Why Bama would be better off NOT playing for the SEC title
"Best of luck against Arkansas. Seriously!" (AP photo)
As we discussed in this space last week, Alabama might not play for the conference title even if Arkansas beats LSU on Friday. For Alabama to win the tiebreaker and qualify for the SEC championship game, No. 3 Arkansas would have to pass No. 1 LSU in the BCS standings, and there’s no guarantee the Hogs will do that.
And if I’m Alabama, I’m thinking I’d just as soon not play for the SEC title. If I’m the Tide, I’ve already got what I need.
Assuming Alabama beats Auburn on Saturday, the Tide would surely be sitting No. 2 in the BCS rankings with one week to go. But the team that represents the West in the SEC championship game would have to face Georgia, which hasn’t lost since Sept. 10, and would have to do it in the Georgia Dome. If you’re all but assured of a berth in the BCS title game, why risk losing?
Yes, we’ve come 180 degrees since 2007, when Georgia led LSU in the next-to-last BCS standings but was passed by the Tigers at the wire. LSU beat Tennessee in the SEC championship game while the Bulldogs sat in Athens and watched, and immediately the ESPN-led cry went up: “You can’t play for the BCS title if you don’t even win your conference!”
Funny how almost nobody is saying that anymore. With the losses suffered by Oklahoma State, Oklahoma and Oregon over the weekend, the SEC West now holds the top three spots in the BCS standings. Provided Alabama beats Auburn, it’s all but certain that SEC teams will finish 1-2 in the final rankings. And Alabama, which lost to LSU on Nov. 7, sits in the best spot of the three.
Arkansas probably can’t get to the SEC championship game no matter what it does. LSU could lose to Arkansas and still play for the SEC title, and a lot of numbers-crunchers think the Tigers could lose to Georgia — but not to both Arkansas and Georgia — and drop no lower than No. 2. But if Alabama beats Auburn it could be locked in at No. 2 without another game to play and that, all things considered, would have to be Position A.
Let’s say Arkansas beats LSU and passes the Tigers in the BCS rankings. Let’s say Alabama beats Auburn and moves to No. 1. Now let’s say, just for the sake of argument, that Georgia upsets Alabama in our fair city. That would leave Alabama with two losses and LSU and Arkansas with only one, and the all-SEC BCS title game would surely be staged without the Tide. (Can’t imagine a one-loss Oklahoma State or Virginia Tech nosing ahead of a one-loss LSU or a one-loss Arkansas that just beat LSU.)
Back in 2007, Georgia was blocked from the BCS title game because it didn’t play for its conference championship. For Alabama in 2011, playing for the conference championship wouldn’t seem essential — and it might even be injurious to the Tide’s health. Weird season, huh?
By Mark Bradley
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500 comments Add your comment
DAWGS
November 21st, 2011
2:56 pm
Saturday- Win the State championship
Next Saturday- Win the Sec championship.
Alright…….
SEC Commissioner
November 21st, 2011
2:56 pm
DawginLex
November 21st, 2011
1:19 pm
Bama has beaten Arkansas and Penn State. Whoopee!
They lost on the field when it mattered.
They won’t win their division nor their conference and should be disqualified from playing for the BCS title.
If LSU loses, then take the highest ranked of the 3. If that’s Bama, then they go to Atlanta and play us.
Nice Point, But in reality, every UGA fan can jump up and down and cry foul, but in reality, There are only two great teams this year and those two teams played an overtime game and LSU won. UGA is nice but not in the same league with EITHER one of those teams and after LSU beats UGA in their own dome, the fans of UGA can enjoy their trip to a nice Tampa Outback bowl and while barking and woofing. It beats a cold Memphis or Shreveport destination.
7576DAWG
November 21st, 2011
2:56 pm
Until they have a playoff system of 16 teams we won’t have a true national championship so I think it is great that two SEC team’s may play each other in the national title game.
The Big -12 won’t even have a championship game this year since they no longer have 12 members in the conference so I was hoping Okla. and Okla. State would slip up and lose. At least the Big -10 and the Pac.12 will have a legitimate winner this year.
Eisendawg
November 21st, 2011
2:57 pm
If a “tie” is “like kissing your sister” then a “rematch of two teams that have already played” is like “kissing your brother”….. Of course, Alabama probably wouldn’t mind either! lol
fred
November 21st, 2011
2:58 pm
well ah?….u funny man
DAWGS
November 21st, 2011
2:58 pm
Getting beat at home by your former team 6-9
not winning your conference and playing in the NC game = ESPN
BCS
November 21st, 2011
2:58 pm
ESPN BCS analyst said on Mike/Mike this morning that should LSU play in the SEC Championship game … lose and, as long as they don’t get embarrassed, still play in the National Title game (in other words two teams who did not win their conference would still have a great shot at the National Title game).
I may not believe ESPN and their analysts when it comes to some things but when it involves analyzing a system like the BCS …. you can’t help but think they’d be correct on this.
DawginLex
November 21st, 2011
2:59 pm
haha
how do you know how good bama is?
They have played no one outside the SEC except for an offensively challenged PennState.
They had trouble with GA Southern’s TO. How do we know they could handle Oklahoma or Okie State? Or Boise?
We don’t.
So based on what Herbstreit said in 2007, his words not mine, if LSU wins Friday, Bama should be excluded from the BCS title game
bjohndawg
November 21st, 2011
2:59 pm
How do you qualify for th BCS championship game with the following:
1) you dont win your conference
2) you dont even win your division of your conference
3) you lost to your division winner at home and you did not score a TD
I am with Beast from the East……why have conference championships, or divisions. Why even play …why not just have a lottery and give it out to the winner regardless of record.
We can make it like the ESPN mascot contest.
Because playing and winning it appears does not matter
college football BCS drama is becoming the same as Congress addressing the national budget crisis.
A bunch of monkeys H&%$Ping a football.
hey want happens if LSU loses to Arkansas… Arkansas goes to the SEC championship game and UGA beats Arkansas.
LSU and BAMA both did not win conference or division and they get to play in the BCS championship GAME?
Alphare
November 21st, 2011
3:00 pm
Sorry, I mean TN destroyed UGA in 07, 35-14.
Kelly
November 21st, 2011
3:00 pm
@Eisen lol
Yo Vince
November 21st, 2011
3:00 pm
Need a playoff and a life. Big deal. LSU will kill JAW JAW by at least 20. You know it. Then you guys can watch a real team like Bama, win its 14th NC. Haters gonna hate.
Kelly
November 21st, 2011
3:01 pm
Yo Vince: And tards gonna’ tard.
DawginLex
November 21st, 2011
3:01 pm
SEC commish
If you were running MLB, the world Series this year would have been the Yankees and the Phillies
I’m right and you are wrong.
Plus you are an idiot spewing shreveport and Memphis crapola.
how2fish
November 21st, 2011
3:01 pm
@BAMA STAN on what planet would you have any idea of what class is ? I almost hope you get that rematch with LSU so they can once again take you to the woodshed.
utider
November 21st, 2011
3:02 pm
This bama team would be the ‘07 dawgs by 30 in Athens, Atlanta, or Tuscaloosa
DawginLex
November 21st, 2011
3:02 pm
yo vince
14 titles huh?
So you DO count the 6 voted on by the dudes eating lunch at the counter every day at The Tuscaloosa Drug and Foundry???
No Sec championship...no problem
November 21st, 2011
3:03 pm
If Bama loses again, saban will bolt to coach the chargers and then return two years later. and half the population of Alabama will fall dead……just saying…..
fred
November 21st, 2011
3:03 pm
Kelly are you a idiot…GT is “irrelevent”…GT can beat anyone on a given day..if UGA plays GT like they did against UK..your aZZ will be grass!
Mac
November 21st, 2011
3:05 pm
Conspiracy theorists, there are rematches in sports all of the time… boxing, NFL, etc. They’re especially appropriate when the previous outcome was close. A lot of people dread watching defense instead of arm-slinging, ping-pong scoring offense. Like it or not; number 1 and 2 compete in the BCS.
DawginLex
November 21st, 2011
3:05 pm
Bama Stan
There is a button on your keyboard(if you haven’t smeared tto much peanut butter over it) that says
Caps Lock
Push it before you start typing.
Alphare
November 21st, 2011
3:06 pm
why would anybody take Herbstreit’s words for it?
Eisendawg, rematch happen all the time in other sports. Falcons beat Packers in regular season last year, then lost to them in playoff. If you want a playoff system, you will have rematches. BCS does a good job to avoid rematch, but obviously most voters believe LSU/BAMA are the 2 best teams as their rankings show.
I personally think they are the 2 best teams too. I have no problem with the best 2 teams in NC, and no-condition attached.
Lose a game drop one spot?
November 21st, 2011
3:07 pm
come on man……you guys know Bama is going to get another shot.
Even if they lose the NC game they will still be on the field after the game trying to hold the crystal football up and saying, since we lost twice does that mean we are the AP national champions? can we get a rematch tomorrow?
The media “ESPN” already down on all fours with their mouth wide open…….yummy…
BCS is garbage! we already knew that!
Yo Vince
November 21st, 2011
3:09 pm
If you can count to 1, you can talk about GA’s big day in the sun. Loser town, loser state. You guys just hate winners like Bama
playoff?
November 21st, 2011
3:09 pm
Division 1 has a playoff……
Kelly
November 21st, 2011
3:10 pm
fred: I’m an idiot and you spell ass with two ‘z’s,’ confuse me for a UGA football player (my ass will not be turf, win or lose) I can live with that. Yo Vince: If tradition means gluing a roll of toilet paper to a box of Tide, I can do without it. If it has to do with making up National Championships out of this air, I can do without it. If it has to do with a vaunted coach being the fundamental reason the NCAA has to set up rules against cheating, I can do without it. If tradition means poisoning trees, I can also do without it. If tradition means having a player being bought off by your arch rival, then I can do without that as well. If tradition means conflating an elephant with the rise and fall of water, I can do without it. And most of all…if tradition means you have to live in that hickoid backwater called Alabama, I can do without that as well. #1 in football, #50 in education.
K9 NON$EN$E
November 21st, 2011
3:11 pm
d in l,g.grief & the rest of you flea bag lovers…………….NO MATTER WHAT YOU SAY OR DO IS GONNA MATTER!!! THE BOTTOM LINE IS………………IT WILL HAPPEN (BAMA PLAYING IN THE BCS GAME) YOU HATERS WILL HAVE TO LIVE WITH IT!!!!
DawgFaceBlues
November 21st, 2011
3:11 pm
What gets in my craw is that teams like Ok State and Oklahoma and almost Stanford can lose to unranked teams and still be in top 10. UGA lost both of their games to 2 very good teams(with Lattimore).
Kelly
November 21st, 2011
3:11 pm
Mac: I have no problem with a rematch between those two teams.
Bama
November 21st, 2011
3:12 pm
Yeah before Nick got there you guys couldn’t buy a win, but you did buy a coach and for that reason you are given to chances to win the title unlike everyone else. I hope you guys do go, because when you lose i will love to hear what you got to say?
bjohndawg
November 21st, 2011
3:12 pm
I would love to play Bama. They offense is non existent.
LSU has more team speed on offense. Better Wide outs. And better Qbs.
Kelly
November 21st, 2011
3:12 pm
Why do all the Alabama fans have to scream? Does inbreeding also negatively affect hearing?
Yo Vince
November 21st, 2011
3:13 pm
Kelly, your Mom called and said clean up your basement room and flush the potty.
BCS
November 21st, 2011
3:14 pm
“if UGA plays GT like they did against UK”
same goes for Tech, they may have won but it had been 6 weeks since Duke last put up 30 pts on a team. If Tech is that giving to a bad team they too could easily be toast.
Bama man
November 21st, 2011
3:15 pm
If Bama losses the NC game ESPN will schedule another one until they win!
not so fast my fellow nut riders…….
Alphare
November 21st, 2011
3:15 pm
To those who want playoff,
3 SEC West teams are ranked 1-2-3 plus Stanford at #4. If you have a 4-team playoff today. What kind of match-up will you get? can you imagine?
Don’t blame BCS. BCS doesn’t a good job you may not want to give credit for.
Kelly
November 21st, 2011
3:16 pm
Yo Vince: Whitewashing your school’s history from the perspective of looking through a glory hole will get your eye poked out.
PJohn
November 21st, 2011
3:16 pm
Jim Rome’s take on non-conference champs playing for BCS title. Wonder if he’ll slam Alabama and Nick Saban like he did Mark Richt:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4Q8S3dh93c
DawginLex
November 21st, 2011
3:17 pm
bama fans must play golf with lots of mulligans
Kelly
November 21st, 2011
3:23 pm
Jim Rome gets pumped all right.
Sam Robards, Dawg Fan
November 21st, 2011
3:24 pm
This whole BCS system is corrupt. You know it. I know it. We all know it, so let’s not act like it is.
It started off well enough, but now it’s all about the money, and let’s face it, despite how much we can sit and complain about it, an SEC rematch in the title game would net the BCS BILLIONS of dollars because we’re the most diehard segment of sports fandom in the US: I’d say the world, but we don’t start riots and stuff when things don’t go our way (see Vancouver after losing to Boston in the Stanley Cup or European Soccer…all the time).
If that happens and you want to make a statement, DON’T WATCH IT. Heck, if you want to knock out two birds with one stone, the players from BOTH SIDES should decide NOT TO PLAY.
If that happened, you’d have both player stipends AND a playoff system within the hour.
And yeah, it’s hilarious that everyone’s conveniently forgotten all the hubbub about UGA not winning the SEC in ‘07. UGA’s ranked above LSU in the penultimate BCS ranking, then everyone ahead of UGA (except Ohio State) loses in the final weekend and LSU, OU and VT (all of which won conference championship games) jump us in the final poll. Way to nail home your point, ESPN.
Of course, now that ALABAMA’s in a similar situation, of course they’ll go to the title game! No question! Now ESPN can just trot out arguments about “getting the two best teams in the country” and ignore all the “you have to win your conference” malarky they were throwing out a couple years ago.
On a side note, remember when ESPN was complaining damn near EVERY DAY about the need of a college football playoff? Have you noticed that, since they got the rights to the BCS games a few years back, there hasn’t been a SINGLE WORD about a playoff? Now that ESPN’s reaping the financial benefits of the BCS, who needs the system to work, right?
It just makes me sick how two-faced that network is and how much control it has over college football.
Long story short, the sooner we get a playoff, the better off EVERYONE will be.
Go Dawgs!
bjohndawg
November 21st, 2011
3:24 pm
Lets do some real what ifs:
What if LSU loses to Ark…..and Alabama loses to Auburn
And UGA beats Ark or LSU
And Okla beats Okla State
And Stanford loses to ND….and win Pac Championship because Oregon loses to Org State
And Houston loses to Tulsa
But Boise State cannot play in the BCS because TCU won the mountain and there is only one BCS bid for that conference.
You see how this could get real ugly fast?
You could have Oklahoma playing Arkansas or LSU or kansas state.
The BCS is a load of BS.
Yo Vince
November 21st, 2011
3:24 pm
Miss Kelly, WTF. The ability to read will benefit you throughout your life. We have won at least 1 more NC than GA, O K. We would curb stomp you guys the same way LSU is going too. Walmart has “Life” on sale. Borrow some money from your mommy and buy one.
Mike
November 21st, 2011
3:25 pm
True, Mark. I don’t think ESPN particularly hates the Dawgs. UGANDA isn’t perceived as a big money, “power program”. They would rather match up Ohio St. and LSU which is why UGA got voted down. There is a definite pecking order in college football. Bama and LSU are high on it right now, so they will get in the title game as long as they only have one loss.
bigeasy830
November 21st, 2011
3:26 pm
i believe that if you can’t win your conference then you shouldn’t play for the national Championship. Your conference is your play-offs. Like one post said earlier, it would be so wrong if Alabama plays for the national Championship and they would not have even won their own division let alone the conference. If UGA some how wins the SEC they are competing for a spot in the BCS championship with other 2 lose teams from other conferences championships the you cannot deny UGA. THE BCS is so full of it, it is killing College Football because of greed just like those greedy NBA players.
Mike
November 21st, 2011
3:26 pm
Love that iPhone auto finish…that was supposed to be UGA, not UGANDA lol
Kelly
November 21st, 2011
3:27 pm
Yo Vince: You’re seriously criticizing someone on literacy issues?
DawginLex
November 21st, 2011
3:27 pm
PJohn
i just e-mailed Rome and called him out to respond.
what a joke
November 21st, 2011
3:29 pm
Just another reason those running the BCS should be hung by the neck.
bigeasy830
November 21st, 2011
3:30 pm
I would love for UGA to play Alabama or LSU in the SEC title game we will crush the. Alabama has no offense outside of Trent Richardson and we have the strongest run defense in the country.