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THE MAG.COM PRESENTS:
ALL WORLD POWER RANKINGS

by Ted Bauer

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"Mike Jones!" "WHO?"

WHEN IT COMES TO THE BIGGEST EVENTS IN ATLANTA, WE'RE 'PEACHY' (HA!) ABOUT THE RAMS VS. TITANS SUPER BOWL

Fairly huge tilt Saturday in Atlanta: Nick Saban returns to the building where he opened the season by exposing the ACC to collide with a team far superior to Clemson in the Florida Gators. There are basically two ways to look at this game: (1) it's going to be epic! or (2) Florida is so hot, it'll be an absolute rout. We're still not sure. Here's something there's no two ways around: Atlanta is a fairly dynamic place in terms of hosting events. Just on a sporting scale, they've done two Super Bowls, two recent Men's Final Fours, one Women's Final Four, the Chick-Fil-A Bowl since '92, the '96 Olympics, etc. We're going to attempt to rank some of the biggest events in Atlanta history. One note: this is intentionally tongue-in-cheek in many respects. Second note: we're not ranking individual Falcons, Braves, Hawks or Thrashers games for the most part.

TOP 5
RANK (YESTERDAY) WHAT WHY
1 (4) SUPER BOWL XXXIV: TITANS VS. RAMS You know how this one ended, but in case you got a short memory, go here and here.
2 (6) THE 1996 OLYMPICS Here's where you say, "How dare you put a Super Bowl over an Olympics!" We hear you, honestly. (Yell at us here.) Our basic argument: in a given Olympics, there are tons of iconic moments. In the 42-year history of the Super Bowl, there's been about 10 to 15 you can rattle off (Tyree, the Montana drive, the Elway helicopter, etc). While the '96 Olympics are considered instrumental to Atlanta's development as a city, we're still a bigger fan of the Mike Jones tackle.
3 (7) 2006 SUGAR BOWL: GEORGIA VS. WEST VIRGINIA Sleeper pick at No. 3, but this game was amazing. (It was played in Atlanta because of Hurricane Katrina.) Back-and-forth action all the way before WVU pulled it out, giving the Big East some street cred after they had lost three teams to the ACC. Say what you will about Rich Rodriguez's ethics and Mark Richt's problems in huge games, but we'd love to see these two lock it up again.
4 (9) GOLDBERG VS. HOGAN IN 1998 Yea, it's staged, but this match was actually a huge deal. You know how many times people e-mail us asking for a pro wrestling column? The thing has legs.
5 (11) GAME 6 OF THE 1995 WORLD SERIES Tough call here. Couple of points to note: (1) we put this ahead of Hank Aaron #715 because it was a championship, not an individual moment, and technically you play sports to win championships! (Right?). Secondly, of course this is really ahead of Goldberg vs. Hogan, but we wanted to appease the oodles of pre-adolescents who may be reading this. Also, we really wish Bobby Cox would go get another one of these.

HONORABLE MENTION
RANK (YESTERDAY) WHAT WHY
19 (180) HANK AARON 715 Here ya go.
138 (1,651) ANY LUDACRIS CONCERT IN ATLANTA We had to sneak this in here. Actually, Ludacris and Soulja Boy are giving a concert after the 'Bama/UF game. Cue the lyrics to "I Do It For Hip Hop:" "What's all the commotion and nagging about? Is it 'cuz I'm still the champ in the South? 'Cuz rappers get in the booth and I keep dragging 'em out?" Man, we love Ludacris. Also from that song: "I don't do it for the money, I do it from the heart. I do it with the beatbox, I did it from the start."

RISING AND FALLING
MOVEMENT WHAT
THE 2008 SEC MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNEY (What Georgia did was pretty incredible.)
"THE FINGERPOKE OF DOOM" (The thing killed WCW.)
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