For as much crap the Big Ten has gotten about recent bowl performances, and deservedly so as they have not had a winning bowl season record since 2002, the SEC looks very mediocre to me thus far this bowl season (2-3 heading into the Sugar Bowl). For a conference that supposedly has the most talent, most speed, best coaches (absolutely the highest paid), etc, let's take a look at what they have done this far:
- Music City Bowl: a 5 loss Clemson team handled Kentucky more easily than the score shows, 21-13.
- Independence Bowl: UGA beat Texas A&M 44-20, but A&M finished second to last in the Big 12 South, only above Baylor; Georgia finished 2nd in the SEC East; so this result was not much of a surprise and UGA should of dominated.
- Chik-fil-A Bowl: Tennessee was just dominated in every facet of the game by Virginia Tech, 37-14; and remember this is the same Tennessee team that almost beat Bama (they had to block a last second field goal, which would of won it for Tennessee) and played Florida very tough.
- Outback Bowl: Auburn barely squeaked by Northwestern, requiring OT to pull out a 38-35. These two teams finished with similar records and finished in similar positions in their conference. But of course the media views Northwestern as an academic school, where football is a hobby (can’t really argue there) and Auburn is a football factory. The SEC should win this game, but they barely did and if you take away Auburn’s 100 yard interception return for a TD and maybe one of Northwestern QB’s 5 INT’s they probably don’t win this game.
- Capital One Bowl: The score did not show how about much Penn State really dominated the LSU Tigers. They held LSU to 9 first downs, less than 250 yards of total offense and only 41 yards of rushing. If Penn State would not of had so much trouble inside the 10 yard line, where they had to settle for 4 FG's, this game would of been a blowout and not the close 19-17 finish which is was. And these two teams were basically identical from a perspective of performance in the regular season.
I am happy to give credit where credit is due, but the SEC this year is a two team conference, Alabama and Florida. The remainder of the conference is no better than the Big Ten, Big12, Pac-10 or maybe even no better than the Mountain West (TCU, BYU, Utah, and Air Force). Hold your head high if you root for a team in a conference other than the SEC and don’t let the SEC biased media forget what has happened THIS YEAR, they are 2-3 and their two wins are not impressive.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Very true. It’s all SEC all the time. It’s time to give the other conferences more credit and quit acting as if this year the SEC is the dominant conference. We’ll see what next season brings, but this year the SEC was served a bit of humble pie.
Speaking of humble pie, how did yours taste? So once again we have yet another Big Ten mouth that opens too quickly and disses the SEC – and then watches them go 4-1 in their last five bowl games. What’s funny, though, is the spin you felt necessary to put on it. “Well if Auburn didn’t have a 100 yard interception..” Well gee, if the SEC didn’t SCORE MORE POINTS then I guess they’d LOSE now, wouldn’t they?
The FACTS are indisputable. In the last four years the SEC is 22-9, won four national championships (out of 4), and ALL TWELVE TEAMS (including Vandy) have won at least one bowl game. Those are OBJECTIVE FACTS demonstrating that superiority. So for all of the charges of “the SEC doesn’t play anybody,” the FACT is that their OOC against the top flight teams in bowl games speaks for itself.
Oh – and just in case you forgot, the SEC is 2-0 against the Big Ten in national championship games, and they were a HUGE underdog the first go around.
One more thing: if the SEC is so overrated, why did Penn State back out of their 1988 game with Auburn – citing the problem of playing two SEC schools in one year (they played Alabama and lost, 8-3, that year)?
I’m sorry, but the results speak for themselves. The last four years the SEC is the top conference in college ball. Now – that MIGHT change this year, but it might not. Remember just two years ago when everyone was saying the Big 12 having THREE ten-win teams in one division was proof of their superiority? Well, they went 0-2 against the SEC and – oila! – 1-0 against the Big Ten.
The results show themselves and no more needs to be said. Accept it.