Zogby and Rivals had him #1 in the preseason poll.

The Super Bowl is over and Super Tuesday has arrived. This is supposed to be a really interesting week for a football fan and American such as myself; This year's election is more interesting than most, and the Super Bowl was far more entertaining than I thought it would be. Still, it's all boring compared to the college football season. Most people would call a match up between former college backup runningbacks an AAFL football game. Auburn fans call it the Super Bowl. I've heard plenty of political commentators compare the election to the Super Bowl. However, I think Presidential elections tend to end up like this year's BCS National Championship Game.I wanted LSU to win despite the fact that I really, really, really don't like LSU and have practically no opinion concerning Ohio State.

I like Ohio State more than LSU by default since I don't know much about Ohio State and I KNOW I dislike LSU. Still, I wanted LSU to win the championship because LSU is from the SEC and I support the SEC.

That's how presidential elections seem to work. That the guy you support probably won't make it past the primaries – so your best bet is to back the conference.

Drawing parallels between football and politics is nothing new. It's done because football is easier to understand and explain than politics. As complicated as the BCS is, I halfway understand it. I will never understand how primaries work. Similarly, I have the feeling that somebody at ESPN knows exactly how the BCS picks the championship game. I'm almost certain that nobody at CNN or Fox News knows how primaries pick a party's candidate. I say everyone should just move to a playoff system.

In a perfect world, politics would be more like football and football would be more like politics.

The world would be a better place if people held public officials to the same unrealistic standards football fans hold players and coaches to. In the state of Alabama, a football player can be suspended for half a season and scrutinized all over the radio and newspapers for walking home drunk. In the same state, a legislator can punch another legislator in the face, refuse to apologize, and nothing really happens.

People like Paul Finebaum are great for football. Finebaum's equivalents in the world of politics, like Nancy Grace or Bill O'Reilly, are horrible people despite the fact they do exactly what Finebaum does. Grace and O'Reilly would become contributing members to society if only they'd become football analysts.

Keith Olberman is an example to this theory. I'm told that Keith Olberman was great when he was on Sportscenter – but it's easy to see that he's horrible on MSNBC. Similarly, James Carville is hilarious when spewing crap about LSU on ESPN and incredibly annoying when spewing crap about democrats on CNN.

Then you have journalists like Phillip Marshall, who bore readers to death with “facts that are actually true”, “verified sources” and other boring garbage that has no place in the world of football. If he decided to cover politics instead of football, the country would have a more informed electorate and the country would be better off. What a selfish jerk.

I don't know if coaches would do well as politicians, but I bet many politicians could be excellent coaches. Larry Langford will probably run Birmingham into the ground as mayor. It's a shame since he's sincere and passionate in what he does. If he were a coach, he would probably be great. He's a great motivator and is doing a lot of things Tuberville did when he first became Auburn's head football coach (change the logo, create new nicknames, rely heavily on unknown coordinators). My suggestion is for Birmingham to build Langford his domed stadium, bring in an NFL team, have Langford coach, win lots of games, recoup losses and everyone wins.

We football fans should be more like political junkies who blindly follow politicians despite everything they do and serve as apologists no matter how badly the team screws up. Fans don't have control over the team and should stop acting like it. Citizens do have control over their politicians and should start acting like it.

Since we're on the topic of politicians and football, I have a comment for the Alabama fans reading this. Those “S – The Coach” bumper stickers are not clever. It's a four year old cliché that's already been done a million times over. Stick with your stupid “Got [noun]” shirts. I know you've been printing these since the “Got Milk” commercials started in 1994 – but if you keep it up for a few more years it might be considered “retro” or as you call it, “tradition”.

Remember to get out and vote today. I might go a different route than normal this year and vote outside the republican party. I think I have a good choice in mind. Sure, he's not very experienced. Yeah, he has a funny name; his initials spell B.O., but he's a really good guy. He's undefeated against those guys with the elephant mascot. He does a lot for his community, and he graduated summa cum laude from one of the world's top universities.

That's right. I'm voting for former Auburn receiver Ben Obomanu.

War Eagle!

E-mail Mark at mark@theauburner.com

Our sponsor doesn't have many college football tickets since the season is over... but they do have The Little Mermaid Boradway tickets and a few football tickets for next season. You're welcome.