Gators, Dawgs, Vols playing nice
Mike Slive was enjoying a perfectly fine lunch last week at the Southeastern Conference basketball media day when some buttinski (OK, it was me) had to bring up the subject of The Vote.
The never-ruffled commissioner winced (very briefly) and said, "It's the seventh tiebreaker. Florida has to beat Georgia first. And there are a lot of games still to be played."
All true. But we're now one Saturday into November, and the issue remains. Florida has beaten Georgia, to the immense excitement of archrival Tennessee. And there are slightly fewer games to be played between now and a seventh tiebreaker that would certainly be the weirdest and, potentially, most controversial vote in SEC history.
To recap: the Gators, Bulldogs and Volunteers all are steaming toward a dead-heat finish in the SEC Eastern Division. The remaining league games: Tennessee plays Mississippi State, Vanderbilt and Kentucky; Florida plays Vanderbilt and South Carolina; Georgia plays Auburn and Kentucky.
"Odds are, somebody's going to lose a game," Georgia coach Mark Richt said. "If so, it's a moot point."
Correct. But it's quite possible that all three teams will be favored in each of those games. And if they all win out in league play, electoral Armageddon has arrived.
All three will be 6-2. The Gators beat the 'Dogs, who beat the Vols, who beat the Gators. And all three will have one loss to a team from the West.
Doesn't get much more tied than that.
So tiebreaker No. 7 calls for an invitation to chaos: a vote of eight SEC athletic directors on a champion. The voting bloc would be the non-winners of the East (South Carolina, Kentucky and Vandy), plus all the West ADs but the one from the winner of that division. (Which figures to be either Mississippi, LSU or Auburn.)
If there's still a tie after that -- say, a 3-3-2 or 4-4-0 verdict -- we go to the little-known eighth tiebreaker: coaches of the surviving schools play rock-scissors-paper at midfield of the Georgia Dome. (Or not.)
The general consensus is that if it comes to a vote, the ADs will simply choose the highest-ranking team in the BCS standings. Right now that's No. 10 Georgia, followed by Tennessee at No. 13 and Florida at No. 17. That would take the subjectivity out of the deal.
"It's what makes the most sense," Tennessee's Phil Fulmer said. "It kind of answers itself, I think."
But it's hard to take subjectivity out of the equation in the SEC. This is a league rife with conspiracy theories, persecution complexes, ancient rivalries and warring fan factions. And the vote would be by secret ballot. Which means you never know.
"If will be hard not to make some kind of political vote," Richt said.
For starters, anytime there's voting and Florida in the same sentence, people get nervous. Let's hope the SEC uses chad-free ballots if this comes to pass, and keeps Palm Beach County of out it.
Then there is the possibility of vote buying.
Note to SEC ADs (and To Whom It May Concern at Vanderbilt): If fruit baskets start arriving at your offices from Knoxville, Gainesville and Athens, you'll know why.
To Auburn AD David Housel, whose Tigers travel to Georgia Nov. 15: If Vince Dooley treats you like a king on that visit, offering dinner, drinks and a photo op with UGA VI, you'll know why.
To Larry Templeton at Mississippi State: You'll know what's up if Florida's Jeremy Foley calls you and says, "You know, I really hated it when Steve Spurrier ran it up on you guys a few years back. The Zooker would NEVER do that. And if I can be of any help with your coaching search or that NCAA investigation, let me know. How's the family? Got a son or daughter who needs a partial scholarship in a non-revenue sport?"
To Kentucky AD Mitch Barnhart: If your counterpart at Tennessee, Mike Hamilton, calls to remind you how much he enjoyed working with you when you were an associate AD in Knoxville, and reiterates how much he values your friendship, and happens to mention that dinner is on him every night at the SEC meetings next spring in Destin, you'll know why.
Beyond all that is the less-fanciful notion of impressing the rest of the league on the field. All three teams have one more big opportunity to raise their BCS ranking and woo potential athletic director votes at the same time.
The voting auditions begin Saturday when Tennessee visits Miami. The good news is that it's a chance for the kind of serve-notice victory the Vols haven't had since beating Florida back in September. The bad news is that Miami is coming off a humiliating ending to its 39-game regular-season winning streak, and hasn't lost back-to-back games since 1999.
Crippled Georgia's spotlight game comes the next week, against Auburn. This was the spot where the Bulldogs clinched the East in thrilling fashion last year in the Loveliest Village. The Tigers have been a disappointment this year, but they're still No. 16 in the Sagarin Ratings -- and the visiting team is 9-1-1 in the last 11 meetings in this series. (Georgia also has a second emotional game remaining against archrival Georgia Tech to close the regular season.)
Florida gets the final spotlight game Nov. 29 against Florida State. Ron Zook didn't come close to beating the Seminoles last year and it won't be any easier this year, with Florida State in the thick of the national title chase. But the Gators are on a fairly amazing roll right now, having beaten a favored, ranked opponent three straight games.
The clear task it to just win, baby. Given the level of competition, that should be enough -- but anytime there's a vote to decide things, winning by a lot beats winning by a little. At least theoretically.
"Our schedule is hard enough that to win is going to be enough," Richt said. "We don't have to do it with any type of style."
Style points are what the fruit baskets are for.
Pat Forde covers college football for the Louisville Courier-Journal.
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