Slive Gets It Right On SEC Strength
October 14th, 2010 09:17 AM║ Posted By: John Pennington ║ Permalink
║ Schools: Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vanderbilt
Across America, pundits and football fans are calling 2010 a down year for the SEC. Heck, those words have even been uttered by a few SEC fans here and there.
Commissioner Mike Slive — speaking to Mark McCarter of The Huntsville Times – begs to differ.
“What you’re seeing is strength throughout the league. What one observer might consider one or two teams in the league being good being a strong league as opposed to (a balanced) league. You say to yourself every Saturday, “This is going to be an interesting weekend.” That means we’re competitive throughout. And all our teams make significant moves to get better.
“The debate nationally is will a one-loss SEC team trump any unbeaten team in the BCS. Those words don’t reconcile (with the idea of the league being down).”
That’s not just spin, folks. That’s reality. And parity is only going to increase.
With the $17+ millions that SEC schools now make via television contracts with ESPN and CBS each year, every school in the conference will now have the cash to hire bigger name coaches and upgrade their facilities should they choose. (And schools aren’t just making money from TV rights, either.)
In every conference there are haves and have-nots. But in the SEC, some of the have-nots will make more cash than the haves of other leagues. So while Alabama and Florida will always have a cash (and tradition) advantage over Kentucky and Mississippi State, those traditional cellar-dwellers can (and have) improved their programs to the point they are no longer automatic wins for the SEC’s big boys.
But here’s the rub to playing more competitive games — just look at the wild flip-flops from Week 5 to Week 6 for proof of parity — some people around the country won’t understand what they’re looking at.
If you’re a pollster and you’re used to seeing one or two unbeaten teams in the league you cover, seeing an SEC filled with 1-, 2-, and 3-loss teams might give you the false impression that no one in the SEC is very good… rather than the correct impression that just about everyone is good.
Just look at the NFL where parity is the league’s best calling card. You don’t see many undefeated teams winning the Super Bowl do you?
New Orleans was 13-3 in the regular season last year. Pittsburgh was 12-4 the year before that. Other recent Super Bowl winners included the New York Giants at 10-6, Indianapolis at 12-4, and Pittsburgh at 11-5.
You don’t go through an NFL schedule unscathed (ask the Patriots). And each of the last five champions lost at least 19% of their regular season games. In case you’re wondering, that translates to about 2.25 losses over a 12-game college schedule.
The SEC is a mini-NFL when it comes to balance and parity. Haves and have-nots still exist, but the have-nots are more competitive now than ever. And they’re more competitive in the SEC than anywhere else.
That makes for great weekends for SEC football fans. But it might also make for some disappointing results in the polls if non-SEC followers can’t interpret what they’re seeing.
