ATHENS, Ga. — The past week has been a big one for Jay Rome’s future in the sport he came to play at Georgia. Here’s the thing though: Rome has to compartmentalize, because he’s playing another sport at the moment.

Rome was a highly-touted recruit to the Georgia football team. He announced his commitment around this time last year.

But with all-SEC tight end Orson Charles ahead of him, Rome sat out the football season, and instead has been playing basketball. So it was while working out with his basketball teammates that Rome found out last week that Charles was going pro — thus throwing Rome into the spotlight for the 2012 Georgia football team.

“It was something I kind of anticipated, but I really wasn’t sure if he was or not,” Rome said. “When I heard it, I was happy for him. … I just kind of told myself: OK, I know that I’m in basketball right now, but by the time basketball season is over with, there’s no time for rest.’ I’m just going to jump right back into it, and I’m going to fill that spot the best that I can.”

Rome isn’t doing too much with the hoops team, at least in game action. He has appeared in three games, for a total of five minutes. He has one rebound and is awaiting his first field-goal attempt.

The Georgia coaching staff is still trying to figure out how exactly to use the 6-foot-7 Rome. Since he was a football star who joined the hoops team basically on a lark, coach Mark Fox only saw Rome play once in high school.

“He just sees schemes so much better than a lot of guys,” Fox said. “Maybe that’s his football background. He’s just very bright.”

But Fox also knows Rome’s place: On the football team with Mark Richt.

“He’s a star of the gridiron,” Fox said. “He’s promised me he’ll dunk the ball over the goalpost if he scores a touchdown. I said that’s great, but you’ll get a penalty and then coach Richt will be beating my door down.”

While Rome may not be playing much, he thinks the experience this basketball season will help him for football. He said he could feel himself becoming more athletic and improving himself in ways that will transfer to football.

“I know I’m quicker than I was,” said Rome, who has dropped about 10 pounds from his football playing weight of 262. “I’m a lot more explosive. I’m dunking the ball with no problem. I know it’s going to transfer over to the football field just being faster, quicker out of my breaks, quicker out of my cuts, footwork off of blocks. If the ball’s a little high and I have to go up and get it, I believe I’ll go up and get it over anybody.”

Charles, who was Georgia’s regular-season leader in receptions, announced last week that he was leaving early for the NFL draft. The Bulldogs also lose second-stringer Aron White, who was a senior.

A starting spot isn’t guaranteed for Rome. He still has to beat out Arthur Lynch, who got snaps this year as a sophomore. But both are expected to play.

So that likely would make it hard for Rome to play basketball again in 2013 and beyond. But he’s not ruling it out yet.

“As of now I plan on doing it as much as I can,” he said. “I know that with Orson leaving that next year I’m going to focus a lot more on football. I mean, throughout the years I’m here football is going to be my primary sport. I’m going to do whatever I have to do for football first and then whatever I have left I’m then going to come to basketball. As of right now I think I’m going to try to do it every year.”

Rome wasn’t the only football player who was supposed to join the team. Freshman cornerback Nick Marshall was one of the state’s top hoops recruits. But he didn’t redshirt, and it appears any chance he would play basketball this season has passed.

“In the future, though, I wouldn’t rule that out,” Fox said.

Courtesy: ArkansasState  ASTATEREDWOLVES.COM

JONESBORO (1/17/12) – Arkansas State head football coach Gus Malzahn announced Tuesday that running back Michael Dyer, a two-year letterman at Auburn and the Offensive MVP of the 2010 BCS National Championship Game, has transferred to Arkansas State University and signed a scholarship to play for the Red Wolves.

The 5-9, 210-pound sophomore tailback will have two years of eligibility remaining at Arkansas State and will participate in the Red Wolves’ 2012 spring camp.

“We are excited to have one of the top running backs in college football join our program, and we welcome him to our Arkansas State family,” said Malzahn. “Michael is obviously a proven player, and he will certainly make a great addition to our team.”

Dyer was an SEC Coaches’ All-Freshman Team selection in 2010 after rushing for 1,093 yards and five touchdowns. He was named First Team All-SEC in 2011, again eclipsing the 1,000-yard rushing mark with 1,242 to his credit. During his two seasons with the Tigers, Dyer rushed for 2,335 yards and 15 touchdowns.

Prior to signing with Auburn, Dyer was one the nation’s top-rated recruits by several recruiting Web sites after earning All-America status at Little Rock Christian Academy. He finished his high school career with 8,097 yards rushing and 84 touchdowns, including 2,502 yards and 31 scores as a senior.

Auburn’s quarterback race for 2012 lost a member when junior Barrett Trotter announced Monday that he wouldn’t return for his senior season.

Trotter, who started seven games in 2011, announced that he wasn’t intending to transfer, but wouldn’t be back with Auburn’s football team. He graduated in August with a degree in communications and is enrolled in graduate school at Auburn.

“My four years at Auburn has been a great experience and I’m thankful for the opportunities that I’ve had, however, I have decided to forgo my senior season,” Trotter said. “I’m truly blessed to have been a part of winning seasons and championships during my time at Auburn. I’m also very appreciative of coach (Gene) Chizik and the coaching staff, as well as my teammates and the entire Auburn family.”

Trotter began the season as Auburn’s starter, beating out sophomore Clint Moseley and freshman Kiehl Frazier during training camp. Trotter led the Tigers to a 4-2 record in 2011 before losing his starting job to Moseley during Auburn’s 17-6 win against Florida.

Trotter didn’t record anymore stats until Auburn’s blowout win against Virginia in the Chick-fil-A Bowl. He replaced Moseley early in the bowl game and had arguably his best performance of the season, passing for 175 yards, a touchdown, and rushing for 32 yards in the 43-24 win.

“Barrett is a great young man who ended his career in a fitting way by helping lead our team to victory in the Chick-fil-A Bowl,” Chizik said. “We are very appreciative to Barrett for his contributions to Auburn both on and off the field, and wish him nothing but the best as he takes the next step in his life.”

With Moseley and Frazier coming back, it looked as if Trotter would be in the same situation he was in this past season. Auburn’s offense struggled against better defenses with Moseley as the starter and Frazier coming in for mostly running plays, but Auburn’s coaching staff didn’t turn to Trotter again until Moseley suffered a injury in the bowl game.

The staff held Frazier back with his passing last season, but he saw his snaps in the running game increase throughout the season. Fraizer, who was a top quarterback recruit coming out of high school in 2011, should see his role as a passer increase, and he still is considered Auburn’s quarterback of the future.

Now, the focus of the quarterback position shifts to Moseley and Frazier. Moseley has the better passing skill set, but Frazier is the better runner, and his passing should be a point of emphasis in the offseason. This should be one of the more exciting position battles to keep an eye on in the SEC this spring, and it should spill over into fall training camp.

By Chris Low

Georgia tight end Orson Charles was the latest SEC underclassman to declare for the NFL draft on Wednesday.

It wasn’t all bad news for the Bulldogs, though, as safety Bacarri Rambo said he will return for his senior season. Rambo led the SEC with seven interceptions this season.

The deadline for players to declare for early entry is Jan. 15.

Here’s a look at those SEC players who’ve already announced that they’re leaving early for the NFL:

Georgia tight end Orson Charles
Mississippi State defensive tackle Fletcher Cox
South Carolina cornerback Stephon Gilmore
South Carolina receiver Alshon Jeffery

Among those SEC underclassmen who’ve yet to officially announce that they’re leaving, but are expected to do so include:

LSU cornerback Morris Claiborne
Alabama linebacker Dont’a Hightower
Alabama cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick
Alabama running back Trent Richardson

Among those who’ve said they’re staying include:

Mississippi State cornerback Johnthan Banks
Arkansas running back Knile Davis
Alabama offensive tackle Barrett Jones
Georgia outside linebacker Jarvis Jones
Auburn running back Onterio McCalebb
LSU defensive end Sam Montgomery
Georgia safety Bacarri Rambo

NEW ORLEANS — Change is coming to the BCS, and judging by the talk coming out of Tuesday’s meeting of conference commissioners, that change could be fairly drastic. A four-team playoff or some other model featuring an additional game or games? On the table. The elimination of the automatic qualifying designation that created a clearly delineated caste system in college football? On the table.

“Everything,” Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany said, “is in the mix.”

The conferences have until September to hammer out a new postseason format before the window opens for negotiation with current rightsholder ESPN for games played beginning in the 2014 season. They last held such discussions in 2008, but the tone was quite different. Then, SEC commissioner Mike Slive and ACC commissioner John Swofford introduced a four-team playoff model to a chorus of crickets. This time around, new ideas will not be so quickly dismissed.

“The environment has changed in the sense that we had five people who didn’t want to talk about it among the seven founders,” Delany said. “The seven founders are the six conferences plus Notre Dame. Four years ago, five of us didn’t want to have the conversation. Now, people want to have the conversation.”

Delany should know. The Big Ten was one of the Intransigent Five. The others were the Big 12, the Big East, the Pac-10 and Notre Dame. But now the SEC’s stranglehold on the national title has reached a sixth season, a season that culminated in an SEC vs. SEC BCS title matchup. One-loss Oklahoma State of the Big 12 was shut out of the national title discussion. So was one-loss Stanford of the Pac-12.

SCHROEDER: SEC’s sixth title could be BCS’ tipping point

That has changed the game, along with several other factors. First, ESPN won’t be bidding against itself this time around. Fox wants another crack at the BCS. So does Comcast/NBC. The proliferation of DVRs has raised the price for live sports, because it is the only programming the average viewer doesn’t time-shift in order to zap away commercials. So even a game as snoozeworthy as Monday’s 21-0 Alabama blowout of LSU — the lowest rated BCS title game since the system began — commands a huge premium.

Also, the players have changed. Delany remains, and Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick stills seems philosophically aligned with his Big Ten counterpart, but three new commissioners could swing the balance of power toward Slive’s and Swofford’s side.

Big East commissioner John Marinatto is fighting to keep his league in the sport’s upper echelon. Big 12 interim commissioner Chuck Neinas may seem like the president of the old boy network, but the man knows how to look into the future, and he isn’t afraid to rise up against the established order. In the ’80s, Neinas was the architect of the lawsuit that broke the NCAA’s control of football television rights and allowed conferences to negotiate their own TV deals. In essence, he is the man most responsible for the huge checks conferences receive every year from media partners. Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott might be the biggest wild card. Though he works for a league that has traditionally moved in lockstep with the Big Ten, the former Women’s Tennis Association commissioner has not been shy about challenging the status quo.

Scott offered a telling observation Tuesday. Asked if the commissioners planned to discuss any “radical” ideas, Scott chuckled. “Depends on your perspective,” Scott said. “From my perspective, no.” That doesn’t mean Scott will rally his colleagues into a full-blown playoff, but it does mean he’ll be willing to listen to someone else’s ideas and offer a few of his own.

Meanwhile, the commissioners of the current non-AQ leagues are pushing to eliminate the bowl hierarchy, even though the current system has opened up access to major bowls to leagues such as the Mountain West and the WAC. Why would they want this? Because the mad dash to get into an AQ league has gutted their conferences. So they chose the lesser of two evils. That has made the Mountain West and Conference USA unlikely teammates with the SEC and Big Ten, which stand to benefit most from the elimination of the AQ designation and a return — at least below the national title game/tournament — to the old bowl system.

DANIELSON: Title game rematch could force BCS change

This time around, even Delany seems willing to play ball. He wants to protect his league’s relationship with the Rose Bowl, but he understands the market well enough to know the consumers and stakeholders probably aren’t going to be satisfied with the status quo. “As time has gone on, even though we’ve acted in good faith to improve it, there are frustrations,” Delany said.

So what does that mean for you, the consumer of college football? At the moment, nothing. The current contract runs through the 2013 season. Also, don’t expect the commissioners and their presidents to institute anything close to the playoff systems used in the other NCAA football divisions. This may eventually happen, but it won’t for a long time.

In the next few months, the commissioners will come up with their own ideas. They will canvass their presidents to determine what is tolerable. Then they will build coalitions, wheedle and cajole and try to push the idea that most benefits their leagues. By summer, they’ll have a plan. But Tuesday wasn’t a day for specifics. “You can say, conceptually, I like a plus-one model — which I happen to like,” the ACC’s Swofford said. “But there are a lot of different plus-one models.” Said Scott: “Today wasn’t about ruling things out or weighing ideas. It was just going around the table and getting everyone’s perspective. … It was more philosophical today than conceptual. I think that will, in people’s minds, help frame the options.”

The time will come soon for concrete proposals. Don’t get too excited yet, but it seems as if the people who run college football finally understand they need a better way to determine a national champion on the field, and the TV networks are quite willing to pay a premium to broadcast that chase for the title. Little is certain except this: The current system will not survive. Tuesday, the commissioners offered reason to hope that they will come up with something better.

“I don’t have a sense of where it’s going yet,” Scott said. “There is a good, healthy level of open-mindedness. I was encouraged by that. Everyone is looking forward. No one is looking backward.”