Battle of the Bands: #10 Mississippi State

Mississippi State (Famous Maroon Band)

-Name behind the moniker: at a Bama game in the ‘30’s, the (at the time) A&M band took the field in jazzy new uniforms. The Bama band refused to take the field after their performance.

Battle of the Bands: #11 Vanderbilt

Vanderbilt (Spirit of Gold)

-Accepts members from any Nashville college, which just goes to show how little spirit there really is on that campus.

Battle of the Bands: #12 Ole Miss

Ole Miss (Pride of the South)

-The only thing that can be said from them is they stole the Pride of the Southland’s name.

Battle of the Bands: Preview

One of my contentions that college ball is better than pro ball is that we have marching bands. Live music and performances that begin hours before kick off and go until after the game are part and parcel of the college football experience.

I stumbled upon Wikipedia’s SEC marching band articles. So the Mission is hosting a Battle of the Bands. Based solely on the information in these articles (although they seem to be accurate and are definitely telling about the various band qualities), I’ll be ranking the SEC bands.

Belated Birthday Wishes

It was Spurrier’s birthday last Tuesday. Ivan Maisel gave him the prediction of an unsettled SEC East, so the hope for a Gamecock run. I doubt he unwrapped with much enthusiasm, however, since that’s what the entire state of South Carolina gives him every year.

Vindication

I won’t deny my past. I was anti-Johnathan Crompton since he committed UT. I never thought he would take us were we wanted to go, and yeah, I said things I shouldn’t have when Kiffin announced it was Crompton come hell or highwater.

Hell came, and then the second half of the Auburn game. The latter was the moment when Crompton convinced me. The poor guy got the short end of every stick thrown at him, but he took the lumps, worked like a dog, proved us all wrong….and still only had an ugly Peach Bowl loss to show for it.

I want excellent things for Crompton. He’s worked for it and deserves them. Even ignoring he had to learn three different systems in four years and all the coaching turmoil, it’s well documented most of the best NFL quarterbacks were not college stars. The leagues take different skills, so I wasn’t just talkin’ crazy when I said he’d get drafted. Ok, the ‘taken before Tebow’ might have been a little crazy, but my point still stood.

And there Crompton went, to the San Diego Chargers, in the fifth round. Not bad for a boy who wasn’t even invited to the Combine.

Congratulations to me for calling it, but mostly a huge congrats to Crompton. I don’t know what his future holds, but I wish him all the best.

Notes on Expansion

Oh folks, I've got so much written up. Thoughts on the draft, an SEC Battle of the Bands, a belated birthday note to Spurrier. All typed up and just not posted. And instead of reaching into my backlog, I'll be posting my thoughts on expansion.

First, any respect I had for the Big 10 is rapidly dwindling. The Big 10 really shouldn't have announced anything until they had a better idea what they were doing. I'm glad the Big East commish called the Big Ten commish out, because the affected conferences need to be making plans if something is going to go down, and if the Big 10 is all talk then we need to be allowed to get on with our lives. I think the Big 10 commish thought he was being all coy and people were going to be excited and supportive. Instead, we all know it's his desperate attempt to be able to compete with the SEC and he's being pissy that he's been called out on it. In other words, he's Britney Spears in her post-pantiless shot phase. Charming, really.

So here are my expansion thoughts:

1. Expansion is a good thing. Any team that wants a BCS game should play in a 12 team conference that has a championship game.

2. Expansion is a bad thing if conferences become bigger than 12 teams. It's an obvious, desperate move to eclipse the SEC. Lame an unmanagable.

3. I'm glad (I think) that Slive is going on record as saying he's going to keep the SEC on top. I'd hate for us to have to expand because my entire football life has been the 6/6 East/West and it's just perfect. On the other hand, our last expansion wasn't that long ago, and I'd hate even more for some other conference to start stealing some of our records. But surely there's some fable or myth about people wanting to outbuild each other and then it all collapses. That leads to

4. This is a very, very bad thing. About five years ago, I read an article in some journal for athletic bigwigs about the state of college football. The author determined that Division IA was unstable and untenable, destined to fall apart within the next twenty years. At the time, we were at 'only' 119 teams. I think now we're at 122. The top conferences will capture from the mid-tiers, which will recoup from the bottom tiers, which will encourage AA teams to make the leap, thus diluting even further the league's prestige.

5. Where does the Big 10 think it's going to get all these teams? It seems Notre Dame is finally facing reality and will be willing to acquiesce into the Big 10. That needs to happen, the end (we'll worry about the PAC-10 later). There aren't enough quality teams to expand much further. There aren't enough quality teams to fill the Big 10 as it is. There's no way any conference can meaningfully expand by more than two teams. Again, it's just going to dilute the landscape and cheapen college ball.

6. Where does the Big 10 think it's going to get all these teams? Previously, I focused on the on field product, which, admittedly, the comissioners care little about. Notre Dame, one of the richest programs in the nation, stands to gain ten million dollars per year by joining the Big 10. If there's that much a difference for a wealthy program, what can any other program bring to the conference without siphoning off the conference's existing resources? There's a theme here- dilution hurts every aspect of the conference.

7. Who would join the SEC? Right away, I'm thinking we'd have to get Georgia Tech back. Oh, if we steal Clemson and Florida State from the SEC, then Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida would all have huge in state rivalries with conference implications. I know Memphis is angling to get in the BCS; they're thinking the Big East, but if the SEC picks them up maybe Tennessee could get an instate rivalry, too. That would only leave out Kentucky and Arkansas, yes?

8. Not about expansion at all, but the draft has been hilarious. I'd've thought Denver would have learned their lesson after taking Cutler all those years ago. But no, they've chosen to become a laughing stock by taking Tebow. He came so close to not going in the first round, and I almost feel bad for Jimmy Clausen. However, it was very exciting when they showed him sitting at home watching the draft, and then brother Rick came into the living room from the kitchen. I miss Rick.

Notes from the Orange/White Game

This is the only spring game I've seen, because...well, even though it's college ball, it's difficult to get jazzed by a glorified scrimmage. However, I was there and thought if I'd put the effort into attending, I should pay attention. Here are my thoughts:

1. I'm predicting we'll eke out six wins.
2. It's going to take us a long time to recover from the dual damage inflicted upon us by Fulmer and Kiffin. However we do this season, it will be no indication of the 2011 season. That's frustrating, but we won't be in this state forever.
3. Oh my goodness, we need an O-line. I can't even begin to describe our need for an offensive line.
4. Coach Dooley needs a shirt that fits. He looks like he's playing dress up in Daddy Dooley's closet.
5. Despite all this, it's great...to be...a Tennessee Vol!

SEC > Your Conference: Stadiums

Some random guy on the internet has put out a list of the Top 25 stadiums in the nation. However, you can tell its legit because six of the top twenty-five are from the SEC. Not only is that more than any other conference, all our schools are in the top nine. Yeah, we’re that awesome.

On a personal note, I’ve been to three of these, all from the Top 10, including Notre Dame. Just twenty-two more to go.

Oh, Pick Nick. We hardly knew ye.

I’m not much for keeping up with off season minutia. However, just the other day I’d been reading about the quarterback battle and how perennial bridesmaid Nick Stephens wasn’t the shoo-in we’d…well, not that we were expecting anybody to be a shoo-in, what with the new coach and all, but it’s his fifth year on the second string. And he’s concerned about not catching a break, again. So he’s taking his ball and going home.

I’m sad to see him go. I’ve been a fan and supporter of his ever since his first Orange and White game. I have always been on record as saying he should have started instead of Crompton in 2007 and did an admirable job when replacing the injured Crompton that year. I wanted Kiffin to start him and was discouraged that he so no playing time last season. I can understand why he wants to transfer, much as I’ll miss him.

However, Tennessee had thankfully moved on from Fulmer’s spoils system. I hate that Stephens was used and abused, I hate what’s happened to him (much as I did with Rick Clausen, who is still my favorite quarterback of all time), but it’s football and you have to earn your spot. And the stats we’ve been seeing aren’t going to earn you anything in the big time.

More Coaching News

Spurrier has decided to take over playcalling in the upcoming season, though he's sure to clarify last year he called "most all of the plays" last year. When you've won more than seven games in just one of five seasons, and that's the best five year run in school history, methinks the difference between "most all" and "all" is moot.

Happy Easter, Nick Saban

It's offical. Saban will literally become an Alabama Bronze Boy. I'm not entirely sure I'm comfortable with giving living people memorials like this, but it's a tradition down there to do this for their coaches, so I'll let it slide. But here's hoping he doesn't do anything to make them regret this.

BCS and the Media Conglommerate

A wrench in the BCS debate: writers for certain media outlets are stifled due to their parent conglomeration’s interest in the continuation of the bowl system. And how that bias affects the polls—which in turn determine the national champion. This is nothing we don’t all ready know, but written very well in this article.