Where’s the outrage?

So, yeah, the American Football Coaches Association has announced with great fanfare today that it’s making some changes to the Coaches’ Poll, most notably this:

Do not release the individual coach’s ‘final end of the [regular] season’ ballot. Gallup recommended the voting process remain confidential. Historically, until four years ago, the AFCA kept the ballot confidential.  (The AFCA does not restrict a coach from releasing his ballot).

The AFCA Board decided to delay the implementation of the confidential ballot for one year, until the 2010 season, to coincide with the current BCS bowl cycle.

I’m trying to work up the appropriate level of outrage over this, but I’m having trouble getting there.  Certainly, it’s a tone deaf decision in terms of public perception, but it’s not as if the coaches haven’t been above making biased voting decisions during the period when the final regular season poll ballots have been released.  None of the remaining regular season ballots were released, either.  The decision will deprive me of an annual blog post where I get to mock some of the voting, so I guess there’s that to tick me off.

That’s not to say that AFCA’s claim that this will improve the Coaches’ Poll isn’t total BS, because it is.

There is an interesting part to the press release, though.  It involves two recommendations that the folks at Gallup made that aren’t being implemented, naturally.

•    Reduce to 10 or 15 the number of teams ranked.

•    Evaluate with other shareholders in college football the value of a preseason poll.

I find those to be excellent suggestions that would improve the quality of the poll.  As we’ve learned here with the Mumme Poll voting, it’s much easier to evaluate 10-15 schools than it is 25 – and we’re not coaches who likely don’t have the time to spend evaluating that many programs every week.  And preseason polls are at best worthless and at worst a contributor to stacking the deck against schools who start out ranked lower than they should, based on their play.

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Other schools’ money question

How are you going to get the BCS and non-BCS conferences to agree to share revenues more equitably, when all of the BCS conferences can’t even agree to revenue share amongst themselves?

As I like to say, it’s so easy.

Knowing your audience

Let’s give it up for Tennessee associate athletic director Bud Ford, who, in defending the need for printed media guides in the current era of cost cutting, had this to say:

“I realize there is money to be saved, but in reality, you’re still reading the newspaper when you go to the bathroom,” he said. “You don’t take a zip drive. I think people physically want an item in their hands, in their library or at their desk that they can quickly grab if they need to answer a question.”

Besides, you can’t wipe your ass with a zip drive when you run out of toilet paper in your outhouse.

A little gratitude, a little hero worship

At the risk of sounding like a complete and utter dork, I found this post at Rex Robinson’s blog really neat.

First off, from Robinson’s standpoint, how great is it to (1) have the opportunity to nail a game winner on the road with just a few seconds left; (2) pull it off; (3) find out subsequently that the play is the centerpiece of one of Munson’s iconic game calls and (4) get to sit down with Munson and talk about the whole thing?

And for Larry, it’s got to be gratifying to hear the appreciation from a former player like Robinson for helping to make the moment what it was and will always be.

As I’ve said before, I’d followed Georgia football before, but that game was what really hooked me on the program.  I wasn’t even at the game – I was standing in front of a radio in somebody’s kitchen during a party with some friends listening to Munson make that fourth quarter almost apocalyptic.  You felt like the fate of the universe was being decided as Larry agonized over the clock.  And then came the topper, that cathartic “yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!” call.

It doesn’t get any better than that.

Anyway, read the post.  And throw a little thanks Messrs. Robinson’s and Munson’s way.

Scheme über alles.

If Heisman Pundit were a Vegas book, he’d be overwhelmed with action about now.

At Auburn, Malzahn will have a bit more talent at his disposal.  Heading into the fall, both Neil Caudle and Kodi Burns have a shot to be the quarterback.  If history is any guide, one of these guys will probably lead the SEC in passing in 2009.

Oy.

Everybody’s a comedian…

at the SEC Spring Meetings.

Take the Nuttster, for example.

Ole Miss’ Houston Nutt joked that he was going to get to the meeting room early “to get a good seat.”

Or Bobby Petrino.  (Bobby Petrino has a sense of humor?  Who knew?)

“I’ve laughed about it, it has put a smile on my face,” said Petrino, who was on the staff with Kiffin with the Jacksonville Jaguars in the NFL. “Maybe if we want to quit talking about it, those guys (Meyer and Kiffin) can go jump in that Ultimate Fighting ring. That would sell some tickets.”

On the other hand, this sounds kinda awkward.

… As the coaches were filtering out of their meeting room and waiting for an elevator, a reporter informed Spurrier that Kiffin, albeit jokingly, had said earlier in the day that he never got an apology from Spurrier about questioning whether Kiffin had taken the recruiting test.

Spurrier sighed, slumped his shoulders and then wheeled around toward Kiffin, who was standing about five feet away waiting on the same elevator.

“I didn’t accuse you of cheating,” said an animated Spurrier, motioning toward Kiffin, who stood there with his face reddening by the second.

“What I said was, ‘Was it permissible to call recruits before you were announced head coach and had taken the (recruiting) test?’ Now, you took the test online, and I didn’t even know you could do that. I thought you had to take the test on campus … and then start calling (recruits).”

Yeah, that meeting today with Slive and the coaches ought to be a real hoot.  I bet Junior sits in the back of the room.