READ TODAY'S STORIES AND E-EDITION SUBSCRIBE |  CONTACT US |  SIGN IN
Sports Extra!



SPORTS EXTRA BLOGS

FOR THE RECORD
LOCAL PROS

ALL SPORTS

PHOTOS & VIDEOS

OUTDOORS

FIND A STORY

EMAIL ALERTS

SOCIAL MEDIA

RSS FEEDS

CONTACT US
BUY PHOTOS & PAGES

ADVERTISE ON SPORTS EXTRA


Print story only Print story with comments Email Twitter Facebook Pinterest
Nick Saban, OSU and the swimsuit competition
Published: 12/6/2011 10:00 AM
Last Modified: 12/8/2011 9:27 PM


Nick Saban. AP file

Alabama football coach Nick Saban told ESPN this during a Sunday night interview: “Oklahoma State has a great team. I watched their game last night and I would really like to congratulate their players on having a great year and (congratulate) coach (Mike) Gundy.”

But Saban’s actions didn’t necessarily match his words.

Saban was so impressed by OSU’s 44-10 rout of Oklahoma in a de facto Big 12 championship game that he voted the Cowboys fourth (behind two SEC teams and Stanford) on his coaches’ poll ballot.

Now, go back and re-read Saban’s quote about OSU and it seems about as genuine as a beauty pageant contestant pretending to be happy when that hussy from (pick a state) wins the crown and a bouquet of roses.

In fact, what Saban did was worse than that. He pretended to prop up another contestant, then whispered to the judges “don’t you think OSU’s butt looked big during the swimsuit competition?”

Paul Finebaum, who hosts a sports radio talk show that originates from SEC turf, tweeted this: “I’m still shocked at Saban voting (Oklahoma) St. #4. His reputation has been cheapened by his attempt to manipulate the system.”

Someone responded by daring Finebaum to read the last sentence of the tweet to Saban’s face. That’s sort of a problem in itself if someone believes Saban is so all-powerful that no one should ever second-guess the emperor.

If Saban voted OSU No. 4 because he believes Stanford is better, that’s all fine and dandy. Everyone’s got an opinion. But if Saban believes OSU is better than Stanford and he picked the Cowboys fourth just to rig the election, then that’s weaker than the watered-down syrup at a breakfast buffet.

To be clear, I can’t swear OSU is better than Stanford. I can’t swear Alabama is better than OSU. I can’t swear Boise State isn’t better than everybody. Know why? Because college football is governed by a “think” system instead of a “know” system. We think we know who deserves to play in the national championship game, but we don’t know it because it isn’t proven on the field.

Grant Teaff, head of the American Football Coaches Assocation, once told me the only people who want a playoff are the media and fans. Really? Players wouldn’t prefer to decide things on the field? They would rather people make guesses about who the most deserving teams are? “Or be told you aren’t good enough,” former OSU and NFL linebacker Kenyatta Wright told me yesterday.

Many people who don’t want a playoff have some sort of interest to protect. Every excuse not to have a playoff is thinner than an Olsen twin.

Yes, we can have a playoff and still have bowls (and we’ve got a lot of horrid ones under the current system. Better bowls were used to cut Moe Howard’s hair).

Yes, we can have a playoff and regular season games will still matter. The NFL regular season seems to be doing just fine, never mind that a playoff is around the corner.

Under college football's current system, no matter what you hear from BCS huggers, every game doesn’t count.

Try telling TCU (version 2010) or Auburn (version 2004) that regular season games mattered. They won them all and didn’t get a sniff of the BCS championship game. You think they weren’t deserving. But you don’t know if they were deserving. There’s a big difference between “think” and “know.” It’s the same deal with Saban. I think he intentionally stuck it to the Cowboys. But I don’t know it.

We’re stuck with a beauty contest to decide college football’s national champ and, in this pageant, the contestants (at least some of them) are also the judges.

If we’re going to continue with this system, let’s make it a bit less fraudulent by eliminating the coaches’ poll from the equation. Then folks like Saban won’t have to pretend to be doing the right thing.


Reader Comments 22 Total
BS (last year)
Nothing surprising here. Everyone knows Saban is as greasy as they come.
HOGRIDER (last year)
"Anyone who doesn't win their conference has no business playing in the national championship game." ......Nick Saban, Alabama (12/8/03)
                    
bama belle (last year)
WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Check this out...(see profile)

Also, think again before you start throwing stones...look into who's fault it is we are still in this BCS Hell....Not the SEC, but your conference and others...The SEC attempted to get a Playoff Series in with the support of the ACC and guess who shot it down?? Check this out:
Andy Staples with SI explains: (see link in profile)

Quit your whining....and get a life...Yes we lost, but to an undefeated team, OK State lost to a 6/6 team who lost their next 2 games...Which is worse? LSU never scored a touchdown on Alabama!! So it looks like it's Alabama vs LSU in the BCS National Championship Game! All Ok State had to do to get there was to beat Iowa and they failed. Roll Tide Roll!!!!
                    
soonerk (last year)
Bama Belle: Why don't you run along home and stay off our website. You're better off pregnant and in the kitchen than on a sports page commenting on stuff that you don't know much about.
anchovy (last year)
Hogrider,
Saban never said that
z1590 (last year)
Let's get to The Meat & Potatoes of the situation: OSU has to hope for Alabama to squeak by LSU and OSU drill Stanford. That way ,they have a shot at a SPLIT championship.
Rowtyd (last year)
All OSU had to do was WIN ALL THEIR GAMES and all this kvetching wouldn't be taking place-plain and simple! Don't go into a game looking past it and thinking you've got it won already without having to play! That's how a 6-6 team takes the legs out from under a more dominate team without them even seeing it!
BamaJRT (last year)
As a Bama fan, I feel bad about the whole deal. OSU is deserving. So are we. So, maybe, is Stanford. You can make a case for Boise too. OSU is left out in the cold, and we're in, but now we're being vilified as though we had control over it.

OSU has a good team with a great offense. You should be able to have one bad night. It would have been an interesting matchup with LSU.

What I find amusing is that Tramel and Finebaum hammer Saban but give the other four coaches WHO ALSO voted OSU 4th a free pass. And what about Troy Calhoun at Air Force, who had them 5th? How about calling out Pinkel who took a parting shot and ranked OSU 4th as well?

What did you expect Saban to do? All he heard is that this thing could have come down to thousandths of a point. What if his vote was the difference? His job is to protect and promote his program. This isn't church league softball. A national championship was on the line.

OSU fans, you're deserving. This system is broken and it sucks. I wish we could meet and settle it on the field like it's done in every other sport. I wish you luck in your bowl game.
                    
bama belle (last year)
Great post BamaJRT....I also pointed out that the fault of the situation we are in is not the fault of the SEC...If you haven't seen Andy Staples video on SI website please watch (see the link in my profile)....Mike Slive with the backing of the ACC attempted in 2008 to get a playoff system put in place but it was the other conferences, like their's who nixed it, they said that everything was just fine like it was....NOT...now they are having to live with the consequences of their actions....Roll Tide!!!!!
                    
218432 (last year)
Bama Belle: Shut your trap and post on your own newspaper.
justafan (last year)
Yup. It's so screwy that with all that it's talked about it seems as if Alabama's biggest quality win was a loss to LSU. But that's what we're left with.
Danomite Dandy Dan (last year)
Alabama? Yawn.
OSU would whip that team's rear.
Saban knows it.
I'll let the Alabama-LSU fans watch that game.
LSU already beat that matchup.
                    
pointnlaugh (last year)
OSU blew a 24-7 third quarter lead. Their defense couldn't (107th of 110) can't stop a nose bleed. Trent would absolutely smash your D. Check Bama's D stats. #1 rushing, pass defense, 3rd down conversions, scoring, most 3 and outs...
                    
BamaJRT (last year)
I tried to be classy, Dan. Just so you know, we HAMMERED all the 6-6 teams on our schedule. HAMMERED THEM. And we when we beat THE HELL out of our arch rival ON THE ROAD, we didn't storm the field and tear down goal posts like it never happens.

You can't accept compliments. What an as$.
bamagirl00 (last year)
Just want to echo BamaJRT's comment. I hate the BCS system, the way championship contenders and bowl matchups are chosen, and I would've loved to have seen the question settled on the field, with Bama v. OK State playing at a neutral site for the right to try to take down LSU. I definitely had mixed feelings watching the Saturday night BCS announcement--got a lot of respect for Gundy & OK State, for all the underdog/non-establishment teams out there, in fact. I'm just hoping the outrage gets redirected--it shouldn't be aimed at Bama fans or players but at getting this silly system changed.
sokodad (last year)
I guess I'm in the minority here. I maintain that the current system, with the conference not having a championship game, is the best set-up for us to get the most teams in the MNC.

Our undefeated champ will go every single time. Had OU or Texas had our resume this year, they would've been voted into the MNC over Bama. Teams like oSu and KSU aren't going to get there unless we go undefeated, or until we establish a stronger national brand through a number of years like the last two.
Danomite Dandy Dan (last year)
Hehe......
I'm an OU fan.
Just seeing what everyone was really feeling.

I'll go back to the doghouse and chew on the discards. LOL
ELESHU POKE (last year)
Very classy and well written posts, bamagirl00 and BamaJRT.
As an LA native and lifelong LSU fan who married into the OSU family, I have a double-dog in this fight. Yes, I was very disappointed that OSU didn't get into the NC game. People can say all they want about the discrepancy of the losses, ISU vs. LSU, but in my opinion winning a conference championship should add some validity or extra "points" to the loss discrepancy.
The bottom line is that OSU and Bama are great teams. As an OSU fan, I "think" they should be in the NC game and would have loved to see OSU's offense against LSU's defense. But unfortunately not enough voters "think" like I do. And that's the problem. The voters "think" Bama is the second best team, but unfortunately we will never know for sure.
And as an LSU fan, it sure would suck to lose the nat'l championship to a team we already beat.
The system will never be perfect as long as there is a human element involved in the selection process. Explain to me how some wiesel voted OSU 6th, behind Oregon and Houston!
This year OSU got screwed, but who knows, next year it could be Bama or LSU on the outside looking in and we all will be saying the same thing.
Again, thanks for coming on here and being classy Bama fans. And to think, up until now I thought that was an oxymoron. :)
120961 (last year)
You know I love college football but in the scheme of things who is the national champion is really not all that important.

My brother is a commanding officer of a USMC unit that is in a war zone- what he does and they do matters.

My wife is "hopefully" on her way to recovering from a double masectomy this summer so we sold our season OSU tickets. What her Dr's do and what she does matters.

My kids are in the process of determing thweir college majors- I think this has the potential to matter as one of them is leaning to becoming a teacher and the other to going premed.

Who wins the mythical national championship is fun but in the long run isn't all that important.
                    
ELESHU POKE (last year)
You're absolutely right, sports in general pale in comparison to life's everyday problems. But for me, it is a way to decompress and get my mind off of the financial and health worries for just a little bit.

Prayers going out to your wife and brother.
tngilmer (last year)
Mike Slive and the SEC proposed a plus one playoff system, but you other guys in the Big 12 did not want it. How is that opposition working out for you now?
BOOMER! SOONER! (last year)
The SEC folks have a point about that playoff proposal of theirs that got shot down.

They also have a point about OSU losing to Iowa State.

We in the Big 12 also have a point about Bama already losing to LSU.

We also have a point about Bama beating only two teams ranked in the final poll compared to Okie State's 5.

So many points. So many opinions. So few happy viewers outside of the state of Alabama.
22 comments displayed


To post comments on tulsaworld.com, you must be an active Tulsa World print or digital subscriber and signed into your account.


Games People Play

Tulsa World sports writer Jimmie Tramel is a former class president at Locust Grove High School. He graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern State University with a journalism degree and, while attending college, was sports editor of the Pryor Daily Times. He joined the Tulsa World on Oct. 17, 1989, the same day an earthquake struck the World Series. He is the OSU basketball beat writer and a columnist and feature writer during football season. In 2007, he wrote a book about Oklahoma State football with former Cowboy coach Pat Jones.

Follow Jimmie Tramel on Twitter

Subscribe to this blog


Archive

 
Jimmie Tramel's Blog Archive:

2/2013  1/2013  12/2012  11/2012  10/2012  9/2012  
8/2012  7/2012  6/2012  5/2012  4/2012  3/2012  
2/2012  1/2012  12/2011  11/2011  10/2011  9/2011  
8/2011  7/2011  6/2011  5/2011  4/2011  3/2011  
2/2011  1/2011  12/2010  11/2010  10/2010  9/2010  
8/2010  7/2010  6/2010  5/2010  4/2010  3/2010  
2/2010  1/2010  12/2009  11/2009  10/2009  9/2009  
8/2009  7/2009  6/2009  5/2009  4/2009  3/2009  
2/2009  1/2009  12/2008  11/2008  10/2008  9/2008  
8/2008  7/2008  6/2008  5/2008  4/2008  3/2008  
2/2008  1/2008  12/2007  11/2007  10/2007  9/2007  
8/2007  7/2007  6/2007  5/2007  4/2007  3/2007  
2/2007  1/2007  12/2006  11/2006  10/2006  9/2006  
8/2006  





Home | Contact Us | Search | Subscribe | Customer Service | About | Advertise
Copyright © 2013, World Publishing Co. All rights reserved.