Yesterday afternoon news officially broke that ESPN had signed Paul Finebaum to a five year contract. The deal calls for 100 TV appearances a year and a simulcast of Finebaum's radio show on the upcoming SEC Network, set to debut in August of 2014.

It's a smart decision that fills up several hours of programming year-around on the upcoming SEC Network. Putting radio shows on television works pretty well already and is a cost-effective duality. ESPN pioneered the strategy in sports with multiple shows now airing daily and NBC and CBS have followed up on the decision, placing Dan Patrick and Tim Brando front and center on the NBC Sports Network and the CBS Sports Network. It would be a pretty big shocker if Fox didn't also have a radio show on television when FoxSports1 and FoxSports2 debut this August.   

But the biggest aspect of this deal is the message that the SEC is sending to the college sports universe. 

It's college football's opening week, like Christmas morning for adults. I'm so excited I could barely sleep last night. The best and shortest season of the year is officially here. Over the next 13 weeks you will live or die based upon a fourth down decision, stand in your living room and pace, scream at the television, upset your spouse or girlfriend over how much you care about a game, kick something, and utter grand pronouncements based upon ten minutes of game time.

And if you're from Alabama you will call me gay.

Right now is the best time in the season, the moment before ball meets foot when anything truly seems possible.

Several thousand years ago a bearded man came down from a mountaintop with ten commandments that changed the world.

It's hard not to like Vandy quarterback Jordan Rodgers. Last month I noticed his Twitter picture and had some fun with it as an awkward quarterback photo. In a first in the awkward photo oeuvre, Rodgers retweeted the article to his followers. That's probably what I would do as well. And it's what a lot of you with better senses of humor would do if you were featured in the awkward fan photo collection. So it's hard not to like a guy with a sense of humor about himself. Jordan has a chance to start two bowl games in his Vandy career. If that happens maybe dressing up as a cheerleader should become a new Vandy quatertbacking tradition.

We're six days away from one of the biggest Vanderbilt football games in school history -- a Thursday night kickoff to the entire season against a top ten South Carolina team. 

Earlier this week we had James Franklin on 3HL and asked him what player he needed to play extraordinarily well for his team to have a shot at an upset. His answer?

Jordan Rodgers.  

The same Jordan Rodgers who recently dressed up as a Vanderbilt cheerleader.

Written by Jackson Martin

So The Harvard College Sports Analysis Collective is at it again, trying to destroy my entire childhood. You might remember them as the guys who did an incredible job of compiling the box score from Space Jam (my favorite movie of all time) or as the college blog that is way smarter than just about everyone else writing about sports right now.

This time they're projecting Pablo Sanchez's career numbers (and probability of using steroids) by his Backyard Baseball statistics. It's worth a read, but I'll save you a little bit of time; he'd be really, really good.

This morning Tennessee announced that the top returning wide receiver in the SEC, Da'Rick Rogers, was suspended indefinitely for a violation of team rules.

Immediately the questions that mattered most to Tennessee fans were these, how long is indefinite and what's the suspension for?

Just moments ago Dooley said the team didn't expect Da'Rick back for the rest of the season.

This is a massive blow to the team and is just the latest twist in the star-crossed Tennessee tenure of Rogers.

College football is eight days away and you've probably noticed some changes to the site.

First, we've set up online videos to play on the right side of the screen. This is an experiment that I think is going to get better and better. The idea is simple -- OKTC needs video content as well as written content. I'm continuing to experiment with ensuring that everything we give you is completely free, but that means we have to continue to evolve. Next week we'll have tailgate videos and maybe some additional content from our weekend on the road in college football. As the season progresses we'll constantly update new videos on the site, at least four videos a week of a 3-4 minute duration.

Second, we're launching a gambling portion of the site that will be headed up by Todd Fuhrman formerly an odds maker at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. The idea is simple, we're going to have Todd serve as a Vegas beat writer for OKTC. He'll be reporting what the lines are, where the smart money is going, and keeping us updated on any surprising shifts in the line as a result of injury or otherwise. No other site on the Internet has anyone as qualified as Todd to be keeping us as updated on what's going on in Vegas. 

We'll also have a lot of new content in the area from Vegas content providers that Todd and I have vetted to be the most trustworthy in the business.

All of these additions -- in conjunction with the recent launch of the Bullpen which has already led to several great articles -- are a sign of OKTC's growing strength as we enter our second year as one of the largest independent sites in the country. There's no longer any question about whether OKTC is a strong and viable business, now the only question is, how much bigger and better can we get?

I think the answer is a lot bigger and a lot better.   

Eight days away from kickoff means it's time to check in with our friend Paul Bessire at PredictionMachine.com.

Who answers the question, what happens if you run the 2012 SEC season 50,000 times on your computer simulation?

Written by Brandon Weiss

There were a lot of unanswered questions at the end of Friday Night Lights, including where players could have/should have gone to college. Luckily, I'm here with a list of the best fits for all of the main players in the show.

Written by Michael Urban

If Mizzou fans are honest, they will tell you that joining the SEC is a little like Andre Iguodala joining the Olympic basketball team. It’s not that Mizzou isn’t worthy of being in the nation’s most elite conference, but the Tigers’ pedigree isn’t exactly of the same lineage as the SEC’s blue bloods. Behind the bravado displayed by Head Coach Gary Pinkel and Senior WR T.J. Moe at last month’s SEC Media Days is an insecure fan base that makes Mitt Romney seem steady. Mizzou sports’ oh-so-close-but-yet-so-far exploits are well documented. There’s the Fifth Down game, Tyus Edney’s improbable buzzer beater, the Flea Kicker, and the 2007 Orange Bowl Snub to name only a few.

Yesterday I picked South Carolina to be the seventh straight BCS champ from the SEC.

Late last night news broke that South Carolina has hired Josh Morgan, Jessica Dorrell's fiance, as a new assistant coach for men and women's swimming. But there was no sourcing on the online report.

You'll recall Dorrell as Bobby Petrino's mistress, the woman who miraculously escaped all injury in his motorcycle accident. You'll also probably remember OKTC's Zapruder tape like analysis of the incident, which we surmised was the result of an unexpected reach around crotch grab mishap. That or the entire motorcycle accident was a made-up story to cover up a beating delivered by Dorrell's fiance.    

According to the same site, Fitsnews.com, the duo are still together -- although the June wedding has been postponed.

OKTC placed a call to South Carolina's Steve Fink to make sure that the reported hire was correct and Fink confirmed to OKTC that it was true. 

So welcome to South Carolina Josh Morgan and Jessica Dorrell.  

Written by: Jack Robbins

Football season is finally here. The NFL preseason is up and running and the smack talk emails from your fantasy football buddies are heating up. You’re tired of being the butt of every joke. You’ve done your research and this is the season you are taking home that ridiculously oversized trophy your friends made for your league. But some things are out of your control.

Written by: Craig Hayes

I grew up in a small town called Point Lookout on the south shore of Long Island that was just built for summer: the beach on one side of town, the bay on the other, with a beautiful playground and set of ballfields on the side. Days were filled with swimming, body surfing, fishing and crabbing, and baseball games later in the afternoon, with Jones Inlet serving as the backdrop to the outfield.