Late in the second quarter of Thursday's Cotton Bowl, Alabama running back Kenyan Drake caught a pass near the Alabama sideline. He stepped out of bounds, was lightly tapped by a Michigan State defender, took another step, and dropped like an anvil thrown off a cliff.
I hope Alabama loses. pic.twitter.com/yTT00oKFKd
— Mark Ennis (@MarkEnnis) January 1, 2016
Not even Drake's own teammates reacted as if the contact was proportional to the senior halfback's reaction. The only person who thought Drake was knocked down: Lane Kiffin, who motioned for a flag that was never coming.
The next morning, Drake dropped a poll on his Twitter followers (Michigan State's winning comfortably at the moment after losing the actual game by 38 points):
Which was the worse flop?
— Kenyan Drake™ (@KDx17) January 1, 2016
Alabama learned the power of sideline flopping earlier this year, when Arkansas coach Bret Bielema drew a flag on the Crimson Tide by faking a shove from Crimson Tide lineman Cam Robinson. We can debate which conference is best, but the SEC is now unquestionably the nation's floppiest.