Some of you need to watch fox sports live and get educated on the toughness of the not so mighty SEC this season, but then facts would get in the way of perception.

 

Most of us realize the conference is somewhat down. Not the debate. It's still far and away better than the ACC and B10. Not close.

So, here's a question: say FSU is tops and a week before the big game Winston gets arrested for raping that girl. Will FSU just bail him out and suit him up, or what?

 

 

Their policy is to immediately suspend any athlete charged with a crime.

The argument against AU would be "they got lucky twice."

 

However, that discounts the FSU/OSU argument that the Ws are all that matter.

Some of you need to watch fox sports live and get educated on the toughness of the not so mighty SEC this season' date=' but then facts would get in the way of perception.[/quote']

 

The Fox that has a major financial stake in the Big Ten Network???

The same fox that ran a story with facts and only facts.

You're better than this classic short-sighted overreaction.

 

It was late, and honestly, your follow-up did little to change that quick overreacting feeling. Two of your points are specifically tied to the conference, namely that you get slack for the OOC when taking in the total picture and diminishing the Clemson win because it was their only big game. Unless you schedule a strong OOC game, your conference will provide the only big games. This season, for the most part, the only conference you could expect multiple big games a year in is the SEC, and perhaps the Pac-12. I'm not really saying you're beating the SEC drum so much as I'm saying that the SEC is virtually the only conference that meets the standard I believe you're using here.

 

And if we go by the revisionist history, none of the other Alabama games outside the win over LSU or loss to Auburn will qualify as a "big game" if we are just going to toss out the rankings of teams at the time FSU played them. If FSU doesn't get to count Miami as a top 10 win, then Auburn doesn't get to count Texas A&M as one. Missouri doesn't get to count Georgia as one. Or Florida as a top 25 win. Or Ole Miss as a top 25 win. And so on. If we don't judge a team by how they're ranked at the time, and if they're not ranked by the point we're having this debate, then the only reason you think these teams are playing big games and challenging themselves is because you "think" those teams are playing better competition.

 

 

Clemson win is better than any Bama win: disagree. LSU was a better win. Had they beaten AU and been in this debate than AU would have also been a better win.

 

The ONLY way you pick an undefeated Ohio State and/or FSU is you "think" they're really good and the best two teams. They could indeed be but we just haven't seen them tested enough to know.

 

Trust me. I'll watch it if it's those two. It will be a fun game to watch.

 

I just like the two teams to have earned it with a challenging schedule.

 

 

Yes, Auburn would have been a better win. It was meant to be a snapshot in time argument, but again, it was late, so I wasn't exploring all the angles like I should have. But as to the LSU win, no, I still categorically disagree with you. Alabama was at home, Florida State on the road. LSU was ranked 13th, Clemson was ranked 3rd. When the polls come out tomorrow, there's a strong chance that Clemson will still be rated ahead of them, or at worst, nearly identically ranked. And Florida State dominated and gutted Clemson from the opening whistle, beating them by a wider margin, while LSU and Alabama were tied past the 5 minute mark of the third and Bama didn't really pull away until they went up two scores at the 10 minute mark of the 4th. (I could also point out that Clemson beat Georgia at full health while LSU lost to Georgia at less than full strength a month later, but to be fair Clemson was at home while LSU was on the road)

 

But that's a hypothetical no longer necessary. If Auburn wins the SEC, I can certainly agree they'll have better marquee wins, because Alabama and Missouri in back to back weeks is definitely more impressive than any one win on FSU's schedule, let alone two. But up to this point you certainly couldn't have said that. Their only challenging game before yesterday by revisionist history was LSU - which they lost. For Missouri, the only reason they'd have a better win than FSU is because they'd have beaten Auburn, which would have occurred in the SEC title game. Nothing they did OOC really trumps FSU (or OSU for that matter). At this moment, Texas A&M is their only win over a currently ranked team. If A&M falls out, they'd need Georgia to jump back in to qualify. Missouri got a neutered Georgia, the same down Florida team FSU beat, Ole Miss, and A&M. They challenged themselves I guess with the loss to South Carolina, the only game that qualifies as a "big game" at this point going by current rank.

 

When it comes down to it, I agree with you that it would be nice to see teams win it with an ultra challenging schedule. But the size of the conferences makes that difficult. You know you're going to be playing 8 conference games in a given year in most of the conferences. OOC scheduling is typically done years in advance, so it's not like they have any inclination as to what type of team they're going to have so they can't necessarily load up and say "this year we'll be big time title contenders so we should load up". And it's not just FSU and OSU that think that way - almost all the major conference teams think that way. You see only a handful of intra-conference scheduling each year that matches up powers. So that leaves you with your conference games most years.

Assuming MichSt will be in the top 15 in AP next week, the B10 championship game will be the first game Urban's boys have PLAYED against a top 15 team since he arrived. That is a perfect example of what gives me pause when saying they deserve to be in the championship game.

Here is Saragin's rankings after yesterday. Maybe we're discounting the PAC-10 too much. Look at their SOS #s.

 

Of the teams in the debate their SOS#:

 

AU 26

Mizzou 41

OSU 61

FSU 66

 

USA Today | Sports | NCAAF

Edited December 1, 201312 yr by Clyde

Assuming MichSt will be in the top 15 in AP next week, the B10 championship game will be the first game Urban's boys have PLAYED against a top 15 team since he arrived. That is a perfect example of what gives me pause when saying they deserve to be in the championship game.

 

MSU is #10

MSU is #10

 

But there in the B10 so it doesn't count.

Ohio St vs. Stanford-ASU winner in the Rose Bowl, it's a BCS bowl game :up:

I don't see how you can say OSU's schedule (assuming they beat MichSt) is any less impressive than FSU's.

 

The point with all of that though wasn't which team had the better schedule, it was that Ohio State played a bad schedule and appeared to play down to the competition with narrow wins while Florida State played a "bad" schedule and still just waxed most of the teams they've played.

 

I also think that on paper, Florida State's schedule is tougher just because I think Clemson, Miami, and Florida are tougher games than Wisconsin, Northwestern, and Iowa.

 

At least Florida State tried to schedule up with an out-of-conference game against Florida, who was supposed to be a top 25 team.

Some of you need to watch fox sports live and get educated on the toughness of the not so mighty SEC this season, but then facts would get in the way of perception.

 

Most of us realize the conference is somewhat down. Not the debate. It's still far and away better than the ACC and B10. Not close.

 

To add to that, I would go a step further and say that the SEC is only "down" when compared to what the SEC has been in other years.

 

No doubt that this year, the SEC is down in the East, with Florida and Georgia suffering injuries, and Tennessee being on the way back up.

We're all a bunch of old men telling war stories while the kids are on the field fighting.

I first want to say that Ohio State is my least favorite team in all of college football.

 

I say that because I think if both FSU & the Buckeyes win, that's who I'd put in the BCS title game. Florida State may have been the best team in the country all season long. The more I see Ohio State, the less I like them. BUT they're from a major conference & will have gone undefeated. There's something wrong with a system that doesn't allow for a team under those circumstances to play for the national championship.

 

So looking at it from that vantage point, it's FSU/OSU for me.

 

Having said that, I firmly believe Alabama & Florida State are the top two teams in the country.