Tuesday Spring Meetings: Spurrier, the 6-1-1, and other stories
It’s been a busy first day at the SEC Spring Meetings with everybody getting to find out how they felt about a play-off.
Everyone wants a four-team play-off, and in particular the four-best teams in the country.
But Steve Spurrier said that actually, the winners of the East and West should be decided ONLY on their records in their divisions.
He said: “We’ve lost seven games in the last two years, and five of them are to Auburn and Arkansas. We were pretty good against them other guys, I guess.” Nice way to talk about your divisional rivals, Steve.
In that world, LSU would have played South Carolina in Atlanta for the SEC Championship, by the way.
Mark Richt, Georgia’s coach told the Macon Telegraph: “I don’t know if he’d feel that way every year. I think this year he’d probably feel good about it. I don’t think it’s gonna change. … “I’m used to what we do. My mind’s ingrained that every game counts.”
He added: “The reality is that in our league play, and if you lose to somebody head-to-head or if you beat somebody head-to-head you’ve basically got a two-game lead on that team. So there is an advantage to that still. It’s not like there’s no advantage or no difference, there is a difference.”
But Spurrier’s rant did get backing from one Les Miles, who was his usual quotable self today.
Also, everyone’s getting asked about the new 6-1-1 schedule, which will see each SEC team play all six in-division opponents, one cemented ‘other division’ rival (ie Georgia vs Auburn, Tennessee vs Alabama, Ole Miss vs Vanderbilt etc etc) and one rotating rival (ie Georgia would play LSU one year, Alabama the next, Ole Miss the next). Most seemed to think it was a fair system.
Other things that happened:
- Spurrier bated Florida State fans after they were voted No.1 by Phil Steele. His press conference was a writer’s dream. Tweets from his comments (and commentary on that) can be seen here. He was also quite happy not have Arkansas as a permanent cross-SEC rival.
- Nick Saban brought his team in two days after their National Championship to basically give them a kick in the ass for 2012. He used the word ‘entitlement’ a lot.
- Ladies, Vanderbilt’s James Franklin looked goooood in his white shirt and chinos at the SEC meetings today. He also said that thanks to the SEC and its in-conference schedule, he’s happy scheduling no-one particularly good in out-of-conference. Just can’t wait for Vandy vs Divison I-AA over and over again, folks.
- Apparently Spurrier got more people at his press conference than John Calipari got at his press conference. It’s probably because Spurrier’s more quotable than you, Coach Cal. And for the one journalist that WAS there, congrats! You had your own interview with one of the biggest coaches in college basketball.