It’s almost like the landscape of college football and other sports change over the years. USC, Miami, Nebraska and Colorado used to be power houses and now they’re not. Hell, BYU won a title during your 20 year period.
2 of those SEC National Titles came against OSU, when they were ranked #1. Nick Saban came along and won 5 with Alabama. The landscape will change again when these kids start getting paid.
A little assistance doesn’t hurt either.
When did the “Southern Speed” narrative begin? Was there not an abundance of Southern Speed between 1980 and 2000? Like, it genuinely confuses me.
Or could it be a counter-narrative was created against the Big 10 once they became a financial competitor?
I certainly remember being an underdog to Miami in 2002 and listening to guys like Mark May troll OSU about not having athletes.....but I’d put it around 2005-06 where a huge push was made to one, trash northern football as being slow, corn-fed, and plodding, and this almost mythologic narrative around southern athletes and how much better the football is in the SEC.
I mean, you can draw your own conclusions.
My biggest objection to the OSU vs Clemson game though, is the obvious conflict of interest. I’m still waiting for anybody, anywhere to show me where this type of arrangement exists in sports. Where a Network with a massive amount of money staked on two conferences (ACC and SEC), own the college football playoff, and one of the teams (Ohio State) is a massive ratings thorn in the side of the network hosting the playoff....and that network (ESPN) also owns the ACC and SEC networks.
I honestly think a lot of people just have their heads in the sand to some degree, and I’m not sure why. In any other industry, this arrangement would be nipped in the bud immediately.
Coca-cola owns Sprite and Fanta. Both Sprite and Fanta have their own executives, marketing teams, sales teams, etc. Imagine Coca-Cola hosting a “best tasting soda tournament”. In the finals, it comes down to Sprite vs. Pepsi and Fanta is named the judge of the tournament. Do you think Pepsi would feel good about that?
Gene Smith was irate after the game. Ryan Day was really pissed. You know why? They felt cheated. Did they miss a lot of opportunities? No doubt.......I don’t dispute it. But when you feel cheated, like the game is tilted against you, it adds anger to the disappointment. OSU has felt slighted by the CFP before (2015, 2018) and the Big 10 was boned in 2017. They feel like they’re fighting significant head-wind based on ESPN’s financial interests.
But then to see it actually play out in front of their eyes, in what I’d consider a pretty blatant way, is the ultimate kick to the nuts. You cannot overturn that fumble for a TD. Cannot do it. And they did. While an ESPN rules analyst who was tied into the SEC replay booth (had access to what they were doing), tried softening the blow by explaining away a catch that arguably had 4 feet down.
I’m just glad it’s starting to pick up some steam. ESPN is certainly sensitive to it....I think more fans are aware. But I’ll forever be disappointed we didn’t get to see our secondary at full strength against Burrow. Would’ve been a classic.