TCU did not have scheduling relations with that conference.

Assuming that Baylor voted with the majority,

Big 12 presidents and chancellors have voted to invite TCU to join the league, should be finalized over next several days.—
  (@kbohls) October 06, 2011

that’s some warp speed hypocrisy there, Mr. Starr.  A lesser man could get whiplash.

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Good on ‘ya, Alabama.

At least somebody out there gives a shit about tradition:

One source said there’s a group of presidents that wants to sit tight, believing the SEC can do better than Missouri and that No. 14 should come from the East. According to both sources, Alabama wants to look East and not risk losing its annual game against Tennessee, while Auburn favors adding Missouri and moving to the Eastern Division.  [Emphasis added.]

There’s an easy way out of this, although it’s not geographically correct.  If the choice is Missouri, just admit the Tigers into the SEC as a member of the East.  This whole thing’s about money, not maps, anyway.

Fun with numbers: Georgia and defensive yards per point

As this post indicates, I’m a fan of Phil Steele’s yards per point metric:

That’s why I’ve become more and more enamored of a stat that Steele (and others) keep track of – yards per point (ypp).  In essence, it’s a measurement of how efficient an offense is at scoring and it also measures how good a defense is at making opponents’ offenses inefficient.  (I use the term “efficiency” here in Paul’s sense of making effective use of field position.)

Teams with excellent special teams, teams with high, positive turnover margins, teams which yield less penalty yardage than they receive and teams that don’t give up many sacks are going to be more efficient scoring teams than their opponents.

They’re also going to be better on defense at making their opponent’s less efficient at scoring.  Which leads me to wonder how Georgia currently shapes up in defensive yards per point.  Given an SEC-worst 35 points yielded by the offense and special teams in five games, it’s about as poor as you might expect.  Here’s the conference, in order of defensive yards per point, from best to worst:

TEAM	YARDS	POINTS	YPP
Alabama	958	42	22.81
LSU	1311	64	20.48
Vandy	1117	63	17.73
Florida	1293	74	17.47
Arkansas	1942	114	17.04
Ole Miss	2042	123	16.6
Tenn.	1353	82	16.5
Auburn	2199	137	16.05
Miss. St.	1754	118	14.86
Kentucky	1812	123	14.73
S. Car.	1551	119	13.03
Georgia	1293	103	12.55

Oof.  Georgia looks like the high school slut of the SEC there.  Easy.  It takes almost twice as much yardage to score against Alabama as it does the Dawgs.

But here’s where the fun part comes in… what if you take out all the scores that weren’t allowed by these teams’ defenses and then match up defensive ypp?  Well, I went back through the box scores and did just that.

TEAM	YARDS	POINTS	YPP	S/T PT	OFF PT	ADJ PT	ADJ YPP
Alabama	958	42	22.81	0	0	42	22.81
LSU	1311	64	20.48	0	0	64	20.48
Vandy	1117	63	17.73	7	14	42	26.6
Florida	1293	74	17.47	0	7	67	19.3
Arkansas	1942	114	17.04	7	14	93	20.88
Ole Miss	2042	123	16.6	0	14	109	18.73
Tenn.	1353	82	16.5	0	0	82	16.5
Auburn	2199	137	16.05	0	7	130	16.92
Miss. St.	1754	118	14.86	0	7	111	15.8
Kentucky	1812	123	14.73	0	14	109	16.62
S. Car.	1551	119	13.03	0	0	119	13.03
Georgia	1293	103	12.55	14	21	68	19.01

That, as they say, is more like it. Georgia jumps from twelfth to sixth, just behind Florida.

A few observations I draw from the data:

• It’s not that I’m running this exercise to show that defensive yards per point is misleading.  Quite the contrary:  points are points.  A pick-six counts just as much as a seventy-yard touchdown drive.
• But it’s pretty clear in Georgia’s case that if it can clean up the peripheral scoring issues it’s creating with turnovers on offense and mistakes on special teams, the defense left to its own devices can more than hold its own.
• One reason Alabama and LSU look so formidable defensively is that they don’t give up the easy score elsewhere.
• How much of South Carolina’s rank on the board do you blame on Ellis Johnson and how much on Stephen Garcia?
• Vanderbilt’s defensive coordinator is Bob Shoop.  If the Commodores can keep up anything close to the early pace they’ve established on defense, it’ll be borderline criminal if we don’t hear his name in the mix for this year’s Broyles Award.  (Or, after the season, on a candidates list for some school with deeper pockets looking to upgrade an underperforming defense.)  Those are some damned impressive results.

“They do not miss many tackles out in the open field.”

Aside from this being fun to watch all the way through, listen to what Todd Blackledge says about the tackle that led to the punt that led to the return.

In 2005, that wasn’t a comment that made you roll your eyes.  I’d like to think they’re headed back that way again.

And, yeah, the return ain’t half-bad, either.

Take a hike, son.

If Mike Slive had a pair, he’d tell Missouri to kiss his ass.  “That’s what’s left”?  Bugger off and have a nice life with Texas and Oklahoma, dudes.

Seriously, what’s to stop them from running off at the first sign that Delany bats his eyes their way?

Aww, he’s just saying that to be nice.

Huh.  Didn’t see this one coming:

There likely be some instances Saturday night when what UT’s defenders do see could fool them. Georgia’s offense will be the most traditional UT has seen this season, and the Bulldogs rely on effective play-action passes.

“That’s part of their scheme. That’s really how they’re built,” Wilcox said. “All their runs have a good complementary play-action to them, so it’s not like you can cheat. Some teams, you can get a good key on them, and these guys you can’t. We’ve got to be very disciplined with our eyes. that’s the key to playing a good team like this that can complement their run and pass game.”

The Bulldogs have been balanced offensively this season. In each of their five games, their rushing and passing yardage totals have been within 100 yards of each other. Against Mississippi State last week, Georgia threw for 160 yards and ran for 155.

“These guys, we were watching film and I couldn’t tell what they were doing,” defensive tackle Malik Jackson said. “These guys’ stances stay the same, their keys stay the same and it’s very very hard to read them.”

I guess Tennessee wasn’t Todd McShay’s source.