Tonight the LSU Tigers will play the Alabama Crimson Tide in New Orleans for the BCS National Championship. For the first time in the BCS era, two teams will play for the national championship game out of the same conference. My question is – how does this affect USC and is it good or bad for USC?
It always comes down to money, and the payout for this BCS game is around 21.2 million dollars, all going to the SEC. This is a positive for South Carolina as the SEC will divide the bowl money between all member teams.
And…
The exposure is the next big item, as Alabama and LSU will be in the spotlight for many weeks on ESPN and in most major sports magazines. Alabama and LSU don’t need much help with exposure as you already have seen Les Miles and Nick Saban on ESPN a good bit during this past football season year. Les Miles already has two ESPN commercials in the bag. Thinking of USC, this is good as you will hear a lot about the SEC and SEC football. That plays well for USC for being part of this premeir conference.
How big of an impact does this game have on recruiting. I think it has a major impact on recruiting in the state of South Carolina as both teams have players that USC recruited, and lost out on. Both teams have players from the state of South Carolina, as well as North Carolina and Georgia. Alabama and LSU are consistently ranked in the top 5 in recruiting services. Just another walk in the park and having to battle these two teams for top talent in the South.
So is this a case of the rich getting richer or is it good for the conference as a whole?
Do you think it is good for the SEC to have two teams in the National Championship? How do you think it affects the University of South Carolina?
Oh and the winner of this game will be ‘Bama.
