MisterGopher
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https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/65...c-challenge-who-would-win-a-16-game-showdown/
LSU coach Brian Kelly is getting ready to coach a mammoth season opener at Clemson. The SEC versus the ACC. Earlier this summer, however, Kelly lobbied for the SEC to play a more wide-ranging series against another league.
“Our first goal would be wanting to play the Big Ten,” Kelly said, after emerging from an SEC coaches meeting in Destin, Fla.
Kelly laid out what he saw as the main motivation: The Big Ten “holds it on the SEC” right now after winning the last two national titles, but the SEC still believes it has the deeper league. And what better way to find out than a full-conference challenge?
Big Ten and SEC administrators have discussed the idea over the past year. But it has lost traction amid other debates, especially the showdowns over the Big Ten’s preferred College Football Playoff format and the SEC’s conference schedule.
Still, what if it happened? Last year, before it was officially discussed, The Athletic engaged in a mock Big Ten-SEC challenge. So let’s run it back.
In our hypothetical challenge, our Big Ten-based writer (Dochterman) and SEC-based writer (Emerson) pretended to be the conference offices setting matchups. We used a snake draft format, where the SEC picked the first team, the Big Ten picked the team to line up against that team, then the second Big Ten team, and so on.
The result was marquee matchups, as well as some “accidental” interesting games, such as UCLA quarterback Nico Iamaleava facing his former Tennessee team. Purely an accident. No hypothetical influence from television executives!
After the matchups were decided, we chose neutral sites. Campus games are better, but the purpose here is to try to divine which teams would win on neutral fields. Plus, picking those sites was kind of fun:
Dochterman: Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia stirred up Northern aggression this summer by saying in “the Big Ten you’re not going to get beat on with the Purdue, Nebraskas.” Granted, Minnesota is no 2024 Georgia State, but he’ll pay a price for that one. The Gophers have a collection of playmakers, led by running back Darius Taylor and all-everything Koi Perich, who are more than capable of rolling past Vanderbilt. Minnesota, 34-19.
Emerson: Pavia knows what he’s doing. And Clark Lea knows what he’s doing not muzzling his star quarterback, who can make Vanderbilt interesting on and off the field. The ‘Dores also have more than him: Eli Stowers might be one of the best tight ends in the country, and the defensive front seven is good enough to force teams to beat them through the air. Plenty of teams in the SEC could still do that — but not the Gophers. Vanderbilt, 31-21.
Emerson: The SEC has a 9-7 edge in my picks, including 6-2 in the top half matchups, and 9-4 before you get to the bottom three matchups. This would support the notion that the SEC is deeper — but not that you can never take a week off in the SEC. Still, Arkansas is a tough out, it just drew a tough matchup here. Kentucky beat Ole Miss last year and nearly beat Georgia. And Mississippi State … well, if Vanderbilt’s going to be good, somebody has to take its place.
LSU coach Brian Kelly is getting ready to coach a mammoth season opener at Clemson. The SEC versus the ACC. Earlier this summer, however, Kelly lobbied for the SEC to play a more wide-ranging series against another league.
“Our first goal would be wanting to play the Big Ten,” Kelly said, after emerging from an SEC coaches meeting in Destin, Fla.
Kelly laid out what he saw as the main motivation: The Big Ten “holds it on the SEC” right now after winning the last two national titles, but the SEC still believes it has the deeper league. And what better way to find out than a full-conference challenge?
Big Ten and SEC administrators have discussed the idea over the past year. But it has lost traction amid other debates, especially the showdowns over the Big Ten’s preferred College Football Playoff format and the SEC’s conference schedule.
Still, what if it happened? Last year, before it was officially discussed, The Athletic engaged in a mock Big Ten-SEC challenge. So let’s run it back.
In our hypothetical challenge, our Big Ten-based writer (Dochterman) and SEC-based writer (Emerson) pretended to be the conference offices setting matchups. We used a snake draft format, where the SEC picked the first team, the Big Ten picked the team to line up against that team, then the second Big Ten team, and so on.
The result was marquee matchups, as well as some “accidental” interesting games, such as UCLA quarterback Nico Iamaleava facing his former Tennessee team. Purely an accident. No hypothetical influence from television executives!
After the matchups were decided, we chose neutral sites. Campus games are better, but the purpose here is to try to divine which teams would win on neutral fields. Plus, picking those sites was kind of fun:
12. Vanderbilt vs. Minnesota
Location: Chicago. The Navy Pier makes a perfect locale for the Commodores versus “Row The Boat.” As for ticket sales, perhaps the teams should play the game there, too.Dochterman: Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia stirred up Northern aggression this summer by saying in “the Big Ten you’re not going to get beat on with the Purdue, Nebraskas.” Granted, Minnesota is no 2024 Georgia State, but he’ll pay a price for that one. The Gophers have a collection of playmakers, led by running back Darius Taylor and all-everything Koi Perich, who are more than capable of rolling past Vanderbilt. Minnesota, 34-19.
Emerson: Pavia knows what he’s doing. And Clark Lea knows what he’s doing not muzzling his star quarterback, who can make Vanderbilt interesting on and off the field. The ‘Dores also have more than him: Eli Stowers might be one of the best tight ends in the country, and the defensive front seven is good enough to force teams to beat them through the air. Plenty of teams in the SEC could still do that — but not the Gophers. Vanderbilt, 31-21.
Final (hypothetical) results
Dochterman: I’ve got the Big Ten squeezing out a 9-7 win in this jamboree. I’m still bullish on the much-maligned Hoosiers, maybe even more than last year, with the Big Ten winning the CFP-potential matchups 4-2. I may have picked against the Terrapins, but they’d still stop my Western Illinois Leathernecks, which is about 300 expansion moves from participating in this exercise. I probably hedged the most on USC-Ole Miss; the Trojans are better than last year’s record.Emerson: The SEC has a 9-7 edge in my picks, including 6-2 in the top half matchups, and 9-4 before you get to the bottom three matchups. This would support the notion that the SEC is deeper — but not that you can never take a week off in the SEC. Still, Arkansas is a tough out, it just drew a tough matchup here. Kentucky beat Ole Miss last year and nearly beat Georgia. And Mississippi State … well, if Vanderbilt’s going to be good, somebody has to take its place.