If you are an SEC fan, you have to love the BCS. The BCS is geared toward getting SEC teams into the National Championship Game. This wasn't done on purpose, of course, but it is a reality of the current system.
Allow me to explain.
Preseason rankings matter when it comes to the BCS, and typically, there are plenty of SEC teams ranked near the top of those initial rankings. Why? I have a few ideas. The first reason is recruiting. Based on one list I saw a couple of days ago ranking recruiting classes for the 2009 season, there were eight SEC teams in the top 18 in the country. EIGHT!!! SEC teams recruit from what is considered the best talent pool, and as a result, voters think that those teams will immediately be better that coming football year. So, they get higher preseason rankings, year in and year out, and especially when SEC teams do so well in bowl games. Therefore, if those highly ranked teams lose one game, they usually don't fall too far and almost always have a shot at climbing back up into the top two. Also, like Alabama this year, SEC teams have a great chance to climb in the polls if they beat other preseason, over-hyped SEC teams. I also think that the cream of the coach crop in college football resides in the SEC, and voters will give those guys' teams higher rankings just because of who they are. We're talking guys like Steve Spurrier, Les Miles, Nick Saban, Urban Meyer, Houston Nutt, Mark Richt, and now even Bobby Petrino (I'll leave Phil Fulmer out of this one). I mean, how many of those guys have won National Championships? Bottom line is, pollsters all over the country have legitimate and not-so-legitimate reasons for thinking that the best football teams in the county reside in the SEC.
So, if the pollsters and the computers think such great things about the SEC, most SEC fans should be fine with the current system (minus the 2003 Auburn Tigers). Would you rather your team take a chance at being one of the top two teams and then having to play just one more game to win the National Championship? Or, would you rather your team have to run a gauntlet of maybe three games against tough competition, risking injuries or just having a bad game, to win the National Championship? As an SEC fan, I'd choose the one game.
Now, some will argue that a playoff would legitimize the National Champion. But does that really matter after over 100 years of NOT having a playoff? Do people look back now and say that all those Oklahoma or Alabama or USC national championships don't count because they weren't earned through a playoff system? Of course not!
As a fan of college football, I want nothing more than a playoff system (8 teams would be perfect), but if you are a fan of the SEC, you are better off with the way things are right now.
- RyanR
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The list of coaches in the SEC is a good one...no doubt about it....However, in my opinion Les Miles does not belong on this list.
ReplyDeleteHe won a national title in an oddball two loss season with a lot of help and another coaches (Saban) players.
Since then LSU has graduated those players and the talent pool is decreasing.....as are the chance of LSU being a title contender.
Miles is slowly getting exposed just as Larry Coker did in Miami and I don't imagine he will last very long competing against the rest of the coaches that are on the list.
I agree. Coach Miles may not be the great coach that the media makes him out to be. But, he still gets the respect of the media. When your resume says;
ReplyDelete1. Coached team to National Championship with guys I recruited (even if it was with two losses)
2. Was the #1 choice to replace Lloyd Carr at Michigan.
that's saying a lot for a guy, whether he deserves it or not.
Therefore, I think his teams will continue to get the benefit of the doubt in pre-season rankings until he starts to put together back-to-back bad seasons, which I'll define as 4-loss (including bowl game).
The SEC definitely has some great football teams and coaches. And I agree that that the SEC does get a lot of credit and usually ends up in those top spots. I'm just glad out here in the West we are starting to get some recognition. Our teams have a way to go, but they are on their way up.
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