I confess that I’ve been a little slack on the Mandel Mailbag beat of late (so has Elkon, I might add in my defense), but his latest offering produced a chuckle. A reader asks him about the two most overrated programs that Chris Stassen identified, which turn out to be Oklahoma and FSU. Mandel responds with two lengthy paragraphs which boil down to “yeah, they’ve both been substandard lately”… but nary a word about what that means in the public perception arena. (As a refresher, this is Mandel’s current list of “Kings”: Alabama, Florida, Florida State, LSU, Miami, Michigan, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Penn State, Texas and USC.)
I guess in Montana, it’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how they think you’ll play the game.
Get The Picture 
Any fan of The Wire knows “the king stay the king”.
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The persistence of the programs that he labeled as elite at the top of the preseason rankings is actually a confirmation of his view of the world. Certain programs are famous and get the benefit of the doubt, while there is a lag effect in recognizing a team like Oregon that is playing at an elite level. The irony is that Mandel is perpetuating the process of overrating name programs by devoting so much attention to the kings and barons categories.
Personally, I’ve spent less time criticizing Mandel’s writing because his reasoning has been consistently better. That said, I’m surprised that you didn’t latch onto his claim that the SEC isn’t interested in improving league schedules, given how much discussion has taken place about a nine-game conference slate.
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Mandel needs to leave Big Game Bob and Jimbo alone.
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Someone’s going to have to replace the King of Conventional Wisdom when he retires. Does that make Mandel the Baron of Conventional Wisdom?
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Why not put Tony Bagels and Mandel in a steel cage and let ’em fight it out for the self-anointed titles?
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The inclusion of Penn St caught my eye first, but that is far less egregious than the inclusion of Miami. Miami?!? Has he been watching football the past 5 years?
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