It seems that after a summer-long love affair with the SEC, the thrill is already gone. After last night's Tennessee loss to a PAC-10 team for the second year in-a-row, I'm sure the thrill is now probably dead. The SEC enjoyed a brief stint as media darling with 4 teams in the top 10, including Georgia's ranking of number 1, and while the rankings haven't changed much, there seems to have been a shift in the national media's attitude.
While listening to FSN radio, ESPN radio, and watching most games on various national television stations, I could hear it in the voices of the announcers as they crowned, after just 1 week of play, USC and Ohio State the most talented teams in the nation. Georgia, it seems, is headed for a fall, and over and over I heard their number 1 ranking questioned. First of all, who ranked Georgia number 1? Hmmmm.... and second, the week prior, Florida, LSU, and Georgia had all been wearing the most-talented crown. What happened in one short week? When push came to shove, was it just too difficult to truly admit that the SEC could really be the best? Florida pummeled a Hawaii team, that just the year before was in a BCS bowl. Alabama scored 34 points on the ninth ranked Clemson Tigers. Was Ohio State's 43 points over Youngstown State (aren't they a junior college) that much more impressive?
Brent Musberger, on ABC's Saturday night telecast, was saying that until proven otherwise, yes the SEC is the best conference, but he seemed to like the Big 12 to rise to the top. As he was saying this, his co-worker for the evening, Kirk Herbstreit broke the news that Arkansas State had just defeated Texas A&M. Yes, I laughed.
Look, I clearly see that Ohio State and USC are talented, clearly. But, after one week of play, why are we already ready to crown them National Champions? Have you seen Ohio State's schedule, outside of a tough match-up against USC? USC is in a PAC-10 with some talented, dangerous teams, some. UCLA showed last night that they're a team to be reckoned with. Granted, Tennessee made a few hundred foolish mistakes, but a W is a W and UCLA looked good in the second-half. I just wish we could take a more patient wait-and-see attitude with declaring teams best in the nation. Who knows when injuries can decimate a team? We've already had some scares at both Georgia and Ohio State. And based on what I saw Saturday, just on what I saw Saturday, shouldn't Florida and Alabama be in the running? It seems "until proven otherwise" the media's crush on USC and Ohio State is back on.
By the way, Auburn has some serious work to do on its offense, Again!
1 comment:
The pollsters had 4 SEC teams in the top 10 and a SEC team ranked #1the first week. It seemed they were trying to get it right. After 1 week of tune up games, nothing changes. Another year and same #$%^.
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