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.

SEC/Big 12 Alliance and Conference Re-Alignment

1. Jon Solomon: “The schools are regaining control of the postseason economics. The Fiesta Bowl, which has anchored the Big 12 champion, should be nervous.”

2. Jerome Solomon: “This could be good news for Houston, bad news for the University of Houston.”

3. Stewart Mandel: “Will the SEC and Big 12 push for this new bowl to serve as their designated semifinal host?”

4. Jay Greeson: “The Champions Bowl is less about a power conference and more about a power play.”

5. Gene Frenette: “It’s a certain death notice for Big East football, and the ACC might not survive without convincing Florida State/Miami to stick around and Notre Dame to come on board.”

6. Pete Thamel: “The knee-jerk reaction on Twitter and among other college officials was that this could mean that Florida State winds up in the Big 12.”

7. Bobby Bowden’s message to Florida State boosters: “Do you want to win a National Championship at Florida State?  You’ve got a better chance in the ACC than you have in the Big 12, or even the SEC.”

8. Tony Barnart’s message to Florida State’s representatives:  ”Just shut up. Seriously. You need to shut up.”

SEC Headlines

9. Arkansas AD Jeff Long: “My interest and commitment continues to be providing leadership to the University of Arkansas and to Razorback athletics at this critical time in our program’s history.”

10. Arkansas coach John L. Smith is a man with something left to prove.

11. Georgia’s Damian Swann could have a real impact in the Bulldogs secondary this fall.

12. Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley on recruiting: ”I think it’s important your recruiting office is not tied to coaches,” he explained. “That’s something that we’ve tried to structure because it’s a transient profession and you can’t get held hostage by a coach. In other words, if he leaves, [you can't have] your whole recruiting thing get disrupted.

13. Tony Gilbert is leaving Georgia to join Auburn as a graduate assistant.

14. Why John Calipari and Billy Donovan make sense as candidates to eventually replace Mike Kryzewski as coach of Team USA.

Hugh Freeze inherited a mess at Ole Miss.  His team went winless in the SEC last year.  There’s no clear-cut starting quarterback on the roster.  And now he’s losing one the brightest spots from a squad blanketed in darkness.

Nick Brassell — the first Ole Miss player to start on both offense and defense since 1988 — has been declared academically ineligible at UM and will transfer.  The sophomore-to-be was described earlier this spring by Freeze as an NFL-level cornerback.  On offense, he caught 24 passes for 336 yards and two touchdowns last season, adding another 133 yards on the ground via 21 rushing attempts.

“We did all we could do to help Nick, and we wish him the very best,” the coach said in a press release.  With regards to the academic issues faced by a number of the Rebels he inherited, Freeze also threw a little blame in the direction of the recruiting process:

“Unfortunately with these kids today, that personal responsibility is a bit, it’s not comprehended by them.  A lot of kids that are recruited today, not just here.  This whole circus around this recruiting now and this sense of entitlement.  I’m sure some of them come from places where they felt like they were going to get help for that.  And we do have help here, and we utilize all of that. But at the end of the day a kid is going to want to do well.

The ones that did, we had some remarkable turnarounds.  We had kids go from .75s to 2.0 from doing what’s right.  At the end of the day, I think you got to be responsible for yourself.”

Rebel fans — though they’re tired of hearing this every other season — need to have patience.  Re-read the first sentence above again.  Hugh Freeze inherited a mess at Ole Miss.

In fact, we might as well refer to his program as Ole Mess until he turns things around.

Houston Nutt was once loved at Arkansas.  He was once loved at Ole Miss.  Today he’s detested by many at both schools.  Which means they’ll probably be tuning in to hear what he says when becomes a regular part of SiriusXM Radio’s College Sports Nation channel.

It was announced yesterday that Nutt — a three-time SEC Coach of the Year as the presser points out — will “host multiple shows each week,” and is making his debut today.  Nutt’s comment:

“In my 30 years as a college football coach, I’ve experienced first-hand the extraordinary passion fans have for their favorite teams.  You can hear that enthusiasm and dedication every day on SiriusXM College Sports Nation.  I’m excited to be a part of it and I’m looking forward to talking with fans around the country about what’s on their minds as we approach another season.”

Nutt will join SiriusXM host Mark Packer for his morning show and host Jack Arute for his afternoon show, depending on the day.

Whether you like him as a coach or not, the Right Reverend’s personality should make him a good fit for national sports radio.

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.

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.

Memphis (Tenn.) Whitehaven High School juniors Mark Dodson and Gerald Perry both announced on Monday they’ll play in the SEC.

Dodson, a running back, committed to Ole Miss while Perry gave his pledge to play wide receiver at Vanderbilt. Many, including Dodson and Perry, wondered if they would choose the same school. In the end, the two players had different interests.

“Ever since we were little, we talked about going to the same school and playing together at the same college,” Perry told the Memphis Commercial Appeal. “I guess things don’t always work out like you want them to, but I know Mark’s gonna do well down at Ole Miss, and I know I’m gonna do good at Vanderbilt. Hopefully when we play against each other, it’ll be like nothing’s different.”

Both Dodson and Perry chose programs that are in the early stages of a new era. Vanderbilt coach James Franklin is coming off a successful first season in Nashville while Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze is preparing for his opening season in Oxford.

Dodson was intrigued by the idea of playing in Freeze’s new offense.

“I see the program is on the rise,” Dodson said. “It’s gonna take a year or two, but the recruiting class is shaping up very well. You just have to be patient.”

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:

If you’re a Magnolia State resident — or a regular reader of MrSEC.com over the years — you might remember Mississippi State’s Road Dawgs Tour.  It’s State’s offseason fundraising tour.  Like all the other schools out there, MSU sends its football and basketball coaches out to do the shake-and-howdy thing with the school’s boosters in hopes of selling tickets and raising funds.

Only this year it’s not being called the Road Dawgs Tour.  Playing off a billboard/marketing campaign that got under the skin of rival Ole Miss fans, MSU has renamed its caravan the Our State Tour.  As in “Mississippi is our state.”

It’s a small change, but it is sure to bring about a big wince from Rebel fans on the whole.  That, in turn, will bring about big laughs from Bulldog fans who’ve already won the Egg Bowl from Ole Miss in three-straight seasons… the first time that’s happened since World War II.

When you think of SEC football, you think of millionaire coaches with championship rings on every finger.  But when you survey the league’s actual coaching roster these days, in reality there are more guys with business left to prove than men with proven resumes.

Matt Hayes of The Sporting News has ranked the league’s coaches #1 through #14 today and while we’ll show you his list, we won’t steal his thunder and give you the reasons behind his selections.  You can find those here.

What we will say, however, is that after about five coaches — and we disagree with Hayes’ top five — there are some serious question marks.  More question marks than the ever-rich, ever-successful SEC has had in a long, long while.

Hayes’ rankings:

1.  Nick Saban, Alabama

2.  Les Miles, LSU

3.  Steve Spurrier, South Carolina

4.  Mark Richt, Georgia

5.  James Franklin, Vanderbilt

6.  Gary Pinkel, Missouri

7.  Gene Chizik, Auburn

8.  Dan Mullen, Mississippi State

9.  Kevin Sumlin, Texas A&M

10.  Will Muschamp, Florida

11.  John L. Smith, Arkansas

12.  Hugh Freeze, Ole Miss

13.  Joker Phillips, Kentucky

14.  Derek Dooley, Tennessee

Saban, Miles, Spurrier and Richt have proven themselves over time to be at or near the top of their profession.  They should all be untouchable at this point.  That’s right, Georgia fans: should… be… untouchable.

Pinkel has done for Missouri what Spurrier has done for Carolina.  He’s upgraded the school’s talent and he’s put his program on the national map for the first time.  Sure, he hasn’t done it in the SEC yet, but Pinkel would be #5 on this writer’s list for having accomplished what he’s accomplished in a BCS conference.

After those five coaches?  Question marks, question marks, question marks.

Franklin had a surprising first year and his recruiting has been stunning by Vandy’s standards, but he’s been in Nashville for just one season.

Chizik has a national title on his resume but if Cam Newton hadn’t signed with Auburn would the Tigers’ coach be entering this season on a hot seat?  Probably.

Mullen was Franklin three years ago and he’s the reason we’re reserving judgement on Franklin now.  At some point MSU’s coach will have to have a breakthrough season and beat someone other than Ole Miss in the SEC West.

Smith did well at Louisville but he was sacked at Michigan State.  Sumlin has had non-BCS-level success.  Muschamp’s resume is short.  Freeze has a short resume and his success came at the non-BCS-level.

Phillips has done nothing to make anyone think he was the brains of Rich Brooks’ outfit and Dooley inherited such a mess at Tennessee that he really shouldn’t be judged before this season is over (though the returns on his first two seasons have been poor).

Overall, the league’s coaching roster is surprisingly average.  Of course, the SEC’s list of coaches would look a lot more impressive if Bobby Petrino hadn’t blown his career to smithereens last month.  But as it stands, there are four guys who’ve proven themselves, one who’s proven himself in another BCS league, and nine others who the jury is still very much out on.