IRON BOWL 2014

No more "Got a second...?".
That ship has sailed.
An entire year has passed, and 'the Big One' is upon us again. It's time for The IRON BOWL, the annual gridiron tilt between The UNIVERSITY of ALABAMA CRIMSON TIDE and those other guys from across the state, the Auburn Tigers. ALABAMA has had a year to relive that last-second miracle, and you can bet they won't let anything like THAT happen again. As usual, here is my "GameDay Comic" and prediction of the outcome.

THE TIDE will be ready, and won't let any trick plays, bad bounces, or lucky breaks keep them from playing in the SEC Championship Game and the first-ever COLLEGE FOOTBALL DIVISION-1 PLAYOFF.

Prediction:

ALABAMA 35 Auburn 14

2013: Pain For The Plainsmen

Wow!
THIS football season has really flown by, and these two teams have both certainly been the story!
THE TIDE, as expected, has sailed through and is poised to have a chance for a berth in the SEC Title Game AND a shot at an unprecedented 3rd Straight BCS Championship. The tigers, surprisingly, are still in the hunt and can both derail The CRIMSON TIDE's season AND put themselves in that very same SEC spot with a win. This is the most relevant IRON BOWL for BOTH teams in recent memory.
Gus Malzahn has done a fine job in motivating this tiger/plainsmen/war-eagle team and giving them focus. He has this team playing at a higher level than in the past, and has taken advantage of some VERY lucky breaks. He is certainly a lock for SEC (and possibly National) Coach of the Year.

Cowpie's End 

All of this will be for naught, though, as auburn's 'Cinderella Season' comes crashing to to a halt as BAMA overpowers them and eventually buries them in their own cowpie-filled pasture. On the downside, the game is on CBS, so we have to listen to Verne & Gary.

IRON BOWL GameDay Pick:
ALABAMA CRIMSON TIDE      31
auburn                                   17

SOOEY, PIG..!! TIDE ROLLS INTO FAYETTEVILLE TO SLAUGHTER HAWGS!!

Well, the Arkansas Razorbacks lost last week to an unranked Louisiana-Monroe, dropping out of the Top25 and KILLING BAMA's power rankings. ESPN Gameday was scheduled to broadcast from Fayetteville, but Arkansas ruined their opportunity to be the center of the 'College Football Universe'. Tyler Wilson will mercifully be held out to save him another beating.

Prediction: ALABAMA 35, Arkansas 14

auburn 28, ULM 27.... plainsmen/war-eagles/tigers get lucky. It would be great if they lost, as it would put Louisiana-Monroe 2-0 and in first place in the SEC West. The TIDE needs cow college to win for our strength-o-schedule ratings.

tennessee 31, Florida 24.... I hate orange, but we need the Viles to win for OUR power rankings. I think they just might be a little more explosive than the seemingly plodding gators.

South Carolina 28, UAB 10..... meh... spurrier... who cares anymore.....
LSU 31, Idaho 10...... Mmmmmm..... taters...... Corndogs should handle them easily..
Georgia 45, Florida Atlantic 24..... Bulldogs secondary exposed, but they still win easily
Vanderbilt 28, Presbyterian 10.... meh
I hope Mississippi State can beat Troy, and that Ole Miss can get by Texas, but I'm afraid to make those two picks. I don't know enough about Missouri or Texas A&M yet to predict those.
I just hope they ALL win their out-of-conference match-ups.

ROLL TIDE!

NCAA & Ohio State: I Call BULL$#*T!!!

In a not-so-surprisingly bone-headed move, the NCAA (Obviously an acronym for NO COMPETENCE AT ALL) made yet ANOTHER questionable ruling in this latest episode by declaring FIVE Ohio State Buckeyes suspended for five games-- NEXT SEASON!

Apparently, these young men sold jerseys & rings and got free tattoos- BOTH rules violations. The NCAA decided (since word got out) that this was clearly a violation, and handed down the penalty of suspensions-- to be served NEXT SEASON. The offending players are eligible for this year's bowl.

Let that soak in a minute. The supposed 'governing body' of collegiate athletics, who finally had an open-and-shut case with the opportunity to punish the offending parties IN THE SAME SEASON decide to wait.

Why?

Because of pressure from the BC$....?

And the network$, specifically E$PN....?

Let's put this in perspective, shall we?

Alabama's Marcel Darius took a trip to Miami which was arranged by a friend on the North Carolina Tarheels football team. He was unaware of the situation and the parties involved. He distanced himself and repaid the money, but was STILL suspended for games THIS season.

Punished.

Georgia's A.J. Green sold his jersey, repaid the money, and yet was forced to miss games the same season.

Punished.

Several on the Tarheels team had been receiving free lodging.

Evicted and punished, they missed several games. This season.

auburn's $cam Newton, arguably the best player in the nation, is ADMITTEDLY and undeniably shopped around by his father(A VERY CLEAR VIOLATION). Claimed no knowledge.

Declared eligible. Wow.

The hypocrisy and discrimination by the very institution whose SOLE existence is to ensure fair play and compliance is mind-blowing. All credibility is gone.
I call "BULLSHIT!"

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Great Pre-IRON BOWL $cam Newton Mash-Up Video!

Former ALABAMA CRIMSON TIDE Star Wes Neighbors shared this with me, so I thought I'd pass it on. VERY well-written and well-performed parody song of Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger" altered to fit the situation over at 'the barn'. Enjoy:




ROLL, TIDE, ROLL!

Nifty New "Cam Newton: Son of a Preacher Man" Song

Loveliest Parody Song On The Plains! HERE

The BARN Is BURNING: Fanning the Flames over on The Plains...

I was forwarded this by a friend. It appears that an unfortunate situation is really brewing over in West Georgia. Don't know how much is true, but I'll post it anyway--- just in case!

Someone forwarded me a story out of Montgomery that, if true, really means Auburn and Newton are dirty. Here it is : McGregor and 10 others are scheduled for arraignment Friday morning in federal court in Montgomery on charges accusing them of buying & selling votes on pro-gambling legislation.Bigger picture here is that the Feds have been investigating Milton McGregor (A major Auburn Booster and the owner of VictoryLand, which is located just outside of Montgomery) for quite some time. The Feds investigating efforts to pass gambling legislation in Alabama and money laundering schemes involving McGregor and other prominent Alabama politicians and Auburn boosters.The Feds have tape from wire taps made on McGregor & other prominent Auburn boosters from their investigation. The Newton's were just shopping their talents to the wrong people at the wrong time, thus there is hard evidence available that incriminates everyone involved. It's only a matter of time that all of this information becomes public.FBI found out about Cam before the NCAA did while wiretapping Milton McGregor and others related to the casino/bingo indictments. They uncovered conversations with McGregor, Auburn & Cam's uncle in Michigan. McGregor paid $250K to the uncle through a PAC and other hidden entities and the uncle funneled the money to Cecil.The FBI gave this information to the NCAA sometime after the indictments were handed down. They had to sit on the information for 6 months until the grand jury indicted the men and women in the gambling deal. All of the wiretap information was sealed, hence the delay in investigating. The NCAA had to go to Starkville to see if Cecil had solicited money from them as well. That is why State is involved. NCAA basically connecting all of the dots. Miss St may be cleared because they told Cecil no. He then went to Auburn. The offer was on the table from McGregor but Cam wanted to play at Miss St and not Auburn. When Miss St declined to pay him, he went to where the money was... hence the comment, "The money was too much." The FBI met with the Miss St coaches, John Bond and Bill Bell yesterday to get their official statements.

NEW Heisman Trophy?

HERE's my idea for this year's "HEISMAN TROPHY" if, in fact, Cam Newton DOES actually win it. Regardless of what happens, there is NO doubt that he IS the BEST PLAYER IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL. (Some would say 'The Best Money Can Buy', but that's a totally different post!)

My apologies to Mississippi State, whose reference I actually forgot to include. Thank you, Bulldogs, for your contributions.

Today's Picks

Okay, 'The Hat' Les Miles and Mike King's LSU Tigers brought The TIDE's 'Repeat' hopes to a crawling halt last week, but the season's not over YET!

ALABAMA hosts an emotional Mississippi State squad in a night game, and it should be interesting.

The Bulldogs are motivated to win one and have dedicated this game to Nick Bell, a deceased teammate who succumbed last week to cancer. Dan Mullen has put together a solid squad over in Starkville, and will coach his heart out.

No matter.

The TIDE looked flat and lost a game last week- on national tv- that they should have won.

ALABAMA 35, MSU 14

Q: Why does Scam Newton wear #2...?

A: BECAUSE 200,000 WON'T FIT ON HIS JERSEY!! HAHAHA!

Seriously, this is an unfortunate turn of events. I wanted the tigers/plainsmen/war-eagles or whatever to be undefeated, #1-ranked and confident going into The Iron Bowl, so that a nice humiliating defeat at the hands of The TIDE would be even more soul-crushing.

I will just have to make the best of this distracting bad press, negative publicity, Heisman-killing revelations and dis-array this whole 'Highest-Bidder-Gets-Cam' debacle has become to the 'Barn. Georgia has been playing pretty good ball as of late, but if Scam Newton plays, it won't matter.

WITH Cam: auburn 42, Georgia 35

W/O Cam: Georgia 35, the barn 21

Arkansas 42, UTEP 24
Kentucky 28, Vandy 17 Vandy leads 3-0 as I type this...!
Ole Miss 31, Tennessee 28 The Vols lead 14-0 as I type this....!
Florida 28, South Carolina 21 Gators rising, Cocks spiraling.....Winner wins East!


TCU 42, SDSU 10
Stanford 31, ASU 24
Nebraska 27, Kansas 20
Penn State 24, Ohio St. 21 I know.... I'm just rootin' for Joe Pa, though...!
Oklahoma St. 35, Texas 14 Mack Brown's having some problems....
Utah 49, Notre Dame 20