So tickets to the inaugural B1G Championship in Indianapolis aren't selling, and the game is a rematch with no bearing on anything outside of the Rose Bowl, and there hasn't been a conference team in contention for the national title since before Halloween, and, to really turn the knife, the fringe members of internet "journalism" are flogging allegations the conference is paying seat fillers to make Lucas Oil Stadium look sold out.
We - denizens and partisans of SPEED COUNTRY (#GOFASTWINTITLESWOO) - are at odds as to how to receive this embarrassing news. Should we share a hearty chuckle amidst yet another sought-after, sold-out SEC Championship featuring a national title contender? That seems a bit hypocritical: For the better part of a decade, SEC fans and journalists have barked at the Big Ten and Pac 10/12 to institute a division structure and championship game, if only to balance the playing field for national title contenders.*
(*Presumably because a 13th game has somehow hindered the SEC's ability to win five consecutive BCS titles and a total of seven of the 13 championships determined under the BCS system. But hey, sure: UNFAIR'D.)
If anything, the bad start for the B1G title game and the lewd charade of competitive football the Pac 12 is staging Friday night expose the dirty little secret we've been hiding for years: the conference title games usually suck. Most casual fans just assumed any failure in creating a buzzed about title game was just the ACC's incompetence all these years. Truth is, the SEC's been lucky to stage a few huge "play-in" storyline games in its history, but by and large, even the world's greatest college football conference.... in the world ever... today.... has bore the brunt of bad title games due to divisional imbalances.
But it ain't broke down here, so no one's dared to talk about fixing it. If you're a fan of the SEC, you're probably more inclined to cheer on the success of the division / title game format in rival conferences, if only to preserve a system that clearly benefits your conference above all others (and yeah, UCLA / Oregon is a parody of the system, but you could be the Big East right now).
Then again, it's not even within the power of SPEED COUNTRY to coerce people into travelling to Indianapolis in December.
(See? We're so concerned about the B1G we made it 380 words before the first cold weather, shitty tailgating joke. That's a titanic amount of self control borne of compassion, America.)