Tuesday, December 6, 2011

A Report From The Tire Store

TO COMMENT ON THIS POST, PLEASE CLICK ON THE ABOVE LINK.

Down at The Tire Store, we just don't understand the hoo-ha about a "rematch" in the BCS Championship Game. 

If it was Duke / North Carolina in basketball, they might play twice in the season, once in the ACC tourney and still meet at the end of the Final Four and they'd promote the daylights out of it, even if Duke had won every one of the previous meetings.  Same story in Women's basketball.  Alabama and UGA regularly meet during the season in gymnastics, then for the SEC title, and maybe again at the Super Six (or whatever they call their finals).  Baseball is a little different because of the regionals, but you could definitely have a rematch because baseball teams play so many games OOC and so does softball (I understand it's different with a concluding series of games).  And what if next season there is an undefeated Oklahoma State and a one-loss Oklahoma, and everyone else in the country has three losses.  What then?   9-3 LSU goes over Oklahoma? 
If this had been a four-team playoff, LSU would have beaten Stanford to death, we'd have beaten OK State, probably by at least three scores, and we end up in the same place, just with one more game played for each team.  And incidentally, if I had a vote, I'd have rated Stanford higher than OK State, by virtue of comparing losses.
But don't get me wrong, anything that ends the ridiculous voting system in football, which has been controversial for as long as we have all been alive, and was not "fixed" by the BCS no matter what Kramer says, has my support.  I have an acquaintance (not Alabama or LSU) who said he hopes we win the game 9-6 in overtime, just to try to blow up the BCS.

And one more thing, while we're at it: Who said nobody wanted to see Alabama and LSU play again? How many people went to see Alabama play its home games this year compared to how many people went to see Ok State? I'll tell you: the paid attendance at Alabama's 2011 home games was 712,747, an overage of 101,821 per game. Out in Stillwater they sold 343,376 tickets, a per-game average of only 57,229. More people paid to go see Ok State's opponents [383,456] than went to see the 'Pokes, and this includes all those folks at Iowa State who paid to sit out in the cold that Friday night in Ames when the Cyclones came back from a 24-7 third quarter deficit to beat OSU in double overtime.

In fact, based on attendance figures, more people would rather go see games played by Alabama's opponents [81,170 average per game] than go to Stillwater to watch the Cowboys.

LSU attracted 557,210 to Tiger Stadium this season, a per game average of 92,868. And you could put the average attendance at Ok State games into the stadiums of LSU's opponents and still have 20,000 empty seats.

Down here at The Tire Store, we could attract a crowd close to the average Oklahoma State home game with a two-for-one special, provided of course that we included free rotation and balance. And if anyone from another conference wants to complain about how "unfair" it is that the SEC has ruled the BCS for six years running, just tell them it's their own dad-gum fault.

The Correspondent From The Tire Store  

Sunday, December 4, 2011

The Wait ...

TO COMMENT ON THIS POST, PLEASE CLICK ON THE ABOVE LINK.

There must be something wrong with every clock in the house. I know that at least a quarter of an hour must have passed since the last time I checked the time, but they have only advanced a minute and a half.

Einstein theorized that time slowed down as your velocity approached the speed of light. Albert must not have been an Alabama fan. If he was he would have added another caveat to his general theory of relativity: Time slows down while you are waiting to find out the final BCS standings.

It's Sunday morning. The Tide has had all of its hay in the barn for a week. To be more precise, the Tide took all the "Hey!" out of The Barn last Saturday, but you get my point. With no more games to play, all that Alabama fans can do is wait to see how the poll voters and computer geeks react to Oklahoma State's 44-10 victory over Oklahoma. Will the best two teams in college football face each other for the 2011 BCS Championship? Or, will Alabama be bumped out of the number 2 spot in the final BCS rankings by a team with the country's 107th best defense; one that lost to a three touchdown underdog?

Twitter is full of tweets urging the voters to do the right thing. Here's my favorite:

"Remember that time a flashy offense played an SEC defense in a BCS title game and scored more than 24 points? Anyone?"

Hat Tip to Marc Torrence.

Since all we can do is wait until the final standings are announced, today is a good day to release: The Commissioners Most Valuable Awards!

Most Valuable Player on Offense: The most potent offensive weapon in college football: Trent Richardson.

TR's stats tell the tale. Rushing: 1583 net yards, 132 per game, 6.0 per rush. Receiving: 27 receptions for 327 yards, 27.2 yards per game. Scoring: 23 touchdowns [20 rushing]. All Purpose: 1976 total yards [164.7 per game]

Trent led the Tide in rushing, scoring, and all purpose yards. He was second in receiving behind only Marquis Maze and in total offense behind AJ McCarron.

Honorable Mention: The Offensive Line

If you asked him, TR would be the first to tell you that what he accomplished on the field this year was made possible by the big men up front. In fact if you asked Trent for the time of day he would say "My offensive line makes time happen. That's the only reason I wear a watch."

Alabama averaged 433 offensive yards and 36 points per game in the league that has won the last five consecutive BCS titles.

Most Valuable Player on Defense:  Dont'a Hightower leads the team in tackles with 81 [37 solo], 9.5 for lost yardage including 3 sacks, 3 pass breakups, 4 deflections, 8 hurries, 1 interception returned for 29 yards and a blocked field goal attempt.

Most Valuable Player on Special Teams: Marquis Maze The Tide's primary return specialist accounted for 726 yards returning kicks and punts. His electrifying punt return for a touchdown against Arkansas convinced opposing teams to kick away from him but he still averaged 12 yards per game returning punts.

Most Valuable Coaching Staff:  Defense Alabama has the best defense in the country. As good as LSU's defense has been, Alabama's has been better.

The Tide Defense allowed on average fewer than 7 points per game and surrendered only 3 rushing touchdowns. Opposing offenses averaged only 191 yards per game [75 rushing] and converted only 25% of third downs. Alabama led the nation in the number of Three And Out defensive stops, and opponents who managed to reach the Alabama red-zone only scored touchdowns 35% of the time. Credit goes to: Kirby Smart, Sal Sunseri, Chris Rumph, Jeremy Pruitt, and, of course Scott Cochran

Most Valuable Freshman: Vinnie Sunseri He played in all twelve games starting with special teams and by the end of the season saw significant playing time on defense. He recorded 31 tackles [18 solo] and forced a fumble. He was the 8th leading tackler on the team and most productive freshman on defense.

OK, I am convinced that there is something wrong with the clocks in this house. There is more time until the BCS announcement than when I started working on this blog post. Are we having another "fall back" clock changing weekend?

The Commissioner