MIAMI — Within the faculty football-crazed Deep South, David Cutcliffe is a recognizable face, maybe even a regional celeb.
In spite of everything, he attended the College of Alabama, spent practically three a long time as an assistant with the Tennessee Volunteers and was head coach of Ole Miss and Duke for a mixed 20 years. In reality, he’s at present working on the Birmingham-based SEC headquarters as a particular assistant to commissioner Greg Sankey.
So, naturally, as he shuffles by a central Alabama grocery retailer, he’s usually interrupted by soccer followers of the SEC. Recently, the interruptions have grown extra intense.
“I can’t go to the grocery retailer with out getting a, ‘Hey! What’s fallacious with us!?’” Cutcliffe mentioned.
Within the area of the nation deemed as “the Deep South,” of us lately are feeling some sort of approach. For the second consecutive season, after practically 20 years of dominance, a university workforce from this quite small area of the nation — six states in all and the guts of the Southeastern Convention — won’t win the nationwide championship.
Gasp!
The information has despatched right into a spiral these from both camp, Southerners and Southern haters, every publicly spewing defenses or assaults over the South’s struggles. Few arguments stoke the human soul greater than a spirited debate over geographical and cultural variations between two areas of the nation that, most will keep in mind, fought a conflict towards each other some 160 years in the past.
There’s nothin‘ like a great deal made outta … the place an individual is from, what they consider, how they converse and the place they eat.
Y’all vs. you guys.
Pink vs. Blue.
Steak and potatoes vs. jambalaya and barbecue.
What’s higher?
Who’s worse?
For years, on the school soccer area, the reply was fairly clear: The South held a stranglehold on the game like no different area of the nation in its historical past.
From 2006 by 2022, a workforce from the Deep South gained 16 of 17 nationwide championships. Eight totally different faculties claimed the crown over that stretch, all however considered one of them from that six-state footprint that includes Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina and Florida. Ohio State’s victory in 2014 is the outlier.
Alabama gained six championships; LSU, Clemson, Georgia and Florida every gained twice; and Auburn and Florida State have titles, too. What’s simply as astonishing is that eight of these packages completed runner-up over that stretch — all eight of them shedding to their very own southern brethren.
However because the College Football Playoff semifinals arrive this week, the Deep South is nowhere to be discovered.
Ohio State clobbered Tennessee. Notre Dame beat SEC champion Georgia. And Texas, in its first yr within the SEC, knocked off ACC champion Clemson.
The Deep South went 0-3. The SEC went 1-2. And the Massive Ten, the SEC’s long-time rival and but budding companion, is poised to have at the very least one and, maybe, two groups within the nationwide championship recreation.
Within the Cotton Bowl semifinal, Ohio State is a 6.5-point favorite against Texas. Within the Orange Bowl semifinal, the Penn State-Notre Dame matchup is a digital decide’em.
“Think about if it’s two Massive Ten groups (within the nationwide championship recreation) and the Massive Ten is ruling the world,” mentioned Paul Finebaum, a longtime tv character overlaying the SEC. “I’m undecided what we’re going to do down right here in SEC nation however grasp our head.”
In reality, the South-versus-North dialogue discovered its approach into Orange Bowl media day Tuesday, when a query in regards to the topic sparked a quick second of pause for Penn State offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki, a Minnesota native who’s by no means coached within the South.
“I’m going should watch out with what I say,” he mentioned with a smile.
Others aren’t so cautious.
“The query is, is the SEC’s dominance over? It’s. It’s over,” mentioned former Florida and Ohio State coach City Meyer on The Triple Possibility podcast final weekend. “Now, subsequent yr’s one other yr. However for (these) two years, it’s over.”
Accomplished. Written off. Solid apart. Left for lifeless.
The SEC, and all these groups from the South, oughta simply shut it down, huh? Shutter the home windows. Slam the doorways. The social gathering’s over?
“I don’t see this as any reshuffling,” mentioned James Carville, the political commentator and diehard LSU fan. “They’re not going to cease taking part in soccer down right here. I’m not too anxious about it. SEC soccer goes to be nice.”
However none of this explains why, for a second straight season, the Deep South is shut out not simply of a nationwide championship however of the championship recreation itself — the primary occasion since 2004-2005.
For a lot of, the reply begins and ends with two transformations inside the sport: the arrival in 2021 of authorized athlete compensation funds, and a less-restrictive switch coverage.
Stakeholders inside the sport contend that the disbursement of expertise is bigger now than it’s ever been. Gamers, beforehand restricted to 1 college and penalized for transferring, are free to maneuver at will. They’re leaving faculties as backups or function gamers for beginning jobs and, in some circumstances, greater paychecks, too.
SMU coach Rhett Lashlee claims that the blue bloods of school soccer — lots of them within the South, because it seems — can now not “load up, create a monopoly and dominate time and again,” he says. “Gamers are transferring to allow them to play and it spreads the expertise out extra.”
Andy Schwarz, an antitrust economist based mostly in California who’s integral to NCAA issues, views the two-year shift by a special prism. It’s the results of a mix, he says, of each the growth of the playoff from 4 to 12 groups and the introduction of compensation funds to athletes.
School athletics’ decades-long prohibition on athlete compensation and restricted postseason alternatives resulted in a small group of huge manufacturers hoarding expertise, he says — a purpose that the game, in a century of existence, has by no means proven indicators of true parity.
“If you don’t pay the gamers and you’ve got a restricted playoff system, it’s designed to pay attention expertise,” he mentioned.
Effectively earlier than the NIL period started in July 2021, Schwarz pushed again then towards NCAA leaders who claimed that athlete compensation would result in the wealthy faculties getting richer in expertise.
“The predictions have been, ‘Should you let Alabama pay, they’ll get all the most effective expertise!’” he mentioned. “The prediction I made a day earlier than the NIL Period is we’ll see small enhancements in aggressive steadiness, not radical ones, as a result of expertise was already distributed the way in which the cash flows, however we are going to see faculties on the surface wanting in that may have the flexibility to shake issues up and alter the pecking order as a result of you may all the time simply overpay someone.”
The dissemination of expertise is clear, says Todd Blackledge, a tv analyst who known as SEC video games for CBS and ESPN for 20 years earlier than becoming a member of NBC final yr to strictly cowl the Massive Ten. Like many analysts within the sport, Blackledge usually defined the SEC’s close to 20-year dominant run by its defensive linemen. They have been totally different within the SEC than anyplace else, he says: greater, stronger, quicker and with unbelievable depth and rotation.
“Nearly all of these high D-linemen, their highschool footprint, was in that Southeastern footprint,” he mentioned. “They set the SEC aside.”
And now? Like at many different positions, defensive linemen are extra distributed throughout the nation quite than consolidated amongst a small group of groups of their area. There’s solely so many beginning positions, in spite of everything.
The expertise disbursement has left many blue-blood packages with out a lot depth, a noticeable level this season, says Gary Danielson, who known as SEC video games for 18 years on CBS earlier than the community moved to carrying the Massive Ten.
“It’s more durable to load up a workforce,” he mentioned. “You can see it this yr with Georgia once they acquired nicked. They didn’t have that speedy depth.”
“It’s totally different when you may’t say, ‘Subsequent man up!’ such as you used to,” mentioned former Ole Miss and Arkansas coach Houston Nutt.
Athlete compensation, the switch portal, depth. Anything?
How about the truth that the “Massive Ten is again,” mentioned former Wisconsin coach Barry Alvarez. “That’s what I see. It’s not simply Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State. There are loads of groups which can be high quality within the league.”
A few of them took down SEC packages in bowl video games. A 7-5 Wolverines workforce shocked Alabama. USC stormed again towards Texas A&M. And Illinois beat South Carolina.
There’s one other clarification for the South’s woes: Saban is now not within the convention.
Alabama gained six of these 13 SEC nationwide championships over that dominant span. There’s this too: A Saban-less Crimson Tide acquired raided for a few of their finest gamers final yr, most notably by Massive Ten energy Ohio State.
Maybe, although, there’s a extra easy clarification to all of this.
What if Georgia didn’t lose two fumbles towards Notre Dame? What if Ole Miss didn’t cough up a lead at LSU or held serve at dwelling towards Kentucky?
Are we overthinking it?
“I feel it’s a contest of the 2 conferences quite than a resurgence of 1 or the opposite,” mentioned Gerry DiNardo, a Massive Ten Community analyst who was head coach at Vanderbilt, LSU and Indiana. “I feel they’re each very related apart from their tradition variations due to the place they’re situated. Are you able to say one convention is stronger than the opposite? I don’t suppose so.”
And DiNardo doesn’t wish to hear your parity argument.
“All of us have 4 blue bloods taking part in this week,” he mentioned. “Inform me what’s modified? I see no shift. It’s a haves and have-nots enterprise and it’s by no means going to vary. You’re by no means presupposed to say by no means however I’m saying it now.”
One factor that does seem to have modified, at the very least for now: The Deep South’s Reign of Terror is over. And, boy, they aren’t pleased. Cutcliffe hears all about it.
“I simply say to them, ‘Take it someday at a time!’”
