Meet the readers

Mailbag demographics: male, fanatic, paranoid ... and into Hillary Duff

Are Drew Carter and Ohio State ranked too high or too low? Readers can't seem to agree. AP

Media companies spend millions of dollars every year on surveys and focus groups, all in the hope of "better understanding their audience."

Me, I get all the info I need for free every week in the form of several hundred e-mails.

Here's what I've learned about my readers ....

• My readers are about 93 percent male. No hope of a College Football Mailbag online dating service for my audience anytime in the near future.

• The large majority of my readers put obvious time and thought into their e-mails and use respectful language. A few, however, apparently think they're auditioning for The Sopranos.

• My readers are fanatical about their favorite team, as they should be, but because of that, they become frighteningly paranoid about even the smallest perceived slight against their team, particularly in the polls. I try to tell them, hey, if you win all your games, you won't have to worry about the polls.

• Continuing with the paranoia theme, my readers think I have a bias against their team. Not some of them. All of them. I take umbrage at this, seeing as I place the utmost importance on my objectivity, but I suppose if I'm biased against every team in the country, everything will even itself out.

• My readers love Hillary Duff. This in response to last week's question about who will supplant Britney Spears as America's new pop crush now that Britney has become a repulsive diva. Seeing as Ms. Duff was born in 1987, I hereby refrain from sharing my opinion.

MAILBAG MAILBAG Stewart Mandel will answer questions from SI.com readers each week in his mailbag. Your name: Your e-mail address: Your home town: Enter your question:

• My readers seem to think I have some sort of college football super library at my disposal. No, I do not know how many players have won three straight bowl MVP awards. But why don't you call a library and ask? Isn't that what Catherine Zeta-Jones says to do if you happen to be the one schmoe in America who doesn't know the song was called Pour Some Sugar on Me, right?

• My readers are split almost 50-50 between those who think Ohio State is the luckiest team in football history and should be ranked behind any number of other teams, and those who think Ohio State is the most underappreciated team in football history and is being insulted by the pollsters. There's no middle ground on this one. Nobody ever writes in to say, "Yeah, No. 3 is about where they should be."

• And finally, my readers are exactly why college football remains the greatest sport there is. Yeah, the cheating and the scandals and the overpaid coaches and the laughable academics are a real drag, but then you walk into the Orange Bowl for the Miami-Florida game or Death Valley for Georgia-LSU and you remember why we put up with them.

I'm a huge Texas Longhorns fan -- I bleed burnt orange. I think Longhorn fans are beginning to come to the conclusion that Mack Brown has gotten the team as far as he can, and that if Texas wants to win a national championship they will have to hire a new coach. I really like the integrity and honesty that Mack Brown appears to personify, but I don't think he instills a will or overwhelming desire to win in his players. Why can Jim Tressel and Bob Stoops do it and not Mack Brown?
 -- Greg Gomez, Gaithersburg, Md.

Whoa, Greg, be careful what you wish for. Have you forgotten already what Texas football was like before Brown arrived? Do you really want to take the chance that the next coach will turn out to be another John Mackovic or David McWilliams? I do think some of the criticism levied at Brown and his staff is warranted. They do seem to get outcoached in big games. Their star players are prone to mysterious lapses.

But you'd be insane to pull the plug on Brown considering how far he's brought the program. This is not a John Cooper case where, in addition to "losing the big one," he'd lost control of the program. Brown has the complete respect of his players. He's a model recruiter. He's winning 10-11 games a year. The only thing he's missing is that ring, but you know what? It took both Bobby Bowden and Joe Paterno more than 15 years to get theirs.

It is obvious to everyone that college football is far better than that of the far too overrated NFL. With this in mind do, you think college football should have a night like Monday Night Football on a channel such as ABC or ESPN?
 -- Joey Robinson, Waynesville, N.C.

Joey, while it's obvious to you and I and most everyone reading this, it's not so obvious to the TV and advertising execs who get double-to-triple the ratings for primetime NFL games than college. Unfortunately, all the Lincolns and Tuscaloosas and Eugenes of the country don't add up to nearly the number of eyeballs of NFL cities like New York and Chicago. However, we could get a good test of your idea next year, when Miami and Florida State play on Labor Day night, Sept. 6. If there's a college game that could draw anywhere near MNF-type numbers, it would be that.

Sure, Marshall upset K-State -- but readers wonder if the Herd could compete for an entire season in a BCS conference.

Stewart, every college football pundit known to man is now heaping praise on the MAC after their admittedly stellar weekend. It's cute how easily caught up in hype you guys can get. Do you really believe that ANY MAC team could win or even come in second in one of the BCS conferences? Honestly? They have teams that can play, sure. But no way does Northern Illinois vie for even the Big East crown if it were a member of that conference. Right?
 -- Jake Solomon, Baltimore

That's probably true. But to take the side of the non-BCS conferences for a moment, let's apply that logic to basketball. Over the course of an entire season, would Gonzaga win the Pac-10? Would Valparaiso win the Big Ten? Probably not. But, in a one-game tournament scenario, teams like that pull off upsets every year, right?

Now, imagine we had a football playoff. Couldn't Marshall-Kansas State have very well been a first-round game? That's the basis of the argument for the Tulane president, Scott Cowen, and the other BCS-outsiders right now. No, their teams are not capable of winning a national championship. They know that. But, given the chance to participate in the playoff, they feel they'd be competitive enough to create the same kind of "Cinderella" magic that makes the basketball tournament so great. Whether anyone else sees it that way remains to be seen.

Stewart, talk to me about Jarett Payton. Will he get drafted by an NFL team, and do you think he will have any success on Sunday? He may never start at Miami, but look who he has been playing behind: Clinton Portis, Willis McGahee and Frank Gore, three of the best running backs of the future. After all, Priest Holmes was stuck behind Ricky Williams at Texas and he seems to be doing all right.
 -- Mike, Chicago

I hope he does get a chance. I've had the pleasure to talk with him the past couple years when Miami's been at the national championship game, and you won't meet a nicer, more grounded, better-spoken college football player out there, especially considering what he's been through. Unfortunately, I don't think he's going to be another Priest Holmes. I don't know if it was the injuries or what, but when he has gotten some chances to get out there, he's never shown the same kind of potential he did as a freshman. I have a feeling because of his name and because he was playing in Chicago, he may have developed a bigger reputation in high school than was actually merited. However, I have no doubt he's going to be very successful whether it's in the NFL or another arena.

When I hear that most athletic departments lose money each year, I wonder if men's football and basketball are the problems or if they are funding the other sports at universities. Are the big sports the problem or are all the other sports in need of financing reforms?
 -- Michael Burr, Chicago

Oh, it's definitely the other sports. It's a double-edged sword. We want to create as many opportunities as possible for student-athletes in a variety of sports, but the fact is, it's expensive to send an entire swimming team to Ann Arbor -- not to mention their scholarships, their equipment, their coaches' salaries, etc. -- for a meet that's going to bring in no ticket or television revenue whatsoever.

According to the NCAA's 2001 survey, the average Division I-A football program brought in $10.9 million in revenue, men's basketball $3.6 million, the other sports $780,000. After expenses, the football teams had a $4.8 million profit and men's basketball $1.7 million, while the other sports lost $1.5 million. So while, yes, major college football and basketball has become disgustingly big business, if we scale it back, you can kiss a lot of golf and wrestling teams good bye.

Stewart Mandel covers college sports for SI.com.