Potato, poetaato, predictions, projections… let’s call the whole thing off.

Stewart Mandel channels his inner Bill Clinton:

… First, a clarification, one I probably should have made clear last week. These [Ed. note – link added.] are not bowl predictions. Contrary to what many of you apparently believed (judging by my e-mails), by no means am I attempting to predict the result of every remaining game the rest of the season.

These projections are merely meant for you to get a sense of what teams would be playing where if the season ended today…

Stupid readers…

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The cost of taking the high road

I like Michael Lewis’ writings a lot. And I’m not unsympathetic to the argument that the money being generated in college football could be better utilized in how it’s distributed.

But this piece in the New York Times yesterday… geez. Pay Vince Young $5 million for a season at Texas? And don’t you just love how some anonymous “NFL front office executive” is willing to opine on these salaries? Like it isn’t the NFL that benefits the most from the current setup.

But even more than that staggering proposal, how would you implement something like that without running afoul of Title IX? How could schools whose athletic departments – or football programs, for that matter – don’t generate revenues in excess of their expenses (which are the large majority, by the way) possibly add on this type of cost and survive?

I’m not asking rhetorically here. I really don’t have a clue how this could be implemented. What am I missing?

“There was a day when a loss to Kentucky would disqualify you from… the BCS title game.”

The Lexington Herald-Leader has a look at how the SEC currently shapes up for bowl season.  The overall picture is still somewhat muddled, but what’s clear is that a lot of SEC teams will go bowling this year.

Personally, I’m hoping for a Florida-Illinois meeting, which is shaping up as a decent possibility right now.  The Florida message boards and the guys at EDSBS would have a field day with that one.

Another college football buffet

This and that around the college football scene on a beautiful Monday morning:

• Whatever you thought about the officiating in Georgia’s game on Saturday (after watching a replay, it wasn’t quite as bad as I originally believed, although there were two clearly questionable calls that were certainly rebuke-worthy), it’s doubtful you hold a candle to what Mike Leach said in the wake of the Texas-Texas Tech game.
• I confess that I’m getting a wee bit tired of the “Evil Richt” meme that’s winding its way around the blogs, but this is… inspired.
• For those of you already penning in an LSU-Oregon matchup in the BCS title game (the ultimate wet dream for “my conference is superior” buffs everywhere), maybe you should wait and see what happens in the Big XII with Kansas first. Yeah, I know the Jayhawks’ schedule bites the proverbial big one, but they’ll have to get by Missouri and Oklahoma to go undefeated. You’d have to think if that happened, it would boost their chances considerably. Speaking of Kansas, is there anybody out there that would pay money to watch Mangino and Friedgen chest bump? I know I would.
• While we’re on the subject of coaches, this is classy.
• Georgia’s offense in the red zone isn’t just #1 in the conference, it’s first nationally as well.
• Skipping past the asshats that have lost all sense of proportion regarding the Nuttster, Arkansas has a great fan base which deserves better than the soap opera it’s been forced to endure this year. That being said, death watch years like this one tend to bring out morbid humor, and these guys don’t disappoint: Then we ‘three and out’ to start the second half. They score in three plays. So much for halftime adjustments. “They just ran through us like Phil Fulmer goes through a dozen donuts,” one Hog fan near me said.
  
• Navy and North Texas combined for 590 yards and 63 points in one quarter. Dennis Dodd thinks that might be part of a bigger picture in college football this year. He may be right. I just hope the NCAA doesn’t decide it’s too much and start tinkering with the clock rules. Again.
• And the presumably clean shaven Stewart Mandel has a new reason why he can’t figure out what Georgia’s up to. The Dawgs have been “reinvented”. He can’t figure out why UT is ranked so far behind Georgia, either. Stewart, you think losing three games by a total of 77 points might influence the voters’ thinking a little?

I guess I just wasn’t made for these times.

thug (plural thugs)

1. A criminal who treats others violently and roughly, especially for hire
2. One of a band of assassins formerly active in northern India who worshiped Kali and offered their victims to her

It’s been fascinating reading the Florida and Auburn message boards over the past three weeks in the wake of a rejuvenated Georgia team’s wins over both schools. The emerging consensus is that Richt is in the process of converting the Georgia program into Miami or FSU North and that he’s unleashing… well, if not the Mongol hordes, at least a bunch of thugs.

Now understand that nobody’s seen a Georgia player throw a punch or engage in consistently dirty play. And there hasn’t been a hand gun in sight (although we seem to have been overrun with scooters). Nope, the hand wringing and teeth gnashing are all about celebrating.

At least with the Florida game, you could make an argument that what took place occurred with the two teams in close proximity to each other and that there was a risk that a Riot in Cell Block 9 might break out at any minute. (I didn’t say it was a good argument, but at least you could trot it out.)

But here’s what has the Auburn posters’ panties in a wad – dancing on the sidelines.

To be fair, some of the Georgia players were waving towels.

Look, I’m a 51 year old guy who doesn’t particularly like rap music. I’ve got three daughters and I’m more than sympathetic to those who criticize much of the genre for its misogynistic view of women. But it seems to me that if you’re going to elevate dancing to the playing of a rap beat (not the words, mind you) into evidence that a bunch of kids are little more than criminally minded delinquents – double check the definition of “thug” at the beginning of this post, please – you’d best make sure that all the windows in your glass house are brightly polished.

After all, supporters of the Auburn program like to associate themselves with a song that sports lyrics like these:

Welcome to the jungle
We take it day by day
If you want it you’re gonna bleed
But it’s the price you pay
And you’re a very sexy girl
That’s very hard to please
You can taste the bright lights
But you won’t get them for free
In the jungle
Welcome to the jungle
Feel my, my, my serpentine
I, I wanna hear you scream

The generational and social aspects of this don’t escape me. And this isn’t to say that if you want to argue that you don’t like piped in music of any sort at a college game that I wouldn’t listen more favorably to your griping. (I would.)

But the ante is considerably upped in my opinion when you start tossing out the “t” word. Unless you want to start calling these guys thugs, too.

Loosen up, folks. When Lundquist and Danielson are jiggling along, it’s just not worth getting worked up about this.