10 Things for Tuesday, sponsored by Ekdahl Nelson Real Estate

1. The Aggies have a couple of days before they start the Palo Alto regional, but the first two starters seem obvious: Troy Wansing and Justin Lamkin. When you go and shut out top 25 teams AND give your teams innings in a tournament format, you’re invaluable. Both did that in the SEC Tournament and should get the ball with a chance to do it again.

2. The Aggies are going to be in a bash rest of a regional and all bats need to be on hand. To me, it seems like you need to get the best out of three guys: Hunter Haas, Ryan Targac and Jace LaViolette.

It’s easy to make arguments for many other guys (anyone but Jack Moss, professional hitter) but I picked these guys for particular reasons. For Haas, he’s a jolt at the top of the lineup. When you’ve got a hot bar capable of hitting for power at the top of the order, it makes your lineup all the more dangerous. Targac, when he’s hot, hits homers in bunches. No better time for that than a regional. The case for LaViolette is obvious, as he’s on his way to being the best power hitter in college baseball.

3. An eight-game schedule is frequently boring and repetitive, especially in the current format. Adding an extra conference game allows for more excitement and intrigue while keeping three hated opponents.

4. Supporters of the eight-game deal argue that the college football playoff hasn’t punished the SEC for playing one less conference game than the rest of the power 5, and that’s true. For now. In a 12-game playoff, I could easily see the CFP knocking an SEC down for “avoiding competition”. And then wouldn’t Nick Saban feel stupid?

5. Does anyone think Georgia goes undefeated if they played in the west? Spreading out the schedule would not only make things more interesting, it would make some schedules tougher and others easier while still keeping a powerful strength of schedule. The SEC may be the only conference to provide such a luxury.

6. It won’t kill big out of conference games. If anything, this is something that goes back the CFP again. If you’re scheduling 9 games in conference, you’re on par with everyone else. But if you then add a FCS for and they’re out still playing stronger non-conference foes, it’s a still a strike. Will that make it tougher on the SEC? Possibly, and that’s surely the argument of the eight-gamers. But if you want an elite resume, it’s the price you now have to pay. The losers here will be the FCS teams who will lose big paydays.

7. The NCAA said yesterday that it has no plans to adjust its stance on NIL and enforcement. To me, that sounds like A&M called their bluff with 12th Man+ and the NCAA realized they couldn’t do much about it. Now that A&M has (or is about to have) state law behind it, there’s not much the NCAA can do unless they want a court fight. And one of those with A&M is not what they want, because the Aggies have deep pockets and will likely be supported by other colleges (quietly). I’ve said it before: this is a win-win for A&M. Nobody will outspend them in NIL, especially with the 12th Man+ model. It’ll stay unless superseded by federal law, which is what has been the desired result anyway.

8. This may offend some people, but I really don’t care if or when A&M plays Texas. It could be every year and that’s fine. It can be never and I’m fine with that. I have no interest in what they want or don’t want; conversely, I don’t lose sleep if they’re on the schedule. I want a challenging schedule that sets A&M for the CFP. If that includes a chance to step on texas, great. Otherwise, big deal.

9. It seems like Jimbo agrees with me to an extent. He said he’d like to have texas as the single permanent opponent in an eight-game schedule today, but added, “we’re not going to live our life worried about Texas.” Frankly, I find this refreshing.

10. CBS has set its last SEC primetime game for Nov. 4 — LSU at Alabama. But if those two blow a tire, A&M plays Ole Miss that weekend. The bad blood there could make for interesting drama.