I'll be leaving for my home state of Alabama in a few short hours for SEC Media Days. Should be an interesting couple of days. There might be a few more interesting storylines going into this one than there have been in any year I've covered college football.

So our Marc Weiszer and I will probably write a few web-only stories in addition to what we write for the daily paper, just because there's so much stuff available. We'll also be Tweeting like the umpteen million other people who'll be watching the proceedings in person, online and at home/work on TV. But while there'll be no shortage of places to get your news, there are only so many where you'll get so little news and so much snark...not so much from Weiszer as from me...

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So I was digging through our endless drawers full of old file photos for something a while back and I came across all these great old photos from the "Kenny Rogers Classic Weekend" that was held in Athens in the late 1980s.

There were some awesome pictures in the folder of athletes and entertainers who came to town to raise money for charity in a nationally televised TV event and competed on four-man teams in golf, basketball, tennis and bass fishing to pocket a little cash of their own. Guys like Jordan, Bird, Dominique, John McEnroe, James Caan, Jimmy Connors, Payne Stewart, Charles Barkley, Woody Harrelson, Isiah Thomas and Kris Kristofferson all competed, in addition to "The Gambler" himself. Have a hard time believing someone could line up an annual event with that kind of starpower in town these days.

I've been having an entertaining conversation with the AJC's sports editor this afternoon on Twitter about the Big Ten expansion story today that said the league offered spots to Notre Dame, Nebraska, Missouri and Rutgers.

Their stance was that it wouldn't do much to help the competitive standing of the Big Ten. I believe that's a short-sighted view -- that today, that MIGHT not be the most helpful gain, but it would provide a major upgrade over the long haul.

Why? It's all about money. Heaping, suffocating piles of it.

First of all, start with the TV ratings/merchandising boosts that would come by adding Notre Dame (the only school with its own TV football contract) and Nebraska, two of the most storied programs in college football history, as well as Missouri...which is not to leave out Rutgers.

Those schools ranked 10th, 13th, 17th and 52nd on Collegiate Licensing Company's most recent rankings of collegiate merchandise sales.

Been a while since I’ve blogged. I’ll have to get better about that, but generally I can write a column about things on which I want to opine…

I came over to Birmingham and the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame today for an Associated Press Sports Editors region meeting. Basically it was a seminar where Southeastern newspaper sports editors, whose circulation sizes range from the Miami/Nashville types to papers with about half the readers of the ABH, got together to toss around some helpful ideas and learn about the good stuff folks are doing that can be beneficial at our papers.

I received a note from the National Epilepsy Foundation today about Atlanta Falcons running back Jason Snelling's intention to participate in the National Walk for Epilepsy next weekend in Washington.

I interviewed him about it last year and wrote a column about how he learned to manage his seizures and still play football. He not only learned to manage the disease, he was able to make it all the way to the NFL. And if you saw him playing for the Falcons toward the end of last season, he played pretty dang well.

Here's the column I wrote last year:
http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/030809/spo_406546095.shtml

Anyway, he's a very impressive interview -- even moreso because he hasn't let that disease control him. I went to the prom with a girl who has epilepsy and seizures are really scary things. I remember feeling helpless when she'd suffer one because I didn't know what to do.

The UFC just signed boxer 41-year-old James Toney to a contract, but he doesn't have any interest in fighting a "gimmick" bout against athletes known for other sports like Herschel Walker or Jose Canseco.

UFC president Dana White said in a story on Yahoo Sports that he isn't sure what his plans will be for Toney -- who was a lot of fun to watch fight in his prime -- but that he plans for him to be a legit fighter in his organization.

We'll see about that. Toney hasn't exactly kept himself in tip-top shape lately, although he says he's got his weight in check now. It's an interesting idea and an interesting story, although you Herschel fans won't care for his thoughts on your favorite Bulldog:

From the story:

Yesterday, the Football Writers Association of America released its first "Super 11" -- the list of the top 11 sports information departments in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision. A surprise to nobody who deals with the various SEC sports information departments is that Georgia made the list.

The Super 11 in alphabetical order: Buffalo, Clemson, East Carolina, Georgia, Nebraska, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, San Jose State, Southern California (USC), Texas and Utah.

Claude Felton and his crew are good folks and it's hard to imagine how some of them could be more helpful than they are when it comes to providing useful information to the various media members, facilitating interviews, managing postgame stuff and just being fun to work around.

I didn't need quotes for the column I wrote from Saturday's UGA win against Alabama, but I like talking to Trey Thompkins, so I talked to him for a minute after the game. He's a sharp kid, although I'd recommend switching from a journalism major to something a little more stable -- as if a pro basketball future doesn't await him, anyway.

Anyway, I thought this was a good quote he gave about how Georgia needs to take the next step in its progress and win a road game (they're 0-6 in SEC play away from Stegeman):

"It’s just another level of maturity we’ve got to reach. This is a team that has so much potential and we’re to the point where now we want to reach that potential. We’re tired of hearing about how we’re gonna be so great, how we just need to keep working hard and it’s gonna come. We want it to come now and we want it to start showing how hard we’re working."

Here are a couple of other things he had to say:

On winning at home:

Thanks to my buddy Chuck, who tends bar at the Taco Stand downtown -- a place where I spend an inordinate amount of time and money -- I got a chance to see what former Georgia quarterback Blake Barnes is up to lately.

He's quarterbacking what I guess is a semipro football team in Paris, France. Blake's team, the Flash, was profiled on CBS' Sunday morning news show.

Seems like a fun thing for a young guy to do for a few months. Blake always seemed like a really nice kid, so I hope he has a good time over there.

You can watch the video here:
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6183311n&tag=cbsnewsVideoArea.0

It's shaping up to be Georgia's most interesting signing day in quite a while. So we'll do our best to have everything covered tomorrow at our centralized signing day page.

We have prepared profiles of each signee that we'll post as their paperwork arrives at UGA. So keep checking back to see who has been processed, as we'll update live throughout the day. Included with each signee (except for any surprise additions tomorrow) is audio analysis of the prospect from Scout.com Southeast Recruiting Manager Chad Simmons, who recruiting junkies know is among the best in the business in our area.

There will also be a couple of video interviews I recently conducted with Georgia's two signees who are already on campus -- offensive lineman Kolton Houston and safety Jakar Hamilton. We'll add some more video content later in the day.

We'll update headlines on there throughout the day, plus there will be a running chat starting at 7:30 a.m.