Five-Step Drop: The Spencer's Shoplifter

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1. When I think of Spencer's, I'm whisked back to middle school years. Remember, you'd have your parents drop you off at the mall with a group of friends (both sexes, otherwise there was no reason for dudes to hit the mall, obviously) and just walk around and look at things. Invariably, much time would be spent in the back area of Spencer's, because you can giggle and snicker at the profane T-shirts, bumper stickers and books -- not to mention the posters and calendars of scantily clad females.

I honestly can't remember the last time I went in one, but it has to have been sometime before age 16. At some point, that stuff just isn't exciting or even mildly amusing anymore. And I never even once thought something was cool enough to try and shoplift it. This is a fact that separates myself and many others from Missouri strong safety Jarrell Harrison, who was arrested last Friday for that very feat.

Harrison has been suspended indefinitely by coach Gary Pinkel. No word on whether the embarrassment of stealing from a pre-pubescent-level store outweighs the team punishment in the mind of Harrison just yet.

2. Unfortunately, arrests of collegiate football players aren't exactly a rarity, and there's another one to mention. Arkansas offensive lineman Anthony Oden was busted Sunday morning for driving while intoxicated, careless driving and driving without a license. Oden, a 6-foot-8, 334-pound bohemoth is expected to at least compete for a starting spot this season. You might recognize the last name, as his older brother is NBA player and former Ohio State basketball star Greg Oden.

3. Just a few days after Tommy Tuberville stated something likely true, albeit not exactly flattering, of his current conference, Illinois' Ron Zook has done something similar. Remember, Tuberville virtually said he expects the Big 12 to crumble sometime in the future. This time, Zook basically said the SEC is better than the Big Ten, which houses his Illini. While there aren't many who would argue the point (especially considering the past four champs have come from the SEC and two of those were blowouts at the expense of Big Ten titan Ohio State), it's difficult to understand why a coach would publicly make such comments. Is that the Zooker's new sales pitch to possible recruits? Even we know we aren't the best league around, but you should totally still come play here!

4. Are we so shallow that the results of elections of government officials are correlated to how the state's major college football teams fare? The Associated Press is reporting that this is a factor, according to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Check this out:

"The new study looked at elections for president, governor and senate between 1964 and 2008 and compared them to football results for 62 major college teams. The researchers found that wins in the two weeks before an election boosted the vote share of incumbents in the county where a school is located by 1.05 to 1.47 percentage points -- enough to make a difference in a close race.

"And for teams they termed 'powerhouses' the impact was even greater, giving the incumbents between 2.30 and 2.42 percentage points more than in years when the local team lost. Powerhouses were defined as teams that had won a national football championship since 1964, or were among the teams with average attendance of 70,000 or more from 1998 to 2008."

Take that for whatever it seems to be worth. Personally, I don't feel like you can tie that to much more than coincidence.

5. Does Mark Richt have more job security or less, now that Damon Evans has stepped down from his post as Georgia's athletic director? There seems to be some swell of opinion on the internet that it leaves Richt more on the hot seat, but Altanta Journal-Constitution columnist Mark Bradley is pretty adamant the changing of the guard helps Richt feel more secure and makes a very strong case.

Where I sit, it's hard to imagine justifying a Richt firing with the way things currently stand. Yes, he's coming off the worst season of his Georgia tenure, but the Bulldogs went 8-5 with a 4-4 mark in the toughest conference in the America. His career record is 90-27, he's been to a bowl game every season and never won fewer than eight games. The Bulldogs have won at least 10 games in six of Richt's nine seasons and finished in the top 10 of the final poll five times. Last season was the first time the Dawgs didn't finish the season ranked in both polls. His career win percentage (.769) is more than 100 points higher then the program's (.646).

If he did lose his job after a similar campaign to last season's, I'd be left asking: "What do you want?"