Tag: Alabama Crimson Tide (Page 5 of 20)

From tattoos to suits?

July 25, 2011 /
Alabama Crimson Tide Julio Jones (R) drops a pass next to Florida Gators’ Joe Haden (L) during the first quarter in their NCAA SEC Championship college football game in Atlanta, Georgia, December 5, 2009. REUTERS/Tami Chappell (UNITED STATES SPORT FOOTBALL)

Ohio State lost its coach and best player as a result of a scandal stemming from tattoos. That story seems to be winding down, but we shouldn’t be surprised to hear about potential scandals at other schools where players are trading signed memorabilia for stuff.

In Alabama, it looks like the players might be partial to suits over tattoos. Outkick the Coverage is tracking this story, and they have photos of Julio Jones wearing 10 different suits as he walks into Alabama games. It’s still early, but let’s see if the NCAA gets involved.

Until the NCAA changes the way it does business, these scandals will start popping up all over the place.

UPDATE: Brooks digs into the story and uncovers more information and photos, including information about Mark Ingram.

College Football, External Sports

2011 College Football Program Power Rankings

February 16, 2011 /
Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor hands off the ball to tailback Dane Sanzenbacher in the third quarter at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans during the 77th Annual Allstate Sugar Bowl January 4, 2011. The Buckeyes won 31-26 UPI/Dave Fornell

Almost a year ago we decided to try to quantify the stature of college football programs so that we could rank them against one another. (Click here for the 2010 Rankings.) Then our football guru, Anthony Stalter, wrote a little bit about each program and the direction that it’s headed.

Here’s how the total points are determined — 20 points for a national championship, 10 for a BCS title game loss, seven for a BCS bowl win, five for a BCS bowl loss, five for a BCS conference championship, three for a mid-major conference championship, two for a BCS conference runner-up and one for a major bowl appearance (i.e. a bowl that has a recent payout of more than $2 million, so for 2011 that would be Capital One, Outback, Chick-fil-A, Cotton, Gator, Insight, Holiday, Champs Sports and Alamo.) You’ll see the total points in parenthesis after the team’s name.

We put some thought into the point values for each accomplishment, paying special attention to how the point values are relative to one another. For example, we figured that one national championship would equate to four BCS conference championships, or three BCS bowl wins. We only looked at the last five years, as college football has increasingly become a fluid and fickle sport, and that’s about how far back a recruit will go when deciding amongst a list of schools.

Lastly, since a program is so dependent on the guy in charge, we added or subtracted points if the program saw an upgrade or downgrade at the head coach position in the last five years. A max of 10 points would be granted (or docked) based on the level of upgrade or downgrade. Again, we tried to quantify the hire relative to the program’s other accomplishments. For example, hiring Nick Saban is probably worth two BCS bowl appearances, or 10 points. (Sure, he might lead Alabama to more, but he also might bolt for another job in a year or two.)

So, without further ado, here are the rankings. Every year we’ll go through and update the numbers based on what the program did that year (while throwing out the oldest year of data), so don’t fret if your team isn’t quite where you want them right now. Everyone has a chance to move up.

1. Ohio State (58)

Previous Rank: #2 (+1)
Some college football fans will take issue with the Buckeyes being No. 1 because of their “soft schedule.” But this is a team that has dominated its conference five of the past six years and has finished no worse than second in each of the past six seasons. They’ve also appeared in two title games (though they lost both) and nine straight BCS bowl games, winning the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl in the past two years. They’ve got an interesting season coming up though. Five of their players including quarterback Terrelle Pryor, running back Dan Herron and receiver DeVier Posey will miss the first five games next year after being suspended. Can the Buckeyes stay unscathed until those players return?

2. Florida (51)

Previous Rank: #1 (-1)
If it weren’t for Urban Meyer leaving the program (and their lousy 2010 season), the Gators would probably still be ranked No. 1. They have three conference championships and two national championships in two years, but the lose of Meyer hurts big-time in these rankings. But don’t fret Florida fans, if Will Muschamp gets the program back on the right track then the Gators won’t be at No. 2 for long.

Continue reading »

College Football, External Sports

Auburn mounts epic comeback to save national title hopes

November 26, 2010 /
AUBURN, AL - NOVEMBER 13: Quarterback Cameron Newton of the Auburn Tigers celebrates after a touchdown against the Georgia Bulldogs at Jordan-Hare Stadium on November 13, 2010 in Auburn, Alabama. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

Admit it, when Alabama went up 21-0 in the first quarter today against Auburn, you thought it was over. You thought that all of the experts were right, and the Tide were stronger than an Auburn team that was nothing more than a great quarterback.

I know that’s how I felt. But then Cam Newton and Auburn mounted the biggest comeback in the history of the Iron Bowl, and the biggest comeback in school history to pick up a thrilling 28-27 win over the Tide. The win keeps Auburn undefeated, and could possibly be impressive enough that voters choose to move the Tide to No. 1, ahead of Oregon.

It probably also cements the Heisman for Newton, who was near flawless in the second half and finished with three touchdowns through the air and another on the ground. He wasn’t nearly as effective running the ball as he had been in past games, but that doesn’t matter. He already had Heisman stats, now he has a definitive Heisman moment. It will take an NCAA ineligibility ruling in the next two weeks to derail his Heisman campaign, because in order for him to lose it on the field at this point, the Tigers will have to lose to South Carolina and Newton will have to throw seven interceptions, lose three fumbles and slaughter a puppy at midfield.

As good as Newton was, though, the Auburn defense deserves a ton of credit for the way it played. The Tigers allowed just three points in the second half, and that came after a fumble on a punt return that set Alabama up in field goal range. Nick Fairley may be a prick, but he’s damn good, and led quite a charge in the final 30 minutes of the game.

Of course, I should probably mention Alabama helping Auburn out a little bit, too. The Tide choked pretty hard in this one, committing poorly-timed penalties and turning the ball over in the redzone twice. There was also Mark Barron’s “should I go for the pick or the hit” indecision on Newton’s second TD pass to open the third quarter that gave Auburn immediate hope.

I don’t say that to take away from Auburn’s win, I just feel it needs to be addressed.

But as big as this win was for Auburn, it was equally devastating for Boise State and TCU. The two non-AQs had to be ecstatic watching the first half of this one, only to be denied the best remaining opportunity they had to get into the championship game. Now they need Oregon to lose to either Arizona or Oregon State (in Corvallis, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility) or Auburn to lose to South Carolina.

I don’t see any of that happening. Then again, I didn’t see Auburn coming back, either.

College Football, External Sports

Top teams make Friday the new day for college football

November 26, 2010 /
AUBURN, AL - NOVEMBER 6: Quarterback Cam Newton of the Auburn Tigers celebrates a touchdown against the Chattanooga Mocs November 6, 2010 at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, Alabama. (Photo by Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images)

Cam Newton’s done a lot of smiling so far this season. He’s the Heisman Trophy front-runner on the undefeated No. 2 team in the country.

A lot of people, including Vegas, don’t believe he’ll be smiling after today’s Iron Bowl, however.

The Tigers come into today’s game (2:30 p.m. ET on CBS) as a 4-point underdog against their biggest rival, Alabama, despite coming into the game with the undefeated record, Newton and two wins against the teams that have given Alabama its two losses.

It’s the game that is supposed to open the door for Boise State, or perhaps TCU to break into the national title game. It’s the game that’s supposed to save the NCAA from being embarrassed down the road if Newton is found to be ineligible after the Tigers have won a national title.

But will it be? Continue reading »

College Football, External Sports

Boise State drops another spot in the polls as TCU moves up; Alabama plummets

November 7, 2010 /

No real big surprises in today’s USA Today/ESPN coaches poll, as the top two remained the same — Oregon and Auburn — and TCU moved up to No. 3 after a dismantling of Utah.

Boise State, of course, was the victim of TCU’s rise, even after a dominating win over a pretty good Hawaii team. But that shouldn’t surprise you. Last week, Auburn jumped Boise State after a win over a bad Ole Miss team, so the fact that TCU jumped the Broncos after perhaps the most impressive performance of the season shouldn’t come as a shock. In fact, I really don’t have a problem with this jump. TCU has played a better schedule thus far than Boise State, and absolutely dominated it much in the same way Boise has dominated its schedule. This was an exclamation point win for the Horned Frogs, and if voters believed TCU was the better team, there was no better time than now to make that move.

The top two in the BCS standings should remain the same, but I’d expect the gap between Auburn and TCU at 2 and 3 to close. First off, the Horned Frogs moved up in the coaches poll, and I’ll guess they’ll do the same in the Harris Poll. Plus the computers will likely close the gap as Auburn played Chattanooga and TCU played what was the No. 5 team in the BCS standings.

The best news for TCU and Boise State, however, had to be Alabama’s loss. There’s a good chance that the Tide were the only one-loss team capable of jumping over them into the national title game. I don’t know all the tie-breaker rules off-hand, but I believe LSU needs Auburn to lose each of its next two games in order to get into the SEC championship game. So if Alabama beats Auburn in the Iron Bowl, that will open up a spot for either TCU or Boise State.

I doubt a win over a three-loss SEC East champion would be enough for voters to vault Auburn back into the game. And even though it’s happened before, I can’t imagine an 11-1 LSU team that didn’t even play in its conference title game would jump the unbeatens. It wouldn’t be unprecedented — see Nebraska in 2001 — but it would be borderline criminal. Then again, that pretty much fits right in line with the BCS.

College Football, External Sports

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