This is an argument for another day, but since Candace Parker's graduation (and with a hat tip of respect to the 2010 men's basketball team), the best program in Knoxville and the one most likely to win a championship on our campus has become Lady Vol Softball. Tennessee didn't even have a team until 1996, but has now been to the Women's College World Series four times since 2005, finishing no worse than fourth in Oklahoma City.

Today and tomorrow they'll have a chance to get back there, playing a best-of-three series against the team we always seem to run into deep in these non-revenue sport tournaments: the 10 seed Georgia Bulldogs come to Knoxville to face the 7 seed Lady Vols and a sold out crowd. The Vols and Dawgs split the regular season series in Knoxville back in April.

And as a testament to the growing popularity of women's softball in general, today's game is on ESPNU at noon, and tomorrow's action will be on ESPN (game two at 1:00 PM, game three if necessary after that). This is your open thread for the weekend - if you're following along with the softball action, join us here. It's always great to get to the Women's College World Series; even better if you can beat Georgia along the way.

Go Vols.

Three days after Tennessee sophomore tight end Cameron Clear was arrested for possession of stolen property (a laptop computer belonging to a Tennessee baseball player), Derek Dooley has dismissed Clear from the team. Dooley's statement from UT's official release:

"It hurts anytime a player is dismissed from the program, but there comes a time when a player's actions dictate that his privilege of being a part of this team should be removed," said Dooley. "We will continue to support Cam and his family to help him learn from his actions and become the person and player I believe he has the potential to be."

There is still no word on whether this latest theft was connected to earlier reports of football players having electronic equipment stolen from them several weeks ago. Regardless, Clear's time at Tennessee appears to have come to an end. He caught just one pass as a true freshman, but was believed by many to be headed for a breakout sophomore campaign. His 6'6" 283 lbs frame created big matchup problems and was expected to be an additional dimension in Tennessee's passing game. The Vols still return Mychal Rivera and Brendan Downs at tight end, plus incoming freshman Justin Meredith. But Clear's absence is an unfortunate one, much more so for the player than the program. Here's hoping Clear gets things going in the right direction and lands on his feet.

Our final Elite Eight matchup features two plays that barely made it out of the opening round: the Stumble & Fumble beat Dwayne Goodrich's INT in the Fiesta Bowl with 60% of the vote, much closer than all of our other first round matchups save one. That would be Clausen's 4th and 19 conversion in overtime at Alabama from 2003, which squeaked by Peyton Manning's sneak-fake-touchdown from the 1996 Georgia game with 51% of the vote.

I continue to be curious to see just how far the Stoerner play will go in this thing, as we continue to see just how iconic a man falling down can truly be. Clausen's play isn't as iconic, in large part due to the year it took place in, but it is the very definition of "we don't win without it", and the odds have rarely been higher under that set of circumstances.

Voting for all four quarterfinal matchups will remain open until midnight tonight. Who ya got?

Clint Stoerner 98 Arkansas

Casey Clausen 03 Alabama

The only Peyton Manning play left in our bracket squares off against one of the most iconic and impressive plays from our National Championship season. Aside from the National Championship, these are the two biggest wins of Phillip Fulmer's career. One was the tone setter early, the other our salvation late. As usual in this thing, you can't go wrong, but you can only pick one:

Peyton Manning & Joey Kent 95 Alabama

Deon Grant 98 Florida

Updated Wednesday 12:01 PM ET - As mentioned in the comments below, Clear was found in possession of a laptop belonging to a Tennessee baseball player. Clear has now been suspended indefinitely.

Reports of laptops stolen from the dorm rooms of UT football players have been circulating for weeks, and unfortunately today it would appear that rumor has become fact. Jimmy Hyams of WNML The Sports Animal in Knoxville tweeted the following:

UT soph tight end Cameron Clear was arrested at 4:58 pm by KPD and charged with possession of stolen property. He was in jail as of 7:15 pm

— Jimmy Hyams (@JimmyHyams) May 22, 2012

This comes as a big blow for several reasons. Clear, a sophomore tight end, caught just one pass for the Vols last season. But a strong spring and an almost complete removal of the fullback from UT's offensive gameplan were thought to give the 6'6" Clear a huge opportunity in 2012; he has physical tools at his position that cannot be replaced by anyone else on the roster.

This situation will also raise some internal questions - anytime you have teammates stealing from one another, you face a huge chemistry issue if the situation is not resolved properly. With Clear in custody, we're unsure what Derek Dooley's next move will be (suspension? dismissal?), but for a team that walks with such great potential on such thin ice, the head coach must make the right call here.

The Vols still have weapons in the passing game, to be sure, and if Clear is absent then it falls to Brendan Downs to step up and join Mychal Rivera in leading the way at the tight end position. But most importantly here, Dooley and the leadership within the team - whoever that is - must handle this the right way to ensure the Vols can move forward as a team, with or without Cam Clear.

More updates as they come...