SimonOnSports

Before you yell and say where is so and so team, please read my polling philosophy and then yell afterwards. ~King of the SEC is back at #1. With Oklahoma picking up an L in Columbus, the Auburn Tigers have moved quite nicely into the top spot. Cam Newton is now the Heisman front runner and the Auburn Tigers are poised for one of the biggest Iron Bowls in history. The Tigers have games at Ole Miss and home versus Chattanooga and Georgia left on the schedule. If they can win those games they will head into Tuscaloosa the #1 team in the country. ~Oregon doesn't yet have the massive schedule strength but there victories are oh so pretty. A trip to the Coliseum could mark doom even if the Trojans are in a "down" year. ~Positioning TCU, Utah and Boise are all difficult propositions for me. Boise has wins over VT (n) and Oregon St. TCU has victories at Oregon St. and home versus Baylor and Air Force. Utah knocked off Pitt. They are currently ranked in that order...

Time for some fun with google search and Venn Diagrams. Let us see what three extremely successful quarterbacks have in common when you type in "Quarterback A is" with a google search. Seems like people either think Tom Brady is a Super Sexy God or a Douche as seen by both Douche and Douchebag being present. People are enamored by Brett Favre being old and retiring. I was hoping that one of them would be "is a creepy old man that sends penis photos to girls young enough to be his child" but it didn't quite make the cut. Apparently people are really interested in whether or not Peyton Manning is married which is odd to me because I don't see how anyone could find this attractive . So what do all three QBs have in common according to Googles most popular searches.... They are all both a Douche and a Jerk.

Terrelle Pryor should have chose Michigan . I've seen this thought bandied about multiple times over the past few seasons. The thought process goes like so: Michigan's offensive schemes are more aggressive and better suited to Pryor. At Michigan, Pryor would likely put up better numbers and be a more dynamic player. The thought process states that Michigan would be a better team with Pryor and that Ohio State would be a better team with a more prototype quarterback. As a result the conclusion is that Pryor made the wrong choice. This conclusion is completely bunk. As a Michigan fan I was eagerly awaiting " The Decision 08 " hoping that Pryor would choose the Maize and Blue and lead the university as quarterback for four seasons. When he made his choice I was annoyed A) Because he didn't choose the Wolverines and B) Because he chose the blond with herpes . Looking back 2 1/2 seasons later, it's obvious that he made the right decision. Why? Winning....

The Degrees of Loss Separation is a simple concept, I go out and find a highly rated team with some losses playing against a crappy team with lots of losses. Next I find a chain of losses which proves beyond a shadow of a doubt (not at all) that the underdog is going to pull the major upset and storm the field. The Final Outcome is calculated simply: Add up the scores of the losers, add up the scores of the winners in the degrees of loss separation and divide both by the # of degrees. The Game: Tennessee Volunteers vs. Alabama Crimson Tide It's nice to see the Volunteers with such a tremendous team this season. The Volunteers have beaten Tennessee Martin and UAB this year, which stacks up as two of the best wins in the long history of the Derek Dooley era. This week those pastel orange boys get to host the Crimson Tide who have obviously underachieved thus far this season. They lost a game which is quite unacceptable. This week Derek Dooley gets his 3rd best win.

Watching this video makes me fully realize that I could not handle Sky Diving.

Before you yell and say where is so and so team, please read my polling philosophy and then yell afterwards. ~Auburn vs. Oklahoma... I had a debate on whom to rank #1. Oklahoma has wins over Texas (huge W over Nebraska), Florida, @Cincy and Air Force. Auburn has victories at Miss St., South Carolina and Arkansas. ~I'm sorry Boise St. While VaTech looked solid against Wake, they still have a D1-AA loss on their resume and to top that off Oregon St. faltered vs. Washington this weekend. The other undefeateds have superior wins, superior resumes, and Boise will have to hope that they all get knocked off because their signature game the rest of the year is Nevada and they are no longer undefeated. ~Hi! Wisconsin! Wisconsin plays a mediocre to poor out of conference schedule, but the victory over Ohio St. is Yay! ~Baylor is TCU's best victory and they just lost to Colorado. I'm sorry TCU but you shall not be ranked very high by me. ~Utah has yet to pla...

The below chart shows the correlation between NFL Yardage production and a teams win percentage. The X axis (left/right) shows how many yards above or below the league average a team gives up on defense. The Y axis (top/bottom) shows how many yards above or below the league average a team gains on offense. The size of the circle equates to the teams win percentage. So a black dot is someone who is 0-5 while a large circle is 4-1 or 3-1. So what is this telling you? First it's telling you that clearly moving the ball isn't everything. The San Diego Chargers sit on their own island when it comes to yardage. The Chargers rank 2nd in the NFL in defensive yards per game and 1st in the NFL, by a wide margin, in offensive yards per game, yet, even with these stats, the Chargers are just 2-3. Meanwhile teams like New England and Tampa Bay are winning in spite of their yardage totals. The Pats are being outgained by an average of 40 yards per game. The Bucs are currently b...

Now presenting the worst onside kick in football history...

Before you yell and say where is so and so team, please read my polling philosophy and then yell afterwards. As Coach Spurrier said it "Fellas, if fate means for us to win this game Saturday then let's give it a chance. Let's give fate a chance to happen", fate (or 3 straight SEC Ranked opponents) was on the Gamecocks side. Now with the defending champed knocked off their perch, the top two spots are wide open. The AP and Coaches poll consensus says Ohio State to which I say "Why?". I know everyone thinks Ohio State is great, I do as well, but outside Miami (who just got throttled) their schedule is pretty meh. So meh I debated keeping them below Alabama but Illinois' win over PSU was just enough to help me keep them there. Now let me answer theoretical questions: How do you handle a 1 loss Alabama? Honestly, I have no idea. I really had no clue where to rank them but I felt obligated to drop them below South Carolina and felt obligated to...