KTJ
10-26-2005, 05:13 PM
I'd like to retract my statement that I thought the SEC was number 1. I really didn't realize how sloppy their play was.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/writers/stewart_mandel/10/26/mailbag/index.html
What Mandel wrote in regards to people's comments:
"It's not that I don't appreciate good defenses, of which the conference has a whole bunch. But I do tend to favor teams that are at least functional on the other side of the ball. Alabama was the closest thing the conference had to a "complete" team this year, but without Tyrone Prothro, the Tide's offense is borderline impotent. Georgia's is in danger of going in the same direction without quarterback D.J. Shockley. LSU's offense is inconsistent; Auburn's is young; Florida's is a mess and Tennessee's was a joke even before losing Gerald Riggs Jr. And, in a true sign of the state of the conference this season, as opposed to previous years, the other six teams aren't even worth mentioning. As a more lucid SEC alum in my office said this week, you can sum up the conference this season with a word: "unwatchable."
Now, compare that to the ACC, which not only has three teams that could play with anyone in the SEC (Virginia Tech, Florida State and Miami) but also no less than six other teams (Boston College, Clemson, Virginia, Georgia Tech, Wake Forest and North Carolina) capable of beating those squads on any given week. In the Pac-10, the current seventh-place team, Arizona State, came within a stone's throw of beating top-10 foes USC and LSU, and the eighth-place team, Washington State, was a combined seven points from beating 7-0 UCLA and 6-2 Cal.
In my current conference pecking order, the SEC falls behind those two leagues, but ahead of the defensively-challenged Big Ten and one-horse Big 12. Then again, how would I know? Perhaps if the Tide or Bulldogs had beaten an Ohio State or Notre Dame in their non-conference slate rather than Middle Tennessee, Southern Miss, Utah State, Boise State or Louisiana-Monroe, I'd have a better measuring stick. In the absence of that, perhaps the best point of comparison you can make is this: USC gained more yards against Arkansas in a two-minute span (261) than Georgia did against the Razorbacks over the course of an entire game (217)."
So with that, I say it should go like this--
1.) ACC
2.) Big 10
3.) Pac 10
4.) SEC
5.) Big 12
6.) No one cares.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/writers/stewart_mandel/10/26/mailbag/index.html
What Mandel wrote in regards to people's comments:
"It's not that I don't appreciate good defenses, of which the conference has a whole bunch. But I do tend to favor teams that are at least functional on the other side of the ball. Alabama was the closest thing the conference had to a "complete" team this year, but without Tyrone Prothro, the Tide's offense is borderline impotent. Georgia's is in danger of going in the same direction without quarterback D.J. Shockley. LSU's offense is inconsistent; Auburn's is young; Florida's is a mess and Tennessee's was a joke even before losing Gerald Riggs Jr. And, in a true sign of the state of the conference this season, as opposed to previous years, the other six teams aren't even worth mentioning. As a more lucid SEC alum in my office said this week, you can sum up the conference this season with a word: "unwatchable."
Now, compare that to the ACC, which not only has three teams that could play with anyone in the SEC (Virginia Tech, Florida State and Miami) but also no less than six other teams (Boston College, Clemson, Virginia, Georgia Tech, Wake Forest and North Carolina) capable of beating those squads on any given week. In the Pac-10, the current seventh-place team, Arizona State, came within a stone's throw of beating top-10 foes USC and LSU, and the eighth-place team, Washington State, was a combined seven points from beating 7-0 UCLA and 6-2 Cal.
In my current conference pecking order, the SEC falls behind those two leagues, but ahead of the defensively-challenged Big Ten and one-horse Big 12. Then again, how would I know? Perhaps if the Tide or Bulldogs had beaten an Ohio State or Notre Dame in their non-conference slate rather than Middle Tennessee, Southern Miss, Utah State, Boise State or Louisiana-Monroe, I'd have a better measuring stick. In the absence of that, perhaps the best point of comparison you can make is this: USC gained more yards against Arkansas in a two-minute span (261) than Georgia did against the Razorbacks over the course of an entire game (217)."
So with that, I say it should go like this--
1.) ACC
2.) Big 10
3.) Pac 10
4.) SEC
5.) Big 12
6.) No one cares.