Bowls, Polls, and a Quick Look at Recruiting

So, after a good, lengthy break, its time to get back into the blog and take a look into the next semester.

Personally, the break was good, short of that thing called the Sugar Bowl, but we will use the 24-hour rule on that game and move on past.

As for the Bowl Pick'em competition, congratulations to Mike Plan for having the best record overall record of the Bowl season with a 19-15 record. However, due to the use of Confidence Points and a tie-breaker, Josh Zavadil's entry became the overall winner with a total of 294.

Personally, I finished with a horrid 15-19 record and 278 total points. Bad choices of Bama (33 confidence points), North Carolina (30) and Troy (29) didn't help my cause. Even after all that, however, I still could have won had Ball State taken care of business. So much for that.

Now, moving on to next season's predictions, which only take a few minutes to formulate after the Crystal Football is presented. ESPN already has Alabama as the number five team in the nation for next season. USAToday had Alabama at four in their Sports section of Friday's edition. Sports Illustrated's Stewart Mandel has 'Bama at five as well in his way too early predictions.

Between all of those polls, here are some points of interest:

• Mandel has Ole Miss at six, right behind Alabama, after the way the Rebels ran through the remainder of their schedule to finish the season. LSU also checks in at number nine. Safe the say the SEC West will be stacked next season.
• Alabama's first 2009 opponent, Virginia Tech, is placed at 10 by Mandel, but Mark Schlabach of ESPN has the Hokies at seven, meaning a top ten match up in week one of 2009. VT will be no slouch, judging by all the points made by Mandel about the probable ACC favorites.

Now, of course, once the season is over at Alabama, the focus goes directly to recruiting. The Crimson Tide is hosting their first of two huge weekends this weekend, as potential Tide stars such as Trent Richardson, DJ Fluker, and Rod Woodson are amongst the commits visiting the Capstone this weekend. Of the contingent who are still undecided, names such as Dre Kirkpatrick, Kendall Kelly, Tana Patrick, Chad Bumphis, and Patrick Patterson are making the rounds in T-town this weekend. With only four weeks remaining until National Signing Day, don't be surprised if one or two verbals come rolling in before Wednesday of next week.

As for the blog, be on the lookout this weekend for stories on Julio Jones, Alabama Women's Basketball, and Utah potentially busting the BCS for a third time.

It's good to be back, and 2009 looks like a bright year for In the Nic of Time.