Georgia fans' concerns that former recruit turned Bowery Boy Deion Bonner's arrest all but ensures he'll defect to a rival conference school have to be considered legit. The Dawg faithful are resigned to see Bonner across the field at some point in 2012.
SEC fans are, for better or worse, beyond the beyond-the-pale-type condemnation of teams that pilfer each other's "character issues." So where does Bonner land? Assuming the Dawgs are now officially out of the picture, here's a short list of the obvious potential candidates:
USC - Granted, they're a SEC school in the spirit of compliance only, but consider this "by the numbers" cliche: Twenty: Amount of Ed Orgeron players on a single team that were accused of janking clock radios with built-in iPod docks from an Alabama hotel in 2007. Forty: Roughly the amount of current players on the Trojans' entire 2011 roster with any game experience. Zero: As in the number of human heads still attached when those iPhones were stolen, which means Yaw-Yaw hasn't even blinked.
Auburn - Use this space to construct your best college football "criminal recruiting" joke. BONUS POINTS AVAILABLE: Do so without using the words "felony," "theft," "Chizik," or "trees." Good luck Tuscaloosa, and please show all of your work for credit.
Ole Miss - We'll avoid taking the lazy snark route (paved by self-appointed Genius Bar technician Jeremiah Masoli) and remind you that Houston Nutt had no qualms singing a defensive back convicted of using a dead person's gas card SEVENTY TIMES. Bonner's alleged involvement has a beauty unique to Nutt: The crime is scandalous enough to knock him off the conference's A-list recruiting sheets and directly to Oxford, but still free of felony violence - meaning that a potential four year stint in Oxford with only minor noise violation / possession / public disturbance charges could be spun into a 'people helpin' success by the Rev.
New Age Atlanta Thieves Guild - Although it's highly improbable our morally bankrupt pastime would actually discharge Bonner completely, if he was without a D1 offer there's strong indicators that Atlanta is now embracing the criminal patterns of Civil War era New York City (any good blogger weaned on "The Simpsons" would hope these bandits are announcing their crime with a "YOINK"). Throw in a midget lookout and you've got yourself a fine band a' thieves to work for the Butcher, and a colorful, local form of crime sure to steal some of that cultural spotlight from New Orleans.