Look for the union label.

I’m sure this will solve everything that’s wrong with college athletics.

One question I did have about the article was Huma’s assertion that the NCAA prevented him from getting a summer job.  I know there are rules prohibiting situations like Rhett Bomar’s, but is it really the case that a college athlete can’t have any job at all?  Does anyone know the answer to this?

(h/t The Sports Economist)

I can see for Miles and Miles…

I’m not a stats geek. But I like reading what stats geeks have to say (particularly since I don’t have to do any heavy lifting to gain their insights).

Over at The Power T, there’s a post up measuring last year’s SEC schools by what the author refers to as “Adjusted Performance Percentage”. Before you start rolling your eyes, it’s not that hard a concept to understand:

… APP, ROAPP, POAPP, etc are easy to calculate. You find the average yards allowed rushing (if you decide you want to know the ROAPP) by the 8 teams YOUR team faced in the SEC (adjust it for conferences who play more or less than 8 games). Then, take your school’s rushing offense and divide it by the average allowed by the 8 opponents.

What’s interesting to me is every one of these SEC statistical studies I read keeps bringing me back to one question: how in the hell did LSU lose not one but two conference games?

The Tigers are first in both the author’s offensive and defensive categories, by good sized margins (the defensive gap, in particular, is enormous).

Were I a fan of LSU, I’d sure want to know what’s going on. And with the staff changeover (more of the inherited staff out, presumably more of the guys Miles wants in), I’d be more than a little apprehensive about where things are going.

With the talent base in Baton Rouge, the Tigers are likely to be seen in ’07 not just as a contender for the SEC title, but for the whole shootin’ match. Another two loss season that keeps them from playing for all of the marbles again (especially if one of those losses is to you-know-who) won’t go down too well…