Mumme Poll: it’s the end of the season as we know it.

The season comes to an end Thursday night, and with it comes the last Mumme Poll ballot.  You’ll be able to cast a vote sometime shortly after the BCS title game is over until mid-afternoon on Saturday.  We’ll publish the final results Monday morning.

For those of you who participated last year, the final vote will be handled the same way this time.  For you newcomers, when you vote, you’ll see one change to the ballot format – the addition of a second tie breaker.  Instead of voting for a top five and a second group of seven, you’ll be asked to vote for a number one, then your grouping of 2-5 teams, then the group of seven.  The purpose of the added vote is to reduce the chance of a tie at number one even further (although I suspect with the greater number of voters this season, it’s probably superfluous).

We will be fine tuning the poll over the offseason, based on what we’ve observed this season and also from your feedback.  There will certainly be some posts about that over the next few months and I’ll invite your comments on any proposed changes we have in mind.  In the meantime, let me just say it’s been a gas hosting the MP again this season and a special thanks goes out to my 3SiB cohorts who made my life infinitely easier.  I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have.

Now, go think about whether a Georgia Tech team that lost two out of its last three games is worthy of top-twelve consideration…

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High anxiety, or how everything you thought you knew about the DC search is wrong.

According to Chris Low, things aren’t that far along in discussion between Mark Richt and Kirby Smart after all.

… Smart said earlier this week that he expected to be back at Alabama next season. But on Tuesday, he didn’t completely shut the door on going back to his alma mater, either.

Richt has talked to Smart about the job, but Smart says there’s never been a formal offer.

“I haven’t really talked to Mark much,” said Smart, who was the Broyles Award winner as the top assistant coach in the country this year. “To say I said ‘no’ to Mark … he’s not offered me anything. So that’s not really accurate. To be honest, with this game coming up, I haven’t even thought about it.”

In other words, no offer, no rejection, no dollar amount… no nothing.  Feel free to recalibrate your projections.

For the love of the game

Dan Wetzel (who will remain eternally on my shit list for quoting from a blog post of mine without attribution) has a great new suggestion for stirring up the playoff debate:  more Obama.

… Yet there is a simple, symbolic and time efficient way for Obama to make a statement against the exclusion and confusion of the Bowl Championship Series. When it comes time to invite the winner of Thursday’s BCS championship game – either Alabama or Texas – for the traditional trip to the White House, he can ask for the 14-0 Boise State Broncos to come also.

Wow.  It could be a teachable moment like Beerfest all over again!

I wonder what Wetzel would have to say if Chris Petersen politely declined the invite.

Meanwhile, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff reminds us about what really underlies the debate.

… Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said, “They’re elitists. They think they’re above it all. And if teams do well enough and go undefeated like Utah did last year and TCU and Boise State has done now two years in a row we may let you play for the table scraps. And it really is table scraps when you see the hundreds of millions of dollars that go out to all the conferences all the schools in the preferred conferences and how little bit the non-preferred schools get.”

Shurtleff is going to submit their findings to the department of justice in hopes they’ll take up the case, but he says Utah is also prepared to go it alone.

He says the case is about more than football. He says it’s also about the hundreds of millions of dollars that’s being denied some taxpayer run schools.

Lots of money in tough times is a recipe for government meddling.  Be careful what you wish for, playoff proponents.

It’s time to play “Name that Caption”, bowl edition.

Check out the picture from the debacle of a field that graced the Cap One Bowl.

That’s just ugly.

See you at DragonCon.

Methinks those plans for world domination have been put on hold.

Meanwhile, Dawg fans, pour yourself a glass of Tech’s salty tears and kick back with this: