For the past decade the SEC has all but dominated the college football landscape; winning championships for 7 years straight and carrying an overall bowl record that is nothing short of impressive. Last year, the Auburn Tigers lost to Florida State in a very close game that marked the first time the SEC hadn’t won a national championship game in which it was represented. Combine that with the less than stellar opening week the SEC showcased and the questions are starting to come in: Has the SEC finally dropped a peg? Fair question but I think the better question isn’t have they fallen off but rather has the lest of the SEC finally started to catch up with the top heavy powers? Point/Counter-Point!
Dave:
The SEC is not down but I don’t think it has necessarily balanced out either. Rather than top heavy the conference is West heavy. Alabama and Auburn are legitimate contenders for the four-team playoffs and national title but LSU, Texas A&M, Ole Miss or even Mississippi State could pull off an upset and blow things up. On the other side of the conference South Carolina disappointed in their debut and Georgia looked like the team to beat in the East. Florida won’t stay down for too long, will they? Still, it looks like the winner of the West will most likely represent the SEC in the playoffs.
Expectations are high for the Mississippi schools but a great season from them could still leave them in third place or lower in the West standings. While the power houses in the league are still expected to finish on top, we could see a balance of powers soon.
Keith:
We’ve all seen Florida come crashing back down to earth over the last several years and that happened to coincide with the rise of Alabama to a modern dynasty. LSU has always been strong. But what about Georgia and South Carolina? Georgia has always had a strong program but never really challenged for the big national spot. But we saw South Carolina get absolutely ravaged by A&M. I don’t think that the SEC has dropped off. I do think that there is cycles in college football and the SEC is no different. From 2005-2008, Florida and LSU were the class of the league. Alabama has taken over in recent years and now Auburn is rising. Maybe Alabama tails off a little bit. The big shift is that the SEC used to have three strong teams in each division, now you can argue that the East doesn’t have much strength left in it and now the West has ALL the strength and you would be hard pressed to argue that. I think Georgia is still going to have a good year, South Carolina is going to bounce back but i don’t think they’ll win any of the games out of the West and if Florida can stay healthy they have the talent to make some noise but not challenge. The SEC is still very, very strong and if you underestimate it, watch out!
Stu:
I would argue that the SEC is as strong as ever but the distribution of said strength is in a constant rotation. You have Alabama and LSU in the West and Georgia in the East that will always be near the top but every couple of years the power will take a slight shift and one of the other teams may get to take a turn at the top for a short time. I witnessed the talking heads say two weeks ago that the Pac 12 had caught up with the SEC. While I do believe the Pac 12 is the next best conference of the “Big Five” I do not think they have caught the SEC. What I do believe is happening in the SEC, particularly in the West, is some of the second tier teems beginning to catch up. The SEC West for example is going to be brutal this year. I believe every team in the West, with the exception of Arkansas, could play with anyone in the nation and Arkansas is much improved from last year. There is a rotation it seems in College football when it comes to the strength of a team. Even the mighty will fall every now and then. Look at Alabama in the mid 2000’s. It’s bound to happen sooner or later, but not any time soon. The SEC is still and will stay for some time the class of college football.
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