A mystery solved.

Sometimes, all you have to do is ask.

(h/t The Wizard of Odds)

Lead us not into temptation.

Sure, I’ll be happy to preface this by saying that I’ve been eighteen and inebriated before.   For that matter, I’ve been twenty five and inebriated before, too, yet managed to avoid public embarrassment like this.

All of which leads into saying there’s a fine line between youthful hijinks and genuine stupidity – a line which some of these kids are doing a pretty good job of erasing, or at least blurring the edges.

I can’t argue with anything Paul posted early this morning, but dumbassery cuts both ways here, as ESPN’s Chris Low points out.

… The Bulldogs open practice on Monday, and despite what coach Mark Richt finds in his latest investigation, this can’t be the way he’d hoped to go into the preseason. With so many different players involved in so many different incidents, although none of these issues rise to the level of being hardcore crime, it begs the obvious question: Does this team have the proper focus going into a season where everybody will be gunning for it?

Ultimately, that answer will come on the field. But having so much nonsense go down a few nights before the opening of preseason camp isn’t a good sign.

********************************************************************

UPDATE: Things appear to be settling down.  At least a little.

********************************************************************

UPDATE #2: Not so fast, my friends.

********************************************************************

UPDATE #3: Groo helps.  Because you can’t tell the (non-)players without a scorecard.

Advertisement

Preseason poll quirks and notes

OK, a few observations about that preseason Coaches’ Poll:

1.	Georgia (22)	11-2	1,438	3
2.	Southern California (14)	11-2	1,430	2
3.	Ohio State (14)	11-2	1,392	4
4.	Oklahoma (3)	11-3	1,329	8
5.	Florida (5)	9-4	1,293	16
6.	LSU (3)	12-2	1,163	1
7.	Missouri	12-2	1,143	5
8.	West Virginia	11-2	1,008	6
9.	Clemson	9-4	999	22
10.	Texas	10-3	979	10
11.	Auburn	9-4	888	14t
12.	Wisconsin	9-4	747	21
13.	Kansas	12-1	714	7
14.	Texas Tech	9-4	644	23
15.	Virginia Tech	11-3	568	9
16.	Arizona State	10-3	560	13
17.	Brigham Young	11-2	547	14t
18.	Tennessee	10-4	506	12
19.	Illinois	9-4	422	18
20.	Oregon	9-4	399	24
21.	South Florida	9-4	350	NR
22.	Penn State	9-4	313	25
23.	Wake Forest	9-4	203	NR
24.	Michigan	9-4	112	19
25.	Fresno State	9-4	91	NR

First, here’s the breakdown by conference of the top 25:

• SEC – 5 (3 in top 6; 4 in top 11)
• Big Ten – 5
• Big XII – 5 (all in top 14)
• Pac 10 – 3
• ACC – 3
• Big East – 2
• Mountain West – 1
• WAC – 1

If that holds up to any extent, it’s a big help for Ohio State.  The coaches hold the Big Ten in higher esteem than the average SEC fan does, that’s for sure.

Along the same lines, Georgia plays five teams ranked on that list.  The only other top 25 5 school that does that is Ohio State.

Missing in action from last year’s preseason top 25?  Texas A & M, Hawaii, Boise State, TCU, Florida State, Arkansas, Nebraska, UCLA, Rutgers, California and Louisville.

When’s the last time that Notre Dame failed to crack the preseason top 25 two years running?

Things are very bunched at the top, which is probably a leftover from the craziness of last season.  For comparison’s sake, Southern Cal collected 45 of the coaches’ first place votes in ’07 and no other school was in double digits.

Neither Pete Carroll nor Bob Stoops are listed as members of the group of 61 coaches who cast votes.

O Mumme Poll, o Mumme Poll, wherefore art thou?

Chip Towers blogged about the coaches’ poll and posted something that doesn’t make much sense to me.  First, he wrote

… And it is a well documented fact that the coaches are much more diligent about making their selections since it became a legitimate part of the BCS formula for determining a champion. Coach Mark Richt himself has talked often about how he sits up late on college football Saturday nights watching ESPN’s SportsCenter so he can be sure to see all the highlights of all the teams and make an informed decision when he has to turn in his poll on Sundays in the fall.

That’s not the part that makes me scratch my head.  That came when Towers went on to write that

… Richt did NOT pick the Bulldogs No. 1 on his poll. At SEC Media Days last week he said he was going to choose according to the consensus of all the preseason polls to that point. According to a composite poll compiled by the SEC media relations office, Ohio State was the consensus No. 1, followed by Southern Cal and then a tie between Georgia and Oklahoma.

So all this “diligent selection” amounted to was looking at what everyone else had to say about how the top teams look over a month before the first game will be played, throwing it all in a blender and pouring out the mixed results.

That’s not said to knock Richt.  His methodology strikes me as being as good as anyone else’s at this point.  It’s just a reminder of how flawed the preseason vote is by its very nature.

Any word on who Hal Mumme voted #1?