GeauxTo
12-02-2005, 10:43 PM
LSU-Georgia meet in high-stakes SEC Championship Game
December 2, 2005
http://cmsimg.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=D9&Date=20051202&Category=SPORTS0202&ArtNo=312020008&Ref=AR&Profile=1001&MaxW=375
LSU coach Les Miles (left) and Georgia coach Mark Richt pose with the SEC football championship trophy in Atlanta. (John Bazemore/AP)
By Glenn Guilbeau gguilbeau@gannett.com (gguilbeau@gannett.com)
ATLANTA -- To the winner, the Bowl Championship Series Sugar Bowl and $13.5 million.
To the loser, who really knows? The Cotton Bowl in Dallas for $3 million? The Peach Bowl back in Atlanta for $1.6 million? Do I hear the Outback Bowl in Tampa for $2 million? What about the Independence Bowl in Shreveport for $1.2 million?
No. 3 LSU (10-1) and No. 13 Georgia (9-2) meet at 5 p.m. today in the Georgia Dome in the 14th Southeastern Conference Championship Game on CBS. Meanwhile, in the pressbox and suites up above the helmeted and padded combatants, the bowl pairings will be decided by men in strangely tinted sports coats with cellular phones.
"Hey Skip, how many tickets do you think you could sell in Tampa?" Outback Bowl president Jim McVay asks LSU athletic director Skip Bertman late in the second quarter of the 2001 SEC championship game here as No. 2 and 10-1 Tennessee leads No. 21 and 8-3 LSU, 17-7.
"Oh, a lot," Bertman says. "We travel extremely well."
But LSU comes back with a field goal just before halftime, two more in the third quarter and takes a 24-17 lead early in the fourth quarter.
"Nice talking to you Skip," McVay says as the momentum shifts. "Good job."
And McVay is gone, trying to get someone from 8-3 South Carolina on the phone.
LSU won 31-20 and went to the Sugar. South Carolina went to the Outback, and Tennessee went to the Citrus Bowl.
"It's one of the great games in sports," LSU assistant athletic director Herb Vincent said. "The way bowl scouts maneuver around."
And it will happen again tonight, particularly if LSU loses. Georgia officials have said frequently this week that the Bulldogs will go to the Peach Bowl if they lose to LSU tonight. LSU is not so sure.
"It is very arbitrary," Bertman said. "And it is especially frustrating when you're sitting here with a 10-win team."
Should LSU lose today, it will be 10-2, which usually means a bowl in the state of Florida or the Cotton Bowl, not the Peach Bowl, which is where 7-4 LSU was happy to go to in 2000. The Peach did get 10-2 Tennessee in 2003, but it usually settles for three- and four-loss teams. Peach Bowl president Gary Stokan, though, has told reporters this week that he has a shot at LSU.
"I really feel like we deserve something like the Capital One or the Outback," Bertman said. "This team is a great story. It overcame two hurricanes. There are not a lot of teams that can say that. I've talked to the Cap One and the Outback, and they say they're considering us. But I don't know how sincere they are."
This is why LSU officials sent out glossy packets to the Outback, Capital One, Cotton, Fiesta and Orange this week describing the Tigers' recent success in bowls as far as fan travel and ticket purchases.
"We travel with any school," Bertman said. "The LSU story this year is better than the Joe Pa (Penn State coach Joe Paterno) story."
The Capital One, which just had LSU last year, has reportedly locked in 9-2 Auburn, however. The Outback is leaning heavily to 8-3 Florida, which leaves 9-2 Alabama, 7-4 South Carolina and either 10-2 LSU or 9-3 Georgia for the Cotton, Independence and Peach.
"I feel better about the Cotton than I do about the Outback," Bertman said.
But the Cotton and Alabama have had a lot of contact, and LSU was just in the Cotton Bowl after the 2002 season.
"I think the Cotton is lining up Alabama if we win the SEC championship game," Bertman said.
A bowl official, though, said the Cotton wants tradition-rich and fresh Alabama, which has not been to the Cotton Bowl since 1982.
"I honestly don't know where we'll be if we lose," Bertman said. "We're kind of in the dark. It's the SEC championship game loser syndrome that's the problem."
Auburn, for example, fell to the Peach at 9-3 after reaching the SEC championship game in 1997 and losing 30-29 to Tennessee. Arkansas lost the 2002 SEC title game 30-3 to Georgia and found itself in the $750,000 Music City Bowl in Nashville at 9-4.
Help is on the way, though.
SEC commissioner Mike Slive said Friday a plan is in the works to protect the SEC Championship Game "runner-up."
"We are working toward a written agreement with the bowls that would ensure that the championship game runner-up is evaluated for a bowl on its body of work over the course of an entire season," Slive said.
Georgia coach Mark Richt, whose fan base may not venture out of state this postseason should his team lose tonight, likes the idea.
"I think if there's one thing that all the coaches would agree on, it is that there needs to be some type of protection for the runner-up of this game," he said. "I mean, the bowl system has never been fair. The only thing that's locked in is the winner of this game gets a BCS game."
LSU coach Les Miles' plan is to control the bowl situation on the field.
"I am more concerned about this game," he said. "Hopefully, we'll take care of our own bowl scenario."
December 2, 2005
http://cmsimg.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=D9&Date=20051202&Category=SPORTS0202&ArtNo=312020008&Ref=AR&Profile=1001&MaxW=375
LSU coach Les Miles (left) and Georgia coach Mark Richt pose with the SEC football championship trophy in Atlanta. (John Bazemore/AP)
By Glenn Guilbeau gguilbeau@gannett.com (gguilbeau@gannett.com)
ATLANTA -- To the winner, the Bowl Championship Series Sugar Bowl and $13.5 million.
To the loser, who really knows? The Cotton Bowl in Dallas for $3 million? The Peach Bowl back in Atlanta for $1.6 million? Do I hear the Outback Bowl in Tampa for $2 million? What about the Independence Bowl in Shreveport for $1.2 million?
No. 3 LSU (10-1) and No. 13 Georgia (9-2) meet at 5 p.m. today in the Georgia Dome in the 14th Southeastern Conference Championship Game on CBS. Meanwhile, in the pressbox and suites up above the helmeted and padded combatants, the bowl pairings will be decided by men in strangely tinted sports coats with cellular phones.
"Hey Skip, how many tickets do you think you could sell in Tampa?" Outback Bowl president Jim McVay asks LSU athletic director Skip Bertman late in the second quarter of the 2001 SEC championship game here as No. 2 and 10-1 Tennessee leads No. 21 and 8-3 LSU, 17-7.
"Oh, a lot," Bertman says. "We travel extremely well."
But LSU comes back with a field goal just before halftime, two more in the third quarter and takes a 24-17 lead early in the fourth quarter.
"Nice talking to you Skip," McVay says as the momentum shifts. "Good job."
And McVay is gone, trying to get someone from 8-3 South Carolina on the phone.
LSU won 31-20 and went to the Sugar. South Carolina went to the Outback, and Tennessee went to the Citrus Bowl.
"It's one of the great games in sports," LSU assistant athletic director Herb Vincent said. "The way bowl scouts maneuver around."
And it will happen again tonight, particularly if LSU loses. Georgia officials have said frequently this week that the Bulldogs will go to the Peach Bowl if they lose to LSU tonight. LSU is not so sure.
"It is very arbitrary," Bertman said. "And it is especially frustrating when you're sitting here with a 10-win team."
Should LSU lose today, it will be 10-2, which usually means a bowl in the state of Florida or the Cotton Bowl, not the Peach Bowl, which is where 7-4 LSU was happy to go to in 2000. The Peach did get 10-2 Tennessee in 2003, but it usually settles for three- and four-loss teams. Peach Bowl president Gary Stokan, though, has told reporters this week that he has a shot at LSU.
"I really feel like we deserve something like the Capital One or the Outback," Bertman said. "This team is a great story. It overcame two hurricanes. There are not a lot of teams that can say that. I've talked to the Cap One and the Outback, and they say they're considering us. But I don't know how sincere they are."
This is why LSU officials sent out glossy packets to the Outback, Capital One, Cotton, Fiesta and Orange this week describing the Tigers' recent success in bowls as far as fan travel and ticket purchases.
"We travel with any school," Bertman said. "The LSU story this year is better than the Joe Pa (Penn State coach Joe Paterno) story."
The Capital One, which just had LSU last year, has reportedly locked in 9-2 Auburn, however. The Outback is leaning heavily to 8-3 Florida, which leaves 9-2 Alabama, 7-4 South Carolina and either 10-2 LSU or 9-3 Georgia for the Cotton, Independence and Peach.
"I feel better about the Cotton than I do about the Outback," Bertman said.
But the Cotton and Alabama have had a lot of contact, and LSU was just in the Cotton Bowl after the 2002 season.
"I think the Cotton is lining up Alabama if we win the SEC championship game," Bertman said.
A bowl official, though, said the Cotton wants tradition-rich and fresh Alabama, which has not been to the Cotton Bowl since 1982.
"I honestly don't know where we'll be if we lose," Bertman said. "We're kind of in the dark. It's the SEC championship game loser syndrome that's the problem."
Auburn, for example, fell to the Peach at 9-3 after reaching the SEC championship game in 1997 and losing 30-29 to Tennessee. Arkansas lost the 2002 SEC title game 30-3 to Georgia and found itself in the $750,000 Music City Bowl in Nashville at 9-4.
Help is on the way, though.
SEC commissioner Mike Slive said Friday a plan is in the works to protect the SEC Championship Game "runner-up."
"We are working toward a written agreement with the bowls that would ensure that the championship game runner-up is evaluated for a bowl on its body of work over the course of an entire season," Slive said.
Georgia coach Mark Richt, whose fan base may not venture out of state this postseason should his team lose tonight, likes the idea.
"I think if there's one thing that all the coaches would agree on, it is that there needs to be some type of protection for the runner-up of this game," he said. "I mean, the bowl system has never been fair. The only thing that's locked in is the winner of this game gets a BCS game."
LSU coach Les Miles' plan is to control the bowl situation on the field.
"I am more concerned about this game," he said. "Hopefully, we'll take care of our own bowl scenario."