| FTBL SEC and Bowl Games

Have you guys realized that it looks like at least 8 SEC teams SHOULD have 7 or more wins with possibly 10 being bowl eligible? This could be a big year for the SEC, if our teams will show up in the bowl games and not fold like 2006. We cry about the lack of respect and then we play other conferences in the bowls and get whipped. It makes us look silly. This year there are signs of more respect coming our way so we need to prove it when it counts. Our losing to FSU could have really helped our conferences cause, but maybe next year with Clemson.
 
Rolltide24 said:
Have you guys realized that it looks like at least 8 SEC teams SHOULD have 7 or more wins with possibly 10 being bowl eligible? This could be a big year for the SEC, if our teams will show up in the bowl games and not fold like 2006. We cry about the lack of respect and then we play other conferences in the bowls and get whipped. It makes us look silly. This year there are signs of more respect coming our way so we need to prove it when it counts. Our losing to FSU could have really helped our conferences cause, but maybe next year with Clemson.


I'm going to disagree with you regarding your statement about the SEC folding in bowls last year. It doesn't take much research the evidence supports that the SEC is the best conference. Last year UF and LSU won their bowls by a huge margin. Those two being BSC bowls more than proves that the heavyweights in the SEC are the best in the country.

Now let's examine the middle tier bowls. What most people overlook in these matches is that the bowl setup usually favors the other conference. For instance, look no further than the Cotton Bowl. The 2nd best Big 12 school usually plays the 3rd best SEC team. Last year, Auburn played in that bowl against Nebraska. Nebraska won their division and had the 2nd best record in the Big 12 while Auburn finished 3rd in the SEC West. Doesn't really seem fair, but since the SEC is so good Auburn still won. The same uneven matching usually occurs in the Capitol One bowl and the Peach (now Chick-fil-A) Bowl pits the 2nd/3rd best ACC team against the 4th or 5th place SEC team. Ditto for the Independence... Big XII No. 5 usually plays the 8th best team from the SEC.


Last years results were:

UF over Ohio State for the NC
LSU over Notre Dame in the Sugar
Georgia over VT
Kentucky over Clemson (Clemson being the favorite)
South Carolina over Houston

Wisconsin over Arkansas
Penn State over UT
OSU over Bama

If my research is right we went 5-3 in bowls last year. That means we had more teams than any other conference go to a bowl (we always do). The fact that 2/3rds of our conference went bowling should tell all outsiders how scary the typical SEC schedule is. We have more members that went bowling than the total of teams in the Big East conference (The might PAC-10 only has 9 members, we have almost as many bowl teams as they have total members too!). We had the 2nd highest winning % of all the conferences. Only the Big East had better (5-0), but I wouldn't exactly count wins over Wake Forest, Western Michigan, Georgia Tech, Kansas State, and Navy the same as the wins we had.

To conclude this rant, the SEC is by far the best conference, every season, especially in the winter! To suggest otherwise ignores all logic. Roll Tide.
 
Counter argument.

Bowls are not a measure that is fair to the SEC. We play bruisers every week in a season-long war of attrition. THIS it what make the SEC the toughest.

A bowl game where a team has over a month to recover physically, recruit for next year, take final exams, go home to visit Mom for Christmas, and also practice weeks for one just game is a wholly unfair gauge of teams, even if the SEC comes out looking good like we did last year. (Sorry for the world's longest sentence there.)
 
Actually, we were 6 and 3 if you count Auburn. And our 3 playing another conferences 2 or other "uneven" matchups like UT vs Penn State and AU vs Neb doesn't matter much to me because in the past it is usually just a one position differnce and if we are that superior, it shouldn't matter. I though we had a good bowl season in 2006, but the 2 losses to Big 10 schools hurt us a little. Overall, I was very pleased with the performance. I am just saying that to truly get the respect we covet, we need to send 8 to 9 teams and and dominate with at least 6 but probably 7 wins with wins over Big 10, Big 12 and Pac 10 schools a must. I think this may be the year.
 
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