SEC Doubters need to take another honest look.

So the Bowl season is coming to a close and people are chiming in that the Big 10 was stronger than SEC after the top few.     Ha.  An absolute a pipe dream

Bowl Records suggest the Big 10 is strongest, but as anyone that follows football knows this is based on who you play. 

• Big 10   7-1  
• Big 12   5-3
• Pac 12   1-7
• ACC     4-6
• SEC      5-6 

Not really interesting in anyone else except the Irish who beat the ineptitude of coaching at LSU to finish 10-3. and the Irish did maul the 3rd best team in the Big 10 in Lansing this year.

So in my fantasy world lets compare conferences head to head based on conference rankings.

The Big 10 head to head with SEC say top 9 teams (Qualified SEC Bowl teams)  We know that Vegas would favor SEC, but can anyone really argue.

• GA-Ohio State   SEC
• Bama- Wisconsin   SEC
• Michigan ST - Auburn-   SEC
• Penn St- LSU   Big 10 (purely on coaching , Ha.) 
• South Carolina- Northwestern  SEC
• Mississippi St- Michigan-  SEC --- M State of course is better than S. Carolina but in West. 
• Purdue- Texas A&M   SEC or a PUSH...  even without a coach I lean Aggies.
• Iowa- Kentucky          SEC
• Missouri- Nebraska-  SEC

Does the Big 10 win 2 games?  3?.  Face it they would be ecstatic and shocked to win 4 of 9 .

Now the Big 12

• GA- Oklahoma  SEC
• Bama- TCU   SEC
• OKLA ST - Auburn-   SEC
• Texas- LSU   SEC. 
• South Carolina-  W Va SEC
• Mississippi St- Kansas State -  SEC 
• Iowa State-  Texas A&M   SEC or a PUSH..
• Texas Tech - Kentucky    Big 12 by a feeling bad for conference.
• Missouri- Baylor-  SEC

The Big 12 may win 1 or 2 games. .....Maybe, But like the Big 10 they would be underdog in virtually every game. 

And in 3 years when the SEC has many more NFL players than the rest, people will have forgotten they had made the argument that SEC had fallen. 
The SEC will fall into the same area as the rest one day, but it does not appear to be in the next couple of years.

As a side point.  This coaches being fired or leaving prior to bowl season is horrible.   I mean seriously, it was huge for so many schools.

J.

Did you wonder what happens to Good Basketball players after college.

College Players staying in State

This picture from Max preps explains why the south is football crazy for D1.

j

An article to follow up on you post from the past about 4-5 stars

No. 1 Clemson

Stars

Number of starters

Best starter

5

4

DT Dexter Lawrence

4

11

RB Ray-Ray McCloud

3 and below

7

QB Kelly Bryant

No. 2 Oklahoma

Stars

Number of starters

Best starter

5

1

LB Caleb Kelly

4

11

RB Rodney Anderson

3 and below

10

QB Baker Mayfield

No. 3 Georgia

Stars

Number of starters

Best starter

5

4

RB Nick Chubb

4

14

LB Roquan Smith

3 and below

4

DB Dominick Sanders

No. 4 Alabama

Stars

Number of starters

Best starter

5

9

Minkah Fitzpatrick

4

8

QB Jalen Hurts

3 and below

5

Levi Wallace

A closer look at the QBs

Team

QB

Stars

Overall rank

Clemson

Kelly Bryant

3

No. 420 (2015)

Oklahoma

Baker Mayfield

3

No. 1029 (2013)

Georgia

Jake Fromm

4

No. 44 (2017)

Alabama

Jalen Hurts

4

No. 192 (2016)

https://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/alabama-football/5-stars-win-championships-lets-break-4-playoff-teams/

SEC vs Big 10 Non Conference.

Non-conference games a year
Big 10  3 games
SEC      4 games.  If the SEC changes this format, smaller schools would lose tons of money, but the argument would wane.

Complaining about playing outside the power 5,  (a complaint by mostly the Pac 12) or playing FCS schools (Big 10 and Big 12 complaint) is strictly a argument against low population areas or wealth by regions. 

Games vs Bowl Teams
Big 10   22     52%
SEC       28     50%

Teams ranked in the top 20
Big 10   1   Okla
SEC       5   This is in a year that Fla State was down and Fla plays them annually.  I doubt anyone in the Big 10  or Big 12 would ever schedule Fla State annually.  Not to mention Clemson vs South Carolina annual event.
(Now the Pac 12 has some great non conference rivals.. Stanford/USC vs Irish.)

The teams the SEC play are definitely higher ranked.  It is strange the Alabama is accused of weak schedule,  They played 3 Bowl Teams .  Ohio State did play two, but lost to the ranked team.

The insanity continues.
SEC leads head to head 43-32

NFL players ?  Waste of time even addressing this.

The Pac 12 and definitely the ACC have surpassed the Big 10 in my opinion.

Judging quality wins by beating people in your own conference is as antiquated as a conference championship when all the best teams do not play each other.

J

TCU & Gary Patterson - A Sports Miracle

I don't remember what I've previously posted on Gary Patterson and TCU, but it's been something I wanted to capture.  This is one of the remarkable sports stories of our time.  To put it in context, imagine waking up in 15 years to find that Vanderbilt has become a perennial power, contending for conference titles and living in the top 20.  It's easy now to forget how bad TCU was.  We don't remember a time when TCU was even decent, since it hadn't happened since before we were born.

Gary Patterson, surly as he is, has created a money-making brand out of literally nothing.  160 wins in 17 seasons, a 74% winning percentage, 11 seasons of 10+ wins, 5 times in the final AP top-10, 10 wins in 16 bowl appearances, 2 major bowl wins, 6 consensus all-Americans, and twice national coach of the year, at TCU, where they had not finished in the AP top-20 since 1959!

I have said and still believe that if you judge a coach by performance vs. expectations, then Patterson is at the top.  In a business dominated by huge state schools with sparkling tradition, he puts little TCU in the national discussion on a regular basis.  And, thanks to his 47-5 run from 2008-2011 including the most improbable Rose Bowl win in history, he dragged the Frogs into the Big 12, meaning millions in revenue for the school.  We wondered if he could adapt to a power conference, so after going 11-14 to start, he reeled off a 23-3 run with 2 top-7 AP finishes in years 3-4, and with this year's 11-3 finish, got to the 11-win mark for the 3rd time in 6 Big 12 seasons.

Despite a personality very hard to like, let's appreciate one of the great coaching jobs we'll ever see.

S

The Greatest Athlete in America Jim Thorpe.

An orphaned child from the Sac and Fox Indians of the Oklahoma territories. (His mother called him Wa-Tho-Huck meaning Bright Path.) He was raised by the government after his parents passed.  He started college as a slight person at 5'9 and grew into a powerful 6'1 185lb freak of an athlete. 

In 1912 Thorpe won the decathlon and pentathlon at the Stockholm Olympics. (15 Events plus the long jump 4th place and high jump 7th place.) . The scary part is that he really didn't train to be an Olympian and never competed as Decathlete again.

Some of the records he shattered at the Olympics lasted for decades. His point differential will never be broken evidently. 
It was 36 years later before an Decathlon Olympian matched Thorpe's time in the 100 meter dash of 11.2.
His 110 hurdles was faster than Bob Mathis during his 1948 Gold medal run. 
The 1500 meters time he ran wasn't matched until 1972.... 60 years it last....Only Joe DiMaggio gets into that class. 

As a side note:
After the Olympics, Thorpe returned to his Sr Year at Carlisle and ran for 1,869 yards on 191 attempts and was widely considered the best football player in America. 
After college he was a superstar in pro football. 
He also played 7 years of Pro Baseball (6 years for John McGraw and the New York Giants.) 

Jim Thorpe was inducted into these:.  (I am sure there are others.) 

1. College Football Hall of Fame
2. Pro Football Hall of Fame-  Football Digest has him 17th greatest to ever play. 
3. Track and Field Hall of Fame 
4. US Olympic Hall of Fame. 

He was an overwhelming choice as greatest athlete of the century in 1950 and in 2001 Wide World of Sports named him athlete of the century. 
ESPN had him 7th in North American Greatest Athlete, which is rather disrespectful and flattering. In my opinion, he definitely had more accolades on his checked off list than any person on the list.    

He is the greatest Athlete of the 20th Century in my opinion.  
He tops Pele out of sheer versatility in what he did.  

He was best football player of his era, the greatest Olympian also and played professional baseball against Babe Ruth, Roger Hornsby, Ty Cobb, Shoeless Joe Jackson and was a teammate of Christy Mathewson. 

That my friend is a resume. 

J. 

Pele Athlete of the Century Needed a reminder.

Named Edson Nascimento in honor of Thomas Edison in 1940 and called Called Dico" by his family.

Lifetime 1,283 goals in 1,363 games
World Cup for Brazil with 77 goals in 92 games.

Only man with three world cup titles. 

• FIFA Player of the Century: 2000^[45]
• FIFA Order of Merit: 1984^[147]
• BBC Sports Personality of the Year Overseas Personality: 1970^[148]
• Athlete of the Century, by Reuters News Agency: 1999^[149]
• Athlete of the Century, elected by International Olympic Committee: 1999^[150]
• South American Footballer of the Year (1): 1973^[151]
• Football Player of the Century, elected by France Football's Ballon d'Or Winners: 1999^[152]
• Inducted into the American National Soccer Hall of Fame: 1992^[153]
• World Team of the 20th Century: 1998^[154]
• TIME: One of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th century: 1999^[155]
• Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire: 1997^[156]

What Carter Lost

Since we vividly remember and constantly discussed this team during that year, I found it very entertaining.

Amazing:  28 Scholarship offers and 8 players from that team playing pro ball is absolutely insane.

Do I think they were best team that I ever saw in high school?  No probably not, only because there were just too many close games.(Coaching and discipline)
But, they probably are the most talented group of athletes that I have watched since watching Joe Ferguson and the Woodlawn Knights win state in 1968.

The usual racial banter was difficult to accept throughout the show.
As someone who lived in the area and was surrounded by many races, it is unfair to stereotype the region in this way.  Most non-blacks were pulling for Carter and at the same time very disappointed in the ridiculous grading system used at Carter,
Do I think they used flawed grading system?...Yes. obviously they cheated the system.

I did love following this team.

J.

Finally! People are recognizing Red Jesus

 Todd Archer‏ 

@toddarcher

The Cowboys have been outscored 34-7 in the third quarter this season. They enter the fourth quarter trailing... http://www.espn.com/espn/now?nowId=21-40003752-4 …

My opinion will remain the same in regard to the head coaches that live off of execution.(Like Garrett)
You will only win if you have superior talent. Schemes win in Playoffs.

J