It's truly one of the most remarkable inventions of the past 20 years. It costs nothing to operate, runs 24-7 without a hitch and never requires maintenance.
It’s the one, the only Southeastern Conference hype machine.
Many a college football fan — and bettor — has been swallowed in the annual hype surrounding the league. But this year is different. With a fat, new TV contract and powerful network behind it, the machine has been cranking it out like never before.
The reality is that the SEC in 2009 consists of Alabama, Florida and a bunch of nobodies. In nonconference games against Division I-A opponents, SEC teams are a pedestrian 14-11 against the spread. In nonconference play against teams from Bowl Championship Series conferences, the record is 4-7. That’s a .363 percentage, the worst of the six BCS conferences.
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Thank you for continuing to point this out.
It would be a joke if these latest developments didn't threaten to make college football unrecognizably different (in a bad way imo) for future generations of fans.
Posted by: wheaton4prez | October 14, 2009 at 01:18 AM
throw out "against the spread" and the sec is 20-5 ooc, and 7-3 against bcs conferences (i don't see where you're getting 11 games. i only count 10 unless i'm missing one). nice try.
Posted by: deimos14 | October 14, 2009 at 06:28 AM
Come on Wiz - against the spread? They don't award wins and losses against the spread. By your logic if the SEC team is favored by 20 in all those games and only wins by 19 they're overrated.
Dude, you just come off as a hater by throwing stats like that out there.
Posted by: Beavis | October 14, 2009 at 08:33 AM
This is a terrible analysis. Who cares what the record is against the spread. The spreads are higher because of the known dominance
Posted by: Johnny Tide | October 14, 2009 at 10:40 AM
Wait... theoretically, if the SEC were overhyped, the spread would then be stacked against the SEC more than they would be able to cover, and would have a bad record against the spread. The fact that they still have a winning record against the spread (Even if said record is 'pedestrian'), would indicate that they are the proper level of hyped...
Posted by: Not You | October 14, 2009 at 08:43 PM
Is the hype a bit much with the SEC? Sure. Hype usually is overdone, or it wouldn't be hype. But this entire post is a reach. I just read that the SEC is the only conference ith a winning record against the BCS conferences and Notre Dame, for the win.
Posted by: Boby Fenton | October 15, 2009 at 06:48 AM
It's safe to say that SEC is the best conference out there but the SEC is also split into two. Say what you will about the Pac-10 but at least they are the only conference to play 9 conference games. SEC has had a difficult time playing outside of the SEC, that's a known fact. UF is 0-2 against Michigan and LSU almost lost to UW. I won't believe the SEC hype until one of them actually beats a Carroll led USC team.
Posted by: YourMomma | October 15, 2009 at 08:07 AM
I love it when an analyst takes a conclusion and uses bogus arguments to support it. ATS does not indicate team quality. Ms State and Vandy for out of conference? Who mentions them when speaking of SEC power? And LSU, Auburn, and Georgia examples were in-conference games! C'mon you can do better than this. As for the USC comment by YourMomma, is that the same USC team that loses to unranked opponents every year? Talk about overhyped -- USC is the king of overhyped.
Posted by: YourDaddy | October 16, 2009 at 12:38 PM