SEC Football: A Bunch Of Morons

The Southeastern Conference may be revered by many as the best conference in all of college football.  However, we need to look at how exactly the SEC has gotten into this position as a national powerhouse.  When it comes down to it, the answer appears to lie in academics.  SEC programs are sacrificing the good name of their school in order to create monster football legacies.  And it makes me sick.

The Facts

Let's first take a look at a bit of facts for a moment regarding the national ranking of universities according to USNews.com's "America's Best Colleges 2008: National Universities."

When you disregard the top and bottom teams in each BCS conference, the average school ranking for each conference is:

1. ACC 48.0

2. Big 10 52.9

3. Pac-10 70.6

4. Big East 95.5

5. Big 12 96.3

6. SEC 107.5

The schools are individually ranked below if you are looking for clarification:

ACC: Duke (8), Virginia (23), North Carolina (28), Wake Forest (30), Boston College (T35), Georgia Tech (T35), Miami (52), Maryland (54), Clemson (67), Virginia Tech (T71), NC State (T85), Florida (T112). 

Big 10: Northwestern (14), Michigan (T25), Illinois (T38), Wisconsin (T38), Penn State (48), Ohio State (57), Purdue (T64), Iowa (T64), Michigan State (T71), Minnesota (T71), Indiana (75). 

Pac-10: Stanford (4), Cal (21), UCLA (T25), USC (27), Washington (42), Arizona (T96), Oregon (T112), Washington State (118), Arizona State (T124), Oregon State (T163). 

Big East: Syracuse (50), Rutgers (T59), Pitt (T59), UConn (T64), Louisville (T65), West Virginia (T163), Cincinnati (T163), South Florida (T163). 

Big 12: Texas (44), Texas A&M (T62), Baylor (75), Colorado (79), Iowa State (T85), Kansas (T85), Nebraska (T91), Missouri (T91), Oklahoma (108), Kansas State (T124), Oklahoma State (T163), Texas Tech (T163). 

SEC: Vanderbilt (19), Florida (49), Georgia (T59), Alabama (T91), Auburn (T96), Tennessee (T96), South Carolina (T112), Kentucky (T122), Arkansas (T124), LSU (T163), Mississippi State (T163), Ole Miss (T163).

Doing Things the Right Way

The reality of college football nowadays is that head coaches bring in players that are clearly under-qualified to attend their universities.  Some of these national recruits score below 1,000 on the three sections combined. 

Reggie Bush was going to attend Stanford (4), but instead his measly SAT scores got him into USC (27).  I can only imagine what kind of score it take to get into a lower-end SEC school [e.g. LSU (T163)].

Keeping this USC-LSU example in mind, it brings into question whether or not the SEC is going about this in the right way.  Both USC and LSU are undeniably dominant programs, with each capturing numerous national championships in the past decade.

However, somehow USC can do it while maintaining relative academic excellence, while LSU does not even fall into the USNews's top 50 percent of national universities.

SEC Cuts More Slack Than Any Other Conference

Since the SEC is the cradle of so many academically poor schools, their respective football programs can afford to cut highly touted recruits even more slack on their grades and SATs.

The amount of slack that is cut in the SEC greatly outweighs that of the other major BCS conferences.  Half the SEC's recruits would not have even been considered anywhere else due to their horrific academics.  This is exactly the reason that the SEC can go out and get so many talented athletes year in and year out.

Anyone who's ever heard a word come out of Noel Devine or Javorski Lane's mouths knows that highly talented athletes aren't often equip with highly talented brains.

Steve Spurrier, while coaching at South Carolina (T112), complained that the academic office wasn't giving him enough slack.  If the South Carolina academic office was not accepting the players he recruited, they were clearly not the smartest tools in the shed.  Needless to say, all of these players that were denied admission into lowly South Carolina ended up at one SEC institution or another.

The End Result

The SEC will continue to be the front-runners for sending unqualified kids through college with a degree they will never use.  Is it doing these kids a favor to pass them through college just so they can fall flat on their face in the real world?  It is exactly like a Chicago public school teacher pushing a child who can't read through the doors to the next grade.  Eventually that child is going to be found out.

It's a terrible thing that the SEC gets to be rewarded with national attention and glorious press about their football programs.  They are hurting the kids that they push through the school just so that they can wear that football uniform on Saturdays.

The first thing that happens is you end up with Pacman Jones's running around the world causing nothing but trouble.  The only reason you never hear about the other ones is they were not so lucky to go to the NFL.  Hundreds of kids from SEC programs graduate each year without making it to the professional level. 

What happens to those kids?  They are thrown out on the streets to fend for themselves, even though they have no idea how.  The only thing they have learned is how to fight and go to the club.  Hundreds of these kids are in Pacman's position or probably even worse shape today.  And nobody cares because nobody remembers the second string linebacker who graduated with straight D's through college.

What Will You Do To Win?

It is important to win football games as a head coach in this world.  Don't get me wrong; there is nothing more important.  However, there is a right and wrong way of how to go about your business.

In the SEC, if you don't perform within your first three years, you are out.  That's the reality of the situation.  SEC fans want immediate progress or you are done.  That's why so many SEC head coaches over the years have resorted to an "any means necessary" approach to recruiting and coaching.

Since 1987, eight of the twelve SEC teams have been found guilty of violating a major NCAA rule.  Coincidence?  I think not.  The pressure to win is so large that coaches find ways to manipulate the system and outright cheat in order to win football games come Saturday.

The Bottom Line

The SEC makes me sick to my stomach.  There are few things less important than college football, but one of them is the lives of these young men who entertain us every college football Saturday.  Why should they have to suffer the rest of their lives just so we can enjoy ourselves? 

The SEC needs to step back and take a look at what it's become: corrupt and everything we don't want college football to be.