On any given weekend in any given year, there are tons of very tough football teams out there. Many of them can and do beat teams from the SEC in bowl games.
HOWEVER, the overall level of play in some patsy conference like the big 10 or (giggle) the PAC 10 simply cannot stay in the sme room with the SEC. A team who plays the tougher teams in the SEC (LSU, GA, Alabama, Florida) and then a few of the other giant killers (Ole Miss, Auburn, Kentucky) and has a 8-2 record is equivalent to a 10 - 0 record in the two conferences listed above, walking away.
Have you noticed that many of the SEC teams deliberately do NOT load up with conference teams anymore? The reason is that you are so busted up by season end. By way of example by contrast, let’s look at the schecule of mighty Penn State, technically an “independent” but one who functioally plays in the big 10/East for most of their scheduled games:
Coastal Carolina -— always a powerhouse. honest to goodness I did not even know they were a COLLEGE and I live in North Carolina.
Oregon State — well, they did beat USC
Syracuse — managed to win one game this season. lost by at least 20 to any team rated in the top 20
Temple — the mighty owls have managed to beat Army, Ohio (not Ohio State) and Miami (not that Miami, Miami of Ohio) They were beaten by Cleveland (*CLEVELAND????), Western Michigan, Central Michigan, and the Lolapalooza High School JV team.
Illinois — How a team can be 4-3 when they don’t play anybody, and lose to the teams they DO play and still be in the top 25 is amazing to me..... oh yeah, they are in the Big 10. Sorry, Is there still a statute on the books against blasphemy? Anyway, Illois is one of only TWO teams in the top 25 that Penn State has on the roster this year.
Purdue — 2 and 6. as Mark Twain said “let us draw a curtain of charity over the rest of the scene.”
Wisconsin — 3 and 4
Michigan — another team (with Notre Dame) destined to be rated in the top 10 if they can win 2 games a year. 2-5 this year, so it looks like a major bowl is coming again. I hear they are just itching for revenge against Appalachian State this year and are trying to work out a bowl game rematch.
Ohio State — THRASHED each time they go outside the mighty big 10 —by TROY, no less! Troy -aka Troy State- is a midlevel State university in Alabama which takes the rejects from Alabama and Auburn. Kicked O State back to Columbus by 18 points.... wait, they were IN Columbus! Nevermind. Anyway another patsy schedule loved by the sportswriters. Supposedly the “big test” for PSU.
Iowa — I am tired of being surly and mean so I just won’t say anything about the team or the schedule.
They close out with Michigan State and Indiana, whose schedules are equally anemic, and again, just don’t play real football.
Now with all that surly sarcastic snooty speech, let me say that I lived in big 10 country for a while. Visited a few games, and really enjoyed them. I also have to say that Joe Paterno is one of the CLASSIEST coaches around, and if his team demonstrates they deserve to be highly rated, there are few people in the coaching profession who would deserve it more.
I am just tired of seeing teams who run up a 9-1 record by playing Apalachicola State U or Bumpkinville Junior college be wowed and awed while teams not on the sportswriters fave list be dropped out of the top 25 for losing 10-7 against an equally powerful rival in the SEC.
Let Penn State really PLAY someone, and I think they should be rated #3.
I will now retreat to my bomb shelter to protect myself against incoming.
Seriously though obviously if the SEC and the Big 12 have one loss teams winning their championships they'll play in the BCS game. As they should this year.
Where I'm sure there's lots of Southern Comfort.....not that there's anyting wrong with that. LOL!
It's not very nice of you to talk about LSU like that. LOL!