Here’s where procrastination pays off: I had something about 90% done about the relatively quiet offseason as we passed the 100-day mark last week. I guess just thinking it was enough to jinx things:

There is a chance Georgia will be without starting safety Josh Harvey-Clemons when the Bulldogs open the season against Clemson on Aug. 31.

Some disciplinary action seems likely, but a suspension isn’t a given yet. Harvey-Clemons hasn’t actually been charged with anything. The police didn’t file charges, but the UGA Office of Student Conduct will get their turn. It would be a big surprise if Harvey-Clemons weren’t tested as a result of this incident, and a positive test would of course change things. We’ll hear more about this after Richt and the university review the story.

In the meantime, Harvey-Clemons seems to have some judgement issues to work through. It was less than a year ago that he was in the car that featured in the incident that got Isaiah Crowell dismissed from the program. Last year’s traffic stop was the last straw for Crowell, and now Ty Flournoy-Smith, implicated with Harvey-Clemons in this dorm incident, is leaving. While Harvey-Clemons wasn’t charged in either case, it’s not a good for longevity to keep ending up in these kinds of situations – especially if he has eyes on a starting role.

UPDATE: Mark Richt was reached for comment at the SEC meetings in Destin, and Richt stated that Harvey-Clemons will indeed be suspended for the Clemson game. Suspensions for the 2003 opener at Clemson gave walk-on Tra Battle an opportunity to step up at safety, and the Dawgs will have to be as resourceful in their next trip to Death Valley.

Not long after Georgia wraps up its home-and-home with Clemson in 2014, another ACC school could take Clemson’s place on the schedule for the 2016 season.

According to the Orlando Sentinel, FSU athletics director Randy Spetman said that “talks between the schools about a neutral-site 2016 game are ‘moving along.'” That game would likely be the season opener at the Georgia Dome.

The fate of this game might hang on what happens with the SEC schedule. The possibility of a nine-game conference schedule has been discussed for a while and could heat up during SEC meetings later this month. If a ninth conference game is added, it’s less likely that Georgia would agree to 1) give up another home game in order to play this neutral-site game and 2) add a team like FSU to one of the two available nonconference slots. As Mark Richt put it, “if we have nine, plus Tech and then if we want to do something like Clemson like we did this year, you’re talking about 11 out of 12 games that are pretty stout.”

Georgia and FSU last met in the 2003 Sugar Bowl, but there are still ties between the programs. Coaches Richt and Lilly had long stays in Tallahassee.

Looking at another angle, does a possible future date with Georgia make FSU that much less likely to release highly-touted linebacker Matthew Thomas? Georgia is one of the schools Thomas would consider if he were released. FSU’s reluctance to release Thomas to a school like Georgia takes on a slightly different light if the Dawgs are a possible future opponent.

If (and it’s still an “if”) this turns out to be David Perno’s final season at the helm of the Diamond Dawgs, there will at least be one very bright spot. Georgia fought back from an early 7-0 deficit to take a 14-13 extra-innings win at Georgia Tech on Tuesday night. With the win on top of the earlier 17-0 rout ar Turner Field, Georgia took the first regular season series from its rival since 2007.

It’s been a long season for Georgia baseball fans, but there’s something to smile about today.

Graduating linebacker Christian Robinson had signed a free agent deal with the St. Louis Rams last month, but he revealed yesterday that he’s hanging up his cleats.

Robinson announced today that he’ll be returning to the Georgia program as a graduate assistant. He’s been one of our favorites to follow over the past couple of years, and we’re glad he’ll still be around the program for a while longer.

The SEC and ESPN introduced the SEC Network this afternoon in Atlanta. As word of the announcement had been leaked for some time, neither the announcement nor many of the details were a big surprise. There will be a lot of games and a lot of money, though specific financial terms and other specifics were not discussed. We got a few minor details:

• The deal will run for 20 years, through 2034.*
• The network will not mean additional Thursday night football games. Commissioner Mike Slive declared, “we’re a Saturday league.” Amen.
• CBS will still have the first pick of games with the rest to be distributed by a “content board.” But while CBS will still have the big game, the SEC Network will run games that overlap the 3:30 time slot.
• AT&T U-verse is the only carrier currently signed on to carry the network, but negotiations are underway with everyone else. You can be sure that more agreements will be worked out over the next year.
• The aim for distribution is nationwide, but initial emphasis will be on widespread coverage in the SEC footprint.
• There will be 1,000 sporting events broadcast each year – 450 on the network and an additional 550 online. The network will carry 45 football games – three per week.

Additional coverage:

• Official SEC Release
• Coverage from the Athens Banner-Herald
• Coverage from the Macon Telegraph

* – this is way off-topic, but you start to wonder what the product will look like in 20 years. Will athletics be one of the few physical remnants of universities that will have otherwise moved online? Will safety concerns transform the game of football into something far different? Will some of this money begin to trickle down to the student-athletes and bring a whole other set of equity questions that reshape college athletics? Will the success of these major conference networks further pry apart the top schools from the rest of the NCAA?

The 2013 football game at Georgia Tech occupies its traditional spot at the end of Georgia’s regular season on November 30th. But basketball fans used to seeing the Tech game played in December and beyond will get to move the clean old-fashioned hate up a couple of weeks this year.

Marc Weiszer reports that the 2013-14 men’s basketball game against Georgia Tech in Athens will be on Friday November 15th. As Weiszer notes, it’s the Friday before the football game at Auburn. It’s very close to the beginning of the season which usually tips off in the first week of November, but Weiszer notes that Greg McGarity doesn’t expect the Tech game to be the season opener. The teams last met in November on Nov. 27 2002, an 83-77 Tech win. Of course the following Saturday was a much happier day for Georgia fans.

We’ve also learned that the women’s game against Tech will likely be on Sunday November 24th, the day after the home football game against Kentucky. This game was usually an early December contest, recently played the day after the SEC football championship game. Andy Landers’ squads are a little more used to big home games in November, hosting teams like TCU, Texas, Oklahoma and Rutgers in recent years.

When the Stegeman Coliseum renovation was completed in 2011, the $13 million project brought the exterior and concourse out of the arena out of the ’60s. It was a significant improvement that went along with earlier work to the seating bowl and the addition of the Coliseum Training Facility to all but eliminate talk of a new arena.

But as soon as 7 months after the completion of the project, several of the large glass panes that made up the stunning exterior of the renovated coliseum < a href="http://onlineathens.com/breaking-news/2012-08-10/officials-want-know-why-glass-panels-break-stegeman-coliseum">began cracking. Though the broken panes were replaced, the north and south entrances to the arena have remained covered with unsightly scaffolding and protective barricades while the contractor figured out the reason for the broken panes. Though the protective structures have kept patrons entering and exiting Stegeman Coliseum safe since the problem was discovered, the centerpiece of the Coliseum improvements has looked like a perpetual construction zone.

The good news is that there are signs of progress. The Red & Black reports that the scaffolding could come down “in the next few weeks.” Choate Construction, the contractor responsible for the renovation, believes that they may be close to proposing a solution. At worst, it seems as if the scaffolding will be down before basketball season comes around again.

The not-so-good news is that there is still uncertainty about the safety of the glass going forward. The Red & Black added, “Choate said he thinks they have narrowed down what caused the glass to break in the past but they are still trying to determine if the glass is a risk to students and patrons in the future.”