SmashMouth

Talk is cheap, but it's never left the hype machine feeling shortchanged.

As if an Allstate Sugar Bowl featuring two of college football's most prestigious programs wasn't intriguing enough, we get to rehash a good old-fashioned war of words in the weeks leading up to the Jan. 2 showdown in New Orleans between No. 3 Alabama and No. 11 Oklahoma.

Bob Stoops, the Sooners longtime coach, hasn't been bashful in his criticism of the Southeastern Conference, of which the Crimson Tide are a charter member. He's called it an overrated, top-heavy league with a history of overblown defensive prowess. And that's just what he's said on the record in the past year or so.

[+] EnlargeBob Stoops
Jackson Laizure/Getty Images
Oklahoma's Bob Stoops gets a chance to make a statement against the SEC's Alabama Crimson Tide.
The last seven BCS national champions be damned, Stoops has been on a one-man mission to change the narrative surrounding college football's most dominant conference. He's shouted at the gates of Mike Slive's castle over and over again, and rather than send one of the commissioner’s meager lords to answer Stoops’ cries, the doors have opened and Alabama has come to call.

The Tide, owners of three of the last four national championships and arguably the best coach in college football, will represent the league in a game that many fans of the SEC hope shuts Stoops up once and for all.

Only don't count on it.

When Stoops was asked Sunday about his history of opining on the SEC it was as if he misunderstood the premise.

"What comments?" he asked in return.

Well let's see. You could start with the part about his seeing the SEC's dominance being sold as "propaganda." Or you could point to his comments about the league's poor defense in which he sarcastically mocked teams for struggling to defend Texas A&M, meanwhile neglecting how Oklahoma was blown out by the Aggies in the Cotton Bowl last season, 41-13. But instead the reporter in question noted how Stoops said that the bottom of the SEC was overrated.

"I'm not playing the bottom half," Stoops responded. "If the SEC is Alabama, there is nothing to talk about, right? If you want to say the SEC is Alabama, then sure, they're the ones that have won all the national championships, or most of them. Now, if you want to play in the bottom half, that's a different story. But we're not playing the bottom half, are we? So there's not a lot to talk about, is there? "

Stoops, however, failed to realize that when he initially made his disparaging comments about the bottom half of the SEC, Auburn and Missouri were included among that group after coming off dreadful seasons in which they combined for two wins in league play. But Auburn beat Alabama only a few weeks ago and on Saturday it bested Missouri in the conference title game. The bottom of the bottom half is now set to play Florida State in the VIZIO BCS National Championship Game in Pasadena, Calif.

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Choupique

ask A&M how the SEC is working out for them.

stoop a bit lower.

the worst of the SEC would give your team fits, okieboy.

K Major

Stoops will never learn. I predict OU will be embarrassed in a few weeks. He needs to just stop it with the SEC comments all together.

"Jan 2 showdown?" .. lmao.

mutineer10

Provided Alabama doesn't sleepwalk thru this one, it should be fun watching Stoops get his.

Danno

We've seen it time and time again. A highly ranked team loses late in the season, and is paired against a somewhat inferior opponent and simply doesn't get fired up for it.

It happened with Alabama-Utah several years ago and I think with LSU against Clemson.

But honestly I hope we mop the floor with OU. I'm one of those SEC fans.

Bama first
SEC vs anyone else second

Although I'm getting pretty sick and tired of Auburn bandwaggoners acting like they just won 10 National Championships in a row talking smack left and right.

This might be one of those rare times when I root against an SEC team. Go 'Noles!!!