LSU SEC Championship Ring A Motivator, Not Celebration

There are two prevailing attitudes from the web community concerning virtually any news: derisive snark/sarcasm or disproportionate/misdirected outrage. Reaction to LSU’s SEC championship ring fit predictably in the former.

Here’s the CBS take:

And NBC Sports’ College Football Talk columnist Ben Kercheval:

"Either LSU is preaching the “good job, good effort” attitude, or the victim of some serious (self?) trolling."

The source of some Comic Book Guy-level sarcasm are the words “#2 Nationally” engraved prominently above “13 Wins” and “SEC Champions.” Given the Tigers entered January’s BCS championship game unbeaten, with a win over title opponent Alabama already to its credit, the 21-0 shellacking LSU sustained would not seem a cause for celebration. Certainly the placement of #2 Nationally bears significance, and that’s by design.

But not as a celebration of the Tigers’ sensational championship game flop, but rather as a motivator for 2012.

The 2011 Tigers will be remembered less for winning an outright SEC championship and going 13-0 than they will suffering the first shutout, title defeat of the BCS era. Heck, even Florida State had a safety in the 2001 Orange Bowl.

Conference champions in virtually all Division I sports are given rings, and LSU’s remind the returning players that for all they accomplished, they still fell short of the ultimate goal.

Les Miles is a unique head coach, the trade’s Mad Hatter. He’s sustained his share of criticism, but resting on laurels is hardly one of Miles’ faults. Rest assured there’s a method to this particular madness of so boisterously proclaiming second place.

Reaching the title game in the 2011 season put LSU ahead of schedule with its current crop of talent, yet the ’12 team seems to be an afterthought. The reason for that is its second place finish, and the Tigers’ rings will remind them of that daily.