I know I just did one of these, but, honestly, it's been a busy week and I'd hate to have you miss anything important, so bear with me as I give you the quick run-down on all the stuff you need to know to keep on top of everything.
I was going to include another picture of Dale Cooper drinking a cup of coffee, but this was just too bizarre not to use. (Photograph from LynchPosters.)
Assimilate these data, if you please:
- Are you ready for some college baseball? Corn Nation sure is . . . and, in stating his reasons why, he underscores why I was right to identify Corn Nation as a weblog to watch in the coming year. (He's also right about aluminum bats, by the way.) Led by first-team preseason all-American Joshua Fields, the Diamond Dogs open their season at Foley Field against Oregon State on February 9, less than three weeks hence.
- Over at The Wishbone, the King Bee has offered his take on Jack Kingston's vote against the Gator-honoring resolution in the U.S. House of Representatives, in which he proposed this interesting idea:
I know Tightwad is a political science major, as I once was (although, in retrospect, I wish I had majored in English), so maybe he can give this one a look.
- Speaking of Tightwad, he has listed 2007's eight most impressive non-conference schedules, ranking them relative to the strength of the teams facing such daunting slates. (Hence, Georgia gets more credit than Southern California . . . and deservedly so.) The 'Dawgs made the list at No. 8, behind three Pac-10 schools (No. 2 Washington, No. 3 U.C.L.A., and No. 7 Stanford), an additional Western school (No. 4 Colorado), and no other S.E.C. squads. Let the trans-continental warfare for perceived conference supremacy resume!
- Tightwad is not the only one giving a measure of respect to the Red and Black, however. Sports Illustrated's deservedly maligned Stewart Mandel has released his pre-pre-preaseason top 10 (to which Building the Dam directed my attention, so my thanks go out to Jake on that one), and Mandel has Georgia among the contenders for a return to the top 10. Of course, Mandel also mooned over the Gators like an eyelash-batting schoolgirl, so perhaps someone should tell him that, although Florida proved worthy of its title game berth this year, the Orange and Blue's victory in Glendale set them up for at least one likely loss next year.
Rutgers alumna Kristin Davis was pleased to learn that Stewart Mandel listed the Scarlet Knights among the teams to "[k]eep an eye on" for 2007. (Photograph from Yahoo! GeoCities.)
You may now consider yourself to be a reasonable facsimile of completely current on all matters, significant and otherwise. With all that information at your fingertips, you should look like a genius . . . as long as no one asks you a routine question about alternative economic approaches to societal trends or interviews you about the upcoming season of "American Idol" at something other than your most lucid moment, of course.
Go 'Dawgs!