Texas A&M? The team that lost six games in the Big XII last year? Alabama loses to those punks at home? They don’t deserve a sniff at the National Championship Game. Let them play Northwestern in the Detroit Bowl.
It’s not 2011, just so you know.
No, it isn’t. This year you have another conferences rejects you have to play against. Apparently it’s not working out too well.
Nobody wins them all. I doubt the Tide will see another loss this season. See you next year for more Bama-to-the-title-game talk. And the next year. And the one after that. And…well, you get it.
A possible SEC title, a 12-1 season, and an outside shot at the NC still alive. Not horrible.
Roll Tide.
Wow, are your posts always this full of shit? Have you seen the records of Missouri this season? Do you honestly not think A&M is better this year than last year? And why on earth do you think the expansion isn’t working for the SEC? It’s been an awesome move.
And neither team was rejected by the Big XII. At least we didn’t go after schools from the Big East in a desperate attempt to save the conference. How sad.
Lots of crybabies from other conferences popping up on the internet whenever the SEC is mentioned. Try saying something less stupid next time.
Missouri? You mean the team that would have beaten #7 (Ha!) Florida by three touchdowns last week if their quarterback didn’t overthrow his receivers by ten yards every time and gave up four interceptions?
A&M is better this year because they get to play against Auburn and Vanderbilt and Mississippi State and yes, Alabama.
Up front: on one hand, I don’t like the SEC, HATE most of their their fans, and always have. On the other hand, I recognize that they’re USUALLY the NCAA’s strongest football conference.
Now… are they the strongest football conference THIS year? Who the hell knows? Almost nobody in the SEC this year has any quality wins against teams outside the SEC, so we don’t have much to go on.
What IS clear is that the geniuses behind the BCS rankings are just ASSUMING that the SEC is the most awesome conference imaginable, and is therefore discounting their teams’ losses.
LSU has NO quality wins outside the SEC and has lost 2 games, but that’s okay! They’re still in the BCS top 9 because losses within the SEC don’t count.
Georgia has NO wins over quality opponents from outside the SEC, and they got HAMMERED by South Carolina. But that’s okay! They’re still ranked #5 by the BCS, who figure losing to another SEC team is just good as winning.
Florida has NO quality wins outside the SEC and BARELY beat Louisiana-Lafayette. But they STILL end up #6 because… hey, they’re in the SEC, so they MUST be a juggernaut!
Yes, I’m being sarcastic, but let’s be realistic: is the SEC really THAT good? How do we know? Their top teams haven’t beaten, or even PLAYED anybody good! The BCS and SEC fans are just taking it for granted that the SEC is phenomenal. The record doesn’t give us any evidence of that. The fans and the BCS may be right… but until there’s a REAL playoff, it’s all just guesswork.
This is out of line for this forum…you should know by now to take to the Pit the problems you have with other posters.
Don’t post like this again.
So, the answer to my first question is obviously a resounding “yes”.
I have no clue why idle thoughts thinks I need to pit you. It’s always been within the rules to call content stupid on this board, and your posts are chock full of it.
asorian, which team in the Top 20 has a quality OOC win that is more impressive than Alabama’s over Michigan?
As opposed to Baylor, Kansas and Iowa State? Or Texas?
I don’t at all think it’s a matter of A&M shifting to the SEC and finding it somehow drastically easier than the Big 12.
It’s absolutely a matter of A&M getting a very talented young coach in Kevin Sumlin who can motivate his players in a way that old geezers like Dennis Francione and Mike Sherman never could, and Sumlin also runs an offensive scheme totally out of line with the traditional SEC style of football.
Combine those two, add a dose of enthusiasm for being out from under UT’s thumb (that’s the perception anyway), and you have a recipe for a very good record.
I think the good teams in the Big 12 and SEC are roughly equivalent, although the play styles are different.
Don’t forget the addition of a Heisman Trophy candidate.
Right now, Notre Dame (which is still an independent) is the only team I know of with wins against ranked teams from multiple conferences.
But that doesn’t change a thing I’ve said. It’s STILL a fact that we don’t know and CAN’T know if the SEC is better than all the other conferences, because they have almost no games (let alone wins) over quality out of conference teams. The SEC just gets the automatic benefit of the doubt from voters. MAYBE they deserve it, but we have no way of knowing that. When A & M, a middle of the pack Big 12 school, comes in a does this well, there’s good reason to doubt that the SEC is as high above everyone else as we’ve been told.
Moreover, it’s funny how SEC fans change their minds about the Big Ten, depending on what argument they’re trying to make.
Alabama fans want to argue simultaneously that their win over Michigan proves they’re worldbeaters AND that Notre Dame’s win over Michigan is meaningless because Michigan isn’t that good. They want to claim simultaneously that they’re a superteam because they beat Michigan… but that Ohio State’s perfect record doesn’t count because the Big Ten is weak.
I am NOT saying the SEC isn’t good- merely that assumptions and guesswork should have no place in determining a champion.
Michigan is no great shakes this year, they just started the season ranked too high because the poll voters overrated Denard Robinson.
I’d say Bama’s win over Michigan is the SEC’s best OOC game thus far, though SCar and Florida finish the season on the road against Clemson and FSU, respectively. I’d put a win over either of those teams over Michigan.
As for the rest of the Top 20, though it wasn’t technically an OOC game, I think Notre Dame’s drubbing of Oklahoma in Norman was the most impressive OOC win (Oklahoma isn’t normally on ND’s schedule), and I’d give a slight edge to UCLA’s win over Nebraska.
I still think Bama is one of the top teams in college football this year, but I also think that everyone’s perception of them has been skewed by the sight of their defense flying around and dominating an overrated Michigan squad, in addition to the SEC Poll Bump.
astorian, I’ve never heard any of the arguments you mention in your post. Nobody is arguing that about Ohio State because they don’t matter. Nobody is arguing that the ND victory over Mich is meaningless, because ND has several wins that are stronger. You’ve created an army of strawmen.
And the pollsters aren’t guaranteeing anything about the SEC. They have to rank a bunch of teams, none of whom have quality OOC wins, and they need to use some criteria. So, they watch the teams play and they take into consideration the very recent history of the successes of the various conferences. Considering there are no SEC teams in the Top 3, I’d say they’re being plenty fair about National Championship possibilities.
Agree. The point I was making by bringing up Bama/Mich is that nobody has any big OOC wins.
You already rejected that argument upthread. Recent history doesn’t count, remember. Missouri, a mediocre team for decades in the Big XII, just became a great team this year simply because they joined the SEC.
I didn’t say any of those things. Not one. You’re the one trying to inflate what Missouri has done, not me.
A&M won because they have a fantastically talented quarterback, a fired up team and coach with something to prove, and a game plan that strikes right into Nick Saban’s defensive weaknesses. What teams have historically given Saban era defenses trouble? Cam Newton at Auburn. Tebow at Florida. Johnny Football at A&M. The Triple option at Georgia Southern.
His plan is to stuff the run and hope the quarterback makes stupid mistakes. Generally, this works. But when the quarterback can consistently throw the deep ball and move around comfortably inside and out of the pocket, your only defense is to have an incredibly talented backfield playing man coverage. Bama’s backfield is merely really, really good.
A&M won because they’re a talented team with a great game plan.
What Ogre said. Roll Tide.
BTW, Oregon State beat Wisconsin, a much better team than Michigan. Michigan hasn’t been good for nearly a decade. Typical SEC fans, they can tell you the middle name of Vanderbilt’s backup punter’s little sister, but anything that happens outside of Dixie is a complete mystery to them.