re: Biggest “What if’s” in the SEC regarding Football over the years.

What if Chris Conley dropped the batted ball on the 2 yard line against Alabama in the SECCG in 2012 and time doesn't run out.

What if the referee didn't imagine a phantom offsides call against Tyler Simmons on the blocked punt in the 2017 championship game?

What if Tray Matthews just batted the dang ball down in 2013 against Auburn?

What if Terrence Edwards doesn't drop a wide open easy touchdown pass against UF in 2001?

As a Georgia fan, this thread is just brutal....

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On a neutral field Miami was 3 scores better than anybody in 1988.

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Probably true, but Notre Dame was #1 going into the bowls. No way they were going to match up with the U again with their first shot at an NC in 15 years on the line.

Here’s another what-if from that season: what if the Sugar Bowl had been coerced to take co-champs LSU as the SEC representative instead of AU? Then the game would have featured two teams that lost to Miami in the regular season by a combined score of 75-3

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No way in hell they lose that game if the plane doesn’t go down

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Okay. You didn't even know who died on the plane, but now you are certain about the connection between and impact of the loss of a women's BB coach and assistant on an entire CFB team.

It was tragic, but players and coaches experience much more personal loss and manage to endure. The OSU football players' emotional states and most likely those of the majority of coaches and staffs were not so drastically altered that they couldn't concentrate on ISU.

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He would have at least 6 titles at LSU. Stop kidding yourself.

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LOL no. In 5 years at LSU he had two seasons of 10 or more wins (not consecutive) and he won one national title.

In his first 5 years at Bama he had 4 seasons of 10 or more wins (consecutively) and won 2 national titles.

A) he figured some things out that he wouldn't have had he not left LSU
B) Bama was primed to take off again with a larger than life coach leading the way.
C) Bama had a better history than LSU before Saban. They're just set up for sustained success in ways that LSU obviously isn't or else LSU would've achieved it at some point in its 100+ year football history.

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A) he figured some things out that he wouldn't have had he not left LSU
B) Bama was primed to take off again with a larger than life coach leading the way.
C) Bama had a better history than LSU before Saban. They're just set up for sustained success in ways that LSU obviously isn't or else LSU would've achieved it at some point in its 100+ year football history.

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Dude you’re delusional. All that in state talent over them fifteen years and you don’t think Saban would have at least six? When Saban first got to LSU Louisiana HS football players would leave the state. Saban started to lock the in state talent down. Miles and Orgeron won a title at LSU. You really think Saban wouldn’t have won at least five more?

What if Ryan Perrilloux isnt a fricking idiot and doesnt get dismissed from LSU?

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He wasn't a rock star at LSU either. Never put together a back-to-back 10 win season.

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He was still learning how to recruit the SEC.

When he came back to Bama, he'd been an NFL head coach and won a national championship, a lot easier to sell that to recruits.

When he came to LSU, he was just some Yankee.

None of you can actually say why he couldnt have had just as much as LSU because there's no reason.

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Bama had a better history than LSU before Saban. They're just set up for sustained success in ways that LSU obviously isn't or else LSU would've achieved it at some point in its 100+ year football history.

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LSU was a different program pre Saban.

What advantage does Alabama have over LSU after Saban had been at LSU say 4 years?

Nutt didn't recruit well enough to gain momentum from Danny Ford's players in 98 and 99 where they should have won an SEC title in those two years. His 2000 recruiting class is probably one of the worst in SEC history. It was filled with academic risks, trouble with the law and busts. He only had maybe three recruits make it on campus. It was a rare occurrence but he apologized for that ordeal.

Then he panicked in 2001 with his next class and started playing freshmen instead of redshirting because of the 2000 class blunder. Almost lost to UNLV that beat them in the bowl 31-14 in the year before.

Started 0-3 in the SEC and took the redshirt off a player named Matt Jones and it saved him from a losing season and his job. Also it helped McFadden saved his job or normally he would be fired much earlier.

No the 1977 was a lot better than the team that played Alabama. The 77 team owns the biggest upset in bowl history against Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl. The reason is because Arkansas didn't get any respect from the media as they entered the season unranked and had several players suspended from the game. But freshman running back Roland Sales had a then Orange Bowl record of 205 yards on the ground that led to a 31-6 victory.

Arkansas had one close loss against a Texas team that involved a controversial penalty. Notre Dame were named by many outlets as the national champion but yet lost to a 5-6 Ole Miss team earlier in the season. They beat Texas and we beat Oklahoma that lost to Texas in the regular season. But we just got screwed out of it but one media outlet did name us as the mythical champion.

But those were Broyle's players and Holtz took the credit. After that it was a slow decline until he was fired. He didn't put the heart into like Broyles had and wanted to go to Notre Dame instead which he did. Had Frank not retired at the age of 52 in 76 then he would have done better than Holtz in the early and mid 80s.

Arkansas was very good in the 70s and 80s. Both decades involved Arkansas being contenders on the national scale. Arkansas was a top 15 program before entering the SEC.

Frank Broyles was our best coach with a toss up between Holtz and Ken Hatfield being in second place. Petrino did beat LSU twice and almost had a third win in 2009. So they certainly were nervous of his style of play. He would have eventually beaten Saban had he not fallen off the bike but it wouldn't be very much. Still better than going winless for over a decade.

Petrino was our best coach in the SEC which isn't saying much as we made sure in the past to make the worst hires possible.

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What if Saban never hires Kiffin? Not only was his offense the reason Bama beat Clemson in 2015, but he is a big reason for Alabama's permanent change in offensive philosophy.

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Nothing is permanent with Saban other than a burning desire to win. He will do what it takes to win. He would install the wishbone and throw it four times a game if it means a championship.