re: 2013 Alabama Football Recruiting Thread - DH Decommited from UGA

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Montravius Adams was very impressed by Auburn. He says it's a visit that will stick with him.

"I had a really good time. It was nice to be around the coaches and they gave me a lot of attention. I really like it there and it was a good experience. Auburn will be in my top schools for sure. I probably talk to them and Clemson the most now."

Speaking of Clemson, Adams says he's very close with the CU coaching staff.

"I love those coaches. They are all great. Their strength coach is great too and that's important to me. I like the campus and the feel and how it's like family there. They have really good academics too. That's one thing I want to make sure of. I want to major in business or sports management."

Adams says he has plans to visit Alabama soon although he has not nailed down an exact date as of right now.

"I'm not completely sure when I'm visiting Alabama but I know it's in June. I talk to them a lot and they just say they want me to get back up there and spend time there. They tell me how they will use me in their defense which I like to hear. That defense is pretty dominant so that's big."

The 5-star prospect says he's also in contact with Georgia often.

"I enjoy talking to UGA. They have a cool coaching staff and I think they've really been on a rise. They are my home state school too so I want to give them love. I could see myself there."

Adams says Florida is also in the mix for his services. He likes the laid back personalities on the UF coaching staff.

"They are cool too. I like how things are at UF and I think they could use me early. They want me to come visit soon and I probably will this summer. I'm looking forward to that."

The timetable for Adams' commitment isn't etched in stone by any means. Instead, Adams plans to take it slow and doesn't want to rush an announcement.

"I may narrow it down during or after my season this year and then I'll probably make a commitment close to signing day."

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DESTIN, Fla. – Future football scheduling formats dominated discussion Wednesday morning at the SEC Spring Meetings despite the fact that nothing was settled before coaches exited in the afternoon.


Both Alabama and Tennessee are trying to keep their annual rivalry game.
SEC commissioner Mike Slive described “vigorous” and “very thoughtful” discussion about which direction to take schedules after the 2012 season, as coaches met and then joined the league’s athletics directors for a joint session to cap the day's schedule.

“The thing that we came to is we couldn't come to a consensus as coaches,” UGA coach Mark Richt said, “because everybody had their own unique dynamic that one thing made sense for one, but it doesn't make sense for the other. We can kind of feel the pain of the athletic directors and the commissioner as far as trying to figure out what's best for the league.

"It's going to be one of those decisions that whatever is being made, I think, some are going to like it and some aren't. That's just the way it is right now.”

The topic to be settled first is the format for future schedules with 14 teams and not yet the actual schedules themselves. At the heart of the debate is whether the league will maintain permanent cross-division rivals on an annual basis.

Formats discussed Wednesday included the 6-1-1 format, which includes the annual rival from another division to go with a rotating cross-divisional opponent and six division games and a 6-2 format that would not feature an annual rival.

Coaches even got into the possibility of a nine-game conference schedule that would feature a 6-1-2 format with a permanent rival and two rotating cross-divisional games.

“(The nine-game possibility) was discussed today,” Slive said. “Whether or not it has any serious traction is another question. … How often do you play one another? How do you balance the schedule? How do you maintain rivalries? How do you create new rivalries? How often are you going to see teams? Some people want permanent rivals. Others might not want permanent rivals. Those are the 3-4 different areas that are common to each format.”

Basically, coaches finally had a forum to cover much of the same ground that athletics directors had traveled during meetings the past five months, and as UGA athletics director Greg McGarity described it, “They’re all over the place.”


Tennessee AD Dave Hart is a strong proponent of keeping "The Third Saturday in October."
“We said the format, period, needs work,” LSU coach Les Miles said. “If Mississippi State’s going to play Kentucky every year, I think that’s disproportionate. I’m not for that. I’m not for Auburn playing Georgia every year. I think, again, that’s disproportionate. I think there should be an opportunity to see a greater segment of the conference. I think the opportunity to rotate two games as opposed to one game, and therefore not really annually picking them on arbitrary criteria, to determine your champion.”

Other coaches, like Richt, were on the other side of the debate.

"I'm not going to be the one to say we shouldn't play Auburn every year," Richt said. "I think that's a great, traditional rival game and we should continue to play Auburn every year. So my vote would be 6-1-1."

The vote, however, will not be up to the coaches.

The next step is for the athletics directors to vote and turn their recommendation over Friday to the school presidents, who will then make a final call based on that.

“Our athletic directors will think it through,” Slive said, “and if they're ready on Friday, they'll decide on a format. And if they're not, they'll look some more. But I anticipate by Friday afternoon we'll have a format.”

Slive said the “leader in the clubhouse” is the 6-1-1 format that would preserve annual rivalry games like Auburn-Georgia and Alabama-Tennessee. Athletics directors from each of those four schools support that model as a way to keep those games.

“I feel very strongly that we need to maintain that rivalry,” UT athletics director Dave Hart said, “but no decisions have been made yet. We'll continue to have conversations and will through the rest of the week, and the commissioner will wrap it all up on Friday.”

According to McGarity, Florida’s Jeremy Foley also wants an annual permanent game, since Foley wants to maintain an annual rivalry with LSU.

LSU athletics director Joe Alleva, however, said a 6-1-1 format would be “unfair” and create “a competitive inequity in the conference,” though Alleva does think it will ultimately be implemented.

“As of right now, I think that’s probably what will happen,” Alleva said. “I think there will be some discussion to go to a 6-2 model, but I don’t think there’s enough votes in the room to go to a 6-2 model.”

Richt said that if a 6-1-1 is implemented, the second cross-divisional game would change every year rather than being on a two-year, home-and-home basis.

Summarizing the situation, Slive said it was reminiscent of 1992 when Arkansas and South Carolina first joined the conference.

“The league had to go through exactly the same process,” Slive said. “What happens, really, is that in the short term there are some difficulties, but over time traditions build and rivalries build and they develop. I anticipate over time we will be as cohesive and as strong as we have been.”

*** One scheduling topic that did not appear to have made it past Wednesday’s meetings was South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier’s proposal of having non-divisional games not count in the league standings in determining who makes the SEC title game.

“The more that was discussed, the more everybody understood that's probably not going to happen,” Richt said. “Your cross-over games are going to have to count. ... Most everybody realized that's just the way it's going to have to be, and over time, in any given year it may be good for you, it may not. And really, you don't even know until the season is played who is really the toughest teams in the league. That's why you play. So I think everybody -- most everybody -- backed off on that.”

That included Miles, who had voiced support for Spurrier plan in the past.

“I think I was moved,” Miles said, “when everyone said, ‘You know, how can you play a game in your conference that did not count?

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"I'm personally in favor of just the division games counting," Spurrier said Tuesday on the opening day of spring meetings. "I know some people are, several aren't. I was thinking about the most fair conference I was ever in was the ACC 1987-89. I think we only had eight teams and everybody played each other. It was very simple. Whoever had the best record was the league champion. Now with the megaconferences everybody can't play everybody. "Sometimes scheduling might be the reason you win a division or could even win a conference championship. I think it would be a way to continue some of the truly great rivalries in college football. The biggest one I think about is Tennessee and Alabama. They're in different divisions, and for Derek Dooley to play them every year that sort of hurts his chance to win the Eastern division because Alabama's been one of the best in the country year-in and year-out. The best thing for Tennessee to win their division is ... they'd probably like to play a lesser team than Alabama. "

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