- Your SEC Champion Florida Gators softball enters the NCAA Tournament as the overall Number 1 seed. Play begins in Gainesville Friday, with UF hosting Georgia Tech, C-USA champ UCF, and Big East regular season winner USF. (UF plays Tech, but it is double elimination.) If you have not paid attention to softball this season, you better get on the bandwagon now. The train to Oklahoma City is getting ready to leave. (Get it? Train? Wagon? The finals are in Oklahoma? I am hil-arious.)

- Softball is in the field of 64, but Men’s and Women’s Tennis are now in the Sweet Sixteen, which puts them at the final site in Tulsa. (Ewww, Tulsa? Really?) The No. 9 Men curb stomped Miami 4-1 (best of seven) Sunday. The day prior, not even a freshman kicker or terrible officiating would have saved Auburn as the six seeded Gator Women put them down 4-0. The ladies face Vandy Thursday and the men meet Texas Friday.

- Speaking of more Gator ladies, Women’s Golf qualified for the eight team final round of the NCAA Championships, winning the East Regional at Athens. The No. 4 Gators defeated No. 1 Duke by a stroke and host Georgia was six off the pace.

Coming Monday, we’ll have an interview with Danny Wuerffel. We asked him about the pressures his 1996 team faced prior to winning the National Championship, Tim Tebow, and about his work with the Desire Street Ministries in New Orleans. Thursday, he will be speaking to The Jacksonville Touchdown Club to raise awareness about the ministry.

From The Gainesville Sun and EDSBS...

Jamar Hornsby, a University of Florida football player, was released on his own recognizance after turning himself in Friday morning on charges of credit card theft and fraudulent use of a credit card.

Hornsby, 21, was allegedly using a credit card issued to Ashley Slonina, a University of Florida student who died in an October 2007 motorcycle accident in which walk-on UF football player, Michael Guilford, also died.

The card abuse started Oct. 13, 2007, the day after the girl's death, according to court records and involved a BP gas card.

I wish I had a joke here. Some how, this makes Florida's history of gun play seem fun. Hornsby is innocent until presumed guilty, but I think a preemptive expulsion is necessary here.

- Survive and advance describes the Gators’ 1-0 win over Ole Miss Thursday in the first round of the SEC Softball Tournament. Sophomore Francesca Enea’s solo homer in the 6^th was the difference as No. 1 UF (60-2) avoided a massive upset. Ole Miss (26-28) only had five baserunners in the game, but was able to limit UF to six hits. The Gators play Tennessee (47-13) this evening in the semifinals. UF swept three games from the Vols last weekend.

- Since baseball is on the road at Alabama and softball is out of town, take some time to check out the NCAA Tennis First and Second Rounds in Gainesville . I was never a tennis fan, but college tennis is the opposite of pro tennis with six matches played all at once and doubles matches with people getting a forehand in the face (the classic move of former UF player Jennifer Magley). Today, the UF women (20-2) face Jacksonville at 6pm. If they win, Saturday they face the winner of Auburn and, oh my, is that who I think it is? OHIO STATE! Can I get you on board with women’s tennis if you knew they could beat the Buckeyes? I thought so. The men’s team (15-7), with SEC Player of The Year Greg Ouellette, gets Navy Saturday morning and would face the winner of Miami and USF Sunday.

- Andy Katz has a story about Billy Donovan and how his decision to stay at Florida looks now that the Magic are in the second round and the Gators crapped out in the NIT. Of course, it worked out best for everybody, but Billy still has a group of kids he is unsure about. Here he is revisiting the, “They’re not committed to it,” line from the SEC tournament.

"I didn't like the tone they had," Donovan said on Thursday. "It wasn't that I didn't want to coach them as sophomores. But I don't think they had an appreciation for what had happened before they got here. I think they thought, 'Hey I've got Florida across my chest, so we're going to win.' I really wanted to make sure they didn't get into a trap because of the way they were viewing the end of the year."

If Billy said made the comment about the name on the jersey originally, it wouldn’t have gotten the same play because that is a common critique. At the time, it sounded like he was throwing the team under the bus. This summer, everyone but Speights will be in town, including transfer Vernon Macklin and the freshmen. Facing them in practice will be Corey Brewer, Taurean Green, and Al Horford. The pressure is on.

"They need to have a level of humility and respect the guys in front of them," Donovan said. "I want to see which freshmen can impact winning. We've got the whole summer to get the right mindset with this group. The guys coming back have to provide the leadership and the other guys have to trust them."

- May 17 is International Gator Day and the Tampa Gator Club is holding a Kickball Tournament for Joshua House. (This is perfect for me.) To find what your local Gator Club is doing, go here. Speaking of helping the community, here is a great story from the St. Pete Times about Gators Football mentoring young kids in Gainesville.

- May 15 Danny Wuerffel will be at the Jacksonville Touchdown Club luncheon raising awareness for his Desire Street Ministries. Several former Gators will be there as well as the Teeeebowwws. For information about the luncheon, go here. If you can’t get to Jacksonville, I suggest you take a look at what the ministry is doing for New Orleans. There are a lot of issues in the world, but don’t forget about rebuilding New Orleans.

The stirrup-clad Gators softball team begins conference tournament play today in Baton Rouge as they face Ole Miss. In their previous meeting, the now No. 1 Gators (59-2, 27-1) swept Ole Miss (26-27, 9-19) in a three-game set at Gainesville in early March. Prior to winning the series finale 5-2, each game in the Saturday doubleheader was settled in the 7^th inning with Florida winning both games 4-3.

In game one, senior Mary Ratliff had to knock a game-winning single in the bottom of the 7th to put UF over the top and get their first SEC win. In game two, pitcher Stephanie Brombacher had an adventurous top of the 7^th, allowing a two-run homer as the Rebels cut the lead to one run. Stacey Nelson came in for the save and shut the door on an Ole Miss rally.

Ole Miss is definitely capable of derailing Florida’s momentum, but good pitching beats good hitting and it always beats average hitting. The Gators, led by Nelson, lead the SEC with a 1.01 team ERA while Ole Miss is 10^th in team hitting, batting .245. Florida cannot look ahead to the second round, but it’s hard not to. If UF wins today, they get the winner of Tennessee-Georgia on Friday.

Last week, the NCAA awarded a bowl game to St. Petersburg, home of art museums, old people, and your Tampa Bay Rays. Obviously, those characteristics and a possible matchup of .500 Big East and Conference USA teams do not bring out the corporate dollars. (What, no Yuengling Bowl?)

The call has been put out and if you got $350,000, you can plop your name or company on the turf at Tropicana Field. As EDSBS pointed out, that creates a delicious possibility.

(If imitation is the highest from of flattery, then stealing the idea for a Blog Bowl must be like creating a memorial.)

That’s right football fans! AOL Fanhouse Presents The Deadspin Bowl Sponsored By EDSBS! From beautiful central St. Petersburg! In a dome! Woooooooooo!

I can see it now; bowl committee members Will Leitch and Michael David Smith are dressed in a blazer, dark t-shirt, and jeans, ready to sign the loser of the Pitt-UConn game on December 6. Back in Hattiesburg, Southern Miss is already inked to go to St. Pete and is learning about the city’s love for Bengay and modern art.

Gus Johnson and Andre Ware will provide the commentary with Erin Andrews avoiding over stimulated frat boys and giving sideline reports. Spencer Hall and Orson Swindle will be tapped as honorary captains, but an awkward situation is avoided when Big Daddy Drew takes one spot. There won’t be a dry eye in the house when in a special reenactment of "Costas Now" at halftime, Buzz Bissinger appears as himself, bringing the thousands of unemployed bloggers and their Moms at the Trop to their feet. Southern Miss wins with a defensive stand when Dave Wannstedt orders Pitt to score a touchdown on 4^th and Goal from the three yard line and the Panthers losing 16-14.

With the combined fortunes of AOL, Gawker, and Swindle Enterprises, the dream is possible. Yes we can!

- Monday, the Orlando Sentinel profiled Tim Tebow’s work in the Philippines which included performing surgery. Not to be outdone, ESPN a few hours later had a story linked on their front page about Tebow working with prisoners. At this point, anything could be written about Tebow and I’d believe it. (Did you hear Tebow is going to run against Big Brown in the Preakness? He’s already a 3-1 favorite.) In all seriousness, Tebow will make an even larger mark as a humanitarian than football player. I see him in 20 years running an orphanage in the Philippines with his hot Asian wife and his ten-year old son who can bench 175 pounds.

- The one thing Tebow can’t do is save UF from the red marker as the University has cut $47 million from their budget. Hit hardest were IFAS and Liberal Arts, which lost $9.5 million and $5.97 million respectively. Florida will now also reduce the number of incoming students by 1000 in each of the next four years. In total, Florida’s budget will be $69 million less when you include a previously administered cut in October.

- If you’re walking around and you hear that low growl, get the hell out of there because an alligator might be trying to make you his girlfriend. With temperatures rising, so do the libidos of our reptile friends. May is the peak season for some lovin’.

- By the way, check out the post below for more information about our new design. I’m just like you and learning about it too. That said, isn’t it stylish? It’s like we went from wearing a t-shirt and jorts to a tailored suit with an Italian made tie. Remember, it’s better to look good than to feel good.

Hey Alligator Army,

Today is the big day. We've switched your community over to the new SB Nation sports blog platform. My name is Trei, and I'm here to help you get adjusted to the new home we've built for you. If you have questions or trouble with the new system, post a comment in this thread and myself or one of the team (lovitt, sixfoot6 or odacrem) will try to point you in the right direction.

Before we begin, I want to let you know we still consider this a beta platform, so don't be surprised if you find a few bugs or if everything isn't exactly right yet. We hope you'll take the time to report any problems you encounter at bugreport@sbnation.com. We'll be continuing to make changes and improving things.

Please take a few minutes to read about what's new below. But if you just can't wait to jump in, here are some quick things to check out:

1. Sign up for your SB Nation network account and claim your old blog accounts
2. Once you're logged in, press your  Z  key in any thread with new comments
3. Explore your dashboard and setup your profile
4. Read the guide to the new FanPost editor
5. Install the FanShot bookmarklet and post videos to Alligator Army from YouTube or images from Flickr
6. Click the "Rec" button on posts and comments to help other people find the good stuff.
7. Customize display options on your Edit Settings page

What Has Changed

SB Nation Network Accounts - the Big Change

Readers across all of our blogs told us they wanted one account to use on every SB Nation blog. To make this work, we're requiring that everyone create a new SB Nation network account. In most cases you should be able to keep your old username, but a few of you may have to choose something new, since every other community in SB Nation will be going through this same transition. We tried to be as fair as possible in deciding who gets to keep which name, using a formula that takes into account length of membership and frequency of activity.

We want to make it as easy as possible for you to participate on all of our blogs, but we don't want to encourage everyone to start visiting rival team blogs and initiating flame wars. To maintain friendly communities we ask that you explicitly join each blog in order to participate. It's a two-click process, but it does means accepting each blog's community guidelines. Just as you join each blog individually, you can be banned on each blog individually.

You can claim old accounts from multiple SB Nation blogs, and your new username will be retroactively attached to all your old comments and diaries. So now you'll be able to access all your writings from your single profile page... like magic.

To get started, click here to claim your old blog accounts and create a new SB Nation network account.

FanPosts (the Section Formerly Known as Diaries)

We changed their name. Why? Because we took this major upgrade as an opportunity to leave behind some vocabulary that never made much sense for a sports blog. SB Nation is the network of, by and for fans, and these are the blog posts we make. So we call them FanPosts. When you're at a bar telling someone to check out your online sports opinions, you don't have to suggest they read your diary.

FanPosts are displayed differently on the homepage - we include your avatar to give more credit for the time you spend writing great posts. The new post editor has a WYSIWYG view that provides easy formatting. It also auto-saves drafts so you don't have to worry about losing your work when you compose a post within the web browser. And you can now associate teams, players and games with your posts: these tools promote your FanPosts on our new team, player and game pages - across the entire network.

The new system does not work like the old diary editor. For example, in HTML mode the new editor doesn't auto-create a new paragraph from two line breaks. But it does offer a whole array of new features. Look for the blinking help button on the right side of the FanPost editor for quick tips, and take a look at our full guide to writing FanPosts on the new platform.

IMPORTANT - if you write your posts in Microsoft Word or some other off-line editor, you will get the most reliable behavior if you cut & paste your post into the HTML view of the FanPost editor. And if you do that, remember to wrap <p></p> tags around each paragraph so your text doesn't run together.

Visual Redesign

This one is probably the most obvious change of all. Like other major websites working to improve readability for their audience, we've adopted a fixed-width layout optimized for the 1024 x 768 resolution used by the majority of Alligator Army and SB Nation network users. Use the switcher below the user menu if you prefer the wider layout designed for 1280 monitors. We've introduced a top navigation bar with quick links into old and new sections of the site. We also polished a few edges, made some things larger, others smaller and moved a few boxes here and there. More changes and adjustments to come.

Search

We've completely replaced the old search engine with a new one. We're excited to make it easier to find old posts and comments, but we've only taken our first pass on the tools we're offering. We're focused on making search even better than what you had before, so please know that we're aware search is missing key features and we're working on it.

What's New

Schedule, Scores, Stats and Roster

Alligator Army now has all the basic information about the Florida Gators and hundreds of other teams. During games you'll see a regularly updated line score, and as the season progresses we'll track team stat totals and leaders. This is just our first step, so look for us to publish more detailed and archival stats in the future. The best part about all this sports data is that we've integrated it directly into the blog so. We now have special pages that aggregate all blog posts written about games, players and teams.

Recommending FanPosts

Some writing deserves more attention and more conversation. If you want to bump a FanPost up to the top and keep it there for awhile, just click the 'Rec' link under the body of the post. When a FanPost receives enough recommendations it will make the recommended list.

Auto-refreshing Comments

You no longer need to refresh the page to see new comments. If you're logged in, new comments will automatically appear on the page every few seconds. When you post a comment, the page will not refresh either. If you want to quickly cycle through all the new comments, you can press the C key on your keyboard. Unmark a new comment after you've read it with the X key. And use the Z key if you want to umark comments as you're cycling through them.

As you use these shortcuts to cycle through comments, press the R key to reply to the current comment. All these helpful keyboard shortcuts are listed at the top of each comments section for reference.

Recommending Comments

Now you can reward those folks who take the time to look up stats and make smart arguments in the comments. Next to each comment there is an 'actions' link that you can click to find the recommend and flag options.

Flagging Comments

To help the moderators on a site, we've built-in tools that let you flag comments that are spam, trolling or just plain inappropriate. Only moderators can see those flags.

FanShots

Many members of the community just want to post that one link, video, photo or quote, but don't need a full FanPost. We've got you covered: FanShots let you share YouTube videos, Flickr or PhotoBucket photos, quotes from articles, portions of chat transcripts, top 5 lists and simple links. If it's a video or image we'll put a thumbnail on the homepage when you post it.

For those of you who are experienced internet hunter-gatherers of Florida Gators material, install the bookmarklet onto the links bar of your browser and share FanShots with the community from wherever on the web you find that killer quote or photo.

Archives

It's much easier to find that post about a certain deadline trade or prospect retro feature. You can browse by year and month.

Avatars

Upload an image so folks can see your custom avatar on your profile, your FanPosts, and all your comments.

Network Profiles

Now that we have unified SB Nation network accounts, your profile will be your central hub for all of your activity on any blogs where you are a member.

Network bar

The top bar stays with you on all SB Nation blogs. It's a quick way to login and logout. When you're logged in, you'll see your avatar and screen name which links to your profile. The icon to the right leads to your Dashboard area where you can edit your settings, profile, account details and any FanPosts or FanShots you've published. As we add more blogs to the new SB Nation network, the My Blogs menu will be a handy way to navigate between the blogs you've joined.

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There are plenty more small changes and additions we've made, so please take a careful look around and explore this new system. We appreciate your patience and hope you'll help us improve the new platform for this and all the other SB Nation blogs.

And in case you missed it, you'll want to start by claiming your old blog accounts and creating a new SB Nation network account.

Florida softball swept their three-game set at Tennessee this weekend, giving the No. 2 Gators (59-2, 27-1) their second SEC championship. Stacey Nelson earned her 38th win of the season, pitching seven innings in the Gators' 5-3 win Sunday afternoon. Nelson (38-2) also was the winning pitcher in the doubleheader sweep Saturday when UF won 4-2 and 6-5 in 11 innings. Nelson pitched 21 innings over the three games and allowed six runs for a 2.00 ERA.

Nelson will now have time to pack her pitching arm in ice before the Gators face Ole Miss in the first round of the SEC Tournament Thursday in Baton Rouge.

The softball team has really done something historic. When UF won their first conference crown in 1998, it was only the second year the SEC and Florida had softball. You can't discount a conference championship, but the talent level has got to be way beyond what the 1998 team had. The modern Gators have excelled, allowing four runs or more only six times this season (four runs is important because a grand slam can't beat you). Not only do they have the ability to crush opponents (35 wins by four runs or more), they can win in the clutch. (11 wins in one-run games, their two losses were by one run as well.) With Nelson throwing, UF now has what every powerhouse has; a shutdown starter.

The Gators are relatively young, with only one senior and nine freshmen. But a majority of them were with the team when UF lost last season in the Super Regionals to Texas A&M. They are battle tested and the pressure of the next few weeks should not get to them. The Gators have already won 59 games, so another eight to get to Oklahoma City should not be a problem.

Playboy model and Gator Lauren Anderson is very attractive. Speaking of attractive, Alligator Army will have a sexy new look tomorrow complete with added features like rosters, schedules, stats, and seventy percent more awesomeness. It will look like Burnt Orange Nation minus the good writing. Join us tomorrow. Update [2008-5-4 21:37:35 by mlmintampa]:Um, actually, the change will be for Tuesday morning. Get excited!