Katz brings the pain...goodnight Corby Jones

More rhetoric from the Orlando Sentinel...

I'll give the Orlando Sentinel newspaper credit for this, they produce some entertaining drivel on their college sports blog. First it was Mr. Tim Stephens explaining to us how the SEC will takeover college football, and then the world.

Now I come across another story describing the obvious prospect of an SEC television network. I found a few things interesting about the latest from the zealots down south...

The SEC is a league that is often guided by tradition. For example, the league has often refused to abandon the Sugar Bowl despite a slew of media relations disasters and (of course) the aging of the Louisiana Superdome. Were it not for the SEC, the Sugar Bowl would be out of the BCS already.

I find the notion that the SEC sticks with the Sugar Bowl out of tradition and yet considers the Rose Bowl an "abomination and all that is wrong with college football" a tad hypocritical. I also find it a bit ridiculous that this dude (Alan Schmadtke) thinks the Sugar Bowl is somehow in danger of being cast aside? Huh?

Sweet Al throws in some subtle cheap shots also...

To compare the Big Ten Network with a potential SEC Network, the Big Ten has one advantage: basketball. Midwest fans flock to Big Ten games on TV during hoops season. The SEC’s advantage: baseball. The SEC is always one of college baseball’s best conferences; the Big Ten, not so much.

So let me just make sure I understand this, you're having a discussion about college sports television networks and you use this as a way to call Big Ten baseball lame? That's a nice reach. I'm impressed. By the way college baseball isn't played in domes. Oklahoma ('94) is the only non-coastal university to win the CWS since 1990 . We all get it, college baseball is dominated by warm weather schools.

He also threw in some comments about the popularity of college basketball earlier in the post but clearly superiority in college baseball takes precedent. There's a reason CBS paid billions for the NCAA basketball tourney and you're scarcely aware of the CWS on ESPN.

Is it just me or does it always come back to the SEC and the Big Ten? Am I wrong? If I'm not, why is that exactly?

Anyway the last noteworthy quote I will provide is the following...

Back when I was young and stupid -- not so long ago, actually -- I believed college football would be better off (or at least more entertaining, dramatically speaking) if Notre Dame’s program went into the tank. Having watched it happen, now I believe the opposite. Although I fundamentally oppose some of the concessions and automatic qualifiers the BCS has given Notre Dame, the sport is better off when the Irish are winning.

I couldn't agree more. While nothing is more gratifying then seeing Notre Dame lose to the likes of Navy, you can't have that for very long. As this windbag states, college football is better when ND is in the mix. You've got to have a "bad guy". Fortunately, the SEC has filled that void while Notre Dame has been in the shitter. I'm guessing the Irish will resume their position in the general hierarchy sooner rather then later.

Hopefully I am in the only one sensitive enough to be annoyed by this garbage.

DID YOU SEE THAT?

One of the more bizarre plays you will ever see in baseball. Yankee's outfielder John D. Damon appeared to make the catch at the wall. However, he actually tipped Kevin Youkilis' fly ball onto the top of the outfield wall at Yankee Stadium where it sat for a few seconds before rolling off the wall and back into the field of play.

Damon slammed into the fence and laid on the ground for a few moments before realizing the ball wasn't in his glove, but rather sitting on the warning track. The best part of the play is the fan on the other side of the wall yelling at Damon to get the ball while pointing at it.

Actually, I take that back. The best part of the play is Yankees' announcer Michael Kay yelling "HE MAKES THE PLAY!" and then seeing the ball fall onto the warning track a second later. You won't see that in the highlight but it was hilarious.

Cincinnati's own Kevin Youkilis turned it into a triple and Damon left the game.

Tune into another obnoxious episode of Sportscenter for the highlight and 40 mins. of analysis on the ramifications of this singular moment in baseball.

Happy Birthday America.

Bearcat football. Feel it!

Two interesting notes from the exciting world of UC football , from the Cincinnati Enquirer Bearcat blog.



- First, the saga of (former?) QB Ben Mauk continues as he is still appealing the NCAA for another year of eligibility. After he is inevitably shot down by the NCAA he will take his fight to the Supreme Court and then the United Nations.



- Second, the heartwarming story of a boy coming home. Former University of Minnesota defensive lineman Alex Daniels has been cleared to join the Bearcats. The heavily recruited Alex Daniels out of Columbus Brookhaven was booted off the Minnesota football team after he and three other "Gophers" were charged with sexual misconduct. Mr. Daniels used his cell phone to record teammate Dominic Jones having sex with a woman whose blood-alcohol level was estimated to be over .30% and considered "physically unresponsive". Big Al and two other teammates allegedly had sex with the same woman earlier that night before DJ did.

Grand! Welcome back to the Buckeye state Alex!


Daniels was the Co-Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week in September of 2006 along with some Ohio State QB named Troy Smith.

Doss is boss.

Celebrate independence, spark it!

Love it or leave it. Happy 4th of July!

ESPN = Tiger Beat magazine

First it was ESPN running video of Shaq that had originally aired on TMZ. Then you had the talking heads on ESPN Radio running with a story about A-Rod and Madonna and quoting OK! magazine.

Now the Worldwide Leader has this headline on their website:

A-Rod, wife splitting up after five years

CRIPES! Enough already with this garbage.

Hey ESPN, what does Lindsay Lohan have to say about A-Rod's divorce? How about Nicole Richie? Is she all busted up over this too?

How about some fuckin' scores and stats instead of General Hospital?

Nauseating.

UGA, the footnotes

A supplement to the Georgia synopsis, here are a few more unedited notes from the stream of consciousness...

- One of the more annoying and ridiculous complaints I saw in the fallout of the 2007 college football season was the notion that the Rose Bowl somehow prevented the world from a USC-UGA matchup. Anyone that knows shit about how BCS bowl participants are selected knows that there was simply no chance whatsoever for those two teams to meet in any bowl.

The Rose Bowl, having lost top-ranked Ohio State to the national title game likely had first selection and wisely went with the hometown team, Southern Cal. The Trojans it should be noted were available because they crapped down their leg against 41-point underdog Stanford and also lost to Oregon. That's a different discussion for a different time though.

As I understand it, the Rose Bowl would then have to wait until all the other non-title-game BCS bowls selected a team before they picked USC's opponent. The next to make a selection would be the Sugar Bowl, since they too had lost their conference champion to the national title game.

Raise your hand if you think the Sugar Bowl would pass on a strong SEC team to participate in their bowl game so that said team could go face USC in the Rose Bowl?

If you raised your hand you should now lower it rapidly into your groin area because you deserve the punishment.

So for the last time, there was no way on earth that USC and UGA were going to face each other in a bowl game. If that's really what everyone wanted to see, maybe they should have cheered louder when those two teams were losing to South Carolina, Tennessee, STANFORD, and Oregon.

- A great quote from the venerable University of Georgia President, Michael Adams during his summit with the Premier of Pundits, James Carville. "I have good friends (there), I have two degrees from Ohio State, I love Ohio State," he said. "But this is not a way to serve the country.""

Ugh.

Serve the country? Seriously Mike? That's the verbiage you're going to use?

Shall I point out that we are in time of war? Whether or not you agree with the referenced military action is immaterial. People literally die in defense of the United States every day. You're going to sit there and talk about how best to "serve the country" within the context of a college football discussion?

Of course, his comments are lifted out of the larger conversation so I will not come down too hard. It is sad that someone in Mike Adam's position within our educational system would even consider a college football playoff somehow "serving the country". A little perspective is in order Mike, you colossal shithead.

- On a related note, someone told me that UGA President Michael Adams is a descendant of the ancient order of the Druids.

- Here's a fun fact. University of Georgia Grand Prytanis Michael Adams voted against a playoff plan proposed by University of Florida president Bernard Machen LAST YEAR. The UGA Grand Wizard defended his apparent flip-flop by stating that the BCS has produced "bad matchups" most of the time, and "this year was the tipping point".

Oh that's funny Miguel, you didn't seem to need a playoff last year when your team wasn't all that good?

Further comment from Georgia's highest paid hypocrite, "The Rose Bowl is certainly within their rights. It's a great event, a great tradition," he said. "But I think the Cotton Bowl or the Chik-fil-A -- assuming the other three bowls went along and the Rose Bowl didn't -- I think we could find a fourth bowl to come in and do what I've suggested."

So basically what Don Quixote is saying is that if the Rose Bowl doesn't want to acquiesce to the SEC, they'll find some other shitty little bowl game that will. That brings us to another point that we will discuss further in the future.

What the SEC doesn't realize and understand, is that it NEEDS the other conferences to legitimize its own dominance in college football. Despite what these half-wits believe, no one wants to see Georgia vs. LSU in the title game. No one wants to see Florida vs. Auburn in the title game. Sure, there will be plenty of TV's tuned into that game in the southeast. The SEC grossly overestimates its draw around the rest of the country.

- It is obvious that the SEC is not satisfied with one participant in the title game. It’s not even satisfied with winning the national title game. The SEC demands validation of its greatness by having BOTH participants in the final contest. Of course, the only way that’s going to happen is through a playoff.

- Georgia was down 28-0 to West Virginia in their home state two years ago before rallying to make the Sugar Bowl tight. They didn’t finish the job.

GO AWAY.

We've had enough. Don't come back.

Stupid Stats; What's a blowout?

The great outrage of our time is that Ohio State has made it to the national title game two years in a row and two years in a row been pasted. Following these routs, the unwashed masses feel disappointed and of course, seek someone to blame. That's what we do best in this great nation, assign blame.

While the 2007 title game was not quite as brutal as the previous game, there is no denying that Ohio State was beaten soundly. Only a late meaningless touchdown kept the score respectable. However, it was a score that goes in the record books so we should not discount it completely.

The truth is you cannot just look at a score and know whether or not a game was lopsided. Our good friends to the north beat Florida soundly in the 2008 Citrus Bowl. However, everyone's favorite maize and blue blowhard Mike Hart dropped the ball TWICE going into the endzone. Instead of winning by three TD's, the Wolverines only one by one. A blowout? I guess not. Thanks Mike Hart. Shithead.

For the purposes of this lame post we'll use the Buckeyes' 38-24 loss to LSU as the standard. Just looking at last year's bowl games how many were decided by 14 points or more? How prevalent are "blowouts" when it comes to bowl games?

I'll start with this fun fact. Almost HALF of the BCS national title games have been "blowouts" according to the specified measure. That's five out of 11 title games to be specific. Unfortunately the Buckeyes have produced two of those games.

Four out of the five BCS bowl games were "blowouts" last season. Only the Orange Bowl, a riveting contest between college football Goliath Kansas and Virginia Tech produced a compelling contest. I'm sure four out of five is above average for BCS games but there have certainly been plenty of ass-whompings in these exhibitions over the last 11 years.

Of the remaining 27(!) bowl games, nine were decided by two TD's or more. Yes math majors, that's one third.

So to sum up here, 41% of the bowl games were "blowouts" last year.

While there is no doubt that Ohio State's efforts in the previous two title games have been disappointing, it is not as if lopsided bowl games are a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence. I am not excusing anything, I'm just saying these things happen more often then you might think.

Of course, winning one of these games would probably render this conversation meaningless.

Mighty Georgia 2007, A Synopsis

Since I will be taking plenty of shots at Georgia and the SEC in general over the coming months, years, decades, millennia, it would be beneficial to take a look back at last season and see what the Bulldogs accomplished, and didn't accomplish as the case may be. Here are a few fun facts about the 2007 Georgia Bulldogs.

The 2007 season was a tale of two halves for UGA. The first half featured a very young and mediocre Bulldogs squad that dropped two games before catching fire in the second half. No team finished the season stronger then Georgia.

The first half went like this:

- Beat Oklahoma State 35-14. Clearly this wasn't a Cowboys team operating at their peak though. This was months before the "I'M A MAN!" rant. Everyone knows Okie State was infinitely better after that nonsense.

- LOST to South Carolina 16-14 at home. The Gamecocks finished the season 6-6 and home for the holidays. Spurrier could have taken his team to Vancouver for the Albatross Bowl but decided a round of golf at Augusta was the better option.

SIDE NOTE: Just as a basis of comparison, we should note that the Buckeyes caught a lot of shit last year for losing at home to an Illinois team that ended up 9-3. Georgia only lost to SEC teams though so I guess those aren't even really losses. But I digress...

- Beat Western Carolina 45-16. Three demerits to anyone pathetic enough to know the WCU mascot off the top of their head.

- Beat Alabama on the road by three points. The Tide were another team that would go on to finish the regular season at the .500 mark. I guess $4 million doesn't go quite as far these days as it used to.

- Beat Ole Miss 45-17. Zero SEC wins for Mississippi last season. "S-E-C! S-E-C!"

- LOST to Tennessee 35-14 in Knoxville. The Volunteers were the SEC runners up behind LSU. This game wasn't as close as 35-14 indicates though. At one point UGA was down 28-0.

- Beat Vanderbilt 20-16. You would think that after getting pounded by the Vols the Dawgs would want to "get right" against the lowly Commodores. That didn't happen. The Bulldogs escaped Nashville with a win, but they were down 16-14 going into the fourth quarter. Vanderbilt finished the season 5-7. Ole Miss' 3-9 effort was enough to boot Vandy out of their customary SEC cellar position.

- Beat Florida 42-30 in Jacksonville. This clearly was the turning point for the Dawgs. Florida was favored by more then a touchdown and the Bulldogs smacked them in the mouth, took their lunch money, and introduced the world to one of the most ludicrous endzone celebrations we'll ever see. If you didn't love watching Florida get their brains beat in while the Bulldogs basically threw it in their face, check your pulse. Florida's Charmin-soft defense was exposed as Knowshon Moreno gouged the Gators for 188 yards and a 5.7 per average. Moreno is diminutive yet powerful, like a young Mikhail Baryshnikov.

- Beat Troy at home, 44-34 .

- Beat Auburn at home, 48-20.

- Beat Kentucky at home, 24-13.

- Beat Ga Tech, 31-17 .

Of course, with the two losses, the Bulldogs failed to win their division, much less their conference. While Tennessee would represent the East in the SEC Championship game, it was Georgia who was rewarded with a BCS bowl game for their strong finish.

Lucky for the Bulldogs, it was the Sugar Bowl that selected them so they could continue their time honored tradition of never, ever playing football games anywhere outside the southeastern United States. A short two hour flight to New Orleans was all the travel that was necessary.

Meanwhile, their opponent in the Sugar Bowl, the University of Hawai'i would travel over 3000 miles by plane, bus and refrigerated rail car to reach the Superdome. The Warriors were undefeated and had the requisite ranking to reach a BCS bowl. They got there by coming from behind late against titans like San Jose State and Washington University. Not exactly battle-tested and practically in a different hemisphere, it was not all that surprising what happened next.

- Beat Hawai'i, 41-10 (Sugar Bowl). The undefeated Warriors were so highly regarded that they were 10 point dogs in the Sugar Bowl.

This impressive yet fairly unremarkable resume was enough for UGA President Michael Adams to proclaim the Bulldogs officially "dissed". Nothing like beating up on a mid-major to ratchet up the feelings of self-importance. The ever classy President Adams could barely contain himself for 24 hours following LSU's win in the national title game before proclaiming the whole system a sham.

That's what you've got to love about the SEC and its supporters. They'll scream from the mountain top how outstanding their conference is. In the next breath they'll badmouth the fans of another SEC school and undermine its achievements. Their ability to completely disregard what they said ten minutes ago is unparalleled.

Clearly Mr. Adams is on top of the hot-button issues as far as his university is concerned. Let's not worry about improving our educational institution which is currently ranked 59th by US News and World Report. They're tied with Rutgers and Pittsburgh for what it's worth (Ohio State is 57th). Let's cry about playoffs to the great minds of our time like James Carville on satellite radio.

My first question is why in the hell is James Carville complaining about anything? Or at the least agreeing with this nut? Carville's Alma mater just became the first school EVER in the BCS era to get to and win the national title with two regular season losses. The Tigers jumped at least five other schools in the final poll to get to the BCS Championship game. And should we point out that another SEC school (Florida) managed to jump #2 Michigan at the end of last year and go on to win the national title as well?

Somehow in the opinion of distinguished educator Michael Adams, his school and his conference are being screwed by the evil Big Ten and PAC-10. By the way, one of the more bizarre aspects of President Adams' campaign is the fact that he holds TWO post graduate degrees from THE Ohio State University.

You have to laugh at that don't you? Every day this fuckball walks into his office and has to look up at those two OSU diplomas on his wall and be reminded of how the Buckeyes "screwed" the UGA football team. What a fucking asshole this guy is.

His timing is impeccable by the way. You know how coaches never complain about the refs after they win a game? Well no one ever complains about the BCS after they win the national title either. They also don't complain about it after they lose an also-ran BCS bowl game either.

It's rather interesting that Michael Adams and his multiple Ohio State degrees didn't have much to say about the BCS after they got beat by West Virginia in their own backyard two years ago. You win seven games in a row and now the BCS is an atrocity? Get the fuck out of here. It's no wonder the United States is ranked about 36th in the world when it comes to education. When you've got leaders like this guy worrying about FOOTBALL instead of classrooms and research grants, well, the terrorists have already won!

While it is undeniable that college football is incrementally more important in the southeastern United States then it is anywhere else in this great nation, it is also sad that the leaders of our youth would spend time and resources arguing about such frivolity.

Congratulations Michael Adams! Your football team had a great year and you managed to hijack the spotlight from their accomplishments!

We'll see how the Dawgs fare with the bullseye on their back this year. My guess is we won't be hearing much bullshit from Michael Adams at the end of this season.

Journalistic Integrity in College Football: Part 1 of 853

It should be pointed out that weighty subject matter like journalistic integrity should be reserved for issues of great social import.

And really, what is more important then college football?

On a related note, stay tuned. Next week, I'll draw a correlation between the separation of church and state and the creation of the Coastal and Atlantic divisions in the ACC.

College football's dependence on the media is unparalleled when it comes to determining it's champion. There is simply no other sport in this country that relies as heavily on the media's opinions. Therefore, it is necessary to keep checks and balances in place as it relates to the media that covers college football.

I'll give an example. Let's say that one such check is espn.com's Mark Schlabach, a University of Georgia graduate, bonafide homer, and a senior contributor to the Worldwide Leader. The balance to Mr. Schlabach's regional pandering? Facts.

That's just off the top of my head. I'm sure there are others.

A complete and total lack of journalistic integrity as it relates to college football is what this series will attempt to uncover and highlight. And remember, if you see journalists running amok with a clear lack of integrity, act fast, duck and cover. The life you save could be your own.

As I have already mentioned Mr. Schlabach we'll use that as a starting point for this discussion.

Mark Schlaback's first 2008 Top 25 was released on May 9th. It featured Ohio State #1 and Georgia #2. His next Top 25 was released on June 25th. Amazingly, Georgia had overtaken Ohio State for the top spot. I went back and checked, Ohio State didn't lose any games and didn't even look bad in any games between May 9th and June 25th. To be fair though, neither did Georgia.

First off, we could get into the whole notion of what exactly a Preseason Poll is supposed to represent. Some people, including apparently Mark Schlabach are using this as some sort of prediction of how the season will end up. We know this because in his own bowl projections he has Ohio State playing UGA in the title game.

Personally, I think preseason polls should be about who you think are the best teams right now regardless of their schedule or what games you think they might lose. Of course, we could go a step further and talk about how preseason polls are one of the great evils of college football but we'll save that for another time.

So why the flip-flop Mr. Schlabach?

He explains by opening with the following:

If your favorite team made headlines during the past two months, the news probably wasn't good. Off-field problems and arrests have littered the college football landscape since spring practice ended, affecting many of the country's top teams.

Sounds plausible enough. So what did he have to say about the Georgia Bulldogs, who must be just beside themselves having recently been anointed #1?

Bulldogs coach Mark Richt has some lingering personnel issues as preseason camp approaches. Starting fullback Brannan Southerland, one of the country's best lead blockers, will miss the first five games with a foot injury. Possible starting defensive end Jeremy Lomax and offensive lineman Clint Boling have pending legal problems; Lomax was arrested on concealed weapons charges and Boling was charged with DUI.

So I just want to make sure I have this straight. You said that if your team was in the news it probably wasn't good. You've now got "one of the country's best lead blockers" out for the first five games. You've got a potential starter at defensive end and an offensive lineman in court. You're right Mark, none of that is positive.

So, considering there is almost nothing else at all out there that can be taken into consideration during May and June, this definitely seems like plenty of reason to move Georgia to #1.

As for suddenly sliding Ohio State, Schlabach does mention that backup QB Antonio Henton is leaving the program. Clearly the team with the bigger issues over the last month or two is Ohio State. Three potential starters aren't nearly as important as a backup QB that some already had third on the depth chart.

It should be pointed out that for the most part, Mark Schlabach's preseason college football poll ranks somewhere below TMZ.com in terms of relative significance to the world we know. It should also be pointed out that Mark Schlabach is indeed a University of Georgia alum that just moved his Alma mater from two to one between May and July with seemingly no meaningful explanation whatsoever.

My guess? The notion of a UGA alum putting an SEC school behind Ohio State in any poll whatsoever at this point was so ridiculous to so many people that even Mark had to admit it he had totally fucked this up. To be honest, even I sent this guy an email after the first poll telling him he was full of shit.

Before Schlabach released his initial Top 25 I know he was convinced that Georgia would beat Ohio State by three TD's anywhere, anytime. How do I know this? Because he said so in his own chat less then a week after his poll was released. Check it out:

Todd (Marietta, GA): You're an SEC alum and rank the Buckeyes No 1 after getting drilled over the last two years in the title game? You've been hanging with Herbstreit for way too long. I'm a Big Ten alum and don't think Ohio State is worthy of even being in the Top 5. The Big Ten is down including Michigan who's in a transition. OSU plays no one except USC who will destroy them. Please explain this to those of us that don't bleed Scarlett & Gray.

Mark Schlabach: I agree completely. I ranked Ohio State No. 1 because I thought they had the best chance of getting to the BCS title game. Aside from playing at USC, I think the Buckeyes will be heavily favored to win every game. I agree the Big 10 is going to be down; Michigan is going to be in a huge transition and Illinois will take a step back without Mendenhall.

First off, the constant misspellings out of places like Marietta, GA are great. Apparently Todd (if that's your real name buddy) is using the "Johansson" version of scarlet these days. It's called 'spell check' assbag, find it.

So basically, Mark Schlaback is either an idiot, or totally and completely full of shit. He agrees that USC will "destroy" Ohio State. Seriously, if the Trojans do indeed wax the Buckeyes, do you think anyone, anywhere is going to give them a shot at the national title? No fucking way.

I will not dissect Mark's complete and total lack of logic or perspective any further. This is merely the first in a series of observations.

In summation, do I think that Mark Schlabach is a moron? No. I do wish he would give better (more honest) explanations of his opinions.

More to come!

"PUT DOWN YOUR BEERS! CRC IS HERE!"