For whatever reason, I'm really tired but can't seem to get motivated to get up and go to bed. It's also that time of year when SEC basketball is getting fired up and high school prospects all over the country are taking visits to decide where they are going to spend the next four to five years playing college football. Both of these have something in common - I've sworn them off a million times, yet continue to come back. I say "man, I can't stand to watch Ole Miss play basketball anymore" but then I know they're on TV or I know there's a big game in Oxford and I remember how much I love the game and how much I love my school and I'm watching. Same with recruiting. Every year, I say "man, I'm not following this stuff" but on the biggest recruiting weekends of the year, I'm right back online, reading articles and message boards trying to get a feel for who will be suiting up for the red and blue come September. Signing day, sometimes, is a great day and sometimes, it really sucks. But that's the beauty of sports, I guess. There's always next year.
But recruiting is interesting for another reason, especially in the state of Mississippi. It's funny, really, because everything gets so absurd. Accusations about cheating start to fly, crazy conspiracy theories get started, and grown men hang on every word 16 and 17 year old kids say. Absurd really and truly is the only word I can think of to describe it.
That said, the most common theme I've seen (on both sides of the fence - this year and years previous) is the whole "how could any recruit want to go to (insert school name here)." State fans ask themselves "how could any recruit go to TSUN? (or the plantation, ole myth, ole piss, ole mrs...) It's obvious Nutt is on his way out, their fans suck, the Grove is overrated, and everyone is a liar." Ole Miss fans ask themselves "how could any recruit go to Starkpatch? (or Starkghanistan, or the Land that Fun Forgot, or MissStake...) It's obvious Dan Mullen just wants to take the next available job once he gets a real offer, their stadium is small, Starkville sucks, or they have no tradition and everyone is a redneck." And the obvious conclusion, on both sides, is that the other is cheating. Now, I don't deny that a lot of cheating goes on in college football all over the place. And I think the notion that Ole Miss or State cheats more than the other is laughable. So, where does that leave us?
To me, it's a ridiculous discussion for a couple of reason.
1. The whole "one program is on the rise" argument is dumb. Think back 3 years ago. I have never seen a fanbase more deflated than State was after a loss to a rival when State lost to Ole Miss 45- on the way to a second place SEC West finish and a victory over nationally ranked Texas Tech. I remember leaving that game thinking "yep, we've buried them for good." Then they went out and hired a new coach, and the tables turned. Mullen proclaimed Mississippi State was a "program on the rise" and was the only such program due to a 5-7 season and a victory over Ole Miss (regardless of the fact he still hasn't backed that claim up). Then, this year, they had a pretty decent year (it wasn't great by any stretch) but it was a step in the right direction and resulted in a bowl win. The funny thing about it is the people who want to run around beating their chest as if they've turned some kind of corner. Just a year ago, things were still looking pretty rough. So I don't say this to say that one program is on the rise or anything like that, but just to remember how quickly things can change. All it takes is an injury here, a random turnover there, or an assistant coach leaving and the tides have totally turned.
2. The whole "I don't see how anyone could choose (insert name here)." Obviously, if I were a recruit, I would seriously consider Ole Miss and I wouldn't give Mississippi State a second thought. There are a lot of other people who would do it the same. There are also a lot of other people who would do it differently. Not everybody thinks the same way I do about anything. Some places fit different people better. More people need to understand this about...well...everything.
3. If Ole Miss wins the recruiting war, or if State wins the recruiting war, who really cares? One recruiting class does not define a program, and the reason Alabama and LSU are good every year is because they have stellar recruiting classes every year. They don't have a few top 20 finishes, they have top 5 finishes. And when you look at it, the gap is so wide between Ole Miss and State and the rest of the country it's not even funny. Yeah, a few years here and there we'll beat Florida and Georgia, Alabama or LSU, but as far as program stability, it's not even close. I was watching the BCS games this year thinking about how badly most of those teams would beat any of the Mississippi teams. Can you imagine how ugly TCU/Ole Miss would have gotten this year? Stanford/Mississippi State?
I don't say any of this to put anyone down, just to try to keep stuff in perspective. Sometimes, you just get beat. It's not that anyone cheated, sometimes people just work harder than you. Momentum swings back and forth.
I wish I could be a sportswriter.
-chanchan
Monday, January 24, 2011
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
SEC Loyalty
My last few posts have been of the more serious type, so I figured I'd change things up a little bit.
I'm a sports fan. I love basketball and football, particularly of the college variety but I'm a sucker for any kind of postseason (even though I think the bowl system and the BCS is the dumbest way to attempt to determine a champion. More on that later) whether it's NBA, NFL, college hoops, college football, and even sometimes pro baseball (sorry soccer, hockey, and college baseball, I don't care about you.) And, in gearing up for last night's BCS mythical national championship game, I kinda knew what was going to happen. People around here were going to start beating their chests about the SEC and SEC loyalty and of course they were going to pull for Auburn. I did not pull for Auburn, and (contrary to what some people think they know) it was not for any contrarian reason other than I like Oregon and have since Dennis Dixon and Jonathan Stewart played there a few years ago. I didn't grow up wearing green and yellow, but I like them. I'm fascinated with the Pacific Northwest, so Oregon, Oregon State, and Washington typically catch my eye when they're playing (sorry Washington State...) I've also had a couple of friends play football at Stanford so I like the PAC-10. I have my reasons, and they aren't just to be different.
That said, I don't get why everybody is into this "conference loyalty" thing. Maybe it's different for me because I attended an SEC institution, but when it comes to the SEC, and especially the SEC West, I hope every team outside of Ole Miss loses every game they play. Ever. Against anyone except for Ohio State (thanks, Arkansas), Notre Dame, Arizona State, any Big XII team besides Texas, or USC. So outside of that handful of teams, I hope the SEC West loses every game they play. Let me be clear on that. And I've got my reasons for each individual school. Personal reasons. Auburn, stole our coach and buys players. Alabama, they beat us all the time. Arkansas, Bobby Petrino sucks and their fans still won't leave us alone even though they've been to a BCS game since Nutt left. LSU is LSU. Everybody hates them. And Mississippi State because of the in state rivalry thing.
But for more than those reasons, too. It doesn't make sense for people loyal to a school to want a rival school to win. Particularly at places like Mississippi State and Ole Miss where the deck is already stacked against us in areas like recruiting, fanbase, media attention, and just general cash flow, it doesn't make sense to want to see your rival schools win because it's a zero sum game. Ole Miss is not going to benefit in any way, shape, or form from Auburn winning a mythical national championship, just like we didn't benefit from any of the other SEC teams that won the mythical national championship a few years ago (except POSSIBLY Florida because we beat them and it was a pretty big deal. But I'm not sure if it did or not.) In fact, it's going to hurt us because we're in direct competition for recruits with Auburn that are close enough battles that something like the mythical national championship could swing the momentum in the wrong direction for us.
It's a zero sum game. People don't seem to understand that. It makes your people have to work so much harder against so much more to move ahead. If a guy like Nick Saban is your coach, who doesn't give a crap what anyone else does as long as you do what you're supposed to do (a lot like John Wooden), then it's not that big of a deal. But that's why the Nick Sabans of the world are so rare.
Now, conference loyalty DOES make sense in basketball because RPI and strength of schedule are important factors in determining your postseason fate. But bowl games aren't decided like that. Bowl games, outside of the mythical national championship game and the rest of the BCS, are based on one thing and one thing only - how much money the participants are going to bring in to the city and the sponsors and other things like that. It's all about money.
People relate it to a family sometimes, but it's like a family where all the members hate each other and spend all year trying to get each other in trouble (ahem...Mississippi State and Auburn) and then when we get to bowl season we're all buddy buddy and are supposed to want them to win? Sorry, that just doesn't make sense to me. And maybe it doesn't make sense to me because I actually got to go to a school that I love athletically (as well as almost every other way you can love a school) and it makes sense to more casual fans. I don't know.
So what is it? Is it about respect? Is it about somehow sticking it to those yankees up north and those...whatever we call them out west to show them the south is the best? Is it...what? I don't really ever get any feedback on here, which is fine, but maybe somebody will answer. I just don't see too often when people start chanting "PAC-10! PAC-10! PAC-10!" after they win a bowl game (which they do quite often) the way people start the "SEC" chant after an SEC team wins a bowl game. Also, I'd be willing to bet that had Oregon won the game Monday night, a whole bunch of Stanford fans wouldn't have gone out and bought Oregon t-shirts the way people do down here. In fact, that's probably the one thing I'm grateful for about being confined to this house right now, is that I'm isolated from all that crap.
Maybe somebody will explain it to me. Maybe I'll see the light. But odds are I'm going to continue to stick by my Rebels through thick and thin, hope the rest of the SEC West loses, and wonder why, after such an incredible game, we don't have a college football playoff? I mean seriously - could you imagine a tournament with TCU, Stanford, Wisconsin, Oregon, Auburn, and Ohio State in there? I'm sure I'm leaving out a few, but dang, that would be fun.
Hotty Toddy
-chanchan
I'm a sports fan. I love basketball and football, particularly of the college variety but I'm a sucker for any kind of postseason (even though I think the bowl system and the BCS is the dumbest way to attempt to determine a champion. More on that later) whether it's NBA, NFL, college hoops, college football, and even sometimes pro baseball (sorry soccer, hockey, and college baseball, I don't care about you.) And, in gearing up for last night's BCS mythical national championship game, I kinda knew what was going to happen. People around here were going to start beating their chests about the SEC and SEC loyalty and of course they were going to pull for Auburn. I did not pull for Auburn, and (contrary to what some people think they know) it was not for any contrarian reason other than I like Oregon and have since Dennis Dixon and Jonathan Stewart played there a few years ago. I didn't grow up wearing green and yellow, but I like them. I'm fascinated with the Pacific Northwest, so Oregon, Oregon State, and Washington typically catch my eye when they're playing (sorry Washington State...) I've also had a couple of friends play football at Stanford so I like the PAC-10. I have my reasons, and they aren't just to be different.
That said, I don't get why everybody is into this "conference loyalty" thing. Maybe it's different for me because I attended an SEC institution, but when it comes to the SEC, and especially the SEC West, I hope every team outside of Ole Miss loses every game they play. Ever. Against anyone except for Ohio State (thanks, Arkansas), Notre Dame, Arizona State, any Big XII team besides Texas, or USC. So outside of that handful of teams, I hope the SEC West loses every game they play. Let me be clear on that. And I've got my reasons for each individual school. Personal reasons. Auburn, stole our coach and buys players. Alabama, they beat us all the time. Arkansas, Bobby Petrino sucks and their fans still won't leave us alone even though they've been to a BCS game since Nutt left. LSU is LSU. Everybody hates them. And Mississippi State because of the in state rivalry thing.
But for more than those reasons, too. It doesn't make sense for people loyal to a school to want a rival school to win. Particularly at places like Mississippi State and Ole Miss where the deck is already stacked against us in areas like recruiting, fanbase, media attention, and just general cash flow, it doesn't make sense to want to see your rival schools win because it's a zero sum game. Ole Miss is not going to benefit in any way, shape, or form from Auburn winning a mythical national championship, just like we didn't benefit from any of the other SEC teams that won the mythical national championship a few years ago (except POSSIBLY Florida because we beat them and it was a pretty big deal. But I'm not sure if it did or not.) In fact, it's going to hurt us because we're in direct competition for recruits with Auburn that are close enough battles that something like the mythical national championship could swing the momentum in the wrong direction for us.
It's a zero sum game. People don't seem to understand that. It makes your people have to work so much harder against so much more to move ahead. If a guy like Nick Saban is your coach, who doesn't give a crap what anyone else does as long as you do what you're supposed to do (a lot like John Wooden), then it's not that big of a deal. But that's why the Nick Sabans of the world are so rare.
Now, conference loyalty DOES make sense in basketball because RPI and strength of schedule are important factors in determining your postseason fate. But bowl games aren't decided like that. Bowl games, outside of the mythical national championship game and the rest of the BCS, are based on one thing and one thing only - how much money the participants are going to bring in to the city and the sponsors and other things like that. It's all about money.
People relate it to a family sometimes, but it's like a family where all the members hate each other and spend all year trying to get each other in trouble (ahem...Mississippi State and Auburn) and then when we get to bowl season we're all buddy buddy and are supposed to want them to win? Sorry, that just doesn't make sense to me. And maybe it doesn't make sense to me because I actually got to go to a school that I love athletically (as well as almost every other way you can love a school) and it makes sense to more casual fans. I don't know.
So what is it? Is it about respect? Is it about somehow sticking it to those yankees up north and those...whatever we call them out west to show them the south is the best? Is it...what? I don't really ever get any feedback on here, which is fine, but maybe somebody will answer. I just don't see too often when people start chanting "PAC-10! PAC-10! PAC-10!" after they win a bowl game (which they do quite often) the way people start the "SEC" chant after an SEC team wins a bowl game. Also, I'd be willing to bet that had Oregon won the game Monday night, a whole bunch of Stanford fans wouldn't have gone out and bought Oregon t-shirts the way people do down here. In fact, that's probably the one thing I'm grateful for about being confined to this house right now, is that I'm isolated from all that crap.
Maybe somebody will explain it to me. Maybe I'll see the light. But odds are I'm going to continue to stick by my Rebels through thick and thin, hope the rest of the SEC West loses, and wonder why, after such an incredible game, we don't have a college football playoff? I mean seriously - could you imagine a tournament with TCU, Stanford, Wisconsin, Oregon, Auburn, and Ohio State in there? I'm sure I'm leaving out a few, but dang, that would be fun.
Hotty Toddy
-chanchan
Monday, January 3, 2011
It's a New Year...
Something about the New Year brings out the cynic in me. I tend to resonate more with songs like Death Cab's "New Year" early every January - the whole "so this is the new year, and I don't feel any different" and stuff like that. This year, being all laid up on the couch and such (for now...2 more weeks and I can start to put weight on my leg aka walk) has maybe made me more reflective on the year that's just ended. Part of the thing about life is that regardless of what's happening you have to be constantly evaluating yourself, evaluating what's going on, and seeing what God is showing you through all of it. So what do I take away from the last year?
The easy answer is I don't know. God has done a lot, for sure, and despite some recurring struggles (which are also areas I have significantly improved in) I really think my relationship with Christ is stronger than ever. I've reevaluated (or is it re-evaluated? Reevaluated without the hypen just seems like a weird word to write. Whatever) a lot of things, like church and what I think it is and what purpose it serves and what my role is in it going forward. I've even come to the point of asking where I am supposed to be as it relates to the local church. I've gotten to walk into community. I've gotten definitive answers from God (that have been resounding "nos") in ways I never really have before. And it seems like every time I've wanted to fold up shop and quit what I'm doing, He's reassured me in ways that have been very clearly His reassurance.
I even think God has provided me with some specific direction in my life. There are some doors currently open that are very exciting prospects, and I can see how the "nos" from this year have shaped these opportunities and left these doors open.
So when I say "I don't know" it's not some ambiguous, nebulous thing that I just chalk up to some positive emotions and vibes as I tend to do a lot of the time when I really feel like God's not really doing anything in my life (really, it's an easy cop out). But saying "I don't know" just comes back to the way I've felt like God has always dealt with me...step by step. He obviously deals with people differently, but I've just never been one of those people who has had things figured out. And right when I think I have them figured out, things change. Funny how that works, right?
There was a lot of healing in 2010, too. In the aftermath of one of the lowest points of my entire life during the second half of 2009, God used a lot of people at church and at school to bring healing. There have also been times where, during study and devotional time, He has wrapped me in His arms and reminded me who I am and that what He says about me is what's important - not what anyone else said or did. And that is a phenomenal feeling.
But I'm excited to see what this new year holds. New relationships, new classes, new experiences, and hopefully a deeper, fuller relationship with Jesus Christ are on the horizon. Hopefully a job. Deeper community. More discipleship.
I don't know what 2011 holds, but 2010 was a pretty good year. Here's to another good one.
-chanchan
The easy answer is I don't know. God has done a lot, for sure, and despite some recurring struggles (which are also areas I have significantly improved in) I really think my relationship with Christ is stronger than ever. I've reevaluated (or is it re-evaluated? Reevaluated without the hypen just seems like a weird word to write. Whatever) a lot of things, like church and what I think it is and what purpose it serves and what my role is in it going forward. I've even come to the point of asking where I am supposed to be as it relates to the local church. I've gotten to walk into community. I've gotten definitive answers from God (that have been resounding "nos") in ways I never really have before. And it seems like every time I've wanted to fold up shop and quit what I'm doing, He's reassured me in ways that have been very clearly His reassurance.
I even think God has provided me with some specific direction in my life. There are some doors currently open that are very exciting prospects, and I can see how the "nos" from this year have shaped these opportunities and left these doors open.
So when I say "I don't know" it's not some ambiguous, nebulous thing that I just chalk up to some positive emotions and vibes as I tend to do a lot of the time when I really feel like God's not really doing anything in my life (really, it's an easy cop out). But saying "I don't know" just comes back to the way I've felt like God has always dealt with me...step by step. He obviously deals with people differently, but I've just never been one of those people who has had things figured out. And right when I think I have them figured out, things change. Funny how that works, right?
There was a lot of healing in 2010, too. In the aftermath of one of the lowest points of my entire life during the second half of 2009, God used a lot of people at church and at school to bring healing. There have also been times where, during study and devotional time, He has wrapped me in His arms and reminded me who I am and that what He says about me is what's important - not what anyone else said or did. And that is a phenomenal feeling.
But I'm excited to see what this new year holds. New relationships, new classes, new experiences, and hopefully a deeper, fuller relationship with Jesus Christ are on the horizon. Hopefully a job. Deeper community. More discipleship.
I don't know what 2011 holds, but 2010 was a pretty good year. Here's to another good one.
-chanchan
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