[NU Sports] What a wild day!

[Mark Ament]

I have stayed out of this blasting of the Big East for about a week now, 
and promised myself I wouldn't get involved at all, but after yesterday 
for it to continue was just too much.  Why anyone continues to believe 
the SEC is the best conference is beyond me.  How have they shown it on 
the field?  With the exception of Tennessee's win over Cal in the 
opener, which was Longshore's first game in two years, SEC teams have no 
noteworthy out of conference wins.  The fact is, for the most part, they 
refuse to play anyone out of the conference.  Florida's out of 
conference schedule consists So. Miss, UCF, Western Carolina and FSU, 
all noted heavyweights.  I'll give you Florida State in most years, but 
otherwise where's the decent team?

There has been a lot of talk about the Big East's weak non-conference 
schedule.  Louisville played at Kansas State (who beat Texas), game was 
scheduled when it was a consistent top 10 school.  The Cards played 
Miami, ranked 17 at the time and usually in top 5 at the time game was 
scheduled. Louisville has asked every school in the SEC, ACC, Big XII 
and Big Ten for games and has been turned down and/or has had contracts 
canceled by every school except Kentucky(required by state politics 
although UK wishes it weren't so), NC State in future years, and Georgia 
in 2010,2011.  Louisville has even offered to play several SEC schools 
at neutral sites and been turned down. You can't toughen up your 
schedule if no one will agree to play you.  It is the ultimate in 
hypocrisy for these SEC coaches to stand up and bitch about Louisville 
or Rutgers having a high BCS ranking because they are undefeated but 
don't play the "tough" SEC schedule and then refuse to schedule these 
same schools when given the opportunity. 

Anyway, back to the original point, I don't think the SEC is the best 
conference this year because all they have proved so far is that they 
can beat each other up.  They haven't gone out and proved that they can 
beat anyone else.  In fact, there are so few games between top teams 
from different conferences because of the BCS rankings, that we can't 
really tell anything until bowl games anymore.  That said, I would put 
the SEC about third or fourth behind the Big Ten, Pac 10 and the Big East.
Mark

SjT (Stephen J. Truog) wrote:
>> Good analysis, but I don't think the SEC is the best
>> conference this  year. 
>> Arkansas is the only really good team. As much as I
>>     
>
> The problem is - if the SEC isn't, who is?
>
> The Big XII? Some of the lower pack are improving,
> like Okie State, KSU and Mizzou, but still not there.
>
> The ACC? They're a mess of mediocrity with no one
> scared of the two old bullies from FSU/Miami anymore,
> but no real stellar team.
>
> The Pac 10? Fun football and some good teams at the
> top, but the depth isn't there.
>
> The Big Least? Uh ... next! Seriously, their big three
> can't beat any other league's top three and after that
> it's really bad.
>
> The Big Ten is the only league that's close as they
> usually match the SEC year-for-year in depth and teams
> at the top. But while we definitely have the edge in
> teams at the top this year, the depth is a bit shaky.
> Yes, 8 of the 11 teams are still in the bowl hunt, but
> instead of the usual 3-5 very good teams on top, we
> have two super teams and the middle has dropped a bit.
>
> It's close as usual with the Big Ten and SEC, but with
> their bottom tier like Vandy and Kentucky improved, I
> give the SEC the egde. They may lack the stud at the
> top (though Florida or Arkansas would give
> OSU/Michigan a heck of a game), but after the top two,
> they still have Rocky Top, Auburn, Georgia, Alabama,
> LSU and Spurrier State and that's tough to find in any
> other league. Especially those speedy defenses.
>
> But it still has to play out, of course - I could see
> Arkansas losing to LSU but beating Florida ... USC
> losing to Cal but beating ND and WVU beating Rutgers
> and more chaos ensuing. Then we'd easily have a
> rematch of Saturday's game in Columbus.
>
> GO CATS!!!
> -SjT
>
> * * * * * * * * *
> STEPHEN J. TRUOG
> sjtruog at yahoo.com
> GO CATS!!!
>
>
>  
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