Started By
Message
re: Question. Is it time to get rid of the SEC championship game?
Posted on 7/31/25 at 7:58 am to Uga Alum
Posted on 7/31/25 at 7:58 am to Uga Alum
quote:
Sure, let’s kill yet another classic college football tradition. Why the hell not?
I mean… "classic"? Most of us here are older than the SEC Championship Game itself. It started in '92 — same year Clinton was elected and the Dream Team was dunking on the world.
Maybe I’m just getting old, but I reserve classic for things like the Sugar Bowl, not something that came along with grunge music and Crystal Pepsi.
0
Posted on 7/31/25 at 8:04 am to captdalton
quote:
It makes a lot of money.
Its already evolving in to a second tier bowl game. No reason to play your starters and risk injury when the real tournament for the title is about to begin.
The two teams in this game are in the playoff so why risk injuring your starters?
Posted on 7/31/25 at 8:11 am to captdalton
quote:
It makes a lot of money.
Until it doesn’t it will continue regardless of whether it hurts one of the participants or not.
I hope last year was an anomaly but tickets were almost impossible to get rid of at face value. The idea that one or both teams fans bases would most likely be looking at a couple of playoff games on the road and the costs associated with that reduced interest in attending in person I think...do not know that for certain but I know we have only had one year since it has been in Atlanta when tickets were less in demand and that was 2002 when UGA and Arkansas played. I could not giver 2 of my 4 tickets away to that game...I tried, no one wanted them. Every UGA fan who wanted to go had access to tickets because Arkansas had about 8 people there. I was almost arrested for walking around the Georgia Dome holding up those tickets trying to give them away. Cops thought I was trying to sell them, could not accept that I had given up trying to sell them and was trying to give them away and had no takers. They finally settled on it was against the law to transfer tickets in any manner on the property of the dome LOL. And the MARTA station. My wife and I used 4 tickets and put our shite in the 2 extra seats.
I sold 4 last year about 2 hours before the game for $800 ($200 each). These are GOOD seats....about the 35 yard line in the club level, used to be one of the few sections that sold alcohol but that changed last year I think - the whole stadium does now. After fees thats below face value. I have sold those tickets for $800 - $1000 each in the past. I understand TV is where the money is and I have very little doubt that the TV audience was probably as big as it has ever been but interest in attending in person was very low.
Posted on 7/31/25 at 8:15 am to Jster15
Its important to have a historical SEC champion and no more 3-way ties like in 1989.
Posted on 7/31/25 at 8:18 am to Fearless and True
Needs to move to Houston.
Rodo
Rodo
Posted on 7/31/25 at 8:22 am to Marktastic86
quote:
Unfortunately the golden age of the SEC title game with actual meaning behind it is over.
It is hard to imagine a scenario where the loser of the SECCG is not in a 12 team playoff field....that would ALMOST have to mean the SEC had only 2 teams in the field....and possibly only one. It would not be surprising to see players sit it out or coaches making decisions to pull players if the game is getting out of hand. IF the winner had a home game guarantee somehow It would be meaningful but that would interfere with bowl games and can't have that. It is a shame it has been reduced to what amounts to an exhibition game.
That said any program trying to win the first SEC CG will probably see it differently...I would be shocked if Texas or OU were to get in the game and not go all in to win it for example. Its pretty easy to imagine one of the big 6 original teams about half assing it through the game....
Posted on 7/31/25 at 8:25 am to Jster15
The conference championship games really don't make a lot of sense in the new era of college football. There's really no advantages to winning it.
I was saying this before Ohio State actually did it but when the playoff format was first revealed, it was obvious the best path was to finish like #3 in your conference so your 13th game would be a home playoff game instead of a game against #1/#2 in the conference.
It sucks its this way but until they figure out a better reward for conference winners, there just isn't a point to winning it.
I was saying this before Ohio State actually did it but when the playoff format was first revealed, it was obvious the best path was to finish like #3 in your conference so your 13th game would be a home playoff game instead of a game against #1/#2 in the conference.
It sucks its this way but until they figure out a better reward for conference winners, there just isn't a point to winning it.
Posted on 7/31/25 at 8:25 am to MtVernon
quote:
Without the SEC Championship game, Georgia wins the NC last year.
UGA never gelled as a team last year, in my opinion, but Beck going down certainly did not help matters. Stockton was servicable in the sugar bowl...UGAs offensive line was HORRENDOUS at times last season and were really bad in New Orleans. Should have been one of the best if not the best O line in the nation, for whatever reason they never seemed to gell. Tate Ratledge being hurt had a big impact on the O line coming together, I think.
Posted on 7/31/25 at 8:42 am to Uga Alum
quote:
Do you really believe that classic traditions can’t develop over the span of thirty years?
Oh, absolutely. Just look at the timeless Pop-Tarts Bowl — a true American treasure since its humble beginnings as the Blockbuster Bowl in 1990. And who could forget the “classic” Las Vegas Bowl (1992) or the sacred Alamo Bowl, established all the way back in 1993? Icons of tradition, no doubt
Posted on 7/31/25 at 8:43 am to MtVernon
quote:
Georgia was physically beat to a pulp after surviving Texas in the SECG. They never really recovered in the playoffs.
Meanwhile Ohio State came dancing in with bells on.
SEC teams are usually pretty banged up during the post season because the weekly schedule is against better athletes than it is in any other conference. The addition of OU and Texas amped that up significantly. This is where people who debate the quality of the BIG10 over the SEC are mistaken. Excluding the last round of expansion teams (UT, OU, WA, OR, USC and UCLA) because they have only been in their new conferences one season the SEC had 350 NFL players on rosters last season compared to 272 from the BIG10. That is significant....bigger, quicker, more talented athletes hit harder and it takes its toll. The way that Saban dominated CFB and Kirby emulated is to stack NFL players 3 deep at every position and when one went down another took his place.
That discrepancy between the 2 conferences is not going to be the same going forward because NIL has leveled the playing field at least for some period of time...no one is going to stack talent like Saban did
Posted on 7/31/25 at 8:52 am to AwgustaDawg
quote:
That discrepancy between the 2 conferences is not going to be the same going forward because NIL has leveled the playing field at least for some period of time...no one is going to stack talent like Saban did
A lot of teams in the SEC will still have 4 and 5 players across the LOS. But even if you try to recruit the same caliber on the bench, they simply won't stay. I see Georgia and BAMA going after more projects, after the top-tier guys, who are more inclined to wait their turn and develop. The salary cap is going to pretty much guarantee a different recruiting strategy going forward. Super teams are going to be less super.
Posted on 7/31/25 at 10:26 am to Jster15
Yes, it's pointless since the loser still makes the CFP. Since it makes the SEC money, they will keep it. I bet the conference would like to make a 4-team conference tournament for football to make money on two semi-final conference games.
Posted on 7/31/25 at 10:51 am to GoGators1995
quote:
No. Otherwise Texas would've been SEC champion last year with the easiest conference schedule while UGA played the hardest.
We were told, after the baseball season, that SEC championships do not matter.
Posted on 7/31/25 at 11:08 am to HorninHouston
SEC chip is irrelevant at this point for the Horns, its Natty or bust and soon to stay like that just like Ohio State every year
Posted on 7/31/25 at 11:12 am to Uga Alum
For most of the conference history there was no championship game.
Posted on 7/31/25 at 11:23 am to Jster15
Yes, agree, for the most part. It sucks but that’s reality.
Posted on 7/31/25 at 11:24 am to AwgustaDawg
quote:
SEC teams are usually pretty banged up during the post season
It just disgusts me to see the B1G teams come prancing into the playoffs all precious and pretty with clean clothes, a picture of health, and well-rehearsed game plan.
Meanwhile the SEC drags in on crutches with a partial roster, all doped up on painkillers, and barely an ounce of blood left to let out.
Posted on 7/31/25 at 11:45 am to MtVernon
quote:
It just disgusts me to see the B1G teams come prancing into the playoffs all precious and pretty with clean clothes, a picture of health, and well-rehearsed game plan.
Meanwhile the SEC drags in on crutches with a partial roster, all doped up on painkillers, and barely an ounce of blood left to let out.
SEC teams looking like the back up catcher in "League of Their Own" LOL....
Posted on 7/31/25 at 11:52 am to bamameister
quote:
A lot of teams in the SEC will still have 4 and 5 players across the LOS. But even if you try to recruit the same caliber on the bench, they simply won't stay. I see Georgia and BAMA going after more projects, after the top-tier guys, who are more inclined to wait their turn and develop. The salary cap is going to pretty much guarantee a different recruiting strategy going forward. Super teams are going to be less super.
I think the highlighted part is the future of the sport...stockpiling 4 and 5 stars 3 deep at most positions is not going to work any longer. As a UGA fan Stetson Bennett and Ladd McConkey provide some hope that Kirby is pretty damned adapt at developing potential. Dan Jackson and Cash Jones are other examples that come to mind pretty quick.
Posted on 7/31/25 at 11:52 am to Jster15
Give it time. Before you know it, the SECCG may not determine the regular season champ. Same as basketball and baseball.
Page 2 of 5
Popular
Back to top
Follow SECRant for SEC Football News