[gatortalk] RE: [gatornews] [OrlSentinel] SEC football teams seem to have an appetite for cream-puff competition

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 02:30:34 -0700

Either Chris has NOT been in the sports writing business very long (naive) or he has and is saying this just to piss us off. 
 
If the Gators switched conferences with USC - the Gators would win the conference every year.  If the Gators went to the ACC or Big Ten - the Gators would win the conference every year. 
 
But the Gators play in the toughest conference - the SEC - were they are the favorites to win the SEC - but most any team is talented enough to trip them up (see Old Miss last year). 
 
And who was the best conference last year? 
 
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/sagarin/fbc08.htm?loc=interstitialskip
 
and which conference was below the ACC ? (how embarassing for the PAC10)
 
Who's schedule was ranked #4 last year and who's schedule was ranked #16?
 
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/sagarin/fbt08.htm
 
so Chris - the facts do NOT back you up. 
 
Either Chris has no clue what he is talking about OR he does and is just trying to piss us off. 
 
Wait until the season is over and then check the conference and team rankings. 
 
 
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [gatornews] [OrlSentinel] SEC football teams seem to have an
appetite for cream-puff competition
From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Date: Mon, August 17, 2009 11:11 pm
To: [email protected]

OrlandoSentinel.com

SEC football teams seem to have an appetite for cream-puff competition

By Chris Harry
SENTINEL STAFF WRITER
2:56 AM EDT, August 16, 2009
It's easy when you're Southern Cal, right?

The Trojans, who annually boast a roster equivalent to a 33rd NFL team, play in the highly competitive Pac-10 Conference. Yet since 2002 they've ventured out of their league — and well out of their time zone — for road dates at Ohio State, Nebraska, Arkansas, Auburn, Kansas State, Colorado, Brigham Young, Virginia and Notre Dame, plus a neutral-site showdown against Virginia Tech.

"If you're a competitor, you want to play the best," said USC Coach Pete Carroll, whose program has excelled with the all-comers mentality, going 82-9 over the last seven seasons, with a pair of national championships and a couple of Heisman Trophy winners. "Who wouldn't want to play games like that?"

The Southeastern Conference, that's who.

Carroll may have the Trojan horses to gallop every year into places like Columbus, Lincoln and the "Loveliest Village on the Plain," but it's not like SEC sidelines are stacked with Washington State rejects. Last time we checked, the SEC had collected the previous three BCS trophies, with Florida sandwiching two national championships around another for LSU.

And yet a month from now, Charleston Southern and Troy will have come to Florida Field — blindfolded with cigarettes dangling from their facemasks — for a pair of public executions. Two months later, Florida International will be dead-panthers walking.

Suggested last meals: Cream puffs, of course.

Florida Athletic Director Jeremy Foley oversees a program that hasn't played a non-conference, regular-season game outside the state since the Gators lost at Syracuse in 1991. It has, however, played Florida State every year since 1958, which requires no apology.

"It's a year-to-year conversation." Foley said of his schedule. "Last year we played Hawaii and Miami, and nobody was saying anything."

Are we picking on the Gators? Yes, but don't worry. There are plenty of perpetrators of this practice, especially in the Big Ten and Big 12. UF, though, is close to home and makes for an easy target.

A game against Lake Highland Prep would draw 90,000 to the Swamp, but that's not the point. Still, Foley has no problem declaring he has no intention of seeking a home-and-home series that would forfeit a seventh home game and the estimated $2 million in revenue he uses to fund one of the nation's finest overall athletic programs.

"Other schools have made the decision to do that," Foley said. "We won't."

And there are those, clearly, that just want to pad the slate.

Like Mississippi.

The Rebels are favored to reach Atlanta and play in the SEC title game for the first time, but their toughest non-conference foe is Memphis on the road. That's barely an hour from Oxford.

"Doesn't matter who you're playing," Ole Miss Coach Houston Nutt said. "Everybody wants a piece of you."

Geez. Stop Tim Tebow on a fourth-and-inches and suddenly you're Bear Bryant.

LSU, with two national titles the previous six years, would get some credit for opening at Washington; if Don James was still coaching there. The Huskies were 0-12 last year, and the Tigers' remaining three non-conference games are home dates against fellow Louisiana programs that combined for 14 wins.

Alabama is actually stepping up with a season-opening, neutral-site game against Virginia Tech at the Georgia Dome, but the Crimson Tide steps back down with FIU, North Texas and Tennessee-Chattanooga.

A round of applause, though, for Georgia, which besides its rivalry season finale with Georgia Tech, opens at Oklahoma State and plays host to Arizona State.

"We might have bit off more than we should have," Bulldogs Coach Mark Richt said.

It'd be nice to see more Dawg-like entries in the hunt.

Here's a breakdown of the nation's 2009 non-conference games.

Which college football cream-puff contest is the biggest mismatch on the 2009 schedule?

5 college football "Christians vs. the Lions" games of 2009

How BCS conferences stack up with non-conference opponents

BCS opponents by the numbers

College football scheduling's good, bad & the ugly

11 meaty matchups that make college football worth watching in September

How non-BCS college football conferences have fared against BCS foes since 1998

Chris Harry can be reached at [email protected]. Staff writer Andrea Adelson contributed to this report.


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