What Happened to ACC Football?

staggerwing

Banhammer'd
Ban Hammer'd
Joined
Sep 27, 2012
Messages
831
i think the collegiate football landscape is more balanced than we think. however, until we have a playoff, long term perception wins. boise st was denied a chance to see how good they really are twice now because people said there's no way david could beat goliath.
The key word there is perception. I'm unconvinced that a playoff is going to alleviate SEC dominance when you're likely going to have pollsters and sportswriters voting two or three SEC teams into a four-team playoff.

The SEC is a top-heavy conference like every other. Alabama is in a class by themselves, and then you have above-average teams like LSU, Florida?, and Georgia who beat up up on one another. I'm leaving out Mississippi State here because they're about like GT (good every decade or so). The other seven or eight teams are nothing special and routinely lose to teams from other conferences.

In a couple of weeks, when there are fewer unbeatens and a logjam of one-loss teams, I'll be interested to see if football writers continue to ignore one-loss FSU in favor of one-loss teams from the SEC. It will be especially interesting if FSU beats Florida, which they are more than capable of doing.

The SEC's much-hyped six straight national titles are unprecedented, to be sure, but how many teams contributed? The usual three suspects, plus the Auburn fluke. So, again. Three great programs, and eight to nine average ones. Whoopty-funking-doo.

TLDR, a playoff isn't going to solve much of anything, because the powers-that-be in college football have a vested interest in continuing the narrative that the SEC is the "the best conference."
 

Legal Jacket

Dodd-Like
Joined
Feb 15, 2011
Messages
4,255
The key word there is perception. I'm unconvinced that a playoff is going to alleviate SEC dominance when you're likely going to have pollsters and sportswriters voting two or three SEC teams into a four-team playoff.

The SEC is a top-heavy conference like every other. Alabama is in a class by themselves, and then you have above-average teams like LSU, Florida?, and Georgia who beat up up on one another. I'm leaving out Mississippi State here because they're about like GT (good every decade or so). The other seven or eight teams are nothing special and routinely lose to teams from other conferences.

In a couple of weeks, when there are fewer unbeatens and a logjam of one-loss teams, I'll be interested to see if football writers continue to ignore one-loss FSU in favor of one-loss teams from the SEC. It will be especially interesting if FSU beats Florida, which they are more than capable of doing.

The SEC's much-hyped six straight national titles are unprecedented, to be sure, but how many teams contributed? The usual three suspects, plus the Auburn fluke. So, again. Three great programs, and eight to nine average ones. Whoopty-funking-doo.

TLDR, a playoff isn't going to solve much of anything, because the powers-that-be in college football have a vested interest in continuing the narrative that the SEC is the "the best conference."
I think you need to reassess where you stand if you think Florida and LSU are just "above average."

I hate the SEC as much as the next guy, but it's a very shallow analysis to say they are merely top heavy. Most years, their "top" is 6-7 teams strong. I can't pull up the exact numbers, but in the last ten years I bet you would find that at least 6-7 SEC teams are in the top 15-20 of college football. Don't give me the "SEC doesn't play anybody" shpeel either. They've won huge out of conference games the past few years. If and when they play cupcakes, it's really not any worse than the cupcakes most ACC schools play. You got Bama, uga, LSU, UF, USCe, and UT. Over the past 10 years, those schools are rivaled in the ACC by FSU, VT and to a lesser extent Miami, Clemson, and us.

For example, in the 2000s, you had 3 SEC schools in the top 10 schools in terms of wins. And that doesn't count UT or Bama, both of whom were pretty good during long stretches that decade.

Now I don't think the SEC is heads and shoulders above everyone else. But I do believe that the reason it is a good football conference is it usually (i) has one or two REALLY good teams and (ii) has three or four other solid teams.

Since the BCS began, the SEC is 81-77 against other BCS schools in the regular season. 60-44 in bowls.

My take on those numbers is that the SEC is NOT top heavy, necessarily, but rather has a pretty good top tier of 5-7 teams (top heavy to me is just having 1-2 good teams at the top). Where other conferences catch up, imo, is when comparing the Kentucky's, Vanderbilts, and Ole Miss's to other schools.
 

staggerwing

Banhammer'd
Ban Hammer'd
Joined
Sep 27, 2012
Messages
831
Nah, I don't really need to reassess anything. Florida had trouble with Bowling Green. It also has trouble scoring and its signature wins are against a worse-than-usual LSU and a typically overrated South Carolina.

Futhermore, I don't hate the SEC. I enjoy watching most of its schools play football. I just get tired of the bullshit spouted by glorified bloggers which is then taken as gospel.

Also, the rest of your post pretty much said what I said. The SEC is clearly a good conference, and clearly it's the result of a small handful of its members.
 

Legal Jacket

Dodd-Like
Joined
Feb 15, 2011
Messages
4,255
Nah, I don't really need to reassess anything. Florida had trouble with Bowling Green. It also has trouble scoring and its signature wins are against a worse-than-usual LSU and a typically overrated South Carolina.

Futhermore, I don't hate the SEC. I enjoy watching most of its schools play football. I just get tired of the bullshit spouted by glorified bloggers which is then taken as gospel.

Also, the rest of your post pretty much said what I said. The SEC is clearly a good conference, and clearly it's the result of a small handful of its members.
I don't think you can base an analysis of an entire conference, particularly over a multi year period, based on a single game by a single team. We are probably close to being on the same page, my point (condensed) is that I think the SEC typically has 6-7 pretty solid teams that are better than pretty much any other league's 6-7 solid teams, especially after their recent expansion. I also think that excludes them from being unreasonably top heavy. Most years you aren't going to be able to find a conference that stacks up favorably with Bama, LSU, UF, UT, uga, and Auburn. If one of those schools is down, there are others that have shown they can step up, particularly Arkansas, A&M, Mizzou, and Miss St. I'd probably take those 10 programs over the past 10 years against the schools in any other conference.

I do agree with you that UF is overrated. They are still pretty good though.
 

3GT

Jolly Good Fellow
Joined
Aug 9, 2011
Messages
1,967
I don't think you can base an analysis of an entire conference, particularly over a multi year period, based on a single game by a single team. We are probably close to being on the same page, my point (condensed) is that I think the SEC typically has 6-7 pretty solid teams that are better than pretty much any other league's 6-7 solid teams, especially after their recent expansion. I also think that excludes them from being unreasonably top heavy. Most years you aren't going to be able to find a conference that stacks up favorably with Bama, LSU, UF, UT, uga, and Auburn. If one of those schools is down, there are others that have shown they can step up, particularly Arkansas, A&M, Mizzou, and Miss St. I'd probably take those 10 programs over the past 10 years against the schools in any other conference.

I do agree with you that UF is overrated. They are still pretty good though.

UF didnt look so over-rated vs.. USCe, considering UGAG lost to USCe. Same with UK.
 

QuadF

Dodd-Like
Joined
May 23, 2011
Messages
11,354
The key word there is perception. I'm unconvinced that a playoff is going to alleviate SEC dominance when you're likely going to have pollsters and sportswriters voting two or three SEC teams into a four-team playoff.
I said a playoff. 4 teams isn't a playoff any more than 2 teams is.

also, i think that a lot of this goes back to what i said about the landscape being more balanced than it's perceived as being. the sec teams have a tendency to get things done when they need to and that's why they're the best. but, it's not a heaven and earth difference, hence the reason why UF almost lost to bowling green, auburn collapsed, arkansas collapsed, and so on.
 
Top