Stanley Shakespeare, a member of the 1983 Miami national championship team, dies following a strange boating accident in Florida.

Here’s a great site for draft history in case you are an insatiable draft addict.

Take a look here at who the boys from ESPN are starting to hype for the Heisman. Some names are a given, like Matt Leinart and Adrian Peterson, others fairly obvious, like Florida’s Chris Leak (assuming he doesn’t get broken running Urban Meyers offense), but there are a few others which are a bit more out on a limb. I, for one, will wait until at least the season starts to figure out who is worthy of the hype.

Kyle Wright, the highly touted recruit, has a chance to show if he was worthy of the hype as Larry Coker has named him as the starting quarterback. Better keep up the film study because there are no warm up games to get in the groove as Mickey Andrews will have the Seminole defense amped up to give Wright his baptism by fire as the Hurricanes open their season against the Noles on September 5. Isn’t college football great?

The ever evolving BCS, which is set to expand for the 2006-2007 bowl season, has awarded the Fiesta Bowl the first crack at the title game. The game will be held in a brand spankin’ new stadium to be built for the Arizona Cardinals in January of 2007 and will determine the BCS champion… although there will still be no real means of determining a national champion because although a 12 game season with conference championships makes sense, an 8 team playoff still doesn’t.

Our crack tech support squad reports to us that someone out there on the web keeps searching our site for “Aaron Rodgers shirtless.” Funnier than that, they do it at two in the morning, when most people on the internet are performing research of a most personal nature; that is, they’re usually looking for things to masturbate to before falling asleep in a drunken stupor. We’d love to give the people what they want, and though Mr. Rodgers is no doubt in fine form these days he doesn’t seem to have any photos on the net sans shirt.
Alex Smith, on the other hand, gladly let himself be captured in what may be the nelliest pose ever struck by a professional athlete. (Seriously, it looks like the thumbnail pic for “bi/curious?” ads in the back of Club magazine.) Enjoy by clicking here.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that…

Still don’t get how Auburn won by losing four players to the draft on Saturday? Paul Finebaum and AP’s John Zenor make the case in separate articles.

The Hampton Inn: free continental breakfast for all Bama recruits!

Okay, Its another non-football diversion, but it was too funny to pass up. A security guard, following a trail of blood and a banging noise which led to a car trunk. Instead of finding a victim, he found an attempted car thief. I wonder how his Wonderlic score would have been. Just think, if only he had died in the process he be a shoe in for a Darwin award.

Buckeyes play through crappy weather in spring scrimmage.

Ivan Maisel writes an astonishing article on the BCS’ new round of negotiations. We like Maisel, both for his rumbly Alabama accent when he runs lucid, un-hysterical commentary on ESPN (is there anything that doesn’t outrage Sean Salisbury?) and his ability to make an “Erica Kane” reference without seeming gay. For a sportswriter, that’s the equivalent of landing a triple lutz without a wobble. The real mindfuck comes a few paragraphs down with this jaw-dropping comment:

“Up until last year, there hasn’t been a real focus on integrity,” said Big 12 commissioner and BCS chair Kevin Weiberg. “That seemed to be a new element.”

The other astounding nugget in the article: with their ass in the wind following the departure of the AP poll, the BCS is actively seeking new voters for its poll. Anyone. Please. Considering the total absurdity of the system as it is, we have our own suggestion for an unbiased, accomplished set of BCS voters:

Mack Brown couldn’t beg his way into a BCS slot with these voters. That old Simon’s too tough for that.