LSUChamps03

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NC State had 6 players on the roster (2 returning and 4 recruits), so the urgency was lower.

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Valid point

I’m not assuming that he’s going to sign an all star roster when you have 15 spots to fill year 1. But he did replace an entire roster at NC State and win a lot more games than the prior season. Sure, the play-in isn’t a field of 64 game, but it is a tournament game.

We have no clue what the General has lined up. Just as with football you judge these things after all the hay is in the barn.

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Payton used to be VERY open with it, and blab about it to everyone that would listen, especially on golf courses

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It’s probably what cost us Mahomes.

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But Louisville and Texas have signed two guys, we are so far behind lol

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Michigans lineup were transfers but a few of their starters/contributors were there multiple years. They weren’t all year one guys there

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It was also Dusty May’s second season at Michigan.

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Could be any reason. Doesn't matter the reason and no point in us trying to figure it out.

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Correct. For the people thinking we got outbid and couldn’t pay up, that’s not likely the case.

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You know what's crazy? When I went back, I did not get a tribute.

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This sums up this pitiful bastard better than anything I could have come up with myself. What a self-absorbed, self-unaware titty baby.

There has been a turn to a more offensive-led philosophy. As a fan that can be fun. But I do remember the days when the one given in life was that LSU would have a solid defense. And that was equally exciting and a calling card I think you need to win in the playoffs.

It is interesting to contemplate where in the pecking order GA Tech would be in the SEC had it not left. I don’t know that Tulane would have had great success had it remained in the conference, but where would you place GA Tech 2026 had it never walked away from the SEC? I don’t know enough about Tech to make an honest assessment, I just perceive it could be upper half. I mean it did win a NC in 1990, so not like it’s had no success post SEC.

Well thought out post, I generally agree with most of your points. But I don’t agree the SEC is anyone’s lap dog. Nor do I think the Big 10, Big 12, ACC, or any other conference was ever the SEC’s lapdog. That’s not really how I view it.

Re: paying players, from my recollection reading about sports here and there over the years you can probably point to Bear Bryant and John Wooden as the architects of wholesale. But, hell, I don’t know. Whoever perfected it and “won” because of it good on ‘em. Honesty in recruiting and sports died a long time ago across the spectrum of college athletics.

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To say they’ve not fallen behind based on polls that heavily favored them all season is silly. Even sillier to chalk up all bowls as trash barometers because LSU had a program in flux. Illinois beat Tennessee in Tennessee. Illinois had a 50+ point loss on its resume and they both had about the same number of opt outs.

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Anecdotal again. Look at the big picture. Fallen behind as in other conferences may have a few teams that can directly compete consistently with SEC? Sure. Fallen “behind” the Big 10? Garbage. The SEC hasn’t fallen behind anyone.

Again, I don’t know who held out for other SEC teams during the bowl season, but I do know chalking up Houston’s 3-pt win vs LSU in the Texas Bowl, for example, as some evidence the SEC has fallen behind is silly.

We’re getting nowhere with this discussion, we’re both dug in on our opinions, and taking over a thread. Good luck to Big 10 Iowa.

I mean polls are certainly a widely-accepted comparison we can use to make an argument as to the best teams. Give me your opinion of what the final top 10 should have been. Your arguments against the polls seem like a jaded Big 10 fan with an agenda - “collusion”, “in bed with EDPN”… cry me a river, dude. Talk about opinions, that’s 99% of your argument. Love the guys who call other people clueless simply because their argument is countered by another equally legitimate (that’s being generous to your takes) point of view as theirs.

How about this trend. In the last 20 years the SEC has won 13 NCs, Big 10 has won 4, ACC 3. You can manipulate stats any way you wish.

And go on with your 4-10 bowl arg, it shows how clueless or willfully dishonest you choose to be.