The SEC Blog
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Those "S-E-C" chants you hear from fans after big out-of-conference wins have become a point of pride for the nation's toughest college football conference and a seemingly constant annoyance for fans of teams outside the SEC.

If you listened closely, you probably heard a few of those chants coming from Radio City Music Hall in New York City on Thursday night, as the SEC dominated the first round of the 2013 NFL draft more thoroughly than it ever has before.

The SEC had 12 players drafted in the first round, which ties the ACC (2007) for the most players taken by one conference in the first round. Those SEC first-round picks were one more than the next two conferences combined (Pac-12 and ACC). Eleven of those 12 players were rated with four stars or more coming out of high school or junior college in the 247Sports.com composite index.

Leading the way was Alabama, which sent Dee Milliner, Chance Warmack and D.J. Fluker to the New York Jets, Tennessee Titans and San Diego Chargers, respectively, with picks 9-11. Georgia, Florida and LSU each had two players selected on Thursday, while Tennessee, Missouri and Texas A&M each had one.

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Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images

With the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) decision-makers meeting in Pasadena, Calif., this week, the format of the College Football Playoff set to begin after the 2014 season is starting to take shape.

The name has been decided on, the logos are being voted on and the schedule for the six-game rotation has been set.

According to CollegeFootballPlayoff.com, the Rose and Sugar Bowls will host the first two semifinal games. And according to their television contracts, those games are locked into time slots at 5 p.m. ET and in prime time on Jan. 1, respectively (except when Jan. 1 falls on a Sunday, when they'll move to Jan. 2).

As a result, since both national semifinals need to be played on the same day to give the competing teams the same amount of rest before the national championship game, those games will be played on New Year's Eve in 2014 and 2015.

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LSU head coach Les Miles
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The football scheduling format was one of the hot-button topics of the SEC spring meetings in Destin, Fla., last spring; and LSU head coach Les Miles isn't done with his fight to remove permanent cross-division opponents.

The SEC adopted the 6-1-1 format for the 2013 season that features six intra-division opponents, one rotating opponent from the opposite division and one permanent cross-division rival. The permanent cross-division rival exists in an effort to maintain historical rivalries like Alabama vs. Tennessee and Auburn vs. Georgia.

The league is only scheduled through 2013, and that format could be reviewed, according to CBSSports.com.

LSU gets the short end of the stick having to face Florida every year, and Miles wants a change.

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Courtesy: @CoachPease

Apparently, as part of some sort of continuing education program, the Florida coaching staff is taking part in a graphic design workshop.

New wide receivers coach Joker Phillips has made headlines this offseason with his "Come play for the Joker" campaign that has featured several images from the Batman movies.

Offensive coordinator Brent Pease joined the fray earlier this month with his campaign (h/t: Yahoo! Sports) to find "top guns."

And Pease is at it again, with an airborne Harry Potter and "Chasing #The Standard'' photoshopped into the sky above a picture featuring his three quarterbacks.

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BCS executive director Bill Hancock
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The long wait is over.

We now have a name for the four-team Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) playoff that begins after the 2014 season—a name that's far from inspiring.

The "College Football Playoff" is the big winner, and comes complete with a website, Twitter feed and a logo contest that closes at 3 p.m. ET on April 29.

Predictably, the rather vanilla name—which, according to Yahoo! Sports, was developed in conjunction with Premier Sports Management—drew criticism from fans, media and administrators alike.

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It's been a whirlwind few days on the Plains of Auburn.

After 83,401 fans packed Jordan-Hare Stadium for Auburn's annual A-Day game, the streets in downtown Auburn were flooded with revelers celebrating the final rolling of Toomer's Corner.

Auburn stayed in the headlines on Monday, when it released an extremely detailed rebuttal to Selena Roberts' piece on Roopstigo.com after independent investigations by Auburn Athletics and Auburn University Internal Auditing. In addition to the open letter from athletic director Jay Jacobs, the university released a document detailing specific allegations and the facts side by side.

But there was more. 

Former head coach Gene Chizik—who was mentioned prominently in Roberts' report—angrily made the rounds first on WJOX 94.5 in Birmingham (via: AL.com) and then with reporters.

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Arkansas QB Brandon Allen
Nelson Chenault-USA TODAY Sports

Arkansas head coach Bret Bielema concluded his first spring practice session with the Razorbacks on Saturday, when the Red Team topped the White Team 34-27 in the Red-White game. 

But the head hog wasn't done making news. 

In Bielema's press conference wrapping up spring practice, he released his post-spring depth chart to members of the media in Fayetteville (h/t Robert Turbeville of Hawgs247.com for transcribing it).

So were there any surprises?

The buzz in Fayetteville as spring practice progressed was that sophomore Brandon Allen had taken a slight lead over senior Brandon Mitchell in the race to take the top spot on the depth chart at quarterback. Allen completed 11 of 16 passes for 158 yards and a touchdown, while Mitchell completed 12 of 17 passes for 138 yards and a score. 

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Spring practices are in the books around the SEC. Now that we've seen some fresh faces, it's time to take a look at where the teams rank.

All eyes were on Tuscaloosa on Saturday, as the Alabama Crimson Tide looked to reload in an effort to keep its unprecedented dynasty in the Bowl Championship Series era moving in the right direction.

Meanwhile, Johnny Manziel was busy in College Station, Texas, trying not only to lay the groundwork for his run at repeating as the Heisman Trophy winner, but for another run to a potential SEC West title.

How do the SEC teams rank after spring practice? Our power rankings are in this slideshow.

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Opinions vary on LSU's Les Miles

The man who has an 84-21 record as the head coach of the Tigers was on the hot seat just three short seasons ago, thanks to a perception that his team underperformed and curious clock management decisions. 

But as quirky as he is, the man wins football games.

Whether you think Miles is one of the greatest coaches in LSU history, a "mad hatter" who benefits from talent within his state or something in between, there's no doubt that the man can hold the attention of an audience during a press conference.

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Tradition is the foundation of college football, and the city of Pasadena, Calif. is intertwined in its legacy. But the city that hosts the Rose Bowl will play part of establishing the new landscape of the game when it plays host to meetings this week that should establish a better picture of the new-look Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) postseason.

On the docket for BCS officials when meetings kick off on Tuesday are items including the name of the new four-team playoff structure, the site of first national championship game, the three bowls that will join the Orange, Sugar and Rose "contract" bowls in the six-bowl semifinal rotation and possibly the format of the selection committee that will be used to determine the four teams in the playoff, according to Nola.com.

Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas is the odds-on favorite to land the first championship game, but Dennis Dodd over at CBSSports.com reported on Monday that Tampa's Raymond James Stadium is more of a contender for the title game than previously thought.

Tampa's a great city and has the resources to be a wonderful host, but the inaugural playoff title game needs glitz, glamour and the type of stage that screams "big-game atmosphere." There's no bigger stage than the $1.15 billion, 100,000-seat facility playfully known as "Jerry World."

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