Spurrier says only SEC division games should count (really?)
Neither Steve Spurrier nor Rex Ryan have been known as coaches who conform. That can be good or bad. (AP photo)
Let me preface this by saying that I actually like Steve Spurrier. He is a great coach, he changed the SEC with what he accomplished at Florida and he doesn’t cheat (although “suspending” former quarterback Stephen Garcia five times without forcing him to actually miss a game certainly set new standards for enabling and being disingenuous).
But Spurrier’s latest idea is beyond looney.
The South Carolina coach is about to make a wonderful self-serving proposal. He believes the SEC’s division champions — the participants in the conference championship game — should be determined not by the teams’ conference records but by just results within the division.
I’m sure the fact that the Gamecocks will play SEC West teams LSU and Arkansas in 2012 while Georgia plays only Auburn and Mississippi has nothing to do with this brainstorm.
It’s shocking, really, that Spurrier didn’t come up with this idea in 2008, when Georgia played Alabama and South Carolina played Mississippi.
Wait a minute . . .
Spurrier apparently will make this pitch at the SEC spring meetings in Destin, according to SI.com. He spun this as only getting the idea after taking pity on Tennessee and Florida last year.
“Last year, it wasn’t fair for Tennessee and Florida,” he told SI.com. “They both played LSU and Alabama. Us and Georgia didn’t. So, us or Georgia almost had to win the division simply because of the schedule.”
It’s not a completely baseless argument. Every SEC team doesn’t play each other. Therefore, there are going to be inequities every year.
The problem is that no other sport at any other level determines division standings by division-only results. (Division records comes into play in tiebreaker scenarios.) Further, even if such a rule was adopted, it wouldn’t prevent other inequities. For example, how do you weigh the fact that Georgia’s first SEC game in 2012 is at Missouri and is the Tigers’ first conference game (which will be kind of hyped), while South Carolina gets Missouri two weeks later at home (and following games against East Carolina and Alabama-Birmingham).
Also, I suspect that if a scheduling glitch after conference expansion hadn’t knocked Alabama off of Georgia’s schedule, Spurrier might not be making this pitch. Just saying.
By Jeff Schultz
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272 comments Add your comment
Devil's Advocate
April 20th, 2012
7:55 am
Basic human nature is loving the system when you benefit and wanting change when you don’t. The End.
flagboy?
April 20th, 2012
8:02 am
Alphare
April 18th, 2012
4:11 pm
Great minds think alike. That’s what I said last year. SC is 5-0 while UGA is 4-1 last year, but UGA is unfairly the East champ.
______________________________________
All South Carolina had to do last year to be Eastern Champs was beat Auburn. . . at home. . . but. . . they didn’t.
Surprising to see Spurrier take such a loser attitude on this one.
BG
April 20th, 2012
9:06 am
Spurrier is a sore LOSER.
Dogs Rule
April 20th, 2012
9:26 am
Georgia will beat SC by 10+ this year, win the East again and keep spurrier quiet. He needs to retire–his game is old news.
Jeff
April 20th, 2012
9:31 am
Maybe we also shouldn’t count games in which starting players are injured and/or suspended. It just wouldn’t be “fair”.
Columbus Dawg
April 20th, 2012
9:39 am
The game with Mizzou will be hyped, for their entry into conference, and for the suspensions of UGA’s starters, backups versus the Tigers QB and good recieving corps. Have heard Missouri’s freshman receiver compared to A.J., and is said to be better than Ashlon from SC. UGA will prevail, and the fanbase will breathe a sigh of relief. The SC game is a different story, as the starters will be back, and the fanbase is going to expect a win against the Chickens, as UGA losing to SC three years in a row is unacceptable. Period.
ARdawg
April 20th, 2012
10:50 am
Once a tool, always a tool is Spurrier. As well as you GT trolls
RxDawg
April 20th, 2012
10:52 am
Bah, this stuff is cyclical. There will be one year in the future where we are complainging about having to play Ole Miss and MSU, while someone else is lucky to play LSU and Bama.
And make no mistake. Bama was the program that got lucky when the SEC schedule for this year changed.
ARdawg
April 20th, 2012
10:58 am
Spurrier’s crying has started unbelievably early this year or has it just never stopped from last year? How are those player stipends working out in Columbia anyway?
Pitbull
April 20th, 2012
12:00 pm
Steve has hated Georgia since back in the 1960’s when he was the quarterback and Florida was undefeated and ranked number one until they faced the Bulldogs in Jacksonville and Georgia took Florida to the woodshed.
Georgia defensive end George Patton ate Spurrier alive that day.
Pitbull
April 20th, 2012
12:02 pm
Oh yea, and he always has been a cry baby.
AltamahaDawg
April 20th, 2012
1:21 pm
I get that LAST year it was tilted, but is he really proposing to change how the SEC works going forward based on a couple of teams from (either division) being hot at any given time?
Yet another brilliant proposal.
You can always tell when its been a couple of months since Stevie was getting all the attention.
Scott Brantley
April 20th, 2012
3:37 pm
236rd!!!!!
Dawg Tired
April 21st, 2012
10:18 am
You gotta like Spurrier. Always self-serving.
dawg4life
April 22nd, 2012
1:28 pm
Can we have this discussion next year when we have half of a schedule. I don’t think any UGA fans will be defending their schedule this season…. Alphare- life is unfair. UGA had the better conference record. Thats the way the cookie crumbles… USCe should have won more games, plain and simple. Its not fair that Bama got to play in the NC game, when in 2007 the exact thing happened to UGA. No way should a team that didn’t even win their division play for the NC, but that is the way the cookie crumbles….
dan
April 22nd, 2012
4:33 pm
This kind of argument is exactly why South Carolina is second tier. Who cares about winning your division? The focus should be winning Conference and National Titles. Alabama didn’t win their division or conference title, and still won the National Title, so what’s the big deal? Personally I think South Carolina got the better end of the deal. They finished with their best record in school history, beat their instate rival for a third straight year, didn’t have to get their brains beat out in the SEC title game vs. LSU, and landed in a better bowl game. Listen I’ll take 11-2 over 10-4 any day of the week, SEC East title or not.
donald graham
April 23rd, 2012
6:59 am
a better idea in my opinion would be a nine game league schedule ,do away with divisions and let the two top teams play at the dome.,
kzoodawg
April 23rd, 2012
8:17 am
Beat who you are supposed to beat and there is no problem.
Celtdawg
April 28th, 2012
12:39 pm
Cry babies.
vadog
April 28th, 2012
12:45 pm
It’s the Southeast Conference not division.
Really Haters???
April 30th, 2012
12:18 pm
I can remember the recent when the East had the best teams. It will happen again very soon. No one was crying when SCe played the easy schedule and we played the hard one. Cry baby haters, grow up morons!!
Kelly
May 1st, 2012
11:36 am
Basic human nature is loving the system when you benefit and wanting change when you don’t. The End./i>
Now that’s the kind of basic and, in this case, dispassionate common sense they say ain’t all that common.
“I hate to break it to you, but there is no big lie, there is no system, the universe is indifferent.” – Don Draper