by HD HandshoeFounder—Block-O-Nation
Seriously, can anyone answer this question, with at the very least, a semi-cognizant thought?Since 1991, I think most people would agree the best team from the SEC has been the Florida Gators, and Alabama has arguably been a close second, just edging out LSU and Georgia in my opinion.
Over that span, Florida has won three national championships (1996, 2006, 2008) and Alabama has won two (1992, 2009).
Now, I know that basically every Florida, Alabama, and SEC fan in general will try to defend their pathetic out-of-conference road schedules until the death, but facts are facts, and they cannot be ignored any longer.
If UF, Bama, and the rest of the teams from the SEC do not start playing at least one true OOC road game per year during the regular season versus a decent team from a BCS conference, instead of some hopeless and weak FCS cupcake (examples: Charleston Southern, Memphis, Hawaii), then I say the entire conference should be banned from playing in the BCS title game indefinitely.
(I fully expect to, and cannot wait to hear from the likes of Le Roi, Larry, Carson, Sean, etc. after that last paragraph!)
I'm not just shooting my mouth off without the facts to back up my statements here. To further strengthen my stance, let's compare the OOC road games played by Florida, Alabama, and,—oh I don't know,—how about Ohio State—say from 1991, through 2009.
Florida Gators (1991-2009) OOC Road Games (0-1)
1991 @ Syracuse, a 38-21 loss
Sadly, that's it--that's the entire list of OOC road games for UF.
Alabama Crimson Tide (1991-2009) OOC Road Games (4-3)
1991 @ Memphis, a 10-7 win
1992 @ Tulane, a 37-0 win
1996 @ NC State, a 24-19 win
2000 @ UCLA, a 35-24 loss
2002 @ Hawaii, a 21-16 win
2002 @ Oklahoma, a 37-27 loss
2003 @ Hawaii, a 39-27 loss
2004-present, no OOC road games for the Tide (and no, "neutral site" games do NOT count as true road games).
Ohio State Buckeyes (1991-2009) OOC Road Games (10-3)
1992 @ Syracuse, a 35-12 win
1993 @ Pitt, a 63-28 win
1994 @ Washington, a 25-16 loss
1995 @ Pitt, a 54-14 win
1996 @ Notre Dame, a 29-16 win
1997 @ Missouri, a 31-10 win
1998 @ West Virginia, a 34-17 win
2000 @ Arizona, a 27-17 win
2001 @ UCLA, a 13-6 loss
2004 @ NC State, a 22-14 win (NFL star Phillip Rivers was the NC State QB)
2006 @ Texas, a 24-7 win (Colt McCoy was the UT QB)
2007 @ Washington, a 33-14 win (a healthy Jake Locker was the UW QB)
2008 @ USC, a 35-3 loss
Over the past two decades, you can plainly see, UF has played one OOC road game outside of the state of Florida, Alabama has played seven true road games away from the state of Alabama (excluding neutral site games), and Ohio State has played 13 OOC road games outside of Ohio—and not against the likes of Memphis, Tulane, and Hawaii either.
I know a lot of the responses will include references to UF and LSU beating the Buckeyes in 2006 and 2007, and that's fine. I won't dispute that, but I will say this.
If the teams of the SEC are so great, why not step up and play at least one real OOC game per year lke the Buckeyes do, instead of relying on the totally false "our conference schedule is too tough, so we need a break in our OOC games" excuse / crutch?
Florida beat Ohio State after they has nearly 60 days off, and LSU beat OSU essentially at home in 2007 in New Orleans.
Forgive me if I want to see just how well UF, LSU, or Alabama would fare against the Buckeyes in Columbus—and no, not just because of the weather.
That could be a factor depending on when played, but I'm more interested in seeing how those teams would deal with playing on the road, after living out of a hotel for three days, and then playing in front of 105,000+ Buckeye fans in a hostile environment behind enemy lines instead of always in the SEC backyard...
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Well said. This takes nothing away from those teams in their conference schedule or in bowl games, but it is truly pathetic when teams like Florida, that the media loves so much, play NOBODY outside of their conference, and never leave the south.
ReplyDeleteAre you kidding me!!!!!!!! I thought I was the only one who felt like the SEC was "ducking" the bigger conferences or teams from the north. I sure would love to see any team from the SEC play Penn State or Wisc or Iowa or the Bucks in November under the lights!!! Football is a fall/winter sport that on occasion has to be played in the elements, I would love to see what happens to those teams when they play when its 20 to 30 degrees (most of the players from those schools have never seen snow). When the Miami Hurricans played in there bowl game against Wisc. the camera caught the Canes huddled around the heaters, Wisc didn't even have heaters, and it was 45-50 degrees at game time, and Wisc. won. What does that mean,you can draw your own conclusion. Sometimes you have to play in the elements. I will give you another example (and it goes back a long time but most will agree) when the Cin. Bengals went to there first Superbowl they played the Chargers in 40-50 degree below zero,(and for those fo us who remember the bengals lineman came out on short sleeves and the Chargers in the later years confessed that along with the cold that was very difficult to overcome). And that was the AFC championship game. I have felt this way ever since that sham of a championship game against LSU in N.O that the NCAA wanted. Also to prove the point even more look at the number of players in the NFL from the Big Ten compared to the SEC, 308 to 264. (according to answers.com) I rest my case!!! P.S. Tim Tebow is not the best player in ncaa histor, not even close bud!!!
ReplyDeleteflorida should only be eligible for champion of the south if they don't play ooc out of state games. We need a playoff. The bcs system is only a "beauty contest". GO BUCKS!!!!
ReplyDeleteI completely agree, I don't think you should be able to make it to the top 10 and have a heisman hopeful quarterback when you play teams like kentucky, charelston souther, troy, and FIU. I could put up 300 yards passing and 100 rushing against those teams. Anyway, though I agree with you, FL did play FL. ST in their short lived glory years. FL. St. is not in there conference but nevertheless, overall I agree, they play noone.
ReplyDeleteWell said. I cant agree any more.
ReplyDelete