Around the 'Shoe

Every bowl game that OSU plays in (and the big ten) is an away game. The Big 12 is in the same boat. I wish that Lucas Oil Stadium could be a part of the bowl series and a few enclosed stadiums up North. I wouldn't mind seeing some SEC teams play in the snow too.

They are scared to play in cold weather against a team that's worth anything. This is why Nick Saban declined a home and home against Wisky. All the other B1G 10 teams he scheduled was when the team was below .500. Scum was coming off of a 3 win season when it was scheduled, and they were still forced to play Bama in Texas because Bama would not agree to come North. The home and home with Penn St. was when they were coming off a 6 win season. Wisky, a team that just won the B1G championship, was too intimidating for Saban to risk another title run. The cards are always played in their favor. I hate the $EC and when the rules start applying to them (all of the rules down to the oversigning of just one player) I will give them credit for their good run, but until then it's a scared conference that finds excuses for everything. And ESPN doesn't investigate shit down there.

We are not viewed as the worst CFB conference. The Big East and the ACC
are generally viewed as below us.

The SEC love-fest will stop when their string of national titles is broken.
That is what is going to take. I agree that some of the rhetoric is over
the top, and it is nauseating to hear how far it goes sometimes. Someone
else needs to win one, preferably convincingly over an SEC team, for it
to stop.

Lastly, focus on the Buckeyes, and not the entire conference.
I think we will be in for some good times in the next several years.

You just pulled out whiners complaint #2.

First the weather fallacy, now the over signing. What's next? North/South genetics?

Who cares about over signing. Yes it sucks and it does give them an advantage, but it's not the reason we got our asses waxed when we played those two NCs. It ain't gonna change for the foreseeable future so we need to deal with it and make ourselves better than we've been. I think you'll see what a difference Urban makes and the excuses the whiners have used will start falling by the wayside...although I have no doubt they'll come up with new ones.

So you don't feel that oversigning could make all the difference in players like Mark Ingram, Dre Kirkpatrick, Trent Richardson. Do you think Saban would risk the penalty for oversigning if it didn't involve an elite player? Is it against the rules?........yup. Were they broken?............yup. Does this occur way too much in the $EC?........yup. Were they ever pentalized for it?..............nope. Does it give them an unfair advantage against the rest of the CFB world?

So why does that not matter to you?

It's possible, but I think Tressel's teams were nowhere near prepared from a personnel or game planning standpoint vs. the some of the top teams we lost to, a much bigger factor than over signing IMO.

We all know about over signing...do we chuck in the towel because of it? What happens when we beat a team that oversigns...what do you say then? Why didn't I hear any over signing complaints when we beat Arkansas?

Thanks for the response.

I think that the SEC cap does help, in that it seems to limit signings to 100 over
a four year period. That allows for attrition of 15 in a four-year class to keep
85 on scholarship, which I think is reasonable (yes, I know that there are 5th year seniors, but this is just for rough calculation). I don't know of any conference that limits class size
beyond a hard cap of 25, but I could be wrong.

We will see about Urban vs. JT in big games. That will have to play itself out, obviously.

I really liked Tressel, and still do even now, so I tend to defend
his record, but I was OK with our out of conference performance, even in the
"big" games. We did have a few very disappointing losses that detracted
heavily from what could have been, but we did also have some big wins.

Urban obviously comes to town with a full resume and two national titles. So it
will be fun to see if you are right about what will happen in big games.

I am looking forward to some football.

Well, who has the "weakest" SAT's?

Florida, Tennessee, Auburn, LSU, Alabama have all won NC's the last 20 years. That's 5 teams. As much as I dislike the SEC....it is what it is. I don't think that's top heavy considering that all the other conferences pale in comparison. The next closest conference to that # is The Big 12 with Texas, Oklahoma and Nebraska.

One dynamic player in Cam Newton is for sure....he was a phenom. Be that as it may....he can't win a game completely by himself. Everything has to fall into the right place for him i.e. people blocking for him, running the ball hard and catching passes. One single person can't win a football game without his teammates supporting and contributing to his efforts.

But I do understand what you're saying....I just don't necessarily agree with all of it.

Interesting post though and definitely makes for great conversation. I enjoy reading your posts.

Thats the most sincere thing anyone has ever said to me...........

I mean that's a fair point.....and they were matched up against Oregon who I think is one of the most over-rated teams in all of college football. They play zero....absolutely zero defense.

But still...Auburn had to get there and Auburn still had to win the game which they did.

Ok.

So by eliminating Auburn...that's still 4 different teams.

Big 12=3
B1G Ten=2
ACC=2.

I would just say I think they are less top heavy than those other conferences.

I see the point but I'll play the devil's advocate and say that maybe we win if Tressel goes after different players...no way to tell. I do think over signing is A factor, but not THE factor. To me it's a bit down the list.