Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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UPON FURTHER REVIEW TODD D. BURLAGE ual media message from ESPN that "the SEC is inarguably the best foot- ball conference" has become rooted as self-fulfilling prophecy. I'm taking the SEC to task because it's the one conference that essentially has a bid to the national title game reserved for its champion, a scenario likely to play out again this year. The SEC — and only the SEC — carries the muscle to get two teams into the national title game, as we saw last season with that forgettable Alabama- LSU matchup. Alabama beat LSU to become the territory, only eight of these 56 non- conference games will be played away from SEC home fields, with three neu- tral site games along with five "true" road games — three of which are an- nual in-state rivalries such as Florida at Florida State. • SEC teams also held a bake sale fifth SEC team since 2003 to win a na- tional title with at least one loss, while numerous undefeated and worthy one-loss teams from other conferences never got a chance. One or two losses in the SEC rou- tinely will be excused because the in- league schedule is indescribably more treacherous when compared to the other BCS conferences. Call me a skeptic. This year, the 14 SEC teams com- bined to play 56 non-conference games, four apiece: • Of those 56 games, only 13 pitted an SEC school against a team from any of the other five leagues with an automatic BCS bid. And so far, SEC teams are only 3-5 in the eight games already played, with five of these cross-sectional matchups remaining. Interestingly, neither Texas A&M nor Mississippi State — two top-20 SEC teams as of late October — scheduled a BCS conference opponent. More on Texas A&M shortly. • As far as venturing into enemy with 15 games against Football Cham- pionship Subdivision teams. All 14 SEC members scheduled at least one game against an FCS cupcake. Texas A&M brought a two-pack into College Station this season, while Notre Dame has never played a program below the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision in its history. The NFL Draft and ongoing BCS success prove the SEC is a strong con- ference at its top end. Alabama cer- tainly looks the part of a repeat and worthy national champion. And for full disclosure, single-loss SEC teams are 5-0 in title game appearances all time. But if Notre Dame suffers one loss against what should rate as the tough- est schedule, start to finish, among the teams still vying for a title shot, perceived conference dominance and style points shouldn't automatically push the Irish behind any other one- loss team, including those from the SEC. Irish fans and Hogan's Goat will cer- tainly deserve to be "fouled up" if that happens. ✦ Todd D. Burlage has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 2005. He can be reached at tburlage@blueandgold.com