Daily Archives: October 10, 2023

Finger pointing about finger pointing

Greg Sankey:

How do you further modernize college athletics, acquiescing to understandable demands over the industry’s money-making giant (football) while preserving the uniqueness of Olympic-style college sports? And can you do it before others — federal judges, state lawmakers and plaintiff lawyers — do it for you?

“That question,” Sankey says, “is as important as any right now.”

“People say college athletics has been slow to adapt. Well, yes, but it has adapted,” he continues. “I’ll accept the finger pointed at us in college athletics, but that finger points back at society. Not everything should change quickly.”

Yes, it’s our fault schools aren’t allowed to continue violating antitrust law.  Well, you know what I have to say about that, Greg.

30 Comments

Filed under Blowing Smoke, SEC Football

The Mumme Poll is back, baby!

Screenshot_2019-09-30 (1) Senator Blutarsky ( MummePoll) Twitter And it feels so good.

For those who’ve never participated before, and for those who have but need a refresher, here are the ground rules:

  • Mumme Poll ranking is determined by approval voting.  You don’t submit a ballot ranking the teams in some subjective order.  You do not designate a particular team as your choice for number one, unless, of course, you limit your ballot to one team.  You simply list the number of teams you think are worthy of consideration and teams are ranked on the basis of the total number of ballots on which they appear in a given week.
  • There are no restrictions on the number of teams you choose to place on your ballot.  If you want to choose a top 25 every week, be my guest (just realize we won’t pay any attention to your order).  If you want to select a potential playoff field of twelve or four teams, that’s fine, too.  If you think Alabama and Georgia are college football’s shiznit, buddy, have at it.
  • Don’t try to game the process.  Don’t submit more than one ballot a week.  Do not list a particular school more than once on a given ballot.  Don’t list your favorite team along with the 23 worst teams in college football.  We do toss questionable votes.

Sounds easy, right?  For any newbies out there reading this, it may seem strange and against all your natural instincts as a way to rank college football teams, but trust us, approval voting works.  Plus, the real beauty of this is that you won’t have to spend any time weighing the difference between the nineteenth-best and twentieth-best teams in the country.  By the time you reach season’s end, barring a return to 2007-like chaos, you’ll probably be able to assemble your ballot in less than a couple of minutes.  It doesn’t get much easier than that.  (We don’t have to rent a conference room in Texas and fly all the voters out there each week, either.)

Of course, if we’re lucky, 2023 will continue to shape up as a year of 2007-like chaos.  Eh, probably not.

Anyway, here are the weekly logistics:

  • Starting this weekend, I will put up a post at GTP every Sunday morning with a link to the week’s ballot.
  • The ballot contains the names of the D-1 programs you can vote for.  Choose as many as you want to place on your ballot.  Whatever number of teams you include will be all that counts.  Also, you’ll need to answer the question at the end of the ballot for security purposes.  Give us a valid email address where indicated and you’re good to go.
  • You have two days to vote.  We’ll chew on our individual ballots in a Tuesday post and the poll results will be posted every Wednesday.

That’s all for now.  Keep an eye on this space come Sunday.

12 Comments

Filed under Mumme Poll

Eh, who needs divisions, anyway?

Welcome to another edition of unforeseen circumstances.

These things have a way of working themselves out from a College Football Playoff perspective, but there are some potential scenarios that could leave the selection committee members stewing over their steak and jalapeño creamed corn when the meetings commence later this month in Dallas…

Three undefeated teams in the ACC (11). It could happen, because the three current unbeatens in the league don’t play one another in the regular season. And wouldn’t that be glorious?

That would be FSU, Louisville and North Carolina.  And I’m not sure “glorious” would be the word I’d use for that.  Anyway, a thought here:  the team that gets left out is in better shape than the loser of the conference championship game, no?  They’d still be undefeated.

Just like they drew it up, I’m sure.

Can’t wait for a similar scenario to hit the new SEC.

34 Comments

Filed under ACC Football, BCS/Playoffs

Hey, look who’s back on social media!

You knew Junior couldn’t stay away too long.

Before you ask, Ole Miss travels to Auburn next.  We’ll see if the game has the Laner’s attention.  In the meantime, what’s a little shit stirring between peers?

17 Comments

Filed under Don't Mess With Lane Kiffin

Bullshit, the last refuge of the incompetent

With Saturday night’s loss, Mark Stoops now has a career mark of 0-11 against Georgia.  At least he says he has a reason for that now.

NIL has been around for, what, two, three years?  What’s the excuse before then?  (What’s really amusing about that question is that his first year at Kentucky was the year Gurley got suspended for paid autographs.)

And just for shits and giggles, whom exactly has Georgia been outbidding Kentucky for when it comes to players?  They don’t exactly fish in the same waters.

And it ain’t just Georgia.

Anyway, I’m sure Kirby Smart is the kind of person to forgive and forget a shot like that.  Or maybe not…

66 Comments

Filed under Georgia Football, It's All Just Made Up And Flagellant, SEC Football

What. A. Throw.

Check out Beck’s first touchdown toss Saturday night, from the vantage point behind and above him:

Wow.  Everything about that play — the route, the pass, the timing — was absolutely perfect.  To repeat, wow.

36 Comments

Filed under Georgia Football