What’s All The Hub-ub, Bub?

PAC-10 Conference Out of Conference (OOC) Results: 21-8

SEC	ACC	B-10	B-East	B-12	WAC	MAC	C-USA	MWest	SUN	D-1AA
1-0	X	2-3*	1-1	2-0	7-0	X	1-0	5-4	X	2-0

Note: Big-10 Record Results includes USC’s and UCLA’s
games against Notre Dame as if the Irish were a part of this conference.

Record versus BCS Conferences: 6-4

Key Wins: Tennessee, Michigan, Nebraska, Colorado, Syracuse & Notre Dame.

Key Losses: Notre Dame, Wisconsin, Cincinnati and Ohio State.

Seattle Times Photo:

BCSBusters Take: If we went back 10 years in time, beating the likes of Tennessee, Michigan, Notre Dame, Colorado, Nebraska and Syracuse would be cause for a New Year’s celebration. But in the present, I’m not sure there is a victory here that would even carry any weight of significance because there isn’t one of these former elite powers that is even ranked this season, unless you consider Michigan who couldn’t beat I-AA Appalachian State.

However, the Oregon massacre bodes well for the PAC-10 and for Oregon. With all the noise emanating about Ohio State’s vaunted defense, you could say the same for the Duck offense. By the way, I think Oregon has finally settled on a road uniform that I actually enjoy.

Record versus Non-BCS Conferences: 13-4

Key Wins: Houston, Boise State, Colorado State, Utah, SDSU (2), Idaho (2), SJSU (2), Fresno State, BYU & Louisiana Tech.

Key Losses: Utah, BYU, New Mexico & TCU.

BCSBusters Take: I thought Mike Bellotti’s comments last year following the loss to BYU in the Las Vegas Bowl were a little off, considering Oregon was once a team who was rated below the Cougars and had to battle through the same stigmatisms. I think it is quite clear (5-4 record this year) that just about any team in the Mountain West could perform equally well competing in the PAC-10 and vice versa. Why the Mountain West is not a BCS Conference is beyond me?

SEC Conference Out of Conference (OOC) Results: 30-5

P-10	ACC	B-10	B-East	B-12	WAC	MAC	C-USA	MWest	SUN	D-1AA
0-1	2-1	X	1-2	2-1	2-0	2-0	7-0	X	6-0	8-0

Record versus BCS Conferences: 5-5

Key Wins: Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Virginia Tech, Louisville & North Carolina.

Key Losses: Florida State, South Florida, Missou, CAL & West Virginia.

BCSBusters Take: Verne Lundquist - the voice of CBS/SEC Nation - came on the air today during the Kentucky-Florida game boasting of SEC dominance. Egregiously bragging about the non-conference record of 30-5, seven teams ranked in the Top-25 and operating at 97% capacity as a conference is pretty impressive. Oddly, but not surprisingly, he left out some key parts.

1) 25 of the thirty games won have come against the non-BCS teams and this even includes the weaker teams within these non-BCS Conferences. Conspicuously missing is the fact that 8 of the wins have come against Division I-AA foes.

2) More importantly, and obviously lacking, is the fact that the over-hyped conference is a modest 5-5 against fellow BCS competitors, with losses to the two conferences the SEC despises the most…The Big-East (2) losses and the PAC-10 (1) loss.

3) 80 percent of the Harris Poll voters are from the South and have direct ties to the College Football Association movement, and since the CFA flag flies strong in SEC land, the seven ranked teams leads to a great deal of skepticism from the BCSBusters mindset.

The SEC used to boast of the excellence played on the defensive side of the ball, essentially smearing other conferences (PAC-10 and Big-10) for the lack of speed and playmakers on this side of the ball. Care to take a look at this years numbers? It isn’t pretty, especially coming from Knoxville.

Alabama: (3 Arkansas, (26) Georgia, (24) Houston & Ol’ Miss.

Auburn: (26) South Florida & (30) LSU.

Arkansas: (26) Troy, (41) Alabama & (42) Kentucky.

Florida: (31) Troy, (2 LSU and (37) Kentucky.

Kentucky: (34) Louisville, (29) Arkansas, (3 S. Carolina, (37) LSU & (45) Florida.

LSU: (24) Florida, (43) Kentucky & (24) Auburn.

Ol’ Miss: (21) Memphis, (3 Missou, (31) Vandy, (30) Florida, (45) Georgia & (27) Alabama.

Miss St: (45) LSU, (3 S. Carolina, & (33) Tennessee.

Tenn: (45) CAL, (59) Florida, (27) Arkansas St & (41) to Alabama.

The three teams that are playing great defense include Vanderbilt, South Carolina and Georgia, and are any of these teams getting any national love in the BCS race?

Vandy: Only Auburn has scored more than 24 points.
S. Carolina: Only LSU has scored more than 24 points.
Georgia: Only Tennessee has scored more than 23 points.

Record versus Non-BCS Conferences: 16-0

Key Wins: Houston, Troy (2), N. Texas, N. Mexico State, Middle Tennessee, Tulane (2), Memphis, Louisiana Tech, UAB, Kent State, Louisiana Lafayette, S. Miss, Arkansas State & Eastern Michigan.

Key Losses: None - but then again - other than Houston, who have they played?

BCSBusters Take: Although the SEC is yearly one of the best conferences, with an unbelievable slew of rivalry games from week-to-week, the conference is a bit over-hyped. The message that doesn’t quite circulate the American borders every Saturday is that the bulk of their schedule is built around beating Division I-AA and weaker Non-BCS Conferences like C-USA and the Sun-Belt.

Five and five against BCS foes is pretty telling considering all the rave about the 30-5 non-conference record.

The funny thing is, you never hear these statistics on the networks, because it doesn’t sell any newspapers, magazines or television advertising.

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a 1000 times, the SEC makes a living off of beating 4 Division I-AA / Sun Belt programs, 4 bottom dwellers from their own conference and 4 legit opponents.

The out of whack stat that should be reported is the elite teams in this conference only play 4 legit games every season and they don’t perform well in these games as the 5-5 record against fellow BCS opponents and the inter division cannibalism indicates.

What is reported is how balanced the SEC is this year (and every year for that matter) and how every team has such a difficult road. Alabama’s only two legit games so far this year were to Georgia and Florida State and they lost them both, yet the media is slobbering over the impending LSU-Alabama match-up. I thought Lew Holtz was going to swallow his tongue tonight as he was almost orgasmic in describing the balance within the SEC.

LSU’s three legit games so far this season have come against Kentucky, Florida and Auburn and they have barely won two of the three. If you think about it, LSU could very easily be 0-3 against these teams, yet everyone two weeks ago was raving about the Tigers being the UNQUESTIONED best team in the country.

You could say the same thing about Auburn as they could very well be 0-3 considering their close calls against South Florida, Florida and LSU. The hype regarding this conference has nothing to do with the level of play and more to do with the goal of selling millions of dollars worth of hard copy and advertising, and 8-0 against Division I-AA is an absolute crime.

With losses to South Florida, West Virginia, Missouri, Florida State and California coupled with the fact that there isn’t a truly elite team dominating the conference, what exactly is all the hub-ub regarding the almighty SEC. From a scouting viewpoint, the performance doesn’t stand out from all the noise. JUDGEMENT: OVER-RATED and OVER-HYPED!

Record versus Divsion I-AA: 8-0

Western Carolina (2), Tennessee-Chattanooga, Western Kentucky, Gardner-Webb, E. Kentucky, S. Carolina State, Richmond.