How good is the SEC?

[GolfDiveNCougs]

I mean, Bubba, they're no ACC, but...


And CAFB, thank you. Always nice to know one's ramblings are appreciated.

[wazzucoug97]

Gotta love the challenge Florida and Bama face this week.... Florida International and Chattanooga.... about like a scrimmage with the local H.S. team

[Mars]

The SEC right now is Meyer, Tebow, Saban, and Ingram. No one else has much cache out West currently.

[mormonrasta]

Without a playoff no one can really say how good the SEC is.
Go Cougs!
L Hatton
Louisville KY

A playoff doesn't answer that question unless you're suggesting a 120 team round robin tournament.

A playoff may validate Florida's or Alabama's greatness, but it says little to conference strength as a whole. The bowl system is actually a better metric in determining relative conference strength even though there are many flaws in that as well.

[mormonrasta]

I would guess you have to give them some historical credit when you consider 4 out the last 6 BCS champions are SEC teams.

You have all made very valid and interesting points regarding the "rise" of the SEC, but KY, your comment made me think about how the Title Game appearances have helped shape the current mindset.

I've mentioned many times before how College Football is and always has been about the Royalty Schools, and their entitlement to all that is biggest, brightest and best (recruits, tv contracts, you name it). BYU fans assume that it's about BCS vs. Non-BCS, and it's really not. It's about the Chosen Few. The College Landscape has just developed to a point where each one or two Royal teams requires an entourage to make them look pretty. That's all the BCS conferences are. Yes, this has a lot to do with TV revenue, but for example, TV is buying Oklahoma, not Baylor. The conference also-rans have just become part of the package deal to protect the investment. Think I'm crazy? (Well, you're probably right, but my point here is still valid...) Do a little research on how many Indepentents there WERE. A LOT of royals were independent, and National Titles were being doled out to them before the entourage rush. Notre Dame SWAM in 'em (they're the only hold-out from that era, and look what's happened to them), and you had Penn State, Miami, Pitt to name a few. The last three examples serve to show exactly what the entourage rush did to some programs. Penn State and Miami are still Royalty (my definition: single loss season will still garner them serious National Title consideration), but much less respected than they were, and Pitt is sub-nobility at best. Interestingly, there is a definite caste system to the Royalty, a pecking order if you will. Some royals are just more royal than others when all else is equal. A few examples:
-Last year OU over Texas. Both are royal (anyone actually think TTech is going to the Big12 Championship? Riiiiight), OU is MORE royal.
- Why do you think that USC was kept out of the title game in multipe seasons in which their record matched contenders'? All else equal, East Coast bias sez, USC is less royal.

But I digress.

Point is, the Old-Royalty hero worship is basically what got the SEC it's Title Game Clout in the last 6 years. And NO, I'm NOT referring to the worship of Florida and LSU. Truth be told, the ascension of Florida and LSU into the ranks of royalty is relatively recent. Hard to think back this far, but before this decade, believe it or not, the SEC royalty were Alabama and Tennessee. I know. Mindblowing. But think about it. Florida had the more recent title of the two schools, their only one, in 1996. LSU? Only title... 1958. Before '03, the only SEC team to play in the BCS Title Game? Tennessee. I know. Mindblowing.
The hero worship to which I'm referring is who they PLAYED. Four wins, against two teams. Those two teams? Big time old-Royalty. Now, I won't take anything away from the wins themselves, afterall:

-'03 OU was ranked #1 and the only undefeated for a reason. On that night, LSU played better than they were, and OU did what they always do in BCS games. Oops.

-'06 was a slaughterfest waiting to happen. Anybody with half a brain knew Ohio State wasn't worth NEAR what their undefeated record said it was. If there were no such thing as royalty, it would've been Boise State that did it to Ohio State, as they were the only two undefeateds. (Not saying Boise was better than Florida, I'm saying we'd never have found out).

-'07 set a bad precedent on multiple levels. Ohio State proved they didn't deserve the shot, but got it anyway because they were the only team who was the royalty with one loss or fewer. It got worse that the BCS "annointed" a 2-loss team (don't say that wasn't what it was, because you can't call a jump from #7 to #2 anything else!) to be the other contender. Problem was, Ohio State was a big enough poser that year, it was a foregone conclusion a 2-loss team would win their Title. Again, if royalty didn't exist, well, 2 things: Hawaii is the biggest statistical abberation in the history of College Football. No WAY they should have rattled off 12 wins as poorly as they played, even against TEAMS as poorly as they played. Multiple overtime games against 3-4 game winners? Gaah! With that in mind, for my sanity, I'll simply ignore that aspect of my non-royalty argument. So before I so rudely interrupted myself, if royalty didn't exist, Kansas beats Ohio State for the Title.

-'08 was a ferris-wheel of one- and zero-loss teams that in all actuality should have gotten an equal shot. Think about it... 8 teams with one loss, 2 teams with zero losses. Remind me why that wouldn't have been the most AMAZING tournament in the history of sport??? Oh yeah, IT WOULD HAVE. Please, remind me why we don't have a playoff system again??? But under the system we have, the SEC machine had by this time been erected and fired up, so everyone annointed the SEC champ placement in the title game from week 1. After that, it was a Royalty Contest between the other 9. Oklahoma wins that contest, despite being a worse team than, oh, at least 4 of those schools, maybe 5. If royalty didn't exist, well, your guess is as good as mine. Maybe Utah beats Boise for it all. Who knows.

Wow, this has turned into a novel. Point is, Ohio State and Oklahoma didn't do the rest of NCAA Football any favors by cashing in their Royalty status only to get WIPED TWICE by two of MANY better teams than them, it just so happened that the teams that did the wiping ended up with a bigger reputation for their deeds than they deserved. Don't get me wrong. The SEC is good. They AIN'T THAT GOOD!!!

I overwhelmingly agree with your analysis with the exception of the revisionist history applied to '06.

Ohio State in '06 whipped the defending national champs on the road and beat very good Michigan and Penn St. teams while Florida didn't dominate anyone with a pulse. They almost lost to VANDERBILT!!!!

The fact that Florida dominated Ohio State in the BCS championship game was surprising.

[jonnylingo]

I would LOVE to see TCU v. Florida or TCU v. Texas. '

TCU versus Texas would seriously be a game to watch. If TCU beat Texas that would be huge. I can only imagine the ramification of a game like that.

If TCU played the way they did against us and Utah which I think is likely because Patterson will have a whole month or so to prepare and get his guys up, they would beat any three of those teams.

I had my doubts about tcu's offense, but watching them this past saturday squelched those.

[GolfDiveNCougs]

I overwhelmingly agree with your analysis with the exception of the revisionist history applied to '06.

Ohio State in '06 whipped the defending national champs on the road and beat very good Michigan and Penn St. teams while Florida didn't dominate anyone with a pulse. They almost lost to VANDERBILT!!!!

The fact that Florida dominated Ohio State in the BCS championship game was surprising.

Rasta, I'm touched! I think that's the kindest thing you've ever said about one of my posts (at least the first 6 words), and I daresay it's pretty close to the most pleasant a thing I've seen you write in cyberspace. You're not going soft on us, are you?

Seriously, though, I appreciate the compliment, and you make a valid point that the '06 result was likely the most surprising of the last three, if not the most improbable, which I maintain. As per your points, they are valid, however, in keeping with the message of my post, pointing to the defending national title holder is still using a bit of a royalist mentality. Less so because the team ACTUALLY did something worthwhile the year before, and some of the pieces are still there, but the anti-royalist in me doesn't want to give too many free passes to a team for anything done NOT in the current year. Texas wasn't near the team in '06 that they were in '05, yes, they had the win against Oklahoma, but so did Boise that year, right? Their next biggest win was 22-20 over a 5-loss Nebraska team, and they LOST against a 5-loss A&M squad. Still, good win on the road by Ohio State (although, c'mon, how hard is it to go down to Texas and knock off a Big-12 powerhouse??? ). As per their wins against Michigan and Penn State, yes, that's true, they were quality wins, if royalty wins. And the Michigan game was pretty epic, what with the media circus, the BCS 1-2, Schembechler dying on the eve of (still wonder if Blue wouldn't've pulled it of if not for that, no way you'd ever know, but its something to wonder about). Anyway, maybe I was just expecting an Ohio State loss in the Title Game where no one else was, just because I'd spent that entire season on the lookout for reasons the Big-10 was overrated, due to a few annoyingly outspoken OSU fans at work (Rubbing it in to THEM was great!).

I just really thought the conference put on a prettier face than they actually wore, and I full on expected a shrewd Oscar Meyer to rile up his ex-cons... I mean players... to feeling all butt-hurt because of the lack of media love, punch the Buckeyes in the mouth, and they'd never recover, because Florida DID have the horses to keep 'em on their heels. I was pleased that I guessed right, but annoyed because Meyer got another one. Dude's a prick. And it contributed to the sport now having a media-induced God-Conference complex!

Anyway, I hope I've atoned in your eyes for my dastardly case of revisionism. Sorry I don't/didn't see it your way, because your observation is valid. From the outset, they looked like a winner. I've just always been suspicious of Ohio State, and never been given reason I shouldn't be.