MSU Red Cedar Message Board

They have what 6 Mythical National championships in a row. It sucks but they are the best.

ESPN being silly doesn't mean that the SEC isn't the best. It's not really close.

It will be interesting to see if the tides shift at all with a playoff format.

The last few years, the SEC has had 1, sometimes 2 truly great teams. Over the last 6 years, SEC teams have also gotten mulligans in order to be in the MNC game. They get more bites at the apple, based on ESPN hype. An LSU team with 2 losses to unranked teams playing for all the marbles in New Orleans is the most glaring example. Sure, they won...but most other teams would be in the Outback Bowl with that resume. Even USC didn't get the mulligans that SEC teams get (and thus, SEC teams were able to dodge USC in the MNC game, and several times many were arguing that USC was the best team in the nation, despite dropping games to the likes of Stanford, UCLA or Oregon State.

Actually an interesting article.

The 2011 example is interesting ...

"The most bald-faced example of poll rigging occurred in 2011 when the Pac-12's then number-three-ranked Oregon Ducks lost a September game in Dallas to then number-four-ranked LSU by a score of 40-27. Following the defeat, the Ducks dropped 10 spaces in the polls, to number 13.

With the demotion, Oregon's championship hopes were essentially obliterated from the first week of the season.

Fine. This is the way it goes in a college football's "every game counts" season.

When the SEC's then #2 Alabama Crimson Tide lost at home to #1 LSU in November, however, it dropped only one space in the polls, to number three.

Within two weeks, just-beaten Alabama had been scooted back up to number two behind top-ranked LSU, and yet another SEC team (Arkansas) had been quickly installed at number three, thus ensuring that no matter what happened next, the SEC would be guaranteed a national title. The system of propaganda reached its torrid, circle-jerk climax with the 2012 BCS title game between LSU and Alabama."

The participants in the National Title are distorted by the perception to always guarantee the SEC has at least a team in the game. The game itself is almost always in southern territory making it an SEC home game and giving them an advantage in it. Even so, 6 straight is a bit of an anomaly. The problem will continue to grow as the hype machine continues and effects recruiting for even more of an advantage.

It's easy to say, "Oh they've won how many in a row, obviously they are the best." Of course they are. That isn't the point. The point is that ESPN and the media hype machine gets SEC borderline teams in the game, they get them recruits with the hype, and they protect that dominance with overblown coverage.

Perfect example is the ranking of Georgia well above us everywhere.

That was a great article...

"The system of propaganda reached its torrid, circle-jerk climax with the 2012 BCS title game between LSU and Alabama."

....And Oklahoma St. thought they were the ones getting screwed....

The SEC gets hype and whatnot.... but come on... the SEC powers are far better on-the-field products than almost everybody else.

I am not going to lie, I quit reading the article about halfway through, but I think I got the general gist of it and scanned the rest of it to see if my point was brought up and I didn't see it.

My point is this: I would be curious to see the data in regards to regular season and bowl records in the 2nd half of the BCS era - roughly 2005 - present. I would venture to say that the environment of major college football has changed significantly since the advent of the bullshit BCS "system" and bowl games, and that is has created a system where schools in the SEC are willing to further "bend" the rules and stray from their mission statements as academic institutions first and foremost - moreso than they were doing during the first half of the BCS era.

I would contend that the SEC is clearly the dominant conference in today's college football landscape. No ESPN shilling needed. However, in my mind "today's college football landscape" doesn't encompass the past 14+ years. It covers the last 7-8 years and during that time Slive and the SEC have evolved to put football at the front of their agendas, whereas many of the other conferences haven't been willing to do so.

TL;DR - SEC has evolved to cheat since the advent of the BCS to become dominant. Denying their dominance today is dumb.

Author makes some interesting points but there's no doubt the SEC is the best conference. I think the SEC simply manages to somehow put together the BEST team, year by year, but overall I don't think top to bottom the conference is better. SEC is better in terms of elite teams v. elite teams in other conferences.

Agreed. SEC depth is overrated. No doubt LSU and ALA were elite but, the rest of the conference isn't head over shoulders above all the other conferences. I hate when pundits say "if Ark, SC and UGA were in the B1G they would win it hands down". Besides that 1 elite team they are as any other conference. Most major conferences have 2 really good teams. Well except the big east.