Power Rankings - Dec. 1

My wife told me that she wished she had a video of just my reactions to the 2013 Iron Bowl.  She told me it was like that YouTube video of people freaking the geek out when everybody died in that one Game of Thrones episode.  

There were some gods on Auburn's side in their miraculous 34-28 win over #1 Alabama.  If college football is nothing else, it is ritual, and all rituals are are a way to appease our gods and ask for their favor.  

Here ya go:



1) Florida State (12-0, 8-0, +25) - There were a whole host of great games on Rivalry Week - The Civil War, The Game, The Egg Bowl, The Iron Bowl, Good Ol' Fashioned Hate.  One game that was not particularly interesting was FSU-Florida, which the Seminoles won 37-7.  Florida State now gets Duke (Duke!) in the ACC Championship, and a win there should put them in the National Championship.  But what if Jameis Winston is accused of rape before then, and made ineligible by the team?  

Also, did you know that, before Chief Osceola became FSU's official "symbol" (way back in 1978), their mascot, was this dude, "Sammy Seminole":

Sammy was retired in 1972.  My favorite quote, from Wiki: "In the late 1960s Chief Fullabull emerged as a mascot during basketball games. Like Sammy Seminole, he donned cartoonish Native American-themed outfits, and performed clownish stunts. Under protest from Native American groups, the character's name was altered to Chief Wampumstompum, though this did nothing to assuage the concerns of protesters."  

Gee, what more do you guys want!!  You know racism is over, right?

2) Stanford (10-2, 7-2, +17) -  In an essay on the old Syracuse mascot Chief Bill Orange, Donald Fisher writes: "The Indian mascot continued to validate the evolutionary hierarchy linking the various undergraduate classes and alumni together.  Wildness might now be celebrated, but students still understood their world to be built upon the ideas of historical progress as well as race and class superiority." 

Wait, are you saying that the use of Native American symbols is actually a deliberate attempt to create a sense of community by instituting a racist hierarchy that permanently fixes Whiteness at the top, and seeks to justify violence against minorities through exclusion and ritual?  BUT RACISM IS OVER!!!

I also found this awesome article from 2005 about the use of Native American ethnic slurs as sport team names: 

Opponents say the word is an honorific, which is has never been and is not now. 

No Native person who has been called the R-word has ever said: ''Wow, they must think I'm a football player or a sport mascot or a person covered in red paint for war.'' It has always been a fighting word and has never been a compliment.
Anyway.  Stanford beat Notre Dame 27-20.  Stupid, filthy, drunken Irishmen.

Also, the tree is the best:


3) Auburn (11-1, 7-1, +16) -

This is what we were talking about:  
It is so hard to recognize everything that is wrong with college football, while also seeing how much passion people have for it.  All this over a leather, oblong-shaped ball!  Hurray for America!

And you know what else is fine?  Naming your sports teams after Tigers.  Tigers-Tigers in the SEC Championship!  (In fact - and I really hope it doesn't come to this - I might have to root for Auburn if they end up playing FSU in the national championship.)

4) Alabama (11-1, 7-1, +15)

5) Ohio State (12-0, 8-0, +15)

6) Northern Illinois (12-0, 8-0, +14)

7) Oregon (10-2, 7-2, +11) - The Ducks continued their weird late season regression, but still managed to hold on to a 36-35 win over Oregon State in the Civil War.  I truly think my weekend might have been ruined had they not scored with 29 seconds left to take the lead.  Instead, I can be thankful for the fact that the Ducks won 10 games, and won the Civil War, and will go to another decent bowl game, either the Holiday or the Alamo.  And that, even though the state of Oregon is not free of racism or Native American genocide, at least our team's mascot is not a symbol of white supremacy.  (And, as always, I give thanks that I am not from Alabama.) 

Meanwhile, the Ducks have to solve something before their bowl game.  Oregon State gained 6.3 yards per play against them.  This is more than Arizona (5.5) and Stanford (4.8).  And it points towards Oregon's disturbing trend of - for some reason - being absolutely helpless against the run during the month of November.  If they face a good Big 12 team - say, Oklahoma - this will be a major liability.  

On the other hand:

8) South Carolina (10-2, 6-2, +11)
9) Missouri (11-1, 7-1, +10)
10) UCF (10-1, 7-0, +10)

11) Oklahoma State (10-1, 7-1, +9)
12) Baylor (10-1, 7-1, +9)
13) Arizona State (10-2, 8-1, +9)
14) Clemson (10-2, 7-1, +8)
15) Michigan State (11-1, 8-0, +8)

16) UCLA (9-3, 6-3, +6)
17) Oklahoma (9-2, 6-2, +5)
18) Louisville (10-1, 6-1, +5)
19) Fresno State (10-1, 7-1, +4) 

20) Duke (10-2, 6-2, +4)

21) Ball State (10-2, 7-1, +2)
22) Washington (8-4, 5-4, +2)
23) LSU (9-3, 5-3, +2)
24) Georgia (8-4, 5-3, +1)
25) Miami (FL) (9-3, 5-3, 0)