Good Writing vs. Bad Writing

As an avid college football fan, I do my best to stay abreast of the latest news. Hence, I religiously check ESPN.com, CBS.sportsline.com, SI.com, and CollegeFootballNews.com. I even get my hometown paper, the Mobile Register, so I can get more insight into SEC football. Even without press credentials and being able to actually attend games, I can watch plenty on television, track more on ESPN, and research some on various sites. Essentially, it is not that difficult to know what you are talking about if you put some time into it. And yet, I've recently come across a couple of writers who have a propensity for either making careless mistakes or blatantly miscontruing the facts. These men get paid to know college football. Perhaps their pay needs to be cut.

I'll start with an old favorite of mine--Paul Finebaum. Finebaum is a sports columnist, so he is more than entitled to give his opinion, assuming he can back it up with some sort of facts. He doesn't have to report objectively on anything, which is a good thing, as he never does. He has quite a reputation (mostly in the negative) due to the tendency of his columns to stir up trouble. If it sells papers, then I guess he's doing a good job. My beef with Finebaum is when he crosses the line of biased analysis of the facts and moves into ranting without any substance to back it up. If he legitimately thought that Alabama, when they were 9-0, was the best team in the country, he is clearly blind, but the argument could be made. However, in the November 15, 2005 Mobile Register, he proceeded to make statements that bordered on the absurd. To bring everyone up to date, Finebaum was writing about the upcoming Iron Bowl right after Auburn (8-2) defeated Georgia and Bama (9-1) lost to LSU. He said, "In a season where it hasn't really appeared Auburn could do anything right and Alabama anything wrong, a victory Saturday would give the Tigers and Tide identical 9-2 records." Where should we start with this one? Auburn was 8-2. The loss to Georgia Tech, a solid, blitz-happy team, came in the opener when Auburn not only was breaking in a new quarterback, but also still trying to determine who was going to be the running back. The game wasn't pretty. Since that time, Kenny Irons has emerged as the running back, with Brad Lester not far behind. Irons ran for 147 against Ball State, 111 against Western Kentucky, 182 against Arkansas, 218 against LSU, just over 100 against Ole Miss and Kentucky, and 179 against Georgia. Meanwhile, Cox has settled in as an efficient and capable quarterback. Auburn had the best offense in the SEC and one of the best defenses. The other loss, to LSU, came on a bad night for kicker John Vaughn. Outside of of the two close losses, things really haven't gone that poorly for the Tigers, who were only challenged in one of their wins (Georgia). Meanwhile, the offensively challenged Bama, who had horrible injuries to their offensive line and speedster Tyrone Prothro, struggled to wins over Ole Miss (last second field goal), Arkansas, Tennessee (5-6), and Southern Miss. Comparing these two pictures, I'd say that things were looking pretty good for the Tigers and not so hot for the Tide. But maybe I'm making too much of this comment. Perhaps he was only referring to the bad luck in the LSU game. As if reading my mind, he followed up with, "If that happens, by this time next week Auburn will also be ranked ahead of Alabama in the polls. Strange, huh?" That's only strange if you think that (1) Auburn is still that same team that lost to Georgia Tech or (2) you bleed crimson and white. Finebaum finished up by remarking how Auburn could even finish ahead of Alabama in the SEC West if they won the Iron Bowl--how odd? Who knew that having the same conference record and holding the tie-breaker would push you ahead? That is so strange that one 9-2 team that beat another 9-2 team may be ranked ahead of them in the conference. Mr. Finebaum, do you live with your head in the sand, or are you really that blind to Alabama's obvious weaknesses and Auburn's increasing strength? Perhaps this was the end of Finebaum assaulting our football intellects--but no, here comes more. He decides to throw in his two cents for SEC Coach of the Year. Guess who he thinks deserves it? Bingo!--Mike Shula. But of course, he does note that Steve Spurrier is coming on "like a runaway freight train." I have no problem with either of those statements, but as usual, Finebaum must follow it up with absurd Auburn-bashing. He comments, "Tuberville will be lucky to get a vote." Spurrier has done a great job at South Carolina, and Shula has done a decent job at Alabama. Either may recieve votes. But to truly believe that Tuberville doesn't deserve a vote, which is what Finebaum is certainly implying, is ludicrous. Tuberville had to replace his entire backfield, all first-round draft picks. No one has ever had to do that before (though Pete Carroll may have to try next year). In doing so, he actually improved his offense. That is incredible. For Auburn to replace as many talented players as they did and be 8-2, Tuberville clearly deserves, at least, mention during SEC Coach of the Year talks. Again, Finebaum must be blind or ignorant. Having read many of his columns, I tend to side with the latter.

My second media rant is directed at Dennis Dodd of CBS.sportsline.com. He has put out good articles and he typically does not show much bias. I enjoy reading most of his columns. However, he recently has not done his homework prior to writing, which is simply sloppy. Several weeks ago, he put out an article (as did most of the free world) about the SEC defenses being a product of poor SEC offenses. In this story, he claimed that Alabama had the best offense in the SEC, according to national rankings. This was clearly incorrect, and the entire article was based around this premise. Anyone who can see could tell that Alabama was not the best offense in the SEC. Using official NCAA statistics, the rankings for total offense were as follows: Auburn (31), Georgia (33), Arkansas (47), Florida (53), Vandy (55), LSU (57), and then Bama (59). Hmm...a little off there, I'd say. Maybe he used scoring offense. Let's see: Auburn (24), Georgia (36), LSU (46), Florida (53), South Carolina (62), Arkansas (62), and then Bama (79). It was almost as if Dodd was making up the statistics as he went. He then proceeded to make it worse by saying that the SEC did not even have a running back in the top twenty in the nation. While true, this was a major slant of the facts. The SEC had FOUR backs between 21-29. He could have used this as evidence of his thesis without any problems except that he presented the fact in a manner that leads one to think the SEC does not have any running backs remotely near the top. A little objectivity wouldn't kill you, Dennis. This trend of misconstruing facts and not doing homework continued this week with a "Quick Hit" in his weekly "Notebook." Nearly everyone has heard about Ole Miss coach Ed Orgeron and the allegations of attempting to steal Tulane football players. If true, this would be one of the lowest things a coach could do. However, it's not entirely true. As ESPN.com reported on November 29, 2005, one of Orgeron's assistant coaches contacted a Tulane assistant coach about the possibility of Tulane players transferring to Ole Miss in the event the football program was scrapped next year. End of story. The SEC even cleared Ole Miss of any violations. But for some reason, Dodd apparently did not get word. The very next day, he has this to say: "1) Can't believe Coach O had the you-know-what to admit his ethical breach; 2) Can't fathom that Orgeron isn't contrite. [...] This is a clear case for the America Football Coaches Association to censure one of its members." What? Ole Miss goes through the proper channels to see about recruiting players who may end up without a team to play for, and only in the event they don't have a team to play for, and Dodd believes Orgeron should be censured? What kind of logic is he using? He owes Orgeron an apology for calling him out on this. So basically, Dodd, do your homework and check your facts. I don't like sloppy reporting.

I know I have been quite hard on the media lately, so I wanted to end on a good note. I came across this today on SI.com by John Walters, and it made me laugh. He's discussing the criteria for picking an at-large team for the Fiesta Bowl. Primarily, it's funny because it's so true:

"I listened to all the ESPN analysts expound on this topic on Saturday and most of the time they all made sense. However, one factor tht I never heard any analyst mention was name recognition. Quick, name a player from Notre Dame. Easy, right? Brady Quinn, Jeff Samardzija.

How about Ohio State? A.J. Hawk, Ted Ginn, Troy Smith.

Now, name somebody who plays for Auburn. If you instantly -- without a moment's hesitation -- answered "Kenny Irons" or "Brandon Cox," my guess is that you live within 10 miles of a Waffle House."