Does it have to be SI?

I am a subscriber to ESPN: The Mag, but I check out SI from time to time on their website. The August 15 issue of Sports Illustrated is hitting mailboxes around the nation with regional covers. Just in case you weren’t aware; everyone east of the Mississippi is a Buckeye’s fan and (of course) everyone west of the Ol’ Miss is a Trojan’s fan. Just so you know.

As I sat and watched the Seahawks’ practice squad put the smack-down to the Vikings (34-17), my heart was counting down the days (19) until the Oregon State Beavers open their season on the road at Stanford. I went to the SI site to check whether they had posted their pre-season rankings. I discovered that they will be in the aforementioned Aug. 15 issue.

The Top 10 is pretty predictable from year to year:

1. Georgia (at least it’s not Ohio State or USC)
2. Ohio State
3. USC
4. Missouri
5. Florida
6. Oklahoma (I like them for the BCS Champ)
7. Auburn
8. Texas Tech
9. LSU
10. Wisconsin

Its #11-20 that knocked me over…

Click to em-biggen

Would you look at that?

Every single OTHER poll I’ve looked at puts the Beavs (if they mention them at all) in the “also receiving votes” line at the bottom. Here is the question I have for ALL of them… Have they been WATCHING college football? I mean REAL college football. The teams that aren’t on ABC or ESPN every blinkin’ weekend. Let me ’splain something to you.

1. OSU has the SECOND BEST win total in the Pac-10 over the past TWO years. You can guess who is #1, here’s my hint… OSU BEAT them in 2006!
2. OSU has beaten the ‘effin ‘ucks THREE of the last FOUR years. I only mention that because EVERYBODY loves kissing Uncle Phil’s ass by putting the Toilet Seat in the top 10.
3. Oh yeah, there is FOUR STRAIGHT bowl wins.

It is very nice of SI to put the Beavers on top of the Ducks. BeaverNation appreciates it, really! But the last time you did this… we got this.

Going way back to August 2001, Sports Illustrated picked Ken Simonton and the Beavers to be the NUMBER ONE TEAM when the dust settled! Seven years later and Joey plays for the Dirty Birds and Ken plays for the… well, he’s been kinda MIA.

What SI curse?