Pat Dooley briefly lifts his head from Steve Spurrier’s lap to let us all in on what’s really behind the OBC’s division record only proposal.
… When Spurrier made his declaration about bringing his proposal up for discussion, people thought he was being goofy. He wasn’t being goofy. He was being Spurrier.
You have to understand this about him — no matter what it is he’s dealing with, he believes in fairness. You had better count all your strokes on the golf course, and he’ll let you know when it’s his serve in ping pong.
So when he sees something that isn’t fair, he’s going to speak out about it.
I bet Urban Meyer never played ping pong with Dooley. But I digress.
That is, to put it mildly, a complete load of swill. Steve Spurrier has coached in the SEC since it went to divisional play in 1992, with the exception of a completely forgettable run as the head coach of the Washington Redskins. That’s twenty years of coaching in environments where cross-divisional results counted. If that’s unfair and if fairness is all Spurrier is about, why has he kept silent about this gross injustice all these years? It’s not as if he’s ever had a problem running his mouth.
No, the real issue here isn’t fairness. It’s impatience. Spurrier’s nearing the end of his career. Every season is precious now. He believes he’s gotten South Carolina to the brink of something special but he doesn’t have a lot of time left to prove it. And impediments like the cross-divisional schedule are a frustration.
But them’s the breaks.
Spurrier’s been coaching long enough that he’s had his share of seasons when the schedule has broken in his favor. And that’s the thing to remember here – over time, that nonsense tends to even out. The problem is that in 2012, time isn’t on his side anymore.
Get The Picture 
This idea seems incredibly short sighted even for the OBC to me. Time may be running out, but surely he will be there coaching another 5 years or so.
After this coming year if they chnage the way games are counted it will hurt USCe much more than it will ever help them. Every year UGA plays AU, which as we know we are going to play at about 50% over the lonmg haul. UT and Bama and UF has LSU. Once again over the long haul you have to think those teams are all going to keep each other in check.
Now the Chix have A&M as their perm west opp. It would seem this is as good as you can do aside from getting one of the Missy schools. Worst case scenario for USCe (over the long haul ie not counting stuff like Arky having a couple seasons above their average) is they draw a tough west team as their rotating opp and the easy (in comparison to UGA, UT, and UF) perm west opp. Mean while UGA, UT, and UF are guaranteed to have at least one tough west opp every year (once again only looking at the long run and how those west teams historically fare).
In short (too late!) it seems to me that USCe would be taking an advantage out the schedule that favors them more often than not because of two quirky years where it did not.
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I’ve played pingpong with SOS on several occasions and here’s the scoop. He always reminds you when it’s his turn to serve, but often times forgets when it’s your turn again. What an A-hole.
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+1
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It’s killing him that he can’t be more of a pompous a$$.
But we all know. You still are, Stevie. You still are.
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I wonder what tune in running around in CMR’s head this morning?
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If the situation was reversed last year and the Chickens went to the SECCG over the Dawgs, Mr. Fairness wouldn’t have breathed a word about any changes.
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At the end the result will be the same. The cocks will always be the WANNA BE’S. LOL
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John Pennigton threw this out …
“Let’s say Spurrier’s plan were put into place. Now let’s say that in the year 2015, for example, Carolina went 4-2 inside its division but 2-0 outside it (against the best two teams in the West, no less). Now let’s say that Georgia went 5-1 in division play — including a loss to Carolina — but finished 0-2 against the West.
Carolina would be 6-2 overall and would have beaten Georgia head-to-head. Georgia would be 5-3 overall and would have lost to Carolina.
Ah, but Georgia would be East Division champs based on its 5-1 division record as compared to South Carolina’s 4-2 division mark.”
Think the head chicken would like is little ploy then? You can bet he’d give his team a ring for being the “real” champs …
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That is why no other legitimate sports league uses just division play as the first determinant of post-season eligibility. There is always the possibility that a team could run the table in the in the East, but lose all of their other games. They would be around a .500 team playing for a conference title. Everyone around the league would love that especially if you have a 1 or 2 loss ranked team sitting at home.
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I suggest that, out of fairness, the SEC set conference-wide discipline standards. It is unfair for a player at one school to miss games for a violation while a player at another school misses no games for the same violation. I wonder how the OLD Ball Coach would feel about that?
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+1 for every weaselly bullshit suspension from practice VisorHole ever meted out. And that’s a lot.
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John Solomn throws this out had Little Stevie’s Grand Plan been in effect …
– Those first two Alabama-Florida games in Birmingham would have been Alabama-Tennessee in 1992 and LSU-Florida in 1993 instead.
– Georgia, which finished 13-1 in 2002, wouldn’t have won the SEC championship that year because it wouldn’t have reached Atlanta despite finishing a game ahead of the Gators in overall SEC record. Ron Zook’s first team, which finished 8-5, would have gone to Atlanta by virtue of going 5-0 against the East.
– Tim Tebow would have played in the SEC Championship Game his entire career instead of missing one in 2007 when Florida was 5-3 in the SEC, a game behind Tennessee and Georgia.
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it’s pretty interesting that suddenly Spurrier and the UF media trolls make such a big deal about UGA not playing the big 3 from the west… suddenly it’s an issue. I don’t remember them apologizing to UGA when UF got Arkansas and Ole Miss in ’08 (both stunk that year) while UGA took both Bama and LSU on. It’s all cyclical until if favors UGA… then the alligator tears start. Grow up. It’s just like football history between UF/UGA always starts in 1990, who made that rule?
Bet the Big 3 are just as happy they didn’t see UGA right in the middle of the regular season grind as we were. LSU had two weeks to prep and closed the half with negative yardage. I still believe in my gut, once they saw Crowell limp off the field and they knew we had no viable running game, they dropped 8 and stopped Thomas and Harton with 3 down linemen and the game was over. Murray began to press too much and the game turned fast. A healthy Crowell, I think UGA would have held onto that lead in the 2nd half. If they’d met in the regular season, when UGA was “feelin’ it” and healthy… the Big 3 may have turned into the Big 2 or even Big 1.
I don’t expect UGA to get the pub that Florida or Bama gets when they’re hot… we’re one of the black sheep schools for whatever reason. But this crap rises to the level of insanity at times.
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Since SEC schedules are made 4-5yrs ahead, give Steve his way the year we have a stronger West opp and he has an easy schedule. Vote for the issue to be considered to begin that year. Hell, he would probably retire that year!
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Spurrier didnt wait 20 years to change his position on “fairness in scheduling.” He evolllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllved as he slowly realized a manifest injustice existed.
yeah, right. It always depends on whose ox (or chicken) is getting gored.
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Or plucked.
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Damn you for the post, Senator. My wife’s chickens are down to their last tail feathers.
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Playing preseason NFL games to win? Learning first hand that his magical college QBs suck hard in the NFL? Going 1-3 against a Quincy Carter led Dallas Cowboys? The fail emanating from Spurrier’s stint as an NFL head coach is something I’ll never forget, thank you very much.
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Like some of us, you would get great pleasure seeing Bill Stanfil burying little Stevie’s head in the dirt with three sacks the year he won the Heisman. It was Spurrier’s only loss. Stanfil went on to become the first Outland Trophy Award winner for best D man in the country that year. All at Spurrier’s expense.
Those memories keep me laughing every time everyone starts to get FU angst. Some of us old farts see FU as a soccer ball begging to be kicked.
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I still don’t get what is so unfair that for that the last 20 years nobody ever complained about it until now. If the Cocks had just beaten Auburn, AT HOME, none of this is an issue. Why doesn’t the media aske the great Spurrier about that?
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Spurrier went 9-1 against LSU in the 90s. He never mentioned discounting those games.
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Indeed. In fact, Spurrier had a winning record against every single SEC team during his tenure at Florida.
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