By Franz Beard
A few thoughts to jump start your Tuesday morning:
GATORS EARN A NO. 13 NCAA BASEBALL SEEDING
Florida’s NCAA Baseball Tournament journey will begin Friday with Oklahoma, Liberty and Central Michigan completing the bracket for the Gainesville regional. As the No. 13 seed, the Gators are paired up with No. 4 seed Virginia Tech (41-12), which hosts the Blacksburg regional that includes Gonzaga, Columbia and Wright State.
The Gators (39-22), whose RPI improved 12 spots to No. 12 by virtue of a 4-2 showing at the Southeastern Conference Tournament, are one of four SEC teams to host regionals. The SEC placed nine teams in the tournament, the only surprise being the choice of Ole Miss, which lost in the first round of the SEC Tournament, over Kentucky or Alabama, which both made it to the semifinals.
This is the 18th time in school history that the Gators have hosted a regional. It is the 14th consecutive year Florida has made the NCAA Tournament field, the second longest streak in the SEC (Vanderbilt 16 years).
The rest of the Gainesville regional field:
2 Oklahoma (37-20): The Sooners (RPI 19) went 4-0 to win the Big 12 Tournament, knocking off Texas, 8-1, in the championship game. They own a 3-0 regular season win over Auburn, but lost to LSU, 5-4, and Tennessee, 8-0. The Sooners are 14-14 against teams that made the NCAA Tournament.
3 Liberty (37-21): The Flames (RPI 31) opened the season by winning the weekend series with the Gators in Gainesville. They went 19-11 in Atlantic Sun Conference play but lost to Kennesaw State in the league championship game. Other than Florida, their best win of the season was 1-0 over ACC champion North Carolina. The Flames are 11-12 against NCAA Tournament opponents.
4 Central Michigan (42-17): The Chippewas (RPI 71), who won the Mid-American Conference championship, have the most wins of any No. 4 seeded team in any of the 16 regionals. The Chips won the MAC Tournament by coming out of the loser’s bracket to defeat top seeded Ball State twice. The Chips played 37 games against MAC teams (30-7 record) but were 12-10 in non-conference games, 0-2 against teams that made it to the NCAA Tournament.
Friday’s games
1 p.m.: 3 Liberty (37-21) vs. 2 Oklahoma (37-20)
6:30 p.m.: 4 Central Michigan (42-17) vs. 1 FLORIDA (39-22)
SEC in the NCAA field
Hosts/national seeds: 1 Tennessee (53-7); 5 Texas A&M (37-18); 13 Florida (39-21); 14 Auburn (37-19)
Others: Georgia (35-21, 2 in Chapel Hill); Arkansas (38-18, 2 in Stillwater); Ole Miss (32-22, 3 in Coral Gables); LSU (38-20, 2 in Hattiesburg); Vanderbilt (36-21, 2 in Corvallis)
LINDY’S COLLEGE FOOTBALL RANKS UF NO. 31
Lindy’s College Football preseason magazine is on the news stands with the Florida Gators ranked 31stnationally, which is ninth among SEC teams. In the SEC East Division, the Gators are predicted to finish fourth behind Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee.
O’Cyrus Torrence was selected first team All-America on the offensive line. He is listed as the top offensive guard in the country.
Anthony Richardson is listed as the No. 17 quarterback in the country while Gervon Dexter is the No. 9 defensive tackle and Ventrell Miller is the No. 10 inside linebacker.
The top 25: 1. Alabama; 2. Ohio State; 3. Georgia; 4. Clemson; 5. Texas A&M; 6. Michigan; 7. Utah; 8. Notre Dame; 9. Oklahoma State; 10. Oklahoma; 11. Oregon; 12. Baylor; 13. Arkansas; 14. Miami; 15. North Carolina State; 16. Wisconsin; 17. Ole Miss; 18. Wake Forest; 19. BYU; 20. Michigan State; 21. Cincinnati; 22. Southern Cal; 23. Houston; 24. Kentucky; 25. Texas
The rest of the SEC: 26. Tennessee; 29. LSU; 31. FLORIDA; 38. Mississippi State; 45. South Carolina; 46. Auburn; 57. Missouri; 87. Vanderbilt
Other notables: 37. UCF; 40. Florida State; 92. Florida Atlantic; 102. South Florida; 127. Florida International
Overrated
5. Texas A&M: The Aggies have too many questions on defense and two of their first three SEC games are Arkansas and Alabama.
8. Notre Dame: Sophomore QB Tyler Buchner is unproven, there’s no one at wide receiver who will scare any secondary and the back seven on defense is a bunch of newbies. The Irish could get their doors blown off by Ohio State game one.
11. Oregon: The quarterback will be Bo Nix. Enough said.
14. Miami: The defense was bad last year and will probably be worse this year, plus Kevin Steele is the DC. The bubble will burst game three at Aggieland.
21. Cincinnati: Desmond Ridder, Sauce Gardner and six other Bearcats were drafted. Even with a pansy schedule this team isn’t top 25.
24. Kentucky: People are talking about Will Levis as the first QB to go in the 2023 NFL Draft. Okay, who’s he going to throw it to? Road trips to Florida, Ole Miss and Tennessee plus Georgia is on the schedule.
25. Texas: I’m not sold on Quinn Ewers as the next great thing at QB and the defense, which was atrocious last year, might be worse this year. The bubble bursts September 10 against Alabama.
Underrated
12. Baylor: The defense is good enough that soph Q Blake Shapen has time to grow up.
15. North Carolina State: Nearly everyone is back on both sides of the ball from a team that won nine games last year including QB Devin Leary.
18. Ole Miss: Lane Kiffin reloaded in the portal and the front end of the schedule is a gift from the football gods.
23. Houston: Remember the name Clayton Tune. He’s the QB and the real deal. The schedule says 12-0.
UF SOFTBALL: OREGON STATE SCOUTING REPORT
The Gators (48-17) open play in the Women’s College World Series with Oregon State (39-20) Thursday evening (7 p.m., ESPN) in Oklahoma City. It is the 11th time the Gators have made the trip to Okie City for the WCWS, the first since 2019. For Oregon State, it’s the first time to Oklahoma City since the 2006 season.
Oregon State’s head coach is Laura Berg (268-230-1). The Beavers have never posted a winning record in Pac-12 play in her 10 years on the job.
Oregon State went 9-15 in the Pac-12. In non-conference play, they lost to Alabama, 5-1, but earned a 5-2 win over Tennessee in the Mary Nutter Classic in Palm Springs. They won their Pac-12 series with Arizona and were swept by UCLA. They won the Knoxville regional by coming out of the loser’s bracket to beat Tennessee twice on Sunday afternoon. In the Stanford super regional, the Beavers took down the host in two games to earn the trip to Oklahoma City.
Oregon State is hitting .274 as a team with 59 home runs and 37 stolen bases in 49 attempts. Leading hitter Frankie Hammoude (.386) has 15 homers and 39 RBI while Mariah Mazon (.366) has 12 homers and a team-leading 40 RBI.
The Beavers have a team ERA of 2.33 with 18 shutout wins. They’ve struck out 449 batters in 394.2 innings. The ace of the staff is Mariah Mazon (17-11, 2.05 ERA), who struck out 220 hitters in 184 innings while pitching 17 complete games. The No. 2 is Sarah Haendiges (13-6, 1.97 ERA) who struck out 131 hitters and pitched seven shutouts.
UF MEN’S GOLF: GATORS DON’T MAKE IT TO MATCH PLAY
The Gators missed the cut for match play at the NCAA Tournament in Scottsdale, Arizona, finishing 40 shots over par and in a tie for 10th place. Only the top eight teams make it to the match play portion of the tournament. Florida finished seven shots behind Texas Tech for the eighth and final spot for the match play.
Fred Biondi shot a final round 72 to finish 7-over par (287) for a tie for 20th place on the individual leader board. Yuxin Lin shot a final round 75 to finish at 289, 9-over par and in a tie for 32nd.
SEC FOOTBALL/BASKETBALL NEWS
Auburn: Dylan Carwell, who averaged 3.0 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per games, is withdrawing from the NBA Draft and will return to Auburn next season.
Georgia: Former Georgia defensive lineman Cameron Kinnie, a former 3-star recruit, is transferring to UCF.
Kentucky: Former Kentucky basketball great Mike Pratt, a long time color analyst on the UK radio network, has colon cancer that has spread to his liver. John Calipari has pledged to match $50,000 in donations to help Pratt’s family in this time of trouble.
Ole Miss: Corner Dashaun Jenkins, who had 144 tackles and three interceptions in three seasons and 30 games at Vanderbilt, is transferring to Ole Miss.
ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: When all the Southeastern Conference football coaches, basketball coaches, athletic directors, school presidents and league honchos arrive at the Sandestin Hilton today everybody will be watching to see if Nick Saban sends a peace offering to Jimbo Fisher as a public gesture of good will. Donkeys might fly first. Publicly, Nick may regret what he said about Jimbo and the Aggies buying players. Privately? He meant every word. If you’ve followed Nick Saban through the years, he rarely says anything that doesn’t have a purpose. The purpose of this dust-up with Jimbo served the purpose of getting into Jimbo’s head and alerting the NIL folks who are tied to the Alabama program that they better pony up or else the Aggies will outspend them by a gazillion or so dollars.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey might arrange for Nick and Jimbo to have a make nice appearance for the hordes of national media who have made the SEC Spring Meetings a big event once again, but if you think he’s overly concerned about it, then think again. In the immortal words of Phineas T. Barnum, “There’s no such thing as bad publicity.” Sankey knows it. He doesn’t really mind if Nick and Jimbo smear each other as long as he doesn’t come across like Vince McMahon.
Even in a room full of academics, Greg Sankey will be the smartest guy in the room. Count on it. Oh, the PhD’s who are in charge of the league’s 14 campuses are all smart guys in their own right, but Sankey will forget more about collegiate sports while he’s standing at a urinal today than the SEC presidents will learn in a lifetime. This is why Sankey will get his way in Destin and when everybody goes their own way later in the week, the commish will have a mandate to do whatever he needs to do to keep the SEC at the top of the college sports heap.
Figure an end to divisional play and a 9-game football schedule once Texas and Oklahoma officially join the league with three permanent opponents that will allow every team in the league to play every other team in the league home and home at least once every four years. The Gators will play Texas A&M in College Station this year, the fourth time they’ve met the Aggies since 2012 and the third in College Station. Meanwhile Georgia and the Aggies have only played one time in that span. There is no way to rectify the scheduling inequities with an 8-game schedule, plus ESPN isn’t shelling out big bucks without a guarantee of a lot of good games. Alabama at Texas and Oklahoma at Florida gets ratings. Vandy at Mississippi State does not. By the way, the 3-6 format will also work dandy for basketball.
It’s highly doubtful we’ll hear anything about the future of the College Football Playoff, but you can bet the farm that it will be discussed and there will be unity among the league presidents and athletic directors that if “the alliance” (Big Ten, ACC and Pac-12) aren’t willing to expand the playoff to 12 teams that Sankey can forge ahead with a plan for an SEC invitational. There is no such thing as a national championship in football without the SEC. There is such a thing as a national championship without the Big Ten, ACC and Pac-12.
A few thoughts to jump start your Tuesday morning:
GATORS EARN A NO. 13 NCAA BASEBALL SEEDING
Florida’s NCAA Baseball Tournament journey will begin Friday with Oklahoma, Liberty and Central Michigan completing the bracket for the Gainesville regional. As the No. 13 seed, the Gators are paired up with No. 4 seed Virginia Tech (41-12), which hosts the Blacksburg regional that includes Gonzaga, Columbia and Wright State.
The Gators (39-22), whose RPI improved 12 spots to No. 12 by virtue of a 4-2 showing at the Southeastern Conference Tournament, are one of four SEC teams to host regionals. The SEC placed nine teams in the tournament, the only surprise being the choice of Ole Miss, which lost in the first round of the SEC Tournament, over Kentucky or Alabama, which both made it to the semifinals.
This is the 18th time in school history that the Gators have hosted a regional. It is the 14th consecutive year Florida has made the NCAA Tournament field, the second longest streak in the SEC (Vanderbilt 16 years).
The rest of the Gainesville regional field:
2 Oklahoma (37-20): The Sooners (RPI 19) went 4-0 to win the Big 12 Tournament, knocking off Texas, 8-1, in the championship game. They own a 3-0 regular season win over Auburn, but lost to LSU, 5-4, and Tennessee, 8-0. The Sooners are 14-14 against teams that made the NCAA Tournament.
3 Liberty (37-21): The Flames (RPI 31) opened the season by winning the weekend series with the Gators in Gainesville. They went 19-11 in Atlantic Sun Conference play but lost to Kennesaw State in the league championship game. Other than Florida, their best win of the season was 1-0 over ACC champion North Carolina. The Flames are 11-12 against NCAA Tournament opponents.
4 Central Michigan (42-17): The Chippewas (RPI 71), who won the Mid-American Conference championship, have the most wins of any No. 4 seeded team in any of the 16 regionals. The Chips won the MAC Tournament by coming out of the loser’s bracket to defeat top seeded Ball State twice. The Chips played 37 games against MAC teams (30-7 record) but were 12-10 in non-conference games, 0-2 against teams that made it to the NCAA Tournament.
Friday’s games
1 p.m.: 3 Liberty (37-21) vs. 2 Oklahoma (37-20)
6:30 p.m.: 4 Central Michigan (42-17) vs. 1 FLORIDA (39-22)
SEC in the NCAA field
Hosts/national seeds: 1 Tennessee (53-7); 5 Texas A&M (37-18); 13 Florida (39-21); 14 Auburn (37-19)
Others: Georgia (35-21, 2 in Chapel Hill); Arkansas (38-18, 2 in Stillwater); Ole Miss (32-22, 3 in Coral Gables); LSU (38-20, 2 in Hattiesburg); Vanderbilt (36-21, 2 in Corvallis)
LINDY’S COLLEGE FOOTBALL RANKS UF NO. 31
Lindy’s College Football preseason magazine is on the news stands with the Florida Gators ranked 31stnationally, which is ninth among SEC teams. In the SEC East Division, the Gators are predicted to finish fourth behind Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee.
O’Cyrus Torrence was selected first team All-America on the offensive line. He is listed as the top offensive guard in the country.
Anthony Richardson is listed as the No. 17 quarterback in the country while Gervon Dexter is the No. 9 defensive tackle and Ventrell Miller is the No. 10 inside linebacker.
The top 25: 1. Alabama; 2. Ohio State; 3. Georgia; 4. Clemson; 5. Texas A&M; 6. Michigan; 7. Utah; 8. Notre Dame; 9. Oklahoma State; 10. Oklahoma; 11. Oregon; 12. Baylor; 13. Arkansas; 14. Miami; 15. North Carolina State; 16. Wisconsin; 17. Ole Miss; 18. Wake Forest; 19. BYU; 20. Michigan State; 21. Cincinnati; 22. Southern Cal; 23. Houston; 24. Kentucky; 25. Texas
The rest of the SEC: 26. Tennessee; 29. LSU; 31. FLORIDA; 38. Mississippi State; 45. South Carolina; 46. Auburn; 57. Missouri; 87. Vanderbilt
Other notables: 37. UCF; 40. Florida State; 92. Florida Atlantic; 102. South Florida; 127. Florida International
Overrated
5. Texas A&M: The Aggies have too many questions on defense and two of their first three SEC games are Arkansas and Alabama.
8. Notre Dame: Sophomore QB Tyler Buchner is unproven, there’s no one at wide receiver who will scare any secondary and the back seven on defense is a bunch of newbies. The Irish could get their doors blown off by Ohio State game one.
11. Oregon: The quarterback will be Bo Nix. Enough said.
14. Miami: The defense was bad last year and will probably be worse this year, plus Kevin Steele is the DC. The bubble will burst game three at Aggieland.
21. Cincinnati: Desmond Ridder, Sauce Gardner and six other Bearcats were drafted. Even with a pansy schedule this team isn’t top 25.
24. Kentucky: People are talking about Will Levis as the first QB to go in the 2023 NFL Draft. Okay, who’s he going to throw it to? Road trips to Florida, Ole Miss and Tennessee plus Georgia is on the schedule.
25. Texas: I’m not sold on Quinn Ewers as the next great thing at QB and the defense, which was atrocious last year, might be worse this year. The bubble bursts September 10 against Alabama.
Underrated
12. Baylor: The defense is good enough that soph Q Blake Shapen has time to grow up.
15. North Carolina State: Nearly everyone is back on both sides of the ball from a team that won nine games last year including QB Devin Leary.
18. Ole Miss: Lane Kiffin reloaded in the portal and the front end of the schedule is a gift from the football gods.
23. Houston: Remember the name Clayton Tune. He’s the QB and the real deal. The schedule says 12-0.
UF SOFTBALL: OREGON STATE SCOUTING REPORT
The Gators (48-17) open play in the Women’s College World Series with Oregon State (39-20) Thursday evening (7 p.m., ESPN) in Oklahoma City. It is the 11th time the Gators have made the trip to Okie City for the WCWS, the first since 2019. For Oregon State, it’s the first time to Oklahoma City since the 2006 season.
Oregon State’s head coach is Laura Berg (268-230-1). The Beavers have never posted a winning record in Pac-12 play in her 10 years on the job.
Oregon State went 9-15 in the Pac-12. In non-conference play, they lost to Alabama, 5-1, but earned a 5-2 win over Tennessee in the Mary Nutter Classic in Palm Springs. They won their Pac-12 series with Arizona and were swept by UCLA. They won the Knoxville regional by coming out of the loser’s bracket to beat Tennessee twice on Sunday afternoon. In the Stanford super regional, the Beavers took down the host in two games to earn the trip to Oklahoma City.
Oregon State is hitting .274 as a team with 59 home runs and 37 stolen bases in 49 attempts. Leading hitter Frankie Hammoude (.386) has 15 homers and 39 RBI while Mariah Mazon (.366) has 12 homers and a team-leading 40 RBI.
The Beavers have a team ERA of 2.33 with 18 shutout wins. They’ve struck out 449 batters in 394.2 innings. The ace of the staff is Mariah Mazon (17-11, 2.05 ERA), who struck out 220 hitters in 184 innings while pitching 17 complete games. The No. 2 is Sarah Haendiges (13-6, 1.97 ERA) who struck out 131 hitters and pitched seven shutouts.
UF MEN’S GOLF: GATORS DON’T MAKE IT TO MATCH PLAY
The Gators missed the cut for match play at the NCAA Tournament in Scottsdale, Arizona, finishing 40 shots over par and in a tie for 10th place. Only the top eight teams make it to the match play portion of the tournament. Florida finished seven shots behind Texas Tech for the eighth and final spot for the match play.
Fred Biondi shot a final round 72 to finish 7-over par (287) for a tie for 20th place on the individual leader board. Yuxin Lin shot a final round 75 to finish at 289, 9-over par and in a tie for 32nd.
SEC FOOTBALL/BASKETBALL NEWS
Auburn: Dylan Carwell, who averaged 3.0 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per games, is withdrawing from the NBA Draft and will return to Auburn next season.
Georgia: Former Georgia defensive lineman Cameron Kinnie, a former 3-star recruit, is transferring to UCF.
Kentucky: Former Kentucky basketball great Mike Pratt, a long time color analyst on the UK radio network, has colon cancer that has spread to his liver. John Calipari has pledged to match $50,000 in donations to help Pratt’s family in this time of trouble.
Ole Miss: Corner Dashaun Jenkins, who had 144 tackles and three interceptions in three seasons and 30 games at Vanderbilt, is transferring to Ole Miss.
ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: When all the Southeastern Conference football coaches, basketball coaches, athletic directors, school presidents and league honchos arrive at the Sandestin Hilton today everybody will be watching to see if Nick Saban sends a peace offering to Jimbo Fisher as a public gesture of good will. Donkeys might fly first. Publicly, Nick may regret what he said about Jimbo and the Aggies buying players. Privately? He meant every word. If you’ve followed Nick Saban through the years, he rarely says anything that doesn’t have a purpose. The purpose of this dust-up with Jimbo served the purpose of getting into Jimbo’s head and alerting the NIL folks who are tied to the Alabama program that they better pony up or else the Aggies will outspend them by a gazillion or so dollars.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey might arrange for Nick and Jimbo to have a make nice appearance for the hordes of national media who have made the SEC Spring Meetings a big event once again, but if you think he’s overly concerned about it, then think again. In the immortal words of Phineas T. Barnum, “There’s no such thing as bad publicity.” Sankey knows it. He doesn’t really mind if Nick and Jimbo smear each other as long as he doesn’t come across like Vince McMahon.
Even in a room full of academics, Greg Sankey will be the smartest guy in the room. Count on it. Oh, the PhD’s who are in charge of the league’s 14 campuses are all smart guys in their own right, but Sankey will forget more about collegiate sports while he’s standing at a urinal today than the SEC presidents will learn in a lifetime. This is why Sankey will get his way in Destin and when everybody goes their own way later in the week, the commish will have a mandate to do whatever he needs to do to keep the SEC at the top of the college sports heap.
Figure an end to divisional play and a 9-game football schedule once Texas and Oklahoma officially join the league with three permanent opponents that will allow every team in the league to play every other team in the league home and home at least once every four years. The Gators will play Texas A&M in College Station this year, the fourth time they’ve met the Aggies since 2012 and the third in College Station. Meanwhile Georgia and the Aggies have only played one time in that span. There is no way to rectify the scheduling inequities with an 8-game schedule, plus ESPN isn’t shelling out big bucks without a guarantee of a lot of good games. Alabama at Texas and Oklahoma at Florida gets ratings. Vandy at Mississippi State does not. By the way, the 3-6 format will also work dandy for basketball.
It’s highly doubtful we’ll hear anything about the future of the College Football Playoff, but you can bet the farm that it will be discussed and there will be unity among the league presidents and athletic directors that if “the alliance” (Big Ten, ACC and Pac-12) aren’t willing to expand the playoff to 12 teams that Sankey can forge ahead with a plan for an SEC invitational. There is no such thing as a national championship in football without the SEC. There is such a thing as a national championship without the Big Ten, ACC and Pac-12.
