Most fans would’ve been happy to see the target on another chest
Rejoice, for this is the day that we Gump.
You have to give Pat Murphy credit, cobbling together the worst game of the season in the SEC championship game, just as the NCAA tournament committee was seeding teams.
Try as they might in their hideous 7–1 loss to Texas, the Crimson Tide were not able to pin the target on the Sooners or Huskers, and instead will catch more than their share of arrows as the top team in the country.
‘Bama’s No. 2 RPI was burnished by a 4th-ranked true SOS, 2nd in KPI, 1st in strength of record, series wins over four other Top 10 squads — and that may be the least impressive part of their work.
The Crimson Tide played nine series against the Top 35 and won eight of them, as well as picked up another five wins vs the Top 35 in one-offs (tourneys, midweeks etc). And yet they still didn’t claim the SEC regular season crown or conference titles. Tough league, folks.
But I guess we still have to resign ourselves to the notion that Alabama actually is a national championship-worthy team this go ‘round.
Here is your story and bracket.
We’ll have more on the #RoadToStillwater later in the week. And our personal reticence aside, props to Murph on an absolutely stunning (and unexpected) 2026.
Well done, ladies of #Team30.
#VaughnBall finished handling its business in Columbia on Sunday, claiming a second-straight sweep in a unexpected nail-biter of a finale, 7–6.
The score was somewhat similar to Game 1 and 2, but it was good to see Alabama win with a different set of tricks when it had to. But, since Chicks dig the long ball, Bama batsmen went home mighty lonely — Sunday was instead a masterclass of small ball, manufactured runs.
The Tide jumped out to a 7–1 lead by the 6th. But the home team didn’t go down easily, roaring back 7–5 entering the 9th, where they added another run and had the tying man aboard. Matthew Heidberger fortunately retired the next two batters, and notched the huge save for ‘Bama.
Myles Upchurch had a great game as well: 6.1 IP, 1 ER, 5K. It was the Tide’s anemic bullpen that hurt them all weekend, not the starting rotation; that was especially glaring on Sunday.
Middle and long relief has been a year long problem, however. And despite entering postseason play with such a glaring hole, you can’t teach this dog a new trick, because there simply aren’t enough dogs in the kennel. Nowhere has Alabama’s lack of NIL support been more apparent than in baseball’s inability to stockpile quality arms (and Vaughn has never been noted for stellar staffs either).
So, you dance with what brung ya’ — expect to see many more high scoring games down the stretch.
And the odds of there being such promiscuous affairs are significantly higher too, since I have been assured that Neal and LeBron were both held out of action this weekend out of an abundance of caution and they will be back for the season-ending Ole Miss homestand.
It’s a meaningful series as well. Alabama is currently T-4th with Auburn. A home sweep would give ‘Bama all tiebreakers, assure a T-4 finish — and, most critically, the Birmingham double-bye.
For a team looking to host a regional, and for one this nicked-up, getting the week off (and ducking a dozen postseason opponents) would be a tremendous boon.
One of the things we like to do here, besides ask second- and third-level questions, is highlight where The System©️ actually gets it right.
On Sunday, we praised the Players Era classic for exactly that reason. Today, we confront another such instance:
Odds are good that unless you collect a paycheck writing sports or you track class action litigation for fun, you may not recall how this exact mess even began in the first place, a dozen years ago.
It began with video games.
O’Bannon challenged the NCAA’s right to make money off the use of athletes’ names, images and likenesses and other plaintiffs in the antitrust case included Oscar Robertson and Bill Russell. Vaccaro was there in 2014 when they won.
O’Bannon’s complaint was born from playing EA’s college basketball game and noticing a nameless avatar suiting up for UCLA that looked and played an awful lot like him. Because of the lawsuit in his name, O’Bannon has become synonymous with the demise of the NCAA and the unmasking of big-time college athletics as a billion-dollar industry running on unsalaried labor.
What followed was quite literally everything else we have seen since then. And for many casual fans, one of the losses that most rankled was the decade-long demise of the beloved College Football series, as a litigation-shy EA had been chased away.
The title would eventually return in the summer of 2024, and despite its many warts, it was a triumph.
Critical acclaim and absurd sales followed, with EA ultimately sharing a pool of revenue worth $1500-$3000 a pop to every single athlete, and much more more paid out to program NIL funds based on usage of teams (a fan favorite like Alabama or Oregon generates more player use in the game, thus generates greater royalties).
Like the Players Era classic, compensation for this true market-driven use of players actual names and likenesses is precisely what NIL was always meant to capture, and it likewise has been wildly successful, with benefits often appearing in expected ways — such as fans colluding to use the expansion Delaware blue hens on their games so as to bolster the Blue Hens NIL payments. By juicing the numbers, normal bros played Delaware so much, they single-handedly became the DU’s greatest external source of NIL revenue… and have even gotten the Blue Hens halfway to the funda needed for a new stadium.
That’s just an awesome story. Everyone gets something out of this, it is above board, and it in no way harms the sport.
This is the NIL that the NCAA should have always recognized rather than digging their heels in over a maximalist position that was always bound to fail one day.
We think of this mess as having begun with O’Bannon. The truth is the NCAA decisively cut their own throats in 1994 with the grotesque miscarriage of justice enacted on Jeremy Bloom.
And, finally, your moment of levity… I think we are all familiar with the brand of golf this gentleman plays. I hate to boast, but I just carded a 91 two weeks ago. 💅
You folks have a good morning, and take care of those in your orbit — you never know the war that another man is fighting alone.
