Is it incredibly stupid that Brian Downing, the Alabama fan who teabagged an LSU fan in Krystal, faces years in prison for the act?

Yes.

Is it incredibly stupid for his lawyers to release a letter yesterday afternoon that says the murder rate is too high to prosecute a sexual assault?

Yes, yes, it is.

As it becomes increasingly clear that Peyton Manning's tenure with the Indianapolis Colts is over, another fact is becoming clear as well -- the Tennessee Titans have to pursue Peyton Manning in the free agenct market.

Absolutely, positively must pursue him.

There have been many teams referenced as Manning pursuers -- most prominently east coast teams like the Jets, Dolphins, and Redskins -- and there will be more teams mentioned in the Manning sweepstakes before all is said and done. Basically, unless you employ one of the top 13 or so quarterbacks in the league -- Patriots, Giants, Falcons, Packers, Saints, Cowboys, Chargers, Panthers, Lions, Eagles, Bears, Steelers, and the Texans -- you should be at least interested in Peyton Manning. 

The Harris Interactive Poll does a yearly poll of sports fans to determine what America's favorite sport is. On a year-to-year basis the results can vary -- as all polls can -- but there's some pretty fascinating data when you take a look at the numbers running all the way back to 1985. In particular, the inexorable rise of football becomes readily apparent. Indeed, in 1985 the NFL and major league baseball were at a virtual dead heat as the nation's favorite sport. But since that time the NFL has crushed baseball, from an even favorability rating to a nearly three to one advantage.

But more interestingly, college football has now caught baseball as well.

When you look at the data, baseball fans, as an aggregate, are much older than football fans. (The most popular demographic for baseball is men 50-64.) So the slow decline of baseball will continue. Meanwhile college football is a comparatively young man's interest.

Check out the Harris Poll data for yourself.

It's really fascinating because if I'd been asked in the late 1980's to rank my favorite sport I would have said baseball. Lots of y'all reading this right now would have probably said that as well.

For a couple of years now I've been writing that the ultimate future of the SEC is a 16 team conference with four divisions of four teams each. As you've seen from OTKC's articles so far this week, the addition of Texas A&M and Missouri added over $100 million in revenue to the coming SEC Network, a network that we showed you would likely be worth in excess of a billion dollars a year in a decade or less. Now the question that immediately arises is this, which two teams will the SEC add to the conference to get to 16 teams?

I think the answer is simple, the SEC will expand to add teams in the states of North Carolina and Virginia. Why North Carolina and Virginia and which teams in those conferences? Read on to find out. 

But first, let's discuss the primary obstacle to the SEC expanding to 16 teams -- an existing NCAA rule that allows the conference title game to take place.  

That NCAA rule states as follows:

17.9.1.2 (c) Twelve-Member Conference Championship Game.  [FBS/FCS]   A conference championship game between division champions of a member conference of 12 or more institutions that is divided into two divisions (of six or more institutions each), each of which conducts round-robin, regular-season competition among the members of that division;

In the past year Alabama fans have killed Auburn's trees and teabagged an LSU fan who was passed out sleeping in a Krystal.

That's quite a year.

Two rivals down, 11 to go in a new 14 team SEC.

If I'd told you to guess which fan base in America was going to be responsible for both of these acts, a public teabagging and tree murder, most of your first guesses would have been Alabama. Even Alabama fans would have guessed this. In fact, every single actual Alabama grad would have guessed this immediately.

Roll Tide Roll.  

But the sheer unexpectedness and outright depravity of these crimes still managed to leave most of us startled. Simple assault from one Bama fan to another? We expect that. Hell, a murder surrounding a domestic dispute over drunken football watching? Expected again.

But tree murder and testicular assault?

Even Alfred Hitchcock, the man who made taking a shower impossible in the 1960's, is taken aback.

Recently I’ve been learning a lot of helpful, valuable life lessons, one of the biggest being that – surprise!—football really isn’t over after all, you guys! 

In fact, it never really ends, ever.

No, really. It’s inescapable.

It’s omnipresent and all pervading. Once I came to grips with you men’s insatiable thirst for actual football games, then I had to figure out a way to comprehend the foreign concept of “Fantasy Football” games. (Regardless of if this is accurate or not, I automatically associate Fantasy Football with things like “World of Warcraft” and “The Sims.” I might be totally off on this assessment, but you cannot convince me otherwise. Guys, it’s not real. Aren’t real football teams enough to keep you entertained without having to make up virtual teams in your head?) And now, instead of obsessing over regular college football players, you guys are all obsessing over high school boys. I’m told it’s called “recruiting,” and that it’s a relatively normal fixation for many guys. I guess the silver lining in this is that if I’m going to have to compete for a man’s attention in some form, I’d rather be competing against an 18-year-old boy’s beefy biceps instead of a college co-ed blonde’s boobs.

Other starting lessons include these actually exist -- croc flats, really? -- and that Whoopi Goldberg really is, as formerly predicted, the most annoying person on the face of the planet.

College football season is officially over. Grounds and maintenance crews are working on empty, eerily silent stadiums. Players and coaches are taking some time off before preparing for spring training, and the world is watching anxiously to see which schools the top recruits will choose.  Fans who were left crying in their beer over last season’s losses are trying to put the past behind them and look forward to the hope that the new season will bring. The majority of Bama fans are being classy as always, rubbing the National Championship win in the faces of opposing teams’ fans, and some even go as far as to actually rub their balls on the faces of opposing teams’ fans.  (Haven’t seen that gem of a video yet?  Before you click over to YouTube, let me warn you– it’s not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach).

Now is the time when I, like many college football fans, sit around, staring at the television looking sad and confused. I'll turn on NFL games because, hey, it’s still football.  I’ve started looking forward to baseball season so I can continue the tradition of cheering for Whoever Is Playing the Yankees, but even pitchers and catchers don’t report for another month. Some of my Twitter followers have asked, “What about basketball?”  I don’t hate on basketball at all, and I’ll definitely put some effort into my NCAA Tournament brackets, but it just doesn’t render the same excitement for me as football and all its gloriousness.

Yesterday on 3HL, I went on a mini-rant about the need for men in the locker room to put their pants on before they put their shirts on. This makes zero sense. Anyone who has ever gotten dressed knows that the shirt is infinitely more difficult to put on than pants are. If you doubt me, wait until you have kids and they're trying to dress themselves. Several times a week I try and let my three year old put on a shirt. It's a disaster.

Like Pickett's Charge for the toddler set.

Yet, time and time again grown men at the gym are going with the shirt first and no pants. Sometimes, in the most awkward of all male undressing situations, these men put socks and shirts on with no pants.

Seriously, this must stop.

Well, in the midst of this rant several Tennessee Titans fans called in to the show recalling that in the wake of the Titans AFC championship victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2000, a man walked behind then Jags coach Tom Coughlin wearing a shirt and tie with no pants on. (It says a lot about our listeners that 12 years after this game fans still remembered this awkward moment).

I figured that clip had been lost to the dustbin of the ages, but this morning a listener emailed and said he had the clip. Which he has now uploaded to YouTube.

It's gold, Jerry, gold.

My favorite part of the pantless man in a shirt and tie is that he appears twice. Keep in mind that tens of millions of people are watching this live.

Enjoy.

Right now the Southeastern Conference makes around $205 million a year from CBS and ESPN for television rights. Yesterday OKTC told you why the addition of Texas A&M and Missouri was worth over $100 million a year to the SEC when an eventual network emerges. Now let's talk about why an SEC Network could be worth billions for both the SEC and ESPN. In so doing we'll include data from the Big Ten Network and cable and satellite subscriber data from the SEC's own 11 state footprint.

As a preliminary it's important to note that the Big Ten Network, which launched in August 2007, faced difficulties in ensuring that its network was carried on the basic tier level in its conference footprint.

This issue, which Commissioner Mike Slive discussed with me in a profile I wrote about him in 2010, helped to convince the SEC not to start its own network back in 2009 when the conference entered in to its contracts with ESPN and CBS. At the time the SEC was concerned that battles with cable companies over carrying the network would reflect badly upon the league. But that issue diminished quickly for the Big Ten. According to SNL Kagan estimates by 2008 the Big Ten Network, since rebranded as BTN, was in 38.4 million households with subscriber revenues of $166 million. Just three years later in 2011 BTN was in 48.8 million homes producing subscriber revenue of nearly $246 million.

The average cost for BTN subscribers in 2011 was .37 cents per month. 

But this figure is misleading, the vast majority of the revenue comes from states that have Big Ten schools. That is, the overall Big Ten footprint, which now includes Nebraska, charges, per SNL estimates, about .90 cents per month in those states. 

Out of market states, those without Big Ten teams, pay less than ten cents per month. 

That's why entering new states is so valuable. Every time a conference colonizes a new state, it's network revenue potential increases by ten fold.

How does this apply to the SEC? 

This week Outkick the Coverage will take a look at the Southeastern Conference's future, particularly at a massive decision that is looming for the SEC and its primary network partner ESPN, whether to start a network or not. In 2009 the SEC signed a 15 year rights agreement with ESPN and CBS that extends until 2023-24. That agreement gives CBS the rights to a single first choice game every week while ESPN retains virtually every other right. (Stop the emails, when local Fox affiliates, Comcast, or other networks carry cames, those are sub-rights that ESPN has sold to those networks. The only exception? Each football team retains one game a year, generally the worst, which it can place on pay-per-view). 

A 12 team SEC was paid in the neighborhood of $150 million a year from ESPN and around $55 million a year from CBS. But now the SEC has expanded and added Texas A&M and Missouri as a 13th and 14th member. 

With these additions, these rights fees are up for reassessment. 

Leading many to ask, what's the value of Texas A&M and Missouri's addition to the existing league's television rights package?