As an Alabama fan, I dunno why my fanbase is so delusional in thinking we don’t get any respect. Media can’t post stories about Alabama fast enough, as it generates hits/papers/magazines/etc sold.

And if we didn’t get respect (which we get more than we deserve as a team off back to back 6-7 & 7-6 seasons) you get it by beating SEC teams, not Tommy Bowden.

Jinx!**

[/Auburn fan]

• Not that I’m bitter about SI picking the Tigers to win the World Series. Nope, not at all. No reason to point to that as the reason they can’t FUCKING PITCH AT ALL AND MAILED IN THE FUCKING SEASON AFTER THE TRADE DEADLINE! ‘Cause that would be wrong — and run the risk of offending our fair, baseball-hatin’ proprietor.

re: SI Cover

DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT GODDAMNMUTHERFUCKINGSONSOFBITCHES!!!!!!!

re: Hive Mind

Orson, check out the individual rankings… I’m shocked the average actually makes ANY sense at all… for instance, pollsters in Cali, GA, and AZ ranked Bama 2 or 3, while the guy at the Tennessean (real shock here) ranked Bama 21… BEHIND TENNESSEE AND CLEMSON!!!… can’t they just take his voting rights away now?

Well, there went THAT season…

(consoled by the fact there are still three other teams in the rooting-interest-file)

Seriously, can you interview this Mourice Patton guy at the Tennessean and just ask him what his justification is? I mean, if the guy’s on heroin and sold his vote to his dealer, ok, I can understand that.

Paging Mr. 2Cents, or LSUFreek. Nice, large size source pic to work with here.

Anyone else think that a certain vp candidate looks like a hot teacher from one of those porn sites?

Curses!

While I was glad to see my Bama do the smash-mouth mule whipping on the infidels from Clemzin Saturday night, this scares me more than a fully loaded UGA on the schedule. Look out Bama, you’ve been served warning that Tulane may pull one off some kind of miracle!

Suddenly the 2008 season looks like the Hindenberg…

Can programs negotiate with SI NOT to put them on the cover?

I share Mr. Pumpkinhead’s thoughts about being on the cover, but dayum that’s an awesome picture.

Oh, and the obligatory:

ROLL MOTHAFACKIN TIDE WE ARE GOING TO WIN IT ALL SUCK IT BARNERS WE ARE BRINGING HOME THE CRYSTAL AND JULIO JONES, MARK INGRAM, JPW AND TERRANCE CODY WILL FINISH IN A FOUR WAY TIE FOR THE HEISMAN OMG OMG OMG I HAVE TO BE A BOOKSAMILLION AT 4 IN THE MORNING MAYBE CNS WILL SIGN THIS COPY AHHHH

heard behind locked doors at the Auburn atheletics building…

“…..$40,000, $45,000, $50,000. There it is. Now, next week we want you to put the picture of that damned Richt on the cover…fucking pretty boy…”

no bullshit- cool picture.
but i really prefer how the whole media world still plays highlight clips and pictures to promote the Gators by showing the Auburn game from last year. nevermind the fact of who won…
if nothing else, since last year was chock full of natural (albeit ungodly) upsets, i guess we can count on the rankings being a little tilted to allow for more “surprise wins” and “upsets” if the unnatural kind. I mean seriously- Was VA Tech deserving of being above E. Carolina? Nope. but let’s rank them that way and give the people their upset. Hey- lets do the same thing to Michigan! Awesome idea!

Speaking from a UGA bias, easily building a 38-0 lead before pissing on the fire and calling in the dogs shouldn’t get you bumped down. The starters enjoyed a couple quarters on the sideline and all the boys got to play. But I won’t dwell on it.

The game wasn’t televised, but do take note: C. King and A.J. Green will open some eyes at SI and the WWL very soon.

Like anyone paying any attention didn’t know that Clemson was going to seize up and sputter on Bama. They can still win the ACC. If they can beat Wake.

I guess the UCLA-UT game finished too late for consideration?

Well, crap. There went one potential season down the drain.

And, I mean, Clemson was only the 4th best team on our schedule before the season even began. On paper. They sure were paper Tigers, too.

Well, maybe we can still sneak a bowl out of this upcoming debacle. And here I was thinking we were looking at 9-3. Sigh.

NRBQ: Speaking from a USC bias, I agree with you. It is scheduling the cupcake in the first place that got you bumped down. And it really wasn’t Georgia moving down, it was USC moving up. Clearly kicking the asses on the road of a team that played last New Years day trumps whatever anybody else does to a 1AA team. As it should.

Rewarding USC this week is good for all of college football if it encourages more schools to schedule tougher games instead of cupcakes.

And it wasn’t like USC had the starters play the whole game, 4 QB’s were used and a whole bunch of running backs got the ball (granted there is not much drop off from 1-6 at that position).

Even I think we’ve been back more times than Cher.

If we could turn back time…

Wow, Cal got screwed…

So Cal plays someone with a pulse for the first game and doesn’t get rewarded with a Top 25 ranking? Sure, that UCLA win was fine, but everyone knows that UCLA is going to finish around seventh in the Pac 10.

@13

oc, no whining from me. That beatdown was impressive, as was the one from the Saben Spartans. Damn, talk about motivated! A wall of bodies from the past to protect the chosen! Tonight, we dine at Dreamland!

The pollsters considered the strength of opposition as they should.

Just remember that when USC is playing Stanford, the Washington teams and Oregon State (the worst Pac-10) and UGA plays Vandy, Kentucky, USCe and Bama (the worst SEC), that this same logic applies.

I’m sorry my Bama friends……

Yall are hosed now…..

:-)

#11: If this were the end of the season, I’d agree with you. A #1 team who wins shouldn’t be moved down.

However, we just wrapped up week 1, and this iteration of the poll is an adjustment on preseason polling. After Sturdivant went down I saw in more than one place voters were saying that Georgia stopped being their preseason #1, which IMO means Georgia wasn’t a solid #1 to them in the first place. I don’t know if I agree with them, but I see the point.

Just keep winning IMO and the ranking will sort itself out anyway.

Georgia and tOSU scheduled cupcakes, but at least in-state cupcakes. In Ohio, there’s pressure on tOSU to schedule in-state teams. Next up: Ohio University. Two years ago they ended a 4 season stretch with UC Bearcats/

And after their second cupcake (God I hope I didn’t just unleash some sort of App State curse), UGa goes on the road to ASU.

NRBQ got it right.

And whoever gave ND a vote should be beaten. Especially since you know it’s not Willingham or Davie pulling a Spurrier.

Since the real Orson Swindle is about to speak at the Repub convention, it would be fantastic if he held up an EDSBS sign at the podium.

1. UCLA is gonna finish 7th in the league? Just like they were gonna get rolled by Tennessee? Get out the prediction business, Oski.

I’d worry more about Cal’s defense, which as usual under “genius” Jeff Tedford looks like garbage. And by “genius” I mean a guy with a losing record to Karl Dorrell.

Orson! I didn’t know you were speaking at the RNC! So, how did Charlie treat you all those years in the Hilton?

I wish this guy was a college football blogger.

Well shit. Thanks SI….thanks for putting all the bad mojo on a team that was poised to do a little better than last year. Now you have to put us on the cover? WTF? Now Terrance Cody is doomed to have a heart attack or some sort of injury now, and he was the logjam in the middle that turned Thunder and Lightning into Static Electricity and Flatulence….We even have a bootleg version of Knowshon Moreno as a freshman named Ingram…..just when things were looking up…..

First outta the blocks.

#11: Your post is a perfect example of why preseason polls should not exist. Too often what people thought before seeing a single snap ends up being the difference in the end (see: Auburn). Poll inertia would be understandable if it was week 13 and everyone’s played 90% of their games, but from the preseason poll to week 1, when 100% of the actual game data you have is new?

hlh @17: At this point Georgia’s overall strength of schedule looks like it will end up as one of the toughest. But the games still have to be played and some might not turn out the way you expect so the issue might not be as clear as you expect at the end of the year. I’d have no problem with the winner of USC/tOSU going to the title game in the second slot behind an undefeated SEC team if it turns out that way though. If a Big XII team also runs the table though, things get very messy again.

Lawrence Ross @16: Based on the results first week alone, yeah I agree Cal should be ranked. But that isn’t the way it works and people still remember last season’s collapse.

“…..$40,000, $45,000, $50,000. There it is. Now, next week we want you to put the picture of that damned Richt on the cover…fucking pretty boy…”

SI already cost UGA the anchors of both lines, and that was just a regional cover. But if they were to put the inverted, levitating Richt on the cover, I’m betting Sturdivant and Owens would play the following week.

BTC @ 28

Beanie Wells was on a regional cover too…WTF happened to all of the other regional cover boys?

Cool cover.

We’re back, if you mean we’re back in a position to possibly start competing with other top tier SEC teams.

I have enjoyed beating our first decent regular season, non-conference oponent since Penn State in ’89.

You people do realize that curses aren’t real, right?

Help…me…I’m sitting here innocently watching TV and some scary guy pops up and yells at me with his finger pointing at me like he’s Uncle Sam, “We are DUKE!”. And then these other big ugly players start yelling “We are Duke! We are Duke!”

Oh the unintentional comedy when you mix football and the ACC.

I would have fallen out of my chair laughing – but I was sitting on the floor when Orson Swindle took the stage last night.

It was a great moment for America – but no one on the live blog (in which I was participating) got my college football reference. sad.

@7

Yes. Yes she does.

And was anyone expecting a great season from Bama this year? I think they’re two years away; since whoever the next QB is couldn’t jump JPW or is a Freshman this year, I don’t expect much then either.

Crabapple @ 32

Our regional coverboys…Harvin and Spikes…both missed the opening game.

Tebow, of course, was unaffected.

VoR @ 34:

I can’t hear you because Carlos Zambrano’s torn labrum is stuck in my ear.

Wasn’t the Mizzou WR on a cover as well? He’s a little bit hurt, but expected to play…

@ #7:

To tie that in to sports, as this is a sports blog, she kinda looks like the teacher/stripper from Varsity Blues.

Jebus #7, I thought you were talking about Biden and one J W Holmes. Glad to get that straightened up.

that version is fake, here is the real version.

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w187/au4040/Alabama-SI-1.jpg