The SEC, Statistically Speaking

Matt Melton, at his fine blog Statistically Speaking, has posted his statistical breakdown of the SEC’s last season here.  Essentially, he ranks each team in the conference based on how its performance gaining yardage and stopping yardage in conference games only ranks against the mean.

Here’s how Matt breaks it down:

Not a whole lot of surprises there, really.  The biggest one is LSU’s poor showing.  And we thought the defense in Athens stunk last year!  Rich Brooks probably deserves a little more love than we give him for getting a team with those numbers to a bowl game (and winning it).

There’s lots of other good stuff in there – Ole Miss’ passer ratings over the past five years, the percentage of passing plays Arkansas ran over the past five seasons, Jon Gruden’s likely feelings about Junior and LSU’s prospects for next season – that’ll make you take a moment to think about.  It’s an interesting post worth your attention.

Profiles in hope and change

One thing about Washington – the capacity for dumbness there seems boundless.  And nobody’s ashamed about it, either.

… Rep. Joe Barton, a conservative Republican, does not agree with President Barack Obama on many issues.

Barton told The Dallas Morning News Editorial Board Wednesday that he hoped Obama would prevail on one matter.

They both want a playoff system for college football.

“If he’ll just help me get a BCS championship playoff, that little thing alone will go a long way,” Barton said.

Barton claims, by the way, that Obama’s already assured him that he’ll sign Barton’s BCS bill if it gets to the President’s desk.

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UPDATE: Teh stoopid, it burns.  Start with this moment of genius…

Is the timing right to attempt to change or destroy the BCS system?

“The timing, I think, is really good because number one we just had the NCAA championship basketball game that North Carolina won, so people know that it is possible to actually determine the national championship on the field or on the court, as the case may be…”

And that won’t be the case next year, or the year after? (Maybe it’s just because North Carolina won.)

Finish up with this…

On if Congress should be involved in sports (like with baseball and steroids) or worry about more important issues:

“In terms of the BCS system, they’ve had ten years to get it right…”

Shit, by that line of reasoning, he and his colleagues should have been all over the automobile industry decades ago.

Enough, already!

No program deserves this much bad karma (personally, I blame Michael Adams, but you can assign the fault wherever you like):

Who, other than A.J. Green, will catch passes for Georgia this season?

That question, asked throughout spring practice as the Bulldogs seek to replace the production of the graduated Mohamed Massaquoi, became more problematic Wednesday when the team learned that rising senior Kris Durham will undergo shoulder surgery and miss the 2009 season.

“Depth is a concern for me, for us, at the receiver position,” offensive coordinator Mike Bobo said.

No kidding, Coach.

On the other hand, if you’re one of those “one door closes, another one opens” types, this ought to get you excited.

If he stays healthy, of course.