Rankman Inc. moving headquarters to new home at TMG College Sports

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Rankman is VERY excited to announce that today, Monday, July 18, 2016  he is folding his website Dufrankman.com into a new college football venture at TMGcollegesports.com. TMG stands for The Media Guides. College stands for “college” and sports stands for “sports.”

Rankman is teaming with sportswriters Mark Blaudschun (Boston Globe) and Herb Gould (Chicago Sun-Times) to offer hard-hitting, coast-to-coast analysis of college football and anything else that we might want to take on.

This will be a no ads, no spam, no fuss site that will become the EXCLUSIVE home for Rankman’s columns and weekly rankings\comments.

Another regular feature of TMG will be Rankman’s weekly take on the Southeastern Conference. It will be called SEC Outsider, an outsider’s inside look at America’s Greatest Football Conference (Just ask them).

I’ll cover everything from Fort Sumter to Fort Knoxville from the perspective of a west coast “homer” who actually has a secret love affair with the SEC, yet  wonders why a league with so much going for it so shamelessly begs for attention and won’t even play a nine-game league schedule.

Is this really a left-over complex dating back to losing the Civil War?

And did you know Florida hasn’t left the state for a non-conference game since 1991?

If you like what I did in the LA Times for 34 years this will be the only place to get it starting early August.

Check it out now and let us know what you think!

Thanks to all of you who have read and contributed to Rankman’s blog these last six months.

Thanks, Rankman

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This just in: February still stinks

febAll Chino Hills precincts have reported making it official: February has once again finished 12th on Rankman’s annual ranking of months.

Order of merit:

  1. April (Masters\Rankman’s birthday\Hitler offed self)
  2. June (also Alice Cooper’s favorite month because, you know, school’s out)
  3. July (trashy novels at beach while sipping umbrella drinks under an  umbrella)
  4. May (merry month and, unlike February, easy to say and spell)
  5. March (NCAA Tournament, favorite month for dimes)
  6. November (college football rivalries trump Kennedy assassination)
  7. January (naive hope of better times to come)
  8. December (Boxing Day, college bowl picks, Charlie Brown Christmas Special)
  9. August (too many nightmares involving Pop Warner practice, Hiroshima and Manson Family)
  10. October (um, Columbus didn’t discover America)
  11. September (back to school…February’s bastard child)
  12. February (shortest\longest month)

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Auto reply: Out of Office until Signing Day is Over

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Sorry to report Rankman can’t weigh in on college football National Signing Day because he long ago committed to a list of previously-scheduled appointments for Feb. 3.

1. Meet old friend from high school who really, really loved Peter Frampton and wants to pick-up on a conversation I walked away from in 1976.
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Revised Preseason Picks for 2015 college football season

Close-up of a fortune teller looking into a crystal ball

The Amazing Rankman with hindsight

Rankman’s ridiculously LATE top 10 projections for the 2015 football season:

1: Alabama. The Crimson Tide, just like Florida in 2008, can afford a home loss to Ole Miss and still win the national title. Lane Kiffin completes 12-step career rehabilitation program with a second brilliant year as offensive coordinator. We hope Kiffin doesn’t miss the bus on another head coaching opportunity. Word is cloth-coat conservative Nick Saban is going to loosen his tie a bit and take some chances this year. Hey, how about an onsides kick in the national title game? Yeah, right. That’s a funny one.
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“Tricky Nick” Saban leads Alabama to title win over Clemson

GLENDALE, Az.–Alabama won a thrilling national title game Monday night because coach Nick Saban got crazy and called for an on-sides kick, in the fourth quarter, of a tied game.

This was Nick Saban who did this, not Steve Spurrier, or Les Miles, or Charles Barkley from a Las Vegas blackjack table. This was Nick S-A-B-A-N, who built his reputation on safe, solid, traditional, cloth-coat football.
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This Old Timer Is Starting to Sound Like A Broken Record

A_young_Jerry_WestDisingenuous congratulations to the Carolina Panthers and Golden State Warriors for their fabulous so-far seasons.

No, seriously, some of us wished you nothing but the worst.

The guy who said records were meant to be broken would have been in a headlock sitting next to me Dec. 11 as I put historical rancor aside to root for Boston to chuck the Warriors off the Golden State bridge.

It took a lot for a born-and-bred Lakers fan to root for the Soylent Green, but sometimes in life you have no choice.

(Spoiler alert: never count on Boston for anything except decent fish soup)
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Too Many College Football Bowl Games…or is 40 the New 30?

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A focus group hired to review Rankman’s annual worst-to-best bowl picks concluded that this year’s guesses may be even better than last year’s guesses. Anyone using this list for wagering purposes has a serious problem and is probably never going get elected to the baseball Hall of Fame. The usual disclaimers apply: never use these rankings while operating heavy machinery. Children under 12 should be accompanied by an adult under 85. The use of these rankings and its contents, without the expressed, written consent of the author is strictly forbidden unless you really want to use them.
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