Hey Guys, Who Rules? SEC Rules.

Is there a question as to what the best conference in college football is? I know S.I. ran a big spread about the power of the SEC in one of its college football specials this year, but their article focused on whether a team could survive the beating of conference play and stand up to fight for a national championship. Question answered.

Last night's BCS National Championship between the Gators of Florida and the Buckeyes of Ohio State was quite a game. Until about 10 minutes into the first quarter. I'm sure 99% of the viewing audience thought what I thought when Ted Ginn Jr returned the opening kickoff 93 yards for a score. And that thought was that the backjudge missed a blatant holding call on Florida's Reggie Nelson that prevented him from getting to Ginn to save the touchdown. Yes, the wedge did a tremendous job in creating a hole. Yes, the kicker's angle was positively awful. And most obviously, Ginn is the most electrifying player in college football. But there was a hold on that play.

Anyway, that was about the only true bright spot of the game for the previously unblemished Bucks, as they proceeded to lay a giant egg against a faster, stronger and better-prepared Florida Gator team. It's a good thing T.O. doesn't play for OSU because he would have been STEAMED for the duration of this one. The anointed Troy Smith couldn't get out of his own way last night. The speed of Florida's ends ate him alive to the tune of 5 sacks. He had -29 rush yards (granted, the college game subtracts sack yardage from the Qb's run total). The team AS A WHOLE totaled 84 yards of offense. 84! There was a mild fuss about Antonio Pittman before this game, as he is pretty much overlooked in this offense. I thought he looked great the few times he touched the ball in the first quarter. But once they fell behind, it didn't matter a lick. He wasn't a factor. Ohio State hadn't seen the likes of a Florida, or an LSU, Alabama, or Georgia, or Auburn, or Arkansas, over the course of the season. They played and slipped by Michigan and truthfully, this game proved to be the ultimate justice for the BCS system. For those who thought a Michigan-OSU rematch was the ticket for the championship, you were wrong. Florida would have demolished Michigan. Maybe USC had a chance...I guess we'll never know. So perhaps it's not total justice for the BCS.

Back to the SEC as a whole. This conference is fucking scary, no matter how you slice it. In my opinion, southern football in general is just better than northern football. I don't have too much backing to fortify this statement, but I've always thought it. I'm talking college, too...not professional. There's something about those teams from the deep south that adds another element. Maybe it's the climate, I don't know. This I do know: the strength of schedule for any team in the SEC made all of those teams better this season. It's really as simple as that. The SEC boasts 7 of 12 teams within the conference that were ranked in the top 25 at some point this season. Three of those teams allowed less than 175 points all season, and half of the 12 scored over 300 points. That translates to a lot of wins and a lot of good football.

If you take a look at the Big Ten overall, that conference has taken a nosedive over the last few seasons. OSU and Michigan will always be there. But what happened to Michigan State? Penn State? Iowa? Wisconsin had a great year and they'll be back at it again next year. But I was disappointed in the rest of the conference. All of a sudden Michigan State can't recruit, Penn State has no offense and Iowa is just up and down. They had some nice wins, but they lost to Indiana. Drew Tate is too inconsistent and their defense isn't strong enough. I think Kirk Ferentz is a great coach, but they don't have the players. JoePa at PSU is still a great man, but I don't know how much he really has left in that tank of his. Although, I thought he'd never walk again after that spill he took this season, and he refused to leave the sidelines for the rest of that game. He's unbreakable. Anyway, what happened to the days of the Big Ten Quarterback? Seems like Troy Smith is the only legit QB in the conference these days. Henne needs work, Morelli won't be anything...too small, Tate is average, Stocco is a little better than average, Painter is pretty average. I think the PAC-10 has surpassed the Big Ten in overall strength. I'd love to see USC play Florida because I think the Trojans would have beaten OSU as well. You're very welcome, La French.

My mind has turned to mush over the course of this post, which I started writing at 8am and now here it is 3pm. Work calls sometimes. In closing, I'd like to congratulate Florida and Chris Leak; now there's a quarterback who had everything to prove last night and he did. Well done, Chris.

Finally, Gilbert, you're fired. Get the fuck out.