Hankster2

Alabama had very little success beating LSU when Saban was LSU's coach and LSU has had very little success beating Alabama while Saban has been Alabama's coach... but it's interesting this all boils down to program-level cheating.

Being a watcher of both teams, I'd say this: The Ole Miss onside-kick recovery and quick-strike touchdown were a huge letdown from a fan perspective in terms of team performance. That being said, they were probably the first major letdowns in execution so far this season.

Every team provides let down moments like that. I think the difference squarely lies in the frequency.

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I may be naive but I've done this twice in full Bama gear - 1996 and 2008 (Saban's return). I haven't had any major issues. Of course each time I was with a couple LSU friends and I'm always in polite mode. There's usually a few jeers and maybe a couple harmless projectiles thrown in the first 5 minutes, but generally once people realize you're not there to start anything and you manage a civil conversation with your neighbors things are OK.

It's definitely the best place to watch a game for my money.

Just saying (much like this forum) if you're respectful of where you are it isn't as bad as it's made out to be.

Seems odd that the NFL would completely withhold evidence from the NFLPA in regards to the bounty evidence especially since it will only hinder them in levying suspensions against Saints players.

If they do go ahead with suspensions I would imagine that at some point the NFLPA is going to call them out in public for holding court behind closed doors. Why fight that battle if you don't have to? They must have a pretty good reason for doing so.

The first thing that comes to mind is that the evidence they have may implicate other teams. So far this is about the only reasonable explanation I can come up with. Otherwise, why wouldn't you throw the NFLPA a bone considering you have 18,000 pages of documentation.

Considering the player turnover in the NFL I have a hard time believing that with 18,000 pages of documentation there isn't a considerable amount of information outlining or at least implying the existence of similar systems throughout the league.

Not trying to start another "other teams do it" thread. Just discussing why the NFL appears to be putting a stranglehold on their evidence. They claim to have 18,000 pages but so far the reports are that they have yet to communicate a single piece of that evidence with the NFLPA.

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No. At least he's not suppose to.

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The only statements I've seen are that Payton can't attend NFL games, have contact with Saints employees, or communicate with the team through a third-party. Brees is not an employee.

If anything I would think this would lessen the chance of lawsuits against players. Being ordered by your boss to be violent in a violent game takes away the "players conspiring to injure other players" argument.

I wonder how those numbers compare to the rest of the country?

"Better"... such an arbitrary term. Better pure talent? Better season/resume? Better meaning who would win 3 out of 5 (talent + coaching)? I see people arguing all these aspects. OSU argued that they were better than Bama because they had more quality wins. Bama argued they were better than OSU because they didn't lose to a nobody. USC spent the last decade arguing they were better because of their rankings on Rivals.

Do I think Bama was a better team this year than LSU? Yes, but I'm biased. I'd like to think that the average outsider would agree, but that could also be my bias talking.

For agruments sake let me break it down from the eyes of a Bama fan:

LSU beat Bama in overtime in a game where Bama seemed to hold a statistical edge everywhere but the scoreboard. Had Bama's kickers not come out lifeless and missed 4 field goals... BUT they did, and LSU came away with the victory.

Game 2 doesn't need a recap except to say that saying "we didn't show up" goes both ways. Had our kicker not had the worst performance of his life...

If you want to stick with game results then it's 1-1 and LSU won the SEC and Bama won the NC. If you want to break down the performances so you can argue LSU was clearly the better team... I don't see that as being a very easy argument.

My point isn't to harass, but rather to say that as usual both sides have their reasoning for why they underperformed in one of the encounters, and at this point as usual it doesn't matter.

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Why does Alabama get to sign 28?

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We couldn't take a full 25 last year because we'd have gone over our 85 limit. Counting the ones that didn't make it we only took 21 in last year's class (these are all guesses since, as Saban has stated, only HE knows who's actually on scholarship).

Graduating a big senior class and losing 3 juniors to the draft we now have plenty of room under the 85-limit so we can take 4 extras and count them against last years 21.

It's a pretty common occurence.