Making the Grade: Aretha Franklin edition

In 1965, Otis Redding wrote and released his song "Respect" which was later popularized by Aretha Franklin. What does that have to do with anything? It doesn't. It's just an interesting fact. Also, this is the second edition of Making the Grade. In case you don't remember, this is where we evaluate the predictions from highly regarded and very intelligent media members from across the nation in regard to 1) accuracy to how MSU played, 2) how noteworthy and controversial their comments were, and 3) how positively their comments reflect MSU.

This week, we're starting with the folks over at College GameDay and SEC Nation. These two shows are incredibly popular across the nation and provide entertainment and insight about various games across the nation. And this week, the College GameDay crew was split, with Desmond and Kirk picking Auburn to win whereas the great Lee Corso and Bob Baffert (he owns a famous horse) both chose MSU to win. On the SEC Nation side, every analyst chose the Bulldogs to win. So, if we do some basic math, that's a 6-2 split choosing Mississippi State over Auburn.

And thus, their grade shakes out like this:

Accuracy: B Kirk and Desmond were wrong. Should we blame that on their B1G affiliations? No. No, we shouldn't. But Desmond did pick Stanford to play in the Playoffs, so if you want to give him grief on twitter, feel free. Just remember they're smart and have a lot of followers. Any who, with 3/4 of the analysts picking MSU I'm going to give them a B for accuracy.

Noteworthy/Controversy: C As much as we don't like to hear it, it wasn't controversial to pick Auburn in this game. Many believed it could've gone either way, and with the final score only being an 8 point margin, most will believe that Auburn could've won this game.

MSU Fan Grade: B- Nobody really wants to hear their team being picked against on College Gameday. But at least the guys a few channels over were kind to us.

Overall Grade: B-

And finally we look at preseason rankings. They were wrong. Seriously. Don't pay attention to them. Please. Let's review, shall we? The SEC Media days crew picked MSU to be last in the West and had Auburn winning the SEC (even though Bama was supposed to win the West. Because maths and polls and none of this makes sense). Not much really has to be said here. They were wrong. MSU is better than the preseason SEC champs, where's our banner PAAAWWWWLL?!?!

Accuracy: F- There's really no other way to put this. They were simply wrong. Auburn is a mess. Maybe they'll right the ship, but it doesn't really seem likely at this point

Noteworthy/Controversy: A+ Fans eat this stuff up. We love to see preseason predictions and talk about it with our friends and family. It leads to all sorts of discussion. Like, how on earth is Auburn supposed to win the SEC but Alabama won the West?! (Someone please explain this to me. I honestly don't understand.

MSU Fan Grade: F- If there was somehow a way to give this anything lower, I sincerely would. I was bitter. I'm still bitter. But Hahahahahaha we get the last laugh now, don't we?