In a recent bowl outlook we noted that Ohio State’s 2013 football schedule was nothing compared to the gauntlets run by one-loss SEC heavyweights Auburn, Alabama and Missouri.
Which is not exactly a minority view among college football enthusiasts …
Seriously … in other news “water is wet.”
The second-ranked Buckeyes (12-0, 8-0 Big Ten) will face their first Top Ten opponent in this weekend’s conference championship game against Michigan State. Up until now, Urban Meyer’s squad has just two victories against ranked opponents – wins at home against then No. 23 (now No. 15) Wisconsin and on the road against then No. 16 (now unranked) Northwestern.
Auburn? Counting this weekend’s SEC championship, the Tigers (11-1, 7-1 SEC) will have lined up against six ranked teams – including four Top Ten opponents. Signature wins include a thrilling come-from-behind home victory over then No. 1 Alabama and a road win against then No. 7 Texas A&M.
Missouri? These Tigers (11-1, 7-1 SEC) also feature six ranked teams on their schedule – including a pair of Top Ten foes. Their biggest win? A 41-26 victory over then No. 7 Georgia on the road (the Bulldogs only home loss of the season).
Alabama? The two-time defending national champion Crimson Tide (11-1, 7-1 SEC) played four ranked teams this year – beating then No. 6 Texas A&M on the road and No. 13 LSU (9-3, 5-3 SEC) at home.
So … let’s go ahead and say what everyone else is thinking: Being ranked in the Big Ten isn’t the same thing as being ranked in the SEC. Not even close.
Need proof?
Consider this: Since Florida defeated Ohio State to win the 2006 national championship, the SEC has doubled up on the Big Ten – posting a 16-8 record in head-to-head match-ups.
Here’s a recap of those games …
9/21/2013: Missouri 45 – Indiana 28
1/1/2013: South Carolina 33 – Michigan 28 (Outback Bowl)
1/1/2013: Northwestern 34 – Mississippi State 20 (Gator Bowl)
1/1/2013: Georgia 45 – Nebraska 31 (Capital One Bowl)
9/8/2012: Northwestern 23 – Vanderbilt 13
9/1/2012: Alabama 41 – Michigan 14
1/2/2012: Florida 24 – Ohio State 17 (Gator Bowl)
1/2/2012: South Carolina 30 – Nebraska 13 (Capital One Bowl)
1/2/2012: Michigan State 33 – Georgia 30 (Outback Bowl)
9/10/2011: Alabama 27 – Penn State 11
1/4/2011: Ohio State 31 – Arkansas 27 (Sugar Bowl)
1/1/2011: Florida 37 – Penn State 24 (Outback Bowl)
1/1/2011: Alabama 49 – Michigan St 7 (Capital One Bowl)
1/1/2011: Mississippi St 52 – Michigan 14 (Gator Bowl)
9/11/2010: Alabama 24 – Penn State 3
9/4/2010: Northwestern 23 – Vanderbilt 21
1/1/2010: Penn State 19 – LSU 17 (Capital One Bowl)
1/1/2010: Auburn 38 – Northwestern 35 (Outback Bowl)
1/1/2009: Iowa 31 – South Carolina 10 (Outback Bowl)
1/1/2009: Georgia 24 – Michigan State 12 (Capital One Bowl)
1/7/2008: LSU 38 – Ohio State 24 (BCS Championship Game)
1/1/2008: Tennessee 21 – Wisconsin 17 (Outback Bowl)
1/1/2008: Michigan 41 – Florida 35 (Capital One Bowl)
1/8/2007: Florida 41 – Ohio State 14 (BCS Championship Game)
Overall the series is a bit more competitive (with the SEC enjoying a 78-53-2 advantage) but to opine that an undefeated Ohio State team deserves to play in a national championship game over a one-loss SEC squad simply strains credulity in light of recent history.
Oh … and then there are those seven straight national titles, including one year in which the SEC was so strong it placed two teams in the championship game.
In 2014 college football will get rid of its ridiculous BCS system in favor of a four team playoff – with participating programs chosen by a panel of fourteen experts. Were such a system in place this year we’d probably be looking at Florida State playing against Alabama and Ohio State playing against Auburn for the right to go to the championship game.
That is if the season ended today …
Now, does anybody really want to bet against the SEC in either of those match-ups?
We don’t …
The SEC’s string of seven consecutive national championships may well end this season … but it won’t be because another conference took the crown from them. It will be because the SEC is “too good for its own good.”
32 comments
Sic Willie, the sole interest by conferences is not dream match ups or strength of schedule. It is dollar bills. TV rules the roost and is the major funding source. TV wants numbers of TV sets in order to jack up advertising revenue. Unfortunately, many of the schools in the South are not located in areas of large populations. Therefore other parts of the country are more “attractive” to the TV folks. So that is what drives who gets selected. That was the underlying force of the BCS deal that mandated that no more than 2 schools from a single conference could participate. You can further see the influence of TV markets in the latest round of conference expansion. The SEC gets into TX with A&M. The Big 10 gets into the DC market with MD. Etc.
Such a concise and accurate lesson in 300 level Economics and 300 level Marketing, yet such a waste of your time in attempting to impart knowledge to an economic illiterate who hasn’t mastered Econ 101 as of this date.
Of course as we have witnessed time and again, “Unfair and Imbalanced” on the masthead is both the mantra for asshattery disguised as journalism, and the ready excuse for ignorance of economic principles.
Neither Sports, Sports Marketing, nor Economics are in the “Founding Editor’s” wheelhouse.
Political intrigue, innuendo of malfeasance, sexual titillation, idle promises of “more to come,” and a logic defying determination to humiliate his immediate family for pennies with his tales of conquest are more of this creature’s abilities and predilections.
wow..!!
Holy shit… You may have stayed awake during your undergrad years, friend. Major points, too, attendant to the proper use of the little-known abstract noun form of “asshat” in a sentence (closely related to the better known “jackassery” and nitwittery”).
+1 for using predilections.
-1 for not working peccadilloes into your screed.
Yes I am ignorant of economics. I think lower taxes stimulates growth, choice empowers consumers and unnecessary expansions of government limit prosperity and liberty. What asshat views those are!
Yes, you are, quite. The old lower taxes argument: as dated as supply side economics and as accurate as David Stockman’s sales pitch since rescinded.
The choice argument for schools that is used by only those whose incomes can take advantage of tax deductions and tax credits disguised as the everyday citizens panacea for how to solve a problem without personal investment and accountability.
I’ll give you credit for your willingness to try to make a go of it while operating under the restrictions your past circumstances place on you. I simply question your decision to operate as a bottom feeder and shit thrower. Throw enough against a wall and some of it will stick. It beats research and subsequent informed presentation.
As to the asshattery and predilections, perhaps a long pause for personal inventory and reflection would be of help.
Political intrigue, innuendo of malfeasance, sexual titillation, idle promises of “more to come,” and a logic defying determination to humiliate his immediate family for pennies with his tales of conquest are more of this creature’s abilities and predilections.
……………………………
As to the asshattery and predilections, perhaps a long pause for personal inventory and reflection would be of help.
Another satisfied customer.
I gotta admit..he pretty much nailed it with that one, especially your first quoted paragraph.
I can’t imagine this site makes that much money that his wife simply overlooks his nonsense on here as just that. It makes most normal people think she just really doesn’t care.
I think lower taxes stimulates growth
The largest corporations hardly pay any taxes anymore. The income tax cuts pretty much always, ALWAYS go to the rich, who used to have a top tax bracket of 91% and now enjoy a top tax bracket of 39%. Of course, that only applies to the somewhat rich, because the obscenely rich pay mostly capital gains tax, which is now 20%.
This is what we get every time someone talks about tax cuts. The middle class rarely gets any significant relief, there are no offsetting tax increases to prevent a revenue drop, and spending never, ever gets cut. Hell, when the tax cutters DO contemplate spending cuts, it is never to any program except those who help the poor, the sick, the elderly, children, those who have fallen on hard times, the disabled… That’s who is overwhelmingly helped by programs like food stamps, Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, etc.
For a bunch of people who whine about “government theft,” the real joke is that the tax cut crowd ensures a greater amount of theft is perpetrated on the working class by shifting the tax burden more onto them and running up a huge debt via greatly increased spending that more often than not benefits the rich. Of course, the Federal Reserve also runs predominantly for the TBTF banks, so eventually our debt and currency will be worthless anyways, again, largely for the benefit of the rich.
choice empowers consumers
Competition empowers and benefits consumers. “Choice” does not always equal competition. This is why we (and by “we” I mean a government that actually represents its peoples’ interest) punish things like collusion and price fixing. Of course, there are other functions that government serves that a “free market” may never do by itself, such as breaking up monopolies, preventing businesses from becoming too big to fail, and other regulations that either protect the consumer or fosters competition.
unnecessary expansions of government limit prosperity and liberty
There’s no contesting this other than pointing out that different people have different definitions of “unnecessary expansions.” There was a solid movement against such hugely popular programs as Social Security and Medicare. Even today some people think these programs shouldn’t exist, even though they fill a massive need for society. I suppose those programs aren’t absolutely necessary though, unless you have a problem with extreme poverty among the elderly.
“Competition empowers and benefits consumers. “Choice” does not always equal competition. This is why we (and by “we” I mean a government that actually represents its peoples’ interest) punish things like collusion and price fixing.”
…Bronze, Silver and Gold.
“There’s no contesting this other than pointing out that different people have different definitions of “unnecessary expansions.””
Everybody needs maternity benefits.
The sheep who only believe that the SEC is the only football worthy of watching. Yet an ACC team nearly unanimously tops all of the polls.
Good that you used the correct form there – “an ACC team”.
Why, because there is only one. Four of the top ten are SEC teams, two are from the Big Ten and no other conference has more than one. The team missing from the mix? The Clempson Bitter Kitties – who got beat by the current number 1. Let’s see what the final poll looks like in a few weeks.
Grasping at straws by a die hard Clemson fan who bleeds orange. 5 in a row must really cut you to the core. There’s always next year, Tiger. In the mean time, keep studying the Gamecocks depth chart and recruiting list so we can stay informed. You know more about our team that most of our fans.
Of that, I have no doubt.
Why not regale us on why that chicken stomps around in that cage like its feet are on fire, or what the real title of that fire extinguisher themed entrance music is?
if you can answer just those two questions, I’d bet your better off than 99% of your attending drunken student body who have to be bribed to stay past the 2nd quarter.
SEC is tops in football, but what goes on behind the scenes to get it there? I’d rather have a kid at Emory than Georgia. Wofford than USC, if we are talking roundball, Davidson before UNC. Having said that if my kid can get into USC Upstate and graduate I will be happy.
You are indirectly alluding to the “ridiculous” bowl system. We should be clear about what we are wishing for with a playoff system. It will represent a full transition from student-athlete to just athlete for elite football schools.
Unfortunately we are already there in many ways. I had Chris Culliver in a large lecture class several years ago. To the best of my knowledge, he did not come to any classes other than those where there was an exam. At the final, I asked him who he was (because I wanted to make sure he was really my student and not a stand-in) and he sheepishly replied with his name.
Culliver seemed like a nice young man so I don’t want to imply that he was doing anything that was even remotely underhanded. Instead, Culliver was responding to the incentives placed in front of him. In effect, he was being educated by student tutors provided by the athletics department. Frankly, I don’t care how students learn as long as they do learn – Culliver had a pretty solid C which is well more than he needed to go on and start for the 49’ers. HIs semester, however, is emblematic of the fact that athletic departments at elite schools (at least for the revenue sports) is already pretty well separated from the rest of the university. A playoff system, for better or worse, will exacerbate this separation.
How will a playoff system do that?
And perhaps universities with athletes should be some help to them by having them attend mandatory financial planning classes in the lottery winning chance they do get to the pros. Sweeping Jadaveon Clowney through a class on diagramming 17th century European poetry will help him no more than attending a semester of heat transfer or thermodynamics. He won’t learn anything in either one, and would probably fail both of them.
But explaining a no load 401K is better to invest his dead presidents than say, a garage full of whips with dubs, might help him if somehow he can remember it.
There’s the real irony…it was a finance class!
So how will a playoff system exacerbate the separation of student athletes from just regular students?
Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright;
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,
And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout;
But there is no joy in Clemson — mighty Dabo has struck out.
Who said that?
Meh..much like Carolina in its first 100 years of football, we’re over it.
If it were the new way today, the Seminoles could stand a good chance at winning still.
It would be a total waste of 10 if it did hang.
Are we still counting OSU’s win against Arkansas? I thought that win was vacated.
The Big Ten is the equivalent to baseball’s AAA.
I’ll make this easy for you.
SEC = scholastically easy conference. They cater to athletes.
ACC = academically challenging conference.
BIG 10 stands on it’s own.
A lot of SEC players including a bunch at uSC could not make it elsewhere.
I wonder if C J Spiller’s Clemson degree is hanging next to his Wonderlic Test score?
VoiceofReason didn’t go to college anywhere worth a shit. He is just over compensating for being a little band geek in high school whose parents had no money to send him anywhere, so he went to Midlands Tech and got a degree. Its an admirable thing for someone trying to get ahead with little recourses, but to act as arrogant or smug while trying to cover that fact up as he does, it makes VOR nothing more than a little turd. Trust me VOR didn’t go to a SEC or an ACC school, and sure as hell didn’t go to a Big Ten school. So the mere fact that they even chime in here on this site with no “dog in the fight” shows the pathetic nature of their life now. More than likely VOR also got their ass kick in college one too many times, and feels bad ass behind a computer screen now.
Have you actually seen his Wonderlic score? Have you actually seen anyone’s score. That does not mean you read it somewhere in the media or on a blog.
For your information: C.J. Spiller was the Bills’ last first-round pick before the 2011 collective bargaining agreement significantly reduced rookie
compensation. Spiller’s rookie deal contained $20 million in guaranteed
money and has a maximum value of $37.127 million, including up to
$12.8225 million in base salary escalators in 2013 and 2014. Spiller did
not trigger any escalators to his 2013 base salary, which at $1.3
million, places him outside the Top 25 in running back salaries this
season and represents outstanding value for a player whose 1,703 yards from scrimmage were the sixth-most in the NFL last season.
How are you doing salary-wise in 2013?
I never said the guy wasn’t a good football player, only a total dumbass who graduated from an “academically challenging conference” school. What are you, his agent?