Okla City writer's spin on Stoops and the SEC

champions77

Scout Team
Sep 6, 2006
149
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Norman, Ok
Bob Stoops stands alone. Tiananmen Square alone. Stoops stares, defying the monster, with dozens of other coaches cheering him but only with whispers. They support him from the shadows, from behind pulled shades.



Head coach Bob Stoops speaks with reporters during the University of Oklahoma (OU) football team's media day in the Adrian Peterson Team Meeting Room on Saturday, Aug. 2, 2014 in Norman, Okla. Photo by Steve Sisney, The OklahomanStoops dares take on the SEC. No, that’s not right. Stoops dares take on SEC hype. Dares suggest that the Southeastern Conference, while playing some mighty fine football, also plays a mean game of propaganda.
He actually used the word. Propaganda. May 2013, when Stoops opened the window, leaned out and said something along the lines of “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.”
And what gets the SEC’s goat is this. Stoops isn’t sorry about it. Isn’t the least bit sheepish that he questions SEC football’s depth and questions SEC football’s scheduling. Just the other day, when asked about the outcry from SEC fans and mouthpieces, Stoops’ response was succinct. “Oh, get over it. Again, where am I lying?”
There’s little mystery at Stoops’ strategy. The new football playoff is a PR (propaganda?) battlefield. A 13-person committee will decide who gets in and who gets out of the four-team playoff, and Stoops believes that all minds are impressionable. So he’s busy making impressions.
The current college football culture is one of capitulation. The SEC gets to dine first, and other conferences are expected to scrap for the crumbs from the table. Nonsense, Stoops believes. So he’ll challenge the notion that the Big 12’s lack of a title game is a symbol of sissification. Challenge the belief that any SEC schedule is rugged simply because it’s an SEC schedule. Stoops is planting seeds. Seeds of doubt that the SEC rules unopposed in the campus kingdom.
Here’s what Stoops means when he ribs the SEC on its nothing-special second division or Texas A&M’s schedule or its dominating defenses when the league’s quarterbacks are so-so: SEC football is overrated, even if it is the best conference in the nation.
You can be both. The best and overrated. Duke basketball? Excellent, and overrated. A great rib-eye? Excellent and overrated. Robert De Niro’s acting? Excellent and overrated.
The SEC’s excellence is irrefutable. Seven straight national titles serves as evidence. Heck, SEC dominance over the Big 12 is indisputable. The Big 12 can’t seem to win a Cotton Bowl, no matter how much it huffs and puffs.
But Stoops is right about some things. SEC status is in part built upon scheduling. SEC teams play eight conference games; the Big 12 plays nine, which Stoops wears like a crest above the heart. And in truth, that’s no small thing. Every pundit, me included, focuses on nonconference matchups. But conference games are the real rattlesnake pit. Three straight years, the SEC has placed a team in the national championship thanks to a Big 12 unbeaten losing on the road late in the season to a fellow Big 12 team. Is that a sign of Big 12 weakness, or a sign of Big 12 strength?
And Stoops never would take the time to make this argument — he might not have had time to even think it up — but SEC expansion has only made it easier on its flagship schools. The SEC added Missouri and Texas A&M to its ranks. Both solid programs. Neither a Big 12 heavyweight. A&M won one Big 12 title, back in 1998. Mizzou hasn’t won a conference flag since 1969.
But the SEC added both, kept the conference slate at eight games and suddenly, LSU was playing Georgia even less than before. Alabama was playing Florida even less than before. Auburn was playing South Carolina even less than before. Same number of league games, but with more teams, means fewer games against certain powers.
Of course, Stoops could have dented the SEC’s reputation. Beat LSU in the 2003 title game or Florida in the 2008 title game, and the Big 12 would be a lot closer to the SEC in recent championships, which is what everyone counts first. Stoops’ Sooners partially made up for those crimes by popping Alabama 45-31 in the Sugar Bowl last January. “Who’s afraid of the big, bad wolf now?” Stoops crowed upon returning to Norman.
He’s not giving an inch. Stoops is not backing down. No matter how much Southerners want him to. No matter how much Northerners, fearful of making the barbarians mad, want him to.
It’s sort of fun, especially since Stoops is dead serious. He never brings up the subject. Stoops does not seek this responsibility. But neither does he shirk it. If asked, Stoops will respond with words that will ..... the souls from Muscle Shoals to Pigeon Forge.
Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at (405) 760-8080 or at btramel@opubco.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM-98.1. You can also view his personality page at newsok.com/berrytramel.



Hey, I'm an OU grad, and a Bama fan. It pains me sometimes to hear Bob spout off, but he is not the one that initiates the controversy, but he doesn't avoid it either. Sometimes he responds to something Coach Saban says, like referring to the Sugar Bowl as a "consolation game" which it really was, but in stating so, diminished Stoops and OU's accomplishment. I understand Bama fans being upset with some of the things Bob has said, heck the SEC Nation is upset by it. Which is good, after all, that Conference pride, which you do not see in any other conference, at least in the same degree, just might have held the BIG XII together at one time, if they had a little more of it.

Roll Tide Roll!!

 

tattooguy21

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Aug 14, 2012
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Thanks for paying the article. I was actually surprised by the Tennessee game with them. Two end zone interceptions changed it from being a 27-24 game. Not sure if ou wasn't playing well or Tennessee stepped it up. Either way expected a more dominant game from ou

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deliveryman35

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Unless he breaks the rules or does something unethical, I'm done criticizing Stoops until we beat the guy. He has us on the scoreboard and earned the right to brag back in January as far as I'm concerned.
 

RollinTider1335

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Jun 12, 2010
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Unless he breaks the rules or does something unethical, I'm done criticizing Stoops until we beat the guy. He has us on the scoreboard and earned the right to brag back in January as far as I'm concerned.
When he actually wins the championship then he can talk about the collective SEC. He always will be playing for 2nd place no matter what he says.

"Stoops' Second Place Sooners" (I'm getting tshirts made). Haha
 

Crimson_Knight

Scout Team
Jun 8, 2006
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Didn't Stoops have to do all this. The program was becoming irrelevant, which represents Stoops. Loosing bowl games to some teams he should have never lost to. A conference that went from having a North and South to a 2 horse race most years. If we want to talk scheduling, who else benefited more from the BCS and carefully choosing their out of conference schedule. Stoops and his staff did what a lot of people do and got complacent.

I will give Stoops this. He talked big last year and it paid off. Now can he put this all together after a long 14 years to measure up with what college football is today. Personally I don't think so. Last thing I want to add is Coach Saban pushed the bar and these coaches know it. They just cant reach it.
 

CoastGhost

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Sep 5, 2009
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Even Don King has his place in the world. Stoops' whole "shout propaganda" meme is exactly that - propaganda. Yet, he drank our Flaming Hurricanes in New Orleans last year and until we put up, he isn't going to shut up. I have to appreciate him in a love-hate sort of way, like Finebaum or Spurrier; Stoops is part of the sideshow fabric that makes college football what it is. In fact, I really hope we get to hang out with him for a few days in January.
 

TideFan in AU

Hall of Fame
When he actually wins the championship then he can talk about the collective SEC. He always will be playing for 2nd place no matter what he says.

"Stoops' Second Place Sooners" (I'm getting tshirts made). Haha
Agreed. He has never beat the best team in the SEC, and until he does, it is all pot-banging. You'll never make me believe that OU would have beat us a Championship game. I can't prove that, but neither can they. Until Bob gets his team back into the NCG and actually wins it, nothing he says is relevant.
 

selmaborntidefan

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Somebody send this to Barry


Here’s what Stoops means when he ribs the SEC on its nothing-special second division or Texas A&M’s schedule or its dominating defenses when the league’s quarterbacks are so-so: SEC football is overrated, even if it is the best conference in the nation.
One must wonder why he hasn't exactly lit the world on fire against the SEC.


The SEC’s excellence is irrefutable. Seven straight national titles serves as evidence. Heck, SEC dominance over the Big 12 is indisputable. The Big 12 can’t seem to win a Cotton Bowl, no matter how much it huffs and puffs.
But Stoops is right about some things. SEC status is in part built upon scheduling.
Boy, could I have some fun with this.

1) Oklahoma's undeserved 2008 Big XII title is also built upon creative rules that the SEC rejected. Had they played by the same rules (which is the implication here), OU would not have even been in the national title game.

2) The last time I looked, the two conferences played the SAME NUMBER of games.


SEC teams play eight conference games; the Big 12 plays nine, which Stoops wears like a crest above the heart. And in truth, that’s no small thing.
Of course, I could turn right around and point out that in this scenario, EVERY BIG XII TEAM gets to kill Kansas (and that other Big Mouth with the Big Belly) but NOT EVERY SEC team gets a shot at whacking Vandy or Kentucky. So it's not like that extra game means anything.

Furthermore, the BEST TEAM IN EACH DIVISION DOES play nine games......and since no teams are based in Atlanta, that's four on the road and a neutral site game.


Every pundit, me included, focuses on nonconference matchups. But conference games are the real rattlesnake pit. Three straight years, the SEC has placed a team in the national championship thanks to a Big 12 unbeaten losing on the road late in the season to a fellow Big 12 team.
Of course, you didn't bother to mention that the only reason the Big XII teams were in the running IN THE FIRST PLACE was because the SEC team lost to a fellow SEC team, either.

2011: Alabama lost to LSU, sets up Okie State for the championship who.....blows a 24-7 lead to Iowa St
2012: Alabama lost to Texas A/M, sets up K-State who......loses to Baylor, a team with a bottom ten defense
2013: what in the world are you talking about this year? Baylor lost BEFORE Alabama lost!!! Auburn wound up in the title game when Ohio St lost to Michigan St (and I don't think they're the Big XII...)

And you completely ignored that in 2011 and 2012, Oregon also had to lose.



Is that a sign of Big 12 weakness, or a sign of Big 12 strength?
But the same question could be asked of the SEC.


And Stoops never would take the time to make this argument — he might not have had time to even think it up — but SEC expansion has only made it easier on its flagship schools.
Ok, I'll bite. Let's watch.


The SEC added Missouri and Texas A&M to its ranks. Both solid programs. Neither a Big 12 heavyweight.
Of course, who exactly IS a Big XII heavyweight? In eighteen years, Oklahoma has won EIGHT (that's almost half) of the conference titles. Is this proof of strength or weakness? Three other champs (Nebraska twice, Colorado) ran off to other conferences. Iowa State has never contended and national power Texas (if you say so) has only won two.


A&M won one Big 12 title, back in 1998.
Mizzou hasn’t won a conference flag since 1969.
Which couldn't be more irrelevant if you crashed a van of irrelevance into an irrelevant factory.


But the SEC added both, kept the conference slate at eight games and suddenly, LSU was playing Georgia even less than before.
On the other hand, the Big XII stopped having to play games against long-time national contenders Nebraska and Colorado and replaced with long-time non-contenders TCU and West Virginia. And nice of you to ignore the fact LSU plays Florida every year or that aTm plays LSU every year.


Alabama was playing Florida even less than before.
Which made the Gators grateful in light of a combined 101-29 pasting in the last three match-ups.


Auburn was playing South Carolina even less than before.
Auburn record against South Carolina since 1992: 6-0

Obviously, replacing South Carolina with Texas A/M is going to HELP Auburn, right?

Same number of league games, but with more teams, means fewer games against certain powers.
As opposed to the Big XII, where Nebraska and Colorado (who have a combined four national titles in the last 25 years....more than the entire rest of the Big XII combined since 1996) were replaced by also-rans TCU and WVA....


Of course, Stoops could have dented the SEC’s reputation. Beat LSU in the 2003 title game or Florida in the 2008 title game, and the Big 12 would be a lot closer to the SEC in recent championships, which is what everyone counts first. Stoops’ Sooners partially made up for those crimes by popping Alabama 45-31 in the Sugar Bowl last January.
Yeah, that totally made up for the pancaking Stoops got at the hands of ATM in the 2013 Cotton Bowl where there was no national title on the line. What was that you said about how ATM was not a Big XII power?
 

bamaga

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Thanks for paying the article. I was actually surprised by the Tennessee game with them. Two end zone interceptions changed it from being a 27-24 game. Not sure if ou wasn't playing well or Tennessee stepped it up. Either way expected a more dominant game from ou

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk
according to college football live, the Sooners made another statement to the SEC by thumping the Vols. Stoops accomplished exactly what he wanted..


I am lazy, so if you want, you do the work. go back before the 2004 sugar bowl and listen to Stoops comments about 8 vs 9 conference games, conference CGs , and round robin conference schedules when he was pleading his case and why OU should be in and USC should not. PAC 10 round robin/ Big 12 CG. A direct contradiction to what he is saying now.
 

bamaga

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i like all this talk about adding mizzou and A&M to the SEC , and both schools doing well. Have you seen the bump in recruiting for both schools since joining the SEC. everyone talks about OU/ Bama in the sugar. in 2012 Cotton, 4th place Texas aggies demolished Big 12 cochamp Sooners. no one talks much about that. Aggies have a different program than when they were in the big 12. they would probably be trying for their third straight Big 12 championship this year if they were still in the league
 

pyro

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Its gonna to be funny one day win Mark Stoops (the one Stoop I like) raises UK to a power football program and beats Oklahoma with a SEC football team.... Imagine if that really did happen!
 

Chukker Veteran

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Its gonna to be funny one day win Mark Stoops (the one Stoop I like) raises UK to a power football program and beats Oklahoma with a SEC football team.... Imagine if that really did happen!
:biggrin2:

Sorry to nitpick but I think if you've got a group of two Stoops and divide it in half, each half is still a Stoops.

On the other hand, there is something outstanding about calling either Stoops a Stoop. :biggrin:
 

TIDE-HSV

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My understanding is that they were. And who wouldn't want them with the great tradition that they have?
Even though Stoops' record against the SEC isn't all that great, they were extended interest in the last expansion phase. My understanding, mostly coming from OK fans who either write about OU or run OU boards is that, in the end, OU simply couldn't bring themselves to divorce UT and therefore all of the Texas HS talent. It's comic that ATM took the plunge and is now harvesting the cream of the crop in TX recruiting, partially on the basis of SEC exposure. Karma, baby... :)
 

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