The Sports Headquarters

Well another week has come and once again, there’s some shakeup at the top of the polls. Frankly, we’re not so much surprised as we are excited. After all, K.M and I have wanted part 2 to Alabama-LSU since the first one ended. It’s getting closer and closer to looking like a reality. The one team ahead of Bama went down and the two teams right behind them that some thought could pass them both went down. I think we’re an Oklahoma win at Bedlam from definitely saying we will have an SEC West national title game, but I’ll let Yesh figure that out and explain it in his BCS piece. K.M and I want to apologize though. We want to apologize to you Razorback fans. As pro-Arkansas as I’ve been all year and as much as K.M has jumped on board the Arkansas train, we didn’t put you in the same sentence as Alabama and LSU. Hell, we’ve had you behind some other teams perhaps unfairly. But we’re not insulting you any more. Maybe you aren’t on the same level and LSU and Alabama, but we’ll know for sure after this week.

See, once again below, we’re going to show you that we don’t overreact to wins or losses. We’re fair, nobody can say we’re not fair, but we won’t overreact to one single game. That whole arbitrary rule the polls use that we have to drop a team X spots because they lost…umm no, don’t buy it. You can change our opinions of you, plenty of teams do, but we’re not giving you anything we don’t feel you deserve. Oklahoma State could have lost by 100 to Iowa St. I’ll be damned if I’m ranking Boise or Houston over them. So we’re here to show our love to the SEC and offer even more praise to the conference that causes so much animosity towards itself.

It’s the SEC’s college football world…..we’re all just living in it.

1) LSU Tigers (Bryan: 1st, K.M: 1st)- 30 points

Bryan: Yea Ole Miss never had a chance. LSU has the game we’ve been waiting for ever since November 6th. Home vs Arkansas. The Tigers have such a ridiculous resume I may not drop them past Alabama if they lose. Depends how game goes. Their resume is just disgusting. Wins over the potential PAC-12 champ, ACC champ, and #2 team on the road. Is there anyone who can beat this team? Saturday night I didn’t watch one minute of their game. Not with Oregon-USC and Oklahoma-Baylor on TV. LSU just handled their business like we all knew they would. I’m pro-Arkansas. I’ll be rooting for Arkansas on Friday, but it’s a damn crime if this team doesn’t play for the BCS title somehow.

Trending: Top 3. Won’t fall out of it regardless of Friday.

K.M: It’s insane LSU has found itself in the spot they are in, after beating a #2 and #3 already, now they have to beat another #3 or risk not playing for the national title? Not in my world. I’ll put it as bluntly as I can. What Arkansas has for me is an audition. Alabama, to me, put on a hell of a show when they faced LSU. Sure, some of you found that game boring, but that’s because your feeble brains can’t handle the greatness you saw. Now, if Arkansas can put on a hell of a show, or even win at LSU, then no doubt in my mind they will prove they are worthy of a rematch. Not with Bama, but with LSU. All Arkansas has to do for me to prove they deserve a national title shot is to jump over the bar Alabama has set. LSU is in the title game, it’s just a matter of what rematch I feel is most deserving. Arkansas gets some bonus for playing at LSU, but Bama has the big win over Arkansas, so the margin for error is small. Win, and the Hogs will move to #1 for me, and LSU will go to #2. Lose in a hell of a game, and I’ll let the Hogs with 2 losses jump Bama, because hell, that’s the kind of guy I am. Lose, and our national title game is set in absolute stone.

Trending: Top 2 at worst, but still #1, because LSU isn’t losing to Arkansas. LSU is a powerhouse to end all powerhouses. Arkansas is a light heavyweight in a season full of middleweights. LSU is a super-heavyweight. It’s a mismatch.

2) Alabama Crimson Tide (K.M: 2nd, Bryan: 2nd)- 28 points

K.M: Georgia Southern isn’t half bad. They run a unique offense and it had some serious success vs. the Tide, but you can understand the Tide keeping things really simple before the Iron Bowl, a game they will never take lightly. Auburn is going to get rocked, we all know that. The question is, how much in danger is their rematch with LSU? If Arkansas pulls off the upset, it’s in serious jeopardy. Think about it. People are complaining about not wanting to see a rematch of a 9-6 overtime classic. You think they want to see a rematch of Alabama beating the hell out of Arkansas? No way. The LSU and Arkansas game, almost by default, is going to be the game the media pimps out as the best one to see again out of the 3. So Alabama better put on their purple and gold on Friday and cheer like hell for the 1 team that is better then they are, LSU. Because if Arkansas wins, Alabama may be out of the national title race for good.

Trending: Right here, because LSU isn’t losing.

Bryan: Really can’t make much of this week’s game. FCS Georgia Southern put up a fight for a while but the outcome was never really in doubt. Alabama just has to sit and wait. No question they want LSU to win. I see some people saying “O they’re rooting for Arkansas because LSU would fall behind both and Alabama would rather play Arkansas.” Ummm, no. Alabama doesn’t want to risk an Arkansas win and have the pollsters debate whether to drop LSU behind them or not. Alabama would much rather see Arkansas lose and have nobody behind them to worry about. This team smells a rematch and they’re going to give pollsters no reason to want to drop them after the Iron Bowl. This team is going to beat the living hell out of Auburn.

Trending: Top 3. We’ll know where in a week.

3) Arkansas Razorbacks (Bryan: 3rd, K.M: 3rd)- 26 points

Bryan: Soooooooooo-eyyyyyyyy!!!!! The Hogs just doing the damn thing and getting themselves into the national championship picture. Never would have guessed that after the loss to Alabama but hey things have a way of playing themselves out. And as I said when I shredded the BCS a month ago, if a system holds a loss in  September much lighter than a loss in November, maybe it was short-sighted of me to count them out. I said Arkansas would be fine without Mallet in the preseason when I ranked them 8th because Petrino’s system is that good. Needless to say, I hit that on the head. Tyler Wilson has been great this year and this offense might POSSIBLY get a rested Kniles Davis back? It’s a shame that these 3 teams can’t all get BCS bids. A team like Stanford going over them is comical. Stanford is poo. Friday can’t come soon enough.

Trending: Likely down. I have a hard time envisioning them going to Death Valley and winning, though they’re built PERFECTLY to beat LSU.

K.M: Arkansas is really good. I was the late on to the party on this out of Bryan and myself, but I got to the party way before any of you showed up to it, so none of you can tell me anything. Even with 2 losses, I could see some faint situations where I could put this team over Alabama in my final poll. Sure, perhaps that’s because I’d rather see Arkansas for my Tigers in the title game, but that still isn’t a shot at Arkansas. Arkansas is great. People like to discredit Arkansas because their best win is South Carolina. Well, you dummies, who else you got that has a high quality win? Oregon beat Stanford, who is better then South Carolina, but as for all the other top teams, they don’t have a South Carolina level W on their resume. And they got some sad losses, too, something Arkansas has no interest in. Well, they had some brief interest in losing a couple times, but decided against it. Unless LSU rolls the Hogs something fierce, even with 2 losses, I may not drop them out of the top 3. The SEC is king. All  you haters who can’t handle it need to find  a way. You may not like it, but you’ll learn to love it, because the SEC is the best thing going today.

Trending: Maybe down. Maybe not. And that’s with 2 L’s.

4) Oregon (K.M: 4th, Bryan: 5th)- 23 points
5) Oklahoma State (Bryan: 4th, K.M: 8th)- 20 points
6) Virginia Tech (K.M: 7th, Bryan: 6th)- 19 points
7) Stanford (Bryan: 9th, K.M: 5th)- 18 points
8) Georgia (K.M: 9th, Bryan: 7th)- 16 points
9) Wisconsin (Bryan: 8th, K.M: 10th)- 14 points
10) Houston (K.M: 6th, Bryan: 14th)- 12 points
T11) Michigan State (Bryan: 12th, K.M: 11th)- 9 points
T11) Kansas State (K.M: 12th, Bryan: 11th)- 9 points
13) Oklahoma (Bryan: 10th, K.M: N/R)- 6 points
T14) USC (K.M: N/R, Bryan: 13th)- 3 points
T14) Baylor (Bryan: N/R, K.M: 13th)- 3 points

Others receiving Votes:

Virginia (K.M: 14th, Bryan: N/R) – 2 points

Boise St. (K.M:15th, Bryan: N/R)- 1 point

Penn State (K.M: N/R, Bryan: 15th)- 1 point

K.M: All of the above is usually used on a test, but this college football season, all of the above is used as a punchline. Bryan and I both feel a 2 loss Oregon team is in the top 5, a team that went 1-2 in games of any consequence. Bryan and the BCS both think Okie State is #4, and the best win Okie State has was keeping K-State out of the endzone at the end of a home game. A K-State team, I remind you, was 6 inches away from losing to the terrible team known as Miami. Virginia Tech’s best win is Georiga Tech. Wow. Cool story, Hokie bros.

All you teams 4-15 need to GTFO of any national title consideration. In the BCS, we get 5 BCS bowl games, picked from the top 14 teams in the BCS, and the lame champion of the BIG EAST. There is plenty of time to talk about who deserves a BCS bowl bid after the season is over. Right now, the polls are for picking the national championship. This pathetic dozen of teams have resumes that, if we had to add 5 of them to an 8 team playoff, only 2 of them even have an argument for stepping on the field with the top 3. If we didn’t have to call the team behind Arkansas #4 right now, I’d call them #16 or so, and that would fall outside the purview of this series.

Honestly, the only team that has even a small argument for being in the national title consideration out of these guys is Houston. Bryan hates Houston, but I see the other other undefeated team, with a top 5 Heisman voting player at QB, and I say to myself “LSU has beat everyone else this year, personally crushed the dreams of Alabama, Oregon, will crush the dreams of Arkansas this Friday, if we are hell bent on not having a rematch, let LSU crush the dreams of Houston too, at least they havn’t lost yet”.

Screw the Hokies, they lost at home to Clemson, who just got ran but one of the Glennon Clan. That’s not what I call worthy.

Screw Boise, they lost at home to TCU, who isn’t exactly the TCU of the last few years. Unworthy.

Screw Stanford, they may have beat USC in triple OT, but Oregon put a beating on them, at Stanford’s home, and the rest of their schedule was the typical weakness the Pac-12 has to offer. At least, in their defense, they ran Duke, while VT only managed to beat the Blue Devil football team by 4 points. Unworthy.

Georgia? They are hot. But they are going to get a beating in the Georgia Dome in the SEC Title game, so that will give them 3 losses, and no great wins. Unworthy.

Sparty? Congrats on Wisconsin gifting you a win, but your resume is trash. Unworthy.

Wisconsin? Unworthy due to the fact you gave Sparty a win, and lost to Ohio State. If you lose to a team Miami beat, you are extra unworthy.

K-State? Got that Oklahoma taste out of your mouth yet? Unworthy.

Oklahoma? Hope you signed RGIII to an agent contract after he beat you guys, you deserve a cut of that top 5 draft pick money you just gave him. You are worthy of 4% of his NFL contract, unworthy as far as this discussion goes. Nice win over Florida State, guys! L-O-L!

Baylor? you got ran by TEXAS A&M. That’s amazing. Unworhty.

Houston? At least you don’t have any black marks on your resume. If you win out, you’re 100% undeserving of playing for the national title over Alabama, Arkansas, Oregon, or Okie State, that is obvious. But if Oklahoam wins Bedlam, and we really don’t want a rematch SO badly we will just eliminate all the teams LSU has already beat, I will give Houston the nod over any other team on the basis of earning it on the field. The rest of these teams have already embarrassed themselves in games to the point we know LSU will rule them badly. At least with Houston, there is no concrete proof they don’t belong on the field with LSU, no game where we can say “You lost to who? LSU is going to MURDER YOU!” This year, it’s a huge strength, in my world, to not have an embarrassing L. Houston still has time to get one, but if they don’t, they at least have an argument I will listen to, unlike the rest of these bums who don’t get their own section this week, because they aren’t SEC quality, and it’s not the point in the year where teams of that lesser breed deserve their own spotlight.

I’ve made my point. The SEC has the haves. The nation outside the SEC is a huge bunch of unworthy have nots. Do yourself a favor. Predict an SEC team to win the national title next season. At least that way, when it’s all over, you will at worst be in the right ballpark. The SEC is better then you. By a lot.

Bryan: Wait, what about 4-15? Screw them all, they’re not worthy. That’s right. We’re not doing writeups for all those teams this week. Why? Because it would be a waste of time and energy. The top 3 are in a class of their own. The cream of the crop if you will. Oklahoma State is probably the only team right now I’d consider taking on a neutral field vs any of them. I believe in Oregon but I don’t believe they could beat any of the top 3. In a year where the SEC is supposed to be “down”, they still put the top 3 teams in the country out there. Just greatness personified. So while everyone whines and complains and says “O, you can’t have the same league have two teams in the national title”, I say, “Why not?” Who deserves to go over the #2 SEC team?

Virginia Tech? The same team who lost by 3 TDs at home to Clemson and has basically no wins worth bragging about with a pathetic non-conference schedule.

Oklahoma State? Maybe, but they just got beat by a 30-point underdog. You know who doesn’t lose that game? LSU, Alabama or Arkansas.

Boise? Stop it. Did you see TCU go up and down the field on Boise? What the hell do you think Alabama or LSU’s ground game would do to Boise? And I cringe thinking what Tyler Wilson and co. would do to Boise’s secondary.

Stanford? Hell no. Lost to the one really good team they played.

Houston? Would lose by 30 to any of the 3 above. Houston is horse shit. They should just hope they get an SEC team in the Sugar Bowl who gets screwed and comes to New Orleans feeling lifeless. Maybe then they could pull a Utah.

Fact of the matter is Alabama and LSU have earned #1 and #2 to this point. If other teams couldn’t do enough to surpass Alabama when Alabama lost to LSU then that’s on them. I’m not apologizing for that. The SEC is the premier league in the country. The Big 12 may be the best league top to bottom this year, but their teams cant beat teams they should. So I’m not apologizing for Oklahoma State. Im pro-Cowboys. I’m pro A LOT of teams if you’ve read this poll. Simple fact is Oklahoma State just had a game Friday night I CANNOT excuse. You CANNOT lose that game at this point in the season and expect me to defend you. Iowa St. isn’t a 3-point OT loss to the #1 team. Oklahoma State is out to me. They can beat Oklahoma at Bedlam and I won’t bump them over Alabama. Not a chance. I gave Oklahoma St. a deserved #2 before their loss even when my head said I wasn’t sure they were better than Alabama. They blew it.

Too many teams this year just aren’t delivering. Oklahoma is a choking dog. Doing EXACTLY what scared me off from picking them to win the title. Big Game Bob is living MIGHTY HIGH off that 2001 BCS title. Otherwise he’s been pretty damn average in big games. Then there’s the other choking dogs, my Clemson Tigers. Georgia Tech was one thing. The triple-option is a tough, tough offense to stop and their blocking that game was fantastic. But then last week at home against a VASTLY inferior Wake Forest team, we needed a game-ending FG to win the division when we should have won by 2-3 scores. Now NCST, a 6-5 team with two FCS wins just beat us by 4 TDs. Remember when people were praising Dabo Swinney as coach of the year? HA!!!! It has been the offense all year. I’ll give him credit for what he does well. Recruits. Dabo Swinney will get the kid he wants 99 times out of 100. He’s that impressive of a recruiter from the looks of it. But the man is an average coach. He was an average coach when we were 8-0 and he’s an average coach now. Tajh Boyd? Yea, where are all those people who debated me he was more of a key to the offense than Sammy Watkins?

There’s a reason Tajh Boyd backed up Kyle Parker last year. He’s a decent QB. DECENT. Not Heisman worthy. Hell, not even QB of the year worthy. The offensive system has made him look better than he is. I doubt we’ll win a rematch with Virginia Tech. Our defense sucks. To once again quote Bart Scott, “They can’t stop a nosebleed.” We have to outscore teams. We’re like a Big XII team. And I can’t help but think Virginia Tech will get revenge while we head off to some mediocre bowl.

The National Title should be two of the 3 SEC teams barring losses by two of them. I’ll just shake my head and laugh if its not. The BCS is horrible but even that system shouldn’t be able to screw it up. It’s blatantly obvious what the National Championship should be. Now make it happen.