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New Southernmiss.com,

Sucks. Used to you schrolled all the way to the end and clicked on the SBC logo and it went to the SB and you picked what teams and could see who was in first place and everything. All it does now is go back to the starting page of Southern miss.com. Completely useless. Now how do you check on the standings in the SB since someone took it away.

2024 Football Recruiting Looking Good

Right now, we are ranked by Rivals #66 in the Country, which is better than it has been in a while. Caleb Moore, Aaron Travis, and Chris Jones are hot items. Moore and Travis both had offers from OM and State. The hottest is Caleb Moore having offers from Alabama ( Recruited by Austin Armstrong) LSU, Louisville, State, OM, Texas, Texas A&M, and UNLV. Hall is doing a good job of getting commits. Let's see if he can keep them.

D1 Baseball - Fitt: Committee constructed a solid field of 64, but it’s time to stop dragging feet on RPI reform


Some takeaways:
• Out of the 16 teams we projected as regional hosts Sunday morning, 15 of them were named hosts by the committee. We were surprised South Carolina earned one of those host spots, and we believe the Gamecocks were less deserving than Campbell, Southern Miss and Boston College, so it was surprising to see the committee opt for a record eighth host out of the SEC when it had several other very worthy hosts to choose from — and committee chairman John Cohen (Auburn’s athletics director) made a point to comment on how strong the hosting cases were for Campbell, USM and BC. But when push came to shove, the committee opted for an eighth SEC team that finished 4-11 down the stretch — and seeded the Gamecocks higher than Alabama.
• That was another eyebrow-raiser: Alabama drew the No. 16 seed despite a No. 11 RPI, an 18-16 aggregate SEC record, and a 17-14 mark against the top 50. It’s hard to defend Alabama (our projected No. 11 seed) ranking behind the Gamecocks and Auburn, which finished with a No. 19 RPI, an 18-15 aggregate SEC record, a 15-16 top 50 record, and notably just a 1-3 record against the Crimson Tide.
Auburn’s No. 13 seed is particularly strange considering how hard the committee leaned on RPI in its bubble selections and on some of its host selections (giving top-10 RPI teams Indiana State and South Carolina host spots thanks to top-10 RPIs, despite other significant flaws in their resumés). But when it came to Auburn, the committee put RPI aside and took the No. 19 team in those rankings, and seeded it above an Alabama team that had better or equal metrics across the board. We don’t object to Auburn being a host — winning 18 SEC games is almost always host-worthy. But the pecking order was strange, and the optics of it are not great considering Cohen’s day job.
• The committee included two bubble teams that were not part of our final projected field last night: Arizona and Louisiana. Both both of those teams were among our “first four out,” so neither inclusion feels crazy, and indeed we all argued last night that we thought the Cajuns should be in the field, but two of our three projectors didn’t think the committee wouldinclude them. So it was good to see a 40-win Louisiana team that went an aggregate 22-14 in the No. 5 RPI conference get rewarded with an at-large bid
• When Cohen became chairman last summer, he said he wanted to try to reform the process, to come up with some better way of evaluating teams than the RPI, whose flaws he has repeatedly acknowledged. It has become commonplace for teams to cancel bad RPI games late in the season to improve their postseason chances, and that’s because the RPI can punish teams even if they win games against low-ranked opponents. That’s a problem that Cohen wants to fix, and he said there has been plenty of talk about how to fix it. But there has been no action, and Cohen’s time as chairman will end in August with the same old system still in place, unless the committee gets serious about enacting reform, and not just talking about it.
“There’s two things I have a real concern about right now, one of them is cancelling ballgames. And I understand why coaches are doing it, I’m not calling anybody out. I just think we need to create a system that disincentives cancelling games,” Cohen said.

A Comment On Where The NCAA....

...is today. The SEC has 3 teams in the CWS. LSU, Fla., and Tenn. Each has a pitcher projected to be a top 15 draft pick. Air Force, Ga. Southern and USM recruited and developed those players only to see them poached by $$$$. Would LSU be where they're at without Skeene. USM was 1 game from the CWS. Would Waldrup have gotten us there? The system stinks and is certainly not amateur anymore. Sad

Mid-Year Football Predictions

Nine and Three was my post-spring training prediction. Now I will give a mid-year prediction as the roster is nearly settled for the year. I will make a final prediction following the Fall practice.

Defense: One big problem last year was our secondary, which gave up too many deep passes. Hall has concentrated on this problem and obtained several good players to remedy the situation. Provided the new editions can gel, this will be a strong point in the defense. The DL appears to be the strong point. The Linebacker position took a couple of big hits, but Hall has brought in some suitable replacements. I believe the defense will be in good shape.

Offense: How many years now has there been a mysterious QB situation? Well, this is another. Hall has two transfers, Edwards and Wiles, as well as two freshmen, Crawford and Gonzalez. Besides transferring from good football programs, Houston and Clemson, we know nothing about Edwards and Wiles (the latter was injured during the spring). One might think some light would be shed since they were both here for spring football but think again. We only learned “they are coming along” or some other trite phrase. Of course, the freshmen are freshmen and have a lot to learn. Thus, the mystery continues. Not knowing anything about your QB is the most challenging to predict wins and losses.

The OL may be as good as it has been in years. Several returning starters and some newcomers could prove to be a huge asset. The running game is set for picking up first downs and some long runs. Again, the question is will we have a QB that can throw some completions and be an asset to the running game? If we can, we will go 8-4. If not, we will go 7-5. I will have a breakdown later.
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