Roy Exum
To begin please understand I have never heard of McIllece Sports, an outfit that uses high-powered computers to predict college football results. They power something called the Stassen Poll, which I have also never heard of in a lifetime of sports. Better yet, the McIllece Sports group and the Stassen Poll have never heard of me so as we journey together down an unmarked road, allow me to inform you McIllece Sports has just picked the 2016 edition of the Tennessee Vols as the best team in the country this fall.
Please, this is June 14th, a long way and a stretch for a college football season that will begin on Sept. 1, but at least this give you something to think about, and head coach Butch Jones something to groan about, as a summer of soothsayers and swamis takes delight in titillating those who like to be titillated with day-to-day briefings on teen-aged boys playing football.
It seems McIllece Sports has run upwards of 70,000 simulations, or varied scenarios of what might happen on, say, the third weekend of October and the SEC divisions are rated like this in the Stassen crystal ball:
EAST – Tennessee had the highest number of any team with a 61 percent chance of reaching the SEC championship game in Atlanta. Florida is second with a 16 percent chance, then comes Georgia at 15 percent, leaving Kentucky, Vanderbilt, South Carolina and Missouri with two percent each.
WEST – Alabama has a 36 percent chance of winning the tougher side. LSU is 22 percent, Ole Miss is 15 percent, Auburn and Arkansas are both eight percent, Texas A&M is six percent and Mississippi State is five percent.
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IN OTHER EARLY Ratings, the Birmingham News just published its 70th Annual Preview, where it enlists the help of the sports information directors at the league’s 14 schools. NOTE: The directors are not allowed to vote for their own schools.
EAST – No. 1 Tennessee, with QB Josh Dobbs, RB Jalen Hurd, LB Javis Reeves-Mabin, and DE Derrick Barnett, the pantry is bursting; No. 2 Georgia, after “mama” called Kirby Smartt back home, runner Nick Chubb and an all-star offensive line could make things happen really quick; No. 3 Florida, with Jim McElwain blending well, will be a contender, especially if walk-on quarterback Luke Del Rio coming from Aabama, can have a break-out year; No. 4 Missouri, which will have a new coach in Barry Odom, no Matty Maulk at QB, and more off-field distractions than the Taliban; No. 5 South Carolina: Will Muschamp’s crowd got one 2nd place vote, one 3rd place, two 4ths and two 5ths; No. 6 Kentucky, this despite flashy running back Stanley Williams after a 5-7 season last fall; No. 7 Vanderbilt (received all six last-place votes after last year’s 4-8 season, where they were 2-6 in the East.
WEST – No. 1 Alabama lost some great players, including Heisman winner Derrick Henry, but Nick Saban can reload easier than the entire U.S. Army Infantry; No. 2 LSU faithful are still laughing about a failed coup that would have replaced Les Miles who is coaching future Heisman winner Leonard Fournette; No. 3 Ole Miss’ biggest hopes rest on the shoulders of volatile QB Chad Kelly, who will give UT’s Dobbs a race for Best QB of the Year; T-4 Auburn is a mystery, with new defensive coach and no banner QB but Gus Malzahn still has respect; T-4 Arkansas came on like gangbusters late and Razorback boosters think Bret Bielema has passed the test, even with an unproven offensive backfield; No. 6 Texas A&M had a number of high profile transfers after the season in a puzzling scenario that calls for focus on Kevin Sumlin’s future; that No. 7 Mississippi State, where it is hard to fathom how a team that went 9-4 last year has been kicked to the cellar.
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LET’S SHOOT DOWN A HATE RUMOR …
This week’s rabble-rousers are shouting that Barack Obama didn’t lower our nation’s flags to half-mast after a shooting tragedy until 50 were shot at a GLBT-themed nightclub in Orlando -- nothing could be further from the truth; you will remember when the President lowered the flags after our tragedy here last July.
It is just terribly sad that people start such rumors with nothing but malice in mind. In 2016 our flags were lowered on Memorial Day (My 30), Peace Officers Memorial Day (May 15), In honor of the victims in Brussels (March 22), upon Nancy Reagan's death (March 11), and upon the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia (Feb. 13). NOTE: the Kentucky Governor ordered flags in Louisville, Ky., lowered in memory of Muhammad Ali on June 4 but it was not a national proclamation.) Unfortunately, there are indications they will be lowered some more this year as we mourn our world.
In 2015 the flags were lowered after the Paris attacks (Nov. 15), in memory of fallen firefighters (Oct. 4), after the Roseburg, Ore., violence (Oct. 2), for Patriots Day and the National Day of Remembrance (Sept. 11), in memory of the victims in Chattanooga (July 15), on Memorial Day (May 25), on Peace Officers Memorial Day (May 15), and for the 50th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s death (April 15).
royexum@aol.com