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Big Ten fans have been waiting years to say (and think) that the SEC is dead and that they are a better conference than the SEC.
Yes, Ohio State beat Alabama in the first college football playoff. Urban Meyer is a coach with an SEC resume and is one of the best coaches in college football. (Even though he ran from the SEC.) With his pedigree, some of us are not surprised to see him doing well at OSU. But now that the Big Ten just welcomed Jim Harbaugh to Michigan, there is finally a little more pressure on conference competition for OSU, Wisconsin and Michigan State. Will Meyer run from them too?
The Big Ten doesn’t play anyone. The SEC conference is so strong that they beat each other up because every game is an SEC caliber matchup.
The SEC has won nine National Titles since the birth of the BCS in 1998. Tennessee, LSU, Florida, Alabama, and Auburn all hold national titles. Almost half of the SEC has won. Let me break down the math for you. Since 1998, (17 years of BCS National Titles) the SEC has won nine (9) of those 17 titles. The other 8 national titles are divided up like this: The Big Ten-1, Pac 12- 2, Big 12-2, Big East-1 and the ACC-2. SEC > all of college football translation: The SEC is greater than all off college football, combined!
Seven of those are consecutive SEC wins from 2006-2013. No other conference will ever come close to that dominance, ever! So if you’re saying that the SEC is dead-ly, then you are correct.
Bob Stoops is eating crow for his comments about SEC dominance only being top heavy (referring to the SEC West). The SEC West finished conference match-ups with a 31-25 record and the SEC East finished 25-31. The East won all five of their bowl games while the West had a 2-5 bowl record. The East showed they are on their way back. But still have work to do before they take back the SEC. The SEC is not hurting or falling apart because the West had a bad bowl day. They had an incredible season and one ‘bad’ bowl game isn’t enough to knock the SEC off of the throne in dominating college football.
The SEC went 7-5 this bowl season setting an SEC record for teams playing in bowl games (12 out of 14 SEC teams played in bowl games) and set an all-time record for teams finishing with winning records. Ending the conference with a 12-2 record. Only Kentucky and Vanderbilt did not have winning seasons or bowl appearances. That is the most wins for any conference this year and the second highest winning percentage in the country.
To say that the Southeastern Conference was “exposed” this year is laughable. I repeat, the SEC went 12-2 for teams with a winning record. (Big Ten 9-5, Pac 12 8-4, Big 12 6-4, ACC 8-6)
The SEC still dominates in recruiting, facilities, coaches, fan base, and revenue. The SEC hasn’t gone anywhere. This whole notion that the SEC is dead is simply dead-wrong! Paul Finebaum summed it all up when he titled chapter #1 of his book My Conference Can Beat Your Conference; We’re Number 1 (Even When We’re Not).