Open Letter to the SEC

I stopped watching the NBA because of fighting and poor officiating. I stopped watching MLB, because steroid-use (cheating) is widespread and happens to be illegal. I don’t watch the NHL, because hockey is sort of boring to me. I used to watch the NFL more often, but I’ve become obsessed with college football over the years, and that all started when I went to LSU in the early part of the decade.

I am now begging you: please do not further compromise the integrity of the most competitive football conference in the NCAA. Damage has been done, but apologies and admittance of wrong-doing can go a long way to un-taint the image that is clearly being drafted of the SEC by the national media. There is no way that anyone who is not in the bag for either the University of Florida or the University of Alabama is going to believe that something corrupt isn’t going on in our conference, and there are plenty of people from those aforementioned schools that know, in their hearts, that an injustice is currently being served.

Over the years, football has become America ’s pastime. The sport is especially huge in the southern part of the country and in the Midwestern part of the country. College football, in particular, offers its fans something more than the NFL does, in that the kids that play the game play for each other and for school pride. These kids are apparently being cheated out of glory, and that goes for the kids on the teams that are being given calls in order to allow them to advance.

Both Alabama and LSU were cheated on Saturday night. Every single person that has seen the replays from Patrick Peterson’s 4th quarter interception knows that BOTH of his feet were in-bounds while he had possession of the football, and this knowledge exists within those who support Alabama and who will adamantly insist that the missed call had little-to-nothing to do with the outcome of the ballgame. No one honestly believes this, though, and so a great contest was ruined.

If the SEC has purposely been setting-up a showdown between two undefeated teams in the Conference Championship, then the integrity of the conference, league, and game have been shamefully defiled. LSU has much vested interest in the success of the conference and of our football team, and we proudly stand in defiance of any agenda that the conference may have that includes ANY ballgames not being exclusively decided by the players on the field. If simply being a member of the conference isn’t enough, I’d say that having brought the conference two BCS National Championships should give us the credibility and honor that we deserve.

Please do not continue to ruin something that millions of students, teachers, families, and various other people from all walks of life feel so passionate for. Football is too important to the history and future of daily life in this country for the games to be fixed. The treason needs to immediately cease, and admittance of wrong-doing needs to be publicly addressed to ensure future viability of the conference in regards to public and, most importantly, personal perception. We, the SEC, are not a conference of liars and cheaters.

http://www.secsports.com/the_sec/