2009 Football Season

[a44bigdog]

I am well aware of the SEC vs Big Ten record.

However look at the in conference rank of the SEC teams vs the in conference rank of the Big Ten teams they played against.  And I am not saying the Big Ten is junk either. But the 2nd or 3rd place Big Ten team beating the 5th or 6th place SEC doesn’t prove much either.

Herbstreet and Mussberger are probably the two biggest idiots ever to step into a broadcast booth. I cringe when I see them as the announcers. Going in you already know they are going to Rah, Rah whichever team is more shall we say traditionally known. What is even more amusing is watching them reverse directions midway through a game between two traditional powers when there favorite starts loosing.

I am not that impressed with USC. They have no real competition in their conference and as you stated seem to manage to loose a gimme game every year.

I doubt a playoff will ever happen if College football. However I don’t want to go back to the days of a 3 loss Notre Dame team going to a top tier bowl, or bowl selections based on the old “travels well” criteria.

[frimmel]

@a44bigdog:

I am well aware of the SEC vs Big Ten record.

If you are aware of the record there isn’t much else to say cause that’s where the rubber meets the road.

You can’t say the middle of the SEC is better than the middle of the Big Ten and say Iowa tied for fourth at 5-3 in confernce beating South Carolina at 4-4 tied for fifth in the mighty SEC ‘doesn’t prove much.’  :-)

If the SEC middle was so far above the Big Ten middle the recent bowl record would not be split it would be well tipped to the SEC.  :-)

[gamerman01]

I’ve lived in Iowa my whole life and am a University of Iowa alum and love my Hawks.  Of course I’d like to see the Big 10 be a respected conference again, but what does it matter, really.

That said, let me provide some context to the Iowa vs. South Carolina game.  Iowa knocked off #3 Penn State late in the season, solving the #1 #2 debate for last year.  Iowa tends to play their best ball in October/November and for some unknown reason seems to improve faster than most teams.  What I mean is, they lose games in September that are surprising, but if they were to play the same team again in November, Iowa would often win.  If you were to look at Iowa’s record over the last 10 years in October and November only, you would be surprised.

Since getting embarassed by USC in the Orange bowl several years ago, Iowa has clamped down on bowl games, losing very few since then.  Iowa has beaten Florida (and lost to Florida once) and LSU in January 1 bowl games in the recent past.  The victory over SC is just the latest Iowa conquest of an SEC team on January 1.

So I guess, if you took Iowa out of the Big Ten and then looked at Big Ten bowl records in the past 5-7 years, the Big Ten would suck even worse.  The fact that Iowa had the only Big 10 Bowl win last year is telling.

Then there’s the fact that SC had lost several games at the end of their season.  The two teams were going in opposite directions.  So looking at this game as a “middle of the Big 10” vs “middle of the SEC” is extremely misleading.  I guess I’m making a case that the SEC is better than the Big 10.  But they should be.  They have much better weather to practice in throughout the year and can get better recruits.  It’s amazing that teams here in the Midwest can compete as well as they do.

[frimmel]

:lol:

If we’re going to ‘take away’ stuff we could remove the 2 NCG losses of the Buckeyes.

We’d then have a 5-3 record for the Big Ten versus the SEC and the middle is better argument is again not borne by the record.

Take away the Hawkeyes and we have what 3-2 in favor of Big Ten? I’m just not buying the SEC is better top to bottom as anything more than ESPN being invested in creating that perception for their profit.

[balungaloaf]

guys guys guys……

we all know the big 12 is the best league.  remember how every single top quarterback, all the top 8 were from the big 12?

who’s got more top teams than all the others?

bwah-ha-ha-ha  :evil:

[frimmel]

@balungaloaf:

guys guys guys……

we all know the big 12 is the best league.  remember how every single top quarterback, all the top 8 were from the big 12?

who’s got more top teams than all the others?

bwah-ha-ha-ha  :evil:

:roll:

Oklahoma.

While you have to applaud their consistency, I find it a bit annoying that their 2-5 BCS record and performacne in the championship games garners not nearly the scorn for the Big 12 as the back to back losses of Ohio State seems to for the Big 10.

[Jermofoot]

@balungaloaf:

guys guys guys……

we all know the big 12 is the best league.  remember how every single top quarterback, all the top 8 were from the big 12?

who’s got more top teams than all the others?

bwah-ha-ha-ha  :evil:

Since when is Florida in the Big 12?  Among others…

[a44bigdog]

The stats might have changed some but all time wins against non-conference opponents is 1. SEC 2. ACC 3 Big 10.

The Big 10 would have a long way to go to be a junk conference. The Big East seem to have that distinction sewed up in spades.

I also do not base my statement on ESPN. It comes from 30+ years of watching SEC football. I put little stock in what ESPN says. They are usually wrong. Heck they can’t even get the conference standings correct. In the SEC barring ties the ONLY thing that counts is conference and division records. ESPN will consistently have this wrong based on the overall records. I mainly read the ESPN articles for their comedy factor, not their factual content. It isn’t just ESPN that is slack on journalism now. Have you picked up a newspaper lately frimmel? They are not all that impressive anymore.

As far as the Big 12. The Big 12 South is very close to getting its acts together. They have the offenses and have been raiding SEC defensive coordinators to beef up the other side of the ball. The Big 12 North still has a ways to go.

Just out of curiosity frimmel who is your favorite team or teams?

[frimmel]

I have to agree with you that the state of journalism in this country (everywhere?) is appalling.

My favorite team is Ohio State and whoever’s playing Notre Dame. I even manage to root for Meatchicken in their yearly tussle.

I don’t watch many pro games likely because the Ohio pro teams are awful and I just can’t get behind the Steelers.

[a44bigdog]

Well other than disagreeing about the SEC we seem to have a lot in common.

Ya know what sucks about a Michigan - Notre Dame game? One of them has to win.  :-D

I gave up on the Atalanta Falcons back in the '80s so I don’t really follow the pros much either. Although pro football doesn’t seem to be that big of a seller down here in the south anyway. Seems like every time they start up one of the new leagues somebody thinks a pro team would do well in Birmingham. They never do. Not that the alternate leagues have had much success anyway.

Ohhh and Ohio State. You do realize your boy Herbie allegedly played there. I say allegedly, because listening to him, you have to sometimes wonder if he has ever even played the game. But then again they need somebody to make Brent’s annoying self look good.

[ABWorsham4]

I will say that the SEC has more NFL type players per team than any other conference.

[frimmel]

@ABWorsham:

I will say that the SEC has more NFL type players per team than any other conference.

Big Ten leads the SEC in first round draft picks. Slight edge to the SEC in the overall number 1 pick though.

This is a shorter term sampling with the SEC with the edge. It is so close as to force me to wonder if it is as much the SEC hype as it is ‘better players.’

I can’t seem to locate a total draft picks by conference all time.

Here is an interesting list but I think it is out of date.  :|

[a44bigdog]

Hey frimmel I am curious as to why you are opposed to the Conference Championship games.

[frimmel]

I’m hard pressed to put it into words. I think opposed isn’t the most precise word for it. I just don’t like them.

They seem as much geared to a need for instant gratification as opposed to seeking the best. They feel like when teachers allow extra work at end of term to make up for low test scores or other poor performance earlier on.

I think they diminish the regular season. They often create situations where one team has to beat another twice to be conference champion.

They feel more geared to society’s seeming fascination with seeing the mighty brought down than with the raising up of persistent excellence.

The conference championships and especially calls for a playoff seem to fall back on some sort of law of the jungle meme, you couldn’t beat me today so I’m the best! But that oppurtunity seems to be handed out on making an exception to that rule. “What do you mean my pleas for fairness are unfair to you? Who said life is fair?”

It comes across like extending the race one more mile because you didn’t like the winner.

Maybe it is that it can often seperate in my thinking ‘best’ and ‘champion.’