SEC media and the double standard

I belive it's "homerfanboiloosers." Get it straight.

 

I was one of the Florida reporters asking the coaches who they voted for (it was a handful of Gator beat reporters asking the questions). Sorry, but anyone who doesn't think this was worth pursuing simply does not understand the passion of SEC football, or the competitiveness of the Gator beat.

The Preseason Coaches Ballot is presented as a list of the best players in the conference heading in 2009, as voted on by the coaches.

Tim Tebow has won two national championships in three years (though only one as the starter). He became the first sophomore to ever win the Heisman Trophy, and the first player to ever throw for 20 touchdowns and rush for 20 touchdowns in a season. He had the most first-place Heisman votes last year, and would have won the award if not for the Big 12 homer voters who completely left him off the ballot.

Looking at Tebow objectively, he has already established himself as one of the greatest players in the history of college football. If he wins a third title or a second Heisman, the case can definitely be made that he is the GOAT.

But one coach didn't even vote for Tebow as the best quarterback in his conference. It's interesting, especially to my Gator-centric audience. I wanted to know who, and why. We didn't come after the coaches with flaming pitchforks. The questions were almost always phrased, "Would you mind disclosing who you voted for All SEC quarterback?" And as we found out, the coach that didn't vote for Tebow didn't do so because of legitimate reasons, but out of spite ("we already had 10 Gators on the list, and we didn't need 11") and laziness ("I had my football ops guy fill it out. I haven't looked at a preseason ballot in 17 years.").

Additionally this line of questioning produced an interesting and important subplot -- that coaches rarely put in the required effort into their ballots, whether for trivial issues like a preseason ballot or important issues like the Coaches Poll.

Then add in the fact that Spurrier, Mr. Gator himself, was the culprit. And that he went out of his way to change his vote and publicly kiss Tebow's ass for five minutes. Gator fans eat this shit up.

The fact that ESPN and national media jumped all over the story, and that Spurrier felt compelled to change his vote, is all the proof I need that this was a legitimate story.

 

This might make Spnited's head explode....

http://blog.al.com/press-register-sports/2009/07/finebaum_urban_meyer_bear_bryant.html

 

I don't care who has won more titles. Meyer has a long way to go to be better than Spurrier, much less Bryant.

 

I think he may have a little way to go to pass Spurrier. Don't see how the gap could be very large at this stage.

 

Pre-season voting in any subject is the most worthless exercise anyone has ever devised.

 

I'm kinda hoping Sneed has a year for the ages just to see this preseason nonsense rendered even more irrelevant.

 

Of course, but that's beside the point. Here in SEC Country, with less than six weeks to go before the first kickoff, fans salivate over any little morsel of "news" they can get about their favorite team.

And, as Kid pointed out, this little psychodrama had just enough juicy angles to give it some legitimacy.

 

Since we're not naming names, who did Wally Hall vote for again?

 

But there IS no news six weeks before kickoff. Just because coaches get together and chat for a couple of days doesn't make that news.

 

I know that, you know that, people in the media know that, but the fans of Silo State (i.e., the readers) don't. They're ready for kickoff NOW and they're going to jump all over anything you can give them. Even if it's manufactured b.s. like Media Days. Hell, people in these parts will read a feature on Houston Nutt farting in the square at Oxford in mid-May, then comment for a week on-line about what it means for the Rebels.

 

There is no news here, either:



Writers saying "fill up my notebook, please" is not exclusive to Southern college football.

"Jim McMahon mooned a helicopter!"

Mountain over a molehill?

"Brett Favre is seriously considering thinking about seriously considering coming back."

Mountain over a molehill?