The old adage says that you have to be able to run the football and stop the run to win in the SEC.

But that was before Steve Spurrier entered the league and made passing King.  Before the Mannings and David Cutcliffe.  Before Tim Couch and Hal Mumme. 
Okay, they didn’t win much, but they still won.

Well I wanted to see what elements of football really had the greatest impact on winning in the Southeastern Conference:  rushing, stopping the rush, passing or stopping the pass.

With that, I dug into last year’s statistics from across the conference and compared the situational stats to the bottom-line wins and losses.

You know what I found?

In the SEC, to win football games…

you now have to…

run the football and stop the run.

The song remains the same, folks.

Here’s how I arrived at that conclusion:

1)  Only SEC games were counted.

2)  I tallied the rushing yards per attempt, passing yards per attempt, rushing yards allowed per attempt, and passing yards allowed per attempt.

3)  I compared the records of the top four teams in each category to the records of the remaining eight teams in each category.

Here’s the raw data (and let me apologize for not having proper tab fields set up in the posting tool… these lines look as wobbly as I do on a Friday night):

SEC Records In 2007
LSU             7-2
Georgia        6-2
Tennessee    6-3
Florida         5-3
Auburn        5-3
Arkansas      4-4
Miss. State   4-4
Alabama      4-4
S. Carolina   3-5
Kentucky     3-5
Vanderbilt    2-6
Ole Miss      0-8

Rushing Yards Per Attempt
Arkansas     5.96
Florida        5.34
LSU           4.89
Georgia      4.52
Tennessee   4.23
Kentucky    4.16
Ole Miss     4.16
Alabama     3.95
Auburn       3.75
Vanderbilt   3.74
S. Carolina  3.57
Miss. State   3.51

Passing Yards Per Attempt
Florida        9.25
LSU           7.13
Kentucky    7.08
Georgia      7.06
S. Carolina  6.99
Tennessee   6.88
Arkansas     6.78
Ole Miss     6.57
Auburn       6.50
Alabama     6.18
Vanderbilt   5.96
Miss. State  5.58

Rushing Yards Allowed Per Attempt
Florida        3.03
LSU           3.20
Georgia      3.25
Alabama     3.43
Auburn       3.58
Vanderbilt   3.73
Miss. State   4.11
Arkansas     4.14
Tennessee   4.22
Kentucky    4.57
Ole Miss     4.69
S. Carolina  4.84

Passing Yards Allowed Per Attempt
Arkansas     5.51
Auburn        5.58
S. Carolina  5.65
LSU            5.67
Miss. State   5.87
Kentucky     6.21
Vanderbilt    6.44
Georgia       6.46
Alabama     6.72
Ole Miss     6.79
Tennessee   6.80
Florida        7.21

Okay, so those are the raw digits.  Let’s look at what’s a good number, and a bad number for each category. 

This is an attempt to find a

Last week, Jimmy Hyams broke down the records of the SEC’s best football programs over the past 25 years.

This week, another panelist on “The Sports Source” tv show (which can be viewed on The Sports Source page of MrSEC), takes Jimmy’s idea and digs in another direction.

Jeff “Beano” Henderson compares the SEC’s Big 6 programs (Florida, LSU, Georgia, Auburn, Tennessee and Alabama) against one another over the past decade in his most recent blog.

I’ll leave you to read his conclusions and explanations (written from a Tennessee perspective), but I will share with you some of the data he compiled.

Since 2000, when you compare the Big 6 against only the other members of the Big 6, here’s how the standings/records look:

1)  Auburn 21-12 (.636)

2)  LSU  21-13  (.618)

3)  Florida  19-14 (.576)

4)  Georgia  16-15  (.516)

5)  Tennessee  13-20  (.394)

6)  Alabama  7-23  (.233)

That says a LOT about Tommy Tuberville and his ability to coach well in big games.  (I now feel pretty good that the panel on “The Sports Source” recently ranked Tuberville as the top gameday coach in the conference.)

It doesn’t say much for Phillip Fulmer.  And perhaps that’s why UT is now defining “success” as an 8-5 season.

As far as Alabama is concerned, Nick Saban will surely be better than that mess of a record he inherited won’t he?

Every February, SEC fans go ga-ga over recruiting rankings.

It’s the equivalent of baseball’s hot stove league… when every team still has a chance, still has reason to hope.

But just because your favorite team signed more 4-star athletes than your rival, should you really feel confident in future success?

Yes. And no.

I wanted to find out if there was a real correlation between recruiting rankings and on-field performance, so I went back to the Rivals.com recruiting rankings for the past five years (2003 through 2007) and compared those rankings to last year’s SEC records.

Pretty simple as to why — SEC teams last year would have been made up of players signed in those five classes, barring an unusual sixth year of eligibility for one or two players.

When it came to on-field results, I only looked at the conference records for each team. I didn’t want a team’s tough (or weak) non-conference schedule to skew the results.

So, what did I find?

Well, what I didn’t find was a immediate connection between recruiting rankings and on-field results.

From 2003 to 2007, here’s how the SEC stacked up in terms of recruiting (combined Rivals.com ranking for those years is to the left) and how they finished last season inside the conference (actual SEC record for 2007 is to the right).

1. Florida 5-3

2. Georgia 6-2

3. LSU 7-2 (SEC Championship Game winner)

4. Tennessee 6-3 (SEC Championship Game loser)

5. Auburn 5-3

6. S. Carolina 3-5

7. Alabama 4-4

8. Arkansas 4-4

9. Ole Miss 0-8

10. Mississippi State 4-4

11. Kentucky 3-5

12. Vanderbilt 2-6

As you can see, the best team over the previous five recruiting hauls was Florida. And they finished with a conference record exactly one-game over .500.

Ole Miss ranked ninth in the SEC in recruiting from 2003 to 2007, yet they didn’t win a single game in the conference… while Kentucky (11th in recruiting) won three conference battles.

Recruiting rankings, therefore, are far from an exact science.

However, take a look at the numbers in more general terms and you’ll find that recruiting rankings can give you an IDEA of whether or not your favorite team will be successful.

The top five teams in recruiting from 2003 to 2007 just happened to be the only five teams in the SEC last year to post winning conference records.

Divide the conference into fourths and the recruiting rankings become even more telling.

Teams one through four in recruiting (Florida, Georgia, LSU and Tennessee) combined to post a 24-10 record in conference play. That’s a winning percentage of .705.

The teams ranked five through eight in recruiting (Auburn, South Carolina, Alabama and Arkansas) combined to finish 16-16 in conference play. That’s a .500 winning percentage.

And the teams that ranked nine through 12 in recruiting (Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Kentucky and Vanderbilt) finished 9-25 in league play. That’s a winning percentage of only .264.

The top four in recruiting won 75% of their games, the middle four in recruiting won 50% of their games and the bottom four in recruiting won just 25% of their games.

Interesting, no?

My final take: recruiting rankings don’t guarantee success or failure for your team. A fourth-ranked recruiting team can win the league… and a fifth-ranked recruiting team can finish near the bottom of the league.

But these rankings do provide an ESTIMATE of how a team will perform.

Top ranked recruiting teams tend to finish in the top portion of the conference. Poorly rated recruiting teams tend to finish near the bottom of the regular season standings.

So, while we can’t say (a) Florida’s had the best recruiting classes from 2004 to 2008, therefore (b) they’ll win the SEC this Fall (post hoc ergo propter hoc, if you will)… we CAN say that Florida is much more likely to finish among the top four teams in the league because of their highly rated recruiting classes.

So, looking ahead to this Fall, let’s look back at which teams had the most recruiting success from 2004 to 2008.

Again, the combined rankings are based on Rivals.com’s yearly rankings:

1. Florida

2. Georgia

3. LSU

4. Alabama

5. Auburn (tie)

5. Tennessee (tie)

7. South Carolina

8. Ole Miss (I thought Houston Nutt was supposed to be inheriting a cupboard full of talent)

And your bottom four teams are Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi State, Vanderbilt

If our recruiting-to-real-wins assumption holds true this year, look for Florida and Georgia to finish near the top of the East, while LSU and Alabama (surprise, surprise) should be near the top of the standings in the West.

That’s hardly a “Good Will Hunting”-style proof, but it is something interesting to discuss in mid-June.

SEC fans usually have a good laugh at those folks who talk up West Coast football. 

As former Tennessee offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe once told our own Ace Reporter, Jimmy Hyams, Pac-10 teams simply don’t play great defense.

But if you look at the numbers I’ve dug up, you’ll see that their high-flying offenses have more than made up for their cheapjack defenses in recent tussles with SEC foes.

Especially on the West Coast.

Since 1998 (that’s the last 10 seasons), SEC teams are just 3-6 when traveling to play games west of Arizona.

Take out two LSU wins in the state of Arizona, limit things to states that border the Pacific, and the SEC is only 1-6 in their last seven games.

Here’s the breakdown of SEC games played on the West Coast since 1998:

2000   UCLA 35, Alabama 24

2002   Oregon 36, Missisippi State 13

2002   USC 24, Auburn 17

2002   Alabama 21, Hawaii 16

2003   Hawaii 37, Alabama 29

2005   USC 70, Arkansas 17

2007   California 45, Tennessee 31

Even if you take out the numbers-skewing 70 points scored by USC on Arkansas in 2005, West Coast teams are still averaging 32.1 points per game at home against their SEC guests.

It’s hard to win games on the road when you give up more than 30 points. 

And remember, I’m taking that 70-17 game COMPLETELY out of the equation.

The Verdict:  Tennessee had better not take undermanned UCLA too lightly in their Labor Day season opener.

Now let’s add in LSU’s two victories that came in the state of Arizona:

2003   LSU 59, Arizona 13

2005   LSU 35, Arizona State 31

Arizona has recently been the bottom-dweller of the Pac-10, so the Tigers blow out win in Tucson is no surprise.  But LSU still gave up a canyon full of points when they squeaked out a win at ASU.

That’s where Georgia is heading on September 20th.

The Verdict:  Georgia had better be prepared for Dennis Erickson’s offense when the Bulldogs head West.

Overall (meaning home and road games), LSU is 4-0 against the Pac-10 since 1998 with two wins over Arizona and two wins over Arizona State.

But the rest of the league is only 2-9 vs the Pac-10 in that span. 

Alabama is 0-2

Arkansas is 0-2

Auburn is 1-2

Mississippi State is 0-2

And Tennessee is 1-1.

The Verdict:  As tempting as it is for SEC fans to scoff at the idea of West Coast “finesse” offenses being able to poke holes in Southern-fried defenses… the fact of the matter is that they have in the past. 

And the closer to the Pacific Ocean SEC teams get, the more likely they’ll get bombed by West Coast fireworks.

The Las Vegas oddsmakers have already opened the doors to the 2008 football season and already they’ve seen shifts in the lines due to fans and gamblers placing early bets.

After speaking with folks at a number of casino sportsbooks in Las Vegas last week, there were a couple of points that people should keep in mind about the odds and spreads that bookmakers set:

1) The line isn’t affected greatly by SEC or East Coast gamblers. Even though schools such as Alabama and Tennessee have super strong fanbases (ie: folks that would put money on their team even if they were facing the Dallas Cowboys), the casino’s odds are set for West Coast gamblers.

West Coasters are much more likely to travel to the desert to bet legally. Therefore, the teams whose fanbases affect the point spreads the most are: Southern Cal, UCLA, Notre Dame (a huge national following) and Ohio State (another huge national following).

2. The folks in the South who make money off of the Vegas line are the local bookies. Those are the guys that feel the “bounce” from Vol and Tide fans, for example, who might be a little too sure of their teams.

3. You’ve heard this before, but a casino’s goal is to set a line that will bring in the exact same amount of money on one team as the other. Since the house makes a built-in profit off of every bet wagered, the safest way for them to make bank is to have even money come in for each team.

4. At some point, you’ve heard someone say, “Vegas thinks we’ll win.” Or you’ve heard someone get angry because “Vegas thinks we’ll lose.”

Uh, no.

Vegas, again, sets the line to bring in an even amount of money on both teams. Winning’s got nothing to do with it according to 99.9% of the bookmakers with whom I spoke.

Here’s an example. Tennessee will open their season at UCLA on Labor Day. So what might “Sportsbook X” consider when setting the line for that game:

1) Tennessee is not expected to be a national power this year, so there probably won’t be an overwhelming push of cash in their direction. (Which is why I’m using this game as an example, rather than Georgia-Arizona State.)

2) There will be a lot more LA, California and West Coast gamblers in Las Vegas that weekend, which should mean more people putting cash on UCLA in “Sportsbook X” than normally would.

3) Tennessee is expected to be superior talent-wise to UCLA this year, but how much so? Also, the Bruins have a new head coach and offensive coordinator while the Vols have a new offensive coordinator. Those factors could make people more likely to bet on the underdog.

So, it’s likely that “Sportsbook X”, attempting to get an even number of dollars wagered IN their casino, will install Tennessee as the favorite, but not as a heavy favorite. Not as heavy a favorite as the Vols might be if “Sportsbook X” were a off-shore, online sportsbook taking bets from all over.

Tennessee might be set as a 5- or 6-point favorite by an off-shore book. But a Vegas book, like the imaginary “Sportsbook X,” might list them as only a 3-point favorite… because “Sportsbook X” knows they’ll get UCLA, West Coast money, and they want to get an equal amount wagered on the Vols.

Setting UT as a smaller favorite would encourage non-partisan fans to lay cash on the favorite.

And none of that has anything to do with which team will actually win the game.

Now, let’s get on to the odds that are already up in Vegas right now… the odds of winning this season’s BCS title.

By sportsbook, I’ll list the way the lines opened and how they stand now.

You’ll find all the teams listed at 10-1 or better, followed by all of the SEC teams on the board, “the field” (which means the odds of a team not listed winning), and Notre Dame (just so you can see the shifts based on money coming in on them.

The Bellagio Race And Sportsbook

Opening Odds on 4/18/08

Southern Cal 3-1
Oklahoma 6-1
Florida 6-1
Ohio State 8-1
Georgia 10-1
Texas 10-1
Missouri 10-1
LSU 15-1
Auburn 25-1
Tennessee 30-1
“The Field” 30-1
Alabama 50-1
South Carolina 75-1
Arkansas 100-1
Notre Dame 100-1

Odds as of 6/5/08

Southern Cal 5-2 (money coming in on the Trojans)
Ohio State 5-1 (ditto Ohio State)
Florida 6-1
Georgia 6-1 (cash coming in on the Bulldogs)
Oklahoma 8-1
Missouri 10-1
LSU 15-1
Auburn 25-1
Tennessee 40-1 (odds dropping, no real cash coming in on the Vols)
“The Field” 40-1
Alabama 50-1
Notre Dame 50-1 (surprise, surprise… biggest jumper from 100-1)
South Carolina 80-1 (odds dropping, no cash coming in)
Arkansas 125-1 (ditto, no cash coming in)

The Harrah’s Family of Casino Sportsbooks (Caesar’s Palace, The Flamingo, Harrah’s, The Rio, Bill’s Gambling Hall and Saloon, Harveys, Bally’s, Paris, and The Imperial Palace)

Opening Odds on 1/6/08

Southern Cal 7-2
Ohio State 4-1
Florida 5-1
Georgia 6-1
Missouri 7-1
Oklahoma 8-1
LSU 10-1
“The Field” 18-1
Auburn 35-1
Arkansas 45-1
Tennessee 60-1
South Carolina 60-1
Alabama 75-1
Kentucky 125-1
Notre Dame 300-1

Odds as of 6/5/08

Southern Cal 5-2
Georgia 3-1 (big money wagered on the Dawgs in these casinos)
Ohio State 7-2
Florida 5-1
Missouri 7-1
Oklahoma 7-1
LSU 8-1
“The Field” 18-1
Auburn 30-1
Arkansas 75-1 (big drop, not much money coming in)
Tennessee 50-1 (folks ARE betting on the Vols in these casinos)
South Carolina 55-1 (ditto for Carolina)
Alabama 30-1 (big money being spent on Alabama)
Notre Dame 45-1 (up from 300-1 on a team that finished 3-9)
Kentucky 150-1 (not on Kentucky)

The Hard Rock Casino Sportsbook

No Opening Odds provided, these are Odds as of 6/5/08

Southern Cal 7-2
Florida 4-1
Oklahoma 8-1
Ohio State 8-1
Georgia 10-1
LSU 12-1
Auburn 40-1
Alabama 60-1
Notre Dame 50-1
“The Field” 50-1
Tennessee 75-1
South Carolina 75-1
Kentucky 100-1
Arkansas 200-1

Observations:

Some of you are already saying, “they don’t think we’re that good.” But that’s only part of this formula. Remember the oddsmakers in Las Vegas know betting habits. They’re trying to grasp what the average gambler’s perception of a team is. That might explain why Georgia is the odds-on favorite to win the SEC down South, but Florida is the more highly favored team to win the national title by the casinos.

Also, the folks in Vegas know which teams will get the most West Coast money… just look at how high Southern Cal and Ohio State are listed. Yet their odds still rose as folks put money on them. And Notre Dame… jeesh.

Last thing, just for kicks, here are the current odds (as of 6/5/08) for next year’s NCAA men’s basketball tournament. Again, I’ve listed any team that is 10-1 or better, all SEC teams that are listed, “The Field,” and Notre Dame.

The Harrah’s Family of Casino Sportsbooks
(Caesar’s Palace, The Flamingo, Harrah’s, The Rio, Bill’s Gambling Hall
and Saloon, Harveys, Bally’s, Paris, and The Imperial Palace)

North Carolina 4-1
Pittsburgh 8-1
Louisville 8-1
Duke 8-1
Texas 10-1
Purdue 10-1
Kansas 10-1
Notre Dame 20-1
Tennessee 22-1
Florida 30-1
“The Field” 40-1
Alabama 50-1
Mississippi State 60-1
Kentucky 85-1
Ole Miss 85-1
Arkansas 100-1
Vanderbilt 125-1
Georgia 500-1
LSU 750-1

Kentucky is an 85-1 shot? Worse than Mississippi State and tied with Ole Miss? Wow.

Since 1988 (that’s 20 years to you and me), the Southeastern Conference has produced more NFL draft picks than any other conference.

Fourteen percent of all the players drafted since ‘88 have come from the SEC, while the Big Ten and Pac-10 each pace second at 12% of all drafted players.

Most of you would have guessed that the SEC was at the top of the list.

And most of you can probably guess which of the nine SEC states have produced the greatest number of drafted players (meaning players who graduated from high school in a given state): Florida and Georgia.

But when you dig inside the numbers, you’ll find that Florida and Georgia don’t turn out the pro prospects on a per capita basis that some other SEC states do.

To get an idea for each school’s recruiting base, let’s go inside those numbers.

Here’s how the states of the SEC rank in terms of overall population size:

1. Florida (18.2 million people)
2. Georgia (9.5 m)
3. Tennessee (6.1 m)
4. Alabama (4.6 m)
5. South Carolina (4.4 m)
6. Louisiana (4.2 m)
7. Kentucky (4.2 m)
8. Mississippi (2.9 m)
9. Arkansas (2.8 m) (I expected AR to have more people than 2.8 mil.)

Alright, now let’s look at the number of players each state has had drafted by NFL teams since 1988:

1. Florida (541 players from FL high schools have been drafted)
2. Georgia (281)
3. Louisiana (227)
4. Alabama (164)
5. South Carolina (139)
6. Mississippi (133)
7. Tennessee (91)
8. Kentucky (49)
9. Arkansas (48)

Obviously, Louisiana does pretty doggone well in terms of producing pro players. Tennessee, on the other hand, just doesn’t have top flight high school football as compared to the size of their overall population.

To break that down more clearly, on average, here’s the number of NFL draft picks produced by a state in a given year (based on the past 20 NFL drafts):

1. Florida (27.05 Florida kids drafted per year)
2. Georgia (14.05)
3. Louisiana (11.35)
4. Alabama (8.20)
5. South Carolina (6.95)
6. Mississippi (6.65)
7. Tennessee (4.55)
8. Kentucky (2.45)
9. Arkansas (2.40)

This makes things a little easier to follow. Florida, on average, produces about 27 NFL-caliber players from their high schools ever year.

Arkansas? About two. Think about that.

Let’s take it all just one step further. Let’s rank the states by how many prospects they produce as compared to their overall population size:

1. Louisiana
2. Mississippi
3. Alabama
4. South Carolina
5. Florida
6. Georgia
7. Arkansas
8. Tennessee
9. Kentucky

When you look at the prospects produced by a given state, as compared to total population, the most NFL-caliber talent in the SEC resides in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and South Carolina.

When you look at sheer volume, Florida and Georgia make the list as the states with the largest total populations.

And bringing up the rear in terms of producing high-level football players are Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky.

It’s no wonder then, that teams like Florida, LSU, Georgia, Alabama and Auburn do well year-in and year-out… they’re located in states rich in football talent.

The same works in reverse for Kentucky (a small state that produces about two pro prospects per year) and Vanderbilt.

The teams that stand out in terms of underproduction are Ole Miss and Mississippi State. Yes, other teams raid the Magnolia State for players, but this is a state that ranks second in the conference in terms of NFL-caliber versus overall population. It would seem that the first school to lock down the state’s borders would be set for a nice run of football.

In terms of overproduction, Arkansas has to get credit for their recent run of success… even if their success hasn’t been enough to satisfy most Razorback fans.

But the real story here is Tennessee. The Vols have won a national championship and four conference titles during the 20 years we’ve looked at… and they’ve done it in a state that produces less than five NFL prospects per year.

That says two things… Phillip Fulmer, and Johnny Majors before him, have recruited awfully well from all across the country. Like Notre Dame, the Vols have had to rely on a national recruiting base.

It also explains why Tennessee’s program has taken a bit of a dip in overall winning percentage these last few years as new coaches at LSU, Georgia and South Carolina have locked down the borders in those states.

One note to also keep in mind, fans tend to put more emphasis on in-state talent than coaches do. Tennessee’s staff, for example, looks at a 250 mile radius around Knoxville as their recruiting base.

That makes sense. Atlanta is a lot closer to Knoxville than Memphis is.  And Mobile is closer to Gainesville than Miami is.

Other teams view things in a similar manner.

But that’s not to discard the importance of having NFL-level talent in the homestate.

The closer the talent is… the better off your team should be.

That’s not a new thought. But these numbers seem to drive the point home more strongly.

Our Ace Reporter, Jimmy Hyams, posted a column earlier this week giving you his stock tips (buy or sell) for each football program in the SEC… based on what he thinks will happen in the upcoming four years.

That got me to thinking, which programs have already risen or fallen over the last 15 years?

So I broke the league down in 5-year intervals: 1993-1997, 1998-2002, and 2003-2007.

Initially, I looked at the overall records of each school, but after collecting all that data and tabulating it, I decided a more accurate measure of success would be a comparison of each program’s SEC record over those time periods.

That way a game against Western Carolina won’t push up the numbers for one team, while a loss to Southern Cal won’t drive down the numbers for another.

From 1993 to 1997, here’s how the league broke down by winning percentage in conference games:

1. Florida .909 (The Gators were a mind-blowing 40-4 over this 5-year span.)

2. Tennessee .817 (The Vols were the 90s other dominant SEC program.)

3. Auburn .720

4. Alabama .616

5. LSU .562

6. Georgia .438

7. Miss. State .388 (Look at the level of

As a sports fan, I’m a total geek when it comes to numbers, data, stats and figures.  Give me an excel spreadsheet, the data from the SEC’s leaderboards, and a couple of hours and I’ll have myself a big, ol’ time.

(Kind of sad, actually.)

If you’re a stat junkie like me, then you’ll like visiting this page on MrSEC.com.  

We’ve hired us up our own mathematician to dig into the familiar basketball and football box scores and come up with analysis that can help you quantify what’s right (or what’s wrong) with you favorite SEC team.

If you want stats and leaders, we encourage you to visit the SEC’s official website (secsports.com).  But here at MrSEC, we’ll take that information, break it down, and package it in an easy-to-follow formulas that give you an idea of what will happen on an upcoming gameday.

The first work from Patrick Rudolph will be loaded up and ready to go within the next couple of weeks.  As we roll toward Fall, we’ll start providing you with football analysis, but Patrick’s first piece will be on the just completed SEC basketball season.

Without stealing his thunder, let me give you a teaser as to the kind of info he’ll be providing here.  

Imagine if you could take your favorite team’s box score (points, minutes, fouls, turnovers, etc) and condense all of that down to a single, meaningful number.  Now, imagine if the weighted formula that results in that number was so accurate that 85% of the time it could accurately tell you whether your team won or lost a game (without EVER looking at the opponent’s box score)?

Patrick’s formula does that.  And it shows you, over time, which teams do the things that matter most.  

And which teams don’t.  

Also those game-by-game numbers can be tallied and averaged to give you a true SEC power-ranking that will show which teams have what it takes to win in March.

I’ve seen it and it’s interesting stuff.  And for those who like to place a wager or two, it’s pretty darned impressive on that front, too.

Check back in a couple of weeks to see Patrick’s first post.  And then, over the course of the Summer, stand by for football analysis, followed by on-going rankings and ratings throughout the SEC season.

Stat Geeks, rejoice.