@iu2win You make some good points, but I'm not buying that the SEC is better "top to bottom." Maybe their bottom teams are better than the bottom-feeders in the B1G (although YOTHN makes a strong case that they're not), but their top teams are clearly inferior to ours. And, frankly, who cares about the bottom of any conference.
Yes but A&M went 8 and 5 the previous year.
Showcasing that many good losses meant they were really tough. So we can ignore their schedule as 1 loss is only a small step up from those good losses.
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Yes but A&M went 8 and 5 the previous year.
Showcasing that many good losses meant they were really tough. So we can ignore their schedule as 1 loss is only a small step up from those good losses.
,
Teams change too much year to year to be ranking them based on what they did the previous year.
That's why it was a joke.Yes but A&M went 8 and 5 the previous year.
Showcasing that many good losses meant they were really tough. So we can ignore their schedule as 1 loss is only a small step up from those good losses.
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Teams change too much year to year to be ranking them based on what they did the previous year.
But you heard that idea that our schedule was clearly weak, because nobody goes from 3-8 to what we were doing last year. If we'd been 8-4 in 2023 there would have been a lot less talk about schedule strength. And clearly, voters and pundits carry over ideas about a team from year to year. Yes it is somewhat incorrect.
Even look at Texas A&M. Did they beat anyone in the top half of the SEC?
This was the narrative used against us last year. That narrative was wrong.
I didn't say Texas A&M didn't belong in the playoff, I said who have they beaten in the top half of the SEC. The answer is no one for Texas A&M. IU beat Michigan last year who was in the top half of the B1G. Regardless, I wasn't declaring they aren't good, but I am stating just like IU last year, we don't know. They are just getting a home game as a 7 seed to prove their value as opposed to playing on the road, like IU.
@jackskip23 - Florida and USC are comparable? I'm not sure I understand the logic you were trying to utilize. My point is they tried to say Florida was a top 15 team and USC was not ranked. USC took all year and proved they belonged in the top 20 while Florida took all year proving it was a bottom feeder program. Illinois and South Carolina are not equals. This is my whole point, people see the rankings and think there are lots of good teams in the SEC. There simply isn't. Penn State is ranked 13th in the B1G. Auburn is ranked 13th in the SEC. Give me Penn State today, tomorrow and the next day. Its a bogus narrative that the national rankings have left people to believe.
Even look at Texas A&M. Did they beat anyone in the top half of the SEC?
Illinois and South Carolina aren’t equals? Neither were very good. And plenty of people saw a much better year for USC than UF. It’s a fun debate, but the notion that the SEC isn’t still better top to bottom doesn’t hold water. Since IU is at the top of the BT, that’s plenty good enough for me.
@jackskip23 - Well thats not real. Florida was ranked #13 in the nation in week 2. USC wasn't even getting votes in honorable mention in week 2. How exactly is it you believe people perceived a much better year for USC than UF?
As for Illinois and South Carolina, in that same week 2, the Gamecocks were ranked #10 and Illinois was ranked #11. South Carolina finished 4-8. Illinois finished 8-4. I am super curious, you think those two teams are equals? How?
@jackskip23 - Well thats not real. Florida was ranked #13 in the nation in week 2. USC wasn't even getting votes in honorable mention in week 2. How exactly is it you believe people perceived a much better year for USC than UF?
As for Illinois and South Carolina, in that same week 2, the Gamecocks were ranked #10 and Illinois was ranked #11. South Carolina finished 4-8. Illinois finished 8-4. I am super curious, you think those two teams are equals? How?
Who cares what they were ranked? That’s really meaningless. If you follow the sport, you know what the rosters looked like and what that very likely meant for the year. Illinois was the darling of the rankings after beating South Carolina in Orlando last year and they proved they weren’t deserving.
Illinois was the darling of the rankings after beating South Carolina in Orlando last year and then our Hoosiers ripped their hearts out and spiked them on the Memorial Stadium turf.
Yes, I think we RUINED them.
"You can't make someone listen to reason if they aren't willing to think"-- Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
@jackskip23 - lol Why not just say, "good point, youre right."?? You literally said no one believed Florida was better than USC. I clearly laid out how thats nonsense. Florida being ranked 13th and USC not even getting ANY votes proves people certainly believed Florida was going to better. Which brings me back to my original point that the SEC is overhyped and not better than the B1G.
@jackskip23 - lol Why not just say, "good point, youre right."?? You literally said no one believed Florida was better than USC. I clearly laid out how thats nonsense. Florida being ranked 13th and USC not even getting ANY votes proves people certainly believed Florida was going to better. Which brings me back to my original point that the SEC is overhyped and not better than the B1G.
YOTHN, you are engaging with Ordfan, the infamous football board troll from the old Rivals site. And I mean troll in the original, pre-web sense -- one who posts with the sole intention of sowing discord. He's a master at it, and does it in such a manner that no one can point to any single, explicit post that's out of line. Nevertheless, once he gets rolling, the discussions he's involved with inevitably turn to shit. Don't take the bait. You have been warned.
Earlier this week I watched a 'Bama scribe on either FOX or ESPN (can't remember) - and no, it wasn't Finebaum - and he quoted DeBoer saying, and I paraphrase,
"... the SEC is the toughest conference in the country, from top to bottom...."
sec is still a little deeper, but not by much. If you take the top 16 B1G teams and compare side by side to the top 16 SEC teams based only on their final ranked conference standings by my assessment the SEC would win 1 more game than the B1G. I have 5 B1G teams that are clearly or favorably superior to their SEC counterpart and 7 SEC teams that are clearly or favorably superior to their B1G counterpart. I have 4 that are virtually even 50/50. So, it is not heavily skewed in SEC favor.
Now, if we are talking historical perception then yes the SEC is probably quite a bit deeper, but we don’t live in those times anymore where only blue bloods dominate the sport. Depth for the sake of their arguments only matters based on where teams are performing today and SEC has a lot of teams that are way underperforming this year.
The ACC is terrible this year, but think about where they’d be if Miami, FSU, and Clemson were all playing up to their past heights. Today there is an ocean between B1G/SEC and Big 12/ACC among the P4. I think all coaches are going to brag on the conference they’re in, but I don’t think that’s really a sticking point for Deboer.
However, the speculation Deboer wants to leave bama is nothing real. The rumor mill for coaching changes is only speculation no more than if we picked our favorites and went on a podcast to discuss them. It doesn’t mean the schools are necessarily talking to those candidates. The pool is small. So, someone is bound to hit on a name that gets hired. Deboer name kept coming up for PSU, but Deboer refuted that there was any interest either way. Penn State never even reached out to him according to his public statement. So, all the rumors about him wanting to leave Alabama were just social engineering ploys by the media to build a fire where there wasn’t one.
@jackskip23 - lol Why not just say, "good point, youre right."?? You literally said no one believed Florida was better than USC. I clearly laid out how thats nonsense. Florida being ranked 13th and USC not even getting ANY votes proves people certainly believed Florida was going to better. Which brings me back to my original point that the SEC is overhyped and not better than the B1G.
LOL. If all you’re able to go on and all of your insight is based on preseason rankings, there’s probably not much to discuss. You have to watch games, too. It wasn’t difficult to look at the coaching situations and rosters and come to a much different conclusion that proved to be much more accurate than just relying on preseason polls.
@yothn You clearly won the argument but a guy like that will never concede. Best to just move on.
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