If you’re one of those folks who thinks rooting for SEC rival programs is a virtue because overall, a stronger conference aids in Georgia’s quest to make the CFP field, Dan Wolken throws cold water on your logic.
These arguments about conference supremacy, however, feel more like a relic of the BCS era in college football and not particularly relevant to what happens with the College Football Playoff. In fact, at this point, it may be better for the SEC’s playoff aspirations if it had just two good teams and 12 others who couldn’t run a basic dive play without tripping over the line of scrimmage.
Until proven otherwise, the CFP selection committee places a high value on two things, in exactly this order: 1) Power conference teams having zero or one loss, and 2) Winning a conference championship. Which means the worst thing for any league, including the SEC, would be having a bunch of top-10 caliber teams that are more likely to beat up on each other rather than have one emerge unscathed.
Like it or not, he’s got a point. To date, no two-loss team has cracked the semis. And if conference weakness mattered all that much, would we easily assume, as we all do, that Clemson’s all but a lock to go again this season?
So if you were feeling guilty about rooting for Tennessee and South Carolina to go down last weekend, maybe let it go. Watching programs like those go down in upsets is almost as much fun as watching the Dawgs win. Why deprive yourself?
Get The Picture 
There has never been a time in my life where I wouldn’t have pulled for Miami over Florida, Georgia state over Tennessee and Oregon over Auburn.
I do think LSU beating Texas is ok though. Losing to Texas and then beating Alabama, and 6 or 7 of the rest of their sec slate, may be the best case scenario though. Especially if the other conferences produce enough one loss or less champs to shut Bama out of the playoff.
A postseason with LSU a victim TBD and Clemson in that order would work.
At least I wouldn’t go to Atlanta (or NOLA) just knowing the stripes were going to fuck us out if it again.
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Imagine: Alabama goes undefeated, LSU only loses to Bama, and we go undefeated.
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I am not concerned at the height of SEC power with LSU, UF, Bama, and Auburn all good, the SEC was getting into the BCS CG.
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In that scenario, who wins the SECCG??
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Exactly what I have been saying, yet UGA makes the move to strengthen their schedule. All you fans moaning and groaning about a weak schedule have assured that UGA will have a very difficult time winning a National Championship. Hope you enjoy the regular season.
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Considering what I shell out for a season ticket, I damn sure will.
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I shell out a good bit for season tickets too, but I sure would like to see UGA win a National Championship. Asked those Bama fans if they would trade a few of theirs for a tougher season schedule. I wonder how many times Bama would have had the #1 recruiting class in the nation with a few less nattys?
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Things you can’t prove (1) or guarantee (2):
1. That Bama would not have as many natty’s with 1 more P5 game on the schedule.
2. That UGA will have a natty with less P5 games on the schedule.
Things you can guarantee:
1. Scheduling shitty teams gives you a shitty home schedule.
I’d rather bank the proverbial bird-in-hand then have a shitty schedule and no natty, which is what we’ve had every year we have had a shitty schedule since 1980.
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On the bright side, we’re basically 5 years away from that happening (at OU in ’24) so everything may change by then anyhow!
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I take it that you don’t buy season tickets.
If you ain’t first …
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You took it wrong
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Wrong
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Kirby and Butts-Mehre made the decision to strengthen their schedule. The fans don’t control shit. If the fans controlled scheduling, this approach would have been implemented years ago.
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Enjoy the wait. This may be the year. Might be another 39.
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Why not just play 12 clown acts, declare yourself a “champ”, and buy a trophy? Some people care more about several exciting contests every year of their lives than an occasional, rare trip to the playoffs where you danced and manipulated the “pretend” schedule to make you look like something you are not.
I enjoyed every one of 2002, 2007, 2012, 2017, and 2018 knowing we were as good as anyone in the nation. Forty years of the Murray States, Nicholls, Austin Peay’s etc. is too high a price to pay for what you put so much stock in. I am proud of what UGA football is, and how good the high quality match ups are. I respect what Clemson has become, even if for a short period, but I wouldn’t trade big boy football for being in the ACC even if they trew in a couple of rings. Glad Kirby is pushing better games in the future, wish we had long ago.
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Amen
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There it is Mac. Self respect.
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Recruits care about championships.
Exhibit 1A Alabama
Exhibit 2A Clemson
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We’ve been 3,1,2 in recruiting rankings the last 3 years in the composite and 3,1,1 according to Rivals. I think we’re making it ok in recruiting.
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I am here for Tennessee, Auburn, and Florida’s collective dick-tripping. Long may it prosper.
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I enjoy watching our conference rivals lose especially as painfully as possible. I enjoyed reading The Tennessean last Sunday after the Georgia State debacle. Nothing was better than seeing FU players block each other in their loss to Georgia Southern.
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I believe that happened on Georgia States last touchdown as well ee.
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Three schools of thought:
1) SEC! SEC! SEC!
2) Everybody lose but the Dawgs
3) SEC teams need to beat MNC contenders, lose otherwise.
I choose #3.
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ND effectively debunked the strength of schedule myth for me last year. If you’re a P5 team, winning is far, FAR more important than who you beat. You could argue that the current system is tailor made for ND and Clemson, who is a de facto independent given the state of the ACC. Alabama is a true anomaly.
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Well if you look closer you will see that ND does not have any Murray States, Arkansas State, etc… on their schedule ever. So while the top end of their schedule may not match every SEC team each year the bottom end is certainly a lot better.
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With a few exceptions, I’ll generally root for SEC teams, even our big rivals, to beat Big Ten teams, if for no other reason than because I like seeing smug Yankees get taken down a peg. That may lessen once Jim Delany’s no longer in the picture, but I doubt it.
Otherwise, though, my attitude toward other SEC teams is generally “wouldn’t piss on ’em if they were on fire.” I probably earned myself a few more centuries in purgatory from the sheer joy I took in Tennessee getting dumptrucked by Georgia State. Also really enjoyed Florida looking like honey-baked ass against Miami (even though they won). Only reason I didn’t take more pleasure in South Carolina’s come-from-ahead loss is because UNC wait-listed me when I applied there and I’m the kind of person who can easily hold a grudge that petty for a quarter-century.
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If it makes you feel any better you won’t be the only Dawg sitting on the Group W bench down there.
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I don’t particularly care who wins the LSU vs Texas game, but generally don’t think Texas needs / deserves any of my support with the money they make. I’ll probably pull for LSU because I can at least (in theory) support a transitive property of a good / confident LSU maintaining something to play for and inflicting damage of any kind on Auburn and Texas A&M.
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Will root wholesale for A&M over Clemson. Screw Clemson. They are somebody in our recruiting backyard who has all but an auto-pilot to the playoff right now.
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If you have ever spent much time around Baton Rouge or LSU fans then you would wish they (Fans mainly) never won a goddam thing.
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Fortunately i don’t because i’ve heard it all… like a trashier, dumber Florida fan. (if that’s possible)
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2017 Auburn proves that this is a bullshit narrative. Had they won the SECCG, they’d have been the #2 seed.
A 2-loss team will eventually get in.
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Just depends heavily on the rest of the field. If Bama could skip the SEC championship and get another crack at LSU in the BCS, a two loss team can certainly get into a four team playoff.
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They did beat 2 teams ranked #1 by the committee. Rare for any team to get the opportunity to play 2 top 5 teams in November, much less two #1s.
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Bama will be the first 2-loss team to get in the playoff. They have established some kind of birthright. There’s a playoff analysis at espn.com that makes it clear that Bama has a headstart on everybody else.
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If conference championships really mattered, Bama would not have gotten in when they didn’t even win their division. 1 loss or less against a decent schedule matters WAY more than conference titles do. I think that is bad for the sport, and not the way to settle a championship. Better to say “If you can’t win your conference/division, then how can you be the best in the country?” It makes the regular season count more and the conference title games mean a lot more too. Consider them playoff games.
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Conference pride no longer has a place in college football (although I’m not sure it was ever really a thing outside of the SEC). Also, non playoff bowl games don’t matter, but I digress.
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With the gulf that’s developing between the teams with legitimate national championship potential and everyone else, a #10 team now may has well have been a #25 team 10 years ago. It hasn’t mattered a whole lot to Alabama whether the SEC was up or down or whether they played in the toughest division in football or not. They were going to win, anyway.
Clemson’s already there, and Ohio State, Oklahoma, and us are very close to that range and, as long as each stays out of trouble and has coaching stability – glances in Ohio States direction – then that’s not going to change. The recruiting advantages that go with being a perinea l playoff participant or the SEC’s second superpower are only getting stronger.
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Ahh yes, the age old “who should you root for” debate.
The CFP has made that a useless discussion. Root for who you want to. If UGA is the best, we’ll be in the playoffs. If we aren’t, we won’t.
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Cheer for the teams you like. Cheer against the teams you hate. It doesn’t matter anyway to the outcome who you cheer for, so just enjoy it in the moment. No need to get all cerebral about what impact the butterfly flapping his wings in Knoxville will cause down the road.
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I root for SEC teams almost always because regardless of the point of this article, SEC non conf wins reflect well on all SEC members. I also dont agree that a 2 loss SEC team with a super tough schedule is automatically eliminated from playoff consideration over 1 loss team with easy schedule .A 2 loss SEC champ will make playoffs every time.
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