Is the SEC the best?

KnightHawk9

KnightHawk9

Well-Known Member
I think Hinton nails the self-fulfilling prophecy argument.

"At this point, it's almost a self-fulfilling prophecy: Why are there two SEC teams in the championship game? Because the SEC is so good! Why does everyone assume the SEC is so good? Well, what other conference could put two teams in the championship game?"

Dr. Saturday
 
There was more than substantial evidence that it was the best conference, so that it was not based on an "assumption". Evidence was the abundance of success in non conference play, this season and immediately preceding one.
 
They play by an entirely different set of rules. That is why the B1G and P12 should opt out of the BCS and take the Rose Bowl with them

Just no way you can compete with that semi-pro system. Believe me, I live in the South. Players are funneled into only athelete friendly majors and given the test questions before examinations, and cut if they don't perform on the field. In the SEC, Greene and others don't flunk out and Mossbrucker and others are not eating scholarships.
 
No. Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, and Missouri aren't exactly what I would consider power houses. Are they better than the B1G? Absolutely. Pac-12? Maybe so. Big 12? Not quite. They usually have the best team in the country, but not all of their teams are great (same as any other conference).
 
DTF said:
No. Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, and Missouri aren't exactly what I would consider power houses. Are they better than the B1G? Absolutely. Pac-12? Maybe so. Big 12? Not quite. They usually have the best team in the country, but not all of their teams are great (same as any other conference).
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Yeah, I mean only 5 different SEC programs have won BCS championships. Totes over rated.
 
GhostofBTT said:
Yeah, I mean only 5 different SEC programs have won BCS championships. Totes over rated.
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Well when your conference is the only one guaranteed of having a team chosen for the title game, it kind of ups your chances of winning. Just saying...still don't believe either of those teams that played in the NC game this year would have beaten either Stanford or Okie St given the display we saw.
 
OverratedD said:
Well when your conference is the only one guaranteed of having a team chosen for the title game, it kind of ups your chances of winning. Just saying...still don't believe either of those teams that played in the NC game this year would have beaten either Stanford or Okie St given the display we saw.
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And despite their guaranteed spot in the title game, they win it every year. You'd think if they were getting a token invite, they might drop a few more.
 
GhostofBTT said:
And despite their guaranteed spot in the title game, they win it every year. You'd think if they were getting a token invite, they might drop a few more.
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It doesn't hurt that they don't even have to play a team from out of their conference to win the championship. Like I said before, there is nothing anyone will say that will convince me that either of those two team we saw play in the NC game this year would have beaten the best team from the B12 or the P12. So...if you aren't truly playing the best teams to win a championship...sure...they might not drop many.
 
OverratedD said:
It doesn't hurt that they don't even have to play a team from out of their conference to win the championship. Like I said before, there is nothing anyone will say that will convince me that either of those two team we saw play in the NC game this year would have beaten the best team from the B12 or the P12. So...if you aren't truly playing the best teams to win a championship...sure...they might not drop many.
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Aside from this year. Yeah they do.

And actually both Alabama and LSU beat good teams from out of conference.
 
It also doesn't hurt the SEC that three of those NC games were home games for the SEC (LSU in New Orleans in 03 and 07 and Florida in Miami in 08). Additionally:

The 03 NC was actually a split NC since USC (ranked #3 by the BCS) was awarded the AP national championship...LSU was so impressive in their NC win that they actually lost the AP NC...wow...SEC!

The 08 NC Florida squad was lucky to dodge a Utah squad that was undefeated and considered to be a NC contender (but didn't play in an AQ conference). Utah went on to embarass SEC power Alabama in SEC country.

You could also make an argument that the 2010 Auburn team was lucky enough to not play TCU in the NC game. TCU also was considered a NC caliber team which beat Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl.

Not to say the SEC hasn't played quality teams in the NC, but its not like they haven't had help. How about we play a NC at Soldier or Lambeau with a BIG team. I would wager a lot of money on the fact that if the SEC had to play in conditions that other conferences have to endure (wind, cold, snow) that they might not win as many championships.
 
College football only matters one year at a time. "X" BCS championships in a row is completely irrelevant.

The Big12 was pretty clearly a more balanced league this year; the bottom half of the B12 was much better than the SEC, imo. It's very tough to say which was better overall. And we never got a chance to see who was better at the top. That's the part that irks me about the self-fulfilling prophesy.

I would rather we had an actual game decide who was the best. We don't know if either of those teams were better than OKst. We simply don't.
 
hawkfan340 said:
College football only matters one year at a time. "X" BCS championships in a row is completely irrelevant.

The Big12 was pretty clearly a more balanced league this year; the bottom half of the B12 was much better than the SEC, imo. It's very tough to say which was better overall. And we never got a chance to see who was better at the top. That's the part that irks me about the self-fulfilling prophesy.

I would rather we had an actual game decide who was the best. We don't know if either of those teams were better than OKst. We simply don't.
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The fact that OKst got beat by the clowns is enough proof for me.
 
GhostofBTT said:
The fact that OKst got beat by the clowns is enough proof for me.
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Parity in college football has grown immensely over the last couple decades. It's getting to be more of an "any given Saturday" type of environment (or any given Friday in this case).

One loss on the road to a decent team doesn't DQ them from the championship game, imo. Every team had at least one loss this year. I would have loved to see them play LSU given LSU earned the right to be there.

Having two teams from the same conference in the CG is like incest. It's detrimental to the species (the sport) because it greatly reduces the overall diversity of the environment. Two teams from the same conference play each other and the vast majority of their opponents are also the same set of teams. Very little diversity leads to very limited data.

It's very hard to draw conclusions from such a set of data. Maybe LSU and Alabama were head and shoulders better. But maybe not. Having OkSt. play would have widened the data set greatly.
 
hawkfan340 said:
Parity in college football has grown immensely over the last couple decades. It's getting to be more of an "any given Saturday" type of environment (or any given Friday in this case).

One loss on the road to a decent team doesn't DQ them from the championship game, imo. Every team had at least one loss this year. I would have loved to see them play LSU given LSU earned the right to be there.

Having two teams from the same conference in the CG is like incest. It's detrimental to the species (the sport) because it greatly reduces the overall diversity of the environment. Two teams from the same conference play each other and the vast majority of their opponents are also the same set of teams. Very little diversity leads to very limited data.

It's very hard to draw conclusions from such a set of data. Maybe LSU and Alabama were head and shoulders better. But maybe not. Having OkSt. play would have widened the data set greatly.
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One loss on the road to a decent team doesn't DQ you, but one loss on the road to ISU does.
 
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