The perfect is the enemy of SEC officiating.

Greg Sankey can kiss my ass with this sanctimonious horse crap.

In his book, Gridiron Genius, NFL executive, analyst and author Michael Lombardi offers this summary of football, “After is all said and done, football is really a game of surprises.”

And yet, in this game of surprises, we ask for perfection.

Perfection from our coaches and student-athletes, and perfection from the game officials who are called upon to instantly apply the rules in real time on every play.

The Southeastern Conference is entrusted with supporting an officiating program that is responsible for calling the games of our member schools. We take this duty most seriously.

We view perfection as our desired goal while also understanding it will always be an elusive standard in a game that is filled with surprises. And we are disappointed when we don’t get it right. Because our goal is to get it right, every time.

Nobody’s expecting perfection, Greggy.  What we are expecting is routine competency.  And you know where that starts?  With the SEC spending some of the loot rolling in from TV contracts on training, making officials full-time at their jobs, adding staff if it improves the work on the field, etc.

Maybe try setting your sights lower than some absurd desire for perfection and see where it gets you.  Assuming you really care, that is.

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And, here we go.

You had to figure with Florida and South Carolina jumping into the mix, Georgia wouldn’t be far behind.

Georgia is joining other states on ‘Fair Pay to Play’ push. State rep Billy Mitchell announced today that he will introduce legislation to allow college athletes to be compensated for their name, likeness and image.

— Eric Jackson (@epjackson) October 23, 2019

It’ll be interesting to see if this makes it to the hearing stage and, if so, who gets asked to testify.

Bowl eligibility über alles

Shameful.

Since 2006, these programs have scheduled more non-conference FCS opponents than Power 5

• Arkansas
• Arizona
• A&M
• Baylor
• Indiana
• Kansas
• Kansas St
• Minnesota
• Miss St
• NC St
• Ole Miss
• Oregon St
• Texas Tech
• Wazzu
• Wisconsin

— Pick Six Previews (@PickSixPreviews) October 23, 2019

And their ADs probably wonder why fans aren’t flocking to watch every week.  Go figure.

If at first you don’t succeed…

What the fuck…

A ruling by the NCAA after a lengthy investigation into Baylor University’s athletic department was supposed to be announced by the end of the summer, but the process may be pushed back to the beginning as part of a new procedure that changes the way investigations are conducted.

According to sources, in early August the NCAA informed Baylor that it may send its case to its newly created “independent adjudicative authority.”

This is a new form of rule and enforcement that is clear of the traditional NCAA’s Committee on Infractions that previously decided cases involving potential rules violations.

The NCAA opened an investigation into Baylor’s athletic department in June 2017 after the sexual assault scandal that led to the firing of football coach Art Briles in May 2016, and the eventual resignation of president Ken Starr.

In September 2018, it sent Baylor a “notice of allegations,” with charges against Briles and a “lack of institutional control” on the part of administrators.

Sources familiar with the process felt the case would be resolved in the spring of 2019, and then, at the latest, the summer.

On Aug. 1, the NCAA announced a new “Independent Accountability Resolution Process.” This was created after the recommendations were made by the Commission on College Basketball, which was chaired by former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice.

After more than two years, a complete do-over?  Leave it to the NCAA to come up with a way to make me feel at least somewhat sympathetic to Baylor.  I didn’t think that was possible.

Your 10.23.19 Playpen

I agree with Ted Cruz’ sentiment in this op-ed criticizing the NBA for kowtowing to China.

Whether it’s baseball in America, cricket in India or rugby in New Zealand, sports teams are influential in forming the identity of a nation and direction of a culture.

Yep.  It’s impossible to separate sports entirely from real world considerations because of that, too.

Which is why it was totally consistent for Cruz to push back on this.

Laura Ingraham says #LeBronJames should "shut up and dribble" and leave political comments to people who didn't leave high school a year early. pic.twitter.com/vwInOpZJZq

— Thomas Bishop (@bishopk0s) February 16, 2018

Oh, wait… he didn’t?

I’m picking on Cruz, because he’s a easy target here, but I could just as easily have taken a shot at that tool Clay Travis, who’s been just as hypocritical on the subject of keeping sports separate from life since the NBA botched this China thing.

The reality is that when people like those two claim they want that separation, what they really want is for people in sports not to express sentiments and opinions that vary from theirs.  That’s not how this is supposed to work.

Mama, I got ‘dem Plan B blues.

Contrary to Kirby’s benign state regarding Georgia’s offense, Nathan has a similar take to my thoughts.

While Kirby would probably tell you that a lot of this had to do with weather, even with the rain taken into account, I’m still confused about the play calling here. Over, by my count, 37 rushing plays run on the game, Georgia only ran 5 different concepts (and a poorly executed QB sneak). Even accounting for pre-snap motion and other window dressing, that number still seems pretty low. If, aesthetically, Georgia was a team that ran a myriad of motions, formations and disguises, a relatively simple conceptual game-plan would make sense. But this year, the Dawgs have been defined by their lack of formation variation, and have instead relied on talent to beat scheme. It’s clear that, seven games in, opponents have figured out that it’s hard for even the best five offensive lineman on the planet to block eight defenders. Ultimately, I’m befuddled by the idea that Coley and Smart haven’t figured out that particular subtraction problem.

Have they even tried?

… I think what it tells us, rather, is that UGA’s coaching staff must be more willing to coach situationally, as opposed to philosophically. Coaches love to quote the old Tyson soundbite about everyone having a plan until they get punched in the mouth as a way to support a reliance on their core principals. And maybe, as a play-caller in the moment, there is some truth to that. But I know if some idiot on the internet can see these tendencies, Todd Grantham can too.

The challenge for Smart and Coley isn’t what they’re going to do when they get punched, but what their plan is when they face consecutive A-gap run blitzes, or when there are 9 players wearing blue and orange crowding the box. And, so far as I can tell, that’s not a question for the Cocktail Party or the Auburn game, but the existential question for this team as whole.

Skipping existentialism for a second, the thing is that Todd Grantham is just as predictable in a macro sense as Coley is.  If you can’t dial up something to take advantage of that, what are they paying you for?

Operators are standing by.

You gotta love it.  Georgia’s postseason fate is far from settled, but that’s hardly stopping Butts-Mehre from doing the voodoo it do so well.

LOL.  “To positively influence” is the best new euphemism of the 2019 season.

Don’t miss the fine print, peeps.

So, on the one hand, if Georgia doesn’t salvage its season — something we won’t know until after November 1 — if you hand over the money, you may find that all you’ve done is pony up for a shot at some sweet Citrus Bowl ticket action.  On the other hand, if the Dawgs do get on a roll and play for the big stakes we’ve been accustomed to the past two seasons, you may very well find that your wallet isn’t as influential as others’ are.  Such a deal!

If all this has the tang of familiarity to it, it’s only because it does.

Wednesday morning buffet

Grab a plate and settle in.

• Kearis Jackson is Kirby Smart’s kind of player:  “He fights his butt off. He took a tough injury (broken hand at Vanderbilt) and came back, and he’s more excited about his block than catching the ball and doing anything with it.”
• Dan Mullen says his team is getting healthy in time for the Cocktail Party.
• Florida’s AD is tweeting for P5 opponents to schedule.  Mike Bianchi answers.
• The NCAA placed South Carolina’s football program on probation for one year after reaching a negotiated resolution agreement to close an investigation into impermissible off-campus contact between a Gamecocks assistant coach and a recruit in 2018.
• I can’t figure out if this header is more of a reflection on Gus or on Auburn.
• Tyson Campbell was back in practice yesterday, a hopeful sign.  Cager is described as “week-to-week”, which is not so hopeful.
• Seth Emerson on Georgia’s passing game scheming ($$):  “The indications in the days since the [Kentucky] game is that Georgia did plan to try more things but when the weather became a factor they decided to abandon that.”
• FSU’s AD denies the school would target Corch to replace Willie Taggart.

2019 Mumme Poll, Week 8

News flash:  there’s a new sheriff in town, boys and girls.

Ballots cast totaled 257, so, once again, there wasn’t a unanimous consensus around any single team this week.  Ballots averaged 9.1 teams this week, which has been consistent through all three polls.

Data dump time!

Here’s the breakdown by conference:

Here’s the time spent information:

Where we’re from:

74% of us picked the Astros to win the World Series.

Finally, some random observations:

• The first tier, defined by those teams appearing on at least 90% of all ballots, shrunk again.  Penn State sits by itself following that.
• It’s interesting to see Clemson’s decline in the MP follow that in the AP Poll.  (The Coaches Poll still has the Tigers second.)
• We’re still running Notre Dame behind Georgia, which is contrary to the other two.
• We’re way down on Utah, compared to the other two polls.  Familiarity bias, or something else?

Down is up and up is down.

According to Kirby Smart, everything we know about Georgia football right now is bass-ackwards.

A struggling offense?  Pshaw.

“I feel really good about what our offense does. I feel good about Jake. To judge it based on that game is just not very smart. It’s hard to judge anything in that game. You can’t evaluate that. What you’ve got to evaluate is what is your heart, what is your courage, what is your love of the game. Think about those wideouts in that game. That’s for the love of the game is what’s that for. George Pickens, Kearis Jackson, those guys going out there and block. That’s for the love of the game. You evaluate things based on what’s going on around them. What’s going on around them is a tough environment. I could have told you two days ago we weren’t going to go out there and throw it for 200 yards in those conditions. We had to put a plan together to give us the best chance to be successful. I thought we did a good job.”

It’s all about love, baby.

Meanwhile, that defense — you know, the one that’s on pace to some things it’s never done, historically speaking — it’s pretty good, right?

Wrong, bacon breath.

Kirby Smart had some choice words about Georgia's defensive performance against Kentucky… pic.twitter.com/dSjoYOfGIP

— DawgPost (@Dawg_Post) October 22, 2019

“Extremely sloppy in the last game, and you know, it’s sad, because you guys control the noise. But when you watch that tape, there’s a lot more concern. Tackling, gap fits, if you went to a coach and said ‘watch this game,’ they would come in and say, ‘that is atrocious, tackling, fits, eye discipline, leverage, blockers,’ but walking around, whistling by the graveyard that everything is fine and we’re just OK, and we’ve got good defensive numbers, and that’s not the case when you watch the true integrity of it. You can’t judge it based on, number one, statistics, you can’t judge it based on a kid playing in the pouring down rain that’s not a quarterback, so, we haven’t been tested in that regard.”

No love there.  Kirby’s worried about rat poison.  So forget what you think, Dawgnation.