He’s seen SEC football, War Eagle and all

Question: Stick to the pro sports because you have ZERO knowledge of the Southeastern Conference. Have you been to The Swamp? Death Valley? Jordan-Hare? If you can’t say yes to all those you’ll never understand. You really need to see that eagle fly at Jordan-Hare. And I’ll come watch your duck fly.

Charles Cary

Answer: There’s a stuffed file cabinet at the NCAA office that would lead some to believe covering games in the SEC is sticking to the pro sports.

Oh, and the answer to your questions: “Yes, yes and yes.”

I’ve been to The Swamp (Florida), Death Valley (Louisiana State and the Atlantic Coast Conference’s Clemson) and Jordan-Hare (Auburn).

I’ve seen the eagle fly, frogs croak (Mississippi State), roosters crow (South Carolina), the orange get crushed (Tennessee) and blue grass (Kentucky). I’ve seen the tide coming in (Alabama), Uga bark between the hedges (Georgia) and pigs fly (Arkansas).

I still have the press pass from the first SEC game with an African American head coach, Mississippi State’s Sylvester Croom. It was Sept. 4, 2004.

Jerry Devine, an African American who worked 36 years as a cook in the Mississippi State athletic department, welled up as he watched from the press box.

I know because I was there: Scott Field, muggy night, crowd of 52,114.

“It’s time, it’s time, it’s time,” Devine, a lifelong Starkville resident, told me. “Everyone should be proud of this. The ones not proud of it, we don’t count them.”

Mississippi State defeated Tulane, 28-7.

Croom’s father, a reverend and civil rights activist, didn’t live long enough to see his son, who played for Bear Bryant, coach the game.

Sylvester Croom Sr. died in 2000.

Croom’s son, like a lot of coaches, ended up getting fired.

Yeah, I’ve seen a few games in the SEC, driven its dusty roads, devoured ribs at Dreamland in Tuscaloosa and even sipped sweet tea out of a straw.

I wonder how many SEC fans have ever been to a game in Pullman, Wash.

Q: Your college football rankings make more sense than most of the official rankings. Also, Auburn has another advantage over Oregon. They seem to have two mascots. They are the Auburn Tigers but have an eagle at their games and say “War Eagle” at the end of every sentence. Maybe someone can explain this crazy mascot situation.

Phil Young

A: Very confusing. My thinking is if you have more than one animal mascot you are closer to being a zoo than an athletic department.

Auburn’s nickname is “Tigers,” but the battle cry is “War Eagle!”

That’s sort of like Santa Cruz being the “Banana Slugs” but having a battle cry of “Fruit Fly!”

There are several stories about where “War Eagle” originated. One focuses on an 1892 game between Auburn and Georgia in which a Civil War soldier brought with him an eagle he had rescued from a battlefield. The eagle suddenly broke free and circled the playing field as Auburn drove for a thrilling victory. Fans were chanting “War Eagle!” when the bird crashed to the ground and died.

The legend quickly became part of Auburn’s lore and, to this day, the pregame ritual of the eagle soaring into the stadium on game day is one of college football’s greatest traditions.

Too bad Auburn has never played a game at Boise State, where legend has it birds have nose-dived to death because they mistook the team’s blue turf for a lake.

Just to be clear: War Eagle is a battle cry, not a nickname or mascot. “Aubie” the Tiger is the school’s mascot. They are not the Auburn War Eagles.

Ducks, on the other hand, is Oregon’s nickname and mascot.

Isn’t college football great?

Q: Did Cecil Newton “shop” his son around to FSN and Versus to see if they’d pay more than ESPN for the Heisman ceremony?

Andrew Dunford

Seattle

A: How could you be so jaded, insensitive, callous and cynical?

ESPN has exclusive rights to the Heisman show.

Q: You just can’t stop talking about the Ducks. Admit it. You love us.

Rob Morse

Portland

A: I’m not ready to commit just yet. Can’t we just be friends?

Q: Without a playoff, what’s the point of arguing about Stanford and Wisconsin? One team will finish higher in the polls. Big deal.

Kyle Rowland

A: You missed a key page in the Bowl Championship Series handbook. Where Stanford finished relative to Wisconsin this year was critical. Stanford earned an automatic BCS bid if it finished No. 4 in the final BCS standings. Stanford would have been eligible at No. 5, but the school’s weak fan base would have made the Orange Bowl consider a two-loss team from the Big 12.

Wisconsin was in its own poll war, needing to finish ahead of Ohio State and Michigan State to win the Big Ten’s automatic bid to the Rose Bowl.

That’s why the Badgers were hammering opponents left and right and throwing touchdown bombs up, 69-13, in the fourth quarter against Indiana.

As it turned out, Stanford edged Wisconsin for No. 4 and earned the Orange Bowl bid and Wisconsin ended up No. 5 and won the Rose Bowl slot.

It was a very big deal.

Q: Do you think this USC fan should restart his “Hire Lane Kiffin” campaign now that some vacancies are opening up?

Scott Schmidt

A: Given his history at Tennessee, Kiffin has no chance of becoming head coach in Gainesville.

Florida might consider hiring Kiffin as a piñata.

I think Kiffin will be at USC for the foreseeable future, unless the program falls off a cliff and he loses to UCLA.

Q: Your Trojans lost five games just as I predicted!!! Just sending you a reminder as you requested.

Paul Medel

Carpinteria, Calif.

A: Yes, I remember your e-mail from Aug. 3, and you correctly predicted five losses.

At least my Trojans fared better than my Bruins, who finished 4-8. Luckily, my Boise State Broncos went 11-1, while my Texas Christian Horned Frogs and Oregon Ducks combined to go 24-0.

Q: Oh goody. Of all the possible interesting rematches the bowls could have given us, we get Nebraska-Washington. Was Navy-East Carolina already taken?

Richard Turner

Fontana

A: The Holiday Bowl just couldn’t pass on the chance to re-match the Nebraska team that defeated Washington, 56-21, earlier this year in Seattle. You may have forgotten, but that game was actually close until the lead official called the captains out for the coin flip.

Bowl officials really wanted to make this game happen, though, because the schools don’t meet again until next Sept. 17 in Lincoln.

Q: Who gets a bigger-name coach, Miami or Florida?

Michael F. Terich Jr.

A: Denver Broncos ( Urban Meyer).

Q: Oooh … Oooh… Rankafella, do you know, like Ohio State, who else has less wins over top-25 teams than James Madison? Stanford … and Oregon has one over a top 25.

Brandon Leck

A: Good points, but my James Madison comment was in reference to Boise State getting hammered all year for beating a team ( Virginia Tech) that lost to James Madison.

And James Madison did end up with more wins over the top 25 than Ohio State.

Yet, Ohio State is ranked higher in the polls than Boise State?

Why?

While Ohio State has no victories against teams in the top 25, Boise State is 2-1 against the top 25. And the loss was on the road, in overtime, against a team that finished 11-1.

It was also a little jab-poke at Ohio State President Gordon Gee, who said Boise State and TCU didn’t deserve to play in the national title game.

The Big Ten, remember, doesn’t play “sisters of the poor.”

Gee said that before Illinois traveled to Fresno State last week … and lost.

Q: So why do 60 head football coaches think Ohio State is lots better than Boise State? Are all these coaches stupid or bigoted?

Gilbert Gildea

A: Yes, they are all uninformed potato haters.

Q: Does Rankman plan to attend any of the bowl games? Shreveport in late December is lovely, I hear.

Dabney Hopkins

A: Rankman plans to spend most of the holidays around the “Punch Bowl,” although I’m hoping our college football budget allows me to get to the BCS title game in Arizona on Jan. 10.

My fear is the money runs out one day short and my season ends Jan. 9 at the Fight Hunger Bowl in San Francisco.

chris.dufresne@latimes.com

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