Such a lame cop out used when SEC teams "under perform."

 

Oh yeah. Going in, it's this and that about how dominant [insert SEC Team] is and then Oklahoma handles Alabama or Louisville handles Florida and its "well you know they were so close to the Title and now they have to play in this terrible Sugar Bowl". Can't have it both ways.

Remaining Games:

 

Ole Miss- Auburn, Arkansas, Miss St

Miss St.- Arkansas, Alabama, Ole Miss

Alabama- LSU, Miss St. Auburn

Auburn- Texas A&M, Georgia, Alabama

LSU- Alabama, Arkansas, Texas A&M

 

Looks like the SEC West is going to work this out for themselves!

I agree with Getslow, If Alabama wins out while beating MSU they win the west.

In which there was no real method of determining who the best two teams really were and good teams were left out of the title game in several of those years in favor of an unproven team that was in many cases likely unworthy. I'm looking in your direction, Notre Dame, Ohio State, and Oklahoma.

 

It's like saying the American was the greatest basketball league last year because it had four of the past 15 national champions. Everyone knew it wasn't and we had empirical evidence to back it up.

 

We all think the SEC is a great conference because it appears they have great football. They have outstanding athletes and good coaches. It all seems to fit together. What we don't have is any empirical evidence beyond the fact that the SEC Champion was awarded a spot in the national title game and often times got to play an opponent that didn't appear to be all that great. It's a natural consequence of the way football operates.

 

This. Same could go with SEC for basketball. UK has been to 3 Final 4's in 4 years. SEC was 50% of the Final 4 Last year. Everyone knows the SEC isn't the top conference in basketball.

 

70% of the SEC Title winners are between two teams. Two big time programs at the time (obviously Saban and Bama still are), but they account for 70% of that "7 of the last 8" stat that every Tom, Dick and Harry from Oxford to Lexington bangs their chest about. I've just never understood it and I went to UK and cheer for UK.

This is the most glaring thing to me. How Notre Dame is 10 is beyond me.

 

They haven't beaten anyone. Who you've beaten matter more than good losses. That much is clear with these rankings.

They haven't beaten anyone. Who you've beaten matter more than good losses. That much is clear with these rankings.

 

Yeah that schedule didn't quite work out for the Irish. Michigan being historically bad and Stanford dropping two league games in the first half of the season definitely wasn't the plan for Notre Dame.

 

They'll have a chance to show their quality with trips to Arizona State and USC still to come.

Yeah that schedule didn't quite work out for the Irish. Michigan being historically bad and Stanford dropping two league games in the first half of the season definitely wasn't the plan for Notre Dame.

 

They'll have a chance to show their quality with trips to Arizona State and USC still to come.

 

No doubt, but even then the rankings pretty much destined the Irish to end up on the outside looking in unless a bunch of teams majorly falter. Oregon, Michigan State, KState, and TCU all are one loss teams ahead of them. All have better opportunities for big wins the remainder of the year too. That's not even including the SEC 1 loss teams.

No doubt, but even then the rankings pretty much destined the Irish to end up on the outside looking in unless a bunch of teams majorly falter. Oregon, Michigan State, KState, and TCU all are one loss teams ahead of them. All have better opportunities for big wins the remainder of the year too. That's not even including the SEC 1 loss teams.

 

I agree. The next couple weeks on TCU's schedule might be enough to make me watch Big XII games. Very curious to see how Oregon finishes up. The balance of power out West seems to be favoring the south with Arizona and Arizona State also sitting on just a single loss.

 

Thank goodness the people in charge of the PAC 12 make sure that big games like the one between two ranked teams in Utah and ASU this weekend don't start until 11:00 pm Eastern. :lol2:

Undefeated Auburn being left out?

 

 

Overrated.

Is that good enough? As fans should that be enough for us? Or should we demand, as we have over and over again as a collective, that the system be set up to demonstrate that on the field as much as possible?

 

And yet the system is still wrong.

And yet the system is still wrong.

 

Well there are NCAA bureaucrats and major university presidents involved... why would it be anything other than a complete disaster?

Is that good enough? As fans should that be enough for us? Or should we demand, as we have over and over again as a collective, that the system be set up to demonstrate that on the field as much as possible?

How would that work? You've got 60plus teams just from the power conferences then Independents and the Boise States of the world.

Still not sure why the ACC's games against ND don't count as they're not in the league and they are a HUGE hole in several teams' non-conference schedule, but whatever.

 

 

 

Congratulations... better than the Big Ten.

 

I don't deny that the SEC is the best league, but its absolute dominance over the rest of college football has been fundamentally untested on a broad level and remains such. It's the best league, but I remain unconvinced that it's so good it deserves more than a single spot in the playoff in any given year.

 

ND doesn't count because they're playing 5 ACC games a year. Might as well be ACC.

 

The reason I brought up the Big10 is because they had MORE BCS appearances than the SEC, with a MUCH worse record. If there was any bias, it was ranking Big10 teams too highly.

 

The SEC had a better BCS record than every other conference too.

 

You keep saying the SEC isn't tested, but over the BCS period they have the best record and the most titles. All but one of those games was OOC.

 

This year the SEC played the most high quality OOC games, and has thus far won them all.

 

How much more tested do you want them? Who else even comes close to being as tested?

How would that work? You've got 60plus teams just from the power conferences then Independents and the Boise States of the world.

 

Which is why we ought to try and get as close as possible. An eight-team playoff is a step in the right direction toward overcoming potential biases.

ND doesn't count because they're playing 5 ACC games a year. Might as well be ACC.

 

But that represents a huge game on the schedule for each of those five ACC schools. One that then can't be filled with another out of conference opponent while still playing eight league games. Makes no sense.

The reason I brought up the Big10 is because they had MORE BCS appearances than the SEC, with a MUCH worse record. If there was any bias, it was ranking Big10 teams too highly.

 

The SEC had a better BCS record than every other conference too.

 

You keep saying the SEC isn't tested, but over the BCS period they have the best record and the most titles. All but one of those games was OOC.

 

This year the SEC played the most high quality OOC games, and has thus far won them all.

 

How much more tested do you want them? Who else even comes close to being as tested?

 

My point is that NONE of them are tested but the SEC benefits from it at a higher rate than most other leagues. The Big Ten also has an historical bias that works in its favor as well. Michigan's program has been collapsing like a poorly-mixed cake for several years now but they still got votes in the preseason polls. What but historical bias could cause that sort of nonsense?

 

It is really tough to remove biases from the equation. We have no clue exactly how much better one league is than another because -- for the most part -- we only have bowl wins to use as data points (points which are extremely unreliable and too few to really be valuable).

 

Removing polling and rankings from the equation as much as possible will serve to make crowning a champion easier and (probably) more reliable.