I know Chris Fowler doesn’t speak for all of ESPN, but, still, I could see this taking hold with the talking heads at the WWL quite easily:
Say that a few times on a national broadcast and see if it doesn’t start sticking with the public… and the selection committee.
Get The Picture 
“I’m hardly singling out SEC scheduling.” But let me single out SEC scheduling.
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“I’m hardly singling out ESPN, but ESPN will not be getting another conference game without paying for it.”
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Chris Fowler is the biggest douche since Chris Berman.
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Berman wins by a landslide to me, and I am not a Fowler fan either.
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Actually Fowler is 100% right on this one. Truth hurts.
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This scheduling approval just means that McGarity now has to find another excuse to get out of the Notre Dame series he’s been talking about.
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I find it odd many (particularly the ESPN_Big10 writers and Schultz) feel the cup cakes would go away with a 9-game conference schedule. I think there will always be at least two of every slate.
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+1 – Coaches want baby seal clubbings for job security, bowl eligibility, and the opportunity to provide young players with live snaps. The teams that take the beatings need the money to support their programs not just football. The big school ADs need the baby seal clubbings to get to the magic number of home games for season ticket packages and revenue.
Fowler made his comment for the WWL to try to get the additional inventory without Disney paying more for it. I like that Slive decided to keep the 9-game schedule as a negotiating chip for future increased revenue associated with the TV package.
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Agree on all the above, especially the negotiating chip.
And as a gator knows, sometimes baby seals will bite back.
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Ask Michigan, Va Tech, Oregon St., etc. about messing around with lower division teams that have talent and you come out not ready.
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I know you said etc, but add Florida to that list. The fact that they’re on there too makes me way too happy to not explicitly put them in.
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Bulldog Joe handled that for me 😉
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..and while you’re at it, don’t forget to ask Old Miss about Jax State.
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“Among the worst of these losses was to FCS-member Jacksonville State, which was Ole Miss’ first loss to a lower division team since 1945.” It was then that it slowly began to dawn on Houston that he had a problem.
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I’m with Doggoned.. Fowler doesn’t want to single out SEC schools. Then he mentions ONLY SEC schools.
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Ironically enough, I’d argue the slate of non-conference matchups across the country is better in 2014 than it’s ever been. Games including:
UGA vs Clemson
LSU vs Wisconsin
Michigan vs Utah
Ohio State vs Va Tech
Michigan State vs Oregon (I’m PUMPED to see that offense against that D)
Oklahoma vs Tennessee
UCLA vs Texas
FSU vs Oklahoma State
Bama vs WVU
Auburn vs K-State
Notre Dame’s games vs Michigan, Stanford, Arizona State, Southern Cal (they also play FSU this year as part of their ACC rotation, though that’s not true non-conference)
Ole Miss vs Boise St
Plus all your other traditional out of conference games (Clemson vs SC, UF vs FSU, etc). It seems to me that there are way more “brand name” matchups this year than usual in non-conference scheduling. I don’t know if it’s coincidence, or because of the new playoff (for example, I know that UGA-Clemson was scheduled long before we knew there would be a playoff). But it seems like things are already trending towards more aggressive scheduling. We’re used to seeing a couple of big matchups on opening weekend, but these games are spread through the first half of the season. Just seems to me like a lot more than usual.
The other thing that jumped out at me, we don’t think of ACC teams as having difficult schedules……for FSU, their season typically boils down to two games…..Clemson, and Florida. But this year FSU has a heckuva schedule. They play Oklahoma State in Stillwater, Clemson, Notre Dame, at Louisville, at Miami (who should be further improved), and Florida. Granted we aren’t expecting Florida to be world beaters this year, but that’s got to be as tough a schedule as any ACC team has played in the last 10 years.
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Shhhhh….the party line is that scheduling is soft and everyone just schedules the local 8th grade team for 6 games per year.
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I think the Alabama vs West Virginia game has all the makings for a clubbing.
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Time to break out the tin foil hats. I think we will hear this over and over to insure that the Selection Committee will not include any SEC teams other than the Champion in the four team playoff. The Big 5 – the SEC want to insure that there will never ever be an all SEC Championship game again. Well, at least until the playoff expands to eight teams. Get ready for the SEC runner up to get hosed big time.
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The SEC championship loser gets hosed in the old system. Missouri falls all the way to the Cotton Bowl. Georgia falls to the Capital One after being 5 yards away from a shot at the national title. The loser of the championship game will not get an at-large bid unless there were two unbeatens in the SECCG. A team like Florida 2012 would get the at-large over Georgia because the selection committee will say Georgia had their shot to play their way in and couldn’t get it done.
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I’m afraid that the loser of the SECCG loses under either system. Second place is the SEC has become a bad place to be.
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The loser of the SECCG wasn’t really ever the 2nd place team anyway.
The loss has always counted against you and dropped you down a peg or two. By default, the 3rd place team becomes the 2nd place team by not incurring the additional loss.
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Thanks for the explanation. Still seems totally illogical to me, however. To me, the two teams in the championship game are the No. 1 and 2 teams. Remember when the NCAA basketball tournament paired the losers of the Final Four games? They were playing for third place, not second.
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Doesn’t make any sense to me either, but the bowls look at the win/loss records.
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I consider the conference championships to be part of the playoff system.
It keeps them meaningful and interesting.
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SEC doesn’t deserve but one spot in a 4 team playoff. The argument for 2 SEC teams will be legit when, and if, the playoff gets to 8 and has spots above the 5 Power Conference champions.
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ahh..the champion of the fair. No longer should teams be assessed on their ability, but rather all should be given an equal chance. Gotcha, comrade.
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I wish they had just said they would use the BCS standings to select the top 4. Tweak the polls by not releasing until the 1st week in October (or use Mumme Poll methodology) when everyone has seen the teams for 4 weeks. Enforce more transparency around the computer models. Bring back an SOS component. Maybe put a point booster into the final BCS calculation for winning your conference. Instead, we got a selection committee with less transparency than we had before.
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How many SEC teams could have beat the shit out of ND two years ago? Put ND in the cupcake catagory to be fair The whole thing..and I’ve said this all along…is to screw the SEC…because the Big Integer can’t get it done on the field. From Heisman voting (Ron Dayne over Peyton) to bowl selection, the asshole talkers on TV have learned a lesson from the MSM…you can bullshit people into believing anything if you’r saying it on TV. We’re all going to miss the lesser of evil BCS soon enough.
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No, we won’t. This is a step forward a timid half-step but progress never the less. I agree the selection committee, and the polls, should not use specific numbering of teams until October. Four simply isn’t enough to give each conference champ a spot and have a small number if wildcard teams who deserve consideration for the left over spots. We will get there, just don’t know if I will live long enough to see it.
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Really McCallan, so you’re saying that if UF loses to an undefeated UGA in overtime in Jax, then beats then undefeated and eventual ACC champ FSU by two TDs, and let’s say the Big Ten and Big 12 champ have losses to teams outside the top 20 – that UF would not deserve to go.
The playoffs should be determined by the number of losses and the quality of the teams lost to – not by whether the team you lost to was in your conference.
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Oh I don’t suppose you can’t present a case where the SEC should get a 2nd team by default (if everyone else went to hell) but that is/will always be the rare exception. My point is the current scheduling in CFB doesn’t allow anything nearly that clear so you cannot discount a power conference’s champion deserving a spot ahead of a runner-up in any other. I don’t deny the SEC may have the best two teams in the country but a four team playoff simply doesn’t allow us to find out. All truly legit teams will get their chance when we get to eight….if ever.
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Mac, the real danger is the SEC being shut out altogether. An undefeated FSU, and undefeated Texas or Oklahoma, an undefeated Oregon or USC and an undefeated Ohio State all go to the 4 team playoff before a 1 loss SEC Champion, whoever that SEC team may be. That is the real reason the powers that be changed the system. To screw the SEC.
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I agree fully. All it takes is for one ESPN announcer to make it his lifes work to down the SEC and others will jump on too. Oh wait I guess I am talking about what Kirk Herbstreit did to Georgia back in 2008 when he immediately started saying Georgia did not deserve a shot at the title since they did not win their conference.
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Kirk hasnt given up on UGA. He still loves to spark up the CMR has lost control meme any chance he gets.
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That is exactly what I meant. His life’s work. Maybe Georgia would be better off now if they had not totally embarrassed him as a quarterback in the bowl game all those years ago!!! lol..
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There are a couple of college quarterbacks that still take umbrage with Georgia over an asswhoopin administered all those years ago. 😉
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I think that was more pay back for fucking up the Les Miles to Michigan story.
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Sec had like 5 of the top 10 toughest schedules and 8 or 9 out of top 25 if memory serves me right. No other conference even close.
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“Fowler has been an ESPN-lifer” who will never eat lunch in Birmingham again
http://awfulannouncing.com/2014/chris-fowler-is-the-new-lead-college-football-voice-for-espn.html
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What’s funny is that the SEC is doing the same thing all the other leagues moving to 9 games have done: added a cakey team from a major league. The only difference is they’re playing their own “league mates” and the SEC isn’t. Still the same crappy teams.
Georgia Tech.
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ESPN wants to play hardball with it’s old new partner. I wonder if the Fox crew would be so cavalier?
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tOSU 2014 conference schedule includes Maryland, Rutgers, Indiana, Illinois, and Minnesota.
Nebraska’s includes Illinois, Northwestern, Rutgers, Purdue, and Minnesota.
The Big whatever should not increase the number of conference games they play, they should decrease!
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Delany would point out that while those schools may not be SEC worthy, they are with the exception of Pellini’s place members of AAU so maybe that should count for something
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The SEC and at least two other heavily southern based conferences should say “screw the NCAA and the whole bowl series”, and start their own association and playoff system amongst themselves. Bring the money home. Tell ESPN and the their talking heads that a Southern man don’t need them around, anyhow!
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And while we’re at it, we also need to purge our league of its infestation of Midwesterners!
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I’ve been saying that!!!! Glad someone is listening!
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this reeks of secession.
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Fowler is right.
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Yes he is Jeff. He is very right. I hope we use this opportunity to play 2 major OOC games but I am afraid McGarity and company would rather play Coastal Carolina and Southern University. Then again, maybe he will grow a pair and do what the rumors are indicating tonight. Lock in the Irish and talk to Oklahoma and Michigan again.
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