outsidethesidelines
May 05, 2008 Dec 05, 2009 1082 5869
I'm a lifelong Alabama football fan, a Bryant namesake, and I have been following Alabama football closely for about 20 years now. I'm a 2005 graduate of The University of Alabama, and a 2009 graduate of Tulane Law School.
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As most of you probably know, Mark Ingram was recently on the cover of The Sporting News, but here's the first image I've seen of it. Enjoy.
Southeastern Conference coaches have voted Alabama's Nick Saban as the league's coach of the year, linebacker Rolando McClain as the SEC defensive of the year and Javier Arenas (pictured) as the SEC special teams player of the year.
Saban shared the award last season with Ole Miss' Houston Nutt and Vanderbilt's Bobby Johnson. He won it outright this time.
Early bettors are siding with No. 1 Alabama in the BCS national championship game, driving up point spreads across Las Vegas casinos. The Crimson Tide faces No. 2 Texas in the Jan. 7 game.
Oddsmakers say it is a combination of Alabama's impressive performance against Florida in the SEC championship game and Texas' struggle with Nebraska.
Bookmakers said the Longhorns offense struggles against good defenses, and the Tide has one of those.
You know, they really ought to build a statue or something on the LSU campus for this guy.
There was criticism from some three years ago when the university agreed to pay him as much as $32 million in an eight-year deal. That $4 million-a-year mark set a record at the time.
But the gamble has paid off. Despite a recession that has wrecked businesses large and small and left thousands of Crimson Tide fans unemployed, federal records show Alabama football turned a profit of more than $38 million in the last academic year. That's an almost 40 percent gain from the year before Saban was hired in 2007.
The Associated Press: University of Alabama wins $32 million bet on Saban as profits soar
I saw this yesterday afternoon and wanted to post it to make a point. With big-time college football programs now generating well over 50+ million dollars per year in revenue, this is a huge business -- and the one whose simple existence allows for all of the other non-revenue sports -- and at some point you simply have to look at coaching salaries with respect to their return on investment.
We may have gotten a lot of hell from a bunch of idiots for coughing up so much money back in January 2007 for Saban, but from a pure financial perspective -- all competitive issues notwithstanding -- his hire was an absolute boon. We had to spend an extra 2.5 million dollars per year over the cost of Shula to get him, but to date football profits have increased somewhere in the neighborhood of 16-20 million dollars per year on his watch. We are basically spending a dollar and getting eight to ten dollars back in return. Again, at some point with modern day college football being such a big business, you have to put the raw dollar amounts aside and simply look at your ROI. Criticism be damned, even had Saban not done what he has ultimately done on the field, it would have been an absolutely stupid financial decision to not give him the big bucks.
Random Musings From the SEC Championship Game
by outsidethesidelines on Dec 9, 2009 9:00 AM EST
78 comments
It's a bit late in the week for musings on the SEC Championship Game, but with the BCS Championship Game still one month away, I figure we have plenty of time to fully dissect the victory in Atlanta. With that in mind, here are a few random musings I had from watching the SEC Championship Game:
- Florida ran their combo option / shovel pass play on the opening play of the game, and Eryk Anders chased down Hernandez from the backside to make the tackle for a minimal gain. Anders followed Hernandez the entire way and we were obviously prepared for such a play, but the interesting thing of it was that Florida never went back to that play the rest of the game. That really surprised me, especially given how successful that play has been for them the past couple of years.
- A large degree of Florida's lack of point production in this game can be traced back to three key offensive mistakes on the Gators' part, namely two costly drops and a terrible throw by Tebow. The first big mistake came on the opening drive when Jeff Demps dropped a pass out of the backfield that was destined for big yardage (Florida ultimately went three and out on that drive), and the second was Hernandez dropping a pass at the goal line after he left Cory Reamer in the dust (Florida had to settle for three points there). Finally, Tebow made a terrible throw on the interception to Arenas... it was an easy touchdown pass with the proper arc on the throw, and instead it ended up being the dagger through their hearts. I'm not saying Florida would have won had they capitalized on these three plays, but the game would have certainly been much closer.
- Speaking of that throw by Tebow... it's throws like that why he'll never be a legitimate NFL quarterback. Call him the greatest college player ever if you want, but he has a slow wind-up in his delivery and he doesn't throw the football vertically very well. You can get away with that, combined with the rest of the positive things he can do for you, when you are playing the SEC East, but the NFC East? That stuff doesn't fly up there. Tebow will probably be a first round pick in the 2010 NFL Draft, and he may be an outstanding player in some type of a hybrid role or at another position, but in terms of his potential as a traditional NFL quarterback, his prospects aren't much better than mine.
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The N.C.A.A. is conducting a wide-ranging investigation into the University of Tennessee’s football recruiting practices, according to interviews with several prospects, their family members and high school administrators. A significant part of the investigation is focused on the use of recruiting hostesses who have become folk heroes on Tennessee Internet message boards for their ability to help lure top recruits.
N.C.A.A. officials have visited four prospects and are scheduled to visit two others this week in an investigation covering at least three states. The inquiry is unusual in its scope and its timing. It is rare that the N.C.A.A. looks at this wide a swath of one university’s recruits before the players have signed with a program in February.
On the cover of SI again this week...
That bell you hear at the mention of Mr. Ingram's name means it's time for my Heisman Trophy ballot. I've avoided getting caught in the stiff-arm hype all season, as the award is really won in the final weeks, and also, I find it rather boring. But it's my duty as your college commentator to give my thoughts on the nation's best player. And I think Ingram deserves it after Saturday's performance -- 189 total yards and three touchdowns against the nation's (previously) top defense.
My major criterion when splitting hairs at the top of the ballot is how a player performs in his team's biggest games. Ingram was dominant in the opener (185 total yards and two scores) and finale in Atlanta and had monster games at Ole Miss and against LSU as well.
The second place finisher played in the Big 12 title game -- and it sure as hell ain't Colt McCoy.
Per the good people at New Life Art (warning: PDF), Daniel Moore will be releasing a new print commemorating the 2009 SEC Championship Game. No details whatsoever are given, and apparently he won't start working on it until after "Maximum Block," but it's on the way.
At any rate, that's at least two Daniel Moore paintings this year (to go along with the two last year), and if Ingram wins the Heisman that will definitely be another, and if 'Bama wins in Pasadena that will definitely be yet another. So we could get four Daniel Moore paintings in a five month stretch. I tell you, that guy ought to start donating a large chunk of his paycheck to Saban. I believe he has gotten more financial gain off of Saban's arrival than anyone aside from Saban himself.
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Certain photos copyright © 2009 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
