Morning reads: Clarity on Auburn basketball staff contracts, latest on Anders Carlson, and let's play ball?

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Auburn set for SEC Tournament debut

Are you sitting down? Good. The SEC Baseball Tournament is being impacted by bad weather and already behind schedule. If you’ve followed this tournament over the years, this is nothing new. Only three games were played on Tuesday, with Auburn and Kentucky set for a 9:30 am CT first pitch on Wednesday morning. We’ll see if that holds up.

If Auburn wins, they will not have to play again on Wednesday night. As of now, the tournament is simply behind by one game. If Auburn loses, it doesn’t matter because they’re headed back home to prepare for a regional.

In day one, Alabama beat Georgia 5-3, Florida beat South Carolina 2-1 in 10 innings, and Vanderbilt beat Ole Miss 3-1. The loss by Ole Miss puts them squarely on the fence of being selected for the NCAA Tournament with 14 conference wins.

Georgia, South Carolina and Ole Miss are eliminated.

The schedule for Wednesday is as follows:

Auburn-Kentucky at 9:30 am CT

Alabama-Arkansas 30 minutes following

Florida-Texas A&M at 4:30 pm CT

Vanderbilt-Tennessee 30 minutes following

About these new Auburn basketball staff contracts

Through a FOIA request, Auburn released some basketball contract numbers for assistants Ira Bowman, Wes Flanigan and Steven Pearl to AL.com. In the article by AL.com, it’s reported that Bowman’s deal is $340k annually, Flanigan’s $375k, and Pearl $295k. However, those were numbers from previous contracts that started last year.

All of those numbers, in addition to the rest of the entire coaching staff, received raises at the same time that Bruce Pearl agreed to his new deal. Pearl’s new contract took effect on May 1, while the rest of the staff will see their new contracts kick in on June 1. Those numbers haven’t been released, but know that the numbers reported in the AL.com story from Tuesday do not reflect the most recent raises.

Anders Carlson on track to start against Mercer

Auburn head coach Bryan Harsin spoke to some local media briefly before playing in the Fore the Children golf tournament in Alexander City with basketball coach Bruce Pearl. Harsin was asked about kicker Anders Carlson and his health after offseason ACL surgery, and this is what he said according to AL.com:

“If everything goes well this summer, which I anticipate it would, then he’ll be ready to go. As far as the work he’s put in and the progress that he’s made, I believe he’ll be ready, and I think in his mind he’ll be ready. That’s the one thing about Anders: I know he’s a kicker, but he is the ultimate competitor, and you don’t really see many kickers have that type of energy, but to come back from that and how he’s done it and the focus that he’s got to just getting himself healthy—there’s no question in my mind that he’ll be ready to go.”

Greg Sankey posturing?

On Monday, a report emerged saying that the SEC could stage its own playoff, and that the idea would be discussed at spring meetings. Following the introduction of that idea, ESPN college football insider Heather Dinich joined Get Up on Tuesday morning to further analyze the potential SEC-only playoff. In the end, Dinich believes that the SEC and commissioner Greg Sankey are “posturing” after not getting the College Football Playoff expansion that the conference was originally seeking.

“This seems like posturing to me because Greg Sankey was mad when the College Football Playoff did not expand,” Dinich said. “Remember there was an 8-3 vote where the Pac 12, the ACC and the Big Ten voted against expansion at this time for different reasons. Greg Sankey is still mad about this, and to me this is a not-so-subtle message saying, ‘Hey, we’re not going to be as accommodating this time around when we talk about expansion again.’”

Here’s more from Dinich on the playoffs and chaos surrounding college football.

Next Power Five head football coaches?

As the 2022 season draws closer, who are the coordinators to keep an eye on as potential Power Five head coaching options come November and December? Here’s a list of six to watch from CBS Sports:

Josh Gattis, Miami OC

Jim Leonhard, Wisconsin DC

Jeff Lebby, Oklahoma OC

Kenny Dillingham, Oregon OC

Jeff Grimes, Baylor OC

Tim Banks, Tennessee DC