Jumbo Package: Friday, 17 June 2016

Happy Friday, everyone. The offseason doldrums carry on, but we have some good stuff for you this morning, starting with the latest on Cam and Hootie:

Court appearance postponed for Bama's Cam Robinson, Hootie Jones - WBRC FOX6 News - Birmingham, AL

According to the Monroe County District Attorney’s office, the hearing for Alabama football players Cam Robinson and Hootie Jones was postponed Thursday at the request of their defense attorney.

No way for us to know exactly why a continuance was requested, but since Saban has said that he will let the legal system play out prior to handing down any punishment, expect the conspiracy theorists to be out in full throat. Odds are still strong that this is plead down, but if not then a mid-January trial date works just fine.

Speedy Alabama cornerback continues to progress, optimistic heading into fall | AL.com

Averett was among the players competing for the starting cornerback job opposite Cyrus Jones leading up to last season. He was even getting some reps with the first-team defense early in fall camp. Then came the injuries. Averett suffered a partially torn biceps during one of the Tide's preseason scrimmages in August, a hyperextended elbow around two weeks later and then a broken finger leading up to Alabama's College Football Playoff semifinal matchup against Michigan State. A once-promising season ended with Averett serving as a third-team cornerback and playing in just six games.

Anthony Averett tends to get lost in the shuffle when discussing this season's deep secondary, but he has as good a shot as anyone to grab some playing time in nickel and dime packages. Should Marlon Humphrey leave after this season, Averett would be a prime candidate to start outside in 2017.

2-sport star Alabama football commit Tyrell Shavers is 'best I've been around,' coach says | AL.com

"He's going to cause some problems, he really is, being 6-6," Miller said. "I'm not even sure the kid has shaved yet. He's got some growing to do. His frame is outstanding. "He's put together so well. He's not gangly or storky. He's very smooth and he's fast and runs good routes." But there was a good reason Shavers wasn't highly recruited until this spring. At 6-foot-6, Shavers is also a left-handed pitcher.

So, Shavers hasn't shaved, eh? There is some nice highlight footage of him at the link. He could be the heir apparent to O.J. Howard.

Every college football conference should scrap divisions. Here's the whole Power 5 plan. - SBNation.com

Really, every conference should get rid of divisions and just assign a few annual rivals. As you’ll see below, this would preserve major rivalries, ensure every team sees its whole conference, balance schedules, and remove the risk of a weak team taking a spot in a conference title game.

How soccer relegation makes deciding a college football champ easier, better - CBSSports.com

For those unfamiliar with relegation and how it works, it's really quite simple. Let's use English soccer as our example. There are numerous leagues in England because there are so many teams. There's the top league, known as the Premier League (EPL), which features 20 teams. All the teams in the league play two matches against the other 19 teams, earning three points for a victory, and one point for a draw. At the end of the season, the team with the most points is crowned the champion.

Offseason talk on how to make college football scheduling super great and all that. Enjoy.

College Football Playoff 2016: Conference left out

Entering this year, though, the SEC’s chances of avoiding a shutout look pretty good. There’s no reason to doubt Alabama’s dominance after another national title and an off-season that saw much of the Tide’s draft-eligible talent opt to return. And while the SEC West remains tough, each of Alabama’s challengers faces at least one key concern. A one-loss SEC champion is all but assured of a playoff berth, and Alabama’s road to that mark looks simpler than in the past two years.

The Pac-12 is listed as the conference most likely to be left out of the playoff again, which makes sense. While the conference will be deep with good teams, I'm not sure there is an elite team among them.

Ex coach Art Briles rips Baylor, claims wrongful termination | NCAA College Football

In a motion filed Thursday as part of the lawsuit, Briles said he wants new attorneys separate from the school, and his personal attorney said Baylor was using the coach as a scapegoat for its failings in handling allegations of sexual assault. "The conclusion is inescapable that the motive of Baylor and the Board of Regents was to use its head football coach and the Baylor athletic department as a camouflage to disguise and distract from its own institutional failure to comply" with federal civil rights protections, Briles lawyer Ernest Cannon wrote to Baylor's attorneys in the latest development in a scandal that has gripped the world's largest Baptist university for months .

Now Briles is suing Baylor? What a saga. This has to be humiliating for anyone involved with the university, but hopefully positive change will be the end result.

That's about it for today. Have a great weekend.

Roll Tide.