Sunday, December 28, 2008

Tennessee: Done!

Great news from New Orleans, where I'm getting ready to cover Friday's Sugar Bowl between Alabama at Utah. I just finished the final draft of the Tennessee version of the Huddle Up guide series, except for a couple of small details I can't add yet (like the new coaching staff which has yet to be hired).

FYI, it's 35,000 words. That's about a third the size of my usual books. Since I'm doing nine editions this year, that'll give you an comparative idea to the scope of the entire project.

Personally, I'm thrilled with how it looks, and relieved for two reasons: 1) It's done, and 2) The amount of time I planned to finish it was dead on, which means I should be able to wrap up the other eight versions on time.

Very cool.

Oh, and yes, the title is a reference to Monster House. I miss that show, it was fun.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Nine and done! (well, sort of)

I'm happy to announce that I finished the first draft of the ninth, and final, book in the "Huddle Up!" series that will come out next year, Texas.

I find it kind of funny that after the Longhorns defeated Oklahoma this season I decided to do Texas last because I thought it would be playing for the national championship. Oops.

Anyway, somehow I'm a week ahead of schedule, which is terrific, but that doesn't mean I can slow down. I'll be trying to wrap up the Tennessee book this next week, and then move on to Notre Dame while attending the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans.

Now THAT will be a challenge.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

You're not going to believe where I saw the book on sale ...

Whenever I have a book come out, the No. 1 question I get is, "So how’s it doing?"
The thing is, most publishing houses only notify authors of sales numbers twice a year, and for the previous six months. So for "100 Things Crimson Tide Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die," which came out in August, I’ll probably get my first official idea in March.
Unofficially, I think it’s doing well.
- For the past few weeks, Amazon.com has had it listed among its best-selling book in the state of Alabama.
- The local Barnes & Noble ran out of copies this week, despite getting in an order Dec. 9 (I’m been assured more are on the way).
And here’s my favorite:
- I actually saw it on sale at Sam’s Club (FYI, I'm a HUGE fan of Sam's Club) last night. Before I could pick my jaw up off the ground, people grabbed three copies (and I wouldn’t be surprised if they already sold out of what they had - which means another order).
I just wanted to take this opportunity to say thank you to everyone.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Return to sender

As many of you know, in late November I sent a copy of my book "Who's No. 1? 100 Years of Controversial Champions in College Football," to President-elect Barack Obama after he stated on more than one occasion that he was in favor of a playoff.

At least I thought I did.

A couple of days ago, the beat up Priority Mail envelope came back, marked with two stamps and a sticker. The stamps were: "Screened by the Senate Post Office, Nov. 25, 2008" and "Return to Sender."

The sticker, which I love, reads: "PLEASE RETURN TO SENDER: President-elect Barack Obama cannot accept mail at this address. Please accept our apologies."

So a phone call later, I found out that even though his Senate office is still open, it's not accepting mail. Apparently the place to send it is PO Box 8102, Chicago, IL 60682, which is what I did.

I'm writing the $4.80 for postage, twice, off my taxes.

By the way, yes, that is the President-elect driving past Tyler Hansbrough during a North Carolina scrimmage a few weeks after the Heels made the Final Four. The way UNC is playing, I'm expecting a summer rematch at the White House.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Best book signing yet

Memo to book-store managers everywhere: If you want to have a good book signing, call Maggie Clark, the community relations manager at the Barnes & Noble in Huntsville (Jones Valley location), and ask her how to do it.

Friday night was the store's annual "Pep Rally" signing with regional authors of sports-related books. I couldn't make it last year, so was glad my schedule was open for this one. It was me,
Chette Williams ("Hard Fighting Soldier: Finding God in Trials, Tragedies and Triumphs") , Richard Scott ("SEC Football: 75 Years of Pride and Passion"), and David White ("Leadership Lessons for Life: Alabama High School Football Coaches Favorite Quotes & Inspirational Stories"). FYI, Williams is the Auburn football team chaplain, and I'm in the acknowledgements in Scott's book (thanks).

So after getting lost in Huntsville and arriving a few minutes late (sorry again about that), I saw an impressive stack of my books, but not "100 Things Crimson Tide Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die." No one, including myself, had told Maggie that I had a new book out, yet somehow, while we were at dinner, they came up with 15 copies.

As neat as that was, I later found out that most of the copies on the table, more than 100, had already been purchased. They had been promoting the event for weeks, even on local television stations.

Maggie, whenever you want me back, I'm there. Thanks.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Texas backlash

Not only are fans frustrated with the Bowl Championship Series, but so are a few Congressional leaders, who are about the propose legislature to essentially force a playoff.

Someone get these guys a copy of my book "Who's No. 1?" please, I sent my last copy to the President-elect.

Here's the story from the Associated Press:

WASHINGTON - Taking aim at a BCS system he said "consistently misfires,'' a member of Congress planned to introduce legislation Wednesday that would force college football to adopt a playoff to determine the national champion.
Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, the ranking Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, didn't specify what sort of playoff he wants — only that the BCS should go.
"In some years the sport's national championship winner was left unsettled, and at least one school was left out of the many millions of dollars in revenue that accompany the title,'' Barton said in a statement released ahead of the bill's introduction. "Despite repeated efforts to improve the system, the controversy rages on.''
He said the bill — being co-sponsored by Reps. Bobby Rush, an Illinois Democrat, and Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican — "will prohibit the marketing, promotion, and advertising of a postseason game as a 'national championship' football game, unless it is the result of a playoff system. Violations of the prohibition will be treated as violations of the Federal Trade Commission Act as an unfair or deceptive act or practice.''
Florida (12-1) and Oklahoma (12-1) will meet in the BCS title game Jan. 8 in Miami.
Barton cited Southern California in 2003 and undefeated Auburn in 2004 as examples of worthy teams left out of the BCS national championship game.
"This year, we again have two teams with one loss each playing for the 'championship,' while two undefeated teams and four additional teams with only one loss will play in bowl games, but none can become 'champion,''' he said.
When an Energy and Commerce subcommittee held a hearing about the BCS in 2005, lawmakers said they weren't going to pursue legislation.
"The BCS method of determining who is No. 1 consistently misfires,'' Barton said Wednesday. "Simply exposing the flaws and subjecting them to discussion ... hasn't led to improvement by those who run the system.''

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

... followed by an interesting weekend

As I wrote for Monday's newspaper, anyone who didn’t appreciate Saturday’s SEC Championship Game at the Georgia Dome simply isn’t a fan of college football.

Yeah, it was that good. In fact, I can't remember the last time I was at such an amazing game.

On top of it, I finished the first draft of the Oklahoma handbook (and this photo is from the Sooners' website). So I'm down to the last one, Texas, and then spend two months tweaking, writing and updating, so they can hit stores in time for next football season.

Since this is a blog about writing books, here's my timetable:
December: Finish the first draft of Texas. I'm actually off to a really great start.
Dec. 28-Jan 3: Finish Tennessee edition.
Jan 4-10: Michigan
Jan. 11-17: Notre Dame
Jan. 18-24: Georgia
Jan. 25-31: New York Giants
Feb. 4: Turn in Tennessee, Michigan, Nortre Dame, Georgia editions
Feb. 1-7: Ohio State
Feb. 8-14: Texas
Feb. 15-21: Oklahoma
Feb. 22-28: Alabama
March 1: Turn in the other five editions ... maybe go on vacation

Two other final notes: I think it's safe to say we'll be doing a Florida version asap, assuming the series takes off, and the series now has a catchy title phrase that they will all use, "Huddle Up: The 2009 Guide to (Whatever) Football." Me? I'm going to call them the "Guides."

Thursday, December 4, 2008

It's been an interesting week ...

For Monday, I wrote an article about how Alabama's opponents have done much worse after losing to Alabama. Specifically, the 12 opponents were a combined 23-17 (.600) before facing the Tide. After losing, those same teams went 31-39 (.442).

In reponse, "Every Day Should Be Saturday" has a little fun with the story (very funny), the link for which and the original story are below.

Tuesday, I received a host of emails, especially from Florida fans, calling me a homer and saying I was basically full of you-know-what. You have to love the SEC.

Wednesday, Tommy Tuberville "resigned," which makes me think that six-game winning streak Auburn recently had against Alabama might suddenly be matched by a losing streak.

Combined with thousands of my colleagues getting the axe from Gannett this week, and that's not an exaggeration, these kinds of things bother me, especially just couple of weeks before Christmas.

So I wrote the following for my newspaper blog:
Being the Alabama football beat writer for the Tuscaloosa News, my job usually requires me to be objective about the Crimson Tide. Part of that means I can't cheer for the team, one way or the other, and my focus is supposed to be on reporting.
However, since the following issue is about college football as a whole and Auburn, I think I can get away with expressing an opinion.
Although I can't help but remember that Saban replaced a coach who went 6-6 his final season, I think his comments Wednesday are dead on.
Here's the lead note in Thursday's paper:
TUSCALOOSA University of Alabama coach Nick Saban appeared to be clearly unhappy and disappointed, perhaps even borderline angry, about Tommy Tuberville no longer being the head football coach at Auburn.
Of the Crimson Tide's final five regular-season opponents, Tuberville's the third coach to be out of a job, joining former Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer and Mississippi State's Sylvester Croom.
"There have been several coaches who have been let go in our league who have a pretty good body of work behind them, who are really good coaches and are really good for the game," Saban said about all three coaches during his weekly Wednesday press conference. "They've been good for a lot of players, and they've had very, very good programs.
"Those guys are really good coaches. They've done a good job for a long tome and have a tremendous body of work. I really question some of the judgment relative to how it is for our game, that people who have those kinds of relationships and have done that kind of job, affecting so many people in such a positive way, and have had a reasonable amount of success relative to their circumstances, would not be given more respect and consideration.
"I guess we're 5-7 away from the same thing."
The initial reports of Tuberville's resignation broke while Saban was holding practice in preparation for Saturday's SEC Championship Game.
When asked if he thought his success at Alabama, both in terms of record and in recruiting, affected the decisions at the other schools, Saban said: "It shouldn't have.
"When you see a program start to lose toughness, discipline, those types of things, that's one thing. That's not the case. It wasn't the case at Tennessee, it wasn't the case at Mississippi State, it wasn't the case anywhere."
Tuberville was 85-40 over arguably the best 10-year span in Auburn history, including the 13-0 season of 2004 when the Tigers won their first SEC title in 15 years and finished No. 2.
"No one's ever satisfied," Saban said. "It happens all the time, and that's too bad."


I'm off to Atlanta for the SEC Championship Game. Hope you like the Christmas colors, and buy the people you love something nice.

Monday, December 1, 2008

I'm going to have to think about this ...

When I wrote “Who’s No. 1: 100-Plus Years of Controversial Champions in College Football,” one of the things that struck me was the number of different ways a title chase could be controversial. However, in true BCS form, the 2008 season found a completely new and different way of having things messed up.
Of course, I’m talking about the Big XII, which had a three-way tie atop the South Division standings, and used its fifth tiebreaker, best BCS rating, to determine which team will play North winner Missouri on Saturday in Kansas City.
To remind you, it all started with Texas beating No. 1 Oklahoma 45-35 at the neutral-site Cotton Bowl on Oct. 11. After jumping to No. 1, the Longhorns lost at Texas Tech 39-33 on Nov. 1. The Red Raiders, No. 2 at the time, in turn lost at Oklahoma 65-21 on Nov. 22.
All three teams finished 11-1, but Oklahoma has the inside track to the national championship. Considering Texas’ only loss came on Graham Harrell’s touchdown pass to Michael Crabtree with 1 second remaining, and it was the fourth of four consecutive games for the Longhorns against teams ranked in the top 11 of the Associated Press poll, Texas has a huge, and justifiable, beef (no pun intended ... Ok, maybe a little).
Making it worse was that the humans who participated in the polls that counted opted for Texas, and in combined voting of the USA Today coaches poll and the Harris poll the Longhorns went from 63 points behind the Sooners to five points ahead.
However, the BCS’s six computers sided with Oklahoma.
“Going into the last couple of weeks, we knew that a good team was going to be left out of the Big 12 championship,” Texas coach Mack Brown said in a statement. “Unfortunately, in this situation, it was us. It is what it is. We don’t like it, we don’t agree with it or think it’s fair, but, like anything else, we'll handle it and move forward.”
Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe said the conference will revisit its tiebreak procedure after the season, which is the same response we've heard every other time there’s been a major controversy, which has happened just about every other year (give or take).
We’ll all have to wait and see if this ends up being the catalyst to some sort of playoff, but in the meantime I’m going to have to start thinking about where this ranks in the top 10 most controversial titles.
It might be in the top five already no matter which team comes out on top.