SEC Meetings: Day 2 Highlights

Much less going on at the SEC meetings today. I spent about three hours in the lobby of the Hilton accomplishing nothing, but I hadn't set my standards too high anyway, so no harm done.

Anyway, a few quick tidbits from the morning and early afternoon...

-- Football coaches are meeting with the ADs now. Mark Richt and Mark Fox will both be leaving as soon as their meetings wrap up at 5 and heading back to Athens. My time with Richt was definitely a bit more limited than I'd hoped, but hopefully I got enough to get some stories written the rest of this week.

-- Clint Boling's ankle will be fine within a couple of weeks, Richt said. There was no traumatic injury that created a need for the surgery -- which he had last month -- but two ankle sprains this spring didn't heal as well as the team had hoped, and it was decided a quick clean-up of the ankle was in order.

-- Richt said no other offseason surgeries have taken place. He also said he remains "hopeful" that freshman lineman Brent Benedict will be ready for fall camp, although that remains a murky proposition right now.

-- ESPN reps met with ADs this morning to discuss the network's relationship with the SEC, TV ratings and contractual agreements. One issue Damon Evans said he discussed was kickoff times. While he said he expects a continued propensity for night games at Sanford Stadium, he's hoping to find a better balance than last year. He said a few more early kickoffs would appeal to a broader demographic of fans and cause less of a burden on the campus police and support staff.

-- From what folks like Richt and Gene Chizik had to say, it doesn't sound like there's much of a consensus support for an early signing period for college football.

-- Several of the basketball coaches railed against the NBA's one-and-done policy saying that it is having a negative impact on college hoops. Bruce Pearl and John Calipari both seemed to think the NBA was unlikely to make any changes though.

-- Speaking of Calipari, he was asked about the Eric Bledsoe controversy. He refused to respond.

-- Damon Evans and Michael Adams both went on the record that Mark Richt is not on any type of hot seat. When reporters approached Richt for a comment on what his AD and president had to say, he tossed a garlic potato wedge into his mouth, grinned and said, "I've got nothing to say about that. I'm just doing my job."

-- And the strangest sight of the day? In the same hallway, at the same time... Mark Richt was chatting up Urban Meyer, and Andy Landers was involved in a conversation with Pat Summit. Dogs and cats, living together... mass hysteria!