The agent epidemic and the connection between the NCAA and the NFL came full circle on Thursday afternoon as some of the greatest minds (and egos) in football discussed things over.

Included in this group session that occurred over a conference call were: Nick Saban, Urban Meyer, Jim Tressel, Mack Brown, Bob Stoops, along with NFL commish Roger Goodell.

Saban’s backlash against agents, and more recently NFL scouts, has been well documented. He recently banned NFL scouts from team practices and he’s backing up his strong words at the SEC Media Days where he referred to ”unscrupulous” agents as pimps. He also fired off the following when looking at ways to repair the situation.

“We’re all trying to put our heads together to figure out what we can do to level the playing field so that everybody that’s in the agent community – which some of them are very professional – have the same opportunity to recruit players and that the bootleggers out there are guys that get punished and penalized.”

While nothing has been publicly decided, the coaches aren’t only focusing on the agents’ impact on this situation. After all, players are certainly at fault and aware of consequences that may come about.

“You would think that the player would know that if a professional person who is an agent is willing to break the rules to represent him, why does he think that the guy won’t break the rules if he isn’t representing him?” Saban commented. “That’s the part that’s hard for me to fathom. As soon as a guy broke a rule, I would leave and say, ‘That guy’s not representing me. I don’t want anything to do with him. I’m not even going to call him back.”

Harsher punishments for both the agents and the players would likely eliminate this issue altogether, IF the punishments were harsh enough.

Forcing the player to wait longer for their NFL meal ticket, aka applying long-term suspensions spanning the NCAA and NFL time spans would deter them from risking anything, particularly those that are juniors or seniors. Possible? Probably not, but Goodell is listening and a giant piece of the process.

As for the agents, putting their careers on the line would force them to step back. Like the players, these penalties could have lingering effects that could hurt their chances of landing future jobs if they were fired as the result of the incident.

In general, the attention that has already been created regarding this contact and the forthcoming suspensions for some of the NCAA’s most prominent players will likely change how many view the current situation.

With that said, Saban isn’t the type to go quietly into the night.

M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P…ahem…ahem…AHEM.

Spelling bee fanatics, cover your eyes. The #1 team in the AP Poll apparently has issues with their spell check.

The Alabama Crimson Tide issued tickets for football games this fall, but unfortunately their spelling wasn’t as sound as their 2-headed running back attack is expected to be.

The folks over at FOT (Friends of the Program) pointed out just that.

Alabama plays Mississippi on November 13th, not “Mississipi” as indicated by the ticket on the right.

Face palm

You hear Mississippi pronounced in a variety of ways in the South, but never like a consumable baked good. We’ve seen media guides endure some vocabulary mishaps, but tickets that will sit in the hands of thousands of fans for months are another story.

Nick Saban just killed a printing press worker through telepathy.

Although most Rich Rodriguez news items aren’t exactly cheerio at this point, there is some chatter circulating the web that does involve Michigan in a positive light.

Whether Rich Rod is the coach for this excitement is an entirely different story.

MGoBlog is reporting that Michigan and Alabama will sign a contact on Monday and will play against one another in 2012 in… (Jerry Jones enters and begins smoking hundred-dollar bills in excitement)… new Dallas Cowboys Stadium.

Other outlets are reporting that the deal isn’t as close to being finalized, but it’s safe to say that it looks like the matchup is in the making.

While any true football fan would much rather see a home-and-home at both sites, it appears that Jerry’s Mecca will have suffice for this one-time gig.

The matchup is an exciting one featuring two of college football’s most storied programs, but I can’t say much about the competition that we’d likely see. Unless Michigan can have a major turnaround in the next few seasons, which many including myself simply cannot fathom, then Alabama would likely have their way with the Wolverines.

Whether Rodriguez will be around for this game will probably be decided in the next five months – although Michigan must be growing tired of his never-ending trail of sanction fires.

Let’s set the early, early, early line at Alabama -11.5 and see what happens. As in, the contract gets done and the game takes place, Michigan hangs onto their current coach, Michigan stays unimpressive, and Bama keeps dominating.

It’s a safe bet that the contract will be completed and one of the three items above will take place. See where we’re going with this?