Why the hate on the SEC for scheduling patsies ? It’s not like your teams and conferences don’t do it either? Yes, I did find it a bit odd that they have that W game in November, but you’ll understand once you start conference play.
When you speak of this SEC myth you’re ignoring the facts that the conference has collectively dominated CFB for about the last 20 years.
So, the SEC has some built-in advantages and has created some others.
Built-in:
Most of the bowl games are in the South. So, they are closer to home (hence, more SEC fans attend them) and SEC teams are acclimated to the weather.
SEC schools are closer to most of the great recruiting areas. And that advantage is increasing, as more African Americans are migrating to the South, reversing the trend that existed from about 1910 to about 1970.
Created:
Scheduling OOC patsies in November. This can effectively create a free week for banged-up players to heal. And it avoids a conference loss late in the season, which matters because the human voters who determine poll and CFP rankings are subject to recency bias.
The conference determines the bowl destinations. This allows for matchups favorable to the SEC teams.
Playing marquee games at neutral sites. This helps SEC teams if they truly are better, because they don't have to risk playing before a raucous crowd favoring the other team.
Some teams don't schedule marquee opponents. To the extent this, occurs, there's a deficit games between SEC teams and other P5 teams. Since the SEC is already presumed to be the best, SEC teams get to coast on that reputation.
Don't get me wrong by assuming that I don't think that the SEC is any good. In an average year, the best team is more likely to be an SEC team than a team from any other conference. But the SEC has amplified its superiority as well through circumstances and actions that favor its teams over teams from other conferences.
I don't know if the names Roger Penske and Mark Donohue mean anything to you.
Penske's racing teams, with Donohue as lead driver, dominated much of American non-NASCAR racing from the mid-'60s to the mid-'70s, especially the Can-Am series, until Donohue was mortally injured practicing for the 1975 Austrian Grand Prix. Penske was a great organizer and personnel manager. Donohue was an excellent driver and maybe even better as a chassis engineer. So, the team was great from the start. But they also cheated better than anyone else. One example of that was dipping the bodies of Camaros (used in the Trans-Am series) in acid to reduce their weight. It was said that you could poke a hole in one of those Camaros with a pencil. There was a minimum weight requirement, so they had to replace that missing weight. But they did it with added weight in the chassis, so the center of gravity was lowered and the cars handled better.
