CFN Thoughts
Fiutak: Yeah ... But
- Fiutak: Oregon vs. Kansas State? Yeah, But ...
- Cirminiello: SEC Is The Best League Without Question.
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Zemek: SEC, Welcome To A&M, And An Offense
-
Harrison: No Need For SEC In BCS Championship
-
Doan: The Crazy Problems With Wazzu
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Pete Fiutak
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Kansas State, Oregon, and Notre Dame, if two of you end up playing in the 2013 BCS championship, don’t you want to know you’re the national champion?
Don’t you want any and all doubt to be erased from the equation?
Don’t you want to keep jerkweed media types like me from yucking your yum with a big old, “yeah, but?”
America, you want an SEC team in your BCS
championship. You need an SEC team in your BCS
championship. Otherwise, the fans of whatever team
is victorious in Miami on January 7th will always
have a little something gnawing at them every time
they throw on their overpriced national championship
t-shirt.
I know, I know, I know, Alabama played two elite teams and needed an epic comeback against one (LSU) and lost at home to the other (Texas A&M), and Georgia got housed by South Carolina, and Florida lost to Georgia, but that’s sort of the overall point. Those
teams in the SEC are the elite.
There’s one elite team in the Pac-12. There’s one in the Big 12. There aren’t any in the Big Ten
or Big East, and Clemson and Florida State are
borderline stars from the ACC. It's all about the
schedules, and at the moment, if you're not in the
SEC, and until you get a win over one of the six SEC
teams ranked in the top nine in the latest BCS
standings, you still have to earn your stripes.
Sorry, Wildcats, Ducks and Irish, but this year, if you don’t have a notch in the win column against one of the top-ranked SEC teams, you’ve done nothing more than bat .482 in AAA.
Stop right there.
Don’t throw out the childish “(team) is unbeaten and the SEC champion will have a loss”
line of bull muffins - it demeans us both and makes
America dumber and fatter. The elite of the elite SEC teams – Alabama,
LSU, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina and Texas A&M – all lost to each other. There’s no leakage here, and despite the great seasons from the top three teams in the BCS, there’s nothing to suggest that they wouldn’t have at least one
loss if they were thrown into this tumbler of top teams, too.
At the moment, the Kansas State-Oregon-Notre Dame BCS championship debate
basically boils down to the same old Boise State argument, only beefed up a few notches.
Of course any of the top teams could beat anyone in
the SEC in a one shot chance, but could any of the
top three deal with what South Carolina was handed
with Georgia, at LSU and at Florida in
back-to-back-to-back weeks without a blemish?
Really, you're going to sit there and honestly argue
that Kansas State could've been 4-0 against LSU's
run of at Florida, South Carolina, at Texas A&M and
Alabama? You don't really believe Notre Dame would
be 12-0 with Florida's schedule that includes at
Texas A&M, LSU, South Carolina, Georgia, and at
Florida State, do you?
Yeah, it would be amazing if Kansas State went 12-0 with a Big 12 title.
Yeah, I'd like to see a 13-0 Oregon on the big
stage. Yeah, Notre Dame has done everything asked of
it so
far.
Yeah … but …
And don’t try to dismiss this as the inane ramblings
of an SEC homer. I’ll be more than happy to bust out a slew of wildly inappropriate and stunningly creepy items of correspondence
penned by several good people from the Great State of Alabama wanting to see harm done to me for my incessant screaming
all throughout the end of last season that the Crimson Tide didn’t deserve to play for the BCS championship over an Oklahoma State team that finished on top of 2011’s strongest conference.
You know, and I know that you know, and you know that I know that you know that if you were hooked up to a lie detector and had to bet the house, the car, the kids, your stock options, your virtue – okay, so maybe
just the kids – you’d absolutely take Alabama over Kansas State, Oregon or Notre Dame in a BCS championship with Nick Saban and his staff getting six weeks to prepare. And why wouldn’t you?
Is it the seemingly endless string of national championships won by the SEC? Is it Saban’s track record and the way Alabama came up with a brilliant gameplan to shut down LSU after getting a second shot? Is it that you know in your heart of hearts that Kansas State, Oregon and Notre Dame – despite all playing solid schedules according to all the computer formulas and models – really haven’t had to step up to the big leagues? Is it that Oregon and Kansas State haven’t proven they could get over the national title hump under their current head coaches, or is it that the Irish needed every miracle in the bag to get by Pitt and Stanford?
However, do NOT get me wrong, I’m not saying Kansas State can’t beat Alabama. I’m not suggesting that Oregon would have no shot against Georgia and I’m not arguing that Notre Dame couldn’t come up with a win against anyone in the SEC. The point is that I
want and need to see it. I want to know my 2012 national champion is bona fide and without any question marks, and that can’t happen until I’m able to watch some team ram its running game right up the SEC’s … interior defense.
I have to witness Mike Tyson fumbling around on the mat for the mouthpiece that Buster Douglas blasted away. I have to see Dennis Eckersley hang it over the plate for Kirk Gibson to bash. I want to see Adam Vinatieri’s kick go through
the uprights. I want to see someone take the SEC's
title.
Even with all of that, yeah, I’m more than
willing and happy to potentially concede this entire
rant in a hiccup if the ACC can take care of business when Florida State faces Florida, Georgia Tech plays Georgia and Clemson plays South Carolina, and it’s all over if the SEC champion has two losses
or if the one-loss SEC champ loses the Sugar Bowl,
but, I still would want to see someone beat
a 12-1 Alabama.
I’m well aware of what it’s like to question the SEC when I picked Texas to beat Alabama in the 2010 BCS championship, and when I thought Ohio State would thump Florida in Glendale in 2007.
I learned my lesson, and the 2012 college football
season needs to, too.
Prove it to me, Kansas State, Oregon or Notre
Dame. Yeah, prove it to the college football world, so the
naysayers aren't a pain in the butt on January 8th.
- Fiutak: Oregon vs. Kansas State? Yeah, But ...
- Cirminiello: SEC Is The Best League Without Question.
-
Zemek: SEC, Welcome To A&M, And An Offense
-
Harrison: No Need For SEC In BCS Championship
-
Doan: The Crazy Problems With Wazzu