FanHouse Bryce Brown

Here's the top lesson from Saturday: If you're a major program, never schedule a game you can lose as your season opener. Period. This should be a rule. Why? Because we fans sit around for nine months waiting for the college football season to return, and then, in one sixty minute game, the entire season is ruined. It's just not worth it. You roll out of bed the next morning and effectively the wildest dreams of the offseason, that your team could run the table and contend for a national championship, is over.

Ask Georgia fans what they feel like this morning. Ask Tennessee fans what the last two years prior to this season felt like losing the first game of the season in California. Losing the opening game counts as two losses, it makes you feel like complete crap. And don't even get me started with how good you feel if you win an opening game. You're a liar. You don't feel good, you just feel relieved. Nothing has changed about your season if you win a big opening game. You just get to dream for one week more. On to the ClayNation Starting 11.

Tennessee's brief national nightmare is over as the NCAA has cleared tre-suspicious freshman back Bryce Brown to play. It had investigated him after allegations he received funds from people in his home state of Kansas to pay for recruiting visits. The real target was probably Brown's 'advisor' Brian Butler, a character profiled in the New York Times with this inspiring summary:

...a former rapper and cellphone call-center manager, is among a new breed of entrepreneurs inserting themselves into college football recruiting. Some say he is navigating gray areas of NCAA rules and brokering his clients' futures for personal gain

After much drama and delay, running back Bryce Brown has decided to play for Lane Kiffin and the Tennessee Volunteers. Brown, considered the nation's top recruit by Rivals.com, delayed his decision until more than a month after signing day.

He had committed to Miami early in the recruiting process, before opening things up and deciding between Miami and USC (both of whom later stopped recruiting him) as well as LSU, Oregon and Tennessee.

So you want to know how over-the-top college football recruiting has become, how utterly insane it is these days? Allow me to present the case of Bryce Brown.

Arguably the top prep prospect in the entire country, Brown verbally committed to Miami a year ago, but told The U. that he would still visit his other college options. He did so, putting together a list that included Oregon, Kansas State, Tennessee, USC and Auburn.

Then on signing day, with all those teams holding their breath, Brown signed with ... no one. And here's the kicker: He may not wind up at any of those places, according to his "manager" Brian Butler -- instead opting for a professional contract in the Canadian Football League.