The Best SEC Teams, 1996-2007

So, Doug Segrest of The Birmingham News decided to play a simulation tourney, the SoS Playoffs II, to determine the best SEC teams of the last 12 years. Setting the tournament up like a mini World Cup tournament, he structured it as follows:

• Four groups of five teams each (20 teams total).
• Each group plays a home-home set against each opponent for a total of 8 eight each.
• The top two teams in each group advances to the quarterfinals.
• From there it is single elimination to the finals with each game played at a “neutral” site.

Each game is run using the NCAA Football SimMatchup tool at WhatIfSports. It is a fun little device. He takes the first outcome and then captures the box scores. It only goes back to 1996 in stats, thus the limitation in this bit of entertainment.

As a little disclaimer, I started this post about halfway through the Quarterfinals, so I had no idea of the results when I started.

Recruiting Gone Nuts

This is happening all over, but Auburn just got its first commitment for the 2009 class. The kid is barely through the midway point of his junior year of high school. The only reason that this commitment might actually mean anything is that his uncle is Antonio Coleman, a returning starter on the defensive line.

Family ties aside, this is just nuts. It is also reality and it is only going to get crazier.

SEC Repeat in 2008?

It has been a couple of good years for the SEC in football. We’ve won two consecutive championships over Ohio State. To be fair, this past year, it is hard to say who the best two teams out there were. I figure poor Southern Cal should have been there instead of Ohio State. That is with the benefit of hindsight though. That Stanford game looked pretty bad on the ol’ resume.

Ranking College Football Winning Tradition

So, the SEC posted a All Time Final AP Football Poll. It is fairly entertaining and takes into all the AP polls since the beginning in 1936. Their methodology is pretty straightforward:

From 1936 to 1961 the wire service ranked 20 teams. From 1962 to 1967 only 10 teams were recognized. From 1968 to 1988 AP again resumed its Top 20 before expanding to 25 teams in 1989. Points were awarded based on a team’s finish in the final AP poll each year. Points were awarded on a 20-19-18-17-16-15-14-13-12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis from 1936 to 1988, and a 25-24-23-22-21-20-19-18-17-16-15-14-13-12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis 1989 to the present.

They gave out half points for ties which was also a good move. There is a flaw in their methodology though. If you were ranked before1989, you got an 5 points less than you would have if you had received an equivalent rating since then. This is unfair as teams shouldn’t be penalized for playing well before the AP voted for 25 teams. To be an accurate measure, being ranked number 1 in 1950 should weigh the same as 2007.

Signing Day 2008

I hate signing day. Auburn almost always has a solid class, but not a top-tier class. The top 2 classes since 2002 came in 2002 and 2007, but not near our wonderful 2004 season. I always try to read things into the rankings that make me feel better. It isn’t helping much this year. Let’s take at look.

Auburn was ranked 20th by Rivals.com and 19th by ESPN. Even with a standard margin for error, that is pretty consistent. ESPN gave Auburn a B for a grade. However, that is FOURTH in the SEC West and Sixth in the SEC as a whole.

But Tucker was a God…

So Phillip Marshall tallied his votes for greatest running back not named Bo Jackson. I would say that there were surprises, but I watched the voting and was expecting some of these results. It does tell me one thing, fondness grows with time. Without further ado, here is his list compiled from the masses top three. To stay consistent with my previous list, I only listed the top nine after Bo.

Top Auburn Running Backs

Today, Phillip Marshall posted an entry basically stating that Bo Jackson was the best runner ever at Auburn. That pretty much goes without saying. He then asks for users to vote for the next three running backs in the all-time list. I posted my vote, but I thought I would go into my thoughts in more detail.

Before getting too deep, the entire list. All numbers mined from the 2007 Auburn Football Media Guide.

Name	Career RY	Career APY	Career TD	Season RY	Season APY	Season TD	Game RY	Score
Bo Jackson	4303	4892	43	1786	1859	17	290	154.74
Carnell Williams	3831	5084	45	1307	1718	17	204	120.19
James Brooks	3523	4496	24	1314	1800	10	226	103.80
Joe Cribbs	3368	4561	34	1205	1336	16	250	100.02
Stephen Davis	2811	3178	30	1263	1355	17	246	90.25
Brent Fullwood	2789	3758	24	1391	1512	10	207	74.08
Rudi Johnson	1567	1637	13	1567	1637	13	249	67.79
Ronnie Brown	2707	3390	29	1008	1189	14	224	66.36
Kenny Irons	2186	2430	17	1293	1459	13	218	57.04
James Bostic	2084	2254	18	1205	1245	12	211	44.25

• Season stats refer to the best season
• Game stats refer to the best game
• APY: All-Purpose Yards
• RY: Rushing Yards
• TD: Touchdowns
• [Edit 2008-01-28: Records highlighted in bold.]