My conference is better than your conference
If you want to get a college football fan’s blood boiling,bring up the question of which conference is the best in thenation. Fans will rant for hours about how tough trips to Pullman,Winston-Salem, Ames, and West Lafayette really are, andthat’s why their conference is the best.
For years, this battle raged loudest between the Big 12 and theSEC, but this was supposed to be the year that the ACC took themantle as king of the football world with the addition of Miami andVirginia Tech.
While Virginia has lived up to the early praise by whippingsomeone every week, Clemson has been a huge disappointment, Miamistruggled to beat Houston and Florida State is beatable. Add thisto surprises Wake Forest and Virginia Tech (good and bad), and theACC is above average but not the best conference in America.
The Big 12 is extremely top heavy with Texas and Oklahoma (thebest team in America?) being first-rate, but the rest of theconference is losing to the likes of Troy, Northwestern, NewMexico, Southern Mississippi, and University of Alabama-Birmingham.This leaves Colorado and Oklahoma St. as the only other undefeatedteams and a Big 12 that it not as strong as in years past.
The Big 10 has five teams ranked in the top 25, but none of themhave been impressive save Purdue. In addition, the conference hashad some embarrassing losses including the schlackings thatpreseason favorites Iowa and Michigan received on the road fromNotre Dame and Arizona St.
The Big East is a BCS conference in name only as West Virginiais the only conference team in the top 25 for the supposed eliteleague (hell, the WAC has two ranked teams if that’s thestandard for a BCS birth).
One conference that has been better then advertised is thePac-10 as both Arizona St. and California are undefeated, butjoining them with USC leaves a league with three really good teamstowering over seven mediocre (being generous) schools.
That leaves one, the SEC, as year in and year out it lives up tothe hype and this year is no different. It’s the bestconference in the country.
Five SEC teams sit in the top 16 of the polls and Arkansas isone Matt (just fall down!) Jones’ fumble away from also beingundefeated and in the top 20. Sure some of the lower level teamshave taken their lumps, but no other conference can compete withthe depth.
At the top, Georgia, Auburn, LSU, Florida and Tennessee all havenational title aspirations. Even South Carolina and Alabama sit at3-1 with their only losses coming from conference play.
The other great thing about the SEC is that the conference hasalready given us superior match-ups like LSU-Auburn and the epicplayed by Florida and Tennessee. This weekend is no different asSEC battles are the only match-ups pitting top 25 teams against oneanother as Auburn travels to Knoxville, Tenn. to take on theTennessee Vols, and Georgia welcomes LSU.
Big Games
No. 8 Auburn at No. 10 Tennessee, 6:45, Saturday
Auburn running backs and projected top 10 picks in nextyear’s NFL draft, Cadillac Williams and Ronnie Brown make upthe best 1-2 combination since Dr. Dre and Eminem started workingtogether.
The Tigers have the better, more experienced defense as the Volsrotate a pair of freshman, Jonathan Hefney and Roshaun Fellows,along with Jonathan Wade at the corner spots.
Tennessee is missing possibly its best player on the defensiveside of the ball in middle linebacker Kevin Simon.
Simon tore ligaments in his knee against Florida and is done forseason.
At quarterback, the Vols start 18-year-old Erik Ainge whileAuburn has senior Jason Campbell who has started for fouryears.
All of those match-ups point to taking Auburn, except for theapparent mismatch at the quarterback position.
Tennessee will be geared up to stop the run, and that puts thegame in Campbell’s hands. The Volunteers will score pointsand Campbell will need to do more and I just don’t see himgetting it done.
Campbell has disappeared in big games too many times for me topick him. Campbell has the size, the arm and the speed of a greatquarterback, but he is nowhere near a great quarterback.
I mean Paris Hilton says a few lines, loves the camera, and isfamous for her (ahem) roles, but no one would call her an actress.Some people have all the tools and they just can’t put ittogether and that’s how I feel about Campbell.
Tennessee on the other hand has the real deal in Ainge as hestole the job from another true freshman Brent Schaeffer who madethe mistake of only being good, not spectacular.
Ainge has gone 36-of-56 for 508 yards and eight touchdowns inonly three games while only throwing one pick.
With Schaeffer’s time minimized, Ainge has played themajority of the snaps in the last two games, despite the fact hehas thrown for 218 yards and two scores and running for one.
The way I see it, Campbell will make just enough mistakes tokeep Tennessee in the game and Ainge leads the Vols on a latescoring drive just as he did against the Florida Gators to giveTennessee the victory in a shootout.
The Pick: Tennessee 31-27
No. 13 LSU at No. 3 Georgia 2:30, Saturday
It’s funny the perception fans have of their school. Overfamily weekend, I had the opportunity to talk to some folks fromBaton Rouge, La. and Athens, Ga. and I felt like I was beingbrainwashed.
The LSU faithful were disgusted that I felt Georgia was thebetter team. They pointed out that LSU was only a single extrapoint away from being undefeated (Got to love selective memory as Itried to ignore the fact that the Tigers were also an extra pointfrom being 2-2).
Tiger fans have confidence in their inexperienced quarterbacks(I don’t), and call their defense the best in the nation(they might be right).
The folks from Athens were also alarmed that I was picking theirfaithful. The look of fear filled their faces as they talked aboutnarrow, uninspired victories against Georgia Southern, SouthCarolina, and Marshall.
They spoke of the injury to freshman Danny Ware, DavidGreene’s poor mechanics and openly questioned the leadershipof their senior David Pollack and Fred Gibson.
My standard response was, “yeah but they haven’tshown up yet and they are still 3-0.” I swear most peoplelooked at me and their eyes started to glitter and they smiled asif they just realized that yeah that’s right we areundefeated.
In college football, often a fan’s perception is notreality. Yeah, Georgia hasn’t shown up all season and hasbarely found ways to win, but ask Ohio St. fans if they mind thattheir team just finds a way to win every week.
All Ohia St. fans have gotten from being “lucky”since the start of 2002 is a 28-2 record, two Fiesta Bowlvictories, and a National Championship.
Against LSU, the Bulldogs simply have too much for the Tigers tohandle. Running back Matt Ware returns to the field from injury,quarterback David Greene had a bye week to work out his throwingproblems, and the Georgia defense is chomping at the bit to playagainst the Russell/Randell quarterback monster that seems to beincapable of moving the ball for the Tigers.
LSU’s defense keeps this game from getting out of hand,but Georgia plays their best game of the season as they get the winat home.
The Pick: Georgia 20-10
Upset Special:
No. 15 Purdue at Notre Dame, 1:30, Saturday
Purdue quarterback Kyle Orton has been the best player in thenation and has quietly become the Heisman frontrunner in leadingthe Boilermakers to a 3-0 record. Purdue has also played Syracuse,Ball St. and Illinois, so the trip to South Bend, Ind. to play thesuddenly rejuvenated Irish is their first true test of theseason.
Notre Dame has followed its opening loss at BYU with victoriesagainst Michigan, Michigan St. and Washington. The Irish have madeplays in all three phases of the game and Brady Quinn is finallylooking comfortable in the West Coast offense.
Purdue might win this game by a ton of points, but I believethat the Boilermakers will turn the ball over and allow the Irishto jump out to an early lead. Notre Dame holds off a late Orton ledrally to get the victory and a spot in the top 25.
The Pick: Notre Dame 27-21
Overall Record: 6-2 (1-0 last week) Correctly picked Iowaover Michigan in quiet week
