I have a saying. I have been saying it since the dawn of the college football playoffs. That saying is:
LSU has [risen to/fallen to/stayed at]{N}in the [SID intern/pyramid scheme/disgruntled writers]poll, which has no bearing on the CFB playoff
— PodKATT (@valleyshook) October 30, 2016
Even back to the days of the AP poll taking it’s ball and going home near the end of the BCS era, I have always seen no value on reporting on polls that have zero bearing on a team’s post season chances. And yet somehow, they survive, because people are lazy and stupid and need some kind of easily quantifiable metric to be able to tell the difference between teams. Nevermind that the coaches poll gets filled out by SID interns, or worse, actual college football head coaches who have in no way had anywhere near the amount of free time needed to watch any college football games beyond the one they coached in on Saturday. Nevermind that the AP is FILLED with writers who either can’t be bothered to stay awake through the west coast late shift, or are themselves covering a single game in person and have the same problem coaches do. Nevermind, that it’s often completely inaccurate, both at the beginning and end of the season. It’s all worthless, often wildly inaccurate, and, again, COMPLETELY UNRELATED TO A TEAM’S PLAYOFF CHANCES.
Have I made my point? Do you understand? Good. LSU rose 5 spots in the USA poll and 4 spots in the AP for doing nothing. I’m not even going to tell you what they are ranked now. It does not matter. Stop it.
The only actual news for LSU that happened this weekend is that ESPN’s grand carnival of woe has decided to descend upon Baton Rouge for the LSU-Bama game. Gameday is a shell of the stellar program it once was back in the aughts. Now that Fowler is gone, it’s cast has ballooned to include Finebaum and snake oil salesman himself George Whitfield as recurring guests. Watching Lee Corso put on a mascot head is legitimately the only thing left worth of value on a show that has expanded to the point of bursting in both hours on TV and physical real estate that it consumes on site. Not to mention their questionable decisions with regards to guest pickers the last few years, and the fact that they gave Art Briles air time earlier this season, I’m pretty much over the entire mess.
But they’re coming (to our citaaaay), and woe be to the tailgate in their path. LSU’s announcement tweet about it states that they’ll be using the Parade Grounds, but I imagine the Cadets of the Ole War Skule think that’s a pretty good joke. LSU Salutes, LSU’s annual ceremony to honor it’s ROTC alumni and memorial for those lost over the year has been slated for this coming weekend since before the season began. Tailgaters in the area around the PG have been given flyers for the last two home games that the area would be reserved for the ceremony. It is a somber affair, marked by a 21-gun artillery salute to the fallen. Having ESPN pump out their broadcast from the north half of the PG at the same time is something I can’t imagine will be allowed to happen.
So either Gameday will thankfully be moving far, far away from campus (I’ve heard rumors they’re shacking up with Walk-on’s again) or LSU Salutes is getting postponed. I don’t think the later is happening. Expect clarification on this Monday during the presser.