Auburn Fires Gene Chizik, Purdue Fires Danny Hope

Auburn waited a tad bit longer than the other SEC schools to announce their firing, but the end result is all the same. Gene Chizik, just two years after winning the national title, has been fired by Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs after suffering through an 0-8 conference season.

Also, up in Big 10 country, Purdue has fired Danny Hope after a disappointing season. Purdue is unlikely to compete with Arkansas in terms of hiring a coach, but they could snatch up one of the lesser known names that we've kept on our tracker *COUGH*Dave Dorean*COUGH*.

The Auburn job is sure to generate more interest among the Arkansas fan base, both because Auburn is in the SEC West, and Bobby Petrino is mentioned in connection with the job more frequently than other jobs due to his past associations with the school.

One interesting thing Auburn is doing that I haven't heard from other schools is their creation of a search committee to help find their new coach. It's set up of Heisman Trophy winners Pat Sullivan and Bo Jackson, as well as former Auburn fullback Mac Crawford. It's unknown exactly what role in the process the three former players will have, but it is surely different from the approaches we've seen from Jeff Long, Tennessee athletic director Dave Hart, and others.

Some have stated on twitter that Sullivan's place on the committee all but ensures Petrino won't get the job. We'll have to wait and see how that plays out, but even if Auburn doesn't go after Petrino, expect to see them go after some people on the same list as what has been hyped for Arkansas.

It should also be noted that Auburn will be paying Chizik and his assistants a substantial buyout, as in, over $11 million. And that's on top of what they paid Tommy Tuberville. Perhaps they're giving Tennessee a run in the competition for the "Buyout U" nickname.