Mike Slive makes pitch for 1 loss SEC team

[Saniflush]

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- SEC Commissioner Mike Slive is making his case to media members across the country this week about why he believes a one-loss SEC champion should be in the BCS Championship Game.

At stake is the SEC's unprecedented seven-year run of national championships. If undefeated teams Florida State and Ohio State win on Saturday, many BCS analysts believe the Auburn-Missouri winner from Saturday's SEC Championship Game will likely be left out of the national championship game in Pasadena, Calif.

"It's not a question of being nervous, it's really a question of what I can do is make the argument," Slive said in an interview with AL.com today. "I don't get into feelings and nervousness. I think on the facts the SEC has a compelling argument that our team ought to be in the game. That's all we can do."

Slive said when looking at "the whole body of work" and strength of schedule, Auburn or Missouri would be deserving over Ohio State and Florida State. Slive cited Missouri and Auburn being 4-1 against top-25 opponents, compared to Ohio State and Florida State each being 1-0 against the top 25.

Slive's argument includes that after Saturday Auburn will have played 10 bowl-eligible teams, including five in the current BCS rankings, and beat then-No. 1 Alabama. Missouri will have played eight bowl-eligible teams, including four in the current BCS standings, Slive said.

Also, Slive cited the difficulty of Auburn's early-season loss at LSU and Missouri's loss to South Carolina in double-overtime. "The ball could have gone either way," Slive said of Missouri's defeat.

When asked whether Auburn's luck with a tipped-ball win over Georgia should be factored into the debate, Slive said, "It just depends on your point of view. Luck is when preparation meets opportunity, and the young man (Auburn wide receiver Ricardo Louis) was in the right place at the right time to catch the deflection."

Earlier this week, Auburn Athletics Director Jay Jacobs made his pitch nationally on why a one-loss SEC champion belongs, saying on ESPN that it would be "un-American" for Auburn or Missouri not to play in the BCS Championship Game.

"The words are his, but the points he made are ones I really appreciate because in a sense he celebrates the conference," Slive said. "The SEC champion with one loss ought to play for a national championship."

Five of the SEC's seven BCS championships during its current streak were won by teams with at least one loss. This week marks the first SEC Championship Game in which an SEC team isn't ranked in the BCS' top 2 since 2007, when two-loss LSU was No. 7 and rocketed to No. 2 after a series of upsets on the season's final day.

Slive said the SEC's circumstance this season reinforces why he wanted a four-team playoff, which debuts next season.

"Notwithstanding our great success in the BCS over a long period of time, it's so difficult to go undefeated in the SEC," he said. "Having more than two teams playing I think over time will be proven to help the SEC."

The argument over Ohio State vs. a loss-one SEC champion -- a debate that's not truly a reality pending Saturday's games -- comes as the BCS finishes up as a lame duck and questions remain over how playoff teams will be chosen in the future.

Leaders of the College Football Playoff have said that next year strength of schedule needs to be considered more than ever by a 13-person selection committee. To what extent should strength of schedule be the determining factor when considering a one-loss team with a perceived tougher schedule against an undefeated team?

"Certainly being the champion of a conference is important consideration," Slive said. "Strength of schedule is an important consideration. We're going to have people (on the committee) who know football and they're going to decide who are the best teams. The argument then is not necessarily because they're undefeated. It's looking at the toughest schedule week in and week out, looking at the full body of work. Being undefeated is an element, but it isn't an end all, be all."

For years, stumping for inclusion in the BCS Championship Game has been an art because two-thirds of the formula is decided by humans. Words can even be used against people many years later, as is the case this week with Ohio State coach Urban Meyer.

In 2006, Meyer argued that his one-loss Gators should play in the BCS Championship Game because of their tougher schedule. "We're going to tell a group of young men, who just went 12-1 in a most difficult schedule against six ranked opponents, that they don't have a chance to play for a national championship?" Meyer said at the time. "I'm going to need help with that one."

Meyer's Gators got into the BCS Championship Game and started the SEC's streak. Now Meyer's Buckeyes could close the door on the streak.

Former SEC Commissioner Roy Kramer, who played a crucial role in the creation of the BCS in 1998, said Sunday's final BCS standings will be controversial no matter how this weekend ends.

"It's a tough vote to make and we understood that from day one," Kramer said. "There is in college football a perception of undefeated that's hard to overcome. I'm not saying it won't be. It very well could happen. But when you leave out an undefeated team, the argument increases even more so."

Because of how few crossover games occur between conferences, Kramer said there is no way to actually know right now who's better between Florida State, Ohio State and either Auburn or Missouri.

"It's hard to argue whichever way people vote," Kramer said. "It just happens. To a degree, it will depend on how those (Saturday) games go. Does one of them become a blowout?"

The SEC's best hope appears to be a Michigan State victory over Ohio State. Slive plans to watch the Big Ten and ACC championship games with family and friends in his Atlanta hotel suite after Auburn-Missouri.

"If you ask me what color tie I have on today, it's green," Slive said.

[djsimp]

"If you ask me what color tie I have on today, it's green," Slive said.

 

[dallaswareagle]

Something tells me he would be pimpin a lot harder if another team was in our position.