Cecil Hurt
TideSports.com Columnist
Not surprisingly, this week's matchup between the consensus No. 1 team in the Football Bowl Subdivision and another who is consensus No. 125 or so has sparked the usual debate over, "Why?"
Georgia Southern may not be the worst big-division team, a rating as subjective as choosing the best, given the struggles of other squads such as Eastern Michigan and Florida International, but the Panthers are in the conversation. This is not the "lower division" discussion - that comes later when Alabama plays Chattanooga.
Nick Saban himself is already on record as saying that an NCAA-wide rule against matchups like that (or Ohio State-Florida A&M, or Miami-Savannah State) would be welcome. But this isn't the same thing.
As it has turned out, Alabama is at the top of the FBS and Georgia State clearly isn't. But does that mean some sort of rule could be imposed against these games, too? What would be the parameters? Is there any difference, from that standpoint, in Alabama playing Georgia State and Tennessee playing South Alabama? After all, Tennessee is a traditional SEC power, just like Alabama.
Right now, the programs aren't equal, but that isn't a situation that will never change in the future. Meanwhile, South Alabama, like Georgia State, is in its fifth year as a full-fledged program, but under former Alabama receiver Joey Jones, the Jaguars are a blossoming program.
Should there have been an SEC rule against last week's
Tennessee-South Alabama game? The Jaguars lost by a touchdown.
Do you think they considered that game a detriment to their program? Had the Jaguars completed a last-second pass into the UT end zone, USA would have had a shot at a program-making upset. Should we legislate against that chance? Should we single out Alabama and ban such games because the Crimson Tide is "too good?"
That does beg the question: Why doesn't Alabama play South Alabama? I would have no problem with that if both institutions think it is best. There shouldn't be any intrinsic issue about in-state schools playing one another under those circumstances.
The only problem comes when one school wants to dictate to another - one that has been building college football in this state for 100 years - that they "have" to play whether the administration at the latter institution wants to or not.
At the moment, there is uncertainty in Alabama's future schedule as the SEC drifts toward the eventual advent of the nine-game schedule. That is why the other recent scheduling story in the news - the cancellation of a home-and-home series with Michigan State - is hardly the drama some columnists made it out to be.
The Spartans' spot on the schedule isn't going to be filled by Popcorn State. It will be filled by a home-and-home with Vanderbilt, or Missouri, or, in good years, Georgia or Florida.
That will leave three nonconference games, not four, and Alabama intends to continue its commitment to quality neutral-site games. That doesn't mean that games like Alabama-Georgia State - economic necessities - will disappear. But it doesn't mean that they will the norm either.
http://alabama.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1556533
TideSports.com Columnist
Not surprisingly, this week's matchup between the consensus No. 1 team in the Football Bowl Subdivision and another who is consensus No. 125 or so has sparked the usual debate over, "Why?"
Georgia Southern may not be the worst big-division team, a rating as subjective as choosing the best, given the struggles of other squads such as Eastern Michigan and Florida International, but the Panthers are in the conversation. This is not the "lower division" discussion - that comes later when Alabama plays Chattanooga.
Nick Saban himself is already on record as saying that an NCAA-wide rule against matchups like that (or Ohio State-Florida A&M, or Miami-Savannah State) would be welcome. But this isn't the same thing.
As it has turned out, Alabama is at the top of the FBS and Georgia State clearly isn't. But does that mean some sort of rule could be imposed against these games, too? What would be the parameters? Is there any difference, from that standpoint, in Alabama playing Georgia State and Tennessee playing South Alabama? After all, Tennessee is a traditional SEC power, just like Alabama.
Right now, the programs aren't equal, but that isn't a situation that will never change in the future. Meanwhile, South Alabama, like Georgia State, is in its fifth year as a full-fledged program, but under former Alabama receiver Joey Jones, the Jaguars are a blossoming program.
Should there have been an SEC rule against last week's
Tennessee-South Alabama game? The Jaguars lost by a touchdown.
Do you think they considered that game a detriment to their program? Had the Jaguars completed a last-second pass into the UT end zone, USA would have had a shot at a program-making upset. Should we legislate against that chance? Should we single out Alabama and ban such games because the Crimson Tide is "too good?"
That does beg the question: Why doesn't Alabama play South Alabama? I would have no problem with that if both institutions think it is best. There shouldn't be any intrinsic issue about in-state schools playing one another under those circumstances.
The only problem comes when one school wants to dictate to another - one that has been building college football in this state for 100 years - that they "have" to play whether the administration at the latter institution wants to or not.
At the moment, there is uncertainty in Alabama's future schedule as the SEC drifts toward the eventual advent of the nine-game schedule. That is why the other recent scheduling story in the news - the cancellation of a home-and-home series with Michigan State - is hardly the drama some columnists made it out to be.
The Spartans' spot on the schedule isn't going to be filled by Popcorn State. It will be filled by a home-and-home with Vanderbilt, or Missouri, or, in good years, Georgia or Florida.
That will leave three nonconference games, not four, and Alabama intends to continue its commitment to quality neutral-site games. That doesn't mean that games like Alabama-Georgia State - economic necessities - will disappear. But it doesn't mean that they will the norm either.
http://alabama.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1556533
