Alabama: Deserving of the SEC Title Game?
November 8, 2009 by Allison Boyer
Filed under Football
One of the best games of this past weekend was the #3 Alabama – #9 LSU game for the SEC West title. Whoever won the game would go onto the SEC title game at the end of the season, so it was a big deal for both teams…and both teams fought hard for the win. In the end, though, Alabama came out on top, propelled to the win through the efforts of Julio Jones.
Julio Jones, one of Alabama's leaders. Image: Newscom
The question remains, though – does Alabama deserve a rematch with Florida? There’s no question that team deserves the SEC West title. LSU is the only other team that even comes close to Alabama’s talent and skill. Some are questioning, however, whether a game against Florida is really worth the time.The Gators are dominating the SEC East and with Tebow on the field, a title game may seem like a bit of a formality.
Here’s what I have to say to those commenters: it is Florida you should be questioning, not Alabama.
The Crimson Tide started the season against Virginia Tech, a team that was ranked #7 at the time and is still ranked as #21 in the BCS standings. Admittedly, they had some easy games with teams like Florida International, North Texas, and Arkansas. However, along with LSU, they also beat Mississippi (ranked #20 at the time) and South Carolina (ranked #22 at the time).
Let’s look at Florida’s schedule now. Charleston Southern. Troy. Vanderbilt. The only ranked team they played all season was LSU, and that was a fairly abysmal game. The Gators only won 13 – 3. Of course, the team did play a handful of games without Tebow, so it’s maybe hard to really evaluate the team.
To me, this isn’t Florida’s fault as much as it is a symptoms of the current BCS set-up. Teams have learned that they can come out on top if they pad their schedule with teams like Charleston Southern, as long as they still play most of the teams in their conference. Is this good football? No. Most of the teams in the top 10 could have performed as well as Florida with their schedule.
I think the SEC title game will be really interesting. It’ll be the first true test for Florida, and the first time Alabama will be fighting an uphill battle.
