It's going on right now. Florida coach Urban Meyer just finished. Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen is at 11:30 a.m., immediately followed by Auburn coach Gene Chizik. We'll update throughout:

Urban Meyer

(Regarding the Cam Newton stories)
"I addressed recent news stories yesterday that our SID made me aware of in the early afternoon. Those stories have absolutely nothing to do with our team and preparation for South Carolina. Our entire focus is and will always be on our team. I will say, however, that I was very supportive of Cam when he left here and Cam and his family know this and we wish him all the best."

(On why he wanted to release a statement)
"I didn't. My SID thought it was important. I had no idea it was going on. Obviously we had meetings all day. I didn't want do it to be honest with you. But I felt that whatever they tell me to do, I'll do."

(Insulted by insinuations that you leaked the story?)
"Not really. I'm going to talk about South Carolina and move on."

Dan Mullen

(On the report by ESPN's Joe Schad from late Tuesday night)
"I'm much more concerned about beating Alabama."

(On on if there is anyone besides his assistant coaches who are registered as "recruiters" with the NCAA -- last night's ESPN report alleged "recruiters" were approached in the pay-for-play scheme by the Newtons)
"No."

(On the allegations surrounding the university)
"The No. 1 thing going on at our university, we had our starting defensive end (Nick Bell) pass away nine days ago. That has been a very tough grief situation that we've been dealing with here. We deal with the players that are involved in this program that are involved on this team. I'll be honest with you, that’s all we’re dealing with here and nothing else."

Gene Chizik

(Opening statement about Newton)
"I want to get off the table, up front, the fact that Cameron Newton will be playing Saturday against the Georgia Bulldogs.”

(Question asked about how he has to deal with Newton stories coming out every day)
"I'm going to entertain all the questions that have to do with the game Saturday."

(On if any backup QB has taken reps this week)
"We've prepared and focused just like every other week. Nothing's changed."

Seventy-two. That's the number of days until the start of the football season, which seems like an eternity. It also makes it hard to find blogging subjects in these summer months.

Today, for no reason whatsoever, let's take a look at how each SEC team's non-conference schedule stacks up. I'm normally of the mind that if you play one quality non-conference opponent, it's not the worst thing to line up a few cupcakes for the other three games, especially for a conference that has as many potential landmines as the SEC.

I'll even give each schedule an arbitrary point system to make things seem more official, with opponents falling into one of four categories. Three points for a top-flight opponent (conference contender/top 25 team), two for a quality opponent (decent BCS school/solid bowl team), one for an average opponent (low-tier BCS/decent non-BCS) and none for cupcake (lower half non-BCS teams/almost all FBS opponents).

It was another jam-packed weekend at Auburn. Let's give a quick rundown:

FOOTBALL

OK, nothing happened football-wise this weekend, but it's Auburn, so the blog has to start here. Tuesday is pro day. Things start at 2 p.m. ET. RB Ben Tate, DE/OLB Antonio Coleman, CB Walt McFadden, QB Chris Todd, TE/DE Gabe McKenzie and DT Jake Ricks are expected to be there. I can't imagine Tate doing too many of the workouts, especially after what he did last week at the NFL Combine. Those numbers can stand by themselves. However, it will be an important day for Coleman, who needs to bounce back from a sub-par combine performance, and McFadden, who didn't get a combine invite and will be working out in front of many scouts for the first time.

MEN'S BASKETBALL

Not a great weekend for Jeff Lebo's squad, as the blog wrote about here. Lebo's job status is certainly the hot topic. And while I'm not sure exactly what Auburn is going to do, it's telling that Auburn athletics director Jay Jacobs (pictured, right), who has declined comment on the issue, has not vocalized even a token measure of public support for the coach. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out. The Tigers, of course, have to play in the SEC tournament first. And while getting the fifth seed didn't seem all that great, it actually works out as a better draw. Auburn gets Florida in the first round, a tough but not impossible matchup. A win would pit the Tigers against Mississippi State. Had Auburn been the four seed, a win would have gotten it a matchup with top-seeded Kentucky. The Tigers' current road through the tournament isn't easy, but at least it doesn't lead them through a top-five team nationally.

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL

The season is over for Nell Fortner's crew. The Tigers got to the second round of the SEC tournament before losing to second-seeded Kentucky. That left them with a 15-16 overall record, just shy of being at .500 and eligible for the WNIT. Auburn also said it won't accept an invitation to the newly-formed WBI, meaning it's curtains for this year's crew. The final verdict? Not a great season for Auburn, but not a surprising one either, after losing four seniors and a national player of the year candidate from a team that went 30-4 last season. This squad played with six freshmen and sophomores. The only senior was KeKe Carrier. And Alli Smalley appeared ready by the end of the season to be, for lack of a better phrase, The Man. If Smalley can be a go-to player next year and that young group can mature, I don't think it would be a stretch to think Auburn would be back in the thick of things in the SEC.

BASEBALL

The Tigers (9-2) are on a roll, sweeping a three-game weekend series against Miami (Ohio) to run their winning streak to five games. Hunter Morris starred Sunday, going 4-for-5 with a home run and two doubles. Auburn also appears to have established its ace. Junior college transfer Cole Nelson (3-0) allowed two runs on seven hits. He struck out eight in seven innings. In 19 1/3 innings this year, he's given up three runs (1.40 ERA). He has 23 strikeouts and five walks. Makes you wonder how long John Pawlowski will continue to trot out Jon Luke Jacobs (0-1, 7.07) and Grant Dayton (1-1, 6.14) on Friday and Saturday nights. At some point, it seems like you have to make that switch. The Tigers have Alabama on Tuesday in the MAX Capital City Classic in Montgomery. They host Appalachian State on Wednesday before traveling to Tempe, Ariz., for a three-game series with No. 12 Arizona State this weekend.

SOFTBALL

Senior Anna Thompson threw her first collegiate no-hitter Friday in a 1-0 win against Louisiana Tech. She struck out 16 in the win and 25 on the day after getting the nod against Tennessee State in the second game of the doubleheader. The Tigers went on to beat Gardner-Webb and Valparaiso to finish 4-0 in the War Eagle Classic. Auburn (13-6) has one more non-conference tune-up, a Wednesday game at South Alabama, before beginning SEC play Friday at home against Kentucky.

WOMEN'S GOLF

The Tigers, who are No. 3 in the country if you haven't noticed, carded a 6-over-par 294 to win the one-day Auburn Invitational on Sunday. Cydney Clanton and Patricia Sanz led the way with even-par 72s. Haley Wilson, a Central-Phenix City grad, shot a 2-over 74, earning her first top-10 performance this season.

The USA Today Coaches' Preseason Poll was released today. Five SEC teams are ranked (No. 1 Florida, No. 5 Alabama, No. 9 LSU, No. 10 Ole Miss and No. 14 Georgia).

Auburn was not ranked, but it was in the Others Receiving Votes category, with 12 points, putting the Tigers 39th overall. That's behind South Carolina (18 votes) and ahead of Kentucky (9), Arkansas (6) and Tennessee (2).

Seems a little strange that Auburn would get any kind of votes, considering how last season went. Then again, these preseason polls are largely rendered meaningless once the games start. The Tigers, after all, were ranked 11th to start last season.

After the circus of SEC media days, we have a week of cooldown before players report and we fire up August practice.

For those who didn't see it, I wrote a story for Sunday's paper about the lack of experienced quarterbacks in the league. Here's how it starts:

South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier admitted it: He didn't vote for Florida's Tim Tebow on the SEC's first team. And he feels terrible about it.

Spurrier, who says he's never filled out a ballot in his 17 years in the SEC, said his director of operations filled out his ballot and gave it to the coach for his approval. Spurrier gave it a look ("I didn't glance at it carefully," he said) and approved it. As a result, Jevan Snead made South Carolina's ballot. The reasoning was that Florida had so many players on the list besides Tebow.

The next day, he read in the paper that Tebow wasn't a unanimous selection. He called his director of operations to make sure it wasn't South Carolina. It was.

"That's my fault," said Spurrier, who claims he didn't sleep well last night because of the gaffe. "I take full responsibility. And I apologized to Tim Tebow. We should not have messed that up. We screwed it up pretty bad. I'm embarrassed about it. I feel bad about it. And that's the way it happened."

The story has a happy ending. Spurrier called the SEC offices to correct his mistake. He changed his vote, so Tebow is now a unanimous selection by the coaches.

"We made a mistake. And I made a mistake," he said. "Tim Tebow is not only the best quarterback in this league, I thnk he's the best football player in the country. And what he's done there, I believe he and Danny Wuerffel will go down as two of the best quarterbacks, maybe the best to ever play college football. That's how good he is. I admire him. And I apologize to him. He should have been on that ballot. I messed that up. I'm trying to correct it the best I can. I take full blame for it."

Finally, our long, national nightmare is over.

We're down to the last of the Day 2 Wraps, Florida (read Ole Miss, Georgia and Alabama in previous posts). Let's get started!

• Head coach Urban Meyer bombed with a joke about not voting for Tim Tebow on the All-SEC preseason team. He said it to start his opening comment. I believe a tumbleweed blew through the ballroom. Tough crowd.

• Interestingly, Meyer doesn't go straight for "winning the national title game" as his primary goal. "Expectation as far as the season, our goals are always the same as it was in 2005, as it is in 2009, and that is we want to do everything we can to get to Atlanta. That's our whole we wake up every morning to try to achieve that goal."

• Meyer's got a great problem: too many good players to get on the field at once. "I think we've really promoted the competition and we've promoted team first. Great things happen when you have an unselfish team. Last year's was arguably the most unselfish I've been a part of. They got to wear a championship ring, compete in the SEC championship game. That's what we have going for us right now. I really believe our guys love it at Florida. More importantly, I really believe they care for each other. It's a good situation right now in that locker room, in the weight room, and when they're together. That's not easy. You have 105, 120, 18 to 22 year olds from every stretch, some overrecruited, some underrecruited, some overrated, some underrated. And to keep those guys happy and motivated, that certainly a difficult task. The only way to get it done is with great leadership on our team and our staff does a heck of a job."

• Meyer brushed off the hubbub being made about Tebow not being a unanimous pick to the preseason All-SEC team: "Someone asked me if that's going to motivate Tim. Whoever asks those questions, don't know Tim. Tim has a lot of things to motivate him. That's not one."

• There's been a lot of talk about Tebow not being ready for the NFL because he never takes snaps from under center. Meyer brushed off that concern. "If you want Tim Tebow under center, teach him to get under center, he'll probably do it better than anybody else," he said. As for the idea that Florida will run more of its offense from under center this year to prepare Tebow for the next level, Meyer said that wasn't the case. "To answer your question, he will be under center if it helps us win a game," Meyer said.

• A lot was made about Meyer's future with Florida. Birmingham-based columnist Paul Finebaum ignited things by writing that Meyer was as good as gone to Notre Dame after this year. Meyer had this response: "Well, it's disturbing. I'd lie to you if I said it wasn't. It's disturbing. I care about my family. I care about our football players, our staff and recruiting. If it affects that, then it bothers me. If it's something else, then that's good water cooler discussion. That's what makes the SEC such a valuable commodity right now, is the intense scrutiny and fan support. I've been on the other side now. I've had a couple press conferences where there was no one out there. So I certainly understand it. When it starts affecting your livelihood, that bothers you. Then you go into defense mechanism, attack it. You have to. We have to do that. It bothers you, but I also understand."

• Tebow, on why he decided to come back to school: "I look at it as I'm blessed to come back to the University of Florida for my senior year. When I was deciding to go or to stay, there are a lot of things that crossed my mind. You know, but I think the important things that I looked at were number one, was the opportunity that I had to have an influence in the state of Florida and around the South, for the U.S. for that matter. Something that really illustrated that for me is when we were sitting down at lunch, me, Coach Meyer, my mom and dad. We got a call, two days or something after the national championship game. That call told us that since the national championship game, the verse that was under your eyes was Googled 94 million times. That just kind of showed me, wow, the impact. I could wear something under my eyes and millions of people were going to Google it. I really had a platform. I wanted to take advantage of that for one more year, be a good role model for the kids that look up to me, set an example for them. That was kind of my number one goal as far as coming back, and also to be loyal to Coach Meyer, to my teammates who have done so much for me. I wanted to come back and finish this thing strong for them."

• There might be a little bit too much Tebow love going on for some fans' liking. The quarterback doesn't really pay attention to any of the backlash, though. "You know what, although there has been a backlash, oh, well. You know what, I'll deal with it if I have to. It's not a big deal to me because of the kids and people that have been encouraged by the stories we have tried to tell and by the life that I've tried to live."

• Meyer is often described as a finesse coach because of the spread offense that he runs, but Tebow says he's much more hard-nosed than his reputation. "When you're around him, you would not think that our offense was like that," Tebow said. "It's not. It's all about old school toughness, dedication, go hit him in the mouth, that type of mentality. I think we feed off of that. We try to play like that. Our offensive line tries to be a tough offensive line. I think they have a little bit of chip on their shoulder because we're known as a spread team who likes to do reverses and throw down the field and stuff. I think if you look at our team, you see that it's not just a dink or dunk are throw down the field, reverse team with fast players. I think we kind of take pride on being a tough team. Being a team, if we need to, we're going to try to hit you in the mouth over and over and over again. We take a lot of pride in that, being a tough team, being a team if we need to, we're going to go three yards in a cloud of dust over and over and over again. We have the toughness to do that, we have the leaders to do that. It's something that we do take pride in, that if we need to win a game by will and toughness, we want to be able to do that. All the guys, we just take pride in that."

• Tebow's post-game speech following last year's Ole Miss game has been put on a plaque in front of the Gators' football facility. "I didn't think it would become what it became," he said. "I wasn't even thinking about that too much after the game. I just know I was upset, heartbroken. Just felt like we let I let my teammates down, my coaches, the fans. Was very disappointed. I wanted to let them know ultimately that something good was going to come out of this. They were going to see a different team, a different player, there was going to be positive that coming out of something that was so negative. That was my ultimate goal with what I said. But I didn't think it would have this much hype, no."

We're no closer to finding out who didn't vote for Tim Tebow on the preseason All-SEC first team.

Tebow, as you know, was not a unanimous pick for the first team. We're assuming second-team selection Jevan Snead was the other selection. If that is the case, it couldn't have been Ole Miss' Houston Nutt, since coaches are not allowed to vote for their own player.

Georgia's Mark Richt and Alabama's Nick Saban both said Thursday they voted for Tebow. Saban even went into a mini-rant about how coaches should be free to think and choose the way they want, saying that's what many people have fought for in this country (he's right, but a bit melodramatic). "I guess it's somebody trying to create news," he said to the questioner. "I'm not trying to point any fingers about that."

All four of the first-day coaches -- Arkansas' Bobby Petrino, Vanderbilt's Bobby Johnson, Mississippi State's Dan Mullen and Kentucky's Rich Brooks -- said they voted for Tebow as well.

Assuming everyone is telling the truth (and that's no guarantee), that leaves one of the third-day coaches as the culprits -- South Carolina's Steve Spurrier, LSU's Les Miles, Tennessee's Lane Kiffin and Auburn's Gene Chizik.

My money is on everyone saying they voted for Tebow. I can't imagine somebody fessing up to it at this point. Well, maybe Kiffin.

Defensive end Antonio Coleman, left tackle Lee Ziemba and running back Ben Tate were named to the coaches' preseason All-SEC teams, which was released Thursday.

Coleman and Ziemba made the second team. Tate was a third-team selection.

If that sounds a little light, it's because it is. In the five preceding years the SEC has put out preseason teams selected by the coaches, Auburn has always had at least one first-team selection and at least seven total selections. The Tigers peaked in 2006, with 14 total selections and eight on the first team.

Here are the Auburn players' mini-bios, per media relations:

• Coleman, who earned first-team All-SEC honors by the league’s media and coaches following the 2008 season, led Auburn in both sacks (6.0) and tackles for loss (10.5) during his junior campaign. He collected a total of 46 tackles (29 solo, 17 assists) in his 11 games played while also forcing fumble. Coleman enters his senior season with 15.5 career sacks, needing just one more to move into a tie for 10th on Auburn’s career sacks list.

• Ziemba has started all 25 games over the last two seasons since becoming the first true freshman to start a season opener for the Tigers since 2002. He finished his sophomore year with 47 cockroach blocks, 19 pancake blocks and 72 rodeo blocks. Ziemba was named a first-team Freshman All-American in 2007 by The Sporting News, Rivals.com, Scout.com and collegefootballnews.com.

• Tate enters his season year with 1,959 career rushing yards, ranking 14th in school history. He has led Auburn in rushing in each of the past two seasons, totaling 903 yards on the ground in 2007 and 664 yards last season. He has 14 career rushing touchdowns and four career 100-yard rushing games, including a career high of 156 vs. Tulane in 2006.

Here is the full list:

First-team offense

• TE Richard Dickson, LSU, Sr.
• OL Ciron Black, LSU, Sr.
• OL Mike Johnson, Alabama, Sr.
• OL Mike Pouncey, Florida, Jr.
• OL John Jerry, Ole Miss, Sr.
• C Maurkice Pouncey, Florida, Jr.
• WR Julio Jones, Alabama, So.
• WR A.J. Green, Georgia, So.
• QB Tim Tebow, Florida, Sr.
• RB Michael Smith, Arkansas, Sr.
• RB Charles Scott, LSU, Sr.

Second-team offense

• TE D.J. Williams, Arkansas, Jr.
• OL Lee Ziemba, Auburn, Jr.
• OL Clint Boling, Georgia, Jr.
• OL Chris Scott, Tennessee, Sr.
• OL Carl Johnson, Florida, Jr.
• C Josh McNeil, Tennessee, Sr.
• WR Brandon LaFell, LSU, Sr.
• WR Dexter McCluster, Ole Miss, Sr.
• QB Jevan Snead, Ole Miss, Jr.
• RB Anthony Dixon, Mississippi State, Sr.
• RB Jeff Demps, Florida, So.

Third-team offense

• TE Aaron Hernandez, Florida, Jr.
• OL Jacques McClendon, Tennessee, Sr.
• OL Zipp Duncan, Kentucky, Sr.
• OL Mitch Petrus, Arkansas, Sr.
• OL Trinton Sturdivant, Georgia, So.
• C Jorge Gonzalez, Kentucky, Sr.
• WR Shay Hodge, Ole Miss, Sr.
• WR Terrance Tolliver, LSU, Jr.
• WR Gerald Jones, Tennessee, Jr.
• QB Stephen Garcia, South Carolina, So.
• QB Mike Hartline, Kentucky, Jr.
• RB Mark Ingram, Alabama, So.
• RB Ben Tate, Auburn, Sr.

First-team defense

• DL Terrence Cody, Alabama, Sr.
• DL Greg Hardy, Ole Miss, Sr.
• DL Carlos Dunlap, Florida, Jr.
• LB Rolando McClain, Alabama, Jr.
• LB Brandon Spikes, Florida, Sr.
• LB Rennie Curran, Georgia, Jr.
• LB Eric Norwood, South Carolina, Sr.
• DB Eric Berry, Tennessee, Jr.
• DB Javier Arenas, Alabama, Sr.
• DB Trevard Lindley, Kentucky, Sr.
• DB Joe Haden, Florida, Jr.

Second-team defense

• DL Charles Alexander, LSU, Sr.
• DL Antonio Coleman, Auburn, Sr.
• DL Geno Atkins, Georgia, Sr.
• DL Dan Williams, Tennessee, Sr.
• DL Malcolm Sheppard, Arkansas, Sr.
• LB Micah Johnson, Kentucky, Sr.
• LB Patrick Benoist, Vanderbilt, Sr.
• LB Rico McCoy, Tennessee, Sr.
• LB Dont'a Hightower, Alabama, So.
• DB Ahmad Black, Florida, Jr.
• DB Chad Jones, LSU, Jr.
• DB Prince Miller, Georgia, Sr.
• DB Myron Lewis, Vanderbilt, Sr.

Third-team defense

• DL Jeff Owens, Georgia, Sr.
• DL Marcus Tillman, Ole Miss, Sr.
• DL Rahim Alem, LSU, Sr.
• DL Corey Peters, Kentucky, Sr.
• LB Chris Marve, Vanderbilt, So.
• LB Jamar Chaney, Mississippi State, Sr.
• LB Ryan Stamper, Florida, Sr.
• LB Perry Riley, LSU, Sr.
• DB Major Wright, Florida, Jr.
• DB Ryan Hamilton, Vanderbilt, Sr.
• DB Chris Culliver, South Carolina, Jr.
• DB Reshad Jones, Georgia, Jr.

First-team specialists

• PK Leigh Tiffin, Alabama, Sr.
• P Chas Henry, Florida, Jr.
• RS Brandon James, Florida, Sr.

Second-team specialists

• PK Jonathan Phillips, Florida, Sr.
• P Brett Upson, Vanderbilt, Sr.
• RS Javier Arenas, Alabama, Sr.

Third-team specialists

• PK Joshua Shene, Ole Miss, Sr.
• P Spencer Lanning, South Carolina, Jr.
• RS Trindon Holliday, LSU, Sr.

Hello all. As you've noticed, it's been a slow week on the War Eagle Extra. Most of Auburn's events were on the road and I spent most of my weekend dealing with weather conditions in Montgomery to cover the Glenwood High baseball team's march through the AISA state playoffs.

ANYWAY, here's getting you caught up on some stuff that occurred during that time ...

BO KNOWS COMMENCEMENTS

Bo Jackson, who you might know as the greatest video game athlete of all time (he was also a pretty good actual football player too from what I gather), was the speaker at Auburn's commencement speech. There are several good accounts of the speech by my colleagues that you can read here and here.

BASEBALL MISSES SEC TOURNAMENT ... AGAIN

That's six years and counting for the Tigers, who lost two games of a doubleheader Saturday at Kentucky while Vanderbilt won the first two games of a series against Georgia. Auburn (28-24, 9-14 SEC) has lost 12 of its last 14 conference games. While that seems like it would knock the Tigers out of any NCAA tournament contention, amazingly that might not be the case. Auburn had an RPI of 34 heading into the last weekend, with a game against Georgia Southern (RPI of 30) and three against Alabama (RPI of 32) still to go. It's not unprecedented for a team to make the tournament despite missing the SEC tournament. Auburn did it in 2005, with a 32-24 overall record and a 13-17 record in the SEC. It would take a strong finish to the season, though, which I'm not sure this group is capable of.

URBAN MEYER NOT A FAN OF AUBURN'S LIMO TACTIC

Again, this is old news, but Florida coach Urban Meyer isn't crazy about Auburn's decision to shuttle its coaches around Alabama in various stretch limos. Here's his comment to the Gainesville Sun (via the Atlanta Journal-Constitution) about whether or not the NCAA should look into the practice: “I think it should. We’re trying to sell graduation rates and academics…..The Florida coaching staff will not be riding around in limos and ripping off our shirts.” That, by the way, is a great two-for-one shot at Auburn and the bare-chest thumping coaches at Tennessee. Honestly, the more Meyer talks about it, the more attention Auburn is going to get, which was the point in the first place. My opinion: coaches will stop at nothing to get recruits if they will help their football program. Is the limo tactic legal under NCAA rules? Yes. Are the Tigers pushing the boundaries of what is allowed by the NCAA? Probably. But those boundary pushers are the ones that stand out in recruiting, which is exactly what Auburn needs to do to compete for some of this elite talent (although this would seem to run contrary to Gene Chizik's statement that Auburn recruits itself).

WOMEN'S GOLF FINISHES DISAPPOINTING 10TH AT NCAA REGIONALS

That should read "very disappointing" 10th-place finish at the NCAA Regionals. The Tigers were ranked No. 5 in the country, the second-highest seed that headed to Florida. But they struggled out of the gate and never recovered in the three-day event, failing to qualify for the NCAA tournament. Central High alum and Fort Mitchell, Ala., native Haley Wilson finished in a tie for 23rd with a 10-over-par 220. She carded a final round score of 2-under to move up 36 places in the rankings.

SOFTBALL HEADS TO NCAA TOURNAMENT

The third-seeded Tigers are in the NCAAs for the sixth time, heading to Atlanta to play second-seeded Iowa in the NCAA Regional. Auburn (29-27) plays Friday at 5 p.m. ET. The other teams in the regional include top-seeded Georgia Tech (41-13) and fourth-seeded Boston College (41-16).

The NCAA's yearly Academic Progress Rate scores are in and three Auburn sports failed to make the grade: men's basketball, men's swimming and men's track.

The basketball team self-imposed the penalty last season and will have all of its scholarships available next season. Men's swimming was docked .99 of a scholarship (it is normally allowed 9.9) and men's track lost .03 of a scholarship (it is normally allowed 12.6).

“We are committed to ensuring that every student-athlete in every sport at Auburn is given the support they need to succeed academically," Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs said in a quote released by the school. "While we are pleased that 18 of our 21 sports met the NCAA’s benchmark for academic progress, we will not be satisfied until all of our sports reach this level. Failure to meet the benchmarks set forth by the NCAA under its academic reform program is unacceptable. In this case, we decided to be aggressive in getting this behind us, so the penalties have already been taken for the current academic year.

“Our most important academic goal is the graduation of our student-athletes, and we are committed to seeing that they have every opportunity to earn their degrees.”

The APR was designed by the NCAA to measure academic progress. It allocates points for eligibility and retention. Basically, you get a point for every player that's academically eligible and a point for every player that stays at the school. The APR is the total points a team earns, divided by the total points possible, multiplied by 1,000.

The numbers released Wednesday are from a four-year period that ended with the 2007-08 academic year. Teams below an APR of 925 are subject to scholarship losses. A perfect score is 1,000.

Here's a link to a pdf of Auburn's team page. Here's an NCAA link in case you feel like looking up other schools.

These are Auburn's scores by sport:

MEN
Golf 967
Tennis 962
Football 949
Cross country 939
Baseball 938
Swimming 920
Basketball 899
Indoor track 894
Outdoor track 892

WOMEN
Golf 992
Cross country 978
Gymnastics 976
Soccer 976
Volleyball 967
Swimming 961
Softball 958
Tennis 957
Basketball 950
Indoor track 942
Outdoor track 941

And just for fun, here are all of the scores for the SEC's football teams:

FOOTBALL
Georgia 976
Vanderbilt 969
Florida 963
LSU 960
Alabama 955
Auburn 949
Tennessee 949
Kentucky 948
Mississippi State 933
South Carolina 929
Arkansas 927
Ole Miss 910 (three scholarships lost)

Apparently, Ole Miss was expecting today's news.

I'm not 100 percent sure on this, but I believe there were zero Jesus references in Tim Tebow's time on the podium. I'll tell you, it's possible that he's the most overexposed athlete in SEC history, but I don't know how someone can possibly dislike the kid.

Like I just told a friend of mine, it's annoying how unannoying he is. It's almost like you'd like to find out about just one thing that's wrong with him so you'd know he's human. As it stands, I believe he's a football-playing robot constructed in some Fellowship of Christian Athletes laboratory.

Urban Meyer just left the podium, concluding the first coach's session on stage. That seemed like the longest Q/A session I've heard at one of these things.
Among the things he covered:
* Lots and lots of Tebow. That was a shock.
* Running back Chris Rainey recently outran freshman signee Jeff Demps in a footrace. That's significant because Demps recently ran the fastest 100-meter dash ever recorded by an American teenager at the U.S. Olympic Trials last month (10.01 seconds).
* He said Percy Harvin is about 80-90 percent healthy, which is ahead of schedule from
where doctors expected at this point.

Tebow should be coming up to the podium in a couple minutes. I'll set the over/under of Jesus references at four. I'm taking the over.

I don't know how I missed this, but former Florida guard Teddy Dupay is apparently going to stand trial for rape, assault and kidnapping in Utah.

I'll always remember him from being on the Gator team that kicked the bejeezus out of Auburn in the first game after Chris Porter was suspended for taking cash from an agent in 2000. Didn't Auburn go on to beat them in the SEC tourney that year? Those years are a bit foggy by this point.

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