Posted on 01/02/2018 3:48:16 AM PST by C19fan
The chant boomed out early in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, and then again late, and a third time even later for good measure. And although it’s enough to trigger a collective gag reflex in 39 states plus several U.S. territories, it’s a fact-based champion’s chant. “S-E-C! S-E-C!” the Alabama fans thundered, when the final score of the Rose Bowl was announced and league brethren Georgia had advanced to the College Football Playoff title game.
(Excerpt) Read more at verizon.yahoo.com ...
For a fan of the game who just wants to watch football it’s OK, but to the rest of the country looking to identify with one team or the other it’s ho-hum and it’s a ratings disaster for the network. If they’re truly the two best teams then they’re the two best teams, but interest will not be all that high nationwide.
Thank you for the correction BwanaNdedge. You are exactly right and I thank you. I was on a roll writing that post and did not stop to check. The point is that ESPN has a huge, ongoing (indeed 10-year!) incentive to make its $2.3B prior investment pay off by making those teams seem better than everyone else; and moreover, part of the SEC’s interest in giving ESPN the rights in the first place is the implicit understanding that ESPN will favor the SEC in its coverage.
The leadership at ESPN and at the NCAA are corrupt but they are not idiots. They knew going in that this was a conflict. Not only did they not care, but they saw how this would benefit them financially and thought “Excellent! Good for our bottom line!” There could have been modest controls put in place at least to manage the conflict; and yet there is not even the simplest or most remedial measure. To repeat, for the good of amateur sports university presidents and athletic directors nationwide need to step up and impose some sort of discipline on two institutions that are negligent, derelict, and rotten to their cores.
I was rooting hard for UGA. Being close to Georgia, it’s easy. Add the reprehensible Baker Mayfield to the mix, and it’s a no brainer.
The reason OSU will remain at the "center" in the B1G is that they have built up a program that will continuously out recruit (and out coach) the rest of the B1G. They will drop a game every year in the conference, but the other teams will ALL drop two or three games, normally (Penn St, MSU, Mich, Wisc).
The bigger problem for the BCS is now that they have shoved two different SEC National Championships down our throats, they will be stuck with a OSU, Penn St, Mich, Wisc final four bracket one day when those teams all have one loss to one another and are all top 6 schools.
Every year Bama drops a game and drops 4-5 places... any other school drops a game from #1 or #2 and they drop to 7-8-9... The SEC schools value the SEC whereas the other conferences still have "School over Conference" fans; the SEC has been beaten down to the point they all know Bama will reign every year... so they SEC over School given their usual rankings.
Given your logic, why play a regular season... ? Just put Ohio State, ND, UCLA/USC and either Clemson/Bama in every year. We can just was New Year’s Day Bowl Games and skip the season. Another problem with your logic is that even Mich has a better Record than Bama.
Lol, the regular season will be played so the other several hundred college football programs can have a football season.
People can sit around and whine and pretend that prior success of individual teams and conferences should not be a factor in rankings each year, but they're just kidding themselves.
So unless you are in the 11+ plus win department two consecutive years....
You’re posting nonsense. Success breeds success, whether you want to acknowledge that or not.
Buckeye Fan here - total success... not SECESS;)
Alabama fans will certainly enjoy this week. But when season ticket renewal time comes around, they will need to wrap their minds around a 2018 home schedule that includes Arkansas State, Louisiana-Laugh-eye-ette, and the Citadel. Throw in the abysmal neutral-site game against Louisville and it is difficult to imagine a weaker schedule. All they need to do is lose to Auburn again (so they won’t lose to Georgia in the SEC Championship game) and their ticket will be punched for another run next year.
If first year coach Riley didn’t have a brain fart and gift 3 points to GA at the end of the first half there wouldn’t have been an overtime...it took Oklahoma 4 quarters to put up 31 points on Ohio State, but only 1/2 of football against GA’s defense.
Follow the money...
Looks like Dabo has to go back to answering questions about Clemsoning until kick off next season...
Let all the conference’s abide by the same rules as well. The Big Ten and Big 12 and Pac 12 all play 9 conference games. The SEC only plays 8, and then they schedule cupcake teams like FCS Mercer (Alabama) which even in a lower division was only 5-6 this year.
One thing I would demand is that if a team from the power 5 conference plays a lower division school then they are disqualified from CFP consideration.
It’s a rigged system...
My surprise was Clemson only being able to put up 6 points on Alabama’s badly depleted defense. Bama had a lot of injuries to their LBs this year. But, the DL played very well, especially the big #9 dude. Bama’s O played just well enough. GA and Bama should be decent.
They had 5 weeks to get healthy. Alabama needs to replace their fullback pretending to be a QB for someone who can really play quarterback.
OU should have won the game both in regulation and in OT. The coach became too conservative late in the game and tried not to lose rather than play to win. And the squib kick before halftime was a bonehead call.
That was the difference in the game. Without gifting the 3 points to GA at the half OU wins outright in regulation.
You point out one of the flaws of the current system. That Bama can get away with playing one less game, not having to risk injury and having an additional week to plan and get healthy.
That’s why there needs to be a play-in game between the best at-large teams, to eliminate that advantage. Bama should have played UCF to get to the Semi-Finals.
I don’t see how anyone has Bama as a favorite, especially with the game in UGA’s backyard.
Georgia will run roughshod over Bama’s Defense, although Bama’s defense was much better last night than I expected.
And Bama’s offense isn’t nearly as potent as OU’s.
But that all being said, you can’t underestimate Saban.
We are talking about this year. Let’s see the last 3 Big Ten teams:
No. 4 Ohio State 42 - No. 1 Alabama 35
No. 4 Ohio State 42 - No. 2 Oregon 20
As returning defending national champs in 2015 OSU had a even better team, was ranked no. 1 - 2 most of the year, lost to Michigan State on a last minute field goal in a horrid weather conditions (that’s on the coaches) and was not selected over Oklahoma because the committee didn’t want to put 2 teams from the same conference into the playoffs. So Michigan State represented the Big Ten despite barely beating Wisconsin in the Big Ten championship and got pummeled by Alabama.
OSU played against Clemson last year like Clemson played against Alabama. No offense just 3 and outs most of the game, and the defense had to play the majority of the time. And that’s why OSU replaced their OC and QB’s coach this year.
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