By Zac Ellis

After beating Georgia Tech in the ACC championship game, Florida State’s 2012 season culminated with an Orange Bowl win over Northern Illinois. Now, the Seminoles are enjoying the spoils of victory with some new hardware.

A video posted by James Garbarino, Florida State’s associate director of Seminole Productions, shows off the design of the team’s Orange Bowl championship rings. One side features the score of the game (31-10) and the ‘Noles’ record last year of 12-2.

Before last season, Florida State hadn’t claimed both an ACC title and a BCS bowl victory in the same campaign since its 1999 national championship season.

Clemson’s Sammy Watkins tallied just 708 receiving yards and three TDs in 2012. (Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

By Zac Ellis

Throughout the offseason, SI.com will spotlight several teams, players and coaches with something to prove heading into the 2013 season.

Only a year removed from a dazzling freshman campaign in which he made 82 catches for 1,219 yards and 12 touchdowns, Clemson wide receiver Sammy Watkins entered the 2012 season with lofty expectations. Yet the 2011 All-America regressed in his second year, both on and off the field.

Watkins was arrested on drug-related charges in May 2012 and was subsequently suspended for the Tigers’ first two games. He then missed another game at Boston College with a stomach virus, and he played just one series in the Chick-fil-A Bowl against LSU before leaving with an ankle injury. All things considered, it added up to a subpar sophomore effort.

Here’s a comparison of Watkins’ 2011 and 2012 receiving numbers:

• 2011: 82 catches for 1219 yards (14.9 average) and 12 TDs
• 2012: 57 catches for 708 yards (12.4 average) and three TDs

Watkins’ 2012 stats naturally dropped off since he played in four fewer games than he did the season before, but, more tellingly, his production per game decreased. He registered 78.7 receiving yards per game as a sophomore (not counting his brief appearance against LSU), quite a dip from his 93.8 yards-per-game average as a freshman. Watkins surpassed the 100-yard receiving mark only twice in 2012 — he did it five times as a freshman — and reeled in just three touchdown passes, a quarter of his scoring haul from 2011.

Watkins also served a key role as a kick-return specialist during his freshman year, but even that production fell off last fall. In 2011, he racked up 826 kick return yards and one touchdown; he managed just 257 kick return yards and no scores on 13 attempts in 2012.

In Watkins’ relative (and literal) absence, fellow wideout DeAndre Hopkins picked up the slack with 82 catches for 1,405 yards. Running back Andre Ellington also provided a major spark with 1,491 rushing yards. Watkins, tabbed as a headliner during the preseason, was relegated to a complimentary offensive role.

Apparently that sunk in. Reestablishing his status as a go-to playmaker was Watkins’ primary focus during spring practice, and the stage is set for the junior to bounce back. Hopkins departed for the NFL, elevating Watkins to the No. 1 returning receiver on the roster. Meanwhile, quarterback Tajh Boyd has developed into a bona fide Heisman contender; the Tigers’ proven passer should only bolster Watkins’ production.

Watkins made his first statement during the team’s spring game on April 13: He amassed 156 receiving yards and two touchdowns. Perhaps more notably, he’s taking ownership of his off-field issues in order to sharpen his focus on the gridiron.

His talent is evident. If Watkins can successfully find his freshman form, he may very well become one of the top — if not the top — receivers in college football.

STAPLES: Clemson checks in at No. 10 in post-spring Top 25

STAPLES: ACC out to shed its perception as a weak conference

By Zac Ellis

Perhaps there’s more to blue-chip recruit Jabrill Peppers than meets the eye. A five-star prospect out of Paramus (N.J.) Catholic, Peppers recently dropped a video for his rap song “Don’t Take It Personal” on YouTube.

The track, credited to J. Reall (Peppers) featuring Knew Era X, begins with the line, “It ain’t no secret through the struggle only the strong survive.” Peppers is likely referring to his recruitment here, as he continues to fend off an endless sea of scholarship offers from major-conference programs. He’s reportedly narrowed his final list of schools down to LSU, Michigan, Notre Dame, Penn State, Rutgers and Stanford. He’s slated to make his announcement on ESPNU on May 26.

Unlike previous recruits’ rap videos, this effort isn’t half bad. Peppers appears to have a bright future ahead of him on the gridiron — he rushed for 1,552 yards and 18 touchdowns as a junior — but he may have a backup career path if the whole football thing goes south.

Courtesy of the Sun Belt Conference

By Zac Ellis

The Sun Belt unveiled its new logo and branding on Sunday, replacing the old logo that has been in use since 1997.

After nearly a year of research surrounding “the impact, sustainability and core values” of the Sun Belt, the league also released “Together We Rise” as its new mantra.

“The unveiling of our new logo comes after months of review of how we wanted to express the ‘new’ Sun Belt Conference,” said Sun Belt Conference commissioner Karl Benson in a release. “It is a very exciting chance for us to display the opportunity and optimism that exists in the Sun Belt Conference as we move forward.”

The Sun Belt partnered with SME, Inc., a strategic brand development firm that also helped re-brand the Pac-12 and Big Sky. The new logo centers around the sun, “which a powerful and iconic expression for the conference that suggests unity, strength, promise and ambition.”

Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott took in more than $3 million in 2011-12. (Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)

By Zac Ellis

Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott pulled in more than $3 million for the calendar year 2011-12, according to tax documents released by the conference on Sunday. That number makes Scott the highest-paid conference commissioner ever, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Scott’s total surpassed that of Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany, whose $2.8 million in compensation made him the highest-paid conference commissioner as recently as last week. Interestingly, Scott’s compensation is almost double that of the SEC’s Mike Slive, who netted $1.6 million.

Scott took home a base salary of $1,575,000 with a bonus of $1,376,000. Other compensation accounted for $71,462 of his total.

In his four years as league commissioner, Scott has overseen plenty of Pac-12 expansion. He added Utah and Colorado to the conference, and he also negotiated television deals with both Fox and ESPN. Those television rights, worth $3 billion over 12 years, cemented the Pac-12 as a leading conference in primary media rights revenue.

Scott also helped launch the Pac-12 Networks, a national network with six regional feeds. The SEC is set to launch its own network in August 2014, but that venture is partially owned by ESPN in a deal that runs through 2034. The Pac-12 holds full ownership of its networks.

Sebastian the Ibis, perpetually flummoxed by the state of the NCAA’s Miami investigation. (Geoff Burke/Getty Images)

By Zac Ellis

Miami football coach Al Golden, basketball coach Jim Larranaga and Hurricanes’ administrators are set to appear before the NCAA Committee on Infractions on June 13-15 in Indianapolis to further discuss allegations surrounding former booster Nevin Shapiro. A response from the school, as well as implicated coaches no longer with the program, is due out on Monday.

As the school prepares to defend itself from the allegations, one ex-Miami assistant says the accusations are nothing compared to what happens in the SEC, according to the Miami Herald:

One former UM coach accused of wrongdoings complained privately that what the ex-UM coaches allegedly did paled in comparison to unreported violations committed in the SEC.

Miami self-imposed a two-year bowl ban and scholarship losses in football as an early response to the allegations, and university president Donna Shalala was optimistic at last week’s Board of Trustees meeting that the school would not receive significant additional penalties. ACC commissioner John Swofford also told reporters at last week’s conference spring meetings that he felt Miami’s self-imposed sanctions were “strong.”

AJ McCarron meticulously examines Alabama’s latest BCS trophy for any cracks. (Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

By Zac Ellis

You might recall that Alabama’s 2011 BCS national championship trophy suffered an unfortunate and painful ending during last season’s spring practice. Carleton Tinker, the father of former Tide longsnapper Carson Tinker, mishandled the crystal ball, allowing it to shatter into several assorted pieces.

But the broken trophy made headlines again over the weekend. A bidder reportedly paid $105,000 for its remnants at the University of Alabama celebrity golf tournament’s auction on Sunday:

Alabama auctions off the broken 2011 BCS Champonship Trophy at its UA Celebrity Golf Tournament on Sunday. It brought a reported $105,000.—
Cecil Hurt (@CecilHurt) May 20, 2013

A photo of the disfigured trophy found its way onto Reddit. Don’t cry for Nick Saban, though. He has a couple more trophies in his sock drawer.

Time enough at last. (AP)

By Holly Anderson

Here follows an account of the reign of Nick Saban from the years 2015-25, commonly referred to by better historians as the Wilding Tuscaloosa era.

The year is 2015. The season, midwinter. Flush with six national titles, four of them consecutive, five at Alabama, even the agile football mind of Nick Saban atrophies with boredom. Staring listlessly at a commitment list that’s a unanimous pick for tops in the nation, a list that will bolster a roster that’s already a consensus national title favorite, in the predawn dim of National Signing Day, the crafter of college football’s most unassailable modern dynasty crumples a piece of copy paper into a wad the size of a golfball with the density of sandstone. It’s time at last, time to turn on the cheat codes, Saban’s last defense against the dulling of his edge. He needs to be tested again.

But the codes are not for his benefit. They’re for yours.

And from now on, everything’s gonna be different. Well — almost everything.

2015

Shocking the message board pundit class from coast to coast, Alabama pulls all recruiting offers to blond-, brown- and black-haired prospects, adhering to Nick Saban’s sudden but unwavering dedication to signing only redheaded players in this year’s freshman class. The Ginger Avengers, a freckle-faced set of defensive line triplets from western Kansas, see little meaningful action but become fan favorites at Bryant-Denny in late-game mop-up duty. Stocked with players who’ve never seen a collegiate season pass without winning another national title ring, the Tide take a 13-0 team into playoff season, defeating Notre Dame for the fourth consecutive time in the finals by a score of 28-17.

2016

Energized by the challenge of developing elite redheaded athletes who can’t be in the sun for more than 15 minutes without sustaining horrific sunburns, and despite having a marked distaste for hippies, Saban now tests himself by signing only incoming freshmen with already-established ponytails. His half-hair-based squad encounters several stumbles throughout the season, including losses to Georgia and Florida, but goes undefeated in the West and evens the series with Florida in the SEC Championship Game. ‘Bama slugs through the playoffs and knocks off Notre Dame in the national title game, 31-14.

2017

He feels alive. For the first time in three years, he feels alive. The AL-Hair All-Stars are unstoppable. Playing time on this year’s squad is based solely on facial hair length. Sections of all potential starters’ beards are plucked during pregame warmups and painstakingly measured with calipers. Bewildered by now to the point of unquestioning obedience, the selection committee slots a 10-4 Tide squad into the easiest playoff path, which ends with a 35-12 defeat of Notre Dame.

2018

The early departure of all three Ginger Avengers for the first and second rounds of the NFL draft leave Saban feeling quite unexpectedly melancholy. Hair-derived methods of recruiting are abandoned. He watches all home games from the press box, saying nothing, calmly stroking a placid white cat. The Tide’s defensive line takes the field down three players all year, a “missing men” honor for the triplets. No one questions this. An unusually yielding schedule enables an undefeated season and postseason run. The Crimson Tide defeat the Fighting Irish in the national title game, 41-10.

2019

The ease with which the remaining ‘Bama Beards cruised to victory the previous year brings the bleak hunger again, and with the pangs come another self-imposed cheat code. This year’s staff recruits only players from Maine. Many suspect Grizz O’Dowd, the blue-chip quarterback import, may actually be a tame bear. No one openly questions this, as a nine-game regular season followed by a sixteen-team playoff will tax even the hardiest purely human physiques. (Plus, it’s a Bear, who’s to say it’s not the Bear in some way?) Saban starts the Mainers en masse in every nonconference game, for seasoning, and by the postseason a fourth-down package featuring O’Dowd leads Sunday SportsCenter on the regular. ‘Bama wallops Notre Dame for the national championship, 46-21.

2020

Still, something is missing. Maybe it’s not the team Saban needs to hinder to create new challenges for himself. Maybe it’s him. O’Dowd has really caught on with the younger fans. The onset of his twilight years do make a man consider his legacy. Saban begins to learn the art of balloon-making, practicing on planes, and on bus rides when his cell signal fades. First, a bear. He perfects the balloon bear. He makes dozens of them, roaming both sidelines and end zones during games and handing them out to boisterous children in the front rows of Tuscaloosa, Knoxville, Athens and Oxford. Saint Nick, they call him, for the first time in his career, without a scintilla of sarcasm. Almost entirely without his notice, another undefeated season comes and goes. This year’s title game victory over the Fighting Irish is the closest it’s ever been, a 28-20 cannon battle.

2021

Further, he thinks. Only by throwing myself further into distractions can I ignore the beast of ennui within. Inspired by a coffee table book at his lake house, a book he’s never noticed before, Saban begins to absorb the practice of bonsai cultivation in the spring. Visitors to Bryant-Denny Stadium for the first home game the following fall take note of furrows of dirt dug behind each sideline, furrows with immaculately-spaced seedlings, for all the world like a sparse, Far Eastern answer to the hedges at Sanford. Saban calls no plays in 2021, only curious in passing to see what this will bring. The Process feeds itself, and The Process feeds the machine. A 7-2 regular season and victory in the SEC Championship Game barely allows the Tide entry into the sixteen-team playoff field. No matter. ‘Bama storms to victory, and after each game an opposing coach is personally gifted with an immaculately kept bonsai tree from what Tide partisans have already begun to call Saban Gardens. Notre Dame fans storm the team buses in the aftermath of the Fighting Irish’s 34-29 title game loss and burn the tree, certain it must be a thing of witchcraft. Saban watches from a distance, seemingly impassive.

2022

His exploration into Japanese horticulture broadens to include religious studies of cultures throughout Asia. With one hand, Saban signs offer letters willy-nilly; with the other, he holds his place in ancient Tibetan manuscripts. By fall camp he can levitate himself nearly a foot off the ground, and takes the field for the neutral-field season opener against Georgia Tech striding, quite literally, on thin air. The concentration split required to maintain altitude and gameplan his way to an unprecedented eleventh consecutive national championship brings him to a plateau of personal fulfillment he never thought possible. Alabama 62, Notre Dame 11. His hair has turned completely white. His posture is impeccable. He remembers the tree.

2023

With serenity achieved within, Saban returns his energies outward, focused now on the elimination of all external distractions. All ‘Bama home games are moved to Legion Field, which still exists, away from the carnival atmosphere of the Tuscaloosa campus. Late that November, during a hotly-contested Iron Bowl, the raucous movements of the crowd cause the stands to shift, first shivering, then shuddering, then swaying outright beneath the feet of the faithful. Something snaps. A key girder bends in unnatural fashion. The stands are going down, and taking a capacity crowd of more than 70,000 souls with them. Suddenly, silence falls. Motion ceases. All seats and stairways are frozen in space, frozen by the gaze of Saban, focused on the wayward pieces of steel and concrete with a serene expression that belies the effort expended. With agonizing slowness, the stadium rights itself. Saban’s feet touch the ground for the first time in more than fourteen months. The game is called off. The score, 28-28. Outwardly, he is a calm lake. Inwardly, a volcano lurches to life. Three days later, he accepts the vacant Dallas Cowboys head coaching position. Without him, the Tide manage only a 17-14 title game victory. The city of South Bend shuts down for three days.

2024

Perhaps he was the distraction now. Perhaps, in removing himself to Dallas, he has removed the biggest elephant from college football’s loftiest stage. The Cowboys win the Super Bowl. Alabama’s streak of national titles continues, after a fashion, with a 7-6 victory over an Iowa Hawkeyes team coached by an outlandishly expensive Jon Gruden. Saban no longer requires sleep. He paces the dock all night, every night. That’s when it hits him.

2025

Saban resigns from Dallas, focusing all his energies on the Crimson Tide and winning football on the physical plane for the first time in a decade. There is a catch. Attendance at home football games is banned. All away games are canceled. Still reeling in the afterglow of the Legion Levitation, his orders sail through without so much as a tweet of protest. Fans observe the action from the Quad, huddled in silence around a hundred hundred muted televisions. All teams scheduled to host the Tide make the pilgrimage to Tuscaloosa, which has become something of a holy city in the American South, without a whimper. In front of a crowd that is no crowd at all, Saturday after Saturday, the Tide obliterate every challenger by margins not seen since first toe met leather. Finally. No distractions. In December, Saban’s entire staff, even the atheists, are formally excommunicated by the Catholic church. In January, Notre Dame travels to Tuscaloosa for the first time.

This is my last day at Sports Illustrated. I want to thank you from the bottom of the black pit where my heart should be for reading this far. Look, I made you a feelings collage.

Love you. Roll Tide. 

Cal O-line coach Zach Yenser — you remember him — has taken to the life of a Bear with what can only be called ursine ferocity:

We get X amount of $ a day for meals while recruiting I just spent X amount of $ on sushi! I couldn't help it all the rolls looked so good!—
Zach Yenser (@CalCoachYenser) May 17, 2013

@RGBearTerritory I didn't go in hungry! We at least I didn't think I was! We got fed BBQ tonight after watching a practice! #igotproblems—
Zach Yenser (@CalCoachYenser) May 17, 2013

Nick Saban is seen here in a moment of mild fury. (AP)

By Holly Anderson

Well, somebody had to ask:

Alabama coach Nick Saban sounded hurt.

“It really is a little terribly disappointing,” he said Thursday in response to comments made by Florida offensive line coach Tim Davis.

Adorable oxymoronic constructions aside: Anybody else get the feeling Saban says “disappointing” like Darth Vader says “I find your lack of faith disturbing”? Whatever; we still think it sounded like a compliment in the first place.