SEC Dominance
 

1 & 2 this year. 1 & 2 last year. 3 out of 4 National Championships. Ray Charles can see this & he's blind and dead!

+1

Look forward to seeing the final BCS Rankings.. The AP is as worthless as Drifting is to Auto Raing.

And for the second consecutive season, Ohio State got overwhelmed by its opponent. Throughout the second half, the three letters chanted by the purple-and-gold-clad fans in the dome were not "L-S-U!" but "S-E-C!"

I'd like to see who's really #1 in the SEC. LSU needs to get it on with Georgia.

All around conference toughness shows 4 Big 12 schools in the top 10, but the AP poll is a pretty bad indicator of who's good and who isn't.

I like both conferences, perhaps the SEC a bit more. In either, upsets aren't really upsets at all, they're expected.

Georgia aint ready for LSU this year and would lose to the Tigers. No threat to throw the ball down field. A one dimensional offense against the Tiger-D spells trouble for the opposition. Don't buy into who "the hottest team in the country" is. LSU is the most tenacious and talented team in the country who could not be beat in regulation. The DAWGS would get beat, probably as bad as Slow-hio State did.

Georgia can be a threat next year if they get better in the passing game, however they will first need to survive a schedule the resembles Death Row first.

But not as bad as USC would.

To be fair I don't think the SEC would do very well against the Big 10 in winter conditions. The SEC only plays in good weather a luxury that the Big 10 does not have. The Big 10 has to win in winter to get to the bowl games, how would LSU do in snow?

Weather can equalize a lot of things. However LSU has a stable of running backs second to none with 5 guys that all have different style and can flat get it done. The O and D line has the ability to brush-hog people also, so I think they could do well. As well as on turf? Snow Probably takes away some of the team speed and can effect the passing game but they would still be tough. I know Big 10 Baceball aint on the level of SEC Baseball because of weather, so you make a good point.

Think the big 10 could hang in the heat? I doubt it.

I wanted to see USC and LSU

Yawn at this topic....

Every NC game is Home Game for the SEC.
Every freaking one of them.

The Big Ten team, built for the winter has to pick up and
travel to the South where they meet a team with a home field
advantage.

When LSU comes up to the horseshoe or the Big House and plays
in January outdoors...THEN we will have something to talk about.

Until then, it is best to just STFU.

PS: Overall I agree that the SEC is strongest from top to bottom....HOWEVER
the top 10 recruiting EVERY year is split between SEC, Big Ten, USC, and ND..
every year....

dont tell me that top recruits get slower up North...they dont...
Michigan, Ohiohate...have a TON of fast players in the NFL...

so think what you want....you will anyway

PPS: Michigan 41, florida 35 in a beatdown. 530yds total offense and 4 giveaways and Michigan still was the faster, more physical and victorious team.

Bring your SEC teams to Michigan or Ohio or Penn in January for a game...until then it is best to just keep your bragging relegated to the Southern taverns.

By Pat Forde
ESPN.com
(Archive)
Updated: January 8, 2008, 11:58 AM ET
Comment
Email
Print
NEW ORLEANS -- With the 2007 football season complete, here's the game plan for 2008:


[+] EnlargeStreeter Lecka/Getty Images

Jim Tressel's Ohio State team has lost back-to-back games for the BCS national championship.

We need border patrols along Interstate 10, from Jacksonville to Pensacola. A Coast Guard blockade at Biscayne Bay. And the FAA should redirect all inbound flights to South Florida from Ohio.

If you see a silver helmet and a sweater vest coming, contact authorities.

Because next year's BCS National Championship Game will be played in Miami, and the Ohio State Buckeyes aren't invited. Especially if the Southeastern Conference champion is invited.

If you've ever seen lions maul a water buffalo, you've seen the last two title games. You've seen a fierce pair of SEC teams -- Florida last year, LSU this year -- blow the vulnerable Buckeyes back to the Bratwurst Belt by a combined 41 points. You've seen the best of one league flex, and the best of an inferior league collapse.

Nobody wants to see it a third time. Give Ohio State credit for consistently being very good -- but until Jim Tressel's team proves it can step up to the highest level of competition and actually stay on the field with an SEC opponent, stay away.

When the program's bowl record is 0-9 against the SEC, the evidence is overwhelming.

Buckeyes fans are fond of breaking into impromptu group spelling bees, shouting out "O-H-I-O." When an SEC team shows up on the other sideline it should be "O-H-N-O."

They're also fond of calling their school The Ohio State University. It might also now be called The Overmatched State University of the BCS.

This time the final score was healthy-and-loaded LSU 38, in-over-its-head Ohio State 24. And it wasn't that close. Once again, the Bucks got their fans excited by scoring early -- ran the opening kickoff back for a touchdown last season, jumped out 10-0 this time.

Then, once again, it was time for southern-fried dominance.

Last year the Gators ran off 21 unanswered points to take control. This year the Tigers peeled off 31 straight, scoring five times in six possessions over a 30-minute span, ripping what was statistically the nation's No. 1 defense.

The Buckeyes aided in their own demise by committing a spate of personal-foul penalties. By blowing coverages. By getting a key field goal blocked. By showing neither the composure nor the competitiveness of a champion.

"They didn't fight back like an SEC team would do," said LSU safety Harry Coleman, who filled in superbly for injured All-American Craig Steltz.

The Tigers had no problem fighting back. Down 10-0, they shrugged.

Been there, overcome that -- three times, in fact. They were down 10 against Florida and Auburn and Alabama. All SEC opponents, not coincidentally.

"There's no panic in this team," said coach Les Miles said. "Are you kidding me? We've been down 10 before. We know how to play."

The SEC is not a humble place by any measure. But it ain't braggin' if you can back it up -- and especially if you can back-to-back it up, as Florida and LSU have done.

"They're used to playing in tough games week-in and week-out," said SEC commissioner Mike Slive, between sideline fist pumps after LSU's final touchdown of the night. "They're used to playing in what I call the crucible."

The Big Ten, by contrast, has been the baby's crib. Ohio State has coasted through that league 15-1 the past two seasons, only to collapse in the face of an SEC champ with a lower BCS standing and a worse record.

"I don't think it was easy," said LSU offensive tackle Carnell Stewart. "But they let momentum get to them, and their heads were gone."


[+] EnlargeJohn David Mercer/US Presswire

Ohio State was in it early but QB Todd Boeckman ended up being pounded often by the fierce LSU Tigers defense.

How much negative momentum had the Buckeyes encountered in strolling to their 11-1 record? How much adversity had they overcome? Almost none.

They were tied with Wisconsin heading into the fourth quarter before pulling away. (The Badgers, by the way, lost to SEC opponent Tennessee in the Outback Bowl.) In their only other serious second-half fight, they seized up and lost at home to Illinois. (The Illini, by the way, were nudged by 32 in the Rose Bowl.)

So, no, the Buckeyes weren't ready for what LSU threw at them. Not ready to win the battle in the trenches, not ready to match speed on the perimeter, not ready to calmly and smartly execute under a mountain of pressure. LSU figured to be better at a majority of positions but wound up better at virtually every position but running back.

Combine that lack of toughening with vivid memories of the destruction in the desert against Florida and you know why so many of us were concerned about Ohio State's fitness for this battle. Especially if you saw a fully loaded LSU from earlier in the season, before the SEC wars began wearing it down.

"We played the best ball in the country," said defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey, physically capable of playing a full game for the first time in months. "We have big games week after week."

That was more or less what Miles said back in July, popping off about the strength of the SEC in comparison to other leagues. On the season's final night, his players backed up the talk.

"In this conference, week after week, you're going to play quality-coached, very talented teams and you're going to have to play your best," Miles said. "And so I think it puts the champion of this conference in position to compete in a very competitive game like this with an advantage."

Ohio State, meanwhile, now symbolizes the pigskin Peter Principle. The Buckeyes have achieved just enough the past two seasons to rise to a level where they're incompetent.

It's a tough thing, putting together an overachieving season and seeing it end in embarrassing fashion. Especially since the Buckeyes know what this means -- another year of "S-E-C" chants and barbs about flopping on the big stage.

"I worry about disappointment because I know how hard these kids work," Ohio State coach Jim Tressel said. "I don't worry too much about criticism, because if you're not tough enough to handle criticism, then you better get out of this game. … There's a whole lot of people that don't really have much understanding of what it takes to be good at this game but yet love to have opinions.

"If you struggle to take criticism, then you need not be at Ohio State or not be playing the game of football."

Well, good. At least Tressel knows what he's in for.

And he should know not to bring that weak Big Ten stuff back to the BCS National Championship Game again next year.



Pat Forde is a senior writer for ESPN.com. He can be reached at ESPN4D@aol.com.

Yeah, just ask Hawaii. Talk about embarrassment at the hands of an SEC team.

Maybe the rest of the Div I teams should have a playoff system and then the winner of that playoff plays the SEC champ. :D

Again, nobody in their right mind wants to go TO the Midwest in winter. Nothing personal but it sucks. Maybe we could leave both teams over night on an ice floe and play the game on a glacier, since you seem to think that the measure of a football team is how well they endure cold.

I'm betting on the Jauques Cousteaudians!

So it's Fear the Hat
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1199887819.jpg
Or Fear the "sweater vest", you decide.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1199887876.jpg

Sonic- forget recruiting for a minute... which conference sends more to the NFL? That's the real test.

- Skip

Why the smile??? That sounds perfectly reasonable to me!!! :D

Can't you just picture the TrojanMen chomping at the bit to come get them some?

Michigan 23-5 all time vs. SEC.
That is all I care about.

any questions Mule?

PS: You are starting to really look ridiculous you people's words around to suite your spin.
It is possible that you appear to be a complete nutcase to many on the forum. Check yourself perhaps.