It seems to me that division disparity in the four major conferences is as lopsided as it's ever been. The Big Ten and the SEC are the most imbalanced. Ohio St and Mich St are the only CFP contenders in the conference and they are both East. Wisc takes a big step back but should still cruise through the West. SEC is insane. All 7 West schools are in the preseason top 27. Georgia is a fringe top ten team but that's it for the East. ACC is in the same boat, FSU, Clemson, Louisville on one side. Pac 12 has 4 of the conferences best 5 teams in the South, the north should be a layup for Oregon. If we get one or two CCG upsets, the chaos and fallout will be 2007-esque.
If the SEC East is that bad, how come they went 5-0 in the bowls last season and the alleged strong SEC West went 2-5. The Big 10 teams split their crossover games. Ditto the ACC. Only the Pac 12 was really one sided, going 15-9 (15-5 if you eliminate Colorado's terrible record). If you compare the teams ATS, the SEC barely survives at 8-6. The ACC and Big 12 were disasters, and the Pac 12 was 13-11. So by all means, wager against the SEC East, the Big 10 West, the ACC Coastal, and the Pac 12 North this season. When the season is over, let us know how you did.
Those are valid points. The counter argument for the SEC is that bowl games are about motivation more than they are talent. With most of the West teams thinking CFP it's not a surprise they mailed it in during bowl season. Didnt the SECW have a crazy record against SECE? Look at the bowl matchups. Playing OhSt, GT, TCU, ND is far different than playing Texas, Iowa, ...
Yeah, judging a conference's strength by bowl game wins is just silliness. The Big 10 was just 4-5 in their bowls with tOSU going into the Playoff. If you would have bet against the Buckeyes strictly on how their conference performed, you would have lost your ass...Some people around here just don't get that bowl games are a completely different season from the regular season. It's all about the luck of the draw and coaches getting their teams committed and excited to win a usually meaningless game after a month off.
What I see here is a bunch of SEC homers trying to defend the undefendable. The SEC West simply is not nearly as good as people in here make them out to be. Just look at their non-con schedules. Alabama, Arkansas, LSU, Ole Miss, Miss. State and Texas A&M all played 4 pussy cream puff non-con games. The only team to come close to playing a decent non-con game was Auburn, who eeked out a 6 point win at Kansas State. That is a disgrace. Meanwhile in the SEC East, Georgia took on Clemson and Ga. Tech. Florida took on Florida State, Tennessee played Oklahoma, and South Caolina took on Clemson. Do not give me any crap about how good the SEC West is. Ohio State, Michigan State, Oregon or USC could kick their tails up one wall and down another. You can probably add Baylor into that lineup.
As far as the rest of the losers are concerned, stop looking for excuses. You guys are great at that. Try being men and just admitting that you get your tails kicked every football season and try to figure out what you do wrong, because many of you do a lot wrong.
As far as the rest of the losers are concerned, stop looking for excuses. You guys are great at that. Try being men and just admitting that you get your tails kicked every football season and try to figure out what you do wrong, because many of you do a lot wrong.
Ohio St went to double OT against PSU. They were playing well at the end of the year but were average for the first half. Ohio St likely goes 9-3 in SECW, Mich St and USC likely 8-4 and Oregon possibly even worse. They were not that good as we have seen year in and year out against top teams. People get enamored with Oregon just like they did with Boise and Hawaii. They are taking advantage of a weak conference and looking good doing it. But when push comes to shove...
With this new playoff format, it's not going to be about the conferences, it's going to be about the individual teams and who get hot down the stretch. Teams like tOSU used to get left out of the NC picture based on a "soft" conference and weaker SOS. But now we have two more spots open for these "hot" teams to sneak in. But we still have to keep in mind that the 2014 tOSU team was last year's news. It's not always easy to repeat that kind of Urban magic. Plus against the Buckeyes, Bama and Oregon didn't exactly help themselves in the playoffs. Bama looked lost and confused at times on defense with players caught out of position. Not the typical Bama defense we've all come to know. And with their overuse of the 3-4, Oregon just played the wrong defense from the beginning. I guarantee you all of tOSU's opponents are looking at these game films of tOSU down the stretch and learning "what not" to do against them this time around. I'm not trying to take anything away from OSU, they were the best at the end of the season. But I'm looking at some of their opponents down the stretch LY, and I can see why they won the way they did. Teams like Wisconsin and Michigan St just weren't the defensive teams they've been in the past. Wisky gave up nearly 4 TD's a game coming down the stretch. And Michigan St. gave up some big scores when they played some offenses with a pulse like Oregon, OSU and Baylor, and it was because they had a weak secondary that gives up the big play. A problem they will probably have again this year.
