🏈 Oklahoma's Bob Stoops rips into SEC scheduling, Alabama's Sugar Bowl 'excuses'

[BAMANEWSBOT]

Last summer, Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops called the SEC's perceived dominance of college football "propaganda" and questioned the league's overall strength.

This summer, with a 45-31 Sugar Bowl win over Alabama in his back pocket, Stoops isn't backing off. Visiting with ESPN this week as part of the network's "Car Wash" marathon of interviews with college coaches, Stoops addressed the topic again along with the strength of SEC schedules, as noted by WWLS Radio and SoonerScoop.com's Carey Murdock:





After his only mention of the Alabama win in the Big 12 Media Days transcript earlier in the week was about how it has benefited his program, Stoops responded Wednesday to Nick Saban's comment about the difficulty of getting the Crimson Tide prepared for what amounted to a "consolation game."

"I don't pay attention," Stoops said, according to the Oklahoman, the Tulsa World and other outlets. "We've played for quite a few national championships, and when we don't play for one it never seems to be the mantra. But anyway, you can make all the excuses you want or not. The bottom line is, it is what it is.

"And they sure looked good that first series, I'll tell you that."



While Saban was referencing Alabama's preparation for the Sugar Bowl, Sooners defensive lineman Geneo Grissom said in a Media Days interview with the Oklahoman that he saw no lack of intensity from the Crimson Tide on the field.

"From the first play of scrimmage, those guys were talking a lot of mess. I don't believe they were thinking it was a consolation game," Grissom said. "I don't believe that players play games not to win. I think as a football player, as an athlete, you want to win every game."

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[TheChief]

They won the game. He can say what he wants. Bama will get to play them again... Sooner or later.

 

[jdpas29]

well he can talk all he wants. oklahoma has owned Alabama for many years now.

 

[BamaFan334]

He can talk about beating us, but he must have forgotten when Texas A&M destroyed his beloved Sooners in the Cotton Bowl last year. And they were the fifth or sixth best team that year. Not sure how he can talk about our scheduling because we have high profile matchups all throughout the conference. They play Texas, wow!

 

[MissingRing]

Stoops has become annoying. I want Alabama to get matched up with Oklahoma again as soon as possible.

 

[ElephantStomp]

Stoops is a clown. He says about our scheduling and how the bottom of the SEC is horrible and about the cupcake teams we play, but then he pumps up that they play Tennessee because God knows they've been in the upper echelon of the conference.

Stoops fails to mention that they're schedule is pretty soft while playing in a soft conference. Tulsa is a gleaming beacon of a strong, great team.

I'm so tired of that clown and his flapping his money maker

 

[Joe]

So they are talking about the SEC, Alabama and Coach Saban at the Big 12 media days? LOL!!! All is good. :hurray:

 

[psychojoe]

Stoops gets attention with his mouth.

Saban gets attention with his record.

 

[Nothing_But_A_Winner00]

I'd say the opposite in this case

 

[sean]

who really gives a f*** what bob stoops says or thinks?

i know i certainly don't. i could not care less about anything that man says about anything. it seems lately that all we hear is something he said about ALABAMA or Coach Saban or the SEC. well, he can keep running that d*** sucker all he wants. i, for one, will certainly not be listening to him or reading his comments again. he's getting real close to being on the same plane as tommy tubberville in my opinion.

 

[BAMANEWSBOT]

Sorry, Bob Stoops, but Nick Saban's contract makes the Sugar Bowl an exhibition game

Tell Bob Stoops that Nick Saban may have been mistaken. To the Alabama football program, the Sugar Bowl really wasn't, as Saban said this week, "a consolation game."

In truth, and Stoops isn't going to like this any better, it was more of an exhibition game.

Any bowl game that isn’t a semifinal playoff game or the national championship game is an exhibition game for the Crimson Tide.

It goes beyond the fact that Saban has raised the bar in Tuscaloosa to Got 13/14/15/16 or bust. It actually says so right there in section 4.03 (b) of the coach’s contract under the subheading “Incentives.”

There is no financial incentive for Saban to win any postseason games other than the SEC Championship Game, a playoff semifinal and the Student-Athlete Super Bowl.

Check the numbers. Saban gets $65,000 for playing in a garden variety bowl. He gets $90,000 for playing in the Chick-fil-a, Cotton, Capital One, Outback, Gator “or any equal successor bowl game associated with the Southeastern Conference.” He gets $125,000 for playing in a BCS “or its successor entity” bowl that’s not part of the playoff system.

How much of a bonus does he get for winning any of those games? Not a penny more. Simply getting there is its own reward.

There is, however, extra money on the line in the SEC Championship Game. Reach it, and Saban gets $75,000. Win it, and he gets $125,000.

There’s even more money on the line in the playoff. Reach the semifinals, and he gets $200,000. Win a semifinal game, and that bonus is $300,000. Win the semifinal and the final, and he earns $400,000, payable - as all of these bonuses are - within 30 days.

This is in addition, of course, to the $6.9 million a year Alabama now pays Saban for coaching 12 regular-season games because, as the contract says, there is "additional work that is required for postseason games."

So Stoops really shouldn’t take it personally that Saban appeared to minimize Oklahoma’s 45-31 win over Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. Truth is, as much as Saban wants to win every game he coaches, he got paid the same $125k for losing to the Sooners that he would’ve earned had he beaten them.

Do the math and don't forget to add LSU 21, Oklahoma 14 in 2003's national championship extravaganza. When it comes to games between them in the Superdome that really matter, the scoreboard still reads Saban 1, Stoops 0.

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[TerryP]

So they are talking about the SEC, Alabama and Coach Saban at the Big 12 media days? LOL!!! All is good. :hurray:

ESPN's article by McMurphy on Stoops. The entire article, in one way or another, is about the SEC.

There's one thing I find upsetting about all of these Stoops interviews and quotes. I'm beginning to feel an urge to silently root for Tennessee.

I wonder how much of the 2010 season sticks in his craw. It was a BCS game, but it was also a game against an 8 win UCONN team where the game received little publicity and even less interest. A 12-2 season for the Sooners, with losses to...Mizzou and A&M.

This is a subject/thread that we'll revisit in January. It's my gut feeling that we'll be discussing four of the Power 5, and the one conference listening is going to be theirs.

 

[planomateo]

So they are talking about the SEC, Alabama and Coach Saban at the Big 12 media days? LOL!!! All is good. :hurray:

Similar to what I texted @TerryP the other day.

 

[BamaFan334]

So now Stoops is dogging Texas A&M's schedule calling it "soft". Then you look at strength of schedule rankings done and A&M is 5th while Oklahoma sits back at 90th. Something just isn't sitting right in his brain. I guess they have nothing to talk about in the Big XII, so they result to bringing the best conference in America into the fold to try and make headlines.

 

[bcracker]

Bob Stoops is a Turd. Notice the capital "T" in the word "Turd." That's a literary device sometimes employed by those in-the-know for emphasis. Hence, Stoops is a really big Turd.

 

[PhillyGirl]

 

[riz]

Call it what you will, dude is right. If we'd have whipped their asses we wouldn't be hearing a word of this. Period. And if getting embarassed by them, in the Sugar Bowl, after getting embarassed by Auburn, on national television, doesn't matter to you, I can't help you. That's like saying beating Auburn doesn't matter. It's a non-starter.

 

[TerryP]

Call it what you will, dude is right. If we'd have whipped their asses we wouldn't be hearing a word of this. Period. And if getting embarassed by them, in the Sugar Bowl, after getting embarassed by Auburn, on national television, doesn't matter to you, I can't help you. That's like saying beating Auburn doesn't matter. It's a non-starter.

He was talking like this after A&M leveled them in the Cotton Bowl. A win in the Sugar would mean we wouldn't have seen a lot of this focused on Alabama, but we'd still be hearing it loud and clear.

Mentioning the SEC and putting a mic in front of Stoops is akin to dangling a piece of steak in front of a dog—both snap.

The broadcast media knows he has no control of his mouth when it comes to this subject. That's why we're still hearing it asked, answered, and published.

 

[riz]

I agree with you on the overall SEC itch he's trying to scratch. It does get a little annoying. He's one of two significant brands in a league that otherwise sucks, and as a result, he's trying to beat the drum as loud as he can. I can't really blame him for that. Maybe he shouldn't do it publicly. I kind of like that in the sterile PC world we live in. But if we'd have won that game, WE wouldn't be hearing what WE don't want to hear in relation to US. And when I hear this whole consolation, it didn't matter, we didn't care, etc, stuff, it just infuriates me. That should never be the case, imo.

Our out of conference scheduling IS horrible. We do ONLY play 8 conference games in a league of 14. Our bottom feeders ARE horrible. You can't dispute those statements.

 

[alabama mike]

It's hard to argue with the fact that Oklahoma has beaten us on the field. The schedule is something we can argue if he really wants to go there.