The Goat Pen

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.

--Edgar Allan Poe

For I have been to Ludlow fair
And left my necktie God knows where
And carried halfway home, or near
Pints and quarts of Ludow beer

And down in lovely muck I've lain
Happy 'til I woke again
Heigh ho it was the old world yet
And I was I, my things were wet

-A.E. Houseman

I like Housman. One of your best posts, ever.

Thank you.

it depends on what AA's newspaper says....

That would be the Birmingham News. Yes, I still miss Alf Van Hoose and Shorty Price.

I miss actual reporting... Seems like everything now has to be opinion based. I used to be able to read a synopsis article but I suppose that is a bygone art.

Seen this piece on conference realignment. Argues the Oklahoma schools could join the SEC and Vandy might get pushed out. Okay offseason read, and some of it makes more sense than other parts of it.

http://www.thechaosindex.com/cest-la-tv ... u-realize/

I'd miss Vandy and Kentucky if they left the SEC. We need the 'Dores for academic credibility and the Cats as our bball token.

I could see Vandy in the Big Ten, where they would have plenty of academic peers. Kentucky would fit right into the ACC.

Clemson and FSU would be great for the SEC.

I agree that Vandy would be a good fit in the B1G but they already have a purple version of Vandy. And I don't think they'd have any reason to further split their pot with a program that brings very little to the athletic table. Kentucky would push the ACC to even further heights in roundball - seeing them play Duke and UNC twice a year would be phenomenal.

None of this will happen, however, unless they end up trying to create the 4 "super conferences" that have been bandied about. 4 conferences with 16 teams apiece, the champion of each goes to the CFP every year. I don't know how that would impact basketball though...I guess you could leave it as-is since you don't have to be a conference champion to make the post-season.

You can build a conference of the best 16 teams in the country, and somebody is still going to finish in last place, and somebody else is going to finish in next to last place. Shipping out Vandy and tucky and replacing them with FSU and Clemson would create a buzz in the first year or two, but eventually you'll have some teams dragging the bottom and losing their recruiting and tv appeal and you're back in the same boat.

Maybe, but the last place team (or more likely, the 4 teams tied for last) might have a conference record 4-5 or some such, rather than 0-9. You'll probably have conferences with a lot of parity (or gridlock, if you like) rather than 2 or 3 utter dogs at the bottom. Quite likely, too, that the conference winner would have 2 or even 3 losses. At the very least, it would make for more and more interesting regular season games...

Going through the SEC undefeated is already incredibly difficult. Replacing Vandy and Kentucky with Clemson and FSU would make some great regular season games, but it would also mean the SEC champion would have two losses every year, and be at a great disadvantage in the national title race.

For once I agree with Prof.

Yikes. Me too.


::::shudders::::

The end of days is upon us.

Morning gents

Prof speaking with lucid comments and AA's shudder of agreement = WTF??!!!

On a serious note, most of you knew my brother had terminal cancer, he passed 31 March at his home in Sylacauga. His wife and children are doing well, getting back to some sense of normalcy. Thankfully Mama is doing well also. At 88, she has seen plenty of pain, but a depressed mental state for her scares me terribly. She is in really good health for her age, but I don't know how we would bring her out of it if that were to occur.

All I can say out of all of this is fuck cancer. Sammy always had me by about 20 pounds around 200, but if he weighed 110 when he passed I'd be shocked.

Sorry to hear that, GBJ...

Sorry to hear that. Cancer sucks.

Yep