Watching Sports Center this am. One of the talking heads was talking up USC and claimed (along with a headline behind him) that we would find out if USC can win 3 national championships in a row this year. It really p*sses me off how the media has literally taken LSU's 2003 NC away from them. Its like it never happened. Not much we can do about it I guess. I know we've been down this road b4 on the forum but seeing it again this morning got my blood boiling again. If they can't give us credit for winning it outright (which we did) at least mention that we were part of it. The funny thing is that when we win it this year, these same talking heads will be saying that we won 2 out of the last 3.
They can't deny that USC didn't win the national championship back in 2003, because they did, be it a technicality or not. Face it, USC has a shot to win three in a row this season, that's a fact, just like LSU has a shot to win 2 out of the last 3. I don't think anyone is taking away LSU's national championship by saying USC can win three in a row. I'm sure if they did a story on LSU they would be saying the same thing.
LSU is not now and never has been a "media darling".... I don't know if this is an intentional thing as much as it is just a result of poor reporting and regional bias which are both rampant these days in sports reporting. I have noticed over the years that in the SEC the teams which seem to be closer to the Atlanta media center seem to get far more coverage than LSU even when LSU is winning 2 of the last 4 SEC Titles and a National Title. For example, when UGA won the SEC in 2002 you would have thought that Mark Richt was Knute Rockne and had reeled off a string of several MNC's. It just got beaten to death by the media. Going into 2003, all you heard was Georgia this and Georgia that and ESPN was leading the way in that regard. Hell, after LSU beat UGA in the 1st meeting in 2003 you had Lee Corso still claiming that Uga was the better team. You also had Trev Alberts pumping and pimiping uga on a damn near daily basis on TV. All this after UGA had won 1 SEC Title (its' 1st in over 20 years). The proximity of UGA to the media center of Atlanta surely plays a large part in this. The same goes for Auburn. Year to year, Auburn receives much more positive press than they have earned simply because their campus is so close to Atlanta and is much easier to cover and do stories on than LSU or say Arkansas. Just look at the Bowl disparity when comparing the SEC West to the SEC East, it is tilted in the favor of the SEC East teams by a large margin. It was almost impossible for LsU to get a bid to a Florida bowl whaereas an SEC East team can waltz in and get a bid to a Florida Bowl with a 7-4 record like South Carolina did several years ago when they were in the Outback Bowl vs. Ohio State. Friggin' South Carolina which has still only gone to 6-7 bowls in its' entire history was scoooped up by the Outback Bowl. In the SEC West, on the other hand, we have had LSU win 8-9 games and still end up in the Indy Bowl. There is no way an SEC East team with 8 wins ever ends up in Shreveport. The point is that bias exists even within the SEC. The national media is just guilty of being lazy and they usually end uplooking foolish in the end and some of those guys who are portrayed as knowledgable sports commentators are jokes at best. ESPN's "talking heads" are some of the worst and most biased in the business. JMO.
YOu make a good point. I live in Atlanta, so there's a LOT of local UGA press. But I remain amazed at how much love they got from the media last year, even though, in my humble opinion, they were quite overrated. Of course, they kicked our butts, but I still think they were overrated.
Well I don't agree that USC won a national championship in 2003, because they didn't. They never played any team ranked above #4. USC was voted number 1 in one poll. That's it. That's not winning a championship. I don't even see how they can say half of a championship b/c the AP poll didn't make up half of the BCS that LSU won. So they most realistically should only be given like 1/10 of a title, and they still didn't win a championship b/c they didn't play in a championship game. They were voted #1 in a poll. It does bother me a little how the media has made such a big deal of a 3-peat and never mention that the first one was not the true title, or only part of a title. They should be saying USC is going for a 2 1/10 peat. But I think it's just the national sports media trying to make a "story". This is why I would absolutely love for LSU and USC to meet in the Rose Bowl and for LSU to whoop up.
Ditto Bubba's thoughts. The BCS was created for a reason, with the approval of the cfb establishment. Then, when it didn't work for the literati elite, they just ignored it. And since they're the one "reporting," they use their own terminology. Screw them anyway, no number of USC references can take away that fateful night NOLA.
LSU was poorly prepared for that game at UGA..... I think UGA would have won anyway because that game was a "crusade" for them after LSU had beaten them twice the year before including the ass-whippin' LSU put on UGA for the SEC Title in their backyard. That game was the focal point of UGA's off-season and I liked Saban as much as anyone but that LSU team was not ready to play and it looked like it. I will say that LSU fans hear a Hell of lot more about SEC-East teams than the SEC-East hears about LSU. I don't think that is even questionable. Here's another example of the bias that exists. Look at Tennessee being picked so high by the media when there is a good possibility that Rick Clausen may be playing at QB for the Vols. Eric Ainge played in about 4 games last season as a freshman and the other Tennessee freshman (Schaefer) quit and transferred. If that scenario existed at LSU it would be absolutely HAMMERED into the ground by the media but because it's Tennessee it's hardly mentioned. As it is Jamarcus Russell is looked upon as a liability by some as if russell has no chance of improving. I suppose what Russell did in the Capital One Bowl just never happened.
Re: LSU was poorly prepared for that game at UGA..... I'm not sure about being close to Atlanta has anything to do with ESPN bias. Atlanta is Turner's media home, not ABC or ESPN. I think it's just a media angle. It's a great story to plaster "going for a third" all over the news. It has nothing to do with some specific obsession with USC or bias against LSU. If it was Iowa State going for a "third" national championship, they would play that angle like they have played this one...
Re: LSU was poorly prepared for that game at UGA..... The only time they ever mention LSU's national championship is when they talk about Saban.
Re: LSU was poorly prepared for that game at UGA..... LSU has to first prove itself post-saban. legitimate argument. its now miles' time to sheep or shine.
