BCS Busters busted.

It occurs to me looking at this blog post at the Orlando Sentinel that in one particular sense the mid-majors have won a battle.  None of the five schools listed there as potential gate crashers to the BCS title game play more than twice against BCS-conference opponents.  (Indeed, the main reason Tulsa and Nevada are on the list in the first place is because they have two such games that they’ll need to win to be considered relevant.)

But the two shiniest mid-major programs, TCU and Boise State, only have one game against a Big Six team, and while Boise’s is at least against a school that should be ranked in the top 25, TCU plays a Baylor team that finished last season on a four-game losing streak.  Yes, the two Mountain West schools do play each other, but that’s a pretty similar pattern among all five teams on that list.

In short, the bar appears to have been lowered.  Now maybe it’s not much lower than, say, what the eventual ACC champ will have to negotiate, but compared to the gauntlet that a school like Florida has to run (playing the other MNCs from the past five years back-to-back-to-back), that seems a little light.  Yet these two mid-majors are in the conversation with little reservation, it seems.

My point isn’t that they’re deserving or not.  That’s what playing the games is for.  It’s just that who they’ll be playing doesn’t seem to be as big an issue as it used to be.

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Lorenzo Mauldin and oversigning, ftw

Finally talked to Lorenzo Mauldin on Sunday. He dished on his break-up w/ S.Carolina & recently signing LOI w/ Louisville. Story Monday.

— Michael Carvell (@Carvell_AJC) March 21, 2011

Towers has done a terrific job following the Mauldin saga, so today’s followup should be of interest.  But in some ways, it seems we can say that things worked.  Mauldin was presented with viable choices which he weighed in making a decision to spurn his first pick.  While the timing certainly wasn’t ideal, the process in the end demonstrated the value to a recruit of taking the time to explore and understand his true options.

It’s a black eye – deservedly so – for South Carolina.  Going forward, will that have any impact on the super prospects like Clowney?  Of course not.  But Clowney’s not the type of recruit that Spurrier builds his overall class numbers on so that he can pick and choose at the end.  Those are going to be the Lorenzo Mauldins of the recruiting world.  There are a bunch of them every year.  And they’re going to hear a lot about how Mauldin’s and Montgomery’s recruiting went.  You have to hope that with more sunshine, there’s more rejection as a result.  If nothing else comes out of the SEC spring meetings in June, it would be nice to see Slive push for ways to make the process more visible to recruits so they and their parents can make better informed decisions.

If that happens, one positive result would be that coaches who don’t play fair would see that reflected in their efforts to oversign.  No, that’s not a be all and end all to the problem.  But it’s not a bad place to start.

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UPDATE: Michael Elkon adds some pertinent thoughts.

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UPDATE#2: Towers’ followup interview with Mauldin is here.  Money quote:

“South Carolina was, you know, planning on me signing with them after prep school,” said Mauldin, a 6-foot-4, 240-pound senior. “I don’t believe they thought I would make the [qualifying test] score. It kind of made me feel like they were wishing for me to not make the score.”

‘Ya think?

Stat puzzle of the day

I’ll grant you there weren’t a whole lot of statistical categories in which Georgia distinguished itself last season, but here’s one:  the Dawgs finished first in the conference in tackles for loss allowed.  Before you dismiss that by attributing it to Aaron Murray’s mobility, consider that Georgia finished second in 2009 and in 2008.

So that’s pretty consistent excellence with different quarterbacks.  Also, while Moreno made a living out of converting potential three-yard loss runs into positive yardage plays, nobody would confuse his successors with him in that department.

All of which begs the question:   how much credit to you give Searels and/or Bobo for that performance?  If it’s the former who deserves the kudos, we’ll have to wait and see if the coaching change has much of an impact.  If you don’t think either deserves praise, how do explain the high level that’s been maintained for several seasons?

Good to the last drop

As marketing ideas go, this one’s a bit of a head scratcher.

Although I suppose you can say the product has been road tested.