Is it just me or are we all getting a little sick of hearing the SEC tell us over and over again how they are the greatest division in the history of college football?
The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported today that the SEC has once again started the publicity machine in a rather pathetic attempt to get their one or more loss teams into the BCS Championship game.
This is becoming something of an annual ritual in college football. The SEC starts the season with all the media hype they can muster. One by one SEC teams lose failing to produce an undefeated team. And usually that loss comes not necessarily to a better opponent, but from a less than stellar opponent.
About November, we start hearing the cries of “It’s not fair,” as doubt starts to creep into the hopes of the SEC fans.
You have to love the elitism of the average SEC fan. Adam Reardon, co-host of The Sports Fix on EPSN 1230 in Gainsville was quoted as saying, “The fans here would just roll their eyes and say ‘They don’t play in a real conference, they don’t play in the SEC.’ ”
He went on to say, “”Around here, people say winning the SEC is more important than winning the national championship.”
Anyone ever heard anything like that in Big Ten country? I think it goes something like this, “The most important game of the season is always the Michigan game.” And make no mistake, after last year’s Ohio State/Michigan game, being able to generate that type of energy, 40 some days later, the second weekend in January…good luck.
Unlike Ohio State, Florida has never, in the history of their program, seen a game like last year’s Ohio State/Michigan game. It is doubtful that they ever will. The performance of Ohio State and Michigan during last year’s bowl games were not a reflection of the Big Ten. It was a reflection of the size and magnitude of the historic game played in November.
But wait, that’s not all. “The Best of the SEC,” a blog that tracks the SEC Blogs went on a complete and total tirade today crying “It’s just not fair.”
Take this for example:
If SEC officials sit still for allowing Ohio State to stroll through a pathetically weak schedule (at least by national championship standards) to the national championship game without demanding meaningful change, well … they should be ashamed of themselves. In fact, they should be ashamed for taking no action last year.
I guess that beating a #2 ranked Texas or a #2 ranked Michigan didn’t warrant a BCS Championship game.
Personally, I’m getting a little sick of this. It creates the perfect win/win situation for the SEC. If their team sucks and can’t win their games, naturally it has to be do to the strength of the SEC. If an SEC team comes out with one or two losses, they convince the country that because of the strength of the SEC, they deserve to be in the BCS Championship.
I’m sure that LSU’s loss to Kentucky was due to strength of the SEC (“But we were tired”) and Florida’s 5-3 record should be enough to rank them in the top 5 doesn’t it?
Maybe we should just reserve a spot in the BCS Championship game for the SEC Championship. Then the rest of the country can duke it out with USC and Notre Dame for the remaining spot.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Also don’t forget, LSU’s “quality” loss is almost completely out of the rankings for losing to Miss. St. And if that’s not enough, they actually allowed Kent St. to hang with them for 1 half of football. That same team allowed Kent to put up 20 points and 453 yards. Whereas we allowed 3 points and 223 yards.
Since when is the SEC the national governing body for college football? And they may have the stronger conference, but at least we can keep winning. If they’re so mighty, how come they can’t stop the upsets?
I do agree that the BCS is an extremely crap system, and that human pollsters have too much influence on their vote from history and what a team has done in the past. If a playoff system were introduced, like with college basketball, there would be no questioning the strength of the two teams in the title game. They would have played their way there with skill from the here and now and not memories of what once was.
Too bad the national championship brings in so much money that officials care more about that then the integrity of the game.
“Too bad the national championship brings in so much money that officials care more about that then the integrity of the game.”
Er, change that to:
“Too bad the BCS bowl games bring in so much money that officials care more about that than the integrity of the game.”
It all comes down to who would win in a matchup. Do you really think there’s a Big 10 team that could beat Florida? LSU? I hope you don’t think there is.
If the SEC is not the best, how is it that the SEC blows out the best teams of other conferences in bowl games? Did you not hear what Florida players had to say last year when they crushed OSU in the BCSCG? They said they played 4 or 5 SEC teams that were tougher. Florida couldn’t even get out of the SEC without a loss and then they torched the undefeated team the media said was the best.
You call it whining, we call it being realistic. Beating down a bunch of patsies doesn’t make you a good team. And that’s why the Big 10 and PAC 10 will NEVER go for a playoff: 2 and 3 loss SEC teams will beat 1 loss and undefeated teams from the other conferences and you’ll end up with 3 of the final 4 from the SEC.
Hey Mike.
You talk about the dominance of the SEC against the Big10 but you neglect one thing. Out of 4 matchups last year of the Big10 Vs. SEC, the Big10 won three of them. So Florida may have been better than OSU that day. The rest of the SEC was worse than the Big10 that day. plain and simple
Hey Luis:
Elite Wins: http://cfn.scout.com/2/662772.html
Quality Wins: http://cfn.scout.com/2/662773.html
The SEC dominates. You’re arguing against reality. Your undefeated Big 10 team got destroyed by an SEC team that barely survived its own conference with only one loss.
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This guy put it best, I personally cannot explain it any better so I will just use his quote:
I have been reading a great deal on this board about how the SEC is so dominant. Well, I did a little digging into the statistics (since those are based on facts and not fanatic feelings). It seems as though the conferences are much more even than fans want to admit. Since the 1999-2000 season, the Big Ten has gone 25-28 in bowl games; the SEC is 32-28 in that same timeframe. In head-to-head bowl competition, the Big Ten and SEC split their matchups 11-11. Pretty even. You may say the SEC is stronger because they have 7 more bowl appearances over these years, but you must remember that they have one more team in their conference, which means they should have more bowl appearances over time. A last thing I noticed is that SEC fans like to point to Florida’s win over OSU last year and say that it proves the SEC is stronger. Well, the Big Ten and SEC played each other in two other bowl games. The Big Ten won both! Your thoughts? Based on facts, not feelings, please.