ND and the SEC

Do not chant SEC at me just because AL is a very good team. SEC 2 (FL) got pounded by Louisville. SEC 3 (GA) sneaked by BIg 10 3 (NE) SEC 4 (LSU) lost to Clemson. Seriously who out of conference do they play? Cupcakes at home. AL sure looks legit but ND won some games on luck and magic...not very predictive of winning in a bowl game....

Not to mention the fix was on in this game from the first blown punt call.

P.S. so much for the wonderful powerful BCS computers.....

Bring on the Playoff. A lopsided crusher.

BoiseBYU wrote:
Do not chant SEC at me just because AL is a very good team. SEC 2 (FL) got pounded by Louisville. SEC 3 (GA) sneaked by BIg 10 3 (NE) SEC 4 (LSU) lost to Clemson. Seriously who out of conference do they play? Cupcakes at home. AL sure looks legit but ND won some games on luck and magic...not very predictive of winning in a bowl game....

Preaching to the choir. Completely agree.

Oh I don't know, 8 of the last 10 BSC championships, by 5 different SEC teams. 3 of the last 4 by AL. Who you play in pre-conference games has little baring on how good a team they are. They use those games to prepare the team for their conference season which seems to work very well for them.



You can say what you want but they have won it on the field and most years in a very dominant way. Unbeatable...no, but if you beat a top level SEC team you know you've accomplished something.

It's too bad Notre Dame didn't want to be there. Isn't that the reason the any team loses a BCS ?

BoiseBYU wrote:
Do not chant SEC at me just because AL is a very good team. SEC 2 (FL) got pounded by Louisville. SEC 3 (GA) sneaked by BIg 10 3 (NE) SEC 4 (LSU) lost to Clemson. Seriously who out of conference do they play? Cupcakes at home. AL sure looks legit but ND won some games on luck and magic...not very predictive of winning in a bowl game....

You missed SEC 5 (A&M) taking #11 Big 12 co-champ OU out behind the woodshed and giving them a good whipping.

KYCoug wrote:
Oh I don't know, 8 of the last 10 BSC championships, by 5 different SEC teams. 3 of the last 4 by AL. Who you play in pre-conference games has little baring on how good a team they are. They use those games to prepare the team for their conference season which seems to work very well for them.



You can say what you want but they have won it on the field and most years in a very dominant way. Unbeatable...no, but if you beat a top level SEC team you know you've accomplished something.

I agree with this. I can understand hating the SEC--I dislike them myself--but I don't think they're overrated or overhyped one bit. Living in Big Ten country, I've seen some of great atmospheres and the most loyal college football fans around, but they have nothing on the SEC. Football is a religion in SEC territory--is it any surprise they have the strongest conference from top to bottom?



Based on 2011, 11 of the conference's 14 teams are ranked in the top 30 for average home attendance (with 7 in the top 11). Why souldn't the media focus on the SEC--it's where all the passionate fans are. Only 4 Pac 12 teams crack the top 30 and the highest is ranked a pathetic 19. Pac 12 teams complain about an East Coast bias when not enough of their fans are willing top put their money where their mouths are and actually show up for their teams' games. At least the B1G has 7 teams ranked 21 or higher, and 3 of the top 5.

SEC is the best conference most years but the edge is exaggerated by soft scheduling that gives them a shot every single ye a r. Two shots one year iirc. And biwl location usually fsvors rhem. Deck tilted in their favor at every turn.



The real argument this year is who should be number two and is Bama better than A&M. It will takea playoff of at least 8 teams to avoid those questions.



And OSU vs Bama - which cheater would win if they had played today.



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Cougarbib wrote:
SEC is the best conference most years but the edge is exaggerated by soft scheduling that gives them a shot every single ye a r. Two shots one year iirc. And biwl location usually fsvors rhem. Deck tilted in their favor at every turn.



The real argument this year is who should be number two and is Bama better than A&M. It will takea playoff of at least 8 teams to avoid those questions.



And OSU vs Bama - which cheater would win if they had played today.



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Hmm... evidence that Bama cheated?



As to other posts:



If the SEC isn't the best conference, which conference is? Or are we simply arguing over degrees. Clearly the SEC is the best. That doesn't mean the teams cannot be beaten. Obviously they can--just not in title games.



The officiating crew that blew the punt call last night? There was no fix on. If ever there were a fix on, it would have been for the wildly more emotional pick, Notre Dame. No this call came from an imcompent officiating crew--that's right, a PAC-12 officiating crew. Go figure.



No, the real problem was that Notre Dame's defense has no idea how to tackle big, fast, bruising backs that run through you like you slapped their mothers. But hey, I get it. I wouldn't want to step in front of those freight trains either. It wasn't all Teo's fault. Replays showed time and time again how Alabama's Offensive line was on him, while the backs waited patiently to jump through the holes and explode through the second level.



Oh, and the safeties biting on practically every play action pass didn't help. That is practically Alabama's entire passing offense--not very inventive, but very effective when you can't stop the run.



It didn't help that the Notre Dame game plan was to run deep routes and continue to test probably the #1 CB in the nation, only to find time and time again that Millner was right where he should be to break up the pass. Just bad execution and game planning all around by Notre Dame.



I hope they didn't kill the chances for other Independent teams that get on a roll and end up undefeated at the end of the year.

The SEC champ gets put into the championship game every year, so they have, at minimum, a 50/50 shot at each title. Had it been Oregon or K-state in that game, they would have been victorious as well.



The SEC has not been the best conference top to bottom year in and year out. Anyone who thinks that that kind of consistency could happen in college football throughout an entire conference is off their rocker.

Schmoe wrote:
The SEC champ gets put into the championship game every year, so they have, at minimum, a 50/50 shot at each title. Had it been Oregon or K-state in that game, they would have been victorious as well.



The SEC has not been the best conference top to bottom year in and year out. Anyone who thinks that that kind of consistency could happen in college football throughout an entire conference is off their rocker.

I'll agree with you there. There is a lot of hyperbole, even from some of the experts, when they use that phrase top to bottom. The bottom of the SEC is pretty bad. The top is very good. They usually have the best team or two teams in the country (this year I would say Alabama and A&M), but the rest of the conference is on par, or would struggle against the other good teams around the country.



I believe the SEC is the best conference, and it would be hard to argue with that. If you don't think the SEC is the best conference, state who is better.



But that does not mean that all teams in the SEC are unbeatable or better than any other teams in any other conference. The "Top to Bottom" statement goes too far if it is meant to imply that all teams in the SEC are better than all other teams. That is simply not the case. If it is meant to say that taken as a whole, it is the best conference compared to all other conferences taken as a whole, I would tend to agree with that. In fact, the Sagarin ratings agree with that.



CONFERENCE CENTRAL MEAN SIMPLE AVERAGE TEAMS WIN50%



1 SOUTHEASTERN (A) = 81.75 81.57 ( 1) 14 81.64 ( 1)

2 BIG 12 (A) = 79.99 79.38 ( 2) 10 79.54 ( 2)

3 PAC-12 (A) = 76.15 75.58 ( 3) 12 75.85 ( 3)

4 BIG TEN (A) = 75.87 75.05 ( 4) 12 75.24 ( 4)

5 I-A INDEPENDENTS (A) = 72.83 72.73 ( 5) 4 72.82 ( 5)

6 BIG EAST (A) = 72.16 71.87 ( 7) 8 71.91 ( 6)

7 ATLANTIC COAST (A) = 71.64 71.92 ( 6) 12 71.80 ( 7)

8 WESTERN ATHLETIC (A) = 64.57 64.82 ( 8) 7 64.72 ( 8)

9 SUN BELT (A) = 62.95 62.95 ( 9) 10 62.95 ( 9)

10 MID-AMERICAN (A) = 62.60 62.37 ( 11) 13 62.44 ( 11)

11 CONFERENCE USA (A) = 62.18 62.64 ( 10) 12 62.52 ( 10)

12 MISSOURI VALLEY (AA)= 61.53 60.79 ( 13) 10 60.94 ( 13)

13 MOUNTAIN WEST (A) = 60.97 61.82 ( 12) 10 61.64 ( 12)

14 SOUTHERN (AA)= 56.15 55.77 ( 14) 9 55.84 ( 14)

15 OHIO VALLEY (AA)= 54.83 53.93 ( 15) 9 54.07 ( 15)

16 BIG SKY (AA)= 53.89 53.62 ( 16) 13 53.83 ( 16)

17 SOUTHLAND (AA)= 52.40 52.76 ( 17) 8 52.61 ( 17)

18 COLONIAL (AA)= 50.48 48.86 ( 18) 11 49.50 ( 18)

19 IVY LEAGUE (AA)= 41.17 40.92 ( 19) 8 40.94 ( 19)

20 PATRIOT LEAGUE (AA)= 40.27 40.41 ( 20) 7 40.40 ( 20)

21 MID-EASTERN (AA)= 38.54 38.16 ( 23) 11 38.24 ( 22)

22 BIG SOUTH (AA)= 38.44 39.40 ( 21) 7 39.03 ( 21)

23 NORTHEAST (AA)= 37.77 38.26 ( 22) 9 38.15 ( 23)

24 SOUTHWESTERN (AA)= 35.11 35.06 ( 24) 10 35.08 ( 24)

25 PIONEER (AA)= 31.95 30.69 ( 25) 10 31.26 ( 25)

26 ***UNRATED*** (**)= -90.00 -90.00 ( 26) 1 -90.00 ( 26)



http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/sagarin/fbc12.htm

Interesting that the current Mountain West was worse than any other D1A (FBS) conference and one AA conference. The sucky schools really drag it down.



The four team playoff should help determine if the SEC dominance in title games is due to being there more than anyone else, or if the top of the SEC really is just a cut above the tops of other conferences.

KYCoug wrote:
Oh I don't know, 8 of the last 10 BSC championships, by 5 different SEC teams. 3 of the last 4 by AL. Who you play in pre-conference games has little baring on how good a team they are. They use those games to prepare the team for their conference season which seems to work very well for them.



You can say what you want but they have won it on the field and most years in a very dominant way. Unbeatable...no, but if you beat a top level SEC team you know you've accomplished something.

I think you and the others make some good points. But to some degree how you get into the NC game is by computers and polls and rankings and when you have half your conference start out in the top 15 and then they beat up some cupcakes at home and then it's just a matter of them playing each other, it guarantees that one of them is in the finals and sometimes both.

Schmoe wrote:
The SEC champ gets put into the championship game every year, so they have, at minimum, a 50/50 shot at each title. Had it been Oregon or K-state in that game, they would have been victorious as well.



The SEC has not been the best conference top to bottom year in and year out. Anyone who thinks that that kind of consistency could happen in college football throughout an entire conference is off their rocker.

Well said.

Cougarfan87 wrote:
The four team playoff should help determine if the SEC dominance in title games is due to being there more than anyone else, or if the top of the SEC really is just a cut above the tops of other conferences.

There will be no limit on conference affiliation of the 4 playoff teams, so if the system were in place the last few years, 2 of the 4 teams would probably have been SEC teams. That probably won't satisfy those accusing the SEC of being overhyped.

Need to go to eight team format. There are at least several teams that I believe, based upon their bowl performance, that would have given AL a challenge...TA&M, OR, Stanford to name a few. ND did not win any of its games against top teams in convincing manner...and had several lucky bounces go their way to win games. Had BYU had a decent QB and OL, and that is a big "if", we would have been in the BCS hunt.

Mingjai wrote:

The four team playoff should help determine if the SEC dominance in title games is due to being there more than anyone else, or if the top of the SEC really is just a cut above the tops of other conferences.

There will be no limit on conference affiliation of the 4 playoff teams, so if the system were in place the last few years, 2 of the 4 teams would probably have been SEC teams. That probably won't satisfy those accusing the SEC of being overhyped.

That thought had crossed my mind. Because they are using a panel though, rather than rankings, and listed being the conference champion as one of the weighted criteria, I have a feeling the 4 team playoff will look like this:



Big XII champ v. Pac XII champ

Big X Champ v. SEC Champ



Unless the ACC champe or Notre Dame are higher ranked than any of those four teams. I would be very thankful if they did pick two SEC teams, because that would surely cause an uproar that would expand the playoffs to eight teams.