The Pride and The Pageantry Index November 20, 2007

Rank Team Conf W L OW OL OOW OOL TPTPI
1 LSU SEC 10 1 66 56 703 622 0.63040604
2 Georgia SEC 9 2 65 55 661 540 0.61297246
3 Oregon Pac Ten 8 2 60 47 588 561 0.608311169
4 Florida SEC 8 3 69 50 634 560 0.604481217
5 Ohio State Big Ten 11 1 67 72 777 695 0.602137176
6 West Virginia Big East 9 1 53 57 651 551 0.601308425
7 Missouri Big XII 10 1 58 65 689 566 0.600296081
8 Arizona State Pac Ten 9 1 50 56 622 512 0.597974277
9 Virginia Tech ACC 9 2 62 58 618 588 0.590988241
10 Boston College ACC 9 2 61 59 628 580 0.588679009
11 Tennessee SEC 8 3 67 54 668 642 0.586158602
12 Illinois Big Ten 9 3 75 64 751 728 0.584228054
13 Texas Big XII 9 2 61 61 683 659 0.581780924
14 South Florida Big East 8 3 64 54 604 573 0.581296891
15 Oklahoma Big XII 9 2 59 64 700 655 0.573534144
16 Cincinnati Big East 8 3 62 55 593 579 0.573268621
17 Kansas Big XII 11 0 45 76 671 556 0.57266598
18 Clemson ACC 8 3 62 58 620 582 0.569103262
19 Virginia ACC 9 2 56 65 691 627 0.567020216
20 Auburn SEC 7 4 66 55 643 564 0.564999623
21 Kentucky SEC 7 4 65 54 625 565 0.563502674
22 Connecticut Big East 9 2 53 66 635 557 0.56041406
23 Penn State Big Ten 8 4 74 65 812 782 0.560206289
24 Michigan Big Ten 8 4 73 66 771 703 0.560023216
25 Wisconsin Big Ten 9 3 66 73 765 705 0.555012113
26 Nebraska Big XII 5 6 76 44 655 669 0.553981278
27 Brigham Young Mountain West 8 2 50 59 529 539 0.553187386
28 Oregon State Pac Ten 7 4 61 55 589 539 0.552562724
29 Florida State ACC 7 4 62 59 723 602 0.551704351
30 Oklahoma State Big XII 6 5 70 51 612 607 0.55113255
31 Southern California Pac Ten 8 2 45 63 650 494 0.550378788
32 Wake Forest ACC 7 4 62 59 706 616 0.54879909
33 South Carolina SEC 6 5 67 53 637 560 0.548571239
34 Alabama SEC 6 5 68 52 618 582 0.54844697
35 Mississippi State SEC 6 5 67 52 622 570 0.548329262
36 Michigan State Big Ten 7 5 77 62 799 793 0.548282856
37 Texas A&M Big XII 6 5 69 52 603 612 0.545561677
38 California Pac Ten 6 5 65 52 654 597 0.544836858
39 Rutgers Big East 7 4 60 58 594 583 0.539496422
40 UCF Conference USA 8 3 56 65 652 678 0.535779531
41 Washington Pac Ten 4 7 74 43 636 624 0.533338883
42 Colorado Big XII 5 6 73 50 656 697 0.531596452
43 Texas Tech Big XII 8 4 62 70 698 653 0.530678734
44 Utah Mountain West 8 3 53 67 660 637 0.529868169
45 Boise State WAC 10 1 42 77 573 589 0.527022145
46 Maryland ACC 5 6 67 51 601 582 0.524542276
47 North Carolina State ACC 5 6 68 52 612 591 0.524151742
48 Georgia Tech ACC 7 4 55 65 652 554 0.523415121
49 Tulsa Conference USA 8 3 53 67 633 692 0.522085477
50 UCLA Pac Ten 5 5 56 51 613 532 0.520525038
51 Air Force Mountain West 9 3 53 75 648 640 0.520307648
52 Arkansas SEC 7 4 53 65 641 540 0.519357273
53 Louisville Big East 5 6 66 53 606 577 0.519011531
54 Purdue Big Ten 7 5 68 71 760 720 0.518816028
55 Indiana Big Ten 7 5 68 71 757 723 0.518309272
56 Vanderbilt SEC 5 6 65 56 649 565 0.515880499
57 Troy Sun Belt 8 3 50 69 583 599 0.515210168
58 East Carolina Conference USA 6 5 61 59 643 682 0.511851058
59 New Mexico Mountain West 7 4 56 64 566 624 0.511331805
60 Hawaii WAC 10 0 30 77 448 477 0.511267997
61 Wyoming Mountain West 5 6 67 52 599 696 0.510786034
62 Arizona Pac Ten 5 6 61 54 590 532 0.510315431
63 Kansas State Big XII 5 6 64 58 652 580 0.50823664
64 Fresno State WAC 6 4 51 55 475 551 0.506306778
65 Mississippi SEC 3 8 74 46 611 593 0.503383922
66 Washington State Pac Ten 4 7 65 51 631 605 0.498710955
67 TCU Mountain West 6 5 57 64 653 659 0.49632918
68 Northwestern Big Ten 6 6 67 72 758 717 0.494481771
69 Iowa Big Ten 6 6 67 73 831 769 0.494129464
70 Ball State MAC 6 5 58 65 595 665 0.49019155
71 Pittsburgh Big East 4 6 59 52 548 557 0.489747666
72 Miami (Fla.) ACC 5 6 58 62 710 620 0.488761677
73 Stanford Pac Ten 3 7 58 47 582 536 0.481333589
74 North Carolina ACC 3 8 68 52 620 578 0.480897455
75 San Diego State Mountain West 4 6 55 54 532 532 0.477293578
76 Iowa State Big XII 3 9 77 56 678 691 0.475786686
77 Notre Dame Independent 2 9 76 48 682 698 0.475456883
78 Bowling Green MAC 7 4 48 75 611 650 0.475346881
79 Houston Conference USA 7 4 46 74 655 666 0.474716698
80 Central Michigan MAC 6 5 54 68 581 663 0.474435562
81 Florida Atlantic Sun Belt 5 5 49 62 614 593 0.472895534
82 Navy Independent 7 4 44 75 607 595 0.470212779
83 Louisiana Tech WAC 5 6 56 63 556 607 0.468448968
84 Southern Mississippi Conference USA 6 5 51 69 574 643 0.466776537
85 Syracuse Big East 2 9 71 50 675 661 0.465152855
86 Miami (Ohio) MAC 6 5 49 73 693 662 0.465043087
87 Akron MAC 4 7 63 60 631 741 0.461984786
88 Louisiana-Monroe Sun Belt 5 6 53 65 572 607 0.459501863
89 Army Independent 3 8 66 55 570 644 0.458289651
90 Baylor Big XII 3 9 71 60 664 675 0.457465481
91 Duke ACC 1 10 76 46 657 687 0.456412504
92 Nevada WAC 5 5 46 63 506 559 0.454788517
93 Toledo MAC 5 6 55 67 571 678 0.453337633
94 Western Michigan MAC 4 7 60 62 585 672 0.453159179
95 Middle Tennessee Sun Belt 5 7 58 70 600 689 0.447098445
96 Memphis Conference USA 6 5 45 76 587 633 0.442600935
97 UNLV Mountain West 2 9 67 52 599 701 0.442159458
98 Temple MAC 4 7 58 64 609 745 0.441058618
99 San Jose State WAC 4 7 55 62 524 615 0.440964995
100 Marshall Conference USA 2 9 73 57 587 724 0.438161229
101 Minnesota Big Ten 1 11 82 56 697 772 0.43655289
102 Buffalo MAC 4 7 55 68 662 704 0.435642988
103 UAB Conference USA 2 9 66 55 569 652 0.434684685
104 Ohio MAC 5 6 49 72 577 646 0.434063372
105 Arkansas State Sun Belt 5 6 46 72 619 675 0.428142035
106 Texas-El Paso Conference USA 4 7 55 67 545 677 0.427816472
107 Kent State MAC 3 8 58 63 576 661 0.424261911
108 Eastern Michigan MAC 4 8 59 73 638 728 0.423582457
109 Tulane Conference USA 4 7 51 69 573 635 0.421993528
110 Colorado State Mountain West 2 9 59 60 591 604 0.416993872
111 New Mexico State WAC 4 8 56 72 523 638 0.414701766
112 La.-Lafayette Sun Belt 3 8 52 66 559 622 0.406852723
113 Utah State WAC 1 10 63 57 594 706 0.399458042
114 Rice Conference USA 3 8 51 71 573 665 0.392909036
115 Florida International Sun Belt 0 10 62 50 556 661 0.391000998
116 North Texas Sun Belt 1 9 55 55 522 670 0.384479866
117 Idaho WAC 1 10 54 53 450 593 0.382925658
118 Southern Methodist Conference USA 1 10 58 62 581 733 0.374934274
119 Northern Illinois MAC 2 9 50 73 575 671 0.364075759

So What's Alabama getting for that 3.87 Million?

Interesting note from the weekend. Not only did Louisiana-Monroe upset Alabama.

The lowest paid head coach in Division I Football Bowl Subdivision Charlie Weatherbie ($130,000/year) beat the highest paid coach Nick Saban ($4,000,000/year).

Coach salaries courtesy of Wreck Ramblin'

Lloyd Carr Retires, but then again We Knew He Would a Week Ago

Lloyd Carr announced his retirement today during a 10am Press Conference during which he was expected to.

As passed along here last Monday, the first reports of this impending announcement came not from a Detroit, Ann-Arbor, or University of Michigan newspaper or television station but from a Michigan fan blog called MGoBlog.com.

How this report was treated is an interesting study in journalism in 2007 and beyond.

The New York Times and close friend of mine Pete Thamel credited MGoBlog but not without taking a pot shot at the blogs other more fan-oriented content.

ESPN treated the report as a rumor and never mentioned MGoBlog in any of the speculative stories it ran last week, that I had read at least and on Saturday when it became more apparent that Monday was going to be the announcement that Carr was retiring ran the following sentence on its ticker "Lloyd Carr expected to announce retirement Monday, ESPN.com has learned".

My question is since MGoBlog's information turned out to be dead on, shouldn't it have been credited as the source of these reports? Or does news have to come from Institutionalized (what is "Mainstream" nowadays?) Media in order to be credited?

I have a feeling in journalism schools all over the country, students are being told that blogs are a fad and will be obsolete in three years and that the access they are paying $100,000 and taking classes for four years for will be theirs and theirs alone once they graduate, but in today's media climate, is that necessarily the truth? Or is the truth that news told from outside Institutionalized Media will be treated as conjecture until someone inside Institutionalized Media reports it as fact?

I have no doubt Lloyd Carr's retirement will not be the last major sports story to be broken by someone in the "blogosphere", I do wonder when that person will first get credit.

Ohio State beats Michigan: Five Thoughts

Ohio State beat Michigan 14-3 in the 104th edition of College Football's greatest rivarly. Here are my first five thoughts.

1. This was the complete antithesis of last year's supposed classic. As sloppy of a game as you will see all season. Fumbles, drops, tackling and 60% of Chad Henne's passes intended for Yao Ming. If you watched that fantastic HBO documentary and tuned in for the first time to see College Football's greatest rivalry expecting either an offensive display like last year or a physical fundamentally sound war like Woody and Bo coached in during the 70's you were disappointed. But then you remembered in 1950 these two teams combined for 45 punts and you figured this game was at least better than THAT.

2. We often hear about how rivalry games bring out the best in players, but rarely hear about how they bring out the worst. To paraphrase Jeff Goldblum's character in Jurassic Park "Your people spent so much time wondering whether or not they could they never stopped to think whether or not they SHOULD". Mike Hart and Chad Henne should've sat this game. But of course as seniors in their last Ohio State-Michigan game after being 0-3, we knew there was no way they weren't going to play. Their complete ineffectiveness (Hart 2.4 yards per carry, Henne 32% completion percentage) is not how they wanted to go out, I'm sure.

3. All the NFL players and other famous people that went to Ohio State and LeBron James announces their lineups? For this game couldn't ABC get someone that actually went to the school for something other than an exhibition high school game?

4. I haven't heard any quotes from Mike Hart. Did he say "There's nothing special about our offense?"

5. Of course this was the last edition of this game for Lloyd Carr, but then again we already knew it would be (more on this later).