SEC Bias

[businesslawyer]

I'm confused. Isn't that what I said? LSU should have played in the NC Game. Alabama should not have.

I was not disagreeing with you.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I'm confused. Isn't that what I said? LSU should have played in the NC Game. Alabama should not have.

I feel the same way. Bama had their chance in the regular season.

By the way, that 3-4 Washington team is, to my eyes, possibly better than Rutgers. The shouldn't have lost to Arizona, but played Oregon, Stanford, LSU and USC. Pretty brutal early schedule. If they can knock off Oregon St. they may win out.

 

[UC990411]

The important thing to understand about Rutgers, for any conference that might be thinking of inviting them, is that we need to go along too. It is only through their rivalry with us that they have been able to be as good as they are. If you take away their rivalry with us, they will turn into being a really bad team. What made Rutgers what they are today is us. So while I guess you could give some credit to their coaching staff or whatever, I would make the argument that we are the more important piece of the puzzle. It would be one of the stupidest things any conference could do to invite them and not us at the same time. We are the more important part of the equation in making Rutgers the great team they are, than they are themselves. So if anyone out there reading this board is from a conference doing team shopping, you'd be wise to pay attention to what I've said here when it's time to add some more teams to your conference.

So Rutgers can thank us for being competitive again? Huh? That one takes the cake in this thread, and this thread had someone say the BE was better than the SEC.

 

[lv99]

So Rutgers can thank us for being competitive again? Huh? That one takes the cake in this thread, and this thread had someone say the BE was better than the SEC.

Yes, you're reading me loud and clear. Rutgers should be down on their hands and knees thanking us for what we've done for them.

Let's take a look at the facts, shall we? Every single year of their existence before this year, Rutgers has been terrible at football. Rutgers was the first team to play college football. So they're not new at being terrible at football. They've had a lot of practice. I mean, it's not like they're suddenly just going to happen to get good. A hundred years is kind of a trend. Now, all the sudden, when Syracuse, Pittsburgh, and West Virginia leave, they suddenly become good. Coincidence? Unlikely. Before, they were distracted by competing with those teams and couldn't focus on hating us, their true rival.

How about another example? Boston College left the Big East and they became terrible at everything. Without the ability to play us, the hate was gone. When they couldn't play with hatred in their hearts, they no longer could play at all. Every sport of theirs is terrible. They can't even play soccer.

Let this be a lesson to those of you out their doing team shopping for your conferences. You have been warned. If you only take Rutgers, you're just going to have another Boston College on your hands. You don't want that. Are you listening Big Ten, Big 12, and ACC? You need to take us too.

 

[John Greene]

Why should a 2 loss South Carolina team (one that just got killed, by the way), be ranked ahead of an undefeated team like Rutgers? South Carolina and one impressive win (Georgia)?

There is so much SEC hype that they usually schedule terrible OOC schedule, beat up on the bottom teams (Vandy, Kentucky, Ole Miss, Miss St [usually], Tennessee, Auburn, Missouri [this year]), and then when one of them comes out by beating one or two necessary good teams they need to play, they're suddenly in the BCS title game.

A couple of ramdom points.

This perception will remain until some non SEC teams start to beat SEC teams in the championship game. I don't believe that has happened to date.

Don't have any personal exposure to the other conferences but over the last three years I have seen 2-3 conference games each year in the BE, ACC, and SEC. There has been no comparison. The SEC games had better athletes and coaching. The speed, hitting etc. were on another level from either of the other two.

 

[blitz8ru]

WOW... an entire thread dedicated to Rutgers vs South Carolina on a UConn board...

Arkansas is BETTER than their record and I would be surprised if they end the regular season 6-6 and in a bowl vs a Big East or CUSA or MAC team and blow them out to go 7-6 on the season... You have to remember that WITH QB Tyler Wilson (will likely go in the top 20 of the 1st rd in the 2013 NFL draft), Arkansas doesn't lose to LMU (Arky was up 28-7 at the half before Wilson was injured for the 2nd half and all off the Alabama game) and Arky doesn't get blown out by Bama... Without the injury, Arky likely finishes the season 7-5 and RU would have gotten a win over a ranked opponent OOC (they would have been 2-1 entering the RU game)... If you remember before the Arky-RU game no one was giving us a chance off winning if Tyler Wilson was back 100% (which he was)...

FYI we also lost our starting FB and 1st and 2nd string NTs for the season after the Arky game. So our run O and run D was actually a little better at the start off the year than it was after game 4. Though it is starting to get better with the b backups gaining more experience in those areas...

Our pass and run D is pretty good. We don't allow very many yards rushing and though we DO let up a lot of passing yards (partly due to all off our opponents so far playing from behind, there were only 3 games this year where we trailed at any point in the game). Our pass efficency D is top 20 with us leading the BE in INTs and PDs (#3 in the country in INTs) and our scoring D is #3 in the country (11.3pts/game), only behind ND and Alabama. Our special teams as you know are also pretty good... though our punt returns leave a LOT to be desired and our punting CAN be inconsistent...

Our O is inconsistent and WAS penalty prone... Penalties have gone down these past few games though... When our O gets hot it's hard to stop (ie. vs Temple where we scored 21pts in the 3rd quarter and 14pts in the early 4th quarter). Our main problem on O is consistency. Consistency run blocking, catching passes and throwing accurately... We are getting better every week in this area...

As for the SEC...

Rutgers would WIN 1/10 Times
Florida 7-0(6-0)
Alabama 7-0(4-0)
LSU 7-1(3-1)

Rutgers would WIN 4/10 Times
Georgia 6-1(4-1)
South Carolina 6-2(4-2)
Texas A&M 5-2(2-2)

Rutgers would WIN 7/10 Times
Mississippi State 7-0(3-0)
Arkansas 3-4(2-2)

Rutgers would WIN 8/10 Times
Vanderbilt 3-4(2-3)
Ole Miss 4-3(1-2)
Missouri 3-4(0-4)
Tennessee 3-4(0-4)

Rutgers would WIN 9/10 Times
Auburn 1-6(0-5)
Kentucky 1-7(0-5)

This year IMO we would be anywhere from the 4th to 6th best SEC team (we are arguably the best team in the BE)... 3rd or 4th in the SEC-West and 2nd or 3rd in the SEC-East... BTW if we had played Miss State's schedule... we'd be undefeated right now as well and would likely finish 9-3 and maybe 10-2 with that schedule...

JMHO...

 

[Marty Jackson]

A couple of ramdom points.

This perception will remain until some non SEC teams start to beat SEC teams in the championship game. I don't believe that has happened to date.

Don't have any personal exposure to the other conferences but over the last three years I have seen 2-3 conference games each year in the BE, ACC, and SEC. There has been no comparison. The SEC games had better athletes and coaching. The speed, hitting etc. were on another level from either of the other two.

Fair points... But when two SEC teams play in the NC because of the bias, doesn't really give anyone a chance...
And no, Alabama did not deserve to be in the NC.

 

[mets1090]

The playoff will at least give other conferences a chance. We will probably see 2 SEC teams and 2 non-SEC teams. Hopefully in that scenario the non-SEC teams will play the SEC teams in the first round giving them both a chance to win against an SEC team. Of course they could both get beat in the first round, but that just proves it isn't bias. Doesn't mean you have to like it, it just means it isn't unfair.

 

[RMoore1999]

Fair points... But when two SEC teams play in the NC because of the bias, doesn't really give anyone a chance...
And no, Alabama did not deserve to be in the NC.

BCS is not designed to identify the 2 most deserving team, but rather the 2 best teams. "Best" is obviously subjective. I agree there is validity to the argument that Bama was not necessarily most deserving last year, but I beleive they were a better team than OKST (and LSU).

 

[UC990411]

WOW... an entire thread dedicated to Rutgers vs South Carolina on a UConn board...

Arkansas is BETTER than their record and I would be surprised if they end the regular season 6-6 and in a bowl vs a Big East or CUSA or MAC team and blow them out to go 7-6 on the season... You have to remember that WITH QB Tyler Wilson (will likely go in the top 20 of the 1st rd in the 2013 NFL draft), Arkansas doesn't lose to LMU (Arky was up 28-7 at the half before Wilson was injured for the 2nd half and all off the Alabama game) and Arky doesn't get blown out by Bama... Without the injury, Arky likely finishes the season 7-5 and RU would have gotten a win over a ranked opponent OOC (they would have been 2-1 entering the RU game)... If you remember before the Arky-RU game no one was giving us a chance off winning if Tyler Wilson was back 100% (which he was)...

FYI we also lost our starting FB and 1st and 2nd string NTs for the season after the Arky game. So our run O and run D was actually a little better at the start off the year than it was after game 4. Though it is starting to get better with the b backups gaining more experience in those areas...

Our pass and run D is pretty good. We don't allow very many yards rushing and though we DO let up a lot of passing yards (partly due to all off our opponents so far playing from behind, there were only 3 games this year where we trailed at any point in the game). Our pass efficency D is top 20 with us leading the BE in INTs and PDs (#3 in the country in INTs) and our scoring D is #3 in the country (11.3pts/game), only behind ND and Alabama. Our special teams as you know are also pretty good... though our punt returns leave a LOT to be desired and our punting CAN be inconsistent...

Our O is inconsistent and WAS penalty prone... Penalties have gone down these past few games though... When our O gets hot it's hard to stop (ie. vs Temple where we scored 21pts in the 3rd quarter and 14pts in the early 4th quarter). Our main problem on O is consistency. Consistency run blocking, catching passes and throwing accurately... We are getting better every week in this area...

As for the SEC...

Rutgers would WIN 1/10 Times
Florida 7-0(6-0)
Alabama 7-0(4-0)
LSU 7-1(3-1)

Rutgers would WIN 4/10 Times
Georgia 6-1(4-1)
South Carolina 6-2(4-2)
Texas A&M 5-2(2-2)

Rutgers would WIN 7/10 Times
Mississippi State 7-0(3-0)
Arkansas 3-4(2-2)

Rutgers would WIN 8/10 Times
Vanderbilt 3-4(2-3)
Ole Miss 4-3(1-2)
Missouri 3-4(0-4)
Tennessee 3-4(0-4)

Rutgers would WIN 9/10 Times
Auburn 1-6(0-5)
Kentucky 1-7(0-5)

This year IMO we would be anywhere from the 4th to 6th best SEC team (we are arguably the best team in the BE)... 3rd or 4th in the SEC-West and 2nd or 3rd in the SEC-East... BTW if we had played Miss State's schedule... we'd be undefeated right now as well and would likely finish 9-3 and maybe 10-2 with that schedule...

JMHO...

You ignored the real question, does UConn being FBS make you better?

 

[Marty Jackson]

BCS is not designed to identify the 2 most deserving team, but rather the 2 best teams. "Best" is obviously subjective. I agree there is validity to the argument that Bama was not necessarily most deserving last year, but I beleive they were a better team than OKST (and LSU).

Interesting albeit convenient point.
Alabama did not deserve to be in the nc because they weren't the 2nd best team.

 

[RMoore1999]

Interesting albeit convenient point.
Alabama did not deserve to be in the nc because they weren't the 2nd best team.

True. They were THE best team. They convincingly beat LSU, the 2nd best team. I actually prefer a 4-team playoff to consist of the "best" deserving teams, i.e. the 4 best conference champs. I have no problem with the SEC team with the 2nd best record being excluded from the playoff, even if i think they're the best team, because a small playoff should be limited to deserving teams.

 

[uconnfan68]

Do you think this year's SC is the same as that year's SC?

Of course not. And I'm not sure Rutgers is the same as the Uconn team of that year either. I was somewhat impressed by them. Thought we had a slight chance, but they really waxed us in the second half.

 

[ZooCougar]

Our offense was pretty explosive that year. We could get it done on the ground and in the air.

Of course not. And I'm not sure Rutgers is the same as the Uconn team of that year either. I was somewhat impressed by them. Thought we had a slight chance, but they really waxed us in the second half.

 

[blitz8ru]

You ignored the real question, does UConn being FBS make you better?

off course not... what makes us better is being able to keep NJ's top recruits home while having a stable program... UConn being FBS doesn't help or hurt us...

 

[Marty Jackson]

True. They were THE best team. They convincingly beat LSU, the 2nd best team. I actually prefer a 4-team playoff to consist of the "best" deserving teams, i.e. the 4 best conference champs. I have no problem with the SEC team with the 2nd best record being excluded from the playoff, even if i think they're the best team, because a small playoff should be limited to deserving teams.

They lost to LSU earlier in the season. Zero chance bama is rated over LSU going into championship. But because the sec bias, bama with the same record as ok st gets the nod.

Big 12 was a better league top to bottom last year.

Sure, bama won the nc. But a system that specifically tries to match the the two best teams, failed last year.

Some people think the beauty of the current system is that it leaves room for debate. In that case it worked. A fair playoff open to a decent pool of competitive teams will end that and provide a true champion crowned on the field, not in the media, rankings, or debates. We're not quite there, but getting closer.

 

[RMoore1999]

They lost to LSU earlier in the season. Zero chance bama is rated over LSU going into championship. But because the sec bias, bama with the same record as ok st gets the nod.

Big 12 was a better league top to bottom last year.

Sure, bama won the nc. But a system that specifically tries to match the the two best teams, failed last year.

Some people think the beauty of the current system is that it leaves room for debate. In that case it worked. A fair playoff open to a decent pool of competitive teams will end that and provide a true champion crowned on the field, not in the media, rankings, or debates. We're not quite there, but getting closer.

Agree with your last paragraph. I don't like the BCS, and can't wait for the playoff to expand to 8. In watching both teams, Just thought Bama was "better" team than OKST, and in comparing resumes, Bama was at least as, if not more, "deserving" than the Cowboys to play for NC under the existing format.