The Anti-Orange Page aggregator

Get the Picture: Don’t you have, like, a school or something to run?

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 10:38:29 -0500

Nothing like another university president showing his ass over the football postseason:

Arizona State University’s president is calling for the end of college football’s Bowl Championship Series, pushing for an eight-team playoff that would leave the best teams out of the Fiesta Bowl and other BCS games.

Michael Crow appears to be one of the first presidents from a major university to publicly denounce the current system, which guarantees large annual payouts…

That’s bound to be a popular approach.

All you need to know about the man’s attachment to reality can be summarized in one sentence.

Crow said the current BCS system places too much emphasis on money and not the student-athlete.

What a profound revelation. Perhaps he should clue his own conference commissioner, who’s pumping for a new, long-term TV deal for the BCS, in. And while he’s at it, he might want to share his thoughts with the NCAA, as it’s currently pondering reducing the scope of the already less-than-whopping $2000 stipend proposed by Mark Emmert.

Get the Picture: Every day, every day, every day Corch writes the book.

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 10:11:18 -0500

And you can feel that next chapter coming on.

“I was very angry that would even be brought up, and there were fellow Big Ten coaches who were angry as well. And the commissioner was very angry, so there was a lot of…to have that make the presses, especially when it’s inaccurate, legally you’re not allowed to do that. That’s slander. To use someone’s name in terms like that is very wrong, but we moved on.”

Yeah, right.

Friendly word of advice for Bret Bielema: the next time you face the Buckeyes, you might want to keep an eye on how they’re managing their second half timeouts.

Dawgsonline: Georgia perspective on 8 vs. 9 conference games

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:32:40 -0500

Greg McGarity’s ridiculous defense of the 8-game conference schedule was unfortunate. We know that money is driving expansion and realignment, and those changes will have implications in the schedule. McGarity could have just put it out there: we like home games. Home games mean additional revenue and often mean wins. A ninth conference game comes at the expense of a home game, will spread additional losses around the league, and will require some tough scheduling choices that could impact revenue.

It needn’t be more complicated than what Auburn’s Jay Jacobs says. The current schedule is working, and there will have to be a significant financial incentive to deal with the risks and costs. Those incentives will determine whether the conference slate can be expanded to accomodate expansion or whether the new teams will be shoehorned into the current 8-game format.

But more conference games are better, right?

As fans, we’d much rather see another conference game instead of a cupcake game. Of course we’d also schedule like a video game and make our custom conference that goes from playing LSU to Ohio State to Oregon and back for the WLOCP. I’d like a ninth game if only because I believe that membership in a conference should have some meaning beyond revenue-sharing (silly me!), and that means playing the other members as often as possible. But the additional game comes with some big considerations.

Dawgsonline: Hoops update

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:24:59 -0500

Men

At this point in the season it’s pretty clear that, barring another improbable SEC Tournament run, the postseason isn’t in the future for this Georgia basketball team. They’re left to build for the future, get what wins they can, and maybe even play spoiler.

The spoiler role is exactly what fell into Georgia’s lap on Wednesday against Arkansas. Georgia was fed up with losing and looked for a fight. The Hogs were about as good of a matchup as Georgia could have asked for. Like the Dawgs, Arkansas is a guard-dominated team without a strong inside presence. They don’t rebound well, and they struggle on the road. We knew all that, but was Georgia in any kind of position to do anything about it?

Georgia’s start, and particularly the start of Robinson, showed that they were. Robinson and KCP hit from outside early, and Robinson’s shooting and driving soon opened things up inside. Nemi, Thornton, and Williams were able to be active inside as the Georgia perimeter game drew plenty of attention. Georgia’s offense was helped by their work on the other end – Arkansas’ struggles on offense meant that the Hogs couldn’t set up their press. That made it easier for Georgia to work the ball quickly up the court where they could set up in the halfcourt offense and attack Arkansas’ weaknesses.

Get the Picture: Name that caption, old times edition

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:55:50 -0500

Guess who’s filming an ESPN promo (h/t Radi Nabulsi)…

Dazzle us in the comments.

Get the Picture: Craig James’ latest kiss of death

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:28:35 -0500

Everyone’s favorite former ESPN commenter switches his Presidential endorsement from Rick Perry to Rick Santorum (maybe he’s just partial to Ricks).

If James wants to do his party a favor, he ought to endorse Obama.

Georgia Sports Blog: Explain the Franklin/Vandy Love to Me

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 09:54:43 -0500

The non-sense around James Franklin's "men of honor" quotes (or misquote, if you have any reason to believe him) continues. We all know it was Kiffin level douchebaggery when he said it. Also, he knew exactly what he was saying, when he said it, and that he did so intentionally. We all thought it interesting on the day he said it, since he had gotten one of those men to leave North Carolina after the kid began orientation.

Yeah, Larry Fedora isn't impressed:

“What does [Franklin] say about the kids that were committed elsewhere and de-committed from their places to go to his place? That’s my comment. What is his comment on those people? He’s got someone in his recruiting class that did that very thing. He’s saying those guys are not men of honor? Basically, he’s saying he has got kids in his own recruiting class that are not men of honor. He said that, and I didn’t.”

Hey, I love me a good pissing contest. My money is on the guy who is named after a hat, as opposed to an asshat. Blutarsky, as per usual, has a good take on that side of it.

Get the Picture: James Franklin’s weasel words

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 08:50:25 -0500

Every once in a while, the AJ-C‘s penchant for shit-stirring pays off. Michael Carvell’s follow-up to James Franklin’s whining about Josh Dawson’s late switch to Georgia evidencing a lack of integrity is a must read, if only for the delicious response he gets out of Larry Fedora, who had a kid snatched out from under him by Franklin.

“What does [Franklin] say about the kids that were committed elsewhere and de-committed from their places to go to his place? That’s my comment. What is his comment on those people? He’s got someone in his recruiting class that did that very thing. He’s saying those guys are not men of honor? Basically, he’s saying he has got kids in his own recruiting class that are not men of honor. He said that, and I didn’t.”

Ooh. I don’t think those guys will be exchanging cards this Christmas.

Read it all. When Lane Kiffin comes off sounding better than Franklin does on the subject, you know you’ve got a winner.

Get the Picture: The new NCAA rules and Richtball

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 08:28:12 -0500

If you haven’t heard about the NCAA’s latest tinkering moves, you can get the details here. The changes are being made in the name of safety, or so they tell us (Paul Johnson’s got to love the blocking below the waist clarification, but I doubt there are very many defensive linemen’s knees which share his joy), but I wonder how some of it plays out at Georgia, given the way we know Mark Richt likes to manage the game.

Here’s the key change:

The committee voted to move the kickoff to the 35-yard line (currently set at the 30-yard line), and to require that kicking team players must be no further than five yards from the 35 at the kick, which is intended to limit the running start kicking teams have during the play. The committee also voted to move the touchback distance on free kicks to the 25-yard line instead of the 20-yard line to encourage more touchbacks. NCAA data indicates injuries during kickoffs occur more often than in other phases of the game.

Actually, that’s three changes. The kickoff line is being moved back to where it was before 2007, I believe. I presume that’s to lead to more kickoffs being driven into the end zone for touchbacks. And the move to the 25 for touchbacks, which is new, is an incentive for returners to take a knee.

Get the Picture: When you put it that way…

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 08:06:29 -0500

Matt Hinton finishes his suggestion list for how to put a plus-one together with this inspiring passage:

… And just as it’s about to grow from two teams to four, eventually that system will grow to six teams, then to eight, then to ten or twelve, the priorities and logistics expanding each time. At some point, it will probably be bigger and more inclusive than I’d like, and I’ll find myself leading the chorus of complaints about a “hot” team with three or four losses that never deserved to make the cut in the first place. At every point there will be teams on the wrong side of the cutoff that have a legitimate complaint about being left out. That will never change. But whatever the bracket looks like, and whatever the new complaints that come along with it, it’s still a step forward from the debacle that’s ruled the sport for the last 15 years.

I mean, who doesn’t feel his or her heart sing reading that?

I guess my problem is that I can’t sign on to the BCS hate the way many can. It’s certainly got its warts (insert Auburn 2004 reference here) and can stand improvement, but “the debacle that’s ruled the sport for the last 15 years”? At its lowest moment, the BCS has delivered something better than BYU, your 1984 national champion. At least the Bowl Alliance and the BCS have moved the sport in the direction of a meaningful title game without screwing everything else up that we like about college football. It’s not as if we’ve ever stopped caring.