Some News and Links

-As you know, Croom's contract was extended through the 2011 season. Well now we know the financial details as well. Croom will be paid in total $1.7 million this year. No details concerning 2009-2011. That is quite the raise from his previous salary of about $1 million. The announcement also mentions this contract is the first to use "APR language". I don't know that one 8-5 season is deserving of this kind of raise to be honest, but this does put him more in line with the average SEC salary. That will be important should Mississippi State be looking for coaches in the future. You don't want to be looked at as a school that won't pay their coaches.

-With that out of the way, Byrne turned to renewing Stansbury's contract. Rick Stansbury is now locked up through the 2011-2012 season and will be paid around $1.2 million per year. This places him 4th among SEC coaches in terms of compensation.

-Mississippi State is installing a new HD video board in Davis Wade. It will cost around $6.1 million and is scheduled to be completed during the '08 season. It will be the largest "true HD board in the SEC". Unreal. Byrne has been on the job for a couple of months (actually only 8 days officially) and has already hired a top notch baseball coach, renewed out basketball coach's contract, and begun upgrades to the football stadium. I like what I'm seeing.

-Rivals is previewing the teams 1-120. They put Mississippi State at #48. It's a pretty good read. They get some things wrong but not too bad.

-Back to Rivals, they've put out their first team recruiting rankings for 2009. Mississippi State shows up at #15. They've put together an impressive class so far and this is exactly why this year is so crucial. MSU has some momentum going, recruits think Croom is building something here and if they can get to another bowl they should pull in a good class. Good recruiting leads to more wins (generally) and so on and so forth. If they go 3-9 though, it proves last year was a fluke and I wouldn't be surprised to see about half the guys currently committed look elsewhere.