It's no secret that Johnny Manziel is Outkick the Coverage's favorite SEC football player of all time. 

But even we continue to be amazed by his feats of athletic excellence.

Last night he homered during San Diego Padres batting practice while wearing jeans and boat shoes. Then he executed one of the most amazing first pitches in history.

How so?

He reenacted his fumbled touchdown pass against Alabama.

Really, he did.

Watch.  

Our beaver pelt trader of the week is easy this week.

We've got multiple winners -- it's the old guys in charge of college football -- Mike Slive, Jim Delany, Jim Swofford, DeLoss Dodds, and Chuck Neinas.

As I wrote yesterday, we all owe them a debt of gratitude for the way that the've brought together a four-team playoff.

And we also have LeBron James, NBA champion.

Now we're off and running to the mailbag.

Three years ago I asked SEC commissioner Mike Slive whether he foresaw a college football playoff anytime soon. He grinned and shook his head, "I think," Slive said, "you'll have to wait for us to die off." The "us" in question was his generation of college football power brokers. Yesterday a four-team playoff became a reality and those same men who Slive once said needed to die off led the charge for change.

Slive will receive much of the credit for college football's playoff, and deservedly so, but that misses the point. This was a win for all the old guys out there, a generation who wouldn't change, suddenly did the right thing and evolved with the times, strengthening their sport in the process.

Since the process began Slive has wanted neutral site games, he's wanted the top four teams over conference champions, and he's favored a seeded four-team playoff.

All of those goals have been attained.

Make no mistake, in a life full of victories this is the biggest victory of a Slive's professional life. The most lasting and permanent change, this is college football's version of Nixon going to China, the Berlin Wall coming down, an existing world order that many said would never be altered collapsing. Yes, this is Slive's final valedictory to the sport he loves but it's also something more, a triumph of aging men who put aside their own personal interests and finally buckled down and did what was right for college football. The Big 12's Chuck Neinas is over 80, Mike Slive will turn 72 in a little over a month, ACC commissioner John Swofford is 64, the Big Ten's Jim Delany is 64 as well. Toss in Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds who is 72 and you've got a collection of powerful men nearing retirement age.

Harvey Updyke's trial is about to begin in a courtroom near Auburn University.

It's been about eighteen months since Updyke first gained prominence as Al from Dadeville, the Finebaum caller who poisoned a tree and set loose a maelstrom of media coverage and indignation. Since that time I've gotten to know Harvey pretty well. I've talked to him on the phone a great deal, I've met him at Alabama games, and -- while I'm no psychologist -- truth be told, Harvey is a pretty decent guy. Odds are if y'all met him at a family barbecue or got stuck in a line beside him at the DMV he'd strike you as pretty ordinary too. Like a lot of us he's a huge SEC fan. Unlike a lot of us he did something really, really dumb when his favorite team lost a football game -- he tried to kill trees at Auburn.

I understand that was an offensive and deranged act, but it wasn't the crime of the century that requires we lock him up and throw away the key.

I'd be shocked if Updyke is a threat at all to society now.

This April Jim Rome made a much ballyhooed debut on the CBS Sports Network.

Rome's departure from ESPN represented a coup for the nascent network, recently rebranded from College Sports Television (CSTV) and expanding into original programming. Rome, airing daily at 6 eastern, would be a linchpin around which CBS could mount an attack on ESPN's sporting hegemony. By taking one of ESPN's top TV talents, the theory went, ESPN would be weakened and CBS strengthened. Rome's loyal audience of clones would follow him to CBS, those who didn't have the network would demand its inclusion in their cable packages, and CBS would flourish. 

That was the theory anyway.   

But the first three months of "Rome" have been filled with ratings pratfalls and very limited distribution growth. In particular Rome's CBS audience is not even 1/10th of his ESPN audience.  

In 2011 Rome Is Burning averaged 442,000 daily viewers on ESPN and ESPN2. According to multiple sources, Rome on CBS is averaging barely 40,000 daily viewers. That's a smaller audience than the local news in Buffalo. 

Asked for comment on ratings or viewers for the Rome show, CBS issued this statement:  "There are no numbers available for ROME as CBS Sports Network is not rated by Nielsen." 

We've had lots of awkward fan photos, but we've never had awkward championship ring photos before at OKTC.

That changed today.

LSU won the 2012 SEC championship.

No one can dispute that accomplishment.

But LSU didn't win the national championship.

So how do you deal with this dilemma when it comes time to issue SEC title rings to the team?

Lately you haven't had to hit Georgia's mascot with a car, they've been dropping like flies regardless.

Uga is the William Henry Harrison of mascots, uneasy lies the head with the studded collar.

Some blame inbreeding.

Others blame Mark Richt.

Somehow, inevitably, this will end up Mike Vick's fault.

In the meantime, golf clap.

If you've ever wondered what Uga would look like if he was hit by a car, you have your answer.

As a groomsman's cake no less.

This is the most impressive thing a Georgia Tech football fan has done since that one time in 1998 when one of them had sex in college.

Okay, it's early, but you know what you need to really get revved up for Friday?

The TCU students charged with orienting incoming freshmen sing "Call Me Maybe"

Now the only real debate left is whether this is worse than Georgia's awful "Party in the UGa" video from two years ago.

I'm going to link both videos below.

In the meantime, congrats Big 12, you got this to replace Texas A&M.

Well played.

By Abby Lemons

Missouri HC Gary Pinkel appeared on our 3HL radio show today and was positively giddy about the impact of the SEC on his team’s recruiting.

Pinkel says that joining the league had brought very positive feedback on the recruiting trail. "Recruiting right now is going as well as it has ever gone for us," Pinkel said.

Pinkel said that some of the benefits could be related to the consistency of the Mizzou program over the past few years, but that the majority of it could be credited to joining the SEC. In particular, Pinkel said, "has been a tremendous plus for us, even more so than I could have imagined." He also felt strongly about the recruiting of the nations' number one recruit, Dorial Green-Beckham.

Pinkel confirmed that DGB has been on campus for the past two weeks and is already working out with the team. Pinkel stated, "Green-Beckham comes in with extremely high expectations, more expectations than any player that I have ever coached."

It's looking like 2013 will be the best recruiting year in SEC football history.

For a conference that has had the most players drafted for seven consecutive years, that truly says something.

Right now Tennessee has the 26th best recruiting class in the nation according to Rivals and 247 Sports.

That sounds impressive, right?

For the nation, maybe, but not for the SEC.

Tennessee is the 26th best class in the nation, but it's the 12th best recruiting class in the SEC.

That's right, 11 SEC schools are ranked in the top 25 in both 247 and Rivals team rankings.