Amazingly Stupid

I am not a football expert and I have never pretended that I am. Also, I am not unbiased. I love University of Florida Gator football, which means I love SEC football.* So nothing can make me see red faster than a stupid article like this one. According to the article, SEC teams are not tough enough because their Out of Conference (OOC) schedules aren't the toughest ones in NCAA sports. According to the author, Randy Hill, the reason the SEC has only had 2** teams in the BCS National Championship*** in the last 8 years is due to strength of schedule.****

I am sick of tired of hearing about the SEC's OOC schedule. Does it suck? Yes, a lot of it does. But the rest of the NCAA does not have to play the In Conference nightmare that the SEC goes through year in and year out. And a lot (not all) of the SEC teams play one of their OOC games against the in state or just across the state lines rivals. Some of those teams are tough.

So, let's look at last years Gator schedule.

Sept 2, Southern Mississippi. 34-7.
Sept 9, Central Florida, 42-0
Sept 16, @ Tennessee, 21-20
Sept 23, Kentucky, 26-7
Sept 30, Alabama, 28-13
Oct 7, LSU, 23-10
Oct 14, @ Auburn, 17-27 (YES IT WAS A FORWARD PASS!)
Oct 28, Georgia (in Jax), 21-14
Nov 4, @Vanderbilt, 25-9
Nov 11, South Carolina, 17-16 (Thank God for a tall defense)
Nov 18, Western Carolina, 62-0
Nov 25, @ Florida State, 21-14(Ok, so FSU sucked last year, but how often does that happen? Almost NEVER. I bet they don't this year)
Dec 2, SEC Champs game against Arkansas, 38-28
Jan 8, National Championship Game against Ohio State University, 41-14


How many of these teams had winning seasons? Just counting the regular season, of course. Out of the 12 teams UF played, 9 were bowl eligible. NINE. Even one of the "Why are you playing them, they are crap?" teams went to a bowl.

I am not going to get into the "My conference is better than your conference" discussion. Sometimes the SEC is at the top (most of the time), but sometimes they are not. Some of the teams play tough teams from OOC (Didn't the Vols kick Cal's butt last year?) Sometimes they don't. The fact is, the SEC plays SEC football, the others do not. I would love to take an Oklahoma, a USC or a Michigan and let them play Florida's schedule and see what their record is at the end of the season. I just don't think they would end up in the National Championship game.

*Loving SEC football means I cheer against all other SEC teams unless their winning will help the Gators in the rankings. And I cheer for ALL SEC teams during bowl season.

** Three teams in the last 8 years, moron. '99 Tennessee National Champs. '03 LSU National Champs. '06 Florida National Champs.

***UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2006 NATIONAL CHAMPIONS

**** In '04 Auburn got screwed when they were undefeated, won the SEC, but played the Citadel. Oklahoma didn't win their Conference.