Around the SB Nation: Alabama fan wants to kill the SEC Championship Game

by Joel Hollingsworth on Jul 15, 2009 12:00 PM EDT in Rocky Top Talking Points

Heresy! Roll Bama Roll wants to kill the SEC Championship game. No, please. But the statement that "conferences should be capped in size at 10 teams and everybody should play everybody" has a certain allure.
Waa, waa, waa, waa, waa. Black Shoe Diaries is amused by the Big East showing interest in Penn State 25 years after the Nittany Lions petitioned to join the Big East, which provides me with the opportunity to quote Brad Paisley:
Let's say I get bucked off a bull and fall and hit my head
And then I get amnesia and forget the things you said
I lose my better judgment and I take up smoking crack
Right then, that's when
I'll take you back

Somebody needs to 'shop a shot of JoePa with a crack pipe, please.
When even your own people don't believe you. Alligator Army is suspicious of Urban Meyer's continued insistence that he'll never jump ship and head to Notre Dame and says there's a way he can prove his loyalty:
If Meyer wants to put his money where his mouth is, he will sign a contract that has a massive buyout clause (like $100 million) or prevents him from breaking the contract. If he plays out his contract and does not resign with Florida, he can leave or get fired. Otherwise, you can be the highest paid college football coach, with the security that Florida won't lose its investment. Until that happens, Meyer shouldn't be making promises.
Alligator Army also briefs us on Charlie Strong's recent comments to media in Tallahassee, including this one:
Strong said that for Tennessee, they will "just play the game," and not try to win "fifty to nothing."
Well, crud. Time for some more material for the Gator locker room, sounds like. If they "just play" us, they'll kill us. Our only hope is to get them to want to "kill us," thus getting them out of their normal mode of operation. Wait. Yeah. Never mind.
A Sea of Blue is still hearing whispers of rumors of an incident involving Kentucky and Tennessee football players, but to this point, he's not telling.
Dawg Sports: Has Mark Richt missed his chance to win a national championship at Georgia?

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Roll Bama Roll wants to kill the SEC Championship game.

Because then Bama would only have a 1-game losing streak?

by David Hooper on Jul 15, 2009 12:07 PM EDT reply actions

by bammer on Jul 15, 2009 1:10 PM EDT up reply actions

A little more seriously about the 10-conference idea:

The first problem is math: with 10 team, each team has to play 9 conference games if you want everybody to play each other. That means 5 home and 4 away for half the teams, and 4 home and 5 away for the other half (assumedly reversing the next year). Good luck getting agreement on that. The only other ways around that are:

+ play only 8 conference games and skip 1 team a year. This is the PAC-10, but this defeats the whole “play everybody” concept.

+ mandate 1 neutral site game for every team. UGA-UF is done. UA-AU could label B’ham as neutral-ish. But you get into problems of where. What would be a good neutral site for LSU-Arky? Shreveport? How about MSU-Ole Miss? [crickets] UT-Vanderbilt in Chattanooga? SoCar-Kentucky? In Raleigh? This would never happen on financial considerations alone, much less actual logistics.

Digging into politics for analogy only, the beauty of the federal/state governmental system is that individual states, in theory, can tailor their governance to best suit their people. (What works in California won’t necessarily work in Wyoming, and vice versa.) The same can apply to conferences: what works for the PAC-10 isn’t necessarily the best solution for the SEC, and vice versa. The danger in homogenizing is that some locales will get hurt by it.

I’m not a particularly big fan of the ‘somebody else is doing it’ argument. If the SEC would ever want to look at a revised structure, they’d be best served to worry only about what would work for the SEC. They can use other conferences to spur ideas and aid in discussions, but the final solution shouldn’t rely on the actions of another conference.

by David Hooper on Jul 15, 2009 12:49 PM EDT reply actions

yeah..there have been a few “rowdy” debates over conference format and the BCS over at RBR…some very interesting points if you want to take a look..

by bammer on Jul 15, 2009 1:11 PM EDT up reply actions

The SEC used to do

5 annual opponents + 2 rotating home & away, which I always thought was an odd setup for a 10-team league: 7 conference games with an odd home/away factor, leaving room for a ton of non-conference action. The Vols played Alabama, Auburn, Kentucky, Ole Miss and Vanderbilt every year under that formula.

Will - Rocky Top Talk

by Will Shelton on Jul 15, 2009 4:13 PM EDT up reply actions

PAC 10 plays a round-robin now, FWIW.

by CornFromAJar on Jul 15, 2009 5:24 PM EDT up reply actions

Ah. Missed that. Thanks.

by David Hooper on Jul 15, 2009 5:26 PM EDT up reply actions

Can I say "nothing works in California gov't", if I add the words "for analogy only"?

and if I also say that the SEC imitating the PAC-10 schedule ain’t EVER gonna happen.

by memphispete on Jul 15, 2009 6:19 PM EDT up reply actions

If the Big East wants to add a team, they should look at getting BC back.

BC is the odd duck of the ACC, and I imagine they wouldn’t mind not playing conference championship games in front of 513 people in Florida again. It’s a fit that just makes too much sense.

by David Hooper on Jul 15, 2009 12:51 PM EDT reply actions

The

Big East needs to do something fast. None of those teams look to do anything anytime soon. When your hopes are left to a rebuilding WV and Uconn…you got problems. If they don’t want to get surpassed by the MAC or WAC…they need to up their “competition” NOW.

by bammer on Jul 15, 2009 1:13 PM EDT up reply actions