I've never truly understood how tough the SEC is till now

[ShotgunDawg]

I know, I know, we've been losing games in this conference for the better half of 100 years, but I can't say I've ever truly understood the death walk that is the SEC till now. After watching Bama and Ole Miss yesterday, and whenlooking back at what we've already accomplished, and looking forward to what we still must do, this conference is daunting.

I realize it goes in cycles, but the problem is schedule inequality. While the Bears get Bama, Auburn, and us at home, we have to go to Bama and Ole Miss. Auburn has it the worst by having to visit everyone.

Due to this, I think if College Football wants a REAL champion, they must go to an 8 team playoff. All the national pundits say, "you must win your conference", but there's a solid chance the SEC West could be decided by tiebreaker, and the schedule inequality makes you realize that, unless the SEC West team with the hardest schedule wins the West, there is hardley any fairness in how SEC Champion is crowned.

There is likely to be at least 2 one loss teams in the playoff this year, and the campaign for these spots has already become political. I feel that MSU will have to win the SEC title to get in because our loss would have come to late in the year to overcome and we know the politics won't go our way.

So we have a tough road ahead that starts next weekend in KY. They say the best way to eat an elephant is to eat it one bite at a time.

We must stay focused on the task at hand and go take care of business.

[IMissJack]

It's harder now than ever before, because of media attention, and forced scheduling (all west must play other west teams), and will get harder with the requirements of playing quality OOC games. Especially in the West, just playing the other 6 is usually going to put you in the top 10 in quality of schedule. In my opinion the upcoming requirements to play other top 5 conference teams on OOC weeks is going to hurt the SEC. The reason is we don't need anymore Strength of Schedule, we already have it and a championship game. This is a ploy by non SEC conferences to occasionally beat an SEC team (no matter which), and also, make it even more difficult for a SEC team to run the table. It will be more difficult to heal up between big conference games. Can you imagine this year if just before LSU, or Bama we played Kansas State (like we will in a couple of years) instead of Tenn-Martin?

[Political Hack]

just take care of the next 3 one game at a time and a lot of the dust will settle before we ever hit T-town.

Between now and then:
Bama @ LSU
OM @ LSU
Auburn @ OM
Auburn @ SC
Bama @ UT
A&M @ Auburn

A lot can happen in those games. The SEC West will be whittled down to 2, maybe 3, teams. Bama and/or Ole Miss could be out of the running. Auburn could have a 2nd loss, which gives us the tie breaker over them.

The pundits keep saying that they can't see anyone going through this gauntlet undefeated. It's going to be damn near impossible, but I think we have the only chance of anyone at this point. I just can't see OM surviving LSU and Auburn in back to back weeks, although I'll readily admit they've proven me wrong several times this season already. Their defense is salty and will keep them in every single game they play this year. I thought UT would keep it close, but they collapsed because of OM's defense. Of course LSU and Auburn aren't Tennessee.

[Coach34]

Think about the late 70's and early 80's:

We used to finish every season with Auburn, Bama, LSU, then Ole Miss

[ShotgunDawg]

Think about the late 70's and early 80's:

We used to finish every season with Auburn, Bama, LSU, then Ole Miss

True, but I'm not old enough to remember that. Now that we are truly in the race, I see how difficult it is.

[IMissJack]

But not every SEC team played all those teams. See OM.

[maroonmania]

I know, I know, we've been losing games in this conference for the better half of 100 years, but I can't say I've ever truly understood the death walk that is the SEC till now. After watching Bama and Ole Miss yesterday, and whenlooking back at what we've already accomplished, and looking forward to what we still must do, this conference is daunting.

I realize it goes in cycles, but the problem is schedule inequality. While the Bears get Bama, Auburn, and us at home, we have to go to Bama and Ole Miss. Auburn has it the worst by having to visit everyone.

Due to this, I think if College Football wants a REAL champion, they must go to an 8 team playoff. All the national pundits say, "you must win your conference", but there's a solid chance the SEC West could be decided by tiebreaker, and the schedule inequality makes you realize that, unless the SEC West team with the hardest schedule wins the West, there is hardley any fairness in how SEC Champion is crowned.

There is likely to be at least 2 one loss teams in the playoff this year, and the campaign for these spots has already become political. I feel that MSU will have to win the SEC title to get in because our loss would have come to late in the year to overcome and we know the politics won't go our way.

So we have a tough road ahead that starts next weekend in KY. They say the best way to eat an elephant is to eat it one bite at a time.

We must stay focused on the task at hand and go take care of business.

I do agree that an 8 team playoff would be more fair at this point because of the huge imbalance in conference strength of play. But you know the committee is going to be hard pressed to put more than one team in from any conference. I wish they would have left it taking the top 4 teams from the BCS formula. The committee is going to be under immense pressure to put in one rep from 4 of the 5 power conferences.

[smootness]

Just imagine if we had Georgia instead of Vanderbilt.