December 1, 2013 · 3:23 PM

They don’t call it Rivalry Week for nothing.

I was just wondering… would it be appropriate for me to make a snarky observation about how much more awesome this past week’s college football experience would have been if the schools were fighting for berths in a sixteen-team playoff?  Too soon?

31 Comments

Filed under BCS/Playoffs

31 responses to “They don’t call it Rivalry Week for nothing.”

  1. AusDawg85
    December 1, 2013 at 3:27 PM

    Then Nicky would be a genius! Throw the game to the Barners, avoid the SECCG, and get a good draw and more time to heal and practice for the playoffs. It’s gonna be great…

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  2. Scorpio Jones, III
    December 1, 2013 at 4:00 PM

    Playoff…the oversigners and depth hoarders will prosper…we have never been in the conversation…everybody gets folks hurt, but if you have even a slightly difficult year (our year I would classify as disastrous) you could be playing a team that is not as good, but has all its best players and get your ass handed to you.

    As long as the scholarship limit is 85, playoffs are bullshit, money makers for TV, but bullshit.

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  3. Rock and Roll Rebel
    December 1, 2013 at 4:09 PM

    Sadly this may be the last season that nailbiters such as we had on Saturday truly matter….

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  4. OrlandoDawg
    December 1, 2013 at 4:17 PM

    Bid it a fond farewell, sports fans, the regular season’s importance has gone out with a bang. Unless there’s a provision for only allowing conference champs in the playoff, teams in Bama’s position yesterday will just laugh off what would have formerly been a devastating loss and start preparing for a Round 1 playoff do-over.

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  5. sUGArdaddy
    December 1, 2013 at 4:48 PM

    The only hope is the words that the committee has said already, that being a conference champ will be of huge significance. I’m in favor of that 4-team deal if they can hold to that. This year, it appears FSU, the B1G winner, the SEC winner, and the Big 12 winner deserve a shot. Hard to tell if Ohio st or FSU is better than Mizzou, Auburn, Baylor or Okie St. They’ve played significantly easier schedules. The ACC save for FSU and Clemmons is wretched. The B1G is a joke except for those 2 in the title game.

    But, if they don’t set that precedent next year, we’re in for a heap of trouble The problem will be when there are only 3 conf. champs that are zero or 1 loss, and the other conf. champs have 2 or more losses. Meanwhile, there’s an Alabama sitting there that didn’t win it’s division at 11-1. I’m for awarding conference titles.

    Though I’ll miss the drama of yesterday, next year the drama of Dec. 6 will be palpable, as it’s likely 4-5 games will determine who gets into the mix. Mizzou and Auburn won’t have to politic, the winner is in. I think the playoffs are going to be very good to Mark Richt if he sticks around another 5-7 years. For whatever reason, luck hasn’t fallen his way with the BCS, and we just don’t seem to have it in us to undefeated. Of course, who has in the last 20 years in the SEC? 1998 UT, 2009 Bama, and 2010 Auburn. It’s dang hard to do. And the ball hasn’t bounced our way with one (or two losses — here’s looking at you, LSU).

    I’ve always thought Richt was more in the line of Osborne, Dooley, and his mentor, Bowden. When they finally won their national titles, Osborne was in his 22nd year, Dooley in his 17th, and Bowden in his 18th. Next year will be 14 for Richt. But, when those guys finally got it rolling, they got it rolling. Dooley reeled off 3 SEC titles in a row and lost 1 regular season game, Bowden seemingly played for the National Championship for about 8 straight seasons (not exactly, but it was close) and won another 6 years after his first. Osborne went on the a more dominant string than what we’ve seen from Bama the last few years, winning 3 of 4 in dominant fashion and darn near winning 4 in a row save for a miracle from Texas in the inaugural Big 12 title game.

    And don’t tell anyone this, but in his first 7 years at Alabama, Nick Saban will have 2 SEC titles to show for it and 3 trips to the Dome. He’ll probably end up with 5 BCS bids out of that. In his first 7 years in Athens, Mark Richt won 2 SEC titles with 3 trips to the Dome (should have been 4 — darn you, Kentucky!). He also had 3 BCS bids in that time. Shhhh. Don’t tell anyone. One can spin stats all they want, and Saban’s 7 years at Bama have been outstanding. He’s gone undefeated in the regular season twice. But, he doesn’t have much to show for it conference-wise. He’s also done this while his cross-divisional rival (Tennessee) has been an absolute dumpster fire with Fulmer’s last 2 years (shuffling coordinators), the Kiffin year, 3 years of The Precious, and Coach Butch. He’s also had to play the best team in the East in the regular season exactly twice (2007 UT — though do you really believe they were the best? [they beat UT that year and lost to us]) AND 2010 South Carolina, which they lost to. in the meantime, in Mark Richt’s first 7 years, we played the best team in the west in 2002 (Alabama had the best record, but was on probation — we won), 2003 (LSU — we lost), 2004 (Auburn — we lost).

    It’s hard to win games. Very, very hard. Mark Richt wins a lot of them. I hope the next 13 years are kinder to him. And I hope he finds himself a new defensive coordinator. That would be helpful.

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  6. joyridingdawg
    December 1, 2013 at 5:17 PM

    He’s got him a defensive coordinator…I can feel it! He also is considering a ST coordinator.

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  7. Timphd
    December 1, 2013 at 5:42 PM

    Does it still count as rivalry week if youre 12-1 in the last 13?

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  8. Smitty
    December 1, 2013 at 6:06 PM

    Sting Talk is back up BTW. Great reading.

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    • Flukebucket
      December 1, 2013 at 7:03 PM

      I have been reading it all afternoon. There is only one problem at Tech (according to Stingtalk) and that is the required brilliance of their players. Everybody knows you can’t have an above average IQ and play football. It is just not possible.

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    • Dawgfan Will
      December 1, 2013 at 11:17 PM

      The game thread is delicious. Be sure to read all forty-five pages. It’s worth it.

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  9. Carlton Thomas
    December 1, 2013 at 6:39 PM

    My only problem with the 16 team playoff is that it isn’t 32 teams.

    Our season has been over since the halfback pass by Missouri. That’s a shame. a 9-3 UGa team would be getting consideration for that 16 team playoff, and even our 8-4 team should be on the bubble of a 32 team tournament. Call me crazy, but I wouldn’t mind playing at Baylor in Round 1 and seeing how far we could make it.

    But if you want the season to be over after beating tech, that’s great. See you in Nashville some time around Christmas…

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    • Bob
      December 1, 2013 at 7:40 PM

      What about being 8-4 equals deserving to be in some bogus 32 team playoff? And by the way, do you propose cutting the regular season to 6 games so we can have a potential 6 game playoff? Seriously? I can see it now…2 conference games and 4 App States to ensure we all make the playoff. Ridiculous

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      • Carlton Thomas
        December 1, 2013 at 8:17 PM

        I’d love it. Season wouldn’t have ended in Athens the first week of October. Must feel bad to be on the wrong side of progress.

        Just think, right now we’d be looking into tickets for games straight through December. Give it a few years 🙂

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        • Chopdawg
          December 1, 2013 at 9:26 PM

          Totally agree with this, & can’t understand all the handwringing over the “meaningful regular season.” What exactly does it “mean,” to win the SEC Championship? One whole helluva lot. It’s been that way since the SEC was created & it’ll continue to be that way, even if (gasp!) there’s an expanded playoff system…I’m rooting for a 16-team playoff, factored into the bowl system, throw out all the conference championships & just take the 16 best teams in college football, bring the season to an actual climax. The SEC Championship (and other league championships, I’m sure) have meant a lot to the teams that have won them throughout history, and that won’t be diminished by the playoff. Tech-GA, Auburn-Ala, Clemson-USC, all the season-ending rivalry games always count; if you don’t think so, think how you feel today vs how you would’ve felt if we’d lost yesterday, even thought the two teams have combined for nine losses this year.

          I’ve followed major-college football since the early 1960’s, saw my first UGA game as a freshman in 1969, and during my lifetime there’s never been any kind of system in place for a “meaningful” finish to the football season. After next weekend’s championship games, we’ll enter the zombie part of the CFB season (oops! I should’ve typed, FBS season): meaningless games, by anyone’s standards, except for the Nat’l Championship game, which won’t take place until god-knows-when. College football starts Labor Day & ends Thanksgiving. Ridiculous. All we’ll have to talk about is coaching changes, recruiting, next season’s outlook, & other assorted football fantasies.

          But hey, I’ll get over it, I always do. Talk to y’all next August, when the season cranks up again, a little less than nine months away.

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  10. We Will Get Fooled Again
    December 1, 2013 at 6:57 PM

    Todd Grantham returning in 2014, barring a jump to the NFL. Surprised you guys haven’t jumped on this one yet.

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    • Will (the other one)
      December 1, 2013 at 7:24 PM

      No it’s worse than that, not just Grantham, but all assistants back “unless they take other offers.”

      Someone hire Friend and Lakatos, please.

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  11. Dante
    December 1, 2013 at 7:49 PM

    My real fear is Georgia sitting its starters. What if Georgia went into the Tech game without their starting QB, one of their premier RBs, some WRs, and just sitting all of their starting defensive seniors? Oh wait, we saw what would happen. Georgia would pull it off in 2OT. I can go either way on playoffs.

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