I am shocked - shocked I say - to see that ESPN dedicated a page to boasting about how strong the Buckeyes will be this season. After being outclassed across the board for 2 straight seasons, the talking heads at ESPN are standing by their Buckeyes.
Now, instead of making up stories about SEC coaches changing jobs, Homer Herbstreit can make excuses as to why his Suckeyes have been embarrassed for 2 straight seasons. Sure they've got basically their entire team from last season back, but that team was slow and systematically exposed by a clearly superior LSU team. James Katzenmoyer Laurinaitis is an absolute joke. There's a perfectly good reason he came back for his senior season - he was exposed for the mediocre player he is against the Tigers and Gators in the two bowl losses. LSU ran their entire offense directly at Laurinaitis and moved the ball at will.
Look, I understand it's impressive to go 23-3 over two seasons no matter what conference you're in. But if tOSU finishes with only 1 loss, you'd be hard-pressed to convince anyone who doesn't live in Columbus or work for ESPN that the Buckeyes are more deserving than a 1-loss Georgia, Florida, LSU, USC, Oklahoma, or Texas team. But, like Dook basketball, tOSU has their own personal spokesman on ESPN. Homer Herbie is the ultimate Buckeye Sunshine Pumper who will work diligently all season to convince otherwise intelligent people that this Buckeye team deserves a chance to be humiliated on a national stage, just like their 2 predecessors were.
Since we're likely to never see a legitimate playoff format in Division 1 College Football, we're left with silly little widgets, like this one on espn.com. You can set up a bracket-style playoff based on the Top 16 BCS Rankings, the ESPN Power 16, ESPNU Allstate Top16, or customize your own. Unfortunately for Ole Miss and Vandy fans, it doesn't quite go that deep into the available pool of teams...
It appears to be completely random and offer no real insight as to why a particular team should win. I ran it through 3 times - one on each of the predetermined rankings - and came up with not only 3 different champions, but 6 unique title game participants as well.
- BCS Rankings: LSU defeated Ohio State
- ESPN Power 16: Georgia defeated Florida
- ESPNU Allstate 16: USC defeated Virginia Tech
So basically, if you're looking for something stupid on the internet to waste 10 minutes on, by all means, visit the link above. If you're looking for anything useful - even in the least - in making your bowl Selections for the College Bowl Mania game, you should seek assistance elsewhere.
ESPN.com has launched their annual College Bowl Mania game. I've set up a Dead Guy Group if any of you want to join a group with other SEC fans. You pick the winners of all 32 bowl games and assign a confidence value to each one, 1-32. If you're right, you get the points, if you're wrong you don't.
**UPDATE (12/4): Due to popular demand, the winner of the Dead Guy's College Bowl Mania Group will receive a $10 Amazon Gift Card, perfect for all the post-Holiday deals they'll have up**
There's a huge section on espn.com called Southern Living: A Weekend in the SEC. Writers from ESPN went to all 8 home games last weekend in conference, as well as hung with SEC Commissioner Mike Slive as he traveled from Auburn to Baton Rouge to take in 2 games in person. There are articles and video reports from each tailgating location, and each conveys something any SEC fan already knows...
No other conference in the country even compares to the SEC when it comes to the quality of pre- and postgame activities.
Ron Higgins, SEC beat writer for the Memphis Commercial Appeal has his SEC Midseason Recap on espn.com right now.
He offers his general assessment of the league so far lists his candidates for Biggest Surprise (think Big and Blue), Biggest Disappointment (think airplane banners), Midseason MVP (think Razorback RB... now think of the other one), and Coach of the Year (think purple and gold).
While I don't agree that 10 teams will qualify for bowls, it's still an interesting read if you have a few minutes...
