SEC Blowhards

I am done with SEC football. For months, we've heard nothing but how great the teams in the Southestern Conference were the cream of the crop in college football. No more. Following the debalce that was Saturday night in Athens, Georgia, you can't legitimately argue that football in the south dominates the landscape.

SEC apologists have come out of the woodwork following two big losses this week for Georgia and Florida. I've been saying for over 2 years that Urban Meyer and the "vaunted" Gatos were overrated by every college football pundit in the country, and yet again they prove me right. Losing at home to Ole Miss doesn't show how good the SEC depth is - it shows how poor of a coach Meyer is and how overvalued his video game offense remains. Alabama's domination of Georgia was impressive, insofar as the Tide absolutely crushed the favored Bulldogs. Clearly, Alabama is the cream of the crop in the SEC...think about that for a second. ALABAMA? The team everyone thought wasn't good enough to rank to start the season is now the best the SEC has to offer?

But wait, what about LSU? This is the same LSU team that stakes their greatness on a victory at Auburn last week. The same Auburn team that had trouble with a 3-2 victory just 3 weeks ago, and barely escapted against Tennessee this past week (a UT team that got knocked off by UCLA, themselves a victim of a 59-0 thrashing by BYU).

I don't want folks to think the SEC is as bad as the Big 10 or the Pac 10. In fact, in most cases, the SEC would dominate any other conference in head to head matchups. But the reality is, media types have it in their mind that this is the best conference in the country, and are making up whatever excuses they can in order to maintain thier assertation. Reality check - if you say the best team in the SEC is Georgia and Florida, and they both lose at home to teams they should beat, you can't argue that the SEC's best teams are better than other conferences just by switching who your best team from the SEC is. They laid an egg. Deal with it.

On the note of laying an egg - USC's loss to Oregon State dropped them to #9. The Trojans benefitted greatly from 2 things this weekend - the fact that so many other ranked teams lost surely helped keep USC in the top 10. More importantly, the fact that they played on Thursday night surely benefitted them come Monday's polls as well. By the time voting came around, it can only be assumed that voters had all but forgotten the faceplant performed by the Trojans in Corvalis Thursday night in the mayhem of Saturday's upsets. As high profile as the aforementioned Georgia - Alabama game was, it's easy to see how folks can forget just how poorly SC looked late into the evening last Thursday night, and the polls showed it. If you are the #1 team in the country, and you lose to an unranked double digit underdog, you shouldn't get the benefit of the doubt and remain a top - 10 team. Scary, isn't it, how we might actually end up with a USC (11-1) - Ohio State (11-1) rematch for the national championship - nevermind the Rose Bowl. Those records could very well end up pitting the Trojans and the Buckeyes in the rematch no one wants to see.

For my money, the best conference right now is the Big 12. 3 teams in the top 5, 4 in the top 7.

And still, no HD broadcasts from ABC for Big 12 regional broadcasts? Amazing.