TAMU to SEC?

As we get closer to the start of the season the college football world has been dominated less (luckily) by talks about bag men and free suits and more about actual football. Well, yesterday it got even more interesting with serious talks about Texas A&M moving to the Southeastern Conference. From recent media reports, Texas A&M feels the demise of the Big 12 is imminent but the catalyst for this move seems to be the Longhorn Network and the perception that it would give the University of Texas an even greater advantage among the remaining Big 12 schools.

Given that this move by TAMU may soon become a reality it is worth discussing how this would affect the current SEC schools, specifically, Auburn and Alabama. War Blogle has a good discussion of this here. One possibility is that Auburn would move to the eastern division. This means Auburn and Alabama could possibly each other twice in one year: the traditional Iron Bowl and again in the SEC championship game. If this were the case I think the Iron Bowl would have to be moved up in the schedule.

Another possibility that has been discussed is adding a 14th team from the eastern United States. However, this could possibly put longstanding rivalries such as Auburn-Georgia and Alabama-Tennessee in jeopardy of not being played every year. That certainly would not sit well with most fans.

So, what do you guys think? Are you for or against this move? Should we be okay with Auburn moving to the eastern division? And if a 14th team is added what schools are possible candidates and what benefits would they bring to the conference?

Alabama and Auburn Season Preview Part 2

Here is part 2 of my season preview. Before I move onto Auburn, I want to mention a few things about my Alabama preview from Tuesday. I talked a great deal about the QB situation for Bammer. I want to say that I think basically every other position will be good, but a QB controversy can cause lots of problems on a good team. Like I said Tuesday, the D will win them more games than the O.

Next up, Auburn:

Alabama and Auburn Season Preview Part 1

This week I am working at school at this thing called a "Course Extension". It is for students who barely failed a class and need to do some extra work to get a minimum passing grade. The students do a bunch of work, and I make sure they don't kill each other or burn the building down. It is basically a babysitting job. Right now I am bored to tears, so to pass the time I am going to present to you a 2011 season preview for both Auburn and Alabama. I am obviously biased toward one of these teams so keep that in mind as you read.

First up, Bammer:

Kegging Time

It's been three weeks since I started the Edmond Fitzgerald Porter. Since then, all I have done is racked the beer from my primary fermenter to my secondary fermenter. The main purpose of the secondary fermenter is that when you transfer the beer from the primary, you leave behind a lot of the yeasty gunk and it helps improve clarity and reduce sediment. It also frees up your primary so you can get another batch going, which is what I did because the porter has a longer conditioning time (wait for flavors to get better time) than some other types of beer. My original goal wasn't to have two beers going at once, but I have two kegs and I'm not incredibly patient. The second beer I started is supposed to be like a Fat Tire Amber.

As I'm going through my photos, I remember that the porter had somewhat of an aggressive fermentation the first couple days. A smarter person than myself could probably tell you exactly why it happened, but my guess is that it either had something to do with the temperature of my house or magic. As far as I know, that has no effect on the beer, it just made a sticky, beery mess on my floor.

After one week in the primary, I racked the beer into my secondary. (I also started the Fat Tire Amber.) I then let the porter continue fermenting in the secondary for two weeks, which brings us up to date. Kegging time.

There is nothing special about kegging beer, other than it is much less time consuming than bottling. Rather than cleaning and sanitizing over 50 bottles, I just clean and sanitize one keg. The kegs I use, and most other home brewers use, are called cornie kegs. They are just old soda kegs (before restaurants switched to the plastic bags) that hold five gallons, which is the same amount of a typical batch of beer.

The only thing to remember is to sanitize everything. I then put keg lube on all my o-rings and racked, or siphoned, the beer from my secondary fermenter into the keg. Keg lube is just a food grade Vaseline that preserves the o-rings. You don't have to apply it every time, but I hadn't done it since I got them, so I figured tonight was as good a night as any.

After I filled the keg, I put all my fittings in and closed it up. The next step is to put the keg in my freezer/kegerator and hook up the CO2 (that's two oxygens for every carbon). I set the regulator for around 20 psi. and just let it set for a while. The porter needs to set for a couple more weeks, but the amber should be ready to drink by the end of the week. I also might add, it helps to label the kegs or bottles so you remember which beer is which and when you bottled/kegged it. That's pretty much it, so if you want to come by the house, I have roughly 10 gallons of beer on tap.

The State of Alabama Is Going to Destroy SEC Football

I'm sure all of you have heard the various accusations leveled by Auburn's own Jeffrey Lee about Alabama's recruiting of Brent Calloway (I'm pretty sure the story doesn't require a subscription). Lee's is accusing an Alabama booster of driving Calloway to visits at Bama. The booster is also accused of offering Calloway's step-father money to pay his mortgage and offering Calloway a monthly check while he is at Alabama. We will see how this all plays out and whether or not the accusations are true.

Of course, I hope the accusations are true, but I have a problem with what is going in the state of Alabama right now. I have had several conversations with various Auburn fans about how we are living through the golden age of the rivalry. It couldn't get more intense than it is right now. This was already the best rivalry in sports in my opinion, but now it is at a whole new level. The passion side of it is great. However, this rivalry has taken a turn over the course of the last year and a half that could lead to both schools going down and taking many of the other SEC teams with them. Any other schools associated with the recruitment of Calloway are going to be looked at (including Auburn). At this point, I think it is just a matter of time before some other accusation surfaces about Auburn and Alabama's recruiting, and my bet is it will come from the rival school. This is a dangerous road to start going down and both schools could be in trouble before it is all said and done.

Thoughts?

Another Day, Another Auburn Rumor

FUCK!!!!! Guys, Auburn just cannot catch a break. From now on I am going to expect something negative about Auburn to surface every month for the rest of the year. That way I won't get my hopes up.

The newest bombshell is supposedly going to come from one of our own. In an HBO documentary that will air in March, former Auburn defensive end Stanley McClover will allege that a former assistant coach provided him with "extra benefits that would be considered against NCAA rules."

Upon reading this, I sent an urgent message to a trusted source to get clarification. This person spoke with Jeris McIntyre who believes it is a scam. McIntyre said McClover is broke, is jealous of the 2010 team, and got paid to do the interview. Allegedly, it will either be Coach Nall or Coach Gran. Fortunately, no signs point to Gene Chizik.

All of this should come out in the documentary. Another interesting aspect is that Alabama and LSU are also prominently featured in this documentary. It is possible that the SEC could look even worse when this is all done.

Updated: It seems that McClover's statements are coming under heavy scrutiny and some familiar with his recruitment and time at Auburn have publicly denied knowledge of any wrongdoing.

Auburn University v. University of Iraiq Baghdad

Something is wrong with the location address. Here is the link. This guy is why eugenics still has some support.

If You Build It, They Will Come

There probably isn't anything to this but we've been on the bad side of the sports page all season long so it's someone else's turn. This site is interesting. The stories he has aren't what you'll find on the typical sports page but for some reason he keeps trying to link the FBI investigation into Milton McGregor to Auburn athletics.