A few things we, as Sooner fans, should know...

...about the Florida Gators. Having the benefit of CBSC (the college cable channel for CBS and hence, the SEC) and DVR, I have now seen multiple Gator games on tape. The first thing I have to say is, wow. They are damn good. Their O is multiple and dangerous, their D is fast, aggressive, and smart, and their special teams are special (to the tune of blocking 8 kicks this year, returning 2 punts for TD, and hitting 75/76 XP and 11/12 FG).

Things most of us already know:

Tebow is very athletic and very accurate, which could give us serious fits. He runs very well when he needs to, can hit most throws with ease, and when he's on fire, he will tear any D apart. He is like Zac Robinson in a lot of ways (remember the number of 'dead to rights' moments we had him in OU-OSU?) but better.

The top three options at RB for UF are not only fast, but very quick, can find the hole quickly, make a quick cut, a move, and be off to the races. That goes for Rainey, Demps, and Harvin. They are fast, to be sure, but that only counts after you make the first and second level miss, and they do that at least as well as any running back we have faced. All three of them.

Brandon Spikes is the real deal at LB. He is among the best LBs I have seen this year on tape. He plays very fast, has great instincts, and is dangerous for passers across the middle (4 INT, 2 returned for TD). He was absolutely brilliant against LSU. None of their other LBs (They've started 5 at the Will and Sam combined over the year) are much to write home about, but they are good.

Things most of us don't know:

Their front four are very, very good. Maybe the best we've faced. Their rotation is awesome. Dunlap isn't even a starter all the time, but he is a headhunter (12 TFL, 9 Sack). Cunningham and Trattou are the listed starters, and they are very, very good. Very much like Beal and Alexander in our last few games. Their interior is stout. Terron Sanders and Lawrence Marsh allow the ends to have some freedom. Sanders was the one that recovered that fumble against UGA and broke loose for 20 yards to set the score up (very athletic move for a 300 pound man).

Their secondary is among the best we've seen, again, maybe THE best. Black is a Ballhawk and so is Wright. Black leads the SEC in picks with 6 and has 2 TDs. Haden and Jenkins are lockdown cover corners. Both have three picks.

Their O-Line is big, agile, and strong. They average about 312. The Pouncey twins are damn good, and they're not even the best blockers on the team. Phil Trautwein probably takes that honor (although it's close). These guys grade out very high and pancake the hell out of D-Lines.

So... All things considered, we've got our work cut out for us. Is it NASCAR season yet??? I hope not.

FedEx, Best Buy and AT&T, oh my!

Quick, what do these three companies have in common? Easy answer is that they all sponsor a Cup team. More difficult answer is that they are all are involved in multi million dollar judgments against their companies.

AT&T just recently agreed to a settlement that could result in over 10 million dollars returned to costumers and will also will pay 2.5 million dollars to the State of Florida and contribute $500,000 to a ‘safe internet’ customer protection group. All total, in Florida alone, the bill to AT&T could be as high as 13 million dollars. While not a complete primary sponsorship for a Cup season, it is about 2/3 of one. Problem is, that this judgment is only for one state, there could also be 49 states to go. We all know that AT&T wants to continue their Nascar sponsorship despite agreeing in principle to leave and not compete with the title sponsor, but if more of this type of settlement is required in the future, there may not be the dollars to hand over to a Cup team.

Best Buy was handed a 54 million dollar tort claim for misplacing a customer’s laptop that was under a Best Buy extended warranty and as being serviced. On the surface, 54 million dollars might seem extreme, however the Best Buy customer in question was very thorough in her documentation of the many contacts, and customer service reps she spoke with over a course of just a few months after purchasing the laptop. Best Buy not only gave her the run around, but flat out lied to her about this situation.

Once Best Buy finally admitted that the lap top was never serviced but missing, Best Buy offered her a $900 in-store gift certificate for a defected laptop she paid over $1,100 just three months before. Not to mention the lost personal data and software she had purchase. (At Best Buy) t was not until she contact the Attorney General’s Office in Washington D.C. that Best Buy offered the full purchase price plus a $500 in-store gift certificate, but the person in question had enough.

She had originally asked Best Buy for $2,100 but always was denied. It was not until she filed the 54 million dollar suit that Best Buy agreed to her original offer, however Best Buy has another problem. Her personal information and even tax returns were stored on the laptop’s hard drive and Best Buy had violated Washington security breach notification laws by not telling her about the potential identity loss. To date, Best Buy still has not followed federal law and notified her. 54 million dollars might sound high, but then again that is about 2 ½ seasons of primary Cup sponsorship.

But probably the Cup sponsor that maybe hit the must in the pocketbooks is the recent IRS judgment against Federal Express of 319 million dollars. That’s right, 319 million clams! Turns out that FEDEX has been wrongfully claiming that their FEDEX Ground drivers were independent contractors and because of that, federal withholding taxes were not the responsibility of FEDEX. The IRS doesn’t agree. But the catch is that this 319 million is JUST FOR 2002! The IRS is also investigating from 2003 to 2006, probing if workers were wrongly classified in order for FEDEX to gain tax benefits. To make matters worse for FEDEX, FEDEX is involved in 24 different state lawsuits that are investigating the same issue, so the company could be on the hook for even more taxes and penalties across the country on its classification of drivers as contractors rather than full employees. Adding to its woes, FedEx also received a grand jury subpoena from the Department of Justice for documents, investigating possible price-fixing among airfreight forwarders.

So the next time a Cup sponsorship ‘pulls out’ of Nascar, it may not be because of the failure of drivers like Jeff Burton, Denny Hamlin, Elliott Sadler, or the team, or even the common theme that ‘Nascar is in a downward trend’, it may have more to do with the financial position of the company and their own legal problems.