It's the middle of May in Gainesville, which means a few things.
First, the classes students are skipping are now over an hour long. Second, the daily forecasts for the next two months predict unbearably hot days and late-afternoon rain.
Third, football season is three months away, so people are desperate for any story even remotely related to college football.
So when ESPN had a slow news day, it dragged out an old story about Urban Meyer's alleged feud with former UF quarterback and radio host Shane Matthews and slapped a sensationalist headline ("Meyer: Ex-Gators either with us or against us") on it. Analysts and news outlets made a much bigger deal of the story than it deserved.
Matthews reportedly criticized UF's offense after the 31-30 loss to Mississippi. I thought Matthews was just doing his job by pointing out a flaw in the offensive gameplan when an incredibly talented team lost a game it should have won. Professional analysts are still paid to analyze the sports they watch, aren't they?
At a recent Gator Club appearance, Meyer's comments drew a lot of unwarranted attention.
"If you want to be critical of a player on our team or a coach on our team you can buy a ticket for seat 37F, you're not welcome back in the football office," Meyer said, according to the Orlando Sentinel. "You're either a Gator or you're not a Gator."
Matthews has since said that he is shocked at how overblown this story was and that he and Meyer have cleared the air.
So that was UF's football drama for the summer, right?
Wrong.
When Steve Spurrier went on a radio show and turned the rumor mill with talk of Meyer leaving UF for Notre Dame, people started clamoring for more and looking at it as more than what it was: a rumor.
Meyer wisely squashed it as quickly as possible, denying the rumor to the Gainesville Sun on Friday.
"I didn't know what (Spurrier) was getting at," Meyer said. "Here's a quote for you: I am not going to Notre Dame. There's gotta be something else going on in sports. Isn't there car racing going on?"
While I don't know a whole lot about car racing, there are plenty of other sports still active at UF. As a matter of fact, Meyer himself even Twitters about some of the teams.
(I know, I know. The verb is technically to tweet, but I refuse to recognize that, much like I refuse to believe that Meyer actually follows, say, the softball team enough to write 140 characters about it.)
Last weekend, five UF teams were in action, four of which were in postseason play and three of which competed in Gainesville.
The No. 1 UF softball team spent the weekend breezing through the NCAA Regional in its home stadium. The Gators will stay in town next weekend for a rematch of last year's Super Regional against California to vie for a bid in the Women's College World Series.
When the Gators are competing for a national title in Oklahoma City next week, you don't want to be the uninformed "fan" who just started following the team, do you?
Also keep an eye on the track-and-field teams. The women's team finished first and the men, who came into the meet ranked No. 1 in the nation, took second at the Southeastern Conference Outdoor Championships this weekend. Both teams will compete through June.
The baseball team earned the No. 2 seed in the SEC Tournament starting Wednesday. UF will likely host a NCAA regional, which starts May 29.
The men's golf team already grabbed a spot in the NCAA Tournament starting May 27, in Toledo, Ohio, by winning the Southwest Regional over the weekend. Led by a group of upperclassmen, this team is still hungry heading into its final tournament.
So there you go, four UF teams still in contention for a national championship. Ignore the sensationalist headlines, get off the football message boards and start following some of these less publicized sports.
If all else fails, there's always car racing.
