LSU-Alabama is going to be huge. Nobody doubts that. There are other games with varying degrees of national relevance that others will be paying attention to, especially in the Big 12 (Oklahoma St.-Kansas St. and Oklahoma-Texas A&M). Yet most have, at least for now, forgotten about another game between top 10 teams that are at least on the fringe of the National Championship race.
SEC fans likely know that I am talking about the Arkansas-South Carolina game this Saturday, set to kickoff at the unfortunate time of 7:15 ET (why couldn't we get some schedule rejiggering from ESPN to fix this?). That is all of 45 minutes before the Game of the Century for this season kicks off. Too bad for those teams. Their showdown is likely to go all but unwatched, especially with Oklahoma St.-Kansas St. and Notre Dame (for all their faults as a program they are still a good draw on tv) on in the same timeslot.
Other than the obvious, why does nobody care about this game, especially considering it could decide the SEC East winner?
LSU and Alabama are perceived to be so far above everyone else that one of them losing to another SEC team is considered inconceivable – What that really means is even though this game matches the 7th and 9th ranked teams in the country, nobody really thinks these has a chance against their conference overlords. In Arkansas' case, they were already blown out at Alabama and will likely suffer the same fate against LSU and really there has been no evidence to contradict that belief in regards to the LSU game. As for South Carolina, they are riddled with problems at quarterback and running back and they lost at home to Auburn. Despite the high ranking, there is no way anyone believes this South Carolina team, even with its great defense, is going to score enough to beat Alabama or LSU if they reach Atlanta.
Arkansas and South Carolina both look overrated, especially in recent games – Other than smoking Auburn, Arkansas has done little to justify its high ranking other than not lose. They should have lost to both Texas A&M and Vanderbilt. They also nearly lost to Ole Miss. This is hardly the stuff of a top ten team. As for South Carolina, the offensive struggle against Tennessee was brutally ugly and the loss to Auburn wasn't too long ago. Remember that since the South Carolina-Auburn game, Auburn has been destroyed by both Arkansas and LSU and played in one of the worst major SEC games of the season against Florida. Each week that goes by, that loss seems to become more of a boat anchor on the Gamecocks resume as Auburn obviously isn't great.
There is a lack of star power on both rosters right now – Let's face it, star power sells matchups, especially in games below the top game in a given week. Because of Andrew Luck, people have cared about Stanford even when playing such middling competition as Washington and Duke. On the Arkansas roster, Tyler Wilson has been good, but hasn't really become that kind of 'IT' guy and Knile Davis injury robbed the Razorbacks of that possibility at running back. As for South Carolina, the Marcus Lattimore injury crushed their star power and, as good and hyped as Melvin Ingram and Jadaveon Clowney have been, they haven't really become stars. With no real superstars, there is no compelling reason on a players level to watch this game.
The rest of the SEC behind the top two really isn't very good at all – Let's face the facts. This year's SEC with Alabama and LSU at the top looks a lot like the 2008-9 SEC with Alabama and Florida well out in front of everyone else and little elite depth in the league behind them. That Auburn is still ranked somehow is proof of this (and the difficulty of the Tigers schedule so far) because Auburn most certainly does not pass the eye test as a top 25 team this season. Other than Auburn, and the teams in this weekend's big games, only Georgia is ranked and that could even be considered dubious given the lack of quality wins the Bulldogs have banked (Florida and Mississippi St. are the best ones). What this really means is that LSU and Alabama have elevated the league this season and they have elevated it to the point that everyone else benefits in the rankings, even when they lose to those team. That has led to overrated teams. When those overrated teams play each other, nobody really cares, even if those teams are ranked highly. Hence we have our top 10 showdown this week, that might as well not be taking place.
So should we really care about this game? Only in the context of the SEC East race. The division championship still means something and even if South Carolina is way overrated at number 9, especially without Lattimore, they still have a chance to win the division. That likely only happens if they win this week, making the game meaningful. As for Arkansas, they sit in limbo, headed to the Cotton Bowl to play Texas in all likelihood with not much else they can do other than surprise LSU and steal a BCS berth for a second consecutive season (good luck with that Hogs). So, for all of that, this game needs to be watched. I recommend getting the second tv out or set your espn3 feeds to this game. It is nowhere near the best game of the week and it really isn't of the stature a top 10 game normally is, but it still is a big game with major implications, especially in the SEC race.
No comments:
Post a Comment