I guess something from college football needs to make the headlines

This Tim Tebow controversy for not being a unanimous pick for the preseason all-SEC team is ridiculous. Is this all ESPN has to report about? Mark Buehrle's perfect game isn't enough? Can't they conjure up some more stories on Michael Vick? Or Roy Halladay and Matt Holliday? What about the death of Arturo Gatti? And God forbid they report on the Gold Cup.

The story got even more ludicrous when Steve Spurrier admitted that it was his ballot which omitted Florida's Tebow, and backpedaled by saying it was "miscommunication" and asked for his vote to be changed.

Please. Have you no dignity? The coaches should be able to vote for any player they want, even if that means bypassing a Heisman winner and national champion.

Spurrier said that someone else from the program filled out his ballot, trying to parry the media's blame and weasel his way out of the situation. If this preseason all-SEC team is such a big deal, why is Spurrier handing the ballot off to some lackey?

Changing Spurrier's vote from Mississippi's Jevan Snead (who happened to hand Florida their only loss last season) to Tebow will change nothing. Tebow was still the all-SEC team's preseason quarterback, unanimous or not. It just shows how one man, Tim Tebow, has more unnecessary media attention than Tom Cruise's kid. Yes, Tebow is a great player and the best QB in the SEC; but why vote if the position has already been unofficially handed to the guy?

We may see this media hoopla from the BD Blog if I leave Notre Dame off of my preseason Top 25. I may be pressured because Chuck Weis is a better leader than Moses and Jimmy Clausen is apparently Brady Quinn v 2.0, but I'll stand by my ballot - which may or may not include Colorado. I'll keep my spine; I won't pull a Steve Spurrier.

Tebow Bandwaggon

I'm not going to hide it, I'm not a Tim Tebow fan and I'm not a Florida Gators fan.  I don't have any real good reason, it's not like I'm a Florida State fan or a Georgia fan and by association of rivalry I don't like Florida.  I actually just don't like any football team in the state of Florida.  Now that I've provided context for my bias, I'm going to vent about the Tim Tebow bandwagon.

Watching him play, I'll admit, he's a great player.  He seems to be consistent, look at his stats.  He doesn't throw for a lot of yards compared to a lot of other quarterbacks, generally has some pretty good rushing days for a quarterback and he gets a lot of touchdowns.  It seems most of his passing touchdowns are because of the superior speed of his receivers and he gets a lot of red zone rushing touchdowns because he's got the size to take a hit.  However, I think that you could take any good quarterback and put him in that system and if you call his number enough times close to the goal line, he'll put up some PS3 type TD numbers.  

Tebow is not the best quarterback in the country, he's not the best offensive player in the country and there are a number of other players I would rate as more valuable to their team than Tebow is to Florida.  Watching a Texas game and you'll see that everything McCoy has to do to find success for his team is 10x harder, and yet he does it better than Tebow too.  If you want total touchdowns, McCoy has more of them.  You like rushing yards?  McCoy has more of them this year too.  How about efficiency?  McCoy has better accuracy and a better QB rating.

The biggest thing going for Tebow right now is the lack of top tier offensive players in the SEC compared to the Big XII.  The votes are going to be split between Bradford and McCoy and Tebow will join Archie Griffin as a two time winner.  My consolation is this, McCoy and Texas will be upset enough over this second snub that they will destroy Ohio State by 40 points and there will at least be a little fairness returned to the world.

On a side note, I think Harrell was snubbed, but I could see this being the same situation in part as 2006 when Brady wasn't invited just out of the risk that someone sitting on stage wouldn't finish in the top.  I also thinks that this helps Bradford and McCoy so that Big XII/ western votes don't get split even more than they already will.