Bama fan logic indicates we should share national championship

Submitted by StopTheTate on January 13th, 2022 at 11:54 PM
https://twitter.com/finebaum/status/1481747889755987968

Bama fans believe they deserve the National Championship because their two star WR's were injured.  I assume we can get some of that because our best WR was out all season?

 

A Lot of Milk

January 14th, 2022 at 12:48 AM ^

I understand the frustration because Bama literally destroyed Georgia, lost three of their best skills players, and then had to rematch them. What their argument SHOULD be, however, is that it's silly the Georgia-Bama SEC Title game wasn't treated like an elimination game like every other conference championship game or high-profile end of season game always is (see: OSU-Michigan 2021). But to do that would be to campaign against SEC bias, and for some reason, that takes higher priority down south than defending your own school.

MidwestIsBest

January 14th, 2022 at 7:40 AM ^

Is the point of the CFP committee to choose — as best as they’re able — the best teams in the country or the four best conference champions? I like that it’s the former — I want the four best teams regardless of conference or when in the season their losses occurred. Because we’re lying to ourselves if we say that GA isn’t one of the best college football teams. They are. So is Alabama. 

The ostensible purpose of the CFP committee is to determine the four best teams in the US. You can argue they made a mistake, but choosing GA for the CFP wasn’t one of them. The SEC happened to have two of the top teams in college football. That’s all.

Magnus

January 14th, 2022 at 9:26 AM ^

Why isn't that the case in all sports then? In the early 2000s, why didn't we just put the Yankees and Red Sox in the World Series? Instead of sending the poor cursed Buffalo Bills to the Super Bowl in the early 1990s, why didn't we just make it NFC vs. NFC with the Cowboys and the 49ers? Why did the NBA Finals mess around with Eastern Conference teams when the Warriors, Lakers, Suns, Spurs, etc. comprised the best teams in the NBA? Why was the Big Ten championship game between Michigan and Iowa instead of between Michigan and Ohio State?

If the goal of a playoff is to get the two best teams, then you have to put the two "best teams" on opposite sides of the bracket.

If the goal of a playoff is to get interesting matchups and/or provide an opportunity for parity, then you can't line up two SEC teams to play each other.

zguy517

January 14th, 2022 at 10:49 AM ^

The problem is that with college football there is just such a small sample size of meaningful out of conference games to just conference strength on. 

Sure it looks like Alabama and Georgia were both better than the other teams in hindsight and maybe you can claim the eye test said so all year for Georgia at least...but when the entire SEC has played 3-4 total games against decent teams from other conferences you just don't know.  What you do know is that Bama was the better team on that day in the SEC title game, let other conferences have a shot after that. 

In 2006 everyone was certain Michigan and OSU were easily the top 2 to the point where we almost got a rematch in the title game before that was common in the SEC.  Turned out once you put them up against Florida and USC that they weren't really all that.

JacquesStrappe

January 14th, 2022 at 7:47 AM ^

The “for some reason“ of which you speak is that SEC pride is essentially a veiled stands-in for antebellum Southern identity, much like Confederate flags and the myth of the lost cause. It is another tribal differentiator of pride that takes precedence over individual school affiliation to stick it to the Yankees.

LeCheezus

January 14th, 2022 at 10:45 AM ^

I've lived in SEC land for the last 12 years or so, and I still just can't wrap my head around cheering for the conference.  I've had conversations with people saying that it hurts your time more than it helps them if Alabama wins another National Championship, but they just don't see it that way.  I do understand to some extent wanting to have someone to cheer for and have some sense of "winning" once your team is out of the running, but man, SEC love goes way beyond that.  I suppose I would cheer for random B1G teams in bowl games because those games really are irrelevant in the big picture, but never for OSU in playoff/NC games because again - them winning just makes things harder on us.

Part of me also thinks "Man, if UGA had just showed up in the SEC Championship, we would have beaten Cincy then..." then I realize that would probably end with "...Gotten destroyed by Georgia 10 days later than we actually did."

AlbanyBlue

January 14th, 2022 at 12:20 PM ^

Yeah, the cheering-for-the-conference thing is a foreign concept to me. I'll cheer for some west division teams -- I actually like Minnesota quite a bit --  but OSU/MSU/PSU? Hell no. Not ever. Not even one time.

Maybe it has something to do with southern fans thinking "well, my team lost, but the conference is still better than all the others, so I have that going for me."

ERdocLSA2004

January 14th, 2022 at 12:07 PM ^

I agree this could be a scenario in the future.  However, this has literally never been an issue in the BIG.  There have never been two teams in the BIG championship game that probably both deserved to be in the CFP.  The OSU/M game up to this point, has also never been a determining factor since the CFP started.  We have been terrible before this year and OSU already had one loss before playing us this year.  2 losses effectively rules out anyone.  Now this could definitely be a factor in the future, but so far, it hasn’t been.

After watching Bama beat UGA, I would’ve agreed with fred.  After watching them dominate both fronts against us and Bama, I don’t think anyone has a leg to stand on to say they weren’t the best team.

hassanhaskins

January 14th, 2022 at 1:23 AM ^

Bama also limped into the CFP because Auburn decided not to stay in bounds and run out the clock. So there's not really too much sympathy here from me.

Georgia was the best team in college football nearly all year and deserved the Championship.

DGM06

January 14th, 2022 at 6:26 AM ^

Alabama & Georgia have only met in the regular season twice in the last 13 years; this needs to be addressed. If the SEC would put that game on the schedule then the inevitable rematch could shift back to the SEC title game instead of locking up two playoff slots.

Hopefully the SEC divisions shift Bama and Auburn to the east and Missouri to the west once Texas and Oklahoma join to resolve this. 

WestQuad

January 14th, 2022 at 7:22 AM ^

Awhile back I sort of got the SEC bias.  Peyton Manning was at TN and those years carried their rep for awhile and Florida, Auburn won National championships before Alabama tore through the record books.  On top of that Michigan was down and we lost to Miss St and South Carolina who were ascending alongside Ole Miss who paid off Laquan Treadwell.   Now, all of those teams other than Bama, Georgia and this year’s Ole Miss are a mess.  Don’t know if it is the portal, NIL or what, but feels like the tide is turning.

MaizeBlueA2

January 14th, 2022 at 7:08 AM ^

This man has made a whole lot of money exploiting idiots from the south and the caricature the rest of the nation has placed on that region of the country (and I'd argue deservedly so when you consider the macro).

...and they just let it happen, lol. They're his biggest fans and the majority of his listeners. 

It's wild. He's sports version of Jerry Springer.

GoingBlue

January 14th, 2022 at 9:17 AM ^

He is basically just Valenti but in the south. Just says things to make people mad, and "backs it up" with cherry picked stats. Long rants about how "pathetic and sad" it is that whatever school only has some stat that is bad. Anytime I hear someone talk about a coaches record on the road against top 10 or top 5 schools, I turn it off instantly. They cherry pick the stats, give no context to the stat, and act like they are so much smarter than other fans. 

They have listeners that have been listening to their stations for years, long before they got there, and do not know any better. I wish I could have these people listen to some much much better podcasts for a few days and free their minds of this trash. 

Bo Harbaugh

January 14th, 2022 at 7:45 AM ^

I’m sure this yocal wasn’t crying about the 2012 BCS national title when his once beaten (by LSU)  Bama team beat an undefeated LSU team in the championship game. 
 

bluesparkhitsy…

January 14th, 2022 at 10:14 AM ^

We're now cherry-picking one Alabama fan to represent their entire fanbase and then going even further to try to (loosely) apply that fan's twisted logic to ourselves?  Do I have that right, OP?