By Tony Barnhart
| Wednesday, October 4, 2006, 03:55 PM
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s just one man’s opinion, but:
1: I see where Steve Spurrier kicked a guy off the team after he was arrested for attacking a female student. Good.
But it begs the question: Why is it that Spurrier handles these
things so expeditiously while other coaches wring their hands? You get
arrested for having a gun and marijuana in your car, you’re going to
miss some games. You beat up somebody in a bar and get arrested, you’re
going to miss some games. You assault a woman and you’re on the next
bus out of town. Spurrier is the last guy who can afford to lose a
player but he always seems to handle these things quickly and
decisively.
2: Somebody suggested to me that one of the reasons the pollsters
like USC instead of an SEC team for the No. 2 spot in the rankings is
that the SEC plays too many low-scoring games and therefore the
football is not perceived as good. Well, let me be blunt about this. If
you think a 7-3 game between Auburn and LSU is bad football then you’re
an idiot. If you vote in polls and you think defensive football is bad
football then you should turn in your vote and go play video games
because that is the level of your intellect. If you think USC is really
a better team than Auburn or Florida I don’t have a problem with that.
That is a reasonable argument to have. But high scoring football does
not equal quality football. If it did, Boise State would be the
national champion.
3: This is why I don’t like computer polls and I don’t think they
should be a part of the BCS standings-except to break a tie in the
human polls. The SEC has four teams in the Top 10 of the AP, coaches,
and Harris polls. But Jeff Sagarin’s computer rankings, which are
published in USA Today, have the SEC ranked third in conference
strength behind the Pac-10 and the Big Ten. There may be perfectly
sound science to back up those rankings but it just doesn’t pass the
common sense test. But what do I know? I barely passed freshman Algebra.
