AllThingsKC wrote:TheBigChuckbowski wrote:
Is the SEC the best conference at the top? Probably. Is the SEC the best conference from top to bottom? Please. Not even close. What I will give the SEC credit for is being the smartest conference. They make sure the top teams only have to play a couple games against each other so that all those teams only have one or two losses which insures they're in top 15. Plus, they only have an 8-game conference schedule so they can have one more weak non-con game. Since you have so many top 15 teams (even if they're not worthy of those rankings), that creates the delusion that the SEC is impossible to make it through (because so many people won't look back at those team's schedules and realize they didn't play each other). They make sure all those games get out of the way early to the middle of the season for two reasons: 1. if a team loses, that gives them plenty of time to move back up the rankings (look what happened this week, all the top SEC teams played weak non-con opponents, and now they have three or four teams in the top 5) 2. The illusion gets built by having the biggest games of the weekend be in the SEC when all the conferences are playing weak non-con opponents so they get 500 College Gamedays and all the hype all week. The fact that the top of the SEC is undefeated against the bottom of the SEC proves how wretched those teams at the bottom truly are. In the Big 12, you have the 2nd worst team in the league beating the #1 ranked team in the country. In the SEC, you have THREE teams who can't even get a win. The SEC has figured out the perfect way to game the system and everyone is falling for it. I tip my hat to them for it.
Kind of makes you wonder why we don't see other conferences doing the same thing.
True. I think maybe that's what the Big Ten is thinking with their potential additions.
AllThingsKC wrote:
I think we saw how TCU and WVU benefited from being the big fish in a small pond, kind of like K-State in 2012. It's easy to be good when the rest of the conference competition is fair to weak.
And, this is different from Alabama, Georgia, and Florida, how exactly?
AllThingsKC wrote:
Not sure how adding 2 losing football programs upgrades the Big 12, but at least the Big 12 gained that coveted Charleston, WV TV market!
They're NOT losing programs. That's the point. They're perennially winning programs and they can't cut it in the Big 12. That shows how good the conference is. What did Missouri and Texas A&M add competitively? Both losing football programs. Mizzou's doing about the same as they did in the Big 12. Texas A&M's all of a sudden a world-beater. Maybe the SEC isn't as good as you think?
AllThingsKC wrote:
Interesting how you bash the SEC for playing weak opponents, but ignore how the SEC has a championship game, which you say you wouldn't want in the Big 12. But, I digress.
What does the SEC lose by having a conference championship game? If Florida beats Florida State, that will be two straight years where they have a one-loss team that's not in the conference championship game pretty much insuring that no matter what happens, they'll have a team in the national championship game. The SEC championship is completely meaningless, it just decides what SEC team advances. And, that has nothing to do with the quality of those teams but the make-up of their schedules.
AllThingsKC wrote:
There are some cases when a conference championship game can hurt. Like in 1998 with K-State, as you mentioned. Or like in 2007 with Mizzou. But, if there had been a championship game last year, Oklahoma State would have played for the national title with a win.
How do you figure that?
AllThingsKC wrote:
So, it is difficult to do decide right now whether a conference companionship game would help or hurt K-State right. We'll have to see how things play out before deciding. But, IMO, it's looking like K-State would need a championship game to play for the national title. But, we'll see.
We need teams to lose, not a championship game. How exactly would it help? Explain it to me. The SEC teams at the top only have a couple quality opponents each, why do we need another if they don't? K-State isn't going to jump anybody in the rankings with a win over Oklahoma in the mythical Big 12 Championship game. Nobody.