ESPN College Football

Will Muschamp is a tell-it-like-it-is guy. Always has been and always will be.

So when he says he feels “leaps and bounds” better about the Florida football program than he did this time a year ago in the immediate aftermath of his first signing day as Head Gator, you know he means it.

“The number one thing is that I have a better feel for our football team,” Muschamp said. “We were a disconnected group this time last year. We were not on the same page. We were pulling in a lot of different directions. We lacked trust in the program. We lacked discipline in the program, and we were careful to make decisions for the long term.

“I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: We’re building a program and not a team. We’re building this for the long haul. We’re building this into something that’s going to withstand, and that’s what I’m excited about. We’re doing it the right way, and with this recruiting class, we certainly helped ourselves.”

Even with the Gators’ ho-hum 7-6 finish last year in Muschamp’s first season, a sturdy foundation was laid.

In fact, one of Muschamp’s best decisions might have come off the field, and it’s a decision that sent a very pointed message to his players.

The Florida Way isn’t just another catchy phrase.

Muschamp kicked his best player, All-SEC cornerback Janoris Jenkins, off the team prior to the season following Jenkins’ second marijuana-related arrest.

Everybody sat up and took notice -- the Gators’ current players, prospective recruits and certainly the parents of those prospective recruits.

“We’re going to do it the right way, and we’re going to get the right kids in our program,” Muschamp said. “I always tell the staff, 'Don’t fall in love with the film. Let’s find out about his character. Let’s find out what kind of person he is. Let’s see if he’s going to fit in our program.'

“We’re going to coach them hard here. So if they can’t handle hard coaching, they don’t need to come.”

One of the reasons Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley pulled the trigger on Muschamp, who had no previous head coaching experience, was Muschamp’s passion for recruiting and the way he relates to players.

This was Muschamp’s first full class at Florida after he had just a couple of months to assemble a class last year, and it checks in at No. 4 nationally, according to the ESPN recruiting team.

Now, there’s not a coach alive who gives any credence to recruiting rankings if his class is nowhere to be found in the top 25. By the same token, if a class is ranked out the roof by the experts on signing day, that always seems to find its way into the coach’s signing day news conference comments.

In Florida’s case, can anybody remember the last time the Gators weren’t ranked in the top 10 nationally on signing day?

Muschamp understands how the recruiting game works, and he’s the first to dismiss the rankings, even with his first full class brimming with stars.

“I’m not into rankings, because we’ve all seen the eight-star player who comes in and has a hard time adjusting from being a big fish in a little pond, and all of a sudden he’s in a pond where there’s a lot of fish the same size as him, and, psychologically, he has a hard time adjusting,” Muschamp said.

“There’s also the other end, where you sign guys you think may develop into decent players, and all of a sudden, they walk in there as freshmen and they’re playing and starting for you.”

Muschamp said two prime examples of the latter were defensive back Jerraud Powers and defensive tackle Sen’Derrick Marks at Auburn when Muschamp was the Tigers’ defensive coordinator.

“I don’t know that we beat anybody for those guys, but they were really good football players and dedicated to working hard,” Muschamp said. “They had their heads on straight and are still playing on Sunday afternoon.”

What Muschamp does take away from Florida’s lofty ranking this year is that there’s an air of excitement surrounding the program.

“If you go out there and you don’t recruit well from a perception standpoint, that means people aren’t excited about you,” Muschamp said. “People have some doubts. You’ve created some concerns.

“I think this class shows the amount of excitement around Florida football.”

The priority this year was to beef up in both lines of scrimmage, and Muschamp includes tight ends on offense and linebackers on defense in that group.

Having D.J. Humphries of Charlotte, N.C., and Jessamen Dunker of Boynton Beach, Fla., already on campus and available for spring practice is huge. Humphries was rated by ESPN as the No. 1 offensive tackle in the country, while Dunker was rated as the No. 4 offensive guard.

Dante Phillips of Venice, Fla., is an ESPNU 150 lineman who could wind up playing on either side of the ball, while Jonathan Bullard of Shelby, N.C., and Dante Fowler of St. Petersburg, Fla., are a pair of ESPNU 150 defensive ends the Gators think will fit perfectly into their defense.

Muschamp said the Gators were so thin up front both offensively and defensively last season that they had to back off pretty much all contact during the middle of the season and practice more like NFL teams.

“We just didn’t have enough linemen,” Muschamp explained. “When you have to practice like that, you look at the number of reps that you miss with the young players. Football is a developmental game, and we missed a lot of development with our young players, because most of our young players were playing.

“At the end of the day, I think we improved our team where we needed to the most, and that’s on both lines of scrimmage with 14 big or mid-skilled type of players.”

Never completely satisfied, Muschamp said he would have liked to have had two more offensive linemen.

“We’re probably going to lose four to five offensive linemen next year,” Muschamp said. “I wish we could have added more numbers there. Obviously, we could have used a playmaker outside, and I’m really excited about the next year’s running back class in the state of Florida. I feel comfortable with Matt Jones being the only back that we took.

“You’ve always got to develop and look for line of scrimmage guys, guys that can rush the quarterback and cover guys. You never have enough of them.”

The same goes for the next step of the recruiting process. As important as it is to sign great players, what’s most important is what you do with those players once they get on campus.

“Until we get them on the grass and we coach them and start developing that player-coach relationship, it’s really hard to put your finger on something and say this is a successful class,” Muschamp said. “We’ll know about this class in two or three years by the number of championships we’ve won at the University of Florida.

“That’s how we’re judged.”

1. The NCAA can say all it wants about reform and putting student-athletes first. But as long as the NCAA comes down on the wrong side of cases like that of Florida defensive tackle Sharrif Floyd, it will continue to harm its message and its mission. The NCAA suspended Floyd two games for taking $2,500 from a non-profit foundation with no ties to Florida. Gators athletic director Jeremy Foley couched his anger in diplomatic terms. Head coach Will Muschamp (“angered, disgusted”) did not. Good for Muschamp.

2. Tired of greedy schools out for anything but the good of the game? Check out the story in the Houston Chronicle on Thursday about SMU center Blake McJunkin in the loss to Texas A&M on Sunday. McJunkin helped tackle Aggie safety Trent Hunter after an interception. When Hunter lost his helmet, McJunkin raised his arm above Hunter’s head to shield him in the pileup. “It was the right thing to do, no matter the color of his jersey,” McJunkin said. The right thing to do? Hope he inspires a few college presidents.

3. The hardest thing to do in college football is drive the length of the field for a touchdown. It’s even harder early in the season. Defenses, penalties, turnovers and mistakes all can end a possession prematurely. When No. 9 Oklahoma State went more than 70 yards for a touchdown on each of its first three drives against Arizona on Thursday night, the Cowboys served notice that this is the year to take them seriously as a contender for the Big 12 title and a BCS berth.

Florida sophomore defensive end Sharrif Floyd will have to sit one more game repay about $2,700 to charity before he is eligible to compete, the NCAA ruled Thursday.

Floyd was ruled ineligible for Florida's opener for what the school said was "not related to sports agents, University of Florida boosters or his recruitment to Florida."

The NCAA said Floyd received $2,500 over several months from someone not associated with Florida, which was used for living expenses, transportation and other expenses. He received impermissible benefits, including transportation and lodging related to unofficial visits to several institutions. Florida wasn't one of them.

Because of Floyd's especially rough upbringing, the NCAA reduced the potential four-game penalty to two games. Floyd's biological father died when he was 3 and Floyd grew up with a so-called father figure that he said "didn't treat me right growing up."

Floyd sometimes wore the same clothes day after day in elementary school. He didn't even have enough money to go to San Antonio, Texas, for the U.S. Army scouting combine in January of 2009 or unofficial visits to schools. In order to get out there, his high school raised money for him through a bake sale. That bake sale was something Floyd's high school coach said this week came into question by the NCAA.

Floyd grew up extremely poor, so the NCAA ruled that the impermissible benefits he received were a result of his personal hardships.

Here's what Kevin Lennon, the NCAA's vice president of academic and membership affairs, said about Floyd's situation:

"We examine each situation carefully and consider all elements related to a student-athlete's individual circumstances and the violation. This gives us the flexibility to tailor the conditions of reinstatement that take into account all details and are in the best interest of the involved student-athlete."

Florida could appeal Floyd's two-game ban, but there's really no need at this point. The Gators likely won't need him against UAB this weekend. Florida is fortunate Floyd won't receive the four-game ban because he'll now be available for Florida's first two conference games against Tennessee and Kentucky. Obviously, he'll have to pay back the money he received to charity first.

Floyd apparently cooperated with both Florida and the NCAA and even approached Florida about the incident first before the school notified the NCAA about it in February. Florida felt the issue would be resolved before the season, but that wasn't the case and Floyd had to sit because of it.

In a statement from Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley, he didn't seem too pleased with the NCAA's decision to hold Floyd out, but he has to be happy that Floyd will return sooner rather than later.

"Sharrif grew up in an environment where he didn’t have the things most of us take for granted -- food, shelter and clothing," Foley said. "In the absence of parents, there were kind people, in no way affiliated with the University of Florida, who were not boosters or sports agents, that helped him along the way to provide those things that he would otherwise not have had. This is not an issue about his recruitment to the University of Florida or any other University.

"Sharrif Floyd is an outstanding young man and we are very proud that he represents our program. We are all disappointed that he had to deal with this situation, but he will move forward and be stronger for this.”

It looks like you can add Florida State to the list of schools that could be interested in making a move to the SEC.

While most of the talk has centered around Texas A&M leaving the Big 12 for the SEC in the near future, according to a report by The Palm Beach Post, Florida State officials have been flirting with the SEC for "several months and the discussion now are getting more serious," sources said.

A source close to FSU told The Post that a possible move to the SEC "is real."

Geographically, Florida State makes sense, and it's another way for the SEC to dip deeper into the Florida markets. Athletically, FSU has some of the most premiere sports programs in the ACC and would fit in with the SEC's successes.

But what would the University of Florida have to say about this?

The idea of having FSU in the same conference -- and most likely in the same division -- probably wouldn't sit too well with Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley. It's not seeing the Seminoles around more that would irk him and other Gator higher-ups -- they pretty much play each other in almost every sport every year -- but it would take away one of Florida's best recruiting advantages over the Seminoles -- the Gators play in the country's best conference and FSU doesn't.

For many kids, the decision between playing at these two schools can come down to wanting to play in the SEC or the ACC.

Florida would likely not want to see that recruiting edge diminished by having the Seminoles even closer neighbors to the north.

On the other hand, SEC schools other than Florida might not be as hesitant to bring in FSU because it would cut into Florida’s stronghold on the state’s top talent. Making that Sunshine State talent more accessible to the rest of the league might be attractive to Florida’s SEC brethren.

The likelihood of FSU joining the SEC is certainly lower than Texas A&M's, but it will be interesting to see what happens if the Aggies do join. SEC commissioner Mike Slive won't be looking to bring in just one school, making 13 total. He'll likely try to get to 14 or maybe even 16 schools and reaching out to the East Coast makes sense.

FSU might not be Florida's first choice, but it's a school to keep an eye on.

Here's a big surprise: The SEC has a bunch of schools that spend big money on their football programs.

In fact, six of the 10 biggest spenders in college football for the fiscal year ending on June 30, 2010, were SEC teams.

Ohio State spends the most money nationally on its football program -- $31,763,036. But Alabama was right behind the Buckeyes, spending $31,118,234.

The other SEC teams in the top 10 were Auburn at No. 4 ($27,911,713), LSU at No. 5 ($25,566,520), Florida at No. 6 ($24,457,557), South Carolina at No. 7 ($22,794,211) and Arkansas at No. 9 ($22,005,014).

These statistics come from the Department of Education, which has required universities to submit the amount they spend on sports since 2000 as part of the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act.

Most of the SEC athletic departments making huge profits in their football programs are also donating generously to the university.

At Florida, football spent $24.4 million and brought in $68.7 million for a net profit of $44.2 million. The program will give $6 million to the university in the 2010-11 fiscal year to bring the total to $61.1 million since 1990.

"At this place, your main revenue source is football, so you're going to spend money necessary to sustain a successful football program," Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley said. "If we go from playing in front of 90,000 people to playing in front of 60,000 people, you're talking about cutting sports, scholarships, personnel, and nobody wants to see that happen."

Here's the entire list of the top 10 spenders in college football:

1. Ohio State, $31,763,036
2. Alabama, $31,118,134
3. Notre Dame, $29,490,788
4. Auburn, $27,911,713
5. LSU, $25,566,520
6. Florida, $24,457,557
7. South Carolina, $22,794,211
8. Wisconsin, $22,041,491
9. Arkansas $22,005,014
10. TCU $20,609,361

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- I just wanted to share a few other nuggets from the Will Muschamp news conference in Gainesville on Tuesday night.

-- Muschamp spoke several times about having more of a pro-style attack on offense, and being multiple on defense. While he said he did not anticipate making any coaching hires until after the bowl game, Muschamp reiterated the importance of who he hires as offensive coordinator because defense is his strength. When he was pressed on what exactly he meant by running more of a pro-style offense, Muschamp said he wanted to look at the Gators' roster and tailor the offense to fit his personnel. He also stressed he wanted an offensive coordinator with college and pro experience.

-- As for defensive coordinator, Muschamp said he had not decided whether he would call the plays himself. He was defensive coordinator at Texas before coming to Florida. Though speculation has swirled that he would have an interest in Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart, Muschamp said nobody had been offered a job. Muschamp also wants to hire a special teams coordinator. The one coach who definitively is returning -- strength and conditioning coach Mickey Marotti.

-- So what will Muschamp do between now and the bowl game? He says he will be an observer only during practices and the Outback Bowl against Penn State on Jan. 1 in Tampa. He is far from being an observer when it comes to recruiting, though. Muschamp said he felt like he had a cell phone growing out of his ear because he had spent so much time on the phone talking to incoming recruits.

-- As for outgoing coach Urban Meyer, Muschamp has already spoken to him and wants him to be involved in the program as much as possible. "I talked about the things I felt were important with the program," Muschamp said. "We have a lot of the same beliefs. ... The more I talked to him the more I liked him. As long as Will Muschamp is the head coach at the University of Florida, Urban Meyer will be a part of this program. He needs to be involved with this program for our players. He's a great sounding board for me and part of this great tradition."

-- When asked whether John Brantley would be his starting quarterback in 2011, Muschamp said, "I haven't even looked at our roster." Brantley struggled this past season in the spread offense, and the Gators ended up playing three different quarterbacks. Brantley reiterated once again he would sit down with his parents when the season ended to discuss his future, but did say he was encouraged when he heard the Gators could run more of a pro-style attack. "It's what I'm fit for more," Brantley said. "I'm not the running type, and it was definitely better to hear more pocket passing."

-- Muschamp on why he decided to leave Texas, where he was tabbed the coach-in-waiting to Mack Brown: "The University of Texas was very good to Will Muschamp and my family. A Florida opportunity doesn’t come up very often. Having lived in Gainesville, having been in the SEC for a long time, knowing the tradition and the potential of this program to continue to compete for championships year in and year out, the recruiting base was phenomenal, support, resources, administration. When [athletic director] Jeremy [Foley] ... offered the job I took it immediately.

-- On telling Brown he was leaving: "Mack was great, Mack was happy for Will Muschamp, and that’s just the way Mack Brown is. He knew I was ready to be a head coach."

Will Muschamp has passed on his share of head coaching opportunities.

He was already next in line at one of the Taj Mahals of head coaching jobs. But on Saturday, he landed perhaps the Taj Mahal when Florida named him as its next head coach.

The fact that Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley would hire somebody without previous head coaching experience is surprising on one front. But, then, Foley has demonstrated in the past that he's not afraid to go down a path nobody else is expecting.

Remember Ron Zook?

Obviously, that didn't work out great for the Gators, but Foley sees Muschamp as the right fit for a Florida program that came off the tracks this season following one of the more dominant runs we may ever see in the SEC again.

Muschamp, Texas' defensive coordinator and the Longhorns' coach-in-waiting, was one of the hottest commodities among assistant coaches these past couple of years and was already making nearly $1 million per year. He said no thanks to Tennessee a year ago.

With the Longhorns struggling this season and not even making a bowl game, that didn't deter Foley, who immediately focused on Muschamp.

Why is Muschamp a fit?

For one, he knows the SEC, having worked as a defensive coordinator at both Auburn and LSU. He played at Georgia and learned under Alabama coach Nick Saban, who's obviously not a bad guy to learn under, and Saban has said that Muschamp was one of the finest assistant coaches he's ever had. Muschamp was Saban's defensive coordinator on LSU's 2003 national championship team.

Here's the other thing about Muschamp: He brings an edge, a degree of toughness or whatever you want to call it that this program can use right now.

For everything Meyer did right -- and two national championships and three BCS bowl appearances in six years is about as right as it gets -- the Gators had more than their share of off-the-field incidents and arrests under Meyer.

Muschamp will tackle that issue head on. That's his style.

Don't be surprised if his staff also has a distinct SEC flavor. Even though he's making the move from Texas, Muschamp is an SEC guy.

Some will say the Gators are taking a risk by bringing in an assistant for such a high-profile job. Perhaps Muschamp is taking a risk by walking away from the Texas gig when the keys to that program were waiting for him in his top drawer.

Either way, Foley got the guy he felt like was the best fit and a guy who knows his way around this conference.

Will Muschamp was done being a coordinator anywhere but Texas. That was obvious.

But as a "coach-in-waiting" for one of the most plum college coaching jobs in America, there weren't many places that could convince him to leave Texas.

Florida was one of them.

Muschamp has a reputation as arguably the best defensive coordinator in college football and one of its best recruiters. He could have taken a head coaching job at any number of schools before Florida, but his wait and consistent excellence on the field and the recruiting trail have landed him a job just as prestigious as Texas.

And it comes without a wait. More than anything, that's what prompted Muschamp to make the move. Despite Texas' struggles, a renewed and invigorated Mack Brown was reigning over the Longhorns in 2010.

Brown had knee surgery in 2006 and told reporters at Big 12 media days in July that he felt "better than I’ve felt in years." Muschamp was still a handful of seasons or more from removing the "in-waiting" from his title.

Muschamp's contract didn't have a buyout, and the "coach-in-waiting" title was more to keep him in Austin than to keep others from taking him. The promise to hand over the reins was enough to keep him from hopping to jobs at schools like Pitt, Louisville, Miami or a number of other openings in the SEC.

There was little that would have kept him from saying yes to the Gators.

Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley clearly feels strongly about Muschamp.

"Coach Muschamp is someone we targeted from the beginning and he is the guy we wanted. He is the only person we met with and the only person we offered the job to," he said.

Florida will be getting everything it wanted in a coach. As a recruiter, look no further than Texas' 2011 class, which ranks No. 1 nationally and has four defensive members of the ESPNU150 currently committed. The recruiting pool will be just as deep in Florida.

It wanted a high-energy guy whom fans could get behind and be excited about.

Uh, check.

It takes only a short YouTube search to figure out the origin of Muschamp's nickname, "Coach Boom." And the Georgia alum fits Florida's final criteria: a coach who knows the SEC.

Muschamp gained his reputation while coordinating defenses at LSU and Auburn earlier this decade, sandwiched around a short stint with the Miami Dolphins.

Florida took a leap of faith by hiring the 39-year-old first-time head coach, but there may not be a coordinator in the country more ready for his first stint, even if it's at Florida. Remember, Oklahoma took a chance once, too. In 1999, it took a leap of faith on some 39-year-old guy named Bob Stoops who was coordinating the defense at Florida and had never been a head coach, either.

For Texas, a program already in relative unrest will find even more turbulence. Offensive coordinator Greg Davis resigned earlier this week, and the Longhorns lost a pair of position coaches and their special teams coordinator to retirement.

That leaves Brown without anyone to run his offense or defense, and Muschamp could take any number of coaches with him to Gainesville, including running backs coach Major Applewhite, who was on Texas' short list to succeed Davis as offensive coordinator.

"Our commitment remains that we will build the best coaching staff in the country and we will begin a nationwide search immediately for a new defensive coordinator," Brown said.

The Longhorns could go in any number of directions, but don't expect Brown to settle for promoting from within. The amount of talent on defense at Muschamp's disposal will go to the next guy, and there are plenty of coordinators who would jump at the chance to coach players like Keenan Robinson and Emmanuel Acho, both set to be seniors in 2011.

Brown said after his first round of coaches left that he has no plans to name replacements until after bowl season. If there was ever a year in which Texas is lucky not to be preparing for a bowl game, it's this one. Brown can focus now on his somewhat daunting coaching search(es) without worrying about a bowl flop.

As for losing some of those 23 commitments, Brown won't have much to worry about. Only two of those don't hail from Texas. The vast majority of high school players in Texas don't grow up dreaming of playing for Will Muschamp, Greg Davis or even Mack Brown. They dream of wearing the burnt orange.

The Longhorns might lose a few -- maybe even one or two to Florida -- but don't look for a mass exodus.

Texas will probably emerge out of this offseason in good shape. Top-notch facilities, talent, location and a winning tradition offer at least some assurance of that.

The next few weeks are crucial for Texas. There aren't many Will Muschamps left out there to be a coordinator. Brown, ideally, would like to find the next one.

But with so many other coaches leaving vacancies on Brown's staff, the only thing we know for sure is we'll see a different-looking Longhorns team when spring football opens in a few months.

Urban Meyer’s resignation resounded through the state of Florida like a crack in the windshield that spreads every which way.

It hit Florida State. It hit Miami. And, most importantly, it hit Miami athletic director Kirby Hocutt.

Hocutt’s job to make Miami’s next coach a home run hire just became an impossible task. Because no matter who he brings in, Florida AD Jeremy Foley will hit a grand slam. Put yourself in, say, Dan Mullen’s shoes. Where would you want to coach? At Miami, a nice fixer-upper of a house, or at Florida, where you’re handed the keys to a Porsche? Just ask Meyer, who, when he was hired from Utah, chose the Gators over the most storied program in college football -- Notre Dame.

Over the past decade, Florida was 103-23 under Meyer and won two national titles. Miami hasn’t even won the Coastal Division or a bowl game since joining the ACC. Florida plays in the Swamp. Miami plays in an empty pro stadium. Regardless of his on-field results, former coach Randy Shannon set the bar even higher off the field by instilling discipline and graduating his players. Good luck finding a coach who can do that AND win a national title.

The truth is, Florida’s short list probably contains big-name coaches Miami couldn’t get -- Bob Stoops. Jon Gruden. Bobby Petrino.

Florida and Miami have only played five times this decade, but they’re constantly going against each other in recruiting, academics and everything else. Shannon beat Meyer soundly when it came to discipline. But Hocutt isn’t going to beat Foley on this hire.

1. I don’t know how many lines there were in the announcement by the Southeastern Conference that the league’s coaches voted Steve Spurrier of South Carolina the SEC Coach of the Year. But if you read between them, you can see how the coaches feel about Auburn and the Cam Newton affair. The Tigers and the Gamecocks each were picked to finish third in their respective SEC divisions. Chizik went 13-0 and will play for the BCS national championship, Spurrier went 9-4.

2. At the Intercollegiate Athletic Forum in New York on Wednesday, Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe said that the league made a misstep when it formed in 1996 and didn’t find a way to continue the Oklahoma-Nebraska rivalry on an annual basis. He added that Colorado, despite its historical ties to the Big Eight, has greater economic ties to the Pac-12 than it ever did to the Big 12’s footprint.

3. It’s logical to assume that Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley would look to replace Urban Meyer with his former offensive coordinator, Dan Mullen, who led Mississippi State to an 8-4 record and a Gator Bowl bid in his second season in Starkville. Miami also has been interested in Mullen. From what I hear, however, Mullen and his family like Starkville and aren’t in a hurry to leave. Mississippi State athletic director Scott Stricklin has his wallet open. The guess is Mullen gets a raise and stays.

Inspired by the new social game, ESPNU College Town, here’s what I would select from around the SEC to build the best program in the conference:

Academics: Vanderbilt. Consistently ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of the nation’s top 20 universities, Vanderbilt has perennially been the class of the SEC academically.

Athletic director: Florida’s Jeremy Foley. He hires well and fires well and carries the kind of clout nationally all schools wish their athletic director did.

City: Nashville, Tenn. It’s hard to beat Music City, USA. It’s a bigger city with everything you want, including diversity, a major airport and great entertainment, and also hasn’t lost its Southern charm.

Coach: Alabama’s Nick Saban. He’s the only coach in the modern era to have won two national championships at two different schools. The question now: How many more will he win?

Facilities: Alabama. This is a close one with LSU. But when you combine everything, including the recent stadium renovations, Alabama wins out.

Fans: South Carolina. Undyingly loyal, the South Carolina fans continue turning out in big numbers to see the Gamecocks play no matter how good, bad or mediocre the football team is on a yearly basis.

Game day atmosphere: LSU. Those first few notes blaring across campus from the LSU band are enough to give you chills. In short, there’s nothing quite like a Saturday night in Tiger Stadium. The only thing that's close is the tailgating before the game.

Mascot: Georgia’s Uga. There’s not another mascot in all of college football more revered than Uga or as intertwined with that school’s football team as the pure white English bulldog that roams the sideline on game days.

Stadium: Alabama’s Bryant-Denny Stadium. The seating capacity is now up over 100,000, and the recent renovations have truly made it one of the Taj Mahals when you start talking about on-campus stadiums in this country. And now that it’s completely closed in, the noise is deafening.

Strength program: Florida. There’s a reason the Gators have been so good in the fourth quarter under Urban Meyer. Mickey Marotti and that Florida strength program have few peers, although Scott Cochran has also made Alabama’s strength program a force to reckon with.

So there you have it, the 10 components that would make up the perfect football program in this conference.

And, really, when you start talking about game-day atmospheres, fans, stadiums and facilities in the realm of the SEC, it’s hard to go wrong anywhere you go in this league.

Football is indeed a religion in these parts.

Add Florida to the list of schools around the country dealing with allegations of illegal agent activity.

Both the NCAA and the university are looking into allegations that former center Maurkice Pouncey was paid $100,000 by a representative of an agent between the Gators' loss to Alabama in the SEC championship game last season and their win over Cincinnati in the Sugar Bowl. Florida notified the NCAA of the allegation once it became aware of it. Pouncey played in both games.

"We were made aware of some information in early June that we reported to law enforcement and we then shared with the NCAA and the SEC," Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley said in a statement released Monday morning to ESPN.com. "At this time we have no information that has indicated that there are any compliance issues for the University of Florida."

South Carolina has confirmed that tight end Weslye Saunders was interviewed last week by NCAA representatives over possible improper dealings with an agent, and there are several players at North Carolina, including defensive lineman Marvin Austin, who have been questioned by the NCAA about agent-related activity.

Oklahoma fans can rest a little bit easier after Florida coach Urban Meyer was offered and accepted an indefinite leave of absence to reclaim his old job.

It means that Bob Stoops will remain at Oklahoma for the immediate future -- and probably well beyond it.

Stoops was mentioned among the favorites if Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley needed to find a permanent replacement for Meyer.

But when Meyer told reporters Sunday in New Orleans he would like to still coach the Gators, it will mean he'll have to keep his list of replacements unchecked.

Along with Utah coach Kyle Whittingham, Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen, Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino, Boise State coach Chris Petersen and maybe even former Denver Broncos coach Mike Shanahan or Arizona coach Mike Stoops, the Oklahoma coach would have been a likely candidate to be interviewed for the Gators' head coaching position.

Stoops is familiar with the program after serving as defensive coordinator for three seasons under Steve Spurrier from 1996 until he was hired by the Sooners in 1998 to replace John Blake.

The Oklahoma coach still keeps his condominium in Crescent Beach, Fla., and visits there often with his family.

But Meyer's leave of absence quashes any need for an immediate replacement to coach the Gators.

Sooner fans can be thankful for that announcement.

It’s one of the plum jobs in all of college football.

And after the Allstate Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1, it’s going to be open.

Urban Meyer’s stunning resignation for health reasons means somebody has some awfully big shoes to fill at Florida, and it also means that Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley will be conducting his third football head coaching search of the last decade.

Who’s on his short list?

All athletic directors keep a short list of coaching candidates in their top drawer. If not literally, at least figuratively.

You can bet Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops is somewhere on that list, probably near the top. Stoops, the Gators’ defensive coordinator for three seasons under Steve Spurrier, was the top target in 2001 when Spurrier resigned. But he’d only been at Oklahoma for three seasons and felt like he needed to stay put.

After more than a decade at Oklahoma, Stoops may be ready for a new challenge.

Arkansas’ Bobby Petrino is another name to keep in mind. He was on the list when Meyer was hired in 2004.

Mississippi State’s Dan Mullen, who served as Meyer's offensive coordinator at Florida until this season, also makes a lot of sense. He knows that program, knows Meyer’s system and is somebody Foley is very familiar with. Mullen also did a good job in Starkville this season, his first as a head coach.

At some point, somebody’s going to pry away Chris Petersen from Boise State. Maybe this is that time. Petersen has had an unbelievable run at Boise State.

Former Denver Broncos coach Mike Shanahan was a candidate in 2001, when Spurrier left, and has a good relationship with Foley. Shanahan coached at Florida in the 1980s as an offensive coordinator, but his next move is probably back to the NFL, possibly the Washington Redskins.

Posted by ESPN.com's Chris Low

	Douglas Jones/US Presswire
	Urban Meyer is now the SEC's highest paid coach.

When your university president says you deserve to get paid, you know it's only a matter of time.

Florida officials put the finishing touches Monday on a new six-year, $24 million contract for Urban Meyer, making him the SEC's highest paid coach in 2009 at $4 million per year.

Bernie Machen, Florida's president, said back in May that Meyer deserved to be the SEC's highest paid coach. And when you look at what Meyer has done in Gainesville in his four years there, it's hard to argue with Machen.

In fact, Meyer probably deserves to be college football's highest paid coach. This new deal will push him right there near the very top.

Alabama's Nick Saban signed an eight-year, $32 million deal when he came back to college football in 2007. He will earn $3.9 million this season, and his salary will go all the way up to $4.2 million in 2012, 2013 and 2014 -- the final three years of the deal.

LSU's Les Miles jumped up to $3.751 million after winning the BCS national championship in 2007.

The contract he signed in March 2008 called for him to be paid no less than the highest paid coach at a public university in the SEC, plus $1,000. Hence, the $3.751 million salary. Saban was the highest paid coach in the league at that time and making $3.75 million.

The way Miles' contract is worded doesn't mean he will automatically get another bump to surpass Meyer. According to LSU general counsel Ray Lamonica right after Miles signed his deal in 2008, Miles would be entitled to a second raise which would again make him the SEC's highest paid coach only if he wins another BCS national title.

Nationally, Southern California's Pete Carroll makes a reported $4.4 million, which would put him at the top of the list. Notre Dame's Charlie Weis is also believed to make more than $4 million annually, although USC and Notre Dame are both private institutions and don't release salary figures.

Oklahoma's Bob Stoops received a new deal in June that will pay him $30.125 million over the next seven years. Stoops is set to earn $3.675 million this season. But counting retention bonuses, he would see his salary increase to $4.875 million in 2011.

Meyer's new $4 million-a-year deal also doesn't count bonuses and incentives. For instance, he earned $375,000 this past season for winning the BCS national title and SEC title.

You never say never when it comes to the money they're throwing at college coaches these days, but this new deal should quiet most of the chatter about Meyer bolting for Notre Dame down the road.

At some point (when you get to $4 million a year), the money is almost like Monopoly money.

Plus, Meyer wants to be at a place where he can sustain success, a place where he can build off the success he's already had. There's no better place in the country to do that than where he is right now.

Meyer knows that as well as anybody, and he also has an athletic director, Jeremy Foley, who gets it as well as anybody.

The rest of the SEC might want to come to grips with reality: Meyer's going to be at Florida for a while.