Strong Tide weakens lure of SEC title game

Published 7:40 am Friday, December 2, 2016

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The invention of the football conference championship game is just one of many great contributions to society, one of those giant leaps for mankind, for which you can thank your neighborhood Southeastern Conference.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">If it involves football and new ways to print cash money, you can bet the SEC will be at the forefront. It will set the trend and make it so fashionable that it becomes a must-have for any organization, not to mention must-see entertainment.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Former Commissioner Roy Kramer came up with the idea in 1992, and it was a hoot from the very beginning.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Having been to several, I can tell you that the atmosphere — often defined as “electricity” — tops anything shy of a bona fide national championship game.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">No other bowl game can compete with it, not even the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It always fills up a great stadium in downtown Atlanta, the Georgia Dome, which unfortunately (for no other reason than it’s in Atlanta, where no arena has much of a shelf life) will be torn down shortly after the Falcons are finished with it this season.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But the game was sheer genius on the SEC’s part. Its discovery allowed the SEC to rule the college football world like no other force on this planet.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But it turns out the concept, groundbreaking as it was, doesn’t always work.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The Big Ten was a little late to the rodeo but is having a blast with it, too. Like the SEC, it will also crown a champion Saturday with a single game, division vs. division, an event marred by the knowledge that neither of the Big Ten’s best two teams — Ohio State and Michigan — are in the fool thing.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">This may or may not have to do with the league’s chronic inability to add — there are STILL 14 teams in the “Big Ten,” no matter how much they try to disguise it by spelling it B1G (although they do get extra points for cryptic cleverness). But it is a flaw that must be addressed.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The investigation is ongoing.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Meanwhile, from the folks who invented the thing, well, the SEC has the opposite problem.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The league’s best team is definitely in the game.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The dilemma is that any game that Alabama is in, Alabama is going to win, probably by multiple touchdowns and with historic carnage and minimal suspense.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Remember, this is supposed to be compelling television.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The 25th edition of the SEC Championship game will begin with the usual pomp and circumstance, trumpets and fanfare, Verne and Gary.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">And then Alabama will toy with the Florida Gators for 3-4 hours.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But it could be anybody — any team in the Gators’ shoes.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">That’s the SEC’s problem on the eve of its big extravaganza.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The league just seems to be hoping for a close game.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The conference has already taken some hits this season, legitimate questions about its world dominance.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Yes, Alabama is, by acclamation, the best football team in the country.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">There was a time when the SEC champion was always assumed to be the best in the land.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But there are now accusations that the rest of the SEC is just along for the ride, mostly getting caught up in the undertow.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Alabama, we are told, has sucked the life out of it.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The league’s boasting point, such as it is, is that the bottom feeders got better this season — hallelujah, Kentucky and Vanderbilt are going to bowls — although some suspect the non-Alabama factions just sunk down a notch or two toward them.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">For sure, nobody looks to be closing the gap on the Tide.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Florida is the champion of the SEC East, and Vegas — which usually knows what it’s talking about — has Alabama as a 24-point favorite in the SEC’s showcase game.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Yes, the SEC has the nation’s best team, but more so it has an Alabama problem.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Ed Orgeron had barely gotten his dream job at LSU when one of the first questions was how the Tigers can narrow the gap.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“That is the benchmark every day we go to work,” he said. “We understand the benchmark.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“We have to recruit better. We have to get players that are similar to the benchmark. We have to get coaches that coach at that level … we (have) some that can. We have to have the mind-set that we can go out and beat those guys.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Keep in mind, LSU is already the SEC team deemed best qualified to match Bama’s talent. And the Tigers have lost six straight to Nick Saban.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The Tigers kept the game scoreless for 3</span><span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">1</span><span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">⁄</span><span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">2</span> <span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">quarters this year and yet didn’t seem to do much more than annoy Bama.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">So the best chance for a competitive SEC championship game seems to be to keep reminding Alabama that the game is meaningless to the Tide, that they can lose and still be assured of making the College Football Playoff (do not, for your own health, mention this within earshot of Saban).</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">This has come up before. In 2011 LSU was so far ahead of the pack that the Tigers could lose the title game and still make the two-team BCS championship game (but ran roughshod over Georgia anyway).</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The game does seem to matter to heavy favorites.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">So football’s learned minds have been locked in a cave this week trying to come up with scenarios in which Florida pulls the upset or at least keeps it close.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">So far, not much.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But strange things happen.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Florida never has properly explained how it beat LSU this year, either, unless you buy into head coach Jim McElwain’s theory that the Tigers “got what they deserved.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Good luck with that against Bama.</span>

<span class="R~sep~AZaphdingbatdot7pt">l</span>

<span style="font-weight: bold;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">Scooter Hobbs</span> <span class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">covers LSU</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">athletics. Email him at</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">shobbs@americanpress.com</span>