The Best Kind of Revisionist History
Remember the 2007 Arkansas-Alabama game? The heroic 2nd half comeback, an amazing performance from D-Mac, London Crawford's open field fumble, some dubious flags thrown late in the game, Houston Nutt's now-iconic prayer face and, most importantly, John Parker Wilson's last second TD pass to put the Tide back ahead for good.
That game was so painful it inspired me to write a short post on the brand-new Razorback Expats site titled "Here's What I Hate About Sports." And, if you're like me, you probably have done your best to NOT think about it in the months and years since.
But, good news...it turns out that, according to the NCAA, we actually won that game. Yes, thanks to some mini-scandal involving players getting free textbooks, etc, etc Alabama has been ordered to vacate 21 wins between 2005 and 2007, including that infamous Hog loss (and the one in 2005, fwiw).
So, sit back with me and reflect on the time when the Hogs made a triumphant goal line stand at the end of the game and left Tuscaloosa with a 38-34 triumph. Ah...such fond memories.
[Update: Unfortunately, KevinHog's remarks in the comment thread below appear to be correct. From a USA Today article on 'Bama's punishment: "The victories were vacated, meaning the school may not acknowledge a win. Vacating a win is different from forfeiture, in which the loser claims the victory, according to The Birmingham News." Alas, the heartbreak lives on.]
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2 comments
Comments
I think the way the NCAA puts it is that we still lost those games, but Alabama has to “vacate” the wins. If it was a forfeit, we could claim the victory. In the record books there are no winners of those two Alabama / Arkansas games. Just a loser and a vacated win is how I understand it. Wouldn’t any of my suggested punishments been better? haha.
by KevinHog on Jun 12, 2009 11:08 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs
Without London Crawford, none of this would be possible.
Never forget that.
by The Hog Blogger on Jun 12, 2009 11:32 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

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