SB Nation User Blog: Year2

SEC 2000-10: The Best Player -- Tim Tebow

Year2 — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 17:01:28 -0000

by Mark Humphrey - AP

Tim Tebow hugging then offensive coordinator Dan Mullen after the BCS Championship NCAA college football game against Oklahoma in Miami.

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Thanks to a lot of reasons—big time recruiters inhabiting the coaching ranks, the general population shift southward, a disproportionately large number of storied programs, etc.—the SEC has seen a lot of fantastic players at every position over the last decade. One stands out from all the rest though: Tim Tebow.

It's difficult to say whether then-UF co-defensive coordinator Greg Mattison was correct in saying during the recruiting process that Florida's program would be set back 10 years if it didn't sign Tebow. It certainly would have made things a lot different had he chosen to go to his runner up school, Alabama. Mike Shula might still be in Tuscaloosa, Nick Saban would be at some other place, and Florida would have gone into 2006 spring practice with Chris Leak as the only scholarship quarterback. It's one of the conference's greatest what ifs.

However, he did end up in Gainesville and things would not be the same. Florida definitely does not win the 2006 national championship without him as DeShawn Wynn and Kestahn Moore were not picking up all those crucial third downs that season. He became the first sophomore ever to win the Heisman Trophy in his 2007 campaign, paving the way for Sam Bradford and Mark Ingram to win it the following two years. He led the 2008 Florida squad to one of the best seasons ever in the SEC, as no team has won as many in-conference games by 28+ points (seven) or by 30+ points (six) as that one did. In 2009, it didn't end the way it was expected but he still helped get Florida to its second ever 12-0 start and pushed the school's record winning streak to 22 in a row.

That 2007 Heisman winning season was easily his best individually. He passed for 3,286 yards at a 66.9% completion rate, both career highs. He accounted for three or more touchdowns in 12 of the team's 13 games, including a ridiculous seven against South Carolina. He about single-handedly won that year's Ole Miss and Kentucky games. He became the first player ever to score 20 passing and 20 rushing touchdowns in a season. He had 51 touchdowns by the time Heisman ballots were in...

...and he tacked on four more in the Capital One Bowl to push his season total to 55. If Florida had a reasonable semblance of a defense, the Gators would have been in the thick of the national title race.

TUESDAY: What a Decade It's Been; Mike Price's Trip to Pensacola

WEDNESDAY: The Zook Experiment; Georgia Hires Mark Richt

THURSDAY: The Best Game; Auburn's Rise and Fall; Rivalry of the Decade

FRIDAY: The Worst Game; The Rise of the Nicktator; The Promise

TODAY: Exit Phil Fulmer

In 2008 his yardage and scoring totals came down a bit, but the team success was up. It took a couple of games to get going, but once all the pieces were in place around Tebow (and after a loss and The Promise refocused things), the scoring began to increase at a frightening pace. The regular season was capped off by Tebow's signature game, the SEC Championship Game against Alabama. He three three touchdown passes, all on third down and two of which were in the fourth quarter. It was a tour de force and the sort of game where you could tell that he would not let his team lose.

Tebow returned in 2009 to win another championship, but ghastly levels of attrition at wide receiver, a new offensive coordinator, problems with blitz protection, and an inexplicable defensive collapse at the worst possible time kept it from being the season to remember that everyone figured it would be. Urban Meyer put nearly all the load on him in the SEC title game rematch with Alabama, as 45 of the Gators' 49 plays were either passes or Tebow rushes. He came through to the tune of nearly seven yards per play on Bama's great defense and five trips inside the Tide 30 on nine possessions. Without any defensive support whatsoever, it was like 2007 all over again. There's only so much one man, even Tim Tebow, can do by himself.

Even so, he's the only quarterback to play in three SEC Championship Games and two national title games this decade. He brought back the jump pass, invented the one-man play action, and added "Tebow smash" to our lexicon.

He was 11-1 as a starter against Florida's big three rivals and 15-1 overall against them (not to mention 3-1 against LSU). He delivered Mark Richt and Steve Spurrier their worst losses as head coaches, Rich Brooks' second worst loss as a head coach, Les Miles' worst loss at LSU, and Bobby Bowden's worst loss to Florida since 1983. He's been the face of college football for two seasons. And as much as Tebow fatigue wore on people around the conference and nation, he still received the highest of compliments from about all rival fans: they have warned for almost two years now that they'd get Florida just as soon as Tebow leaves. Once he's gone, they say, watch out.

That is why Tim Tebow is the SEC player of the decade.

SEC 2000-10: Auburn's Rise and Fall

Year2 — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 13:55:06 -0000

More photos » by Butch Dill - AP

It's been an eventful decade for Auburn.

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TUESDAY: What a Decade It's Been; Mike Price's Trip to Pensacola

WEDNESDAY: The Zook Experiment; Georgia Hires Mark Richt

TODAY: The Best Game; The Best Rivalry

Late last decade, the Auburn football program was a smoldering wreck. The end of the Terry Bowden era was not a good one on the plains. The university hired Tommy Tuberville and his pine box from Ole Miss to right the ship. What no one could have expected then is that the program was about to go on an epic roller coaster ride, one almost Shakespearean in nature.

Things weren't that impressive during Tuberville's first campaign in 1999, but 5-6 was an improvement over the 3-8 debacle of the year before. In 2000, the team experienced a significant bump, jumping to a 9-4 (6-2 SEC) record and winning the SEC West. He would follow that up with 7-5 (5-3) and 9-4 (5-3) seasons in which he would tie for the division lead but not get to go to Atlanta due to tiebreakers.

Auburn had become a major player in the division again, exactly what Tuberville was hired to make happen. However, a third straight 5-3 record came in 2003 (8-5 overall), and the natives began to get restless. The Tigers weren't exactly taking full advantage of a mostly down period for Alabama, and it appeared they were in danger of getting lapped by Nick Saban and LSU. To wit:

Auburn, 1999-2003
Opponents	Wins	Losses	Pct.
.750+ win pct.	3	14	.176
.500-.749 win pct	15	25	.375
.500+ win pct.	18	39	.316
Overall	35	24	.593

That's when one native particularly known for restlessness stepped in.

Bobby Lowder, perhaps the most powerful booster in college athletics at the time, used the private jet that his now-defunct bank owned to fly university president William Walker, athletics director David Housel, and two trustees to the Bluegrass State. They went to talk to former Auburn offensive coordinator and then-Louisville head coach Bobby Petrino about possibly replacing Tuberville should AU decide to make a change. The press got wind of it though, the incident became known as "JetGate," and the university was put on probation by its accrediting agency.

No one would have blamed Tuberville had he decided to leave the university, but he chose to stay. That decision led to one of the best four-year runs for any SEC team this decade.

In 2004, Auburn went undefeated but infamously was shut out of the national title game. To date, it is still the only undefeated season for any SEC school in this decade. Auburn would then go 9-3, 11-2, and 9-4 from 2005-07, sharing the division title in 2005. Auburn's 27-6 (.818) SEC record from 2004-07 was the best of any team in the conference during that span. Tuberville also became a much better big game coach in that span:

Auburn, 2004-2007
Opponents	Wins	Losses	Pct.
.750+ win pct.	9	4	.692
.500-.749 win pct	11	5	.688
.500+ win pct.	20	9	.690
Overall	39	9	.813

Those years marked the first time Auburn had won nine or more games in four consecutive years since 1986-89. However despite the great success. all was not completely well. For one thing, Tuberville continued to burn through coordinators at an alarming rate. There was also the issue of declining performance over that span:

Season	Points For	Points All.	Margin	SEC Record
2004	417	147	+270	9-0
2005	386	186	+200	7-1
2006	322	181	+141	6-2
2007	315	220	+95	5-3

Each year the offensive output declined and the SEC record was getting progressively worse. Pressure was beginning to mount, so Tuberville made a decision that would ultimately seal his fate: he hired Tony Franklin to be his new offensive coordinator.

Franklin was a guru of a pass-heavy variant of the spread offense, and with spread offenses all the rage in college football, the thought was that he would revitalize things and get scoring up. However, his pass first mentality didn't mesh with the run first instincts of the head coach and the assistant coaches he was most loyal to. There's also plenty of evidence to suggest that Franklin's personality doesn't mesh well just about anyone, as he's never been in one place long and has a tendency to air dirty laundry after he leaves a job.

The offensive transplant was rejected, and Franklin was fired halfway through the season with the Tigers sitting at 4-2. They would go 1-5 the rest of the way, missing out on a bowl and finishing under .500 for the first time since Tuberville's first season. The Riverboat Gambler was not given the opportunity to fix his offensive coordinator mistake as he was shown the door four years after his perfect season.

The process to replace Tuberville was long, torturous, and at times appeared as though no one was in charge. Eventually Gene Chizik was given the job, with his stellar terms as Auburn and Texas defensive coordinator clearly taking precedent over his 5-19 tenure at Iowa State. Chizik understood the situation well, hired a hot name in Gus Malzahn as his offensive coordinator, and laid low for most of the off season. After an up and down 2009, Auburn went 7-5 and found its way to the Outback Bowl.

Despite winning just one SEC championship this decade, Auburn was never far from the forefront. JetGate was national news beyond just the sports arena. The 2004 team's snub is still a huge talking point in the battle over the BCS. I would argue that it was the catalyst for SEC fans beginning to incessantly talk up the league as the best in the country, a movement that worked in swinging national perception in the SEC's favor and was pivotal in getting SEC teams into the 2006 and 2007 national title games. The Tigers were the only team to beat Florida in its 2006 national championship season. The fall of Tuberville and the Franklin soap opera were a compelling story as the drama played out from week to week.

I couldn't blame Auburn fans if they are yearning for some stability. It's been a wild ride.

Three Reasons Why the Big Ten Won't Expand

Year2 — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 18:11:49 -0000

by Joe Raymond - AP

Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick.

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It's been big news around the college sports world that the Big Ten is thinking of expanding. It won't happen this time around, and here's why.

1. Notre Dame will say no

There is no other school that is as good a fit or will ever be as good a fit for the Big Ten as Notre Dame is. Not Missouri, not Pitt, not anyone. Notre Dame has everything from an academics, athletics, image, and money making standpoint that the Big Ten could ever dream of.

Yet, right now there's no reason for Notre Dame to subsume its brand underneath the Big Ten banner. It has a special provisioning in the BCS contracts, and those don't expire until after the 2014 season. Its contract with NBC isn't up until after 2015.

That marks the earliest point Notre Dame could realistically think about joining a conference: the 2016 regular season. However, that would require two things. First, the Irish would have to forcibly lose their favored spot in the BCS contracts. That's unlikely because it will take more than five years for Notre Dame to lose its historical luster entirely and the school just hired a competent and qualified winner with a great track record for once. Second, the Big Ten would have to offer something commensurate to what Notre Dame gets from NBC (i.e. every home game on national TV no matter what), and it can't do that.

2. Saying yes to someone else means saying no to Notre Dame forever

Conferences larger than 12 members don't work well with football. The WAC tried having 16 and couldn't make it work. The MAC has serious scheduling problems with its 13 team format. A 12 member league works. More than that really doesn't.

If the Big Ten adds another member, it will have 12 schools. Since more than 12 is untenable, if that twelfth school is not Notre Dame, then the Big Ten will never have Notre Dame. Adding Missouri or Pitt functionally closes that door forever.

Just because Notre Dame won't be ready to join up in five years' time doesn't mean it won't in 10 or 15. The Big Ten has already been waiting on the Irish for the 20 years since adding Penn State; it can wait longer if it wants to. Closing the door on Notre Dame forever would be a huge step, one that I think a lot of folks aren't taking that seriously.

3. Solving the problem at hand doesn't require expansion

Just what is the real problem here? Let Barry Alvarez tell you:

"We're irrelevant for the last three weeks of the football season because we're not playing," Alvarez said Friday.

Somehow, people have decided that the only remedy to this problem is expansion and adding a conference championship game. Really?

Take a look at the Week 13 scoreboard. Now the Week 14 scoreboard. The Pac-10, Big East, MWC, WAC, and Sun Belt all have games on those weekends. None of those conferences have championship games, and yet they all figured out how to hold games over those last two weeks. Heck, Wisconsin played in Week 14 and Illinois (those cads!) managed to schedule games in both Week 13 and Week 14.

If your regular season isn't long enough, the simple solution is to extend the regular season. I know there are traditions involved here, but expansion breaks more tradition than playing regular season in-conference games after Thanksgiving does.

My money is on nothing changing after this 12-18 month exploratory period. If anything does, it will be an extension of the Big Ten regular season. The conference has looked at expanding three times since Penn State joined, and each time the number has stayed at 11. There's little reason to think that won't happen a fourth time.

SEC 2000-2010: The Zook Experiment (2002-04)

Year2 — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:14:30 -0000

More photos » by Seth Perlman - AP

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Sometimes I wonder if people forget how much Steve Spurrier blindsided everyone when he resigned from Florida to try his hand at the NFL. The announcement came just two days after his 56-23 win over Maryland in the

MONDAY: What a Decade It's Been; Mike Price's Trip to Pensacola

Orange Bowl, and the returning personnel looked like it set Florida up for another great run in 2002. More importantly, it came after the season's coaching carousel had gone 'round and only about a month before National Signing Day. Athletics Director Jeremy Foley had to find a replacement quickly.

The first call by all estimates was to Oklahoma's Bob Stoops, Spurrier's defensive coordinator from 1996-98. Two years off of a national title of his own in Norman, Stoops said no. The next call was likely to the Denver Broncos' Mike Shanahan, Charlie Pell's offensive coordinator at Florida from 1980-83. A few years off of consecutive Super Bowl titles, Shanahan said no. With the two obvious marquee names out of the picture, he turned to an old friend.

New Orleans Saints' defensive coordinator Ron Zook became the new head coach in Gainesville, partly due to his ties to the school as a former Spurrier assistant and partly due to his reputation as an ace recruiter. If anyone could save the 2002 class, it was Zook. He salvaged the situation to bring in what Scout and Rivals both agreed was the nation's 20th best haul, including 10 players who would go on to be starters or key contributors on the 2006 national championship team.

Gator fans weren't that interested in recruiting back then. Spurrier routinely got beat out for great players and still won anyway. Some accused Foley of settling, or worse, nepotism in regard to the hire. Others felt that the Florida job was too high profile a position for a first time head coach. Most, including the FireRonZook.com guys, couldn't believe Foley had hired a guy who Spurrier had demoted from a coordinator position back down to just special teams coach.

When you combine all that with the negative emotions surrounding Spurrier's quick departure, the conclusion was not obvious but in hindsight inevitable: Zook never had a shot. It made matters worse that the man seemingly refused to help himself.

No one was quite sure what to expect, but he got a boost when Rex Grossman decided to return to school for his redshirt junior season. The result was that expectations for 2002 remained as high as if Spurrier never left, with Florida opening up at No. 6 in the polls. Things started off as planned as Florida firebombed UAB 51-3 in a manner that prompted the AP to use the headline "New coach, same old dangerous Gators." Believe it or not, UF was actually favored to win the next one at home against No. 1 Miami, the same Hurricanes who would lose the epic Fiesta Bowl to Ohio State in that year's national title game.

Florida crashed hard, losing 41-16. Two weeks later though, Florida would beat No. 4 Tennessee in Knoxville 30-13. Two weeks after that, the top ten ranked Gators lost to unranked Ole Miss. The following week LSU cleaned Florida's clock 36-7. Two weeks later, UF ruined eventual 13-1 Georgia's perfect season with a 20-13 win. The season finished with a flurry of weird decisions in a Citrus Bowl loss to Michigan, including a trick receiver-throw-to-quarterback play with time winding down deep in UM territory while down by eight. Noticing a pattern? Gator fans certainly did.

That first season showed that consistency was not one of Zook's strong suits. It never would be either.

The 2002 team beat that 13-1 Georgia team and a 9-4 Auburn team. Zook became the first head coach in Florida history to win three straight games over teams ranked in the top 11 at the time as he knocked off No. 6 LSU (the eventual national champion), No. 11 Arkansas, and No. 5 Georgia in consecutive weeks (and all away from home to boot). That team also gave away a 33-10 third quarter lead against Miami and fell again to Ole Miss. The 2004 team, after having lost to every notable opponent up to that point, found a way to beat FSU for Florida's first win in Tallahassee since 1986.

Everyone knows Zook was fired after losing to Mississippi State in 2004. That Bulldog team had lost 9-7 to I-AA Maine earlier in the season, yet it put up 38 in the win. Needless to say, "never beat a team from Mississippi" features prominently on his headstone at Florida. It was at that point that Foley decided that what must be done eventually must be done immediately.

As you might imagine, Zook is not remembered fondly by Gator fans. It's not just the 15 losses in three years, more than half of what Spurrier had across his 12 seasons. His players tended to get into a lot of off field issues, and his recruits account for a good portion of the arrests that have happened during Urban Meyer's coaching term. Zook also got involved a fight at a fraternity party, never a good thing for the highest paid school employee.

For all his faults, Zook never fell below .500 overall or in conference play. He recruited 22 of the 24 starters on the 2006 national championship team. He took the following-the-legend bullet so that someone else could come in and have success. He also got from Florida three years of head coaching experience, something he's parlayed into at least six seasons of head coaching at Illinois, and about $6 million not counting his buyout. In that sense, it ended up working out for both sides.

It's hard to imagine things going much differently. In January 2002, Foley didn't have the luxury to stage a multi-week coaching search. He had to find someone who would take the job quickly, and all of that off season's hot coaching names had already taken jobs elsewhere. Zook has also shown at Illinois that he has not really learned from his mistakes and is basically the same coach now that he was then. This thing in Gainesville was never lasting that long.

It's still one of the defining eras of the decade in the SEC. Despite the Zooker's 2-1 record against UGA, this was the time period when Georgia eclipsed Florida in the East. It marked a fall to earth after a decade plus of success at UF while laying the ground work for the new era of winning there.

It was also when we all learned that if you sleep for five hours really fast, it feels like eight. You win some, you lose some.

SEC Splits Invitational with Big East

Year2 — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:48:28 -0000

More photos » by Chris O'Meara - AP

Mississippi State's Romero Osby dunks over the DePaul defense during the second half. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

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LAST NIGHT

Mississippi State thumped DePaul 76-45 in the first of two SEC/Big East Invitational games in Tampa. Five different Bulldogs went into double digits, led by Ravern Johnson's 14. Jarvis Varnado had 12 points, 14 boards, and a pair of blocks for the Starkville contingent. MSU held DePaul to a miserable 28% shooting night, including just 18% in the first half. It was a nice and easy win and all, but DePaul did go winless in Big East play last year.

In the second half of the double header, No. 11 Florida made a nice effort of it but fell to No. 6 Syracuse 85-73. Kenny Boynton had 20 points and seven assists to lead the Gators, and Chandler Parsons had 19 off the bench. The Gators' defense, which has otherwise been great this year, could not come through as the Orange scored easily the most of anyone against UF this season and shot 52.5% from the field. Syracuse led comfortably for most of the game, but Florida did make a run to take the lead with about 10 minutes to go. From there though, the Orange pulled away.

That means the SEC/Big East Invitational ended with a 2-2 tie. The conferences split the match ups of ranked teams, with Kentucky knocking off UConn and Syracuse beating Florida. The mismatches went as expected, with St. Johns taking care of Georgia and Mississippi State blowing out DePaul.

Round Ball Round Up // 12.10.09

Year2 — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 18:44:30 -0000

More photos » by Ed Reinke - AP

Kentucky's John Wall.

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LAST NIGHT

It was another nail biting finish for No. 4 Kentucky as the Wildcats downed No. 12 UConn 64-61. The player of the game once again was John Wall, whose 25 points accounted for a hair short of 40% of his team's output. DeMarcus Cousins had a double-double with 10 and 10, while Patrick Patterson had 16 for UK. The game at the end turned into a duel between Wall and UConn's Kemba Walker, but Wall prevailed while scoring 12 of his team's last 15 points down the stretch. A Sea of Blue has the usual detailed postgame rundown.

It was not as nice a night for Georgia as the Bulldogs fell to St. John's 66-56. Trey Thompkins poured in 19 points to go along with his seven rebounds for UGA, while Travis Leslie contributed 14 points. Subpar shooting did in the Bulldogs as they shot 36% from the field and 66.7% from the line, while the Red Storm shot 49% on field goals and 81.8% from the charity stripe. Georgia did a good job at hanging in there in the first half, winding up down just three at the half.

These two games were the first two in the 2009 SEC/Big East Invitational, and they made a doubleheader in Madison Square Garden. Tonight will see the other two games of this year's event, as Mississippi State takes on DePaul and Florida battles Syracuse in Tampa.

TUESDAY

A sluggish effort against a spirited Illini squad spelled doom for Vanderbilt to the tune of 79-68. Four Commodores scored at least 11 points, but A.J. Ogilvy didn't have his best night in scoring just eight points and having three turnovers to go with his three boards. The Vandy defense wasn't exactly suffocating, as Illinois shot a hair under 60% on the game including a blistering 53.3% from downtown. The Illini jumped out to a 9-0 lead to start the game, and Vandy could never overcome it. Anchor of Gold is understandably upset with the outcome.

Is this the Future of SI?

Year2 — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:17:43 -0000

Right now in the tech world, the hot thing seems to be tablet computing. This ranges from e-readers like the Kindle or Nook, to Internet appliances like the Crunchpad/JooJoo, to the long-rumored, never seen, yet fully functional iPad from Apple (which supposedly has been scrapped and restarted several times because, in the alleged words of Steve Jobs, the only thing it's good for is browsing the Internet while sitting on the toilet).

With the theorized tablet revolution coming, publishers are beginning to prepare content for the format. Witness what Sports Illustrated is showing off as the potential future of the magazine format:

It certainly looks interesting to me, and it has all of the requisite eye candy effects and iPhone-like finger gestures. I'm not sure that I would choose this over browsing sports web sites, but then I don't subscribe to any magazines as it is.

So what do you think? Is this a compelling new way to read your sports? Would this keep you subscribing to SI (or your mag of choice) if/when the dead tree format goes away?

Poll

What to you think about the new SI tablet prototype?

Round Ball Round Up Feels Like a Winner // 12.08.09

Year2 — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 14:15:22 -0000

by Dave Martin - AP

Auburn's Lucas Hargrove, top, celebrates with teammates after Auburn defeated Virginia 68-67. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

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While we've been obsessing over the end of football season, there has been basketball going on. That may come as a shock to those of you who aren't Kentucky or Vanderbilt fans, but don't worry. Here's a compilation of some of the best wins in the conference over the last two weeks. Rankings reflect the current AP poll.

LAST NIGHT

The SEC picked up a win over the ACC as Auburn edged out Virginia 68-67. DeWayne Reed led the AU attack with 18 points and seven assists, while Lucas Hargrove came within a Tiger's whisker of a double-double with 13 points and nine rebounds. Brandon Knox was the surprise contributor with 11 points and six boards off the bench for Auburn, and his tip in of a missed Reed layup with 1.4 seconds to go was the winning bucket. The Tigers are 5-4 on the season.

DECEMBER 5

No. 4 Kentucky picked up a big one with a long overdue win against No. 11 North Carolina 68-66. John Wall, a Tar Heel fan while growing up in Raleigh who UNC never offered a scholarship to, scored 16 points including the decisive free throws despite battling cramps. Patrick Patterson had the best overall night as he had 19 points and seven rebounds. Wall also led the team with seven assists. UK is now a perfect 8-0 on the season.

DECEMBER 2

A.J. Ogilvy had a great night with 25 points and six rebounds as Vanderbilt knocked off Missouri 89-83. Jeffery Taylor had a double-double for the Commodores with 18 points and 11 boards, while Andre Walker led everyone with 12 rebounds. The Tigers made a furious comeback in the second half, but Vandy was able to hold them off thanks in part to a 45-24 rebounding edge. VU is 6-1 on the season and is ranked No. 24 in the Coaches' Poll.

Mark Fox and Georgia picked up a win over an occasional tournament team when the Bulldogs took care of Saint Louis 64-56. Only five UGA men scored in the game, but all reached double digits. Dustin Ware led all scorers with 17 on the night, while Travis Leslie led all rebounders with nine. Fox's crew led comfortably for most of the game, but SLU made a strong comeback late in the second half. Faced with adversity, the Bulldogs held off the Billikens to make the final score look good again. Georgia is 4-3 on the season.

South Carolina also picked up a win over a program with regular tournament appearances by shutting down Western Kentucky 74-56. Five Gamecocks made it into double figures, led by Devan Downey with 15. Two of them, Ramon Galloway and Evaldas Baniulis, had 11 each off the bench to make up all 22 points of reserve scoring. South Carolina had a 21-4 run in the first half while WKU answered with an 11-5 run in the second half, but the Hilltoppers couldn't get closer than eight the rest of the way. South Carolina is 6-2 on the season.

NOVEMBER 29

It was a shocker in Orlando as Anthony Grant's Alabama squad knocked off then-No. 15 Michigan 68-66. JaMychal Green was the star of the night for the Tide as he scored 20 points, put in the go-ahead basket with five seconds to go, and swatted away UM's layup attempt as time ran out. Mikhail Torrance had 11 points and eight assists, while Chavez Davis chipped in 12 points off the bench. Bama is 6-2 on the season.

NOVEMBER 28

Mississippi State stuck it to tournament regular Old Dominion by cruising to a 69-55 win. Dee Bost had a boffo shooting night, hitting six threes on the way to scoring 25 points. Jarvis Varnado had 15 points, six rebounds, and five blocks, but he only played nine first half minutes thanks to dislocating his pinkie. He would play 10 minutes in the second half and 21 in MSU's next game. It was not a very giving night as the two teams combined for just 26 total assists. Mississippi State is now 5-2 on the season.

NOVEMBER 27

In a win that would propel them from being unranked to the mid teens, No. 10 Florida beat No. 12 Michigan State 77-74. Chandler Parsons led UF in scoring with 14 from off the bench, Erving Walker poured in 12 second half points, and Dan Werner more or less iced the game with two late free throws. Florida's defense was big despite the high scoring from the Spartans as the Gators forced 22 turnovers. Florida is now 8-0 on the season.

Other Half the BlogPoll Draft Ballot

Year2 — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 14:46:49 -0000

Top 25 here, comments after the jump.

Alabama
TCU
Texas
Cincinnati
Florida
Boise State
Oregon
Ohio State
Iowa
Georgia Tech
Virginia Tech
Penn State
Miami (FL)
LSU
Stanford
Arizona
Oregon State
Nebraska
Oklahoma State
Pittsburgh
BYU
West Virginia
Utah
Wisconsin
Central Michigan

TCU to 2: cocknfire convinced me with his plea. I can't put Texas below Cincy though.

Florida ahead of Boise State: BSU's Oregon win is better than Florida's best win (LSU), but Florida still played a tougher schedule.

The Rest: I don't know, this is the best I could do. Under Oregon, the Pac-10 has five 8-4 teams all with various wins over each other. The Big 12 guys other than Texas have no impressive wins. Most Big Ten guys don't either. The distributed nature of this year's good teams means most folks didn't play that many good teams.

How the BCS Selection Process Works with Predictions

Year2 — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 15:18:21 -0000

The Bowl Selection Day Open Thread posts at 5 p.m. ET on Sunday. Catch the specials on Fox and ESPN at 8 p.m. ET.

It's a slight bit confusing, but here's how this year's BCS process works.

AUTOMATIC BIDS

The champions of the six automatic qualifying conferences get into the deal. They are Georgia Tech, Texas, Cincinnati, Ohio State, Oregon, and Alabama. TCU also gets in automatically by being the highest ranked non-AQ conference champ that is in the top 12 of the BCS rankings. That leaves three at large spots open.

AT LARGE BIDS

The at large pool consists of any team ranked between 3 and 14 in the final BCS rankings. Each conference can only have two teams in the BCS though, so LSU and either Iowa or Penn State is out of luck.

The likely pool consists of Florida, Boise State, Iowa/Penn State, Virginia Tech, and BYU. BYU and VT are unlikely to get bids since the Cougars aren't in an AQ conference and the Hokies don't have a large traveling contingent. Plus, it would be tough (though not impossible) to take a two loss BYU or three loss VT team ahead of an undefeated Boise State team.

Thus Florida, Iowa/Penn State, and Boise State are almost certainly going to be the at large teams.

SELECTION ORDER

This is how the order goes this year. The selection order rotates each season, but this is the order for the January 2010 games. Even if the predictions are wrong, this is the sequence in which the bowls will make their picks.

CHOICES: Alabama vs. Texas

The national title game gets the top two teams in the rankings. This is the easy one. Moving on.

CHOICE: Florida

The Sugar Bowl has a tie-in with the SEC champ, and it will have lost that team as the BCS No. 1 to the national title game. Therefore, it gets to pick a replacement. It will pick Florida as a replacement because it loves getting SEC teams and UF always brings tons of fans.

As a side note, if there was a Big 12 team eligible as an at large, it would not be able to take it without the Fiesta Bowl's permission since the Fiesta has a Big 12 tie-in. This clause is not really relevant this year, but if Texas was to somehow end up No. 1 and the Fiesta got the first pick, it would not be able to take the Gators without the Sugar's permission.

CHOICE: Iowa/Penn State

There have been reports for a couple of weeks now that the Fiesta is high on getting the Big Ten runner up (exactly as it did last year) because it will mean a large traveling contingent. If you're looking solely at on-field performance, Iowa should get the bid. However Penn State has a large, national fan base and a legendary coach. Either way, someone's getting free of the cold northern tundra to spend some quality time in Arizona in early January.

The Fiesta must pick a Big Ten team now, even ahead of the undefeated teams, because otherwise the Orange will snap it up. See below.

CHOICE: None.

The Rose Bowl did not lose either of its tie-in teams to the national title game, so it makes no choice for an at large team. It gets Big Ten champ Ohio State against Pac-10 champ Oregon.

CHOICE: TCU

The Orange Bowl gets Georgia Tech from its tie-in, and I think it will take TCU to face it. I have a feeling that the Orange will be reluctant to take a team from Idaho, and Cincinnati was just there last year and didn't bring a large fan contingent.

It might take Cincy anyway since it used to have a Big East tie-in, but I think it dropped that tie-in after the ACC expansion spree so as to avoid getting stuck with a Big East team that doesn't travel well. This would be such an occasion. The Bearcats were the last team picked a year ago, and since serious doubts exist as to whether Brian Kelly will even be coaching UC's bowl game, they are the least appealing of the three remaining teams.

CHOICE: Boise State

With two teams left, it makes sense for the Fiesta to take the team from the western half of the country instead of the eastern half. Plus, the Fiesta had a nice experience with Boise State in 2006, and it might be looking to recapture the magic.

This is a bit of a wildcard spot though. BYU is an much older and more established program than Boise State is, and they correspondingly have a larger fan base. If the Fiesta is worried about ticket sales at all, it might think even for a little bit about taking BYU instead of Boise State. I'd put the odds of the Cougars going there at 10% or lower, but this is the BCS. Strange things happening is the rule, not an exception.

CHOICE: Cincinnati

There really is no choice at this point, as Cincinnati must go to a BCS bowl and there's only one spot left. The Sugar gets stuck with Cincy and its small fan base, but with Florida as the other participant, no other bowl is as equipped to deal with that. The Superdome will sound like the Swamp on New Year's Day with this pairing.