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Mandel: 'The SEC has become a League of Excuses "

So Saban admits that it is not fair that one conference can do things that others can't. Does that include cheating like sh*t in virtually any way to get some of their kids to play?
 
So Saban admits that it is not fair that one conference can do things that others can't. Does that include cheating like sh*t in virtually any way to get some of their kids to play?

Give it a rest for God's sake! The SEC does not cheat any worse than any other conference as a whole

Let's see how 2015 plays out!
 
So sick of the SEC BS. Half the conference is ranked at the beginning of the season. So when everyone looks at the schedule it looks so tough. Then an unranked SEC team beats a ranked SEC team... So the unranked team now becomes ranked. A&M was garbage last year, but was ranked at the start of year. And even when they lose, they get the benefit of the doubt. The top five SEC west teams all lost their bowl game and they looked so inferior in all of them. It was enjoyable.
 
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The article forgot to mention over signing, grey shirts, brown bags of money for recruits, and free hookers.

I am sure it was just an oversight.
 
Whomever was on ESPN radio this morning was so far up the SEC asses it was ridiculous. Does upper management tell them to spout SEC all the time or do they just hire pro SEC talk show hosts? He was trying to say how the BIG will never be considered a top conference until they go 10-12 teams deep like the SEC is. Someone did call in who was pro BIG and shot down most of his arguments but he still didn't get it. He basically said the BIG was all OSU and MSU and there are no other good to great teams, but that every team in the SEC west was a good to great team along with at least 4 from the other division.
 
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Whomever was on ESPN radio this morning was so far up the SEC asses it was ridiculous. Does upper management tell them to spout SEC all the time or do they just hire pro SEC talk show hosts? He was trying to say how the BIG will never be considered a top conference until they go 10-12 teams deep like the SEC is. Someone did call in who was pro BIG and shot down most of his arguments but he still didn't get it. He basically said the BIG was all OSU and MSU and there are no other good to great teams, but that every team in the SEC west was a good to great team along with at least 4 from the other division.

That didn't seem to play out during the bowl season last year.

SEC has never been 10-12 deep. it is really just Bama and LSU and everyone else, with Auburn having their 2 runs (when they brought Cam and the one that they lost in the championship game) and Florida Tebow years (they are crap lately). The rest get massive ESPN hype then lose when they face good teams.

The worst team in the Big Ten East beat the SEC Eastern Division champion in 2014 for example.
 
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Yea he was quick to explain away Indiana beating Missouri last year, how every dog has his day in the sun or some such nonsense. Bottom line is they sucked in bowl games last year and if Missouri was a division champ they should not be losing to Indiana. Its like NOtre Dame being ranked in the preseason top 5 every year. Then they start to play games and reality sets in.
 
Give it a rest for God's sake! The SEC does not cheat any worse than any other conference as a whole

Disagree...as it "seems" SEC Boosters are much more open in regards to the $$$ they offer players and/or their handlers.

In Mid 1990's, Bama Boosters offered tens of thousands of $$ for a key recruit
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/2001-09-07-alabama.htm

Then a few years later, the infamous case of Bama Booster offering up to $200,000 to secure lineman Albert Means from a Memphis HS.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58965-2005Feb2.html

Then you had the recent bidding war between Miss St offering Cam Newton's Dad $180,000...yet Auburn obviously offered a better deal in the end.

As some know, many of the SEC Booster $$$ go through local historical black churches were many of these players parents and/or handlers have connections to...thus making it virtually untraceable (heck, not even taxable).
 
Why wouldnt they?

Its like this. For a school like RU - most fans have some affiliation with the shcool. They went there. THey go there now. Some friend or family member went there and roped them into going. So most people who follow the team have at least some of their own skin in the game when it comes to cheating. If RU had the UNC scandal or the PSU scandal, I would be embarrassed on a personal level, much more so than I was that several Orioles got named in the Mitchell report, or that Ray Rice the Raven, hit his GF.

In the SEC (and to a lesser extent the other BCS leagues) its much more of a pro mentality. The teams belong not to the alumni and students - but to the state and its citizens. And as non-alumni, their main concern isnt the well being of the school, its the record of the team. So of course they dont really care.
 
Whomever was on ESPN radio this morning was so far up the SEC asses it was ridiculous. Does upper management tell them to spout SEC all the time or do they just hire pro SEC talk show hosts? He was trying to say how the BIG will never be considered a top conference until they go 10-12 teams deep like the SEC is. Someone did call in who was pro BIG and shot down most of his arguments but he still didn't get it. He basically said the BIG was all OSU and MSU and there are no other good to great teams, but that every team in the SEC west was a good to great team along with at least 4 from the other division.
ESPN is in the business of making money. Even if that means lying about how good your product is. Everyone at ESPN is a robot spewing what management tells them to say. Turn off the machine dude.

The SEC was exposed badly in the bowls the last two years. They are fraud and everyone else in the country knows it.
 
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You want more proof?

How about Mississippi State offering cash and then threatening to expose the recruit if he committed elsewhere under Dan Mullen's watch in 2013? http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/9352487/mississippi-state-bulldogs-put-probation-ncaa

Or the bidding war between Georgia and Texas for Will Lyles in 2009? http://www.barkingcarnival.com/2011...exas-longhorns-outside-the-lines-investigates

Or the extra benefits routinely provided to star players like D.J. Fluker or Fletcher Cox?
http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsport...e-former-sec-players-accepted-extra-benefits/

Kinda hard to say that the SEC plays fair. I am sure that cheating goes on at many other big name programs but from top to bottom, the SEC takes the prize for the dirtiest conference.
 
Disagree...as it "seems" SEC Boosters are much more open in regards to the $$$ they offer players and/or their handlers.

In Mid 1990's, Bama Boosters offered tens of thousands of $$ for a key recruit
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/2001-09-07-alabama.htm

Then a few years later, the infamous case of Bama Booster offering up to $200,000 to secure lineman Albert Means from a Memphis HS.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58965-2005Feb2.html

Then you had the recent bidding war between Miss St offering Cam Newton's Dad $180,000...yet Auburn obviously offered a better deal in the end.

As some know, many of the SEC Booster $$$ go through local historical black churches were many of these players parents and/or handlers have connections to...thus making it virtually untraceable (heck, not even taxable).

Knight Light -- Southern Gentleman isn't disputing that the SEC cheats. He'd have to be in denial to not admit that. His argument is that the SEC doesn't cheat more than other conferences.
 
Knight Light -- Southern Gentleman isn't disputing that the SEC cheats. He'd have to be in denial to not admit that. His argument is that the SEC doesn't cheat more than other conferences.

Which is why I responded.

Yes, everyone cheats...but SEC Boosters (and programs) have PhD in cheating...leaving all other conf behind.
 
Look, the Big12 and the ACC cheat their asses's off too, but the SEC is just better at it. SEC also does it a lot more, it is just part of the culture and it is not seen as a big deal by their fans and the local media that covers them. Ironically Southern Gentleman is a fan of Arkansas, which happens to be one of the cleanest schools in the conference which is why he is more sensitive about this topic. Sorry but the rest of the conference is shady as hell.
 
So sick of the SEC BS. Half the conference is ranked at the beginning of the season. So when everyone looks at the schedule it looks so tough. Then an unranked SEC team beats a ranked SEC team... So the unranked team now becomes ranked. A&M was garbage last year, but was ranked at the start of year. And even when they lose, they get the benefit of the doubt. The top five SEC west teams all lost their bowl game and they looked so inferior in all of them. It was enjoyable.

It is they way the game is played. The next part is to line your OOC schedule against teams that you should handle with little difficulty while playing 1 opponent that is an "understandable loss". There are 8 SEC teams ranked in the preseason coaches poll. Here are their OOC schedules. All of these teams should win at least 3 of their OOC games and not because they teams "are that good".

Key:
Ranked P5 opponent
P5 opponent
FCS opponent
Traditionally bad Group of 5 team

#3 Alabama -- Wisconsin, Middle Tennessee State (has not had a losing season in 3 years [8-4,8-5, 6-6]), UL Monroe (1 winning season in the last 21), Charleston Southern

#7 Auburn -- Louisville, Jackson State, San Jose State (1 winning season in the last 8), Idaho (1 winning season in the last 15)

#9 Georgia -- UL Monroe (1 winning season in the last 21), Southern, Georgia Southern, Georgia Tech

#13 LSU -- McNeese State, Syracuse, Eastern Michigan (has not posting a winning season in the last 19), Western Kentucky (has posted winning seasons in each of the last 4 seasons [7-5, 7-6, 8-4, 8-5])

#15 Ole Miss -- UT Martin, Fresno State, New Mexico State (has not posted a winning season in the last 12), Memphis (last year's 10-3 record broke a streak of 6 consecutive losing seasons)

#20 Arkansas -- UTEP (last year's 7-6 record broke a streak of 8 consecutive losing seasons), Toledo (5 consecutive winning seasons makes them a good MAC program), Texas Tech, UT Martin

#23 Missouri -- SE Missouri State, Arkansas State (4 consecutive winning seasons), UConn (4 consecutive losing seasons), BYU (9 consecutive winning seasons)

#25 Tennessee -- Bowling Green (3 consecutive winning seasons), Oklahoma, Western Carolina, North Texas (1 winning season in the last 10)

The breakdown of these 32 OOC games:

1. 6 (18.8%) opponents are from the other 4 P5 conferences.
  • 3 are from the ACC
  • 2 are from the Big 12
  • 1 is from the B1G
2. 3 (9.4%) of the opponents are ranked. All of the ranked teams are from P5 conferences (nobody plays Boise State this year).

3. 9 (28.1%) opponents from FCS (Georgia plays 2)

4. 9 (28.1%) traditionally bad G5 opponents. This does NOT include Memphis who is a traditionally bad program coming off a 10 win season under new leadership (Fuente's 3rd season).
So what should these teams do:
#3 Alabama -- #18 Wisconsin is the only team that has a real shot to win. Alabama is undoubtedly a ranked team and would probably be expected to go 4-0 regardless of who they were playing.

#7 Auburn -- #33 Louisville is the only team who should stay close with Auburn. The other 3 opponents are DOA.

#9 Georgia -- #17 Georgia Tech might beat Georgia this season in the final game. UL Monroe and 2 FCS teams is the weakest schedule for Georgia in several decades.

#13 LSU -- Is there a loss on this schedule? Western Kentucky might be the toughest team on the schedule.

#15 Ole Miss -- While this is potentially a 2-2 record IF Fresno State can rebound and Memphis continues improving, it will be 4-0 as they managed to schedule their 2 OOC opponents with a pulse the week after playing an OOC punching bag.

#20 Arkansas -- Should go 4-0. Toledo has defeated 6 BCS opponents in the past decade, but only the 2012 Cincinnati team finished the year with a winning record (wins over 10-3 Cincinnati in 2012, 5-7 Purdue in 2010, 3-9 Colorado in 2009, 3-9 Michigan in 2008, 3-9 Iowa State in 2007, 6-6 Kansas in 2007).

#23 Missouri -- 3-1 as I believe they'll lose to BYU. People will then justify that loss because "BYU should be considered a P5 independent as Notre Dame is".

#25 Tennessee -- 3-1. Oklahoma will thrash them. But hey! They're Oklahoma!
 
Look, the Big12 and the ACC cheat their asses's off too, but the SEC is just better at it. SEC also does it a lot more, it is just part of the culture and it is not seen as a big deal by their fans and the local media that covers them. Ironically Southern Gentleman is a fan of Arkansas, which happens to be one of the cleanest schools in the conference which is why he is more sensitive about this topic. Sorry but the rest of the conference is shady as hell.

I had to laugh at the fact that the SEC is "just better" at cheating!

I am a little sensitive about it being an Arkansas fan. I guess it goes on at Arkansas, but I am blissfully ignorant about it if it does.
 
Ironically Southern Gentleman is a fan of Arkansas, which happens to be one of the cleanest schools in the conference which is why he is more sensitive about this topic. Sorry but the rest of the conference is shady as hell.

Sounds like you don't know much about Arkansas...as they just had a 15 year run for NCAA Violations, including repeat offender status.

http://arkansasnews.com/sections/razorbacks/arkansas-out-under-ncaa-cloud-first-time-1997.html

NOTE: Has RU every had 15 TOTAL years in their history being sanctioned by the NCAA in any/all sports?
 
A saw a friend of mine is in sports media programming and he said there is a deep concern about SEC ratings (money) should there be a drop in "perceived" lack of quality. So, they work hard to avoid a "perceived" lack of quality. There was a loud *gasp* when the B1G took in Rutgers and Maryland and they are monitoring (i.e. concerned) about potential PAC-12 developments. They are afraid of becoming a regional brand and not a national Brand (see NASCAR's drop in popularity/revenues).
 
Sounds like you don't know much about Arkansas...as they just had a 15 year run for NCAA Violations, including repeat offender status.

http://arkansasnews.com/sections/razorbacks/arkansas-out-under-ncaa-cloud-first-time-1997.html

NOTE: Has RU every had 15 TOTAL years in their history being sanctioned by the NCAA in any/all sports?

I am not quite ready to be lectured at this morning.

That article was from 2012. the football program had 3 years of scrutiny/loss of scholarships from a booster incident in the late 1990's. Hardly a reason to adopt a 'holier-than-thou' attitude about sanctions.

I am glad that Rutgers runs a squeaky clean program. I know Arkansas tries. Sometimes things happen that hurt the program. I wish they didn't, but it happens.
 
[QUOTE="Southern Gentleman, post: 404295, member: 4556"

That article was from 2012. [/QUOTE]

As noted in article....all I did was post that facts about that 15 year period.

It was obvious that the previous person was clueless about Arkansas recent history with the NCAA.
 
A saw a friend of mine is in sports media programming and he said there is a deep concern about SEC ratings (money) should there be a drop in "perceived" lack of quality. So, they work hard to avoid a "perceived" lack of quality. There was a loud *gasp* when the B1G took in Rutgers and Maryland and they are monitoring (i.e. concerned) about potential PAC-12 developments. They are afraid of becoming a regional brand and not a national Brand (see NASCAR's drop in popularity/revenues).
The only way to avoid becoming a regional brand (or rather, to step up from it - because really all CFB is regional) is to create a national league that plays alot of cross over games and where the quality of a team on the West Coast impacts the fortunes of one in Florida. The playoffs are getting there - but at 65 teams the P5 (oh excuse me - A5) is still far too big for that. Needs to whittle down to about 32 teams.
 
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A saw a friend of mine is in sports media programming and he said there is a deep concern about SEC ratings (money) should there be a drop in "perceived" lack of quality.

One of the reason why SEC Games are generally the highest rated/highest attended games in the country is that their diehard fanbases show up/tune in...almost regardless concern about quality.

Conf "strengths" vary year-to-year...decade to decade.

It wasn't long ago that the SEC East was the best division...now, its clearly SEC West.

Pac-10/12 use to not have good quality depth...now it looks like the Pac-12 South is a very tough division.

Iowa use to win Rose Bowl Games...now they have trouble beating Div I-AA teams on occasion (maybe even lost to one).

Quality comes and goes, even for schools like Alabama...but for many SEC programs...fans stay with them thru thick and thin.
 
A huge part of the SEC hype machine at ESPN is just lazy reporting. If you say that SEC team is better than B1G (or other conference) the tendency is everyone will nod their head and agree. If you want to argue that Rutgers is better than Tennessee, people will actually expect research to back up the opinion.

ESPN also notoriously repeats itself. Watch PTI, Around the Horn and Sports Center, not only are the stories the same, but the reactions, debate and analysis are the same as well. Someone creates the narrative and they just change the people saying it.

That being said, I agree with Pinkel's whine. Any program that wants to be P5 must be in a conference and any conference must play a title game.
 
That being said, I agree with Pinkel's whine. Any program that wants to be P5 must be in a conference and any conference must play a title game.

Agree on this. It's long past time to throw the Irish baby out with the bath water.
 
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[QUOTE="Southern Gentleman, post: 404295, member: 4556"

That article was from 2012.

As noted in article....all I did was post that facts about that 15 year period.

It was obvious that the previous person was clueless about Arkansas recent history with the NCAA.[/QUOTE]


My apologies. I thought it was directed at me.
 
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It's good to see they finally kicked Florida out of the preseason top 25. They were brutal ever since the UL loss, but somehow always got ranked. The other thing about the SEC teams that the "surprise" teams or teams expected to take the next step. are somehow always ranked (ie Arky and Tenn)
 
It's good to see they finally kicked Florida out of the preseason top 25. They were brutal ever since the UL loss, but somehow always got ranked. The other thing about the SEC teams that the "surprise" teams or teams expected to take the next step. are somehow always ranked (ie Arky and Tenn)

Oh Lord, please, before I pass on to that great stadium in the sky, please help me to assist my brothers and sisters at Rutgers to stop referring to the university of Arkansas as "ARKY". You and I know, dear Lord, that ARKY is not a word and should not be used under any circumstance as it is disrespectful to the many fine inhabitants of this fine Southern state.

Instead Lord, I pray that one day soon, like right now, right here, right now, that the name Arky be banished from this earthly paradise and instead call upon your divine grace and blessings to be bestowed upon all who want to refer to Arkansas without spelling out those few extra letters by just using the 3 letters of ARK.

It would mean so much to me Lord if you can make the users of "Arky" switch to just ARK in the future. And If You have the time Lord, a little world peace would make my day as well.
 
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I thought the "#HillbillyCropCircles" thing was really funny and am deeply wounded that it wasn't fully appreciated. :(
 
Arkansas should not be preseason top 25. There. I like Arkansas, but they should not be ranked. Georgia at 13 is a joke. LSU is overrated too
 
ESPN is in the business of making money. Even if that means lying about how good your product is. Everyone at ESPN is a robot spewing what management tells them to say. Turn off the machine dude.

The SEC was exposed badly in the bowls the last two years. They are fraud and everyone else in the country knows it.

+1...Its a well known fact that purging ESPN reduces you blood pressure by 10 points
 
Arkansas should not be preseason top 25. There. I like Arkansas, but they should not be ranked. Georgia at 13 is a joke. LSU is overrated too

Whatever you think. But I think there is a plausible case to be made for Arkansas to be ranked.
  1. We return a bunch of starters on both sides of the ball.
  2. We have a 5th year senior as our starting QB.
  3. Our offensive line is experienced and large!
  4. For the first time in college football history, a non-ranked team shut out 2 ranked football teams.
  5. We thoroughly demolished the state team from texass in our bowl game by holding them to 59 total yards of offense for the game.
Personally I don't care for ANY ranking prior to the 5th game of the year. Teams are playing the soft part of their schedules and really haven't established identities.
I wish Rutgers the absolute best this year and I will wear my Rutgers gear weekly. But don't discount my Hogs. We WILL make some serious noise this year!
 
Whomever was on ESPN radio this morning was so far up the SEC asses it was ridiculous. Does upper management tell them to spout SEC all the time or do they just hire pro SEC talk show hosts? He was trying to say how the BIG will never be considered a top conference until they go 10-12 teams deep like the SEC is. Someone did call in who was pro BIG and shot down most of his arguments but he still didn't get it. He basically said the BIG was all OSU and MSU and there are no other good to great teams, but that every team in the SEC west was a good to great team along with at least 4 from the other division.

Yeah I heard the guy spewing the exact same garbage Sunday morning. He referred to Tennessee as a "great" team and part of what makes the SEC 10-12 deep. That's when I laughed out loud and couldn't take the guy seriously. The guy also lumped RU in with Purdue and Indiana as being the dregs of the B1G which I also found laughable. Guy must have just been trying to rile up listeners and draw calls.

And yes, there was that article going around a few years ago about SEC bagmen. Does cheating go on at the Texas Schools, Oklahoma, Miami, Ohio state, USC, FSU, Clemson, etc, sure. But when a whole network of anonymous bagmen brazenly come forward and compare notes about how they land kids in the majority ofSEC schools, I'd assume it's a conference wide practice save for maybe one or two schools. Anyway you slice it, the SEC has many built in advantages. Do you think Nadir Barnwell would be forced to sit out due to academic performance at Auburn or Arkansas? LOL!!! Or would any SEC program turn away a heavily recruited RB who passed NCAA clearinghouse but not the schools academic standards the way Wisconsin did to that recruit recently? Hell no! Don't know why SEC fans get defensive over this. My wife and her mom both graduated from Florida State which may as well be an SEC school and my wife laughs when I talk about players actually having to go to class at Rutgers and Barnwell possibly not being eligible. She's like "he will play" and I said it's not looking like it. She admits it is what it is at the southern schools when it comes to football players and academics.
 
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