Remember last season when Georgia was ranked fourth, above 2-loss LSU, but were then jumped by the Tigers after LSU beat Tennessee in the SEC Championship game?That win propelled the Tigers to their second national championship of the 2-aughts, and they became the first team with more than one loss to win a BCS title. At the time, Mark Richt was a ball of title-campaignin' energy, telling each and every reporter he could drag into earshot that Georgia deserved a bid because of their BCS ranking.
As an SEC fan, I always felt Richt's argument was facetious at best. Georgia ended the year playing their best football in recent memory, but to take a 2-loss team who hadn't even won their division over the SEC champion (with one additional win on their record) was never going to fly.
I'm not a huge fan of the BCS, but they got it right last year.
In an interview with Southern Pigskin, Richt had a confession of sorts: he didn't really expect his Bulldogs to receive a title bid after LSU was crowned Southeastern Conference champions.
"I don't really mind it the way it is, I never have. Even last year, I didn't think we got the shaft necessarily. I didn't think we should have been ranked fourth in the BCS going in and then have come out ranked fifth. I thought that was a little rough. I didn't really believe that we were going to make the national championship game. Once LSU beat Tennessee I didn't think there would be much of a chance at all, even with the two losing ahead of us," Richt said in reference to the end of last season. "I was going to lobby for our opportunity to do that and I could see where we had a right to lobby for that. It wasn't way out of the question to lobby for it but in my heart I felt like once LSU won the league...I thought they would jump us."Richt was also quoted as saying in a separate audio interview that he was campaigning for his players, so they "wouldn't think he wasn't going to try" to get him into the championship game.
The fact is, when you lose two games and fail to win your conference -- much less your division -- your title hopes are dead. LSU proved that an SEC champion will be considered with two losses, but to be fair, it took amazing circumstances for the Bayou Bengals to find their way back to New Orleans. Richt apparently recognized the true nature of his circumstances, but it would have been nice to hear him say that from the get-go rather than send his players and fans on a roller-coaster ride.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-21-2008 @ 9:24PM
Greg said...
The Georgia argument was worth debating no matter how many knuckleheads don't want to think it through. The fact remains that the voters thought enough of UGA to put them at #4, then they don't play and 2 teams in front of them lose. 99.9% of the time, they move up to #2.
Georgia lost two conference games, same as LSU...and LSU lost two conference games since UGA last lost. They even lost their last regular season game...at home. LSU accomplished NOTHING over 8 regular season SEC games that UGA didn't. They just happened to play in a division that didn't have another team with a 6-2 record. So, Arkansas beating them in the last regular season game wasn't enough....Arkansas had to beat them and tie them in division, consequently knocking them out of the SEC title game. What does that have to do with the comparison between LSU and UGA? The consensus among voters was that UGA was the better team at the end of the year by rating them higher(until the politicking by ESPN and others began). The results prove that point. When two teams have the same record, the team that has been playing better recently always(until now) got the benefit of the doubt. UGA was 7-0 in the last 7 games while LSU was 5-2. UGA beat AU and UF by a combined 37 points while LSU was escape in the closing seconds at home vs both of those teams.
Why is winning the SEC title the deciding factor instead of judging the better team by looking at the entire season? Look at a conference that doesn't have a title game. IF USC had the same record as another Pac-10 team during the regular season(as UGA and LSU did) would that be looked at by the national media as a reason not to play in the title game. Of course not. The national media chose to focus on one point instead of looking at the entire body of work and using common sense. Let the voters make up their own minds instead of force feeding them with what you think is right. Is it really that clear cut that a team that lost to Kentucky and then lost at home to Arkansas on Senior Day was entitled to play for the national championship? To hell with the BCS. Settle it on the field.
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7-21-2008 @ 10:02PM
GrapevineSooner said...
"Georgia lost two conference games, same as LSU...and LSU lost two conference games since UGA last lost."
When you lose your games shouldn't matter. It's the entire body of work that gets scrutinized. Fact is, LSU's two losses were each in OT.
Georgia lost a 16-12 contest early on against the other USC at home, then got blown out by Tennessee by 3 TD's. Which, of course, edged out Georgia for the SEC East division title.
"Why is winning the SEC title the deciding factor instead of judging the better team by looking at the entire season?"
Because the SEC, unlike the Big 10 or Pac-10, actually had the cajones a long time to ago to schedule a conference championship game.
And whoever wins that CCG ought to enjoy the fruits of such a win. You can't just conveniently throw the results of that game out just because it doesn't suit your argument.
And BTW, that team that blew out the Dawgs? That's the same team LSU beat to win the SEC crown.
Better luck next year.
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7-27-2008 @ 1:36PM
john said...
hey grapevine sooner get your years straight. this year it was espn's body of work. last year it was best team now.
are you herbie's brother?
losing twice while another team went 7-0 and losing at home to an unranked opponent giving up 50 points doesn't warrant a from 7 to 2 jump in the polls in 170 hours skipping the 7-0 team.
think about that last sentence and forget about uga and lsu.
that is not right in any year in any conference and it's what makes college football suck.
college football isn't a sport, it's a competion like gymnastics. kids do the work and play the game and leave it up to a bunch of writers who never played to decide who gets what. only in america.
7-21-2008 @ 10:11PM
Unknown said...
And on an unrelated note...
Blogsmith's commenting engine absolutely sucks. Not to mention, when I click on my own username to look at my profile, I'm apparently unknown.
And in addition, why the hell can't the link on my username point to my own blog like every other blog? If Fanhouse is really all about promoting blogging and fellow bloggers, you'd think they'd allow commenters to link back to their own blogs.
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7-22-2008 @ 12:44AM
Greg said...
Selective memory at it's finest. Didn't UGA also beat the UK team that beat LSU? Oh, that's right, it didn't count as much because it was in OT....did Les Miles write the book that includes that rule? Didn't UGA crush the AU and UF teams that LSU needed to go to the final seconds to beat? Is that not part of the "body of work"? A loss is a loss, but no one was claiming that South Carolina or UT would have beaten UGA in the 2nd half of the season. Hard to say that in LSU's case since Arky laid 51 on them at home in the last game of the regular season. When the pressure was on, LSU choked...and still backed there way into the title game.
That's okay, I'll be in Baton Rouge to see the Dawgs walk over LSU just like we have the last two times we've played. 45-16 and 34-14 in the SEC title game(then we got to hear LSU and the rest of you coon's whine about how tired you were). 79-30 UGA over LSU in the last two meetings. No wonder you're upset that UGA would have the audacity to call LSU the frauds that they are.
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7-27-2008 @ 9:50AM
elaine said...
Georgia just got took during last years football season, lsu won the bid for the title because they won two games in over time, well our BULLDOGS WON THEIR GAMES , SO i SUPPOSE BY WINNING A GAME IN OVER TIME IS BETTER THAN WINNING IN REGULAR TIME..ALL I HAVE TO SAY IS THERE IS SOME SEC COACHES SHOULD TAKE LESSONS FROM MR MARK RICHT, IN HAVING CLASS AND BEING A REAL GENUINE PERSON AND COACH. HE WAS JUST WHAT US GA BULLDOG FANS NEEDED..
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7-27-2008 @ 11:41AM
rick said...
LOL . 7 , YES 7 , GEORGIA PLAYERS HAVE BEEN ARRESTED SINCE THEIR BOWL GAME ! WIN AT ALL COSTS HUH! 7 HAVE BEEN ARRESTED AT FLORIDA IN THE LAST 18 MONTHS AND 2 SO FAR HAVE BEEN KICKED OFF OF LSU THIS YEAR . WHERE OH WHERE WOULD THE MIGHTY SEC BE WITHOUT THEIR THUGS ! IT IS SO OBVIOUS THAT THEY CARE NOTHING ABOUT ACADEMICS AND TEACHING RIGHT FROM WRONG . YOU GUYS ARE THE GREATEST ! LOL.
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7-28-2008 @ 12:24AM
cfb expert said...
georgia didnt have any business in a title game. with 2 losses they have to beg since they werent good enough to earn a title game. mark richt should take begging 101 classes from urban cryer.
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8-08-2008 @ 1:59AM
George B Vieto said...
The reason that Georgia did not make the national championship game is simple. LSU was SEC champion and Les Miles said that the two losses by the Fighting Tigers were in an overtime session against University of Kentucky and University of Arkansas thus the Fighting Tigers record without the overtime losses would have been two ties instead of the two losses.
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8-08-2008 @ 3:37AM
Mack said...
The Mark Rich Campaigned for a Title Bid Without Much Hope to the With five players suspended for his top-ranked team’s Aug. 30 opener against Georgia Southern, Georgia Coach Mark Richt is hardly pleased. “It’s embarrassing,” he told reporters. “It’s sad. I’m going to get over it pretty quick, because I have to..
Mack
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