OT: Bob Stoops thinks the SEC is overrated

Submitted by Toby Flenderson on

Bob Stoops believes that the Hype machine for the SEC is overblown.

“So you’re listening to a lot of propaganda that gets fed out to you. You’re more than smart enough to figure it out. Again, you can look at the top two, three, four, five, six teams, and you can look at the bottom six, seven, eight, whatever they are. How well are they all doing?"

“What’d we [the Big 12] have, eight of 10 teams in bowl games this year? Again, you figure it all out.”

It seems that winning the last 7 National Championships is not domination

http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/jeff-schultz/2013/may/08/bob-stoops-says-sec…

Jinxed

May 10th, 2013 at 3:02 AM ^

Over the last decade it's definitely them.. however some people act like it's been this way since a million years ago and the truth is that until Florida won their first title, the SEC was seen like the 3rd or 4th conference behind the Big12, Pac10, ACC, and B10. Auburn went undefeated in 2004 and didn't get to the championship game. That would have never happened to any team from any other BCS conference at the time it did. USC was coming off a loss to UCLA that year and they still jumped an undefeated Auburn who had pretty much dominated every game they played that year. Hell, we almost did it again in 2006... it took a lot of politicking by ESPN and the SEC schools to keep us out of that championship game. 

I honestly think that that's actually when the "turning point" happened. The SEC media hype machine started running in 2006 to get Florida into the championship game and it's been running full speed ever since. That's given them every advantage they could possibly have. They're the media darlings that get all the favorable coverage along with very limited negative press, favorable bowl matchups, scholarship number advantages(because of the lack of coverage from press, general complacency from their fans, and complete inaction by the NCAA) ect. Anything but dominace from them would be a huge failure. 

ngowings

May 10th, 2013 at 11:47 AM ^

You are mistaken about USC "jumping" ahead of Auburn, despite having lost to UCLA in 2004.  In fact, USC went undefeated and beat UCLA in the last game of the regular season (12/4/2004) 29-24, before the infamous curb stoming of Oklahoma (55-19).

FrankMurphy

May 10th, 2013 at 8:08 PM ^

No, USC and Oklahoma were both undefeated that year. That was the problem; there were three undefeated teams, and the computers favored USC and Oklahoma over Auburn.

But given that Auburn couldn't have done any worse against USC than Oklahoma did, methinks the lady doth protest too much.

vablue

May 10th, 2013 at 8:48 AM ^

but they are still overrated.  I think Stoops is right on this.  They are not as deep of a conference that everyone thinks, in fact they are quite top heavy.  In addition, they don't play everyone in the conference, so the hype that says if you can make it through the SEC with only one or two losses is pretty bogus.  They have produced some great teams and the bama team from last year was awesome.  But the SEC is not as great from top to bottom as they are hyped up to be.

Perkis-Size Me

May 9th, 2013 at 6:04 PM ^

So when Florida beat you in he title game, or when A&M kicked the shit out of you in the Cotton Bowl, that was just overblown hype? 7 straight national titles? Sound logic there, Bob.

KAYSHIN15

May 10th, 2013 at 9:23 AM ^

C'mon guys. TA&M with Johnny football and TA&M without him are 2 different squads. Had they played in the B12 last year they would have won every game by 40. The B12 can't hold on to them like they never left the conference. I dont see anyone arguing for Mizzou who got a major reality check after leaving the B12...

NFG

May 9th, 2013 at 6:22 PM ^

Someone associated with Oklahoma's omit all program talking about anything aside from them being overrated is hilarious.

615Wolverine

May 9th, 2013 at 6:35 PM ^

I agree with Stoops.

There good don't get me wrong but, every time a team outside the SEC gets a violation, they make a huge deal out if it. (USC, OSU, Miami, Michigan, Oregon)

Yet Alabama has the most secondary violations in NCAA but have they been punished ?

AJ Green WR from Georgia was only given a 4 game suspension for his infractions.

And how is Cam Newtons situation different than Reggie Bush ?

Again there good but they get away with every infraction

MgoRayO3313

May 10th, 2013 at 8:34 AM ^

I try to keep my accusations to myself, because well, they are just my opinions. The old adage states that when there is smoke there is fire. The SEC seems to get away with a ton in every respect to academic eligibility and just plain cookie corner cutting. I know most will scream sour grapes, but why does he ncaa never investigate, at least make it public, that they are in fact looking into some of these legitimate allegations towards SEC schools.



I told my buddies back in 2003 & 2004 that I thought something fishy was going on at USC. Everyone l Ike's to win but when you are used to being a 'baller' its tough to sit in a stable of running backs hats nine deep if there is no incentive to you.



Several teams in the SEC meet this criteria now. Experts play it off and say 'well Saban is just that great of a recruiter and kids know hey can win.' Those statements have proven to be true, but what is a NC if you are the last man on the bench when you could move down the road to another school and start. If you are a 4 to 5 star prospect in high school the league has to be in the back of your mind.



Like I stated no accusation, I just wish someone would actually investigate these rumors when something does come out. Seemingly everyone else gets investigated, poked and prodded. Why not the SEC? (And yes I realize he answer is money $$$)

Hoke-a-maniac

May 9th, 2013 at 6:40 PM ^

Oklahoma is traditionally one of the most overrated programs along with Notre Dame and Florida State. The big 12 has flamed when it's had it's chances at the National Championship. I can't stand the SEC especially since I live right in the heart of SEC country. If anything they're top heavy with about 4 or 5 really great teams and mediocre the rest of the way but their top tier is really good.

TheGhostofYost

May 9th, 2013 at 7:18 PM ^

There seems to be this pervasive myth that Oklahoma is an overrated program, and I have no idea where it comes from.  Since Stoops started coaching 14 years ago, they've had double digit wins 11 times,  finished in the top ten 8 times, won a national title, won seven conference titles, had four heisman trophy winners, and been to 8 BCS games.   What more do you want?  If anything, I'd say they are an underrated program.

Hoke-a-maniac

May 9th, 2013 at 7:32 PM ^

I think if you're going to win that many games you should have more titles to show for it. That's why I compare them to FSU usually highly ranked but never finish the job. For a long time the Big 12 was just OU and UT. If you won the Red River Rivalry you pretty much had the inside track on the conference. Yeah they've been to a lot of BCS games but only won two of them. One of them was UConn. I guess maybe not overrated but they have the inability to win the big game.

MichiganExile

May 9th, 2013 at 8:18 PM ^

By your standards Michigan under Bo was overrated and couldn't win the big game. The man and program won a hell of a lot of games but was only 5-12 in bowl games and was 3-10 in what are now the BCS bowls. Bob Stoops has a national title to his name. Something even Bo never got. It can be argued that he probably should have, but that's for another day.

Bo was not overrated and neither is Bob Stoops. 

1464

May 10th, 2013 at 9:17 AM ^

False logic.  The SEC has long had the best team, but not necessarily the best conference.  By your logic, the SEC was also the best conference in basketball two years ago.

Alabama was the best team in college football last year, but there were a lot of holes in the rest of the conference.  LSU lost to Clemson in the bowl game, and didn't play anyone OOC.  Florida lost to Louisville, and to their defense, they also beat FSU  Georgia was in a slugfest with Nebraska.  SCar could very easily have lost to us.  Arkansas and Auburn were train wrecks that would have competed for the bottom of the barrel in the B1G.

Keep in mind how SC and Georgia were viewed in the SEC, compared to Michigan and Nebraska.  Given that our teams all played up two spots thanks to OSU and PSU, I would say that the SEC had a very bad bowl season, aside from Alabama.

saveferris

May 10th, 2013 at 10:25 AM ^

The inflated reputation of the SEC is what also leads to the perception that they always produce the best team.  This is how a one loss Alabama slides into the BCS championship for a rematch against LSU over an undefeated Oklahoma State despite having not even won their conference division title.  Alabama's 3 titles in the past 4 years could just as easily be one title if not for a lucky break with an ineligible Ohio team and polls overvaluing an SEC conference schedule over a Big 12 one.

Indeed, until historical powers like Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida start pulling more of their weight, the dominance of the SEC is really more myth than fact.

LSAClassOf2000

May 9th, 2013 at 6:53 PM ^

Dr. Saturday has a formal rebuttal here (LINK). 

Here's the passage I enjoyed in particular:

"This comes down to a pretty simple math problem. For all SEC games, there has to be a .500 record at the end. If Alabama, Texas A&M, Florida, South Carolina, LSU and Georgia are all among the top 10 or so strongest teams in the nation, as they were last year, and Vanderbilt, Mississippi State and Ole Miss get into bowl games, as they did, some teams are eating a lot of losses. No, coach, the entire conference can't be good at once. It's mathematically impossible."

I was rummaging through the CFB Data Warehouse, and if I am not mistaken, Stoops is 3-3 agains traditional SEC teams like Alabama, Florida and LSU, but 19-4 overall against his former conference compatriots Missouri and Texas A&M. If you're Bob Stoops, apparently the worst teams in other conferences are just materially better than the current cellar dwellers in the SEC. 

According to the Palm Beach Post, Will Muschamp, himself a Big 12 assistant at one point, rang in on this:

“I’d be saying the same thing if I were in the Big 12,” he joked. “I said it for three years.”

WolvinLA2

May 9th, 2013 at 7:45 PM ^

Not a great measuring stick.  LSU lost to Clemson by 1, and Clemson was the #2 team in their league when LSU was probably #4 in theirs.  Florida blew it for sure, but again you're comparing a team who didn't make the SEC championship game to a team who won their league.  When comparing one conference against another, you can't count that too strongly.  

After that, Alabama obviously owned the title game, Texas A&M crushed OU, and Ole Miss, South Carolina :(, Georgia and Vanderbilt all won.  That's 6-3 with a very tough bowl slate.  Hell, going 3-1 in the 2 BCS bowls, Capital One and Cotton Bowl is very impressive by itself, considering all of the wins were 14+ point margins.  

Jinxed

May 10th, 2013 at 2:42 AM ^

The thing is they're expected to win every year. They get every single advantage swinging their way during bowl season. Most of their games are de facto home games(the big12 also benefits from this) and the bowl tie ins usually end up having them play lower ranked teams with worse records. 

I'd love to see their bowl record if they ended up coming to the midwest and playing teams with equal records and rankings. However, just to use ourselves as an example, what outcome do you expect when a 7-6 midwest team plays a 9-4 southern team in the south? Or an 8-5 midwest team plays an 11-2 southern team in the south? At the end of the bowl season everyone laughs at our conference bowl record without examining the circumstances that led to that record. We usually play teams with better records than ours on their own backyard. When we get a fair matchup(like vs florida when no one gave us a chance to win that) we tend to do very well... but that rarely happens. 

Lionsfan

May 10th, 2013 at 11:01 AM ^

I wouldn't call LSU the 4th best team in the conference. They just get stuck with really shitty scheduling by the SEC.

LSU crossover games: Florida and South Carolina

Alabama crossover games: Missouri and Tennessee

Just like Georgia getting Ole Miss and Auburn while Florida/South Carolina have to play LSU/TAMU/Arkansas

GoBluePhil

May 9th, 2013 at 7:41 PM ^

And all the other conferences would be better and more competitive if they did the one year scholarship renewal program like the SEC does. Because the Big Ten offers 4 year full rides they are stuck with players that don't pan out. I would love to see Michigan sign 22 to 24 extra guys every four years. Look at the depth you would create.

gwkrlghl

May 9th, 2013 at 8:17 PM ^

You're advocating that Michigan basically take advantage of our own players by doing the Alabama method. No way. I would much rather our school do it the right way: give our players 4 years of tuition, let them play football, help them graduate.

It's extremely cold to say, for instance, "Hey Phil, you haven't contributed much to the football team much lately, so now you don't have your scholarship...Oh you don't have the money to attend on your own? Oh well! Go football!"