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).

Pumpin' for Thursday: Week 12

Oregon (-12.5) at Arizona, Over/Under 67

Vegas Algebra says: Oregon 39.75, Arizona 27.25

Thoughts: I think 11 weeks of picking Thursday games has taught me that a road favorite in the top 5 has no chance of beating anyone by two touchdowns or more. Also you have to look at each school's contribution to post-graduate athletics. Oregon has given us...



Meanwhile Arizona has given us...



and...



Suggestion: I like Arizona spread Under the Covers. Or Arizona to cover the spread and the under. Actually I like both.

The Pride and The Pageantry Index: November 12, 2007

Rank Team Conf W L OW OL OOW OOL TPTPI
1 LSU SEC 9 1 60 44 541 486 0.645155794
2 Oregon Pac Ten 8 1 53 38 465 443 0.641459648
3 Florida SEC 8 3 60 41 502 429 0.613649174
4 Georgia SEC 8 2 55 47 513 414 0.607957358
5 Arizona State Pac Ten 9 1 48 51 546 440 0.605862376
6 Missouri Big XII 9 1 50 55 537 449 0.599251425
7 Ohio State Big Ten 10 1 55 61 596 520 0.597854238
8 Virginia Tech ACC 8 2 53 48 483 443 0.592775806
9 Kansas Big XII 10 0 41 61 527 424 0.589518773
10 West Virginia Big East 8 1 42 49 493 417 0.588431013
11 Oklahoma Big XII 9 1 48 56 556 501 0.587273488
12 Texas Big XII 9 2 57 56 593 561 0.585224048
13 Illinois Big Ten 8 3 64 52 570 552 0.584685598
14 Tennessee SEC 7 3 57 45 523 486 0.583995511
15 South Florida Big East 7 3 55 43 452 439 0.582436038
16 Virginia ACC 9 2 53 57 585 520 0.577807487
17 Cincinnati Big East 8 2 48 49 458 426 0.576947567
18 Kentucky SEC 7 3 54 46 479 429 0.57688326
19 Connecticut Big East 8 2 48 51 481 419 0.576035354
20 Clemson ACC 8 2 48 51 482 421 0.575868318
21 Penn State Big Ten 8 3 61 55 630 587 0.574165814
22 Auburn SEC 7 4 62 49 548 472 0.572683914
23 Wisconsin Big Ten 8 3 61 55 565 549 0.571544548
24 Boston College ACC 8 2 47 52 483 428 0.569920389
25 Alabama SEC 6 4 57 42 481 431 0.569731858
26 Mississippi State SEC 6 4 56 44 491 426 0.563860414
27 California Pac Ten 6 4 56 43 511 475 0.562392177
28 Michigan Big Ten 8 3 57 59 603 515 0.562346835
29 Oklahoma State Big XII 5 5 63 39 466 483 0.55658433
30 Nebraska Big XII 5 6 71 41 567 583 0.553861519
31 South Carolina SEC 6 5 62 48 547 466 0.553176882
32 Florida State ACC 6 4 54 47 552 466 0.552886654
33 Oregon State Pac Ten 6 4 54 45 453 437 0.549974464
34 Southern California Pac Ten 8 2 41 59 571 419 0.549191919
35 Texas A&M Big XII 6 5 64 48 525 522 0.547436088
36 Wake Forest ACC 6 4 54 48 541 480 0.547174051
37 UCF Conference USA 7 3 50 52 513 518 0.544491832
38 North Carolina State ACC 5 5 58 43 467 454 0.538893099
39 Rutgers Big East 6 4 52 46 436 448 0.53860929
40 Brigham Young Mountain West 7 2 40 50 391 411 0.53854946
41 Purdue Big Ten 7 4 58 58 581 541 0.538547237
42 Michigan State Big Ten 6 5 64 52 610 606 0.53763689
43 Boise State WAC 9 1 37 62 444 449 0.536168799
44 Maryland ACC 5 5 55 43 457 436 0.533551775
45 Colorado Big XII 5 6 67 46 567 591 0.532505867
46 Louisville Big East 5 5 55 43 440 447 0.529625774
47 Georgia Tech ACC 6 4 49 51 492 423 0.52942623
48 Vanderbilt SEC 5 5 54 49 501 436 0.520807214
49 Washington Pac Ten 3 7 64 36 499 500 0.519874875
50 Tulsa Conference USA 7 3 45 54 469 535 0.519055596
51 Iowa Big Ten 6 5 59 60 648 594 0.514697579
52 Texas Tech Big XII 7 4 51 63 563 510 0.513949397
53 New Mexico Mountain West 7 3 43 56 435 461 0.513544485
54 UCLA Pac Ten 5 5 50 49 534 453 0.512783611
55 Arkansas SEC 6 4 45 54 489 414 0.512654787
56 Air Force Mountain West 8 3 44 63 488 492 0.511915454
57 Wyoming Mountain West 5 5 55 46 458 541 0.511891842
58 East Carolina Conference USA 6 5 55 54 542 568 0.510729286
59 Washington State Pac Ten 4 6 56 43 500 478 0.510640144
60 Utah Mountain West 7 3 41 59 515 476 0.509919273
61 Kansas State Big XII 5 5 52 53 535 443 0.509377739
62 Fresno State WAC 6 4 47 50 402 466 0.508051451
63 Indiana Big Ten 6 5 56 60 578 542 0.506760804
64 Hawaii WAC 9 0 23 66 344 343 0.504395434
65 Troy Sun Belt 7 3 39 59 455 428 0.502801789
66 Central Michigan MAC 6 4 47 53 430 497 0.50096548
67 TCU Mountain West 5 5 51 51 496 523 0.496687929
68 Northwestern Big Ten 6 5 54 62 569 550 0.496244688
69 Pittsburgh Big East 4 5 48 44 410 419 0.49562362
70 Mississippi SEC 3 7 59 42 470 450 0.494796599
71 Miami (Fla.) ACC 5 5 47 54 566 467 0.494652938
72 North Carolina ACC 3 7 58 44 492 438 0.49157179
73 Stanford Pac Ten 3 7 55 43 507 466 0.48587946
74 Arizona Pac Ten 4 6 50 48 459 424 0.485056741
75 San Diego State Mountain West 4 5 44 45 399 394 0.484090269
76 Duke ACC 1 9 68 34 496 531 0.479073353
77 Houston Conference USA 6 4 41 59 493 508 0.478126873
78 Notre Dame Independent 1 9 70 35 507 560 0.477124336
79 Iowa State Big XII 3 8 64 50 552 538 0.475489077
80 Ball State MAC 5 5 47 56 460 498 0.473197093
81 Baylor Big XII 3 8 63 49 512 545 0.470529264
82 Navy Independent 6 4 36 62 479 422 0.46658135
83 Louisiana Tech WAC 4 6 48 51 430 453 0.464168297
84 Florida Atlantic Sun Belt 5 4 36 55 463 446 0.46402882
85 Akron MAC 4 6 51 52 489 562 0.463890608
86 Toledo MAC 5 5 46 57 440 517 0.4632435
87 Bowling Green MAC 6 4 39 64 468 492 0.461195388
88 Syracuse Big East 2 8 56 44 526 491 0.459301868
89 Southern Mississippi Conference USA 5 5 43 57 438 486 0.458506494
90 Miami (Ohio) MAC 5 5 42 60 526 515 0.457203198
91 San Jose State WAC 4 6 47 52 410 471 0.4537188
92 Army Independent 3 7 51 49 439 471 0.450604396
93 Nevada WAC 5 4 34 58 411 405 0.449590615
94 Middle Tennessee Sun Belt 5 6 45 62 475 508 0.4447204
95 New Mexico State WAC 4 7 52 55 381 498 0.44226152
96 Louisiana-Monroe Sun Belt 4 6 44 54 417 470 0.442020799
97 Buffalo MAC 4 6 45 58 516 533 0.441420863
98 Kent State MAC 3 7 51 51 438 511 0.440384615
99 UNLV Mountain West 2 8 54 44 450 532 0.440072322
100 Marshall Conference USA 2 8 60 49 455 547 0.438752312
101 Memphis Conference USA 5 5 39 62 440 488 0.43660379
102 Minnesota Big Ten 1 10 68 47 520 591 0.435391148
103 Temple MAC 3 7 51 51 456 580 0.43503861
104 Western Michigan MAC 3 7 49 51 428 506 0.434561028
105 UAB Conference USA 2 8 53 48 452 474 0.434406475
106 Texas-El Paso Conference USA 4 6 45 57 418 510 0.433195994
107 Ohio MAC 5 6 44 66 489 540 0.432441028
108 Arkansas State Sun Belt 4 6 41 58 473 522 0.425914928
109 Colorado State Mountain West 1 9 54 46 490 514 0.417011952
110 Tulane Conference USA 3 7 44 55 434 472 0.416979397
111 Florida International Sun Belt 0 9 54 38 418 500 0.407312684
112 Eastern Michigan MAC 3 8 50 61 477 571 0.407195211
113 La.-Lafayette Sun Belt 2 8 48 52 419 490 0.405236524
114 Rice Conference USA 3 7 43 59 443 507 0.402363261
115 Utah State WAC 0 10 54 44 441 538 0.388125117
116 North Texas Sun Belt 1 8 45 45 385 509 0.38543997
117 Idaho WAC 1 9 42 47 353 439 0.372381824
118 Northern Illinois MAC 2 8 39 63 456 486 0.362195579
119 Southern Methodist Conference USA 1 9 44 55 442 552 0.358389224
Football Champ Sub 0.1 1 8

BREAKING NEWS (or Internet Rumor, time will tell)

MGoBlog is reporting that Lloyd Carr will announce his retirement following Saturday's Ohio State game.