Yesterday, the preseason BlogPoll was released. Today, in the wee (and I do mean wee) hours of the morning, the preseason S.E.C. Power Poll was published.

Mark Richt finished second overall behind Urban Meyer, garnering 262 total points to Coach Meyer’s 267. However, Coach Richt received the highest total of first-place votes of anyone in the poll (9), narrowly edging out the aforementioned Gator skipper (8).

So, in other words, Joel’s mechanistic decision to rank Coach Richt seventh had precisely the same effect as Lou Holtz’s purported decision to torpedo Colorado on his final 1990 coaches’ poll ballot and enable an undeserving Georgia Tech squad to steal a share of a national title.

Now you know why I want this danged national championship.

On a much more important subject, I promoted Will Queen’s FanPost to the front page. Be sure to read it if you haven’t already. Nice job, Will.

Go ‘Dawgs!