Florida State Seminoles

[dave_rickart]

no, hudge, it's relatively easy.

during the game, i definitely find myself rooting for Virginia on a play-by-play basis. (to compete, not to get blown out, etc). I can't root against my school (even now, when I want London fired on the whole, I still root for them on every snap during the game).

But I also know the win means more for the Noles in most years - they are competing for an ACC title, for a major bowl, sometimes for national title game inclusion. Virginia hasn't competed for an ACC title since the '90s.

on the few times Virginia is competitive in the game and has a chance for the upset, great.

worst case scenario - 1998. we lose, we injure Chris Weinke, we cost FSU the national title. That is what I DON'T want to happen.

Last thing anyone wants is to see Val fan strutting around after beating a third-string QB.....

[10ac]

Or a team going to the title game with an ACC schedule.

[dave_rickart]

see, THERE is Val fan strutting around....

[billy bob bocephus]

damn 10ac, you walked into that one

[Jungle Rat]

Who the hell is richart? Is he new here?

[dave_rickart]

like shooting fish in a barrel.......

[KeviNole]

Or a team going to the title game with an ACC schedule.

You play in the SECE, FFS. Your SECW opponents are Bama (obviously quality), and Misery (lost to fucking Indiana!!!!). Now is not the time for Val/SECE fan to be strutting around about conference strengths. UGA isn't bad but is being propped up by schedule as well.

Louisville (at full strength) would likely beat UGA, and probably run the SECE schedule. Notre Dame might do the same (it's kinda sorta a conference game for us).

FSU is about 75% of the team they were last year, but frankly last year's team was a very, very strong team.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Missouri is in the East (nonsensical, but Auburn refuses to switch divisions). The Vols also played Ole Miss. And by played I mean 'beaten like a drum'.

Root for Missouri to win the East solely because of that loss to Indiana.

[AlabamAlum]

What is your tie to Indiana? Is that a B1G brotherhood thing?

[Dr. Strangelove]

More of an anti-SEC hype thing.

There was a guy on ESPN Radio yesterday afternoon insisting that Georgia would win the Big10, ACC, or Pac12 'going away'. They'd have more trouble winning the Big12 but would still be the favorite. And he explicitly said the Big10 and ACC were both 'garbage'. I think it might've been Ryan Russilo? Anyways even his co-hosts were a little surprised and thought that they 'have a chance' but definitely not dominate. This came immediately after a discussion of 'SEC bias' and all three guys saying there's no such thing. So yeah, it would please me a little to see the divisional champ be a team that lost to pathetic Indiana.

Everyone with a brain acknowledges the SEC is the best but the frustration comes from guys like this who think the 6th or 7th best team in the SEC, annually, would pretty much dominate any other conference. And then they insist they aren't giving SEC any extra benefit of the doubt.

Anyways, the word clearly went out around ESPN to address 'SEC Bias' because all of a sudden many of their tv and radio personalities are talking about the subject. I'm guessing ESPN has been getting an unusually high amount of negative feedback from viewers.

[AlabamAlum]

SEC hype is justified. Therefore, it's not really hype.

[10ac]

EFZ

[KeviNole]

It doesn't really matter because it will all come out in the wash (SECW will cannibalize itself and this ludicrous notion that 3 of the top 4 teams in the nation reside there dies), but DSL hit it on the head. The non-SECers are sick of the premise that all of the top half dozen teams in the SEC would roll through every other conference. Be proud of your conference, but don't act like Gators about it.

[AlabamAlum]

I don't think the SEC W cannibalizing itself makes the notion that it has a number of the nations's top teams die. And I'm not an SEC homer. In fact, I usually openly root against my SEC brethren in OOC games, but I absolutely believe that the SEC W is the best division in college football, and no other division is even really close.

And, fans are fans, and it often extends into the conference as a whole. Listen to ACC fans talk about the rigors of their conference in basketball. With football, the fact that the SEC has won 7 of the last 8 NCs (and had a real shot in the one loss. Thanks, Auburn), just bolsters that.

[KeviNole]

but I absolutely believe that the SEC W is the best division in college football, and no other division is even really close

No argument there - at all. MSU got an unbelievable boost in public perception by beating a pretty damn average TAMU team (from unranked to top 5 - unprecedented), then earned their keep with a victory over AU. If they beat Bama and Ole Miss, I'll be a believer but I honestly have seen nothing to indicate they are an elite team - other than the AU fluke, and I do believe it was a fluke.

Having the best conference/division, however, does not mean that every team in your conference/division is better than the rest of the country. Clemson with Watson, for example, would fare well in the SECW (they happen to have the best defense in the country). I think Louisville at full strength would do well - they just got the second best receiver in the country back, along with Dyer who is purported to be SEC! quality, and Notre Dame is very good as well. Any of those three is perfectly capable of beating MSU, Bama, Ole Miss, and AU.

[AlabamAlum]

Oh, I agree that the teams aren't all top 10 caliber in the SECW. Far from it. I think the statement that it is harder to go through the SEC West unscathed than any other division is true, though. So, deference is given.


Clemson has a good D. I don't know that I believe they are better than LSU, Bama, Ole Miss. All are fairly comparable statistically. And that's the issue. Three or four top-notch D's in one division.

Okay. ND is decent. Three-loss Louisville? The team that lost to UVA and struggled with Wake Forrest? C'mon. They are middlin'.

[KeviNole]

Louisville has a pretty average QB, but their top WR (Parker) just started his season against FSU due to injury. Dyer has been banged up until the last two games (NCSU and FSU). With both those pieces and a couple of bounces, they might have been unbeaten coming into the FSU game. I'm not saying they are elite but their defense has been good enough to make them formidable, and the fact that the SEC's QB corps this year is so bad, UL's QB would have looked better than he really is.

[KeviNole]

Oh, and UL's average QB was out for the Wake Forest game, and his backup had two costly fumbles. Yeah 20-10 against a piss-poor WF team is unimpressive but sometimes you just have a bad game and have to battle through it. Wake's defense is actually pretty good and would be even better if they had a pulse on offense.

[AlabamAlum]

Wake was leading into the 4th, then unravelled. And losing to Virginia is never excusable. I think
Petrino can coach, though, and might have a decent team in a year or two.

Dealing with injuries is what separates a team from being good to just being average. Most teams' starting 22 are pretty good. It's how you are able to deal with that injury or suspension that separates and elevates you.

[KeviNole]

SEC schools (and some others, e.g. FSU) can recruit high quality depth, but schools like Louisville cannot. FSU has some of the best recruiting classes in the country the last 5 years, but we're still being crippled by injuries this year. We were down to TWO scholarship linebackers last Thursday, with SIX out for injuries. And we only have one serviceable DT right now. We had crazy luck last year with injuries and it's biting us in spades this year.

Again, I'm not contending Louisville would be in the mix for the SECw title but they could hand any one of the top 4 a loss on any given Saturday (when healthy) and might beat 2 of them this year. If losing to UVA is inexcusable, beating Arky by 1 is also. Neither is a very good team, though both has played well at times.

BTW, Louisville signed two 4* recruits the day after the FSU loss. Being in the ACC is going to be very beneficial to them.

Hell, I think Clemson would have beaten UGA handily but (a) DeShaun Watson wasn't ready to start game 1 as a true freshman and Stoudt is awful, and (b) their first string DE was suspended and the second string got hurt. The third string was simply incapable of shedding blocks and voila! UGA looks unstoppable running at him every play.

The SECw is very good this year but ESPN, et al, seems to think they're better than the NFC South. It's a solid division with four very good but not elite teams. But there are no elite teams, and you could probably throw 8-12 teams into a bag and pull out some great matchups. My issue is that everyone seems to have given the SECw credit for tough games BEFORE THEY'VE BEEN PLAYED, which leads to artificial inflation when being ranked both before and after the games. It'll be a damn shame if the SEC champ makes the playoffs, and another SECw with two losses gets selected over a one-loss Oregon, Michigan State, FSU, TCU, etc. just because of confirmation bias.