Thoughts From the Morning After: FSU 24 UF 19

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Nov 29, 2014; Tallahassee, FL, USA; Florida State Seminoles offensive tackle Cameron Erving (75) holds a gator head in the air after defeating against the Florida Gators 24-19 at Doak Campbell Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

Each Sunday following a Florida State football game, ChopChat editor Patrik Nohe gives his thoughts from the morning after.

Never let facts get in the way of a good story– ESPN sure doesn’t.

If ever there was a day to puncture the SEC narrative that the Worldwide Leader has been pushing all season, yesterday — when the ACC went 4-0 on rivalry Saturday against the SEC — was the day to do it.

Instead we’re getting a lesson on how the network can adjust its story when reality disagrees with the narrative.

Pay no mind to the fact that ESPN had Georgia and South Carolina in its preseason top ten. Or that Georgia was still in the top ten. Or that Mark May picked Florida to upset FSU. Or that the network hammers home on a near-hourly basis that the SEC is by and far the best conference in college football.

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On Saturday, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Kentucky were repurposed. This was not representative of the real SEC. No, no, ESPN made sure to point out that three of the four SEC teams weren’t favored to win. The ACC was supposed to win these games.

But that, in and of itself, is telling. Giving the conference a pass on Kentucky, Florida and Georgia are traditional SEC powers. And South Carolina — under Steve Spurrier — has been nationally relevant. Two of those teams weren’t favored against their in-state rivals. The other lost on its home field. In a good year — were the SEC to have won these games — you would see a connection made between the results and SEC dominance.

This year though, with things going the other way– there’s no such correlation.

This year, the ACC is just lucky it didn’t have to play the SEC West.

But there’s no consistency there, either. Talk about an overrated group of teams, the SEC West started the season on a hot streak — going unbeaten against its out of conference opponents — but nobody ever discusses the fact that amongst that group of defeated teams resides just a single quality win. LSU’s win over Wisconsin is the lone bright spot in an otherwise unremarkable slate of games.

Nobody was reminding the viewers on ESPN that these were all games the SEC was supposed to win.

When another conference cannibalizes itself nobody lauds that as a testament to its strength. But this year, an exception is being made for the SEC West. LSU is a a four-loss team, but in ESPN’s pseudo-reality the Tigers can still represent a quality win and are a great team– in real life, four losses is four losses and LSU has no quarterback. In another conference Bo Wallace is what he is — inconsistent and liable to lose you a football game — this year, in the SEC West, he was a fringe Heisman candidate.

The problem with this discussion is the glaring lack of consistency. ESPN forgets it missed on its preseason rankings as soon as it’s beneficial, but weeks after the SEC West narrative has gone stale, the network continues to string it along. Yes, earlier this year the division looked amazing. And Alabama legitimately looks like a playoff team.

But that was over a month ago. Texas A&M turned out to be vastly overrated. LSU and Auburn both lost four games. Ole Miss dropped three of them. Mississippi State — who jumped up over unbeaten FSU for no. 1 — has lost two of its last three.

These aren’t all playoff-caliber teams. Just saying that they are a whole bunch of times on television does not make it true.

Because when you stop trying to sell it and just report it like it is, ‘Rivalry Saturday’ was incredibly telling. The ACC was favored by the Vegas oddsmakers — a group who’s largest financial stake lies in its own accuracy — in three of the South’s biggest rivalries. And an ACC team went to an SEC team’s house and upset them to win the fourth.

In real life, that’s impressive.

In ESPN-land — where it’s most profitable to keep the SEC on top — Saturday was hardly indicative of the state of college football.

Either way, as of Sunday morning, Alabama is probably the SEC’s only playoff hope.

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