Jafus (Thinker)
Well-Known Member
Posted by Golden Kitten on the Onnidan board.
From the Baton Rouge Advocate...
http://2theadvocate.com/stories/112904/spo_joecol001.shtml
It's SU's bed, and now it has to sleep in it
By JOE SCHIEFELBEIN
[email protected]
Advocate sports writer
Maybe this is justice.
That doesn't make it any easier on the Southern players.
But there it is.
Southern and UAPB should have played on the field to decide the Western Division representative in the Southwestern Athletic Conference title game on Dec. 11. The SWAC should have made two divisional foes play each other.
Neither happened.
Now, there's this: 20th-ranked SU (8-3, 6-1 SWAC), the defending swac champ, has to wait while UAPB (6-2, 5-1) plays at Eastern Division champ Alabama State (8-2, 6-1) on Saturday.
If UAPB wins, SU and UAPB will be co-Western Division champions, but the Golden Lions go to the title game for the first time. That's because UAPB won its three divisional games, while Southern, with Saturday's 24-13 loss to Grambling, went 2-1 in divisional play.
The odds are pretty good for UAPB this week.
The Golden Lions have been off since Nov. 6. And Alabama State coach Charlie Coe has said all along -- and nobody can blame him for being honest -- that he's not going to go all out, not with playing the Turkey Day Classic, then Saturday and then in the title game.
Why should Alabama State play, in effect, two SWAC title games, beating UAPB to get to Southern?
What's the incentive to have a rematch with SU? The Hornets have lost to SU three times in the last two seasons, including not being able to close the deal with a 20-point, fourth-quarter lead at home last month.
This is the SWAC, where the rule is you do things out of your school's self interest. That's much like the rest of the world these days: Do your own thing regardless of whether that's the right thing.
That's the rule Southern has played by. That's the attitude, the hubris, that got SU, as an institution, into this jam.
Southern ducked out of playing UAPB in the spring, when the Jaguars could have played its Western Division rival the week before the Bayou Classic.
Southern balked at playing UAPB in the Gateway Classic. Not enough cash, SU said. Problem was SU had already cleared the way for that Sept. 25 game. Then, gosh, there was a scheduling problem. As if the date of a classic is going to change.
So, SU cited the inability of Texas Southern and Jackson State, teams in opposite divisions, not playing as a reason not compelling the Jaguars to play UAPB, its divisional foe. And the SWAC Council of Presidents rubber-stamped the foolishness. After that decision, Alcorn State jumped on the bandwagon and lopped off UAPB as well -- in order to play in a classic the Braves lost.
The SWAC tried to get all its teams to find a way to have those three games, but that effort, in June, failed.
So now Southern stews in the pot it brought to a boil.
None of this assumes SU would have beaten UAPB head-to-head. That game could very well have gone the way of the Bayou Classic, considering the Golden Lions pound the ball on the ground better than anybody else in the conference.
And none of this assumes Alabama State won't win anyway. After all, Southern has been a comeback king all season. This might rank as the ultimate comeback. Meanwhile, the clock will tick just a little slower this week on The Bluff.
The heart goes out to the Southern players. They've done so much, sometimes with seemingly so little, this season.
However, for Southern as an institution, maybe a week of sweating is what it deserves.
From the Baton Rouge Advocate...
http://2theadvocate.com/stories/112904/spo_joecol001.shtml
It's SU's bed, and now it has to sleep in it
By JOE SCHIEFELBEIN
[email protected]
Advocate sports writer
Maybe this is justice.
That doesn't make it any easier on the Southern players.
But there it is.
Southern and UAPB should have played on the field to decide the Western Division representative in the Southwestern Athletic Conference title game on Dec. 11. The SWAC should have made two divisional foes play each other.
Neither happened.
Now, there's this: 20th-ranked SU (8-3, 6-1 SWAC), the defending swac champ, has to wait while UAPB (6-2, 5-1) plays at Eastern Division champ Alabama State (8-2, 6-1) on Saturday.
If UAPB wins, SU and UAPB will be co-Western Division champions, but the Golden Lions go to the title game for the first time. That's because UAPB won its three divisional games, while Southern, with Saturday's 24-13 loss to Grambling, went 2-1 in divisional play.
The odds are pretty good for UAPB this week.
The Golden Lions have been off since Nov. 6. And Alabama State coach Charlie Coe has said all along -- and nobody can blame him for being honest -- that he's not going to go all out, not with playing the Turkey Day Classic, then Saturday and then in the title game.
Why should Alabama State play, in effect, two SWAC title games, beating UAPB to get to Southern?
What's the incentive to have a rematch with SU? The Hornets have lost to SU three times in the last two seasons, including not being able to close the deal with a 20-point, fourth-quarter lead at home last month.
This is the SWAC, where the rule is you do things out of your school's self interest. That's much like the rest of the world these days: Do your own thing regardless of whether that's the right thing.
That's the rule Southern has played by. That's the attitude, the hubris, that got SU, as an institution, into this jam.
Southern ducked out of playing UAPB in the spring, when the Jaguars could have played its Western Division rival the week before the Bayou Classic.
Southern balked at playing UAPB in the Gateway Classic. Not enough cash, SU said. Problem was SU had already cleared the way for that Sept. 25 game. Then, gosh, there was a scheduling problem. As if the date of a classic is going to change.
So, SU cited the inability of Texas Southern and Jackson State, teams in opposite divisions, not playing as a reason not compelling the Jaguars to play UAPB, its divisional foe. And the SWAC Council of Presidents rubber-stamped the foolishness. After that decision, Alcorn State jumped on the bandwagon and lopped off UAPB as well -- in order to play in a classic the Braves lost.
The SWAC tried to get all its teams to find a way to have those three games, but that effort, in June, failed.
So now Southern stews in the pot it brought to a boil.
None of this assumes SU would have beaten UAPB head-to-head. That game could very well have gone the way of the Bayou Classic, considering the Golden Lions pound the ball on the ground better than anybody else in the conference.
And none of this assumes Alabama State won't win anyway. After all, Southern has been a comeback king all season. This might rank as the ultimate comeback. Meanwhile, the clock will tick just a little slower this week on The Bluff.
The heart goes out to the Southern players. They've done so much, sometimes with seemingly so little, this season.
However, for Southern as an institution, maybe a week of sweating is what it deserves.
