It appears that my unspoken fears that Arkansas might slip up against Ole Miss and lose were unfounded. Arkansas hammered Ole Miss 38-3 yesterday and remained the only unbeaten team in the SEC at 4-0. The Hogs next have another non-conference game before going to South Carolina, which will be a huge game for them. A win at South Carolina puts them in great position to reach the SEC title game. They would need only one more win if they won at USC, and I think they’ll get that against LSU in Little Rock, regardless of what happens against Tennessee. Obviously, I hope they win out, but all 3 games will be difficult. Tennessee goes to USC the week before Arkansas, so I’m hoping they wear out the Gamecocks and Arkansas has a little easier time. But nothing is easy in the SEC. Just ask Georgia.

I’ve yet to post anything about the debacle that was the Miami - Florida International game last week. Much has been said and written about it in the past week, and there’s not much else I could add. However, I was thinking about it yesterday as I saw reports that Miami barely escaped Duke, and I have a couple of thoughts.

First, let me interject that Duke is really bad. They usually make bad teams look good. I’m not sure why they stayed in the game against Alabama a couple of weeks ago - I suspect Alabama was on auto-pilot and wasn’t really into that game. They should’ve won more easily. However, Miami, after having numerous players suspended, also needed an interception on the final play at the goal line to hold off Duke. I could pretend that perhaps Duke is improving, but I think a more rational response is that this says a lot about where Miami is right now. Miami of old would still be able to put away a team like Duke by halftime with anyone on their team playing. Now, they lose a number of key players and they barely escape. If the losing and the brawl don’t get Larry Coker, surely a narrow win at Duke will.

Okay, so on to my real comments regarding the brawl. I didn’t get this posted yesterday as I was thinking about it, and then found that John Feinstein “stole my thunder” this morning on The Sports Reporters with the same angle I was thinking of, which is this: The ACC was so anxious to get Miami, Virginia Tech, and Boston College to move to their conference a few years ago and now look what it’s gotten them.

The move to add these schools was agreed with by every school in the conference except North Carolina and Duke. The reason was to strengthen the football in the league. Or so they said. The real reason was to strenghen the bank accounts of the schools in the league. It was all about money, as it usually is. This is something I complained about at the time and every opportunity I’ve had since - I liked the basketball home-and-home that everyone played, which is now gone. Duke and NC State don’t even play twice every year, and that’s a crime. So, being a basketball fan, and loving ACC basketball as I do, I wanted no part of this addition (despite the two great games Duke and B.C. played last year.) It was one of only two leagues that was primarily a basketball league (along with the Big East) and had (and still does, in my opinion) the best basketball of any conference in the country. But I believe it will be harder to maintain it with three non-basketball schools in the league.

So, all in the name of money, the league now is home to Virginia Tech, whose Marcus Vick embarrassed the league last year, and also to Miami, who’s actions last week were beyond embarrassment, first on the field, and then later by the adminstration’s relative lack of punishment afterward. (I mean, come on - a punishment of 1 game for all but 1 player, and that game is against probably the worst D-1 team in the country in Duke?) And the ACC itself hasn’t exactly stepped up, either, thus making their intentions regarding the expansion more obvious.

I’m not sure what the ACC was expecting, particularly from Miami. If they expected more than what they’ve gotten, then they were expecting way too much.  I’ll bet they can’t wait for basketball season.