Here are 6 links of interest for fans of the Tennessee Volunteers. Give Him 6! is a weekly feature here on Checkerboard Chatter. We try to put links to 6 articles or blogs that you will find informative and interesting. If you ever have suggestions for the weekly Give Him 6! just let us know.

This week's edition focuses on Tennessee's upcoming game with Buffalo but also includes some interesting info about Bruce Pearl and his former assistants.

Last recruiting season presented a variety of hurdles for Coach Derek Dooley and his staff. In the midst of numerous NCAA investigations at Tennessee, Dooley and gang were trying their best to still land a top-tier recruiting class. This is something that is hard when there’s not negative publicity surrounding your program, and near impossible with it. Despite all of the distractions, to the surprise of many around the nation, the coaching staff still managed to reel in a top 15 recruiting class. WR DeAnthony Arnett, OLB Curt Maggit, OG Marcus Jackson, OT Antonio “Tiny” Richardson, and ILB A.J. Johnson headlined this class. The Tennessee roster was chalked full of youth in the 2010-2011 season, and even more so this year. In a conference superior to all others, the Vols are starting 18 underclassmen on both sides of the ball combined. There were high expectations for several freshman and transfers this season, many of them have been good as expected, but you may be surprised which guys have been stepping up and disappearing thus far this season.

Listen to the comments of the Texas A&M President as well as those of SEC commissioner Mike Slive in their introduction of the Aggies to the conference.

Who would have thought that nearly two calendar years after Lane Kiffin bolted Knoxville the fires he left would continue to smolder?  On Monday Yahoo! Sports reported that former Kiffin assistant, Willie Mack Garza, paid for a recruit and his mother to fly to Knoxville on an unofficial visit.  As you might expect, that would be an NCAA violation.

On Sunday the SEC officially announced the addition of Texas A&M into its membership beginning July 1, 2012.  This move achieves several of the conference's key goals for expansion.  First and foremost, it expands the footprint.  Don't fool yourself, this was by far the most important aspect of any addition to the league.  Academics, endowments, culture, or athletic prowess were all distant advantages when it came to this process.  The footprint is the key to the SEC's most lucrative agreement which is, of course, its television contract.  It is that very reason that leads me to believe the boys down in Birmingham are in no particular hurry to find lottery winner number 14.  Why should they be?

Since the Vols had last weekend off I had an opportunity to watch a couple of rivals play. First, I witnessed Alabama dismantle Arkansas in front of 100,000 fans at Bryant-Denney Stadium in Tuscaloosa. Later, I watched Les Miles lead his troops into battle against West Virginia in a non conference tilt.

It is with much excitement that I write today to announce the arrival of the new and improved Checkerboard Chatter.  After 2 full years of posting blogs on our old site we are honored to have been given the opportunity to join the Bloguin Network.  As you can see, the brilliant guys at Bloguin have given us a clean new look, some great new features, and a world of opportunity.

Another week in the SEC, another set of picks from the guys on Checkerboard Chatter. If the guys' picks are any indication, you should go with the chalk this week. All four guys picked favorites across the board.

Eric continues to set the pace but his lead has been trimmed down to one game. The other three are all well within striking distance.

Here are 6 links of interest for fans of the Tennessee Volunteers. Give Him 6! is a weekly feature here on Checkerboard Chatter. We try to put links to 6 articles or blogs that you will find informative and interesting. If you ever have suggestions for the weekly Give Him 6! just let us know. 

With the Vols being off this week, we thought we would bring you some of the latest and most compelling articles on the ever-popular topic of conference realignment. Enjoy.

If you are not a fan of the SEC or an SEC team and you find yourself reading this post, you're probably thinking, "Here we go again! Another blowhard SEC fan touting the supremacy of the conference." I know it has to be annoying for college football fans from the Midwest or any region of the country outside the Southeast (The SEC will soon not be only in the southeast due to realignment, but that's another topic) to see fans chanting "SEC! SEC! SEC!" when their team isn't even involved in the game. You most certainly don't see Ohio State fans cheering for Michigan when the Wolverines are battling a team from outside the Big 10 (or is it the Big 12 now?) However, football fans are just a different breed in the Southeast. We can hate a rival school in our back yard, but if a team from the Pacific Northwest (i.e. Oregon) is playing LSU, well by golly, I'm a Bayou Bengal! Weird? Yes. Do we care? No, Sherman's march galvanized southerners I guess.
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