Mullen's Got to Go

Being in Starkville, MS, I am subjected to many unsolicited discussions of college football and especially Mississippi State Bulldogs football. Even when I protest my general disinterest in the collegiate version of the sport, many retorts are hurled my way to include the "passion" of college players in comparison to professional athletes. I've addressed numerous reasons to cancel those claims (choose one here.) I have a different bit of opinion for Hail State Nation since they're so excited to talk about their Bulldogs and the 3 or 4 weeks they were ranked #1 in the middle of the season (an accolade that means nothing at all).

Dan Mullen is not the answer. I've waited to hear see if there would be any unrest; I knew better. Unless the Hail Staters are content with being just above bottom feeders, they'd agree. But I wouldn't make such a statement without some skewed numbers to back me up. I present the argument:

• Forty-six percent of Dan's losses have come after Halloween, the time in which the Bulldogs usually challenge Arkansas, Alabama, and Mississippi (or Ole Miss or TSUN, or whatever Hail State Nation needs to make up to make them feel good.)
• Sylvester Croom, the preceding coach who the Maroon & White lagoon was happy to run out of town, averaged a record of 4-8 while winning 25% of conference games. Contrast that with Mullen's 8-5 average per season, which is truly an improvement as is his winning of 46% of conference games. So things have gotten better I suppose.
• Other coaches catching stepping down:
• Mark Richt/10-3 per season with 2 conf titles and 6 division titles
• Steve Spurrier/8-4 per season with three straight 11 win season
• Al Golden/6-5 per season and inherited self-imposed sanctions
• Frank Beamer/8-4 per season in 29 seasons and 7 conference titles in two conferences.
• Jackie Sherrill seemed to be a pretty big deal to Bulldawg fans; even he averaged 5 wins a season mainly due to the fact that for every good season there was a terrible one. As a matter of fact, he was ran away from the job after he posted 8 total wins in his final 3 seasons.

After researching that last figure, I'm changing my position. Dan Mullen isn't the only reason why the Dawg Pound can't seem to turn the corner; their support system is equally at fault. The team has an overall win percentage just under .500; they've participated in 18 total bowl games, which is crazy when you consider bowl game invites are going up over the years; they have one conference title and division title to their name (Mizzou just joined the conference and has won 2 division titles, but most will say that's because the eastern division is weak); and the in-conference record is abysmal winning only 35% of the time. The "rivalry" with Alabama is non-existent; they're 18-79-3 all-time vs. the Tide. The Maroon Typhoon needs a twenty year winning streak against the hated Ole Miss Rebels just to break even in the win-loss column. The only SEC teams that they can say they have success against are Vanderbilt and Kentucky but so can every other program.

Adopting a tradition of success isn't much to do though. Other programs and fans have adopted a culture of winning or cheating, if you must. Here are five teams that may or may not be considered among the top tier in all of college football (another bullet list):

• Oregon: good for about 7 wins a year historically and has been on the cusp of being a national champion twice in 5 years.
• TCU: also good for 7 wins a year but made the jump to a big time conference after being shunned when the SWC big wigs left to form the Big XII. It is of note that they recently beat the holy shit out of Ole Miss in a bowl game in what seemed to be a statement game.
• Cincy: the Bearcats are a middle of the road team just now making it to one of the Big 5 conferences but has recently become a steady competitor. 
• MIAMI: the Canes were so bad in the 70's that they sold game tickets at the local restaurants. Their surge in the 80's and early 90's in addition to the Butch Davis/Larry Coker eras has raised their yearly win total to around 8 games per year, and even that is low enough to get a coach fired.
• North Carolina: a basketball school averages just under 8 wins a year and owns their rivals.
• Duke: the Blue Devils are more a comparison to the Bullpups than anything. They have nearly the same win-loss percentage, more conference titles, and is also considered a basketball school.

Either way, I've spent way too much time researching college football teams and coaches. So until the next time I'm invited to a discussion of Maroon and White football, I'll stick to "Fire Mullen". 

No Debate Zone

Another instance of racial discrimination has reared its head. This time at the University of Missouri, an institution not far from the Deep South but yet in an area of the country where racial tension has been on a rolling boil for some time. Black students took to the street and campus grounds to make it known that they will not accept the ignoring of the obvious mistreatment of students of color. On October 10, 2015, they presented their concerns during the homecoming parade in front of then president Tim Wolfe's car and hundreds of parade viewers. By November 6th, the Black football players had announced they will not participate in football activities in accordance with this movement to have the school president removed. The fallout of the eventual resignation included white students making threats towards Black students, and the media taking exception to not being allowed access to the activist group.

In about four weeks since the interruption of the homecoming parade, there was silence from the media and the university administration. Those sympathizing with the media must understand that these actions were of little importance to most of the media until the football team and athletic departments lifted their voices to the movement. Also, such a bold move as disrupting the homecoming parade should have garnered some recourse from the administration. One would suppose that crashing into the crowd and killing bystanders would be the extreme needed to gain national attention and a twitter "moment". Both media supporters and defenders of the administration, can have a time out on this one. Both groups seemingly took a "wait and see" approach to the events leading into the resignation of Wolfe. Maybe they figured a group of young Black kids were just acting out and would calm down so the situation could blow over.

The final group to jump in this discussion were the tired PWI vs. HBCU debaters. I have no disregard for the place that historical black colleges and universities have in the grand scheme of Black lives and education, and I also do not feel that an education at a predominately white institute equate to a higher standard of education than that at an HBCU. As a matter of fact both have pro's and con's that vary per individual. For me personally, the PWI I attended offered an engineering degree that was not offered near me at the time I entered college; and I was not yet mature enough to handle being in an environment of my people. One could look no further than my freshman year where I spent more time making and hanging out with friends that doing school work.

There are those who are of the belief that attending an HBCU is an opportunity to avoid racial discrimination; that line of thinking is just as problematic as the one where Blacks at PWIs feel they are receiving a higher form of education than their counterparts. Essentially, the idea of not attending white schools because they don't want our kind there is the exact idea in which supported Jim Crow. While I am very supportive of the excellence that Black colleges have and will continue to produce, I will not accept the fact that Black students are not to explore the opportunities of higher education at its fullest just because they are not wanted. Besides, being treated as an outcast in white space is not a sufficient reason to avoid said space especially when it provides a means to accomplish personal and professional growth.

The movement at the U of Missouri receives a round of applause from me. Those who feel shunned by a power systems built on discrimination and avoiding conflicts should feel compelled to take similar action. Action can come in several methods none of which include airing grievances in these forums of political correctness. The opposition does not use political correctness to offend, oppress, and ignore. Be heard.

FTLOTG: Who's The Champ?

Football season is halfway over for the 2015 year, and I am probably more disconnected from the game than I've been in recent years. Fantasy football allows me the opportunity to keep up with other players and teams; its requirements to analyze trends, injuries, and key match-ups makes the season worthwhile. It's said that any given Sunday any team can fall which is proven that only a hand full of teams have gone win less throughout a season and even less going undefeated (From 2007 to 2008, both were accomplished).

Of course, I'm speaking of the professional game aka the League, but at the collegiate level the expectation for success and failure is skewed so drastically. It would seem that the game is played and viewed on a bizarro world. The traditional view of the best team of the year is the one still standing without any losses. While this could be sufficient in the days of Student Body Right and the Four Horsemen, the influx of money into athletic programs has provided the cupcake teams of long ago the opportunity to compete with the Longhorns, Trojans, and Wolverines of the world. Just look at 20 years ago to 1994 where the top 10 consisted of teams like Nebraska, Penn St., Alabama, the trio of Florida schools, and Ohio St. Compare to the final regular season rankings of 2014 where Oregon, Mississippi State, Arizona, Baylor, and TCU join the likes of Alabama, Florida State, and Ohio State in the top 10 (Baylor and TCU didn't even make the top 25 in '94). 

Think about the factors it takes for a team to dominate a year or even barely survive the gauntlet of games undefeated. Factors such as competition, injury, weather, scheme, and I forgot to mention completion among many others. The college level has struggled with the fact that perfection is not an accurate measuring stick for its eventual champion thus several methods have been implemented to pacify its fans. 

The current format allows for a panel of voters rank (for some reason the NCAA folks love subjective rankings) teams and the top four enter a playoff. Which begs a few questions from me: 

1. Why rank teams beyond four?

2. Why must you have preseason and weekly polls if the final one counts?

3. Why are you still utilizing the coaches and AP polls if they have no influence on your playoff ranking?

Looking back at the League, the playoff featuring twelve of the thirty-two teams that performed favorably on the field with all others left to contemplate what could have been. Stinging together a couple late season wins can propel a team deep into the playoffs as well. The small percentage of post season teams also lends to the importance of winning as many games as possible; winning key games is crucial because only two teams per conference are awarded a post season berth outside the division champs.

In the NCAA, getting bowl-eligible is some sort nod of success, but the increasing number of bowls has lead to an higher instance of 7-5 and 6-6 teams going bowling. Mediocre teams and coaches get a continued pass for just making it above .500 on the season which pales in comparison to professional standards of success where constantly finishing 11-5 can equal missing the playoffs annually and lead to the termination of a coach for not getting over the hump.

I was once told that to expect college teams to perform at high level is ridiculous because that runs the risk of injury. In an essence that logic upholds the notion that the stakes of the system justifies the consideration of players as more than just amateur athletes. As a matter of fact, it seems that everyone has claim to financial gain except for fans and players. 

In no way am I saying that the NFL, the bureaucracy of self virtue, has the correct moral vision just because it pays players and awards teams based on a formula of on-field success. I am saying that there are numerous fans, too many to count, who follow both renditions of the same sport and measure them by two different standards. Even high school football measures success by on field performance in addition to a ranking system. 

Continue your debates about who should be in the CFP top 4. Continue to uphold average teams and coaches with bowl appearances and wins. Continue to watch teams play in holiday bowl games for prizes and money when they avoid one another during the regular season for various reasons that include the lack of financial gain and risk of losing the opportunity to receive bowl invitations. By the way, the Patriots went undefeated in 2007 until they lost in the Super Bowl; few debate whether the Giants are the champions of that season.  

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