After spending the latter part of Friday dealing with a pesky car battery that required AAA assistance not once but twice, I finally got around to getting these Auburn football notes up on the blog.

It's kind of a hectic weekend on the Plains. Let's get to the news ....

BIG RECRUITING WEEKEND PLANNED

About 25 recruits will be in town this weekend for what Auburn coaches are terming a "The Big Cat Weekend," according to our good friends who are all over the recruiting scoop at AuburnSports.com. Topping the list are the nation's top two ranked running backs -- Lache Seastrunk of Temple, Texas, and Marcus Lattimore of Duncan, S.C. Here is a list of some of the highest-ranked players expected to be in town, courtesy of Rivals.com:

• RB Lache Seastrunk, 5-11, 192, Temple, Texas, 5-star
• RB Marcus Lattimore, 5-11, 210, Duncan, S.C., 5-star
• WR Trovon Reed, 6-0, 173, Thibodaux, La., 4-star
• WR Jeremy Richardson, 6-4, 190, Springville, Ala., 4-star
• WR Antonio Goodwin, 6-2, 170, Atlanta, Ga., 4-star
• OG Eric Mack, 6-4, 315, St. Matthews, S.C., 4-star
• OT James Stone, 6-5, 297, Nashville, Tenn., 4-star
• OLB Khairi Fortt, 6-3, 220, Stamford, Conn., 4-star
• DE J.C. Copeland, 6-2, 240, LaGrange, Ga., 4-star (a Tennessee commit)
• CB Ryan Ayers, 5-10, 175, Douglasville, Ga., 4-star
  

McNEIL LEAVES FOR BIRMINGHAM-SOUTHERN JOB

DeMarco McNeil, who stayed on from Gene Chizik's staff as a defensive graduate assistant after working two years under Tommy Tuberville, has left Auburn to coach defensive line at Division III Birmingham-Southern. McNeil, who played for the Tigers from 1999-2003, first joined the Auburn staff as a student assistant in 2007.

SEC SCHOOLS GET BIG PAYOUT THIS YEAR

There was plenty of news coming out of the annual SEC meetings in Destin, Fla., where the conference announced a combined payout of $132.5 million among the 12 schools. That's $11.1 million per school for you non-math majors. That's the most the conference has ever paid out, topping the the previous best of $127.6 million last year. This year's breakdown was as follows:

• $52 million: Football television
• $25.4 million: Bowl games
• $23.1 million: NCAA championships
• $14.3 million: SEC football championship
• $13.6 million: SEC basketball television
• $4.1 million: SEC men's basketball tournament

The SEC also limited the size of signing classes to 28 per year, a rule that will go into affect next year. Auburn signed 28 exactly last year. Ole Miss signed 37, prompting the change.

JACOBS TALKS TV TIMES

In a rare blog update on the Auburn athletic Web site, athletic director Jay Jacobs outlined some of the changes to the SEC's football TV schedule now that it has new deals with CBS and ESPN. Here are the finer points:

• Eleven of Auburn's 12 games will be televised in 2009. The 12th game will be available on pay-per-view.
• The majority of the season, CBS will get first choice to televise a game of the week at 3:30 p.m. ET.
• ESPN has the rights to every other SEC home game, giving the conference three channels where games can be found if they are not on CBS -- ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU.
  
• Most ESPN and ESPN2 games will be in primetime on Saturday nights. ESPN will also televise two Thursday night games.
• ESPN Regional Television replaces Raycom and will televise games on affiliates like Raycom did in the past with early kickoffs.
• CBS will air the SEC championship game on Dec. 5, 2009.
  

Not sure what affect, if any, this will have on Auburn athletics, but when the most influential member of the Board of Trustees resigns from his day job, it's probably newsworthy.

Bobby Lowder announced yesterday that he is retiring after 27 years from Colonial BancGroup. As you know, Lowder was at one point widely considered one of the most powerful college boosters in the nation. He is on Auburn's Board of Trustees until April 21, 2011.

Just for kicks, here's an ESPN story from a couple years ago about Lowder's influence on everything athletics related at Auburn, back before Lowder's role on the Board of Trustees diminished and Colonial BancGroup took a financial punch in the mouth.

Auburn hitting coach Matt Heath resigned from the baseball team's coaching staff on Wednesday, the school announced today.

In Heath's one season at Auburn, the Tigers hit a school record 103 home runs and 218 extra-base hits. They also set the school mark in strikeouts with 484.

“Matt felt it was in his best interests to resign from his position with our club,” head coach John Pawlowski said. “I am very grateful for all of his hard work and dedication to not only this program this past season but also for the years we spent together at the College of Charleston. Matt had tremendous success and his contributions will be missed.”

Heath followed Pawlowski to Auburn from College of Charleston, where he coached for two years.

I got a chance to sit down with Auburn running backs coach and recruiting coordinator Curtis Luper this week to discuss the Tigers' recruiting efforts this spring.

He talked about limos, perception, not getting caught up in a commitment race and going after some top-notch players. I wrote about it in today's newspaper here.

A couple things that struck me:

• Luper said head coach Gene Chizik was concerned about the perception of sending the entire coaching staff around the state in limos. But ultimately, it was a far more economical thing to do than the usual method of sending seven coaches in seven different directions, with seven flights, hotels and rental cars.

• He was not concerned about the fact that Auburn only has four commitments right now (at this time last year, Auburn had 10). Alabama and Florida, by comparison, each has 12. "We're not in a commitment race," he said. "People in their haste to get early commitments, may not evaluate as thoroughly as they should. So we want to thoroughly evaluate every aspect of every potential student athlete. And we're not going to make any mistakes in character and some of the other intangibles that we can find out.'

• And by far my favorite quote was when I asked about Auburn going after some top-notch names in its recruiting quest. "It's just like the pretty girl, you know?" Luper said. "Most guys won't approach her because she's beautiful. So when someone does, she may be taken by it."

It's a slow time for football news, so naturally we'll gobble up every bit of information that we can. And while we at the War Eagle Extra did not attend the SEC meetings in Destin, Fla., this week, friend of the blog David Hale, who covers Georgia for the Ledger-Enquirer's sister paper, the Macon Telegraph, is live on the scene (catch all of his blog postings here and his tweets here).

He caught up with Auburn coach Gene Chizik briefly this afternoon. Here's what Chizik had to say:

"I can only comment from me. When things need to be said, I say them. When they don't need to be said, I keep quiet. I just call it like it is when I need to call it. I don't feel like things always need to be said on my behalf so I choose my words. That's the way I've always been. I've got so much more to worry about on my plate, I can't worry about what anybody else is saying. I don't pay attention to what's going on out there. I don't get validated by other people, outside resources. I can't speak intelligently about anybody except for Auburn."

On his biggest worries for '09 ...

"I feel like our offensive line right now is a position we don't have a lot of depth at and we've got to get better at, no question about it. Wide receiver is a position that's been down. I feel they've responded well to the offense, but when you look at production, we've got to have more production at those two positions for sure. Linebacker on defense is a position we're very, very thin right now. Those three areas are the most glaring that we've got to shore up."

On reportedly turning down the chance to play UCLA in Atlanta in 2010 and non-conference scheduling ...

"There's nobody that we're reluctant to play. That schedule had already been set, and I'm sure down the road we'll find some other great competition outside our league to find someone to play. I think you've got to be smart. It's good to schedule some out-of-conference big games, and I think you have to especially when you start talking BCS and possibilities of national championship implications. But you've got to balance it out with some other ones that aren't necessarily to that degree."

"It is important. We would definitively like to settle on one, there's no question about that. That's not writing off the possibility of us having to use more than one because I'm never going to back myself into the corner and say never, but if you ask me what we would like, we'd like to settle on one. There's not one I could settle on right now. Obviously, Kodi Burns has more experience, and Kodi did some nice things last fall, but I'm not ready to name who would be starting if we played here tomorrow."

Auburn's slim postseason hopes were dashed on Selection Monday, when the Tigers were not one of 64 teams selected for the NCAA tournament field.

The Tigers (31-25) hoped a decent RPI and strength of schedule (34th and 9th nationally according to WarrenNolan.com) would overshadow a poor SEC record (11-19).

Auburn has not qualified for the NCAA tournament since 2005.

Top 8 seeds in the tournament

1. Texas
2. Cal-State Fullerton
3. LSU
4. North Carolina
5. Arizona State
6. UC Irvine
7. Oklahoma
8. Florida

Here's the full field (the host school is listed first, followed by the second, third and fourth seeds)

• Texas, Texas State, Boston College, Army
• TCU, Texas A&M, Oregon State, Wright State
• Georgia Tech, Elon, Southern Miss, Georgia State
• Florida, Miami (Fla), Jacksonville, Bethune-Cookman
• Arizona State, Oral Roberts, Cal Poly, Kent State
• Clemson, Alabama, Oklahoma State, Tennessee Tech
• East Carolina, South Carolina, George Mason, Binghamton
• North Carolina, Coastal Carolina, Kansas, Dartmouth
• Cal State Fullerton, Georgia Southern, Gonzaga, Utah
• Louisville, Middle Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Indiana
• Florida State, Georgia, Ohio State, Marist
• Oklahoma, Arkansas, Washington State, Wichita State
• UC Irvine, Virginia, San Diego State, Fresno State
• Ole Miss, Missouri, Western Kentucky, Monmouth
• Rice, Kansas State, Xavier, Sam Houston State
• LSU, Minnesota, Baylor, Southern

UPDATE: Just checked on some of the numbers, using WarrenNolan.com as my source. Auburn had the highest RPI (34) and strength of schedule (9) of any team left out of the tournament.

ESPN mentioned Baylor and Western Kentucky as two borderline teams to get in. Baylor went 29-24 overall, 10-16 in the Big 12 and had an RPI of 31 and SOS of 7. In other words, the Bears had an almost identical resume to the Tigers. Although it should be noted that Baylor had both a better RPI and SOS, however slight that advantage was.

Western Kentucky is harder to compare directly. The Hilltoppers went 37-18 overall and 14-8 in the Sun Belt. Their RPI (46) and strength of schedule (105) were nothing special, and they finished the season by going 4-6.

Bottom line: Auburn just didn't do enough. It's hard to justify an argument for making the NCAA field when you fail to qualify for your own conference tournament, even if the SEC, statistically, was the No. 1 conference nationally this season. Also consider this: fron April 11 to the end of the season, the Tigers went 8-15 overall and 4-13 in the conference. If you look at it that way, it's easy to see why the committee didn't choose Auburn.

Unfortunately, I was not able to attend because of the high school baseball playoff series I was covering in Rome, Ga. But columnist Guerry Clegg was able to make it. Here's his take on the evening.

A couple other issues were addressed during Chizik's stop, which fellow beat writer Evan Woodbery of the Mobile Press-Register chronicles well on his blog.

The big news? Tight end Gabe McKenzie is back on the team after missing the spring with undisclosed health issues. "Gabe's going to be working out with us," Chizik told the Press-Register. "There are some health issues and things, but I really feel like we're on the right track in getting Gabe back to where he was. We're excited about watching the progress of him and we'll just continue to monitor that."

As for wide receiver Montez Billings, who did not participate in the spring for academic reasons, Chizik said they are still working to resolve some things before Billings can get on the field. This whole situation is strange, since Billings was one of eight football players to walk in Auburn's graduation ceremony earlier this month. How do you do that if you have academic issues?

John Pawlowski's beleaguered pitching staff just got a little bit of help for next season. Right-hander Drew Madrigal, a junior college All-American for Mt. San Jacinto in California, has signed a national letter of intent with Auburn.

The 6-foot-3, 210-pound Madrigal went 9-4 with a 3.39 ERA in 15 starts last year, earning conference MVP honors while leading Mt. San Jacinto to a Foothill Conference title. He struck out 138 batters in 106 1/3 innings, throwing seven complete games. Opponents batted .204 against him.

He also hit .404 with seven home runs and a team-best 48 runs in 166 at bats.

In other baseball news, Joseph Sanders made the All-SEC second team. Sanders led the team in doubles (14), home runs (19), RBIs (55) and slugging percentage (.737) despite missing three weeks after having his jaw broken by a pitch.

Auburn players also received the following honors by the SEC:

• Ben Jones: Scholar-Athlete of the Year (3.84 GPA in mechanical engineering, 10 HR, 50 RBIs)
• Trent Mummey: All-Defensive Team (.995 fielding percentage, team-high seven assists)
• Kris West: Community Service Team (volunteer firefighter/EMT for Monrovia Fire/Resue)

Dorsey Tierney-Walker, who spent the last four seasons as Auburn co-women's swimming and diving coach, was named head coach of the Arizona State swimming and diving program Tuesday. She will direct both the men's and women's programs for the Sun Devils.

"I was incredibly impressed by the entire department's professionalism and by their strong commitment and vision, not only for the elevation of the men and women's swimming and diving program, but also of the entire athletic department," Tierney-Walker said in an Arizona State release. "I am absolutely honored and thrilled to be a part of it."

Tierney-Walker won NCAA championships in 2006 and 2007 in addition to two SEC titles in her four years at Auburn.

She and men's assistant Brett Hawke oversaw the program last season while head coach Richard Quick sought treatment for an inoperable brain tumor. Hawke was named co-head coach of both the women's and men's programs on May 5, overseeing day-to-day operations while consulting with Quick.

Prior to Auburn, Tierney-Walker was the women's head coach at Indiana for seven years. She had previous assistant stints at Southern Methodist (1996-98) and for the United States at the World University Games (2001).

Gene Chizik has still not formally signed a contract five months after being hired by Auburn, but the football coach will earn $1.9 million a season according to documents released by the university Monday.

Chizik agreed to a five-year deal, according to a letter of agreement released by Auburn.

The $1.9 million annual figure consists of base salary, endorsements, radio, television and Internet rights and fund-raising and personal appearances. He’ll also be eligible for unspecified academic and performance bonuses.

The letter is signed Dec. 13, 2008, by Chizik, athletic director Jay Jacobs and university president Dr. Jay Gogue.

The letter of agreement is common in coaching hires while the involved parties and their legal representatives finalize the official contract. Chizik’s letter of understanding was only two pages long, providing an outline for a more comprehensive contract.

It did specify Chizik’s responsibility to assemble a coaching staff. The group he put together in the offseason will make $2.5 million this season. Open records requests for the assistant coaches’ contracts are pending.

The letter also specified that if Chizik is terminated without cause, he will be owed his base salary for the remainder of the contract. If he terminates the contract, he will owe an amount equal to the base salary for the remaining term.

Well, we've gone from a lot happening here at Auburn to virtually nothing this week, but take heart Tigers fans: it's only about two months until the SEC media days in July.

In the interim, let's recap some of what happened over the weekend:

TIGERS WIN IRON BOWL OF BASEBALL ...

But they still aren't playing in this week's SEC tournament, which makes them long shots to play in the NCAA tournament, it would seem. First, the series against Alabama. For the first time that I can remember, Auburn pitched like crazy. Jon Luke Jacobs had a career game and Sean Ray has been unhittable of late (19 straight scoreless innings). Of course, Alabama, the SEC's best hitting team was bound to bust out, and it did with 16 hits and 13 runs in the series finale, but the Tigers still took two of three from their in-state rival, making John Pawlowski 3-1 against the Tide this season. For a team looking for something to build on, that's definitely a start. As for the NCAA tournament, Auburn's got some hoping and waiting to do. The field of 64 is not released until a week from now, after the conference tournaments are played. The Tigers (31-25, 11-19 SEC) have to hope for the favorites to do well in the conference tournaments and for no Cinderellas to emerge. Once you get past the poor SEC record, Auburn's peripheral numbers aren't terrible. The Tigers have an RPI of 28 according to WarrenNolan.com and a strength of schedule that ranks 7th nationally (It should also be noted that the SEC has the top RPI of any conference in the country). The last time they made the NCAAs, they had an RPI of 16 and a strength of schedule that was No. 1. I'm not nearly as versed in the baseball selection process as I am in basketball, but it looks like Auburn at least has a shot.

SOFTBALL'S SEASON ENDS

The Tigers won in the opening round of an NCAA Regional for the first time, blanking Iowa 1-0 behind Anna Thompson's three-hitter. But Auburn lost to top-seeded Georgia Tech and Boston University to watch its season come to an end. The team finished 30-29 this season, qualifying for the postseason for the second straight season and the fifth time in the last six years. Auburn has six postseason appearances all-time.

TAYLOR HEADING TO JUNIOR COLLEGE

As usual, our good friends at AuburnSports.com are all over the academic situations of some of the football team's signees. Last weekend, it reported that Reggie Taylor, a 5-foot-10, 170-pound cornerback from Fort Valley, Ga., will attend Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College in Perkinston, Miss., after failing to qualify. Taylor is a four-star recruit who was ranked by Rivals as the No. 34 cornerback in the 2009 class. So far this spring, defensive lineman Nick Fairley and wide receiver DeAngelo Benton were approved by the NCAA Clearinghouse. Everybody's still waiting word on quarterback Tyrik Rollison.

AUBURN HAS THREE 3-STAR RECRUITS SO FAR
MEN'S, WOMEN'S TRACK TEAMS COMPETE AT SEC CHAMPIONSHIPS

Auburn finished fifth overall on both the men's and women's sides of the SEC Track & Field Championships in Gainesville, Fla., on Sunday. It was the first time since 2003 that both teams finished in the top five. Raevan Harris won the high jump for her third career SEC title and Danielle Gilcrhist won the 400-meter hurdles for her first SEC title. The women's 4x100-meter relay team also took first place. That group included Shauquela Williams, Joanna Atkins, Cache Armbrister and CeCe Williams. There were a lot of names that placed in other events as well. Here's the university release if you're interested.

CHIZIK TO SPEAK AT COLUMBUS/PHENIX CITY AUBURN CLUB

Gene Chizik will speak at the Columbus/Phenix City Auburn Club this Wednesday at Green Island Country Club at 6:30 p.m. Here's the link, although it's a members-only event.

AUBURN, Ala. — Both teams came away with something positive from Plainsman Park on the final day of the Iron Bowl of baseball Saturday: Alabama saved face, while Auburn made its best NCAA tournament case.

The No. 10 Crimson Tide salvaged a 13-3 win Saturday evening but not before Auburn captured the series with a 3-1 victory earlier in the day in the completion of a suspended game from Friday.

It was Auburn’s second victory in the series since 2004 and its first since 2007. The Tigers took three out of four games against the Tide this season but now have to wait anxiously to see if they will be selected for the NCAA tournament field of 64, which will be released a week from Monday.

“The stomach’s going to be unsettled the whole time,” Auburn third baseman Joseph Sanders said. “Who knows what’s going to happen? But hopefully we did enough during the year to hopefully get a shot to do something.”

It will be close. Despite an 11-19 conference record, Auburn (31-25) had an RPI of 31 heading into Saturday according to the projection Web site WarrenNolan.com, making it a borderline candidate for the postseason at best. The Tigers’ strength of schedule ranked 12th.

“I thought coming down the home stretch, our goal was to finish strong,” said Auburn coach John Pawlowski, whose team won four of its last five after struggling for over a month. “I certainly don’t think we hurt ourselves here down the stretch. ...

“There’s a lot of baseball still yet to be played and a lot of things are going to have to fall our way. And certainly there can’t be any upsets. We want the top seeds to obviously win (their conference tournaments).”

The Tigers hurt their chances by failing to qualify for the SEC tournament at Regions Field in Hoover, Ala., this week, which is reserved for the top eight teams in the conference. Auburn finished 10th.

Asked if the SEC was strong enough that one of the four teams that didn’t qualify for the conference tournament — Kentucky, Auburn, Mississippi State and Tennessee — could earn a berth to the NCAA tournament, Alabama coach Jim Wells paused, listed off the four teams to himself and answered bluntly: “No.”

The Tide (37-17, 18-11) has no such worries, entering the double elimination tournament as the fourth seed. It will play fifth-seeded South Carolina at 9:30 p.m. ET Wednesday.

Alabama heads into the tournament on a roll, having won 20 of 26 games since April 1.

The Tide also found its hitting stroke in the series finale after scoring only three runs in the first two games. Jake Smith went 4-for-5 with five RBIs and Kent Matthes blasted his 27th home run to lead a 16-hit barrage.

“It was important to win,” Wells said. “I’ve never seen an offensive team be ‘on’ for 15 weeks. ... Sometimes it can last longer than two games, but thankfully we bounced back in the last game and played well.”

Matthes’ homer tied the school’s single-season mark set by Doug Dukes in 1986.

“There have been a lot of great players play baseball here,” Matthes said. “And to share the single season home run record means a lot.”

Starter Adam Morgan (4-1) went the distance in the seven-inning game, shaking off solo home runs by Sanders, Brian Fletcher and Tony Caldwell to strike out 10.

AUBURN, Ala. — Sean Ray pitched 5 1/3 shutout innings to lead Auburn to a 3-1 victory against No. 10 Alabama on Saturday at Plainsman Park in the completion of a suspended game from Friday night.

Ray, who took the mound in the fourth inning when play resumed, allowed two hits and only three baserunners the rest of the way, keeping the SEC’s top-hitting team off the board.

The game ended when Alabama’s Alex Kubal drove a ball off the big wall in left but was thrown out by Brian Fletcher trying to stretch it to a double.

Tigers pitchers, who have a 7.31 ERA in league play, have allowed only three runs in the first two games of the series against their in-state rival.

“Our guys for some reason on the pitching side have really stepped it up,” Auburn head coach John Pawlowski said. “They’re really competing hard. Obviously when you play Alabama, there’s a lot at stake for a lot of people.”

Ray (2-0) has now thrown 19 straight shutout innings, allowing only six hits during that stretch.

“If I could explain it, I could tell everyone how to do it,” he said. “I’m just trying to get outs and whatever happens happens.”

The loss dropped Alabama (36-17, 17-11 SEC) out of contention for the regular season SEC title.

All of the game’s runs were scored Friday before the rain came. Auburn (31-24, 11-18 SEC) took a 3-1 lead in third on back-to-back RBI singles by Tony Caldwell and Casey McElroy.

Tide starter Del Howell (5-3) took the loss. Reliever Jimmy Nelson threw five shutout innings Saturday, striking out seven.

The third game of the series is scheduled for today at 4 ET. It will be a seven-inning game. Dexter Price (4-2, 5.40 ERA) will take the mound for Auburn against Alabama’s Adam Morgan (3-1, 4.57).

The second game of the Auburn-Alabama baseball series was suspended Friday because of severe thunderstorms. The Tigers led 3-1 with two outs in the top of the fourth when play was halted.

The teams will resume the game at Plainsman Park today at noon ET. Regardless of whether or not the game is finished, they will clear the field at 3 p.m. to set up for the televised third game of the series at 4 p.m. That will be a seven-inning game.

If they need to, the teams will finish the second game once the third game is completed.

AUBURN, Ala. — Minutes after capping off three shutout innings in Auburn's 3-2 extra-inning victory against No. 10 Alabama, Tigers reliever Austin Hubbard was asked if he had anything left in the tank for the remaining two games in the series.

"I'll go every day," he said. "I don't think much is going to keep me out."

Auburn left it all on the table against in-state rival Alabama on Thursday, twice rallying back from one-run deficits to force extra innings, when Brian Fletcher drew a bases-loaded walk to force home Bradley Ray with the winning run at Plainsman Park.

The win improves Auburn's record to 30-24 (10-18 SEC) and keeps alive the Tigers' hopes of earning an NCAA regional berth despite the fact that they missed out on qualifying for the eight-team SEC tournament.

"We're playing like we really don't have much to lose," Hubbard said. "You kind of leave it all out there."

The loss put a dent in Alabama's bid to win the conference's regular season crown. With two games left to play, the Crimson Tide (36-16, 17-10 SEC) are in fourth place overall, 1½ games back of SEC-leading LSU, which beat Mississippi State on Thursday.

Other notes ...

• Catcher Tony Caldwell had two big two-out hits on the night, singling home the game-tying run in the seventh and again in the ninth. "It felt really good to come through in the clutch for once," he said. "I haven't been swinging it that well with runners in scoring position and finally came through."

• Incredibly pitched game. Alabama's Austin Hyatt gave up one run in 8 1/3 innings, striking out eight. Auburn's Jon Luke Jacobs nearly matched him pitch-for-pitch, giving up two earned runs on three hits in seven innings, the deepest he's pitched in a game as a Tiger. He struck out a career-high nine. "You look at all the home runs by both teams and you look at what transpired: both pitchers went out there and I thought both pitchers were dominating," Auburn head coach John Pawlowski said.

• Hubbard locked things down in relief. He had five strikeouts in his three shutout innings.

• It was somewhat of an anticlimactic finish. Auburn loaded the bases in the 10th on a single and two hit batsmen. After Alabama reliever Tyler White got Hunter Morris to pop out to short for the second out, Fletcher worked a 3-2 count. The sixth pitch of the at bat sailed high and outside of the strike zone, forcing home the winning run.

• The game also marked the return of Joseph Sanders, who was back in the Tigers' lineup following a three week absence after having his jaw broken by a pitch. The junior earned a hearty applause from the pro-Auburn crowd before his first at-bat as the designated hitter. He went 0-for-4 on the night.

• The teams play again tonight at 7 ET. Grant Dayton (2-6, 6.10 ERA) will pitch for Auburn against Alabama's Del Howell (5-2, 5.94).

Third baseman Joseph Sanders might be available to play for the Auburn baseball team in its regular season-ending series against Alabama that starts Thursday, a little over three weeks after having his jaw broken by a pitch.

Sanders, the team leader in home runs (18), RBIs (54) and doubles (14), took batting practice for the first time since the injury yesterday, stepping into the cage with a protective guard on the side of his helmet to cover his jaw.

While it was a positive first step, head coach John Pawlowski still has some concerns he'd like to see alleviated before Sanders is back in the lineup.

"How he reacts. How it feels," Pawlowski said. "When you're out, obviously an extended period of time but certainly when you have an injury like that, I think the fear factor of stepping into the box, the ball being thrown at you (are concerns). How he's going to react to that we may not know until we actually stick him in a game."

Sanders did not take any ground balls during practice, so if he is able to return, he might DH. Pawlowski said it could be a case where Sanders enters the game as a pinch hitter.

Auburn is required to post its 25-man roster for the series by tomorrow, so Pawlowski said a decision will be made after the team practices this afternoon or early tomorrow.

The Tigers (29-24, 9-18 SEC) failed to qualify for the conference tournament, but they still could earn an NCAA regional berth with a solid showing against No. 12 Alabama. Auburn is 4-8 since Sanders was injured against Samford.

Hello all. As you've noticed, it's been a slow week on the War Eagle Extra. Most of Auburn's events were on the road and I spent most of my weekend dealing with weather conditions in Montgomery to cover the Glenwood High baseball team's march through the AISA state playoffs.

ANYWAY, here's getting you caught up on some stuff that occurred during that time ...

BO KNOWS COMMENCEMENTS

Bo Jackson, who you might know as the greatest video game athlete of all time (he was also a pretty good actual football player too from what I gather), was the speaker at Auburn's commencement speech. There are several good accounts of the speech by my colleagues that you can read here and here.

BASEBALL MISSES SEC TOURNAMENT ... AGAIN

That's six years and counting for the Tigers, who lost two games of a doubleheader Saturday at Kentucky while Vanderbilt won the first two games of a series against Georgia. Auburn (28-24, 9-14 SEC) has lost 12 of its last 14 conference games. While that seems like it would knock the Tigers out of any NCAA tournament contention, amazingly that might not be the case. Auburn had an RPI of 34 heading into the last weekend, with a game against Georgia Southern (RPI of 30) and three against Alabama (RPI of 32) still to go. It's not unprecedented for a team to make the tournament despite missing the SEC tournament. Auburn did it in 2005, with a 32-24 overall record and a 13-17 record in the SEC. It would take a strong finish to the season, though, which I'm not sure this group is capable of.

URBAN MEYER NOT A FAN OF AUBURN'S LIMO TACTIC

Again, this is old news, but Florida coach Urban Meyer isn't crazy about Auburn's decision to shuttle its coaches around Alabama in various stretch limos. Here's his comment to the Gainesville Sun (via the Atlanta Journal-Constitution) about whether or not the NCAA should look into the practice: “I think it should. We’re trying to sell graduation rates and academics…..The Florida coaching staff will not be riding around in limos and ripping off our shirts.” That, by the way, is a great two-for-one shot at Auburn and the bare-chest thumping coaches at Tennessee. Honestly, the more Meyer talks about it, the more attention Auburn is going to get, which was the point in the first place. My opinion: coaches will stop at nothing to get recruits if they will help their football program. Is the limo tactic legal under NCAA rules? Yes. Are the Tigers pushing the boundaries of what is allowed by the NCAA? Probably. But those boundary pushers are the ones that stand out in recruiting, which is exactly what Auburn needs to do to compete for some of this elite talent (although this would seem to run contrary to Gene Chizik's statement that Auburn recruits itself).

WOMEN'S GOLF FINISHES DISAPPOINTING 10TH AT NCAA REGIONALS

That should read "very disappointing" 10th-place finish at the NCAA Regionals. The Tigers were ranked No. 5 in the country, the second-highest seed that headed to Florida. But they struggled out of the gate and never recovered in the three-day event, failing to qualify for the NCAA tournament. Central High alum and Fort Mitchell, Ala., native Haley Wilson finished in a tie for 23rd with a 10-over-par 220. She carded a final round score of 2-under to move up 36 places in the rankings.

SOFTBALL HEADS TO NCAA TOURNAMENT

The third-seeded Tigers are in the NCAAs for the sixth time, heading to Atlanta to play second-seeded Iowa in the NCAA Regional. Auburn (29-27) plays Friday at 5 p.m. ET. The other teams in the regional include top-seeded Georgia Tech (41-13) and fourth-seeded Boston College (41-16).

The NCAA's yearly Academic Progress Rate scores are in and three Auburn sports failed to make the grade: men's basketball, men's swimming and men's track.

The basketball team self-imposed the penalty last season and will have all of its scholarships available next season. Men's swimming was docked .99 of a scholarship (it is normally allowed 9.9) and men's track lost .03 of a scholarship (it is normally allowed 12.6).

“We are committed to ensuring that every student-athlete in every sport at Auburn is given the support they need to succeed academically," Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs said in a quote released by the school. "While we are pleased that 18 of our 21 sports met the NCAA’s benchmark for academic progress, we will not be satisfied until all of our sports reach this level. Failure to meet the benchmarks set forth by the NCAA under its academic reform program is unacceptable. In this case, we decided to be aggressive in getting this behind us, so the penalties have already been taken for the current academic year.

“Our most important academic goal is the graduation of our student-athletes, and we are committed to seeing that they have every opportunity to earn their degrees.”

The APR was designed by the NCAA to measure academic progress. It allocates points for eligibility and retention. Basically, you get a point for every player that's academically eligible and a point for every player that stays at the school. The APR is the total points a team earns, divided by the total points possible, multiplied by 1,000.

The numbers released Wednesday are from a four-year period that ended with the 2007-08 academic year. Teams below an APR of 925 are subject to scholarship losses. A perfect score is 1,000.

Here's a link to a pdf of Auburn's team page. Here's an NCAA link in case you feel like looking up other schools.

These are Auburn's scores by sport:

MEN
Golf 967
Tennis 962
Football 949
Cross country 939
Baseball 938
Swimming 920
Basketball 899
Indoor track 894
Outdoor track 892

WOMEN
Golf 992
Cross country 978
Gymnastics 976
Soccer 976
Volleyball 967
Swimming 961
Softball 958
Tennis 957
Basketball 950
Indoor track 942
Outdoor track 941

And just for fun, here are all of the scores for the SEC's football teams:

FOOTBALL
Georgia 976
Vanderbilt 969
Florida 963
LSU 960
Alabama 955
Auburn 949
Tennessee 949
Kentucky 948
Mississippi State 933
South Carolina 929
Arkansas 927
Ole Miss 910 (three scholarships lost)

Apparently, Ole Miss was expecting today's news.

Just got this release from Auburn this afternoon:

AUBURN — Brett Hawke, who has served as an assistant swimming coach at Auburn for the past three seasons, has been named co-head coach of the men’s and women’s programs, announced Athletics Director Jay Jacobs Tuesday. Hawke will oversee all day-to-day operations of both programs in consultation with head coach Richard Quick.

Hawke has overseen the men’s program since Quick was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor in December 2008, helping lead the team to the 2009 NCAA Championship as well as the Southeastern Conference title.

“I’m really excited for the opportunity to work with Richard and help continue the championship tradition of both men’s and women’s programs here at Auburn,” Hawke said. “Richard has been a great resource of knowledge to me and I’ve learned a tremendous amount from him during the last two years."

The assistant coach for the Brazilian National team at the 2008 Summer Olympics, Hawke coached former Tiger Ceasar Cielo to a gold medal in the 50-meter freestyle, and also recently coached former Auburn swimmer Fred Bousquet to a world record in the same event at the French Nationals.

A 17-time All-American at Auburn from 1997-99, Hawke won nine NCAA individual titles and seven SEC individual titles, while helping the program win its first NCAA team championship in 1997.

A native of Sydney, Australia, Hawke was a two-time Olympian with the Australian national team.

First wide receiver DeAngelo Benton was approved by the NCAA Clearinghouse. Now defensive lineman Nick Fairley.

The 6-foot-4, 295-pound Fairley received his associates degree from Copiah-Lincoln Community College and will enroll in Auburn on May 20 to begin summer classes, according to AuburnSports.com.

Fairley, who originally signed with Auburn in 2007 out of Williamson High in Mobile, planned to enroll in January along with Mississippi Gulf Coast linebacker Eltoro Freeman and Hargrave Military Academy running back Onterio McCalebb. But he hit a snag with requirements, failing to make a deadline with one of his courses.

Fairley, who can play end and tackle, had 63 tackles, nine TFLs and seven sacks with Copiah-Lincoln last year.

He will be a sophomore this year with three years to play three, since he redshirted his first season at junior college.

Good news for Auburn football fans: wide receiver DeAngelo Benton, who chose Auburn in a signing day coup, has been approved by the NCAA Clearinghouse and will enroll in school this summer, according to the Bastrop Daily Enterprise, Benton's hometown newspaper.

He will enroll at Auburn on May 18 to participate in the summer term, according to the report.

Once a five-star recruit, Benton twice failed to qualify coming out of high school. He committed to LSU on two occasions, in 2007 out of Bastrop High School and in 2008 out of Hargrave Military Academy. He appeared set to join LSU in February but changed his mind and signed with Auburn on signing day.

The 6-foot-3, 210-pound receiver was a Parade All-American and Louisiana Class 4A MVP as a senior at Bastrop in 2006. He caught 44 passes for 1,028 yards and 16 touchdowns his senior season, according to stats on AuburnSports.com.

Benton is expected to compete immediately for playing time in a thing Auburn receiving corps that returns one wide receiver who caught more than 10 passes last season.

Doesn't it seem like every weekend is a big series for this team? Well, this one, a three-game set against Ole Miss at Plainsman Park starting tonight, is. I wrote about it here in our newspaper. There's also this AP story out there by fellow beat writer John Zenor about Auburn and Alabama's home run prowess that's worth a read.

OK, back to Ole Miss. Why is this such a big series? Here are the standings in the SEC with nine conference games remaining. Remember, the top eight teams make the postseason conference tournament:

• 6. Alabama 12-0
• 7. Vanderbilt 10-10
• 8. South Carolina 9-12
• 9. Auburn 8-13
• 10. Kentucky 7-14

So as you can see, things are tight. A few things to remember about this upcoming series:

• Auburn is reeling, having lost seven of eight in the conference. It was swept at LSU last weekend despite being competitive in all three games, losing 7-3, 7-6 and 7-6.

• The Tigers still won't have third baseman Joe Sanders, the team leader in home runs (18) and RBIs (54). He broke his jaw last week after getting hit in the face by a pitch.

• Head coach John Pawlowski will keep his shuffled pitching rotation. That means the order is RHP Jon Luke Jacobs (3-3, 5.75) tonight, LHP Grant Dayton (2-4, 5.06) Saturday and RHP Dexter Price (3-1, 5.40) Sunday.

• Ole Miss, which has the second best ERA in conference play (4.30), will counter with LHP Drew Pomeranz (4-2, 3.49), RHP Phillip Irvin (5-3, 4.01) and RHP Scott Bittle (5-2, 2.17).

• Pawlowski called the Rebels' pitching staff one of the best top to bottom that Aubun has played this year. He's not going to overthink his lineup, either. " We're just going to put our best hitters up there," he said. "Lefty, right, whatever, and just let them find themselves."