Radical Georgia Moderate

Like Grift, I am ambivalent about anything political lately. So let’s talk I-AA football.

To tell you the truth, I know very little about championship division football other than they have a playoff and that Appalachian State is a lot better than the two teams I’ve seen them play on TV. I know Georgia Southern was really good for a while and gave Georgia a hard time a few years ago in a game that was supposed to be a snoozer. I also know that Georgia State will announce its intention to start a football program today (watch it live here at 2 p.m.).

I’d suggest reading Tony Barnhart’s column for some more background. I agree with everything he wrote there, but am curious where they’ll actually play games (Barnhart thinks they should play in the Georgia Dome).

I’d like to add another suggestion to Tony’s list: schedule a lot of Thursday night games. Virginia Tech schedules a lot of Thursday games, which has garnered its program national exposure which it wouldn’t have received if it had to compete with 40 other games going on at the same time. Often, Virginia Tech and its opponent will be the only bowl division teams playing on a Thursday. I’m not going to skip watching a Tennessee game on TV to watch playoff division football (just as I don’t expect Georgia or Georgia Tech fans would skip watching their games), but I’d go to some games if I could take MARTA to them after work on a Thursday.

GSU will probably go through a few 0-11 seasons at first, but there’s enough talent in this state (even after UGA, GT, and Southern have had their shots) for them to put together a watchable team if they go about this the right way. It’s not unrealistic to think that in four or five years the games could be more fun to watch than Falcons games.

I’m excited about the possibility of having a I-AA team here for what I think would be the same reasons I’d be excited if there was a minor league baseball team in the city. I hope they get it right.

From former Florida coach Ron Zook, who now coaches at Illinois, speaking at a Chamber of Commerce breakfast:

Florida didn’t win their first SEC title until 1991 and now they think they invented football.

Heh.

The last time a Mark Richt-coached team was ranked #1 in the preseason, this was recorded to mark the occasion:

“So bring on Miami, Michigan State, Clemson, Carolina and the other 8.”

Watch out Young M.C.!

How does a team top “Seminole Rap”? By dropping its season opener to Miami 31-0.

Richt was a graduate assistant at FSU in 1988 when the team garnered a #1 preseason ranking for the first time in school history and celebrated with this atrocity and by getting blown out by one of its two fiercest rivals. It’s probably a little misleading for me to refer to the 1988 Seminoles as “a Richt-coached team” since he was just a graduate assistant. But he was around when it happened, and I’m sure hasn’t forgotten the experience. Really, I just wanted an excuse to post the Seminole Rap (you’re welcome Sara, Grift and Rugby).

His current team, the Bulldogs of the University of Georgia, are projected by many as a preseason top three team and by some as a preseason number one. As much as I would love to hear (and ridicule) a Bulldog Rap that samples “Soldier Boy,” I expect it won’t happen.

From the AJC, via Jen on Twitter:

In a 142 to 10 vote Thursday, the Georgia House of Representatives passed legislation to stop making out-of-state university sports mascot car tags.

That is, unless the Legislatures in those states begin making Georgia plates for Bulldog Nation citizens living in diaspora in South Carolina, Alabama and Florida.

I received an email a few days ago that the UT Alumni Association here in Atlanta has just over 500 paid applications for UT plates. Prior to this law being passed, they needed 1,000 applications. I’m not sure yet how this effects their plans, but I emailed the person in charge and asked her. I’m guessing she won’t be happy.

Funny how the government here lurrrrrrrrves out-of-town fans when their dollars are coming into town for the SEC Championship Game. I wonder if it would be effective for out-of-state universities to lobby the SEC to move the title game to a different state. I would support that even though I live here.

Update 3:10 p.m. Hey look, the SEC is only under contract at the Dome through 2009. Looks like I’ll be writing a few letters tonight.

Update 11:05 p.m. It’s possible this law wouldn’t effect the UT plates, according to the Georgia Sports Blog’s reading of it. Waiting to hear the UT Alumni Association’s version before firing off any letters.

While I’d be glad if it didn’t effect the UT plates, it’s still a crappy law. If I’m siding with Florida fans, that is indisputable. I hate Florida. If Florida was serving me dinner, I would leave it a penny tip just so it knew I didn’t forget to tip.

The offseason for Tennessee football has stumbled out the gate so far, with a lackluster recruiting class and a near-record number of arrests.

The latest is a fifth alcohol-related incident for punter Britton Colquitt, who was cited for DUI and leaving the scene of an accident. He was suspended five games and his scholarship was stripped. I think he should have been kicked off the team around the third incident.

His case in particular is baffling to me because all the serious drinking I did in college there only once led to anything resembling an arrest, and that was freshman year when we were drinking in a dorm on the supposedly-dry campus. My point is it’s hard to get arrested in that town just for drinking, and this guy has pulled it off five times. It’s kind of amazing in a way, but troubling in many others.

You probably read here where I had a bit of a religious experience after attending three games last season. After being a harsh critic of Phil Fulmer early in the year and calling for him to be fired, I changed my mind and said I would like to see him stay as long as he wants.

I’m not going back on that yet, but he is making it very hard for me to keep the enthusiasm I had at the end of last year. From the outside, this looks like the other shoe dropping on a program that was already on the verge of spiraling out of control.

I am going to be patient and try not to have knee-jerk reactions about this anymore. He will in all likelihood be the coach until at least the end of 2008 no matter what I say. But I can’t say it would make me sad or that I’d think it was undeserved if he ended up getting the axe next year.

I missed this Atlanta Business Chronicle article from Dec. 21, which says that Atlanta has a good chance to lure the College Football Hall of Fame away from South Bend:

Atlanta has the inside track over a potential rival to lure the College Football Hall of Fame away from South Bend, Ind., according to a person with knowledge of the thinking of the National Football Foundation (NFF), which runs the college hall.

That assessment is based on the quality of Atlanta’s site plan, said the source, who asked not to be named.

There’s a discussion about this going on at Inside the Sprawl.

I love me some college football, as you know. And as I said in the thread at ITS, I think as good a case can be made for Atlanta as can made for South Bend, if you’re talking college football history (just read what I said in the thread over there if that statement sounds outlandish to you).

While personally I would love to be able to hop on MARTA and visit, it sounds like the HOF has bounced around from venue-to-venue, unable to attract enough visitors to sustain itself. As the Chronicle article notes, it has a sweetheart deal with South Bend where the city paid $15 million for the venue and is paying $500-600K per year to keep it open.

So, given the deal the HOF has with South Bend, I can’t imagine it moving if it weren’t going to receive equivalent perks from the city of Atlanta and/or the state. It sounds pretty poorly-managed, so I have trouble supporting the idea if the money is coming from public funds.

First, the indisputable: one of the most competitive and enjoyable seasons in college football history ended with one of the least competitive and boring bowl slates in college football history.

Next, the disputable: why?

It’s not as if this level of parity in Division I football is unprecedented. You only have to go back to 1989, when in the pre-bowl Dec. 5 AP poll, there were seven one-loss teams at the end of the regular season. You had to hit the number 15 spot before encountering a three-loss team.

Imagine the chaos that would have ensued if the BCS had been around then!

Top-ranked Colorado went undefeated, but played a relatively soft schedule. It looks tough until you see that Texas went 5-6 and Oklahoma went 7-4. The Buffs did beat 10-2 Nebraska, but not many other quality opponents. Just as Ohio State with its soft schedule was handled by a lower-ranked team, the Buffs were handled by lower-ranked Notre Dame 21-6 in the Orange Bowl. They were both paper tigers, mucking up an already mucked-up scene further.

Would a playoff (for example, the eight-team playoff proposed by UGA president Michael Adams today) have sorted out that particular mess? Colorado likely would have been eliminated before a championship game, but wouldn’t one-loss Arkansas have something to gripe about if two-loss Auburn or two-loss FSU had been included over them since they were ranked higher?

I’ll leave those questions as rhetorical for now, as I want to show you just how much chaos there was in 1989 and this season.

1989: losses by teams ranked #1 and #2 in the AP poll

Teams ranked 1 and 2 which lost: Michigan, Miami, Notre Dame, Alabama, Colorado

2007: losses by teams ranked #1 and #2 in the AP poll

Teams ranked 1 or 2 which lost: USC, LSU, Cal, South Florida, Boston College, Ohio State, Oregon, Missouri, Kansas

(note: I know the AP poll is now irrelevant to the BCS, but I didn’t find good stats for weekly UPI/USA Today Coaches’ polls readily available as they were for the AP poll on AP Poll Archive … it will do for this purpose)

So, five first- or second-ranked teams lost in 1989, and nine (!) first- or second-ranked teams lost in 2007. You could call it ten if you want to count Ohio State twice, which some people will be inclined to. [Update 9:40 a.m. Jan. 9 - Also, LSU lost twice when ranked first or second, so call it 11 if you want to count the same teams twice. Thanks to Patrick for pointing that out.]

Anyway, to try to get back on track, would a playoff have provided a more satisfying ending in 1989? Would the bowl match-ups have been better?

Maybe. But I don’t think that in a season with as much chaos afoot as there was in 1989 or this year that there would be any less craziness and mismatches in one system versus another. And there certainly wouldn’t be any less politicking.

Many people, including me, have complained about how Hawaii didn’t deserve to be on the same continent as Georgia. Could a playoff that represented all of college football prevent Hawaii from earning a berth somewhere? Doubtful. The same financial and political pressures that led to ABC trying to pull another Boise State out of its hat under this system would exist under any other system.

I am inclined to support a playoff, but just keep in mind it isn’t going to solve the politics of picking a champion. The have-nots will always get shafted by the haves. Don’t expect any new system to change that.

From T Kyle King over at Dawg Sports:

Last night, the ‘Dawgs served notice that they are a force to be reckoned with in college football. Georgia no longer may be considered merely a regional power. With the team on the upswing and their schedule becoming more national in scope, the Classic City Canines have made it clear that they are Southern Cal with a Southern accent.

Somehow beating a WAC team that needed overtime to put away San Jose State and Louisiana Tech and only beat Nevada by two points is the national coming out party for the Bulldogs? Please pass whatever you’re smoking Kyle. I’m happy that the Bulldogs managed not to embarrass the SEC on a national stage like Arkansas did, but that’s all the win really amounts to.

I’ll be in Tampa, Fla., today and most of tomorrow. Tampa is probably best-known as the birth place of famous cocaine addicts Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry.

Dwight “Doc” Gooden

Darryl “Straw” Strawberry

I’ll be in town to watch Tennessee hopefully not lay another egg against a Big 10 opponent in the Hall of Fame Outback Bowl.

If you know of any good bars in Tampa, please drop me a line at rusty@radicalgeorgiamoderate.org.

I’ll save you UGA fans the embarrassment of living down to my expectations of you, and go ahead and make the crack that, yes, Straw and Doc’s prison jumpsuits are pretty close to Tennessee Orange. Volunteers are also known to have sex with half-bear, half-cat animals. Har har. Clever.

The black uniforms the Bulldogs will wear in the Sugar Bowl look like Falcons uniforms. So there.

If you’re looking for something to do while I’m gone, you can listen to our end-of-year episode of Mostly ITP.