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re: Interesting article on the SEC's rise to power (not by an SEC fan either).
Posted on 1/1/12 at 4:56 pm to Ralph_Wiggum
Posted on 1/1/12 at 4:56 pm to Ralph_Wiggum
damn strong article
0
Posted on 1/1/12 at 5:13 pm to Lsupimp
quote:
1. Cultural/Regional significance. 2. The elite BLACK athlete.
Good Points.
Posted on 1/1/12 at 5:19 pm to snake1
The best line in the whole article:
It's refreshing to see someone outside of the SEC that gets it.
quote:
"Time after time," Travis said, "we've been told, 'Oh, this offense is outstanding.' And time after time, when they get the chance to go against these SEC defenses, they don't perform."
It's refreshing to see someone outside of the SEC that gets it.
Posted on 1/1/12 at 6:00 pm to snake1
Good article, Thanks 
Posted on 1/1/12 at 8:09 pm to snake1
Here is the actual link to that article: Omaha World-Herald
Thanks for linking the Rivals board link. It is a very interesting article.
I'll come back with some comments soon.
Thanks for linking the Rivals board link. It is a very interesting article.
I'll come back with some comments soon.
Posted on 1/1/12 at 8:45 pm to snake1
Great article. For other teams not in the SEC, they might want to take a look at some key points that do make the SEC so strong.
1. Hire a top notch defensive coordinator. Then recruit more selectively to build a stout defense. This will, at the very least, elevate the team's chances within their own conference. Virginia Tech is a very good team that serves as a model for this.
2. Speaking of assistant coaches. Pay them more. I know, it takes money to make money, but paying assistant coaches a little bit more than everyone else in your conference will pay dividends in the win column. If your assistant coaches are paid the highest in your conference, say the MAC or Sunbelt, this will attract better talent that will translate into better chances at winning.
3. Upgrade football facilities. I'm talking the weight room, in-door facility, off season monitoring, including the classroom. Keeping an athlete more focused on his education during the off season keeps him out of trouble and more focused during the season.
Just those three things can help a team move from the middle of the pack to the top within their conference.
Nationally, USC, Texas, Oklahoma, Ohio State will begin to show up again. USC in 2012 for sure.
Finally, SEC teams will start losing more games within their own conference. I don't think undefeated teams like Alabama, Auburn, and LSU will run the table like they have the last three years. Other teams in the SEC are getting better (Arkansas, Georgia, South Carolina, Florida)will start beating them.
Gotta love the SEC, though. Our culture, in the end, is what makes our conference so special. Crazy sometimes,yes, but fun as hell all the time.
That's why it's called a league of our own.
1. Hire a top notch defensive coordinator. Then recruit more selectively to build a stout defense. This will, at the very least, elevate the team's chances within their own conference. Virginia Tech is a very good team that serves as a model for this.
2. Speaking of assistant coaches. Pay them more. I know, it takes money to make money, but paying assistant coaches a little bit more than everyone else in your conference will pay dividends in the win column. If your assistant coaches are paid the highest in your conference, say the MAC or Sunbelt, this will attract better talent that will translate into better chances at winning.
3. Upgrade football facilities. I'm talking the weight room, in-door facility, off season monitoring, including the classroom. Keeping an athlete more focused on his education during the off season keeps him out of trouble and more focused during the season.
Just those three things can help a team move from the middle of the pack to the top within their conference.
Nationally, USC, Texas, Oklahoma, Ohio State will begin to show up again. USC in 2012 for sure.
Finally, SEC teams will start losing more games within their own conference. I don't think undefeated teams like Alabama, Auburn, and LSU will run the table like they have the last three years. Other teams in the SEC are getting better (Arkansas, Georgia, South Carolina, Florida)will start beating them.
Gotta love the SEC, though. Our culture, in the end, is what makes our conference so special. Crazy sometimes,yes, but fun as hell all the time.
That's why it's called a league of our own.
Posted on 1/1/12 at 9:09 pm to snake1
A lot of people make it seem like the SEC wasn't damn strong before this recent run of titles, but they have always held their own against the other conferences in winning national titles. In the 90's the conference won 3 titles and played for a few more.
Another thing that has helped the SEC's rise to dominance is the conference shifts of the past 20 years. The Big 8 and SWC always seemed to have 1 or 2 teams that were actually really good every season and a bunch of mediocre to poor teams. And since they would also consistently schedule complete cupcakes for OOC it was easier for them to come through their schedules with 10-11 wins. When they combined to form the Big 12 it became much more difficult to win 10 games consistently like they once did. Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, Miami, and Florida State have all seen their programs come down to earth (some more than others) after varying lengths of dominance prior to conference changes.
Another thing that has helped the SEC's rise to dominance is the conference shifts of the past 20 years. The Big 8 and SWC always seemed to have 1 or 2 teams that were actually really good every season and a bunch of mediocre to poor teams. And since they would also consistently schedule complete cupcakes for OOC it was easier for them to come through their schedules with 10-11 wins. When they combined to form the Big 12 it became much more difficult to win 10 games consistently like they once did. Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, Miami, and Florida State have all seen their programs come down to earth (some more than others) after varying lengths of dominance prior to conference changes.
Posted on 1/1/12 at 9:19 pm to snake1
quote:
POWER SOURCE NO. 3: 'THE ACQUISITION OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY'
That's Spencer Tillman's term for coaching improvement. According to the CBS analyst and former Oklahoma running back, it's the No. 1 reason for the SEC's dominant run.
Twenty years ago, SEC schools rarely ventured out of the South to find their coaches. Most new hires were alumni or former assistants. But this is the mercenary era of coaches, especially in the SEC.
Saban had no experience with Alabama before taking over in Tuscaloosa. Same with Urban Meyer and Florida and Miles and LSU.
The best minds in college football are flocking to the SEC because of prestige and money.
"The money that flooded into the conference with the new television deal went almost straight into coaches' pockets," Travis said.
In 2006, Tommy Tuberville was the highest-paid coach in the SEC at $2.2 million. Five years later, 10 SEC coaches earned more, led by Saban at $4.8 million.
But it's not just TV money, said Auburn Athletic Director Jay Jacobs. It's season-ticket and seat-licensing revenue. Attendance at SEC schools exceeded 76,000 per game in 2010, best in the country for the 13th straight year.
When the business of college football got more lucrative, said former Auburn coach Terry Bowden, programs began an arms race to build the biggest facilities and hire the best coaches. It exposed a competitive gulf.
Some programs couldn't raise the money to win big. But people in the South, Bowden said, were willing to do whatever it took. They ponied up.
Even the assistant coaches are getting rich. Last year, Gus Malzahn made $1.3 million as offensive coordinator at Auburn. That was greater than 11 BCS head coaches, including Rick Neuheisel, Kevin Wilson, Pat Fitzgerald, Paul Rhoads and Joe Paterno.
The reward is high. Judging by the long line of fired SEC coaches, so is the risk.
Travis attended a game at Alabama in 2006, the final year of the dreadful Mike Shula era. That day, an old fan looked at him and said, "This team is too big to be bad for this long."
To Travis, it underscored a critical point for the SEC.
"It's such a big business. You can't afford to be bad because it ultimately hits you in the coffers. You have to be good."
You could have just summed it up with just this section. The coaching improvement in the SEC is far and away the biggest reason for the SEC's rise to power. Remember back in the '90s when Phil Fulmer was the second best coach in the SEC by a clear margin? Tennessee began their slide to mediocrity after UGA hired Richt and LSU hired Saban. Fulmer always got out-coached and lost whenever he went up teams with comparable talent in the '90s i.e. Spurrier's Florida teams and Nebraska. Against the rest of the SEC, Fulmer dominated them with superior talent and better athletes. As soon as that advantage disappeared, so did UT's place among the nation's elite.
Posted on 1/1/12 at 10:44 pm to snake1
Earlier I posted the original link to the guys article. Omaha World-Herald
This part of it was left off when it got posted to the Rivals board:
This part of it was left off when it got posted to the Rivals board:
quote:
ADDITIONAL POWER SOURCES:
The BCS: Yes, it's maddening, but in the old bowl system, Florida never would've gotten a chance to play Ohio State after the 2006 season. LSU would not have played the Buckeyes the next year. Ohio State would have probably beaten Pac-10 teams in the Rose Bowl and — since it entered the bowls ranked No. 1 —- won two national championships. The BCS has opened the door for the SEC. And a plus-one system would likely open it farther, giving two SEC teams a shot at a title more often.
The fall of Miami and Florida State: The two best Southern programs of the 1980s and '90s fell on hard times in the early 2000s. For the SEC, that not only opened the door to more national championships, it opened up Florida for recruiting. “A lot of those kids in south Florida that would automatically go to Miami, they're going to Florida or Auburn or Alabama,” Tony Barnhart said.
High school spring football: Prospects in Louisiana and Mississippi are practicing in March and April. The extra work especially helps bigger kids, Gerry DiNardo said. “The offensive linemen, they're not going home at 2:30. They're going to spring practice. In Ohio, the big kids are going home.”
Educational improvements in the South: The talent pool has grown because of population, but also education. Low-income students, especially minority students, are better equipped to qualify and handle the academic load at SEC schools, said Doug Dickey, former head coach at Tennessee and Florida. “We're in the third or fourth generation of integrated schools in the South. We have had during that time from the '60s to now tremendous growth in the Southeastern United States ... and the educational system has grown with that. So you have far more players today in 2011-12 than were qualified to play in the '60s, '70s and even '80s.”
This post was edited on 1/1/12 at 10:47 pm
Posted on 1/2/12 at 12:18 am to chinese58
quote:
High school spring football: Prospects in Louisiana and Mississippi are practicing in March and April. The extra work especially helps bigger kids, Gerry DiNardo said. “The offensive linemen, they're not going home at 2:30. They're going to spring practice. In Ohio, the big kids are going home.”
I lived in Wisconsin for a while and the impact of the winter cold and snow on the HS kids is significant. HS football up there is a shorter season with the state championships ending about the time they start in the south. They miss 3 or 4 weeks in the fall and 3 weeks in the spring. That equates to the loss of at least one full year of development over a 3 year period for a HS player.
Posted on 1/2/12 at 4:59 am to Unbiased Bama Fan
quote:The hell you say?
Saban had no experience with Alabama before taking over in Tuscaloosa.
'00 Nov. 4- Alabama W- 30-28- Baton Rouge
'01 Nov. 3- Alabama W- 35-21- Tuscaloosa
'02 Nov. 16- Alabama L- 0-31- Baton Rouge
'03 Nov. 15- Alabama W- 27-3- Tuscaloosa
'04 Nov. 13- Alabama W- 26-10- Baton Rouge
I hope the author isn't implying we all hired from within the programs before Nicky was hired at LSU.
Posted on 1/2/12 at 8:41 am to snake1
I got tired of reading those ? in the middle of the sentences (knew it was cut and paste because of that) so I went looking for the Original Article for anyone else interested.
Great article btw and thanks for posting. I do disagree with one thing he said initially:
Great article btw and thanks for posting. I do disagree with one thing he said initially:
quote:IMO, this wasn't one of the reasons behind the SEC's rise to power. The original writer left out the biggest reasons of them all: the culture of football in the south. Not just college, but high school and the pros. In addition, the longer summers in the south aid significantly in childhood development into athletes.
a population boom in the South that expanded the pool of recruits and boosters.
quote:
By winning six straight championships, the path to a seventh gets easier.
The SEC will likely start next season with four or five teams in the top-10.
Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Arkansas should match up with anybody in the country.
Except maybe one team, which returns its best offensive playmakers and — more important — most of its vaunted defense.
You thought LSU was good last year? Wait 'til you see 'em in 2012.
This post was edited on 1/2/12 at 9:07 am
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