 3, 6 and 12 or whatever, it doesn’t make any sense.  They don’t do it in basketball, so for once, let’s do what’s best for college football…

A lot of it (in terms of alternate playoff plans) is targeted at our league.  Last year at one point, we had LSU, Arkansas and us ranked 1-2-3 in the BCS.  Two years in a row, we played Florida in the championship game and we were ranked 1-2.  Some people don’t like that.”

No kidding.  SEC fans had better hope that the Mike Slive/John Swofford bloc can hold more sway with small conference commissioners than the Delany/Larry Scott bloc.  If not, we could indeed be looking at a four-team playoff that doesn’t invite the four best teams in the country.  (Only in college football…)

And for those out there who repeatedly tell this writer that conference champs should be given special treatment because we have no way of accurately selecting the four best teams, we also have no way of accurately selecting the four best conference champions.  Under the plans kicked around, those same rankings that would be inaccurate in choosing the top four teams in the country would be used to select which conference champs are in and which are out.

Oops.

Thirty-nine weeks from yesterday.

That’s how long it is until we’re tracking the faxes on National Signing Day 2013.  And since it’s already May — wasn’t it Christmas last week? — we think it’ll seem like a blink of the eye until that day arrives.

It’s been three weeks since our last check of the Big Board and several schools have picked up commitments in that time.  Below we’ll show you how your favorite team — and your hated rivals — are stacking up to date in terms of committed prospects.

As usual, we’ll use Rivals.com’s rankings.  For each star they assign, we’ll dole out a point.  But we’ll also award a point to 0-star recruits because sooner or later those commits will be graded, too (and if they wind up in the SEC, they’ll most likely receive no less than two or three stars).

First, we’ll show you the SEC’s 14 programs rank in terms of total talent points committed on this May 10th:

Next, let’s take a look at the average points per commitment for each program, in order to figure out what caliber athlete is interested in each program (as of now):

And finally, here’s a peek at which schools have picked up the most total points since our last comparator on April 17th:

A word of advice for those of you hoping for a simple, fair playoff plan to end future college football seasons: Don’t.

The men making the decision on the playoff — what it will be, where it will be, and who it will be — are too interested in their own self-interests to do what is logically correct and what is best for their game as a whole.  They are motivated by greed.  They are motivated by power.  They are motivated to do whatever the heck is best for their own conference.  The rest of college football — the other leagues, the players and coaches, and you fans — be damned.

In a simple world run by rational people who understand that a rising tide will lift all boats, a four-team playoff would be created in order to crown football’s national champion.  The bowl system would be incorporated into that system in an attempt to save a little bit of tradition and, yes, in an effort to make sure the biggest conferences still make the biggest share of money.  While that too could be classified as looking out for one’s self-interests, is there anyone out there who really believes the University of Nevada will be as responsible as the University of Alabama for the new TV dollars a playoff package will create?  Is college football thriving because of the UCFs, North Texases and Western Michigans or because of the previous work of the Floridas, Texases and Michigans?  So let the big boys keep most of the money while still providing the little guys with more cash than they’ve ever seen.

And for gosh sakes include the top four teams in the nation in the playoff.  One would expect that to be the most obvious, simplest, no-brainiest part of the battle.

But it’s not.

Just weeks after floating an idea that would have created three semifinal games in the hopes of giving the Rose Bowl and the Big Ten and Pac-12 special treatment above all other leagues, Big Ten commish Jim Delany is at it again.  Late yesterday, Delany told a group of reporters that the conference commissioners now working on a playoff plan are considering a proposal — no doubt backed by Delany and the commissioners of leagues like the Sun Belt and Mountain West — that would guarantee a slot in the playoff to any conference champion ranked among the nation’s top six teams.  If four conference champs failed to rank among the top six, then and only then would the highest-ranked non-champs or independents be welcomed into the playoff.

It’s a busy day for yours truly so I’m just going to cut to the problem here.  While last season would have ended with a playoff involving #1 LSU, #2 Alabama, #3 Oklahoma State and #5 Oregon (instead of #4 Stanford), imagine this scenario:

#1.  LSU — 13-0 SEC Champion (from a 14-team league with a championship game)

#2.  Alabama — 12-1 SEC non-champ (from a 14-team league with a championship game)

#3.  Southern Cal — 12-1 Pac-12 runner-up (from a 12-team league with a championship game)

#4.  Boise State — 12-1 Big East champ (from a 12-team league expected to have a championship game)

#5.  Oklahoma — 10-2 Big 12 champ (from a 10-team league with no championship game)

#6.  Ohio State — 10-3 Big Ten champ (from a 12-team league with a championship game)

In that event, the second and third best teams in the nation would be out of the playoffs, replaced by teams either a) from easier-to-win, smaller leagues or b) with lesser records.  If you think that’s not a likely scenario, fine, but it would be a possibility under Delany’s “anything to keep two SEC teams from making the field” plan.  And until last January, who would have predicted a two-teams-from-the-same-league BCS Championship Game scenario?  What may seem unlikely today can quickly come to fruition tomorrow.

Too bad the guys making this decision can’t wrap their pointy heads around that fact.

How hard is it to simply take the four best teams in the country and put them in football’s version of the Final Four?  Not all leagues are created equally.  The SEC has proven that fact in eight of the last 14 and six of the last six BCS title games.  It also happens to recruit and churn out more pro draft picks than any other league.  And it just expanded to 14 teams making it even more difficult to win.

The Big 12, by comparison, looks to be a 10-team league for the foreseeable future.  As we showed earlier this week, it’s recruiting zone is shrinking.  Ditto the Big Ten.  Those leagues — like it/don’t like it, fair/not fair — do not look to be on even footing with the SEC or even the ACC or Pac-12 moving forward thanks to their current footprints and the migration patterns of the modern American citizen.  The idea of putting those leagues on a bigger pedestal than the one they’re already resting on is patently absurd.

Their advantage is the fact that they helped create this nation’s love for college football and that they will rake in bazillions of bucks via the new playoff system.  The SEC and ACC should have an advantage because they’re 14-teams deep at this point.

Some of the smaller conferences will get an increase in funds and — with a playoff open to anyone ranked among the nation’s top four teams — more opportunities to play for crowns.  Whether they deserve it or not.

Take the Big East (please).  Here’s the group Boise State would have to best to win its league — UCF, Cincinnati, Houston, Louisville, Memphis, Navy, Rutgers, San Diego State, SMU, UConn and South Florida.  Hate to tell ya, Big East’ers, but winning that league would equate to finishing second, third or fourth in some of the bigger, tougher conferences.  Winning that league and finishing sixth in the ranking should not automatically jump the Broncos over #2 or #3 ranked teams.  Now, if Boise is deemed to be in the top four by the voters and/or computers, okey-dokey.  But the eyeball or a computer chip will still have a say.

For the college football fan out there, you should drop to your knees and pray to your favorite omnipotent being that eventually — wisely — these commissioners will simply agree on a ranking formula that can be used to determine the playoff participants.  If three teams come from one league, so be it.  Everybody still makes money.  If four conference champions get in, super.  If four conference runner-ups make the field, fine as well.  Just so long as the four highest-ranked teams are involved.

If the power brokers of college football are truly ready to respond to waning bowl ratings and falling attendance figures then they’d best start putting fans first, not their own self-interests.  Unfortunately, I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you.

And if the proposal Delany mentioned yesterday winds up getting a thumbs-up, here’s the scenario we at MrSEC.com would absolutely love to see play out in Year One of the new system:

#1.  Ohio State — 13-0 Big Ten champion

#2.  Michigan — 12-1 Big Ten runner-up

#3.  Wisconsin — 12-1 Big Ten non-champ

#4.  LSU — 11-2 SEC champion

#5.  Boise State — 11-1 Big East champion

#6.  Oklahoma — 9-3 Big 12 champion

That playoff would nix a pair of Big Ten powers in order to provide space for guaranteed league champions with lesser records.  Such a scenario would also dole out a healthy dose of karma for guys like Delany who would rather do what’s right by his own league than what’s right by all leagues, all teams, and all fans… which is to just take the four best teams in the darn country and play ‘em off.