CBS and ESPN still touted the SEC yesterday as the best conference in the football nation. Is that true? The bellwether of the conference- Alabama, the winner of 4 of the last 5 SEC championships, has gone down. And down to the only other team to have won it in these 5…Auburn.
So is this conference top to bottom the best? Or is it truly a 3-4 team power conference with 10 other average to merely fodder type of teams? We have seen in the last few weeks while other power 5 conferences were duking it out face to face for the titles-Alabama played Mercer, and Auburn played ULM- Louisiana Monroe, TAMU played New Mexico, Arkansas played Coastal Carolina, Ole Miss played Louisiana, Miss. St. played UMass, Florida played UAB (Ala.Birmingham), Tennessee played So.Mississippi, South Carolina played Wolford, and Vanderbilt played W.Kentucky. These are the 4th out of conference game that the SEC plays while other Power 5 plays 3 OOC. The benefit--up to 7 less losses (and 7 more wins) in the overall conference. And how many of these 56 games are played vs. P5 conferences……22 (40%) and their composite record against those 22 is 8 wins -14 losses including losses in the only 2 played vs. the PAC12 :Ole Miss lost to Cal 27-16, and TAMU lost to UCLA 45-44. The ultimate irony is that Alabama in losing to Auburn, and having 1 loss is unlikely to get anywhere near the playoffs due to their own low SOS number (54th toughest). They played Florida State (5-6, normally good -but rotten this year), Fresno State, Colorado State and Mercer. But hey, the entire 7 teams of the West played a total of 8 power 5 teams and are 5-3 (1 game avove .500) . But the East is so bad they played 14 P5 teams and were 3-11! Parity??
But the SEC is allowed to do this because the conference is "so balanced". This is rarely true…the "west" has been dominant over the "East" for millennia. In the last 10 SEC championship games the West has won 9, Florida in 2008. And they only play 2 of the opposing division teams a year….Alabama got 2 bottom teams this year : Vanderbilt and (W 59-0) and Tennessee (W 45-7). And with 2 of 7 you can miss significant teams for up to 3-4 years. In fact in the last 10 championship games only 1 time did the teams play each other twice (regular season and champ game) in 2010. FYI the PAC12 in 6 years of Championship play have faced the other team in regulation 4 of 6 years.
There may have been a time when the SEC was all that..lately it is not that time. Anyway it is time for the pickers to wise up….there should be no more than 1 SEC team, and that is the champion. Ditto every other P5 conference. And those with weaker schedules or those with less top 25 teams played should be docked because of it.
So is this conference top to bottom the best? Or is it truly a 3-4 team power conference with 10 other average to merely fodder type of teams? We have seen in the last few weeks while other power 5 conferences were duking it out face to face for the titles-Alabama played Mercer, and Auburn played ULM- Louisiana Monroe, TAMU played New Mexico, Arkansas played Coastal Carolina, Ole Miss played Louisiana, Miss. St. played UMass, Florida played UAB (Ala.Birmingham), Tennessee played So.Mississippi, South Carolina played Wolford, and Vanderbilt played W.Kentucky. These are the 4th out of conference game that the SEC plays while other Power 5 plays 3 OOC. The benefit--up to 7 less losses (and 7 more wins) in the overall conference. And how many of these 56 games are played vs. P5 conferences……22 (40%) and their composite record against those 22 is 8 wins -14 losses including losses in the only 2 played vs. the PAC12 :Ole Miss lost to Cal 27-16, and TAMU lost to UCLA 45-44. The ultimate irony is that Alabama in losing to Auburn, and having 1 loss is unlikely to get anywhere near the playoffs due to their own low SOS number (54th toughest). They played Florida State (5-6, normally good -but rotten this year), Fresno State, Colorado State and Mercer. But hey, the entire 7 teams of the West played a total of 8 power 5 teams and are 5-3 (1 game avove .500) . But the East is so bad they played 14 P5 teams and were 3-11! Parity??
But the SEC is allowed to do this because the conference is "so balanced". This is rarely true…the "west" has been dominant over the "East" for millennia. In the last 10 SEC championship games the West has won 9, Florida in 2008. And they only play 2 of the opposing division teams a year….Alabama got 2 bottom teams this year : Vanderbilt and (W 59-0) and Tennessee (W 45-7). And with 2 of 7 you can miss significant teams for up to 3-4 years. In fact in the last 10 championship games only 1 time did the teams play each other twice (regular season and champ game) in 2010. FYI the PAC12 in 6 years of Championship play have faced the other team in regulation 4 of 6 years.
There may have been a time when the SEC was all that..lately it is not that time. Anyway it is time for the pickers to wise up….there should be no more than 1 SEC team, and that is the champion. Ditto every other P5 conference. And those with weaker schedules or those with less top 25 teams played should be docked because of it.
