Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy has become the latest petty dictator coach to excercise complete and total power and restrict where a player can transfer.

This time it's quarterback Wes Lunt, a former four star recruit who started several games as a freshman at Oklahoma State, before deciding he wanted to transfer this spring. So what was Gundy's response when Lunt told him he wanted to transfer? Gundy told Lunt that would be fine, but that he wasn't allowed to transfer to any Big 12 school or any school that was presently on future schedules. That's a pretty standard restriction. If that's where Gundy's transfer restrictions ended, this wouldn't be a story. 

But those restrictions weren't enough for Gundy, no, he had to exercise complete and total dictatorial powers. 

He had to punish a player with the temerity to leave his program. 

Gundy also restricted Lunt from transferring to any SEC or Pac 12 school. Southern Miss too, where offfensive coordinator Todd Monken has recently taken over the head coaching job.

Talk about petty.

Two Conference Games to Watch  

Alabama at Florida (7 CT/CBS) –

Jedi master faces padawan in the Swamp on Saturday night in a prime-time matchup that could ultimately feature the two divisional front-runners in the SEC (although, in Alabama's case, LSU still will have something to say about that). As much as Nick Saban and Will Muschamp have downplayed their time working together at LSU and Miami, you know they both want this one badly. Alabama is coming off a dominant performance at home against Arkansas, while Florida dismantled Kentucky in easy fashion in Week 4. The nightcap of CBS' college football doubleheader should be a close game and could decide if one or both of these teams eventually make a trip to Atlanta. This begins a murderous month of October for Florida. A loss here could be the beginning of an ugly stretch for the Gators, while a win proves they're a real contender for the East right now.

On August 28th, 2011 Alabama running back Trent Richardson was pulled over for speeding in Chilton County, Alabama. The Crimson Tide star was going 85 in a 70 and the officer noted that he blamed the "large rims" on his vehicle for the speeding violation. What was the vehicle? A 2011 GMC Yukon which retails for in the neighborhood of $40,000 even without the added expense of new rims. Raise your hand if it makes sense that an "unemployed" athlete at Alabama with two children, no job, and a non-wealthy family could afford a brand new SUV. Put your hands down Alabama fans. Trent Richardson could be flying in his own private jet and you'd talk about how it's perfectly reasonable for him to avoid traffic this way. 

For the rest of us Richardson driving a brand new SUV raises an awful lot of questions. 

Especially when you consider that most of his money was already going to suit payments.    

LSU went to Morgantown on Saturday. While there they came, they saw, they conquered and their grandmas did keg stands longer than your grandmas can do keg stands. That's what LSU does, on the field and in the stands, it sees your petty boundary lines, laughs at them, and leaps well past them. I've known this since my Dixieland Delight trip to Baton Rouge back in 2006. As we stood in line for a port-o-potty an LSU fan decided to pee off the upper deck of Tiger Stadium. Everyone scattered, it was as if a mortar round had landed in the tailgate area, but no one was surprised. Not one single LSU fan said, "I can't believe someone just peed off the upper deck of the stadium."

LSU fans expected someone to pee off the upper deck. 

Because it's LSU. Whatever expectations you have of normalcy? Leave them behind when the Tigers come to town. By God LSU is first on the field and first in the hearts of college football fans everywhere who relish insanity, carnivals, and downright fun.

So shake off the Monday gloom, it's Grandma keg stand time.

Tuscaloosa, Ala.

Nick Saban owns Bobby Petrino.

I think he carries him around in his fancy straw hat.

Arkansas's head coach, now in his fourth year with the Razorbacks, has flirted with big wins that would announce Arkansas's ascension to the top of the SEC. But more often than not Petrino has been unable to get Arkansas over the proverbial hump, win the game that brands the Razorbacks as something other than a trendy upset pick in the league. Come September there sits the Alabama Crimson Tide, the winningest program in the South, and come September there sits another early season loss that knocks the Razorbacks from the national picture.

If it seems like we've seen it all before it's because we have, Nick Saban owns Bobby Petrino like Steve Spurrier used to own Phil Fulmer.

Yesterday I made the mistake of believing something that a Big 12 official said. When Oklahoma's president David Boren said that the remaining nine members of the Big 12 had given a six-year grant of rights to the league, I turned off the press conference and went to wrestle with my two boys. (This is the highlight of all three of our days). The reason the six-year grant of rights would be a big deal? If a school does this it's giving away its television rights, first and second tier, for the next six years. Given the money at stake that acts as a way to bind the membership together. If this happened then the Big 12 would be stable for six years. So I took President Boren at his word and logged off my computer for the day.

Only this is the Big 12.

That wasn't actually true.

Later the Missouri spokesperson told Pete Thamel of the New York Times: “It’s my understanding that there was no agreement, the agreement was to pursue that as a potential outcome.” Which, you guessed it, isn't an actual agreement. Then another Big 12 official said the league was in "philosophical agreement," but no committments had actually been made.

Philosophical agreement? Is this ancient Greece or the Big 12? You can't even make up these quotes any longer. The Big 12 is officially past the point of satire. The only people celebrating after today? Aggie fans all over Texas are building bonfires and rejoicing, their long Texas nightmare is almost over. These dueling press conferences just proved why the Aggies wanted out so bad.

Today's mailbag is brought to you by former SEC head coach Gene Stallings, who you can spend the weekend with down in Orange Beach at the most exclusive gulf resort community in the South, Turquoise Place. Have you ever thought to yourself, can I mix the SEC and the beach? The answer is yes and next weekend they're showing you how: spend the weekend with legendary Alabama football coach Gene Stallings. You'll be able to have an exclusive meet and greet with Stallings, watch the Alabama-Florida game with him as he commentates live on the action, and you'll be able to get credit for taking the wife and kids to the beach one last time before it gets cold.    

All at an exclusive rate just for SEC football fans.

I know you guys want to do this. Plus, I'll be there with my wife and kids as well thanks to Spectrum Resorts signing on to become the official vacation destination of OKTC. (You've probably seen their ads on the site, but let me tell you, it's the best Gulf Coast resort there is. There's not even a close second. It's also really cool for SEC fans because, as you can see from the photo, Spectrum Resorts is the official beach destination of the SEC coaches.) 

Call 877-867-4534 and mention the special SEC football weekend package. They'll hook you up. Plus, you'll make your wife and family happy.  (Or if you're really lucky you can even bring down a crew of guys, stay at the resort, and drink beers on the beach while Gene Stallings, a national championship winning Alabama coach, discusses the Florida-Alabama game action for you. Does life get much better?) 

West Virginia plays LSU this Saturday night. ESPN's College Gameday will be on campus. It's an opportunity for West Virginia, the school rejected by both the ACC and the SEC in the past week, to refine its image. No hillbilly jokes, no cavity-laden teeth, no shirts with curse words on them. At least not if the school has any say in it. Recall that during the week of the West Virginia-Marshall game ESPN cameras caught a student wearing the t-shirt. Since then the image has spread everywhere. There's only one solution to remove vulgarities from in front of our children:

Welcome to the West F'in Virginia t-shirt amnesty program. Return your shirt with an expletive on it and receive an officially licensed WVU t-shirt in exchange. Let's go to the story:

"The Mountaineer Maniacs have introduced a T-shirt Amnesty program to help exchange West F….... Virginia T-shirts. Students who bought the shirt can bring it to the Mountainlair and exchange it for a $20 voucher to buy an officially licensed T-shirt at the WVU Bookstore, Book Exchange or WVU’s Team Shop in the Coliseum.

“This is a great opportunity for students to make the right decision and gain something in return for having great sportsmanship,” said Maniacs Director Steve Staffileno. “The Mountaineer Maniacs always promote positive sportsmanship from all WVU students and fans."

Vinnie Verno rolls in to Week 4 with five new picks for you. This means you should probably run in the opposite direction. This week he's got the bet the baby game, the hammer lock, and the seat cushion game. He's also got a baby with a mustache.

Remember he makes picks, you make money.

And if you actually want to make money? Well, my guys at Prediction Machine are killing it this year. Click here to see their picks.

Wow.

Just when you think that conference realignment can't get any crazier last night happens. If you were already in bed, which I know a lot of you were, you probably missed Larry Scott and the Pac 12 pimpslapping Texas and Oklahoma in advance of the duo's application to join the Pac 12. Put simply, the votes for expansion weren't there. Why weren't the votes there? Let's go to Larry Scott's statement: “after careful review we have determined that it is in the best interests of our member institutions, student-athletes and fans to remain a 12-team conference. While we have great respect for all of the institutions that have contacted us, and certain expansion proposals were financially attractive, we have a strong conference structure and culture of equality that we are committed to preserve. With new landmark TV agreements and plans to launch our innovative television networks, we are going to focus solely on these great assets, our strong heritage and the bright future in front of us.”

I added the bold, but that's a clear shot at the Longhorn Network.

Congrats to Texas, they saved the Big 12 by being so greedy that the Pac 12 wasn't willing to bring the Longhorns in to the conference. In the process the Longhorns also killed Oklahoma's options to join the conference, which was really what Texas wanted all along, everyone stuck in the Big 12 with no other options.

 Now Texas and Oklahoma have no recourse but to hash out an agreement in the Big 12.

The Longhorn Network is the Helen of Troy of major college sports, the network that loosed a thousand ships.

Two Conference Games to Watch   Arkansas at Alabama (3:30 ET/CBS) – This game has become the SEC West’s premier early-season matchup. Despite Alabama running off a string of four straight victories, and five of the last six, Arkansas has proved a tough out for the Tide in each of those four losses but 2008. Even in 2009, when Alabama was on a run to the national title, Arkansas hung tough for a half in Tuscaloosa. The Hogs scored on the second play of last year’s tilt in Fayetteville and held a two-possession lead during the second half of the game before Alabama stormed back. In the rough and tumble West, this game can propel the victor to the driver’s seat of the division while making the loser’s margin for error almost nil throughout the remainder of the year.    Pre-snap Reads:

Which set of inexperienced linemen will grow up in this game? The Arkansas OL or the Alabama DL? The matchup that will draw the most attention here is the one between Arkansas’ heralded QB Tyler Wilson vs. the Alabama secondary. The real battle, though, begins up front with a rebuilt Razorback offensive line facing a group of defensive linemen at Alabama who aren’t short on talent but don’t necessarily have much experience playing together.