Because I’m having a very hard time believing this lies within the realm of possibility:
https://twitter.com/#!/RobbieAndreu/status/145245625531895808
At what point does Jeremy Foley bury his face in his hands and ask, “what have I gotten myself into here?”
Filed under Gators, Gators...
ESPN recruiting analyst Jamie Newberg writes that even with the short recruiting window, Freeze should be familiar with a lot of the targets on Ole Miss’ recruiting board because he was chasing the same players while at Arkansas State. [Emphasis added.]
That’ll get you to 0-8 in a hurry in the SEC West.
Filed under Recruiting, SEC Football
Actually, the NCAA can’t even do that, as it’s granted Ohio State permission to exceed the limit on coaching staff members through bowl season. I gather from the reaction at other schools that this isn’t normal, despite the assurances to the contrary from Ohio State’s assistant AD for compliance.
I can understand the NCAA’s reasoning here. If Gene Smith couldn’t properly monitor one coaching staff, is it really going to matter if you give him two to supervise?
Filed under The NCAA, Urban Meyer Points and Stares
Say what you will about Jeff Sagarin and his role in picking a football national champion, he’s spot on about this: “There are so many conflicts of interest in coaches. People who say coaches would never let personal interests get in the way of their vote — give me a break. That’s a joke.”
That’s not exactly conjecture on his part, either. There’s a study which suggests just that.
… The researchers studied bias in the poll by calculating the difference between the coaches’ poll and the BCS computer based ranking system, in addition to the deviation between individual coaches’ ballots and the average rankings of approximately 60 coaches’ ballots. Both statistical approaches demonstrated that coaches’ votes were biased by as much as two spots in favor of their team, as much as one spot in favor of teams in their athletic conference, and as much as half a spot in favor of teams they had defeated.
And – surprise! – that’s pretty much how things played out this year.
In the final 2011 coaches’ poll released on Dec. 4, coaches from Auburn, LSU, Georgia and South Carolina all voted fellow Southeastern Conference (SEC) team Alabama second while coaches from Baylor, Oklahoma, Iowa State and Texas Tech all voted fellow Big 12 team Oklahoma State second. LSU will play Alabama in the National Championship Game Jan. 9 in New Orleans.
It’s not just that familiarity breeds respect in the Coaches Poll. Money talks, too.
… The financial incentives led the coaches of teams in the six BCS conferences to rank the teams in their conference higher if those teams were on the cusp of receiving a bowl game invitation, and non-BCS coaches to rank non-BCS conference teams higher. The study found that a payoff of between 3.3 and five million dollars resulted in an increased ranking of one position, and larger payoffs had an even greater effect.[Emphasis added.]
“I became interested in this study not just because of football but because studying conflicts of interest are a much bigger phenomenom in all aspects of economics and political activity,” Kotchen said. He added that the study’s results made him skeptical that voters can control their biases.
Skeptical, schmeptical. Obviously Kotchen hasn’t been talking to the right people.
Like Grant Teaff, for example.
“Is it perfect — of course not,” Teaff said. “Is there bias? Of course the coaches think highly of their teams. That’s not bias. If they weren’t that way, they wouldn’t keep their jobs.”
He added that “even with its frailties” the poll has been “amazingly accurate” throughout its 62-year history.
The idea that a coach might lose his job over failing to rank his team highly enough in the Coaches Poll is ludicrous. If what Teaff suggests were really true, you’d have coaches fighting to vote in the poll for their own job security.
BCS shill Bill Hancock has Teaff’s back.
”As for Sagarin’s criticism of the coaches, Hancock says, “The coaches’ poll results are very similar to the results of the media poll. So clearly the group is doing something right. I think conflicts of interest are exaggerated.”
Yeah, clearly Hal Mumme was right. The rest of us are idiots.
Filed under BCS/Playoffs, College Football, Mumme Poll
Just a few random nibbles to whet your appetite:
Nice clip put together by the folks at georgiadogs.com of every touchdown pass Aaron Murray has thrown this season.
I love ’em all, although I’d have to say my favorite toss of the year wasn’t for a TD – the fourth quarter pass to Conley in Jacksonville takes the cake for sheer ballsiness. Your favorite(s) would be?
Filed under Georgia Football
Couple of interesting tweets popped up last night:
https://twitter.com/#!/marcweiszer/status/144987280816353281
https://twitter.com/#!/ajcuga/status/144986725356277762
Why, you may wonder, would McGarity have to answer a question like that? Well, maybe because of this:
An A&M insider said Richt is in the mix to possibly replace Mike Sherman, who was fired last week after four seasons and a 25-25 record. And Richt certainly fits the bill of someone who knows the Southeastern Conference — the Aggies’ destination next season — inside and out.
Richt, 51, is in his 11th season with the Bulldogs, and won SEC championships in 2002 and ’05. The insider said should the Aggies hire Richt, Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart likely would then head home to Georgia, where he played for the Bulldogs.
Now before you go jumping to conclusions (as many message board denizens did last night), ask yourself a question: how would “an A & M insider” know whom Georgia would hire if Richt left?
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UPDATE: Poor ol’ Kirby. Foiled again.
Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity said he opened contract-extension talks this morning with coach Mark Richt and again shot down rumors linking Richt to the coaching opening at Texas A&M.
“I had a conversation with Mark,” McGarity told the AJC. “He wants to be our coach. We want him to be our coach.”
As for the Texas A&M rumors, McGarity said he had not been contacted by Aggies athletic director Bill Byrne and would have been if A&M were pursuing his coach.
“You don’t waste your time on [rumors] that have no legs,” said McGarity, who added that he has zero doubt Richt will be Georgia’s coach next season and beyond.
“We just know Mark is going to be our ‘ball coach,” McGarity said.
After the extension is signed, what do you think the next rumor will be? My money’s on Richt intending to retire well before the end of the contract because of his religious convictions.
Filed under Georgia Football
Get The Picture 