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Suppose you were able to round up a few of the best college football writer/bloggers in cyberspace on some lure like, say, “free shrimp cocktail followed by a lobster surf and turf.” Then, when they arrived (free lunch? They'd be on it like sausage gravy on a biscuit!), you shackled them to the table in your sports man-cave (aka your blog “corporate office”), turned on that lamp dangling from the ceiling, and watched their eyes when they discovered in horror that they were about to be grilled by a bunch of (gulp!) bloggers.

We did just that, and we had ways of making them talk. After the third glass of tea, and with no bathroom in sight, they were singing in four part harmony. We took notes and ate shrimp. Not necessarily in that order. And so it is that we can say:

Welcome to the 2011 college football season and the TSBN College Football Roundtable.

Ours guests today are college football experts Spencer Hall, George Diaz, Tom Dienhart, and Matt Hayes. They have graciously agreed to discuss the state of college football with TSBN writers Pablo de Texas, Petr Johan, and guardianofthegalaxy, and from Hog Database,  SharpTusk Razorback.

Spencer Hall writes at Every Day Should Be Saturday (“Because College Football is too important to be left to the professionals”) and SBNation.com. Follow Hall on twitter at @edsbs

George Diaz worked at The Miami Herald and Cincinnati Post before joining The Orlando Sentinel sports department in 1989. Diaz joined the Sentinel Editorial Board in July of 2006, and also began writing a local and state column at that time. As a senior editorial writer, Diaz specialized in Latin American issues, immigration, social services, pop culture and sports. He returned to sports as a columnist in 2009. Follow Diaz on twitter at @georgediaz

Tom Dienhart is the senior national college football writer for  Rivals.com.  He has covered college football on a national basis for over 15 years. Follow Dienhart on twitter at @TomDienhart

Matt Hayes is the national college football writer for Sporting News and Sporting News Today. A recent article by Hayes touched on some of the topics raised in this interview. (NCAA 10 commandments) Follow Hayes on twitter at @Matt_HayesSN

We'll kick this off with Pablo de Texas and the Ohio State situation.

Pablo de Texas (PdT): What do you think the NCAA will do to Ohio State?

Hall: Since they don't even know their own guidelines, it remains a complete crap shoot at this point. The NCAA vacillates between leaning on what they know (the Cam Newton case) and making up things on what they believe to be true (USC) and then arbitrarily applying punishments made up off the back of their ass. SO.....nothing? Let's go with nothing, the "$1 bet" in this game of NCAA Price Is Right.

Hayes: Without a charge of lack of institutional control or failure to monitor, it won't be much. And it won't be worse than what USC received -- when it most certainly should.

Diaz: I think the worst is over for Ohio State after NCAA investigators found no evidence that the school failed to properly monitor its football program or any evidence of a lack of institutional control. That’s always the Big One. And Ohio State seems to have dodged the proverbial bullet in that regard. We shall see when the envelope is opened Aug. 12.

PdT: Should Chip Kelly start thinking about putting his house in Eugene on the market?

Dienhart: If what Willie Lyles is saying is true, then, yes, Chip may need to call a Realtor.

Hall: No, because I think Oregon is thinking the same way we are here: there's no telling what the NCAA is going to do or what they can prove, so let's cut ties, be up front, and stand by our employee until it's untenable. In this case they have to catch him in a direct lie of the sort Tressel told, and thus far there's no proof that Kelly lied to the NCAA. (There's proof he may have lied to reporters, but that's practically a sport with coaches, and not against the NCAA's bylaws.)

Diaz: Recruiting shenanigans? What recruiting shenanigans? Oregon athletic director Rob Mullens recently said "I have full confidence we are absolutely doing [business] the right way." We all know what that means. Kelly is toast. His next big call is going to be “Will I pick Mayflower or Allied?”

Hayes: We don't know what street agent Willie Lyles has. He says he has a paper trail. If he does, and if it clearly shows that Oregon was paying for influence -- not scouting reports -- I can't see how Kelly keeps his job. But those are big "ifs."

PdT: When will Mike Leach will return to the coaching ranks and what are some possible destinations for him?

Hayes: I'm just not sure anyone is going to touch him while his lawsuit with Texas Tech
is still pending. There's too much potential for distraction. I can see a few spots where he'd fit well: Ole Miss, Arizona or Arizona State.

Dienhart: He needs to clean up all of his lawsuits before he will get another job. And I think that may happen after 2011. A likely spot: New Mexico.

Hall: The timing is indefinite. He'll have to come back sooner rather than later, if only because people will start to think of him as an ex-coach and commentator, and not as a viable candidate for open jobs. The possibilities are everywhere, really, though the UCLA job comes to mind only because it might be available soon and because he'd fit right in coaching in the PAC-12.

PdT: When and where will Urban Meyer coach again?

Diaz: At first I thought that Meyer would come back, possibly next season. It’s in his DNA. Obviously Ohio State would be a natural fit if not for the probationary issues. But the more I think about it, the greater the odds that Meyer will stay put at ESPN. It’s a great gig and keep him close to the game. I truly believe that Meyer flamed out at Florida and there was an obvious disconnect between his responsibilities to the team and the fact that he simply couldn’t gather the enthusiasm to do his job. I don’t know if he can light the fire again. ESPN it is.

Dienhart: Many people say Ohio State. But can the Buckeyes REALLY hire a coach who couldn’t  control his players at Florida? Remember, there were 30 player arrests while Meyer was UF coach.

Hall: I think he'll be at Ohio State in 2012. I have absolutely no evidence to support this besides raw, stupid instinct, but it just seems too logical for all involved as long as Urban's health issues are resolved.

Hayes: He's not going to Ohio State for two reasons: all coaches want to build instead of following someone who already built it. He's also waiting for, in the minds of many, a better job: Penn State. A university with serious academic standards, deep tradition, pristine facilities and a fertile recruiting base. The big question: is this JoePa's last year?

SharpTusk Razorback (STR): How do you think the teams rank in the SEC West this season?

Dienhart: Bama, LSU, Arky, AU, MSU, Ole Miss

Hayes: LSU, Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi State, Auburn, Ole Miss

Hall: Arkansas, Alabama, LSU, Mississippi State, Auburn, Ole Miss. Good lord, that's a deep and nasty slice of football material there.

Petr Johan (PJ): There are now 120 NCAA class 1 football teams. Do you feel that schools such as Lousiana Lafayette really belong on the list? Shouldn't it be shortened to 100 teams.

Hall: I think as an ecosystem there's very little in the way of fairness, since those schools aren't even competing at the same level or for the same reasons. Then again, one great advantage of the current system often left unsaid: those schools can raise revenue by taking paid beatings from the major powers in lucrative road games. There's no "should" or "belong." There's only what works for the member schools. For the moment, they seem fine with it, and until they're not individual rationales will trump any overarching concerns about a logical or equal order.

Hayes: There's a lot of thought now to the top 50-60 schools breaking away, forming their own division and using a national playoff. To do that, they'd have to break away from the NCAA. And once that happens, any semblance of rules and penalties for rule-breakers are history. Until then, they will continue with 120 FBS teams. The NCAA will not tell a program to move down to FCS.

PdT: Which teams from a non AQ conference will be BCS busters in 2011?

Dienhart: Boise State is the top choice. SMU is another possibility, along with Houston.

Diaz: The obvious picks are TCU and Boise State, now that Utah is in the PAC-12. Of the two, I like Boise State a lot more since the Broncos return Kellen Moore and six other starters on offense, and seven starters on defense.

Hayes: Boise State

Hall: We're still stuck on Boise and TCU (one more year!) here thanks to accrued credit, though Hawaii and Houston are always in the running to run roughshod through their conference and threaten a claim on a BCS bowl. But shy of saying UCF could run the table, no, no obvious surprises in this category.

STR: Regarding SEC officiating – Do you have a feel for whether the public perceives that SEC officiating is "protecting the franchise?" How do you characterize the public's perception of SEC officiating? If, in your opinion, SEC officiating suffers, what is the best way for the SEC to correct that perception? Is simply getting calls correct enough?

Hall: I think the public's biggest beef with SEC officiating is most likely on celebration or unsportsmanlike calls, and that's more a result of the rule (fuzzy, interpreted in a hundred different ways) than the officials' myopia or negligence. The perception in the SEC is going to depend on whether you were on the wrong end of that call, and in all cases but unsportsmanlike calls, they get most of them right.

They also happen to be very responsive to criticism, often answering questions about calls mid-game on Saturdays from Birmingham, btw. Effort is not lacking on their part, and that's all you can ask for besides accuracy.

Hayes: It's just a matter of getting the calls correct -- on the field, and in the replay box if needed. The big play in question was Patrick Peterson's clear interception that was ruled incomplete. He had two feet in bounds and the call was not reversed. Things like that -- where everyone with a television can see the correct call -- lead to issues. If officials are blowing calls, find different officials. The PAC-12 fired 11 officials after last season.

PJ: It has been said that the reason for more injuries in professional sports is that the players are taught to play dirtier. Do you agree?

Hall: No. It's physics. People are bigger, faster, and heavier. F=ma, and F gets pretty big when you're talking Nick Fairley putting his m with some serious A on Aaron Murray's shoulder. Dirty or not, the numbers are daunting when you consider the beef moving around in contact sports.

Hayes: Not at all. There are more injuries because players are bigger, stronger and faster at every position on the field. Trust me, when I'm standing on the sidelines at a game, it's a scary deal. When I'm on the sidelines at an NFL game, I fear for my life.

PJ: Given that the difference between the amateur and the professional is increasingly blurred, what would you do to protect the sanctity of the true amateur?

Hall: There is no true amateur at the D-1 level if amateur means "unpaid player." They receive some benefit, no matter how marginal, for their talents. (And believe me, in some cases it is extremely marginal when we're talking about athlete benefits. Free sandwiches, guys!) Players should be allowed to profit off their names like any other university student; that's true equality with the rest of the student body, and is the only way to preserve the academic apparatus from the corruption of a university sponsored black market economy in football talent.

Diaz: Is there such a thing as a true amateur these days? Other than non-revenue sports, college athletics has turned into a big business that essentially cuts out the athlete from the riches. The situation at Ohio State reflects that disconnect. Kids selling memorabilia. A player can wear a jersey and make millions off sales for the school, but he doesn’t collect a penny. The system is completely out of whack. I wish I had a clear solution, but I don’t. You sense frustration all over the country as more and more schools are embroiled in controversy. The rules are out of date and need sensible revising. Good luck with that.

Guardianofthegalaxy: Text, twitter, fb – How have these these new technologies affected the way you do your job?

Hall: Twitter is the only one that's really changed the way we do things, because it's such an immediate, global chat room kind of experience. It's the meatball surgery of online media medicine: quick, slapdash, and during a game entirely necessary because it can add so much to the experience so quickly. Later, you take it to the blog for specialists to work on, but Twitter is basically now where most of our content starts.

Hayes: Twitter really has taken over media. I don't like saying this because I began my career at a newspaper, but I use Twitter as my news source. I only read the paper here in Orlando on the weekend, when I have time to sit down with a cup of coffee and read about travel or food or specific news in my city.

We have time for one more question...

PdT: How will the revamped Texas Longhorns do in 2011?

Dienhart: I think it’s a 5-7 win team. I think the D will be OK. But I think the offense will struggle. There are issues at QB. And is the o-line tough enough to run the ball? And is there a top RB on the roster?

Hayes: I love the hires of Bryan Harsin (OC) and Manny Diaz (DC). Both will be terrific head coaches one day. The Longhorns still have plenty of talent; enough to win 10 games. But QB Garrett Gilbert has to play with confidence, and I'm not sure he can regain composure after last season (much like Florida's John Brantley).

Hall: They feel like an eight or nine win team, mostly thanks to the talent on hand, two outstanding new coordinators, and a manageable schedule with only two real tests on the road (not counting Oklahoma.) But then again, I thought they'd be fine last year HAHAHAHA [explosion.].

That's it from the roundtable – thank you very much for participating, gentlemen.

Free sandwiches, guys! More tea?