Kill the guy who left Auburn out of the top 25 AP Poll!

Or at least that's what the guy on the message board said. Taylor Zarzour (at right in the above picture), someone who I've never heard of until yesterday, was a Mobile sports talk radio host, is currently a radio host in North Carolina, and is apparently an AP voter who left Auburn, Tennessee, and West Virginia out of the top 25 on his ballot. His argument is, of course, very well supported: "Auburn (new QB, new OC, HARD schedule), West Va (really question their coaching staff), Tennessee (new QB, and Cut left for HC at Duke)". He left out a new defensive coordinator for Auburn as well, but his argument had already been made so convincingly I can see why he wouldn't want to pile it on.

continue reading

Now in the pre-season AP Poll, Auburn showed up as number 10, so at least some of the 63 AP voters (what? they couldn't get 65 this year?) decided that Auburn was somewhere in the top 25 teams in the nation. Barring how stupid the whole idea of pre-season rankings are (nuh uh! He-Man would totally own Cobra Commander if they fought on top of the lava from the last Star Wars movie!), it appears that our Tigers are safely ensconced in the fictional top 15 teams for the time being. Apparently some Auburn fans have not taken Mr. Zarzour's opinion lightly, as he went on the Opening Drive this morning and told the hosts that he has received threats against him and his family accompanied by pictures of his house courtesy of google earth, and a few overzealous Auburn fans.

This is impressively stupid. The guy is obviously trolling for attention by leaving three very good teams off of his ballot, while at the same time putting Notre Dame at 25 *giggle*. However flawed his reasoning is, stupidity is not a good enough reason to threaten the guy's family. If it were, I would have to threaten pretty much everyone I know and their families... myself included. Also, as an AP voter, it's not like the guy would have a bias for or against particular teams, is it? Oh wait, his bio listed that he is an "avid fan of the crimson tide" and that his all-time favorite sports moments are "every time Tennessee and Auburn lose a football game". His bio has now been edited to remove all references to his Alabama fandom, but you can find an unedited version here.

So basically he's a Bama fan who votes in the AP poll, and he didn't vote Auburn or Tennessee in the top 25, and this shocks people? Now he is getting a ton of media attention, that I'm sure he didn't count on or want, because he voted differently and a few moron Auburn fans decided that he has committed a foul enough sin to warrant threats of bodily harm. Because his vote totally kept Auburn from being ranked 9th in the "My Little Pony Fake Rankings" list. I can see some Auburn fans being touchy about pre-season rankings because of the 2004 season, but it is what it is, and we are still ranked 10th in the nation at the moment. It makes me a little sad that this guy is going to get the national media attention he wanted and at the same time smear some mud on the faces of the Auburn nation. Stay classy Auburn fans.