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SEC School Anthem Showdown

Everyone's looking for their two minutes of fame on the internet and college football fans are no exception. At first there were highlights, then compilations to music, and now it seems fans are going out of their way to (usually) humiliate themselves in front of millions (read: thousands). I've scoured the tubes in search of the best and worst SEC school anthems. Some you may be familiar with, and some you'll soon wish you weren't.

I've taken all I could find, rated, and ranked them from top to bottom. I rated each video on five distinct categories by asking myself these questions:
Visual - The video itself. Was is well made? Funny? Or was is just a single photo throughout?
Lyrics - How well are they put together? Is it the same thing for 4 minutes straight?
Music - Does it sound professional or like someone used a midi player in Windows 95? Does it evolve or repeat the same two bars over and over?
Embarrassment - How embarrassed should a fan of this school be due to this video?
Team Pride - Are the artists taking pride in their school and athletic department?

We'll open with the top five.

...more

by Streyeder -- August 25, 2009 3:36 PM

Comments: 2 | Views: 1862

SEC AND ESPN: Making Waves Throughout the NCAA

It's no secret that the SEC has inked a deal with ESPN & CBS over the next 15 years that will put the SEC at the forefront of media exposure in the college sports market across the nation. The landmark deal with the two media outlets will add $3.05 BILLION to the coffers of the SEC schools. That's $17 million/year for each and every SEC school. Think about it, a member school could go winless every year and still pull down the equivalent of winning the BCS Championship Game for the next decade and a half.

You Know the Numbers

$2.25 billion over 15 years with ESPN.
$825 million over 15 years with CBS.
$17 million to each school starting in 2009.
Comcast will add ESPNU to its base package to join ESPN/ESPN2.
5,500 SEC sporting events will be on CBS, ESPN, ESPN on ABC, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN Regional Television, ESPN360.com, ESPN Mobile TV, ESPN ...more

by Streyeder -- August 7, 2009 8:43 AM

Comments: 3 | Views: 1879

Mythical Playoffs (Round 3) '92 Alabama vs '98 Tennessee

* Click the links in the stories for a bit of video nostalgia (they aren't ads, we promise).
Game Thirteen: 1992 Alabama Crimson Tide (13-0) vs 1998 Tennessee Volunteers (13-0)

Tournament to Date:
'92 Alabama:
Defeated 05 Georgia 24-13
Defeated 2003 LSU 20-14
(Players of the Game: George Teague, Eric Curry)

'98 Tennessee:
Defeated 2000 Florida 38-31
Defeated 2006 Florida 14-13
(Players of the Game: Tee Martin, Jamal Lewis)

Argument for Alabama:
For all the buzz that the Bama defense is ...more

by SECFans -- July 26, 2009 11:35 AM

Comments: 1 | Views: 990

SEC Media Days: Day 2

Welcome back! Day one was just a primer before we get to the real meat of the interviews.

Rogers Redding -- SEC Coordinator of Officials

Rogers was fairly brief today, but he made a few points before heading out. Interestingly enough, the rugby punting will soon become slightly more fun. If the punter gets outside of the box then he's fair game to tackle and loses punter protection. There was another small change to the minimum number of men on the line of scrimmage. Instead, there can now be no more than four men in the backfield which equates to a minimum of seven men on the LOS. Apparently counting to six is out of range for SEC officials, but four is well within their abilities. Also changing is the rule-changing itself. Instead of altering rules each year, they will now make changes every other year. Oddly enough, these aren't considered major rules changes.

Mark Richt -- Georgia

Richt opened things today commenting on how his team must learn to not lean so heavily on its stars and work together to make ...more

by Streyeder -- July 23, 2009 10:51 PM

Comments: 1 | Views: 493

SEC Media Days: Day 1

Ahhh, you know the best time of year is right round the corner when the coaches of the greatest schools in the nation descend upon Birmingham, AL. The SEC Media Days is the yearly event that fills the papers with juicy tidbits and stories that attempt to discern how the upcoming season will play out. Here, and for the rest of Media Days, I'll be providing a nice summary of the juicy bits that flow out of Birmingham for all of you to see.

Mike Slive -- SEC Commissioner

According to Slive, the SEC is in a "Golden Age". We won 5 national titles and had 6 runners-up in the past year. We were able to fill our football stadiums to an average of 97% capacity and averaged 30k+ at the spring games! In the Summer Olympics we brought home 51 medals with 159 current athletes competing. As Slive said, "If the SEC was a nation, it would have finished fourth in the world in medal count."

Of course, there was the inevitable talk about secondary violations and the such. Basically taking one from Smokey the Bear's book, he reiterated that only the SEC can prevent the SEC ...more

by Streyeder -- July 23, 2009 9:53 AM

Comments: 0 | Views: 509

Mythical Playoffs (Round 2) 92 Alabama vs 03 LSU

* Click the links in the stories for a bit of video nostalgia (they aren't ads, we promise).
Game Ten: 1992 Alabama Crimson Tide (13-0) vs 2003 LSU Tigers (13-1)

Tournament to Date:
92 Alabama:
Defeated 2005 Georgia 24-13
(Players of the Game: David Palmer, Antonio Langham)

03 LSU:
Defeated 1993 Florida 21-10
(Players of the Game: Matt Mauck, Randall Gay)

Argument for Alabama:
The 92 Bama defense looked really strong against the 05 Georgia squad. Unlike the 93 Florida defense that Matt Mauck and the LSU offense faced in the 1st round, this one imposes a real threat to the passing game. Mauck will have to minimize his mistakes, because this Tide defense will feast upon offensive miscues. Jay Barker will probably have to throw the ball more, and Gene ...more

by SECFans -- July 5, 2009 5:18 PM

Comments: 0 | Views: 717

Mythical Playoffs Series 96 Florida vs 99 Alabama

* Click the links in the stories for a bit of video nostalgia (they aren't ads, we promise).

Game Seven: 1996 Florida Gators (12-1) vs 1999 Alabama Crimson Tide (10-3)

Tale of the tape:
'96 Florida Gators:
Points Per Game: 47
Points Allowed Per Game: 17
Avg. Margin of Victory: 34
Key wins: #9 Tennessee, #12 LSU, #24 Auburn, #3 Florida State, #11 Alabama
Losses: #3 Florida State

'99 Alabama Crimson Tide:
Points Per Game: 29
Points Allowed Per Game: 20
Avg. Margin of Victory: 13
Key wins: #12 Florida (Twice), #13 Mississippi State
Losses: UR La Tech, #9 Tennessee, #5 Michigan

Argument for Florida:
The 96 Florida team is considered by many to be the best Gator team during their exceptional 90s run. The 95 squad was amazing, but didn't get the trophy. Danny Wuerffel won the heisman ...more

by SECFans -- June 30, 2009 10:42 PM

Comments: 2 | Views: 933

Mythical Playoffs Series 92 Alabama vs 05 Georgia

Game Three: 1992 Alabama Crimson Tide (13-0) vs 2005 Georgia Bulldogs (10-3)

Tale of the tape:
'92 Alabama Crimson Tide:
Points Per Game: 28
Points Allowed Per Game: 9
Avg. Margin of Victory: 19
Key wins: #10 Florida, #16 Ole Miss, #12 Tennessee, #23 Mississippi State, #3 Miami
Losses: None

'05 Georgia Bulldogs:
Points Per Game: 30
Points Allowed Per Game: 16
Avg. Margin of Victory: 18
Key wins: #6 LSU
Losses: #12 Florida, #14 Auburn, #5 West Virginia

Argument for Alabama:
The '92 Crimson Tide won the National Championship with a conservative offense and a devastating defense. Nearly every Bama starter on defense was ultimately drafted into the NFL. Led by the famous "Book-ends" John Copeland and Eric Curry at DE and defensive backs in George Teague, Sam Shade, Antonio Langham and Tommy Johnson, this defense ...more

by SECFans -- June 23, 2009 10:27 PM

Comments: 0 | Views: 959

Mythical Former SEC Champion Playoffs

Mythical playoffs are all the rage these days. Everyone loves speculating over 8 or 16 team end-of-year playoffs to determine the NCAA football champion. At SECFans.com, we like playoffs too. What better way to fill the downtime of the off-season than to speculate over a dream backyard brawl of former SEC Championship game winners? That's right, over the next few days we are going to see what could happen if these SEC champs went toe-to-toe.

Here's some details. We seeded from #1-4, giving preference to final record, ranking, and strength of schedule. The 4 undefeated champions naturally got the four available #1 seeds. Next, we seeded the #4's. Before the #4's were seeded, however, we had to bring the field down to 16 (there have been 17 SEC winners of SEC Championship games). Sorry LSU fans, the '01 squad just didn’t make the cut. There have been multiple 3 loss SEC Champions since 1992, and one had to go. Unfortunately for '01 LSU, their strength of schedule ranking was 23rd that year. '99 Alabama and '00 Florida both had the #1 ranked SOS in their respective ...more

by SECFans -- June 23, 2009 7:25 PM

Comments: 4 | Views: 3072

Early Commitment Trend Good To Tide, Gators

If you're a Gator fan, or a 'Bama fan, you're probably enjoying a new trend in college football recruiting: early commitments. Fans of both schools should probably thank Mac Brown. In recent years, Texas has led the way in terms of collecting verbal commitments from guys well before they even take the first snap of their senior high school season. Other teams like Georgia and to a lesser extent, Oklahoma, have joined the early commitment party as well. While getting guys in early can build momentum for the recruiting season, it does present it's own set of concerns.

You've heard the phrase before. "The big dogs walk late." In years past, that statement had a great deal of merit. Certainly, signing day still offers it's share of 11th hour announcement fireworks. (If you have a handler/agent/relative like Bryce Brown, you may not even commit by signing day). However, in the last few years, a trend of kids ending the suspense early with a verbal commitment seems to have gained traction around the country. So much, in fact, that it's ...more

by Bamagrad03 -- June 7, 2009 10:12 PM

Comments: 4 | Views: 1140

The Summer Journey Begins

We all knew it was going to happen; it was just a matter of when. The scholarship number crunch at Alabama has been known about for some time now. Everybody has faith that the coaching staff has a plan in place to get the numbers down to 85, but to hit that magic number, they will have to make room. So, it appears, Jennings Hester has begun what should play out to be an exodus of players to either transfer or take a medical hardship scholarship over the summer.

Jennings was a two star recruit from Marist School in Atlanta, GA. He was recruited by Alabama, Ole Miss, Army, and Air Force. Although he was not heavily recruited, he racked up 105 tackles, 9 TFL, and 1 sack in his junior year in high school. At 6'3" and 228 lbs., Hester looked the part of a big physical MLB that had a huge upside. His first year at Alabama he redshirted, but hoped to crack the rotation during the spring. Unfortunately for him, the Linebacker position is one of the most star-studded positions on the team. When you factor in the impending arrival of highly touted recruits Nico Johnson and Tana Patrick, this does not bode well for a ...more

by runswithscissors -- May 16, 2009 9:08 PM

Comments: 4 | Views: 295

John Parker Wilson Hopes for the Best

Although things didn't work out for John Parker Wilson in the draft, he hopes to make the best of it with the Atlanta Falcons. Two weeks after the draft, and one day after the conclusion of Atlanta's mini-camp, Wilson feels good about where he has ended up. I don't think anybody expected him to be highly sought after in the draft, but most imagined he would be a late round pick. However, the NFL decided to go on the instincts of their scouts instead of relying on Alabama's #1 ranking for half of the season.

Wilson wasn't going to win a game with his arm, but he was a serviceable quarterback at the very least. He knew this going into the draft. He was a very emotional player, and when he was having a bad day, it showed. The same holds true for when he was having a good day as well. Most fans' frustrations throughout the years was Wilson's lack of consistancy. In 2007, one game he could walk on water, but the next, he would be a headcase. With the emergence of a strong running game in 08, this took alot of pressure off his shoulders and gave him a level field to play on.

...more

by runswithscissors -- May 11, 2009 3:28 PM

Comments: 2 | Views: 260

Glen Coffee Could be a Steal for the 49ers

Yeah, I said it. He could be a steal in the 3rd round. I figured he may go in the 2nd. But honestly, his situation couldn't be better with San Francisco. Sure, he's got some competition for the back-up role for Frank Gore. But he'll bring a change of pace and a work ethic that they will most certainly appreciate out west.

There are some lingering concerns as to whether or not he can repeat, in the NFL, performances like his 1,300+ yard Junior year at 'Bama. Assuredly, much of his success can be attributed to an immensely talented offensive line. However, he's deserving of some praise as well. One of his most impressive traits is his ability to gain yards, often times out of nothing. Additionally, he always falls forward. You can read about him describing his running style in a recap of his post-draft conference call with the 49ers.

One knock on Glen has always been his seemingly lacking break-away speed. But he showed decent wheels when he broke 80 yarders against Kentucky and Arkansas in 08. And he put up pretty decent 40 (4.5s) times at the combine. Sure there were 8 ...more

by Bamagrad03 -- May 5, 2009 11:32 PM

Comments: 2 | Views: 292