Just when you thought the season was over...

I know, I know. Some of you are saying, "Jason we need more of your expert opinion on a sport which you can't really watch since you're not in the US." Fear not fans, I got you covered. I recently read this article by Chris Low on ESPN.com. I've read several articles from this Nashville newspaper writer who works freelance for ESPN; he must be a Vandy man, because he seems to have some sense and doesn't possess the normal SEC bias (especially for a guy that lives in Tenn).
I agree with most of what he said, but wanted to add some comments:

"The Tigers (9-2) closed the season with wins over then top-10 clubs Georgia and Alabama, and their only loss after opening the season with a defeat by Georgia Tech was at LSU in overtime when they missed five field goals.
Making just one of those field goals would have put Auburn in the SEC championship game, and maybe we'd be talking about the Tigers being the class of the conference.
Regardless, they're running a close second."
After the Georgia game, I remember all the writers saying that kicker John Vaughn, got redemption for those 5 misses against LSU by making the last second one against the Bulldogs. I wonder if you asked him, "if you could trade one of the misses in the LSU game for the good one against UGA, would you?" what he would say. If Auburn wins the LSU game, they would have played in the SEC championship despite a would-be-loss to the Dogs, with a chance for redemption and a BCS bowl. Hmm...
That would have pitted the top 2 teams in the SEC against each other (and you can slap my wrist for saying so, but I think the Tigers are a shade better than the Dogs).

"For LSU, the fallout from the SEC championship game loss was a painful reminder to everyone in the league of just how warped the bowl process can be.
The Tigers (10-2) went into the game ranked third and thinking they might have an outside shot to play in the Rose Bowl for the national title if they could beat Georgia and either Southern Cal or Texas was upset.
Instead, they tumbled all the way to the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl despite having more wins and having beaten all three of the teams selected ahead of them in the league's higher-tier bowls -- Auburn in the Capital One, Alabama in the Cotton and Florida in the Outback.
But then, nobody ever said life in the SEC was fair."
Chris, what is really unfair is the Big Ten and the Pac 10. This statement will hold true 4 out of 5 times for the Big 12, SEC, ACC and some of the mid-majors: "It's better to end up 3rd in your league going into the league championship game, that to leave it as the runner-up." It's just protocol that the #2 bowls tied to all those leagues are going to sign the #3 team, since they are usually a good choice and they didn't just suffer a late season loss. Bowls want to lock up good match ups and start playing the marketing game, waiting for the championship game prolongs that.
So what should happen is the other 2 major leagues should play championship games too, so all the leagues are on equal footing. Because until that happens we will still have stupid scenarios in the Big Ten where the top 2 teams are uncertain because they didn't play each other (that didn't happen this year, but has recently). Did you know that if UCLA would have beaten USC, USC still would have been the Pac 10 champ despite being tied with Oregon and UCLA?

"Most Valuable Player - Georgia's D.J. Shockley
Picking against Vanderbilt's Jay Cutler is difficult. But Shockley wrapped up the honor with his performance in the SEC championship game. He finished the season with 21 touchdown passes and only five interceptions. His ability to improvise and make plays was the difference for the Bulldogs, who looked like a totally different team without him in their loss to Florida. The other thing to consider is just how good Shockley would have been this season had he not been sitting on the bench and watching David Greene the last few years."
First, I will admit, that as the season started, I was a "DJ Doubter", but he proved me horribly wrong (thanks DJ). Second, he value to the team is unquestionable. But finally, I have to take issue with the statement about how good DJ might have been if not for being benched in favor of Greene. Greene wasn't some chump QB, he was great and meant as much to UGA during most of his tenure as DJ did this year. I'm not going to cite the fact that he's the NCAA's winningest QB of all-time, because he had the luxury of a 12 game season, SEC championship games, etc. that many older QBs didn't have the luxury of. But if my memory serves me, DJ got pretty significant playing time over the past few years. I seem to remember fans and writers both questioning Richt's determination to play DJ in every game for at least one possession. And while DJ had some good moments, he also had some very bad moments (GT 2004) and the rotation seemed to kill momentum on more than one occasion. So maybe watching Greene was just the right thing for DJ in order to make him into the player and more importantly, the man he is today.

You're thoughts?

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