Did the SEC get it right?

#1
Lexvol

Lexvol

I'm Your Huckleberry
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#1
I realize there were very few realistic solutions to the quandry facing Slive and company after the weather last night.

I haven't been able to post all day, but I did want to say this question is not a result of a UT loss.

Watching the games and considering that GA is forced to play two games in less than 12 hours makes me think about the decision to continue the tourney.

1. Given the fact that fans were discouraged from visiting the downtown area in Atlanta today should the SEC officials simply packed things up and given their automatic bid to the Vols?

2. With a noon tip off, why couldn't they hold a lottery to fill the GT arena? Or at the very least offer tickets at a first come, first serve basis?
 
#3
#3
Lexvol said:
I realize there were very few realistic solutions to the quandry facing Slive and company after the weather last night.

I haven't been able to post all day, but I did want to say this question is not a result of a UT loss.

Watching the games and considering that GA is forced to play two games in less than 12 hours makes me think about the decision to continue the tourney.

1. Given the fact that fans were discouraged from visiting the downtown area in Atlanta today should the SEC officials simply packed things up and given their automatic bid to the Vols?

2. With a noon tip off, why couldn't they hold a lottery to fill the GT arena? Or at the very least offer tickets at a first come, first serve basis?
Click to expand...


I'm not sure what the best decision would have been, but telling all the fans that they're SOL doesn't seem to be it.
 
#4
#4
I think any of the options was fine. Each solution had problems and they didn't have much time to pick one.
 
#5
#5
They couldn't get it right?

Play the game at a damaged Georgia Dome? NO
Rip off some fans, but reward others?NO
Give a team a doubleheader?
Reward Co-champs and break their contract to the NCAA?NO

They had to make some tough decisions and they've did the best job possible. The only way to make it fair to the fans was to let none or all see the games. And they obviously couldn't let all do it. One team was going to get screwed and it hapened to be UGA-UK(UGA is overcoming that right now). They worked hard to figure out some solutions and while it may not be perfect, it's about as good as it could have gotten.
 
#6
#6
volsforever27 said:
I'm not sure what the best decision would have been, but telling all the fans that they're SOL doesn't seem to be it.
Click to expand...

If I had made the trip I would be incredibly frustrated. I realize this was a freak occurence, and likely will never be repeated. However, it does seem to be a tremendous knock on the fans who did make the trip.

On some level I think it speaks volumes about a football conference's inability to cater to the needs of its basketball fans.
 
#7
#7
If I understand the rules right...

The SEC should have canceled the rest of the games and forfeited the league's automatic bid.

IMO it was unfair to all the teams playing, and the UGA-UK winner most of all.
 
#8
#8
Lexvol said:
If I had made the trip I would be incredibly frustrated. I realize this was a freak occurence, and likely will never be repeated. However, it does seem to be a tremendous knock on the fans who did make the trip.

On some level I think it speaks volumes about a football conference's inability to cater to the needs of its basketball fans.
Click to expand...

Same here, I know it was a lose/lose situation, and no matter what you do you're going to make some people mad, but an all or nothing approach just didn't seem like the right way to go IMO.
 
#9
#9
milohimself said:
If I understand the rules right...

The SEC should have canceled the rest of the games and forfeited the league's automatic bid.

IMO it was unfair to all the teams playing, and the UGA-UK winner most of all.
Click to expand...

It is incredibly unfair to Georgia.
 
#10
#10
I wonder why they didn't have an opportunity to play the remainder of the tourney at Philips since the Hawks were off on Saturday and away on Sunday. Reports from SI said there was no damage there, but they did cancel an event there for Sat night.
 
#13
#13
TennTom said:
I wonder why they didn't have an opportunity to play the remainder of the tourney at Philips since the Hawks were off on Saturday and away on Sunday. Reports from SI said there was no damage there, but they did cancel an event there for Sat night.
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if you were there or even looked at photos of the Phillips Arena you could see that there was some damage
 
#17
#17
sickemsmokey10 said:
if you were there or even looked at photos of the Phillips Arena you could see that there was some damage
Click to expand...
"Atlanta Hawks spokesman Arthur Triche said Philips Arena apparently sustained little damage from the severe windstorm that hit downtown Atlanta on Friday night."
 
#18
#18
UGa overcame and pulled it out.

They could have played both semifinal games tomorrow, then the championship after, just so both winners would be equally tired, but time constraints probably hindered that route.
 
#19
#19
TennTom said:
"Atlanta Hawks spokesman Arthur Triche said Philips Arena apparently sustained little damage from the severe windstorm that hit downtown Atlanta on Friday night."
Click to expand...

I think the larger problem was that they didn't want all those people down there this morning.
 
#23
#23
Lexvol said:
1. Given the fact that fans were discouraged from visiting the downtown area in Atlanta today should the SEC officials simply packed things up and given their automatic bid to the Vols?

2. With a noon tip off, why couldn't they hold a lottery to fill the GT arena? Or at the very least offer tickets at a first come, first serve basis?
Click to expand...


1. No. Aside from concerns about fairness and tradition and giving teams like UGa their only shot to make the tourney, this would have also sacrificed ALL of the TV revenue. After already taking a bath on this disaster, the money from LF and ESPN2 is more important than ever.

2. I don't think the schools would want it. UT didn't want it's allocation of 400 tix to go to 400 random fans. It wanted to allocate them among players' families, athletic administration, and high ranking VASF members. Every other school had the same priorities.

As somebody "displaced" by the tornado, I have a lot of sympathy. Despite the damage, the SEC had to figure out a way to 1)play the games 2) on television 3) before the selection show starts. The only realistic option, then, was to find an alternate site in Atlanta, and that's what they did.
 
#24
#24
"Come Monday I will be filing in Fayette (Ky.) Circuit Court a class action suit against the Georgia Dome," said Kentucky fan Stephen Gray McFayden of Lexington. "I'm going to be seeing who I can sue and for what."

-----------

"Why should I be out that money," said Trudy Noble of Carrollton, Ky., who made the trip with her fiance and his parents. "The Georgia Dome insurance ought to pay me back.There ain't enough money in the world to pay me back for how scared I was in that Georgia Dome. I thought the building was going to fall down."

SEC venue change angers fans | ajc.com

:no:
 
#25
#25
My son and I were there for our first sec tourny. We went down Friday morning. We had a room at the Hampton Inn downtown..right next to the Marriot for those of you who are familiar with Atlanta. We were sitting in the temporary seats located next to the jumbotron that was swinging and the arrea in the roof that was damaged when the tornado hit. When the sound first began(it DOES sound like a train) we didn't know if the building was collapsing, if there was a terroist attack..weather...or what. We just left our seats and headed for the concourse. This was our first close encounter with a tornado. When the game was officially called off and we left, our walk back to our hotel was a trck through what has to be described as a war zone. There was debri, glass, twisted metal, damgae to just about everything. There was NO WAY this area could have been made safe by the next day. We went to bed not knowing about what the plan would be the next day and with storms still passing through, had a pretty sleepless night. When we found out the next morning that we would not be seeing any more games in person, we did what evry other fan in the hotel was doing, accept the facts and go home. The situation was what it was, no one's fault. We were discussing what might be done the night of the tornado with fans from other schools and everyone agreed there was no easy solution. The next morning when the news was discovered, I heard no complaints. I think people realized that there are more important things than a ball game. We were thankful to be safe and that my son's car had not been damaged as somw were just a few feet away.
To bring things in prospective, my son told me of his conversation in the restroom at the dome after the tornado hit. They have tv's in the restrooms and he was watching one when another fan, don't know from where, asked my son if he had thoought about what mught have happened if Alabama had not hit the three that sent that game into overtime. Many fans would have left and walked right into the path of that storm...yes, the Man upstairs DOES work in mysterious ways...sorry to have been so long..and yes, I think the SEC did OK..
 
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