Cecil Hurt
TideSports.com Columnist
Here it is, just a day since the fireworks and flags and cookouts, and yet Monday we'll be just a week away from another uniquely American phenomenon: SEC Media Days.
The ever-expanding interest in what the SEC football coaches have to say, and the increasing logistical challenges of bringing 14 busy coaches together, has pushed the league's giant media gathering earlier and earlier - further than ever from the actual first game - but that doesn't dampen the enthusiasm. If anything, things only get more giddy, and fans more excited.
That's what is so American about SEC Media Days. It certainly isn't the production of any fabulous First Amendment journalism. The more credentialed representatives who show up in Hoover - and it has reached the point where it can fairly be called a "horde" - the less actual news emerges.
On the other hand, like the Fourth of July, SEC Media Days is a celebration of the optimist. As negative as social media can seem at times, America is essentially optimistic. We don't celebrate the founding of a sinking ship. A good comparison, perhaps, is the upcoming presidential primaries. Only one candidate can emerge with the Republican nomination, for instance, but that hasn't stopped a dozen candidates from jumping in with what one has to assume is some sort of hope. As in Iowa, so it is in Hoover. Fourteen coaches will give similar stump speeches and sound bites. Ultimately, only one can win, but that is a matter for the season to settle.
The math problem is one that is worth solving, however. One team will meet expectations, or perhaps zero. Amazingly, there are some people who think that the team that won the league in 2014 and made it to the Colllege Football Playoff somehow didn't meet "expectations." That may say more about what Nick Saban has created at Alabama than anything else, but it does happen.
So, while all the talk next week will be about how good things are going to be, who are the teams that won't live up to the hype? What happens to them? In the Western Division, for instance, Alabama is expected to have a big year because of the reason discussed above: that's always the case in the Saban Era.
Auburn may well be the media choice to win the division despite going 8-5 last year. Ole Miss and Mississippi State tasted success last year, until the end, and don't expect to slip quietly into obscurity. LSU and Texas A&M were minor disappointments last year and think the law of averages (and big recruiting years) will make things different. Arkansas was a tough team last year and seems pleased with what Bret Bielema is building.
But someone's fireworks must, inevitably, fizzle. All seven teams in the division can't win every game, or even come close. So what happens at the school that finishes seventh? There were no coaching changes in the West last year. There was only one, Florida, in the entire league. Can that happen again?
My guess is the Mississippi schools will backslide a good bit, but that is just a guess. Auburn often seems to do better when expectations are low, but perhaps that will change this year.
When the coming week passes and the positive energy starts to flow, enjoy it like a refreshing dip in a July swimming pool. Just remember that, for someone, it is all going to go "boom."
https://alabama.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1780297
TideSports.com Columnist
Here it is, just a day since the fireworks and flags and cookouts, and yet Monday we'll be just a week away from another uniquely American phenomenon: SEC Media Days.
The ever-expanding interest in what the SEC football coaches have to say, and the increasing logistical challenges of bringing 14 busy coaches together, has pushed the league's giant media gathering earlier and earlier - further than ever from the actual first game - but that doesn't dampen the enthusiasm. If anything, things only get more giddy, and fans more excited.
That's what is so American about SEC Media Days. It certainly isn't the production of any fabulous First Amendment journalism. The more credentialed representatives who show up in Hoover - and it has reached the point where it can fairly be called a "horde" - the less actual news emerges.
On the other hand, like the Fourth of July, SEC Media Days is a celebration of the optimist. As negative as social media can seem at times, America is essentially optimistic. We don't celebrate the founding of a sinking ship. A good comparison, perhaps, is the upcoming presidential primaries. Only one candidate can emerge with the Republican nomination, for instance, but that hasn't stopped a dozen candidates from jumping in with what one has to assume is some sort of hope. As in Iowa, so it is in Hoover. Fourteen coaches will give similar stump speeches and sound bites. Ultimately, only one can win, but that is a matter for the season to settle.
The math problem is one that is worth solving, however. One team will meet expectations, or perhaps zero. Amazingly, there are some people who think that the team that won the league in 2014 and made it to the Colllege Football Playoff somehow didn't meet "expectations." That may say more about what Nick Saban has created at Alabama than anything else, but it does happen.
So, while all the talk next week will be about how good things are going to be, who are the teams that won't live up to the hype? What happens to them? In the Western Division, for instance, Alabama is expected to have a big year because of the reason discussed above: that's always the case in the Saban Era.
Auburn may well be the media choice to win the division despite going 8-5 last year. Ole Miss and Mississippi State tasted success last year, until the end, and don't expect to slip quietly into obscurity. LSU and Texas A&M were minor disappointments last year and think the law of averages (and big recruiting years) will make things different. Arkansas was a tough team last year and seems pleased with what Bret Bielema is building.
But someone's fireworks must, inevitably, fizzle. All seven teams in the division can't win every game, or even come close. So what happens at the school that finishes seventh? There were no coaching changes in the West last year. There was only one, Florida, in the entire league. Can that happen again?
My guess is the Mississippi schools will backslide a good bit, but that is just a guess. Auburn often seems to do better when expectations are low, but perhaps that will change this year.
When the coming week passes and the positive energy starts to flow, enjoy it like a refreshing dip in a July swimming pool. Just remember that, for someone, it is all going to go "boom."
https://alabama.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1780297
