How the hell is ESPN still the "premier" sports network when literally all of their sports anchors, save the small amount of other conference writers, are completely obsessed with the SEC?!?

I am in shock at how absolutely stupid some of their reasoning is. ACC teams play similar OOC schedules, have parity in conference, and suddenly the ACC is a weak conference but the SEC is the best for doing literally the exact same thing?! This is freaking unbelievable.

McMurphy had FSU #6 in his poll and AUBURN #1. Let that sink in. Auburn. This is the team that nearly lost to Kansas State with their entire starting team in.

FSU's closest game was to Clemson without some of their best players and they still played better than Auburn did against K-State. The wool over the eyes syndrome is extremely prevalent at ESPN. Wow.

Ummm. That KState game was on the road on a Thursday night. Auburn has also beaten LSU (41-7) and @Arkansas (45-21). I see no reason why Auburn shouldn't be #1 or #2. This weekend they are playing at #3 Miss St. They win that game they should be #1. As a matter of fact, if Miss St wins that game they should be #1.

It's all highly arbitrary and will be until an eight team playoff is introduced. Perception plays too big of a role in college football and it always has. Often times that perception proves accurate. Just as often, that perception proves inaccurate. In the year 2014, it is absurd to be determining champions based on perception.

(10-05-2014 02:30 PM)jaminandjachin Wrote:  Ummm. That KState game was on the road on a Thursday night. Auburn has also beaten LSU (41-7) and @Arkansas (45-21). I see no reason why Auburn shouldn't be #1 or #2. This weekend they are playing at #3 Miss St. They win that game they should be #1. As a matter of fact, if Miss St wins that game they should be #1.

Auburn beat two unranked teams? Fascinating.

I agree that once again the sports media is leaning hard on the SEC again this year with regard to coverage and rankings. Now with the coverage, I'm fine with that, that conference soaks up college football more than anything else, and we will see that we get a HEAVY lean of attention in basketball soon.

As for the rankings, the perception can't carry over from years past.....Yeah we all know the history of SEC championship/bowls success but that has to be wiped clean each year. For example, Kansas State is the only OOC ranked team win the SEC has right now. Then we have this play out

1. A&M beats down USC at their place.....USC goes on to $hit the be so far from there
2. LSU comes back to beat Wisky, LSU loses 3 games since and Wisky loses to Northwester....yet LSU still in top 30 in polls
3. Missouri takes advantage of beating an average USC team, while also losing to Indiana at home, yet springs into the top 25
4. MISS St beats a craptastic LSU team and an A&M team that got its glory beating another craptastic USC team....jumps into everyones Top 4 playoff.


On top of that I'm now hearing from the media....well we need to now go back and take a look at some of these losses and reassess teams, such as VTechs win over Ohio State, and so on......You don't think there aren't several more of these similar losses that go on but don't get the same treatment....

Please sports media/ESPN quit shoving the SEC down our throats...you have your network for them and their audience to drink up 24/7, don't taint the playoffs like this.

(10-05-2014 10:13 PM)Marge Schott Wrote:  

(10-05-2014 02:30 PM)jaminandjachin Wrote:  Ummm. That KState game was on the road on a Thursday night. Auburn has also beaten LSU (41-7) and @Arkansas (45-21). I see no reason why Auburn shouldn't be #1 or #2. This weekend they are playing at #3 Miss St. They win that game they should be #1. As a matter of fact, if Miss St wins that game they should be #1.

Auburn beat two unranked teams? Fascinating.

Beating LSU by 34 points should mean something and they were ranked when it happened. Arkansas is no slouch either.

Va Tech has a win over Ohio State and the only losses are to ranked teams.

Clemson's only losses are to ranked teams.

The other networks are dying for content and since sec is into network Espn needs content - but the key is content or broadcast rights - Disney is a huge company - big 10 has fox - acc should nurture nbc and take all the Basketvall with it

(10-06-2014 08:18 AM)Hokie Mark Wrote:  Va Tech has a win over Ohio State and the only losses are to ranked teams.

Clemson's only losses are to ranked teams.

Clemson and VT are two teams that are kicking themselves at the moment. Dabo should have started Watson from the beginning and they should have beaten FSU.

VT started slow against ECU and took too long to get into the game. They also gave the GT game away.

Regardless, I think both teams can still go 10-2.

Espn saidlive on air that FSU "struggled to beat wake down to the wire", despite winning by 40, covering the 38.5 point spread and holding wake to 55 yards on 48 plays through 3 quarters.

(10-06-2014 11:22 AM)Marge Schott Wrote:  Espn saidlive on air that FSU "struggled to beat wake down to the wire", despite winning by 40, covering the 38.5 point spread and holding wake to 55 yards on 48 plays through 3 quarters.

Yeah that's a little ridiculous. The bias will continue until another conference can kick them off the pedestal by regularly beating them. Due to scheduling, that responsibility falls on the ACC.

There is no doubt that ESPN has SEC bias. But its not like the ACC (or any other conference) has given much of an alternate story.

I suspect, since ESPN pretty much owns the ACC 100%, that if and when the ACC performs accordingly, we'll get a nice little push from Bristol. But ACC football has to do their part too, like not losing to G5 teams after pulling big P5 upsets.

Don't you worry... Georgia Tech will rise up, save the day and restore order to all that's good and wholesome about football in the South.


















I know.. you're looking for that "Bazinga" thing, but, I was actually semi-serious.

Well, at least the ACC is not the ONLY conference ESPN disrespects:



Michigan? Purdue? Yeah, Big Ten isn't really a "power" conference this year...

The SEC is the premier conference in America. The SEC west is amazing.

(10-07-2014 08:13 AM)firmbizzle Wrote:  The SEC is the premier conference in America. The SEC west is amazing.

And the SEC East is garbage.

I want to see how ESPN covers Treon Harris and his sexual assault accusation. I bet it barely gets any air time. And when it does they will say "remember these are just accustations" or something like that.

THey won't hammer him like Jameis.

APPLE:
Because Florida chose to suspend Harris immediately, I don't see why the kid would garner any additional coverage from ESPN. He's suspended and will go away.

ORANGE:
Jameis was in the middle of a Heisman campaign (and FSU was in the middle of a BCS title chase) when his allegations came out. FSU brass did themselves no favors by "appearing" to cover it up, and failing to suspend him. All of that seemed to invite more coverage from ESPN.

Not only that...the accusations first came out when he was redshirted. He wasn't even playing.

(10-07-2014 10:45 AM)ecuacc4ever Wrote:  APPLE:
Because Florida chose to suspend Harris immediately, I don't see why the kid would garner any additional coverage from ESPN. He's suspended and will go away.

ORANGE:
Jameis was in the middle of a Heisman campaign (and FSU was in the middle of a BCS title chase) when his allegations came out. FSU brass did themselves no favors by "appearing" to cover it up, and failing to suspend him. All of that seemed to invite more coverage from ESPN.

Or maybe he did it and Winston didnt. So very well could be apples/oranges. I dont believe in suspending a kid based off just any accusation. Must be something to it. Or else, LSU fans should just get girls to spread rumors on the entire UF defense if that is all it takes.

(10-07-2014 08:13 AM)firmbizzle Wrote:  The SEC is the premier conference in America. The SEC west is amazing.

In my mind there is only one elite SEC team - Auburn. They played for the national championship last year and will probably be in the playoffs this year as well.

By contrast, I think Alabama, Ole Miss, Miss. St., Texas A&M, Georgia and Missouri are all on the level of Clemson, Notre Dame, maybe even Louisville - very good but not championship material.

I think S Carolina is roughly equal to Ga Tech and Arkansas is a fair match for Duke.

Here are the RPI numbers to back it up - LINK.