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Friday, December 1, 2006
SEC title game isn’t gateway to BCS title
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
There is a mindset that seems to go with being a member of the SEC. Take the big stadiums, the tailgates, the history, the bands, the fat-bottom boosters and some pretty good football, and this is what you get: a feeling that you have a hall pass for life.
“Hello. Can you kick somebody out of first class? I’m with the SEC.”
“Hello. Technically, we’re only the fourth-best team in the nation, but if it’s OK with you, we’re going to start booking flights to Arizona. And if it’s not OK with you, you’re a dolt.”
“Hello. I work at the Ace Hardware down the street, but I heard you needed open-heart surgery and …”
Saturday night, Florida will play Arkansas for the SEC title. But lately, it has all been about what happens next. If the Gators win, they will be 12-1 and screaming it’s their birthright to play Ohio State in the BCS title game.
There are at least five things this is not based on: 1) being smacked at Auburn; 2) stumbling but beating a weakened Georgia team by a touchdown; 3) winning by six at Vanderbilt; 4) winning by one point, at home, against South Carolina; 5) winning by seven over Florida State, which lost four of its final six and was shut out at home.
Now, I realize in an ideal world, this isn’t what should be debated today. The problem is, this isn’t an ideal world. It’s the SEC’s world.
Two weeks ago, Urban Meyer, a fine coach of a terrific team, began grumbling about the BCS rankings and the need for a playoff system. He reiterated those remarks when it was clear few were wowed by the Gators’ 24-17 win in Tallahassee.
Decrying the need for “style points,” Meyer told reporters: “You know what I’ve got to worry about? I’ve got to worry about making sure our offensive line gets better next week. But style points? If that’s what’s making decisions, then I want to stand by my comment a week ago. Implode it. It’s over.”
Meyer’s desire to implode the BCS only puts him in the majority. The problem with making an issue of it the past two weeks is he fed the monster. He tried to downplay the potential BCS distraction at a Friday news conference. But the song would’ve played better if he hadn’t already, well, whined.
This was as far as Meyer would take the subject Friday: “Our focus is on what we have to take care of. I truly have great respect for the Southeastern Conference, and any SEC team that plays 11, 12 games in this conference, good things should happen to that team, if they are fortunate enough to win it. I don’t have time to really study what’s going on elsewhere.”
“Good things should happen” to the SEC winner. (Read: BCS title game.)
Never mind what happens with teams elsewhere. (Read: “I would not wash the feet of my pigs in their conference.”)
Ohio State is unbeaten. Ohio State doesn’t need an argument.
Michigan was ranked second when it lost at Ohio State by a field goal. Michigan shouldn’t need an argument. It deserves a rematch.
Southern Cal, after its only loss to Oregon State, won its next four games by 42, 25, 14 and 20 points, the last over Notre Dame. Pending Saturday’s game against UCLA, USC is the ONLY other school that has an argument — geography notwithstanding.
Urban Meyer believes style points shouldn’t determine rankings. But in a subjective system, style counts. Don’t argue the SEC is vastly superior. That’s not an automatic. Don’t complain, Urban, that you have to play a conference title game when the others don’t because it was your conference that made the money grab.
There is no feasible or fair playoff system. Either you would have too many teams, in which case you’re playing in March, or not enough teams, in which case too many get jobbed.
A solution: Go back to the old bowl system. The matchups were better. There were more games meant more on or around New Year’s. At most, add one playoff game after the bowls.
Until then, we have the BCS. Saturday night is an SEC title game. That’s all it should be. Because the “S” in BCS doesn’t stand for Southeastern.
Permalink | Comments (88) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, UGA / SEC
All business, no hype for Jackets
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Jacksonville — Always “the other team” in its state, Georgia Tech is likewise “the other team” here. Wake Forest is the warm-and-fuzzy component of the ACC championship game. The Jackets are the guys this city might not invite back should they lose Saturday.
You’d think a team playing for an outright title would arrive with few negatives attached, but Tech alit in Duval County being treated as damaged goods. The Jackets lost to Georgia in a game so deflating it made their fans wonder if their school will ever beat the Bulldogs again, and then Tech became the crux of a catfight between the Gator Bowl, which will be staged here New Year’s Day, and the ACC.
And somewhere the greater point has been obscured: That one of the half-dozen best Tech teams of the past 35 years stands a great chance — the Jackets are favored over Wake, lest we forget — to claim only the Institute’s third conference crown since 1952. No, they didn’t beat the Bulldogs, but who would have believed in August the assemblage from Georgia gracing a conference championship game would be “the other team”?
“It is a great opportunity,” Chan Gailey said Friday. “It’s something that hasn’t happened in a while.”
So many things have gone right that it’s unfair to fixate on the stumbles. Calvin Johnson became the ACC’s player of the year and a first-team All-American. A fleet and fierce defense drew national notice. A coach stuck on seven wins already has won nine and could win 11. A program that has never landed in a BCS bowl would book passage for the glitzy Orange Bowl with a victory today. Does losing to Georgia really override all that?
Said Gailey: “Would we like to be undefeated? Sure, why not? But we’ve lost three games, and one of them happened to be last week. In my opinion, I don’t believe there’ll be any type of hangover effect. If anything, there’s a little bit of burning in the pit of our stomach.”
Pepto-Bismol might bring temporary relief. Beating Wake would provide something more lasting. As Gailey said, “When you hang that [conference championship] banner in your stadium, that’s for eternity. They might renovate the stadium, but the banner stays.”
The run-up to the game itself has been all Wake. The front sports page of Friday’s Times-Union featured a massive photo of the words “Wake Forest” being painted in the Alltel Stadium end zone and an accompanying feature on Deacons coach Jim Grobe. At the bottom of the page was a tease to a story on C7: “Gator Bowl officials say there isn’t a deal in place to take Georgia Tech if it loses in the ACC title game.” Some welcome, huh?
Not that Gailey, who doesn’t traffic in artifice, noticed or cared. “This is a business trip,” he said. “I think Tech people understand business.”
As for Wake being cast as Cinderella: “I’ve never played Cinderella. I hope they play like Cinderella.”
Tech, as is often the case, finds itself in a peculiar place: It has had too many winning seasons to be seen as a bolt from the blue, but it hasn’t won quite big enough to have stamped itself as a power player. But that’s the perception from the periphery, something else Gailey claims doesn’t matter: “If you let other people dictate how you feel, you’re in a bind.”
So let’s flash back to August, to a conversation with an ultimate insider. “We’re looking for 10 wins,” said Mansfield Wrotto, the offensive tackle, “or nine wins or more, and to play for the ACC championship.”
Here it is December, and here the Jackets are, dead on track. If they didn’t win every game they could have, they nonetheless won enough to clinch a division that includes Virginia Tech and Miami with a week to spare. They don’t have to apologize. They made it on merit.
Permalink | Comments (63) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Tech / ACC
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