The Wiz of Odds

Game(s) of the Weak

Mike Hlas is an award-winning columnist with the Cedar Rapids Gazette and force behind The Hlog. Each week, he will break down the worst matchups in college football. Considering the increasing number of uncompetitive and uninteresting games, Mike's task is harder than getting Levi Johnston, Jon and Kate Gosselin, and anyone named Kardashian to just go away.

Here's how it is done in most major football conferences:

You play your nonconference games against designated victims in September, then you play your conference games after that. It's only logical. You wouldn't open a rock festival with U2, then bring out a bar band three-fourths of the way through the event.

The Southeastern Conference does things a little differently. Sure, the league has the marquee game of the week in Louisiana State at Alabama. But look at what else the conference is trotting out on the 10th Saturday of the season:

Tennessee Tech at Georgia
Furman at Auburn
Eastern Kentucky at Kentucky
Northern Arizona at Mississippi

That's right. Four — count 'em, four — games between SEC teams and Division I-AA teams. In November. That's just wrong. So each gets one quarter of this week’s Game of the Weak.

The Cold, Hard Facts

It took eight games, but the good people of the Deep South now realize what the rest of us have known for years: Gene Chizik is a fraud.

The Tigers won their first five, but have since nosedived, losing their last three. Paul Finebaum of the Mobile Press-Register has seen enough. He writes:

"In two consecutive road games, the Tigers have been out of games before the uniforms got dirty, trailing by a total of 65-6. This wasn't against the Denver Broncos or the New Orleans Saints. Auburn fell behind 34-3 to an Arkansas team fresh off a 35-7 pounding to Alabama. LSU has looked a little better, but it still took a miracle goal line stand to beat Mississippi State.

"Can we say lousy coaching?

The Rise and Fall of Bobby Lowder

Bobby Lowder used to be considered the most powerful booster in college football. On Friday, it was announced that Colonial Bank — the bank Lowder founded in 1981 — had its assets frozen by a federal judge and was closed by the Alabama Banking Department.

Rival BB&T will acquire Colonial through an agreement with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

Lowder announced in May that he was stepping down as CEO of Colonial, but he remains an Auburn University trustee. He will step down from that post in 2011.

Lowder had a heavy hand in the hiring and firing of Auburn football coaches. Paul Finebaum of the Mobile Press-Register detailed Lowder's involvement in a June 2 column:

Auburn

New coach Gene Chizik is front and center for the Tigers, who will try and rebound from a 5-7 season. The defense did its job in 2008, ranking 14th nationally in points given up, but the offense was tied for 110th in scoring. Five of the seven losses came by 10 or fewer points and had Auburn been able to punch in a touchdown or two at key points, Tommy Tuberville might still be around. But a change was made and Chizik, who lost his last 10 games as coach at Iowa State, was brought in to turn things around. Having eight home games will certainly help. Thanks to Tyler!

Franklin: 'All They Do Is Pray' at Auburn

Before Tommy Tuberville was ushered out of Auburn, there was Tony Franklin, the offensive coordinator who lasted less than 10 months on the job.

Franklin, now the offensive coordinator at Middle Tennessee, hasn't forgotten about his brief stay on The Plains, and some of his words won't play well in the Bible Belt.

"That's all they do is pray — and talk about praying and religion," Franklin said of the Auburn athletic department. "It's a constant thing with them, and it's just overwhelming at times. A lot of people use religion as a crutch, and I think that's the case there. Every word coming out of their mouths is something about religion, and most of it is just a joke.

"I don't want to come off as anti-religion or that I'm not a Christian, but the best people in the world — the ones who do truly great things — they just do good things for people. You don't know most of the time if they're Muslim or Christian or anything else, because they never talk about it. But it was constant with them, and it was uncomfortable sometimes. When you talk about your religion so much, it comes off as fake or phony. That's the way I think of several of those people [at Auburn] as fake."

Gene Gene the Dancing Machine

Gene Chizik's resume was on display for all to see Saturday at Auburn's spring scrimmage, which drew an announced 45,381 to Jordan-Hare Stadium. Wiz correspondent Greg took in the festivities and sent along several images.

There are more after the jump, but you can view his complete gallery by clicking here.