Ace Reporter: The BCS Has Helped The SEC

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In today’s column:

How the SEC has benefited from the BCS…

How SEC title game losers have fared in bowls (surprisingly well)…

LSU’s weak basketball schedule tied to academics…

Freshman basketball players making a difference…

And Phillip Fulmer gets a new job.



Some SEC teams wouldn’t have been #1 without the BCS

The year after Urban Meyer was hired at Florida, a media friend told me Meyer would win multiple national championships at Florida.

I thought he was nuts. 

Turns out, he was right.

Last night Meyer captured his second national championship in three years, handing Oklahoma a fifth consecutive BCS loss.

Remember when former Auburn coach Pat Dye said the SEC wouldn’t win another national title if it expanded and went to divisional play?

Well, the SEC has won three in a row and seven since Dye’s dire prediction in 1992.


Florida might win another one in 2009, if quarterback Tim Tebow returns for his senior season. Even if Tebow goes, the Gators might win another in the next few years. That’s how good Meyer is at coaching and recruiting.

But if Florida doesn’t win the Sears Trophy in 2009, maybe it will be Alabama. Maybe it will be some other SEC school.

Hey, if you’re good enough to win the SEC, you’re good enough to win the national championship. Hasn’t recent history told us that?

While the BCS has its flaws – I still prefer a seeded four-team Plus One
playoff – it has been good to the SEC.

The SEC is 5-0 in BCS national championship games.

Under the old system, I wonder how many national titles the SEC would have.

Would LSU have gotten a piece of the pie in 2003, or would USC have been the unanimous pick?

Would Florida have won in 2006? Or would Ohio State been voted #1 with a Rose Bowl win?

Would two-loss LSU have captured the top spot in 2007? Or would Ohio State have been crowned again with a Rose Bowl win?

Would Florida have hoisted the Sears Trophy on Thursday night? Or would a win by Oklahoma over another team in another bowl have given the top spot to the Boomer Sooners?

The BCS might not be perfect, but it’s been perfect for the SEC.



SEC title game loser has fared fairly well

It’s natural to question whether Alabama was motivated to play in the Sugar Bowl.

After all, the Crimson Tide had just lost the SEC Championship game to
Florida had just lost its first game of the season, had just lost the #1 ranking and was facing a non-BCS upstart in Utah.

Maybe Utah was simply better.

Or maybe Alabama was suffering from an SEC title defeat hangover. You would think it would be tough for an SEC Championship game loser to recover and play well in a bowl game.

But you’d be wrong.

The SEC title game loser has actually done better in bowl games than I
thought.

The conference championship game loser is 10-7 in bowls, having won the first three, then splitting the next 14.

The SEC team best at recovery? Tennessee. The Vols are 3-0 after losing in the Georgia Dome.

Alabama (3-1) has the next best record, the only loss being to Utah.

LSU and Georgia are 1-0. Florida and Auburn are 1-1. Mississippi State is 0-1. Arkansas is 0-3.



LSU basketball: Weak schedule traced to academics

LSU’s basketball team enters SEC play with an RPI of 120 and a strength of schedule of .333.

New coach Trent Johnson said he inherited some of the pre-conference schedule. The rest, he designed.

Why?

“Reason #1 was academics,” said Johnson, who came from Stanford.

“The majority of guys couldn’t afford to be away from campus.”  Johnson said as many as eight players could have been affected.

“It was probably a good decision,” Johnson said of playing 12 of the first 13 games at home.

That’s a sad commentary of the academic state of affairs left behind by John Brady, who was fired, then hired at Arkansas State.

One SEC coach told me the worst academic semester athletes have is the one in which their coach is fired.

By Johnson playing such a weak schedule, it might have helped his players remain eligible, but it wasn’t a good way to prepare for the SEC season.



Felton impressed by freshman

Georgia coach Dennis Felton said before the season he felt he had a special freshman in Trey Thompkins.

Felton was right.

Thompkins leads Georgia in scoring (14.4 points) and rebounds (6.6) entering SEC play. And he’s done it despite being inactive for about fourth months and missing the first four games of the season due to an injury.

“He’s doing fantastic,” Felton said of his 6-9 forward, whose practice time and conditioning was limited. “I’m proud of him and extremely impressed by what he’s accomplished. … He’s a critical guy from the standpoint of production. It really speaks to the talent of the player. He’s going to be a tremendous player.”

Felton said he’s confident winning the SEC Tournament will have a carry-over affect on how his team plays this season.



Fortson a key find for Arkansas

Thompkins isn’t the only freshman who’s made a huge impact.

Arkansas’ Courtney Fortson leads Arkansas in assists and is second in scoring in helping the Hogs upset two top 10 teams at home.

While Fortson wouldn’t have made many preseason SEC all-freshman lists, Arkansas coach John Pelphrey said the 5-11 point guard from Montgomery, Alabama, was highly recruited.

“A lot of people knew about him,” Pelphrey said.

When Pelphrey was at South Alabama, he started recruiting Fortson, then a sophomore. Fortson’s adjustment to the SEC has surprised Pelphrey.

“I don’t know if he’s the best ballhandler,” Pelphrey said. “He’s not the tallest guy. He’s maybe not the best 3-point shooter.

“But I do know these two things: You’ll have a hard time finding
someone tougher, and he has a bad habit of winning. I really value what
he does and who he is.”

Pelphrey said Fortson’s consistency has been a pleasant surprise. It has helped Arkansas overcome the loss of four starters — including underclassman Patrick Beverly — and three other lettermen.



Free throws

* Alabama coach Mark Gottfried admits his team might not be great at shooting the three, “but that’s not the only way to play.”

* Because Tennessee’s press is forcing fewer turnovers, Bruce Pearl said
the Vols must put more value on each possession and improve the shot
selection.

* Pelphrey said he knows his team overachieved in non-SEC play but said his team wouldn’t be overconfident because it has too much respect for the coaches and players in the SEC.

* Former Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer has taken another job, but it’s not in coaching. Fulmer was hired recently as a partner with The Northshore Group, an investment firm in Knoxville.