Okay, this year’s Fabris Pool has just been set up. Invites should be going out to everybody who participated last season. If you didn’t before, but want to do so now, click here. You’ve got until August 26th to sign up.
It’ll have the same format as last year’s pool – picking ten games against the spread.
Any questions, just let me know in the comments.
Filed under GTP Stuff
I think if I were representing the O’Bannon plaintiffs, I’d just submit this to the court along with my motion for summary judgment and call it a day.
The NCAA doesn’t even bother to fake a sense of shame.
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UPDATE: Looks like the reform process has commenced.
Filed under The NCAA
After all, it’s the marquee game of opening week:
Over/under on Manziel mentions?
Filed under ESPN Is The Devil
I read this and I’ve got one question:
Georgia largely stuck with a small rotation of veteran players along last season’s defensive line, but that practice created fatigue that Alabama obviously exploited in racking up 350 rushing yards against the Bulldogs in the SEC championship game. The Bulldogs’ coaching staff has vowed to rotate more players up front this fall — and Drew and Bailey are among the seven or eight players that Wilson hopes will figure heavily into that rotation.
But they have to prove to their new position coach that they deserve the opportunity, as neither player has been more than a role player thus far in his college career.
“[Wilson] mentioned it to me one time before that he likes competition within the players because if he puts you in a position and you’re not getting it done, he bumps someone else in there,” Drew said. “He wants you to take enough initiative to say, ‘OK, I’ve got to get my stuff together and win my spot back.’ So we look at it as a competition between the two players, but it’s actually just a way to make each other better.”
Exactly how much control does the position coach have over on-the-field personnel decisions? Ching is very careful to start that passage with “Georgia”, as opposed to Garner or Grantham, so I have no idea who deserves blame for last season’s player fatigue (an observation I agree with, by the way).
Obviously, I’d like to point the finger at Garner, since he’s the one who’s gone now, but is that fair? And if it’s not, how confident should we be that Grantham’s learned from last year’s experience and this year’s input from Wilson?
Filed under Georgia Football
Shorter Michael Rosenberg: Johnny Manziel shouldn’t challenge the NCAA’s amateurism rules because he doesn’t appreciate behaving stupidly the way I would if I were in his shoes.
Filed under Johnny Football Mania, Media Punditry/Foibles
Based on a statistical model that “predicts team revenues as a function of metrics related to team performance such as winning percentage and bowl participation”, the Emory Sports Marketing Analytics blog ranks Georgia’s fan base tops in the SEC.
The University of Georgia has the number one ranked football fan base in the SEC according to our study. It should be pointed out that this study covers a ten year period, and that the top four ranked schools in the SEC are also among the top ranked football fan bases in the country. So, what separates Georgia from Alabama? Over the period of our study, both Georgia and Alabama averaged between 9 and 10 wins a season. However, Georgia averaged 12% more in revenues per year than Alabama. Alabama also had a couple of years in the beginning of our sample (2002 & 2004) where the home games were not all filled to capacity. Thus, over the period of our study, when we control for team performance and other institutional factors, the Georgia fan base is just a bit more loyal and devoted.
Call it banged for the buck. It’s what powers McGarity’s revered reserve fund to be all it can be.
Filed under Georgia Football, It's Just Bidness
In his SEC preview, Matt Melton puts up a fascinating chart that perhaps sheds some light on why Georgia seems to get close but never quite there lately.
He goes on to break those totals down as follows:
That’s some clear separation there between Georgia and the elite teams in the conference. Much of it can be pinned on defenses that have done a subpar job of converting turnovers into touchdowns. The question is how much of the disparity can be attributed to luck and how much to design. (If it’s mainly the former, you’d have to say Richt is due.)
Off the top of my head, I can’t say with any certainty how much that’s cost the Dawgs over those six seasons. But it’s not hard to come up with one game where it sure as hell did.
Filed under Georgia Football, SEC Football, Stats Geek!
Lots of heat generated yesterday on the Intertubes about Les Miles’ decision to reinstate Jeremy Hill. On one level, I understand the outrage, but Miles hasn’t decided on Hill’s punishment yet, so for me, the jury is still out on that front.
But if you want a good place to direct some anger, I’ve got a suggestion on where to start.
Jackson noted that Hill had completed the conditions of his 2012 probation before he “sucker-punched” a man outside Reggie’s.
“That technically is a violation of probation,” she said.
The judge, who said she wanted to hear directly from Hill, then had a long back-and-forth exchange with the idled running back.
“There are a lot of people who want to speak on your behalf, but there are also a lot of people in the community who want to see you go to jail,” she said.
Jackson asked Hill why it is that some people “want to see you fail.”
“I made some mistakes in my life and they don’t think I deserve a second chance,” Hill replied.
The judge asked Hill if he has seen the cellphone video of himself punching a man in the side of the head outside Reggie’s.
“I just feel so terrible for what I did,” he answered. “I let my emotions get the most of me.”
Jackson suggested the video depicts a level of “arrogance” on Hill’s part because he is seen laughing after throwing the punch.
“To see you laughing about sucker-punching that young man, it struck people that, ‘I’m Jeremy Hill. I can do whatever I want. Ha ha ha.’ ”
The judge then proceeded to give him an additional penalty of 40 hours of community service and let him go with the proverbial “stern warning”. Gee, I wonder where Hill got the impression he can do whatever he wants.
The good news is that he intends to “continue to be a role model for the kids in the community.” His words. Seriously.
Filed under Crime and Punishment
Get The Picture 