The constant SEC best conference in college football gets beat in our heads so much it can make fans of schools outside the SEC sick. The media latches on and whether it’s true or not, we hear it year after year.
During the middle part of the 2010s, when this tired refrain got going, one could point to win after win from teams outside the SEC defeating the SEC’s best teams. 2016 and 2017 were losing bowl records for the SEC. 2018 was merely .500. In 2014, the conference didn’t have a national title participant, and some of their top ranked teams that season like Mississippi State and Ole Miss were getting blown out by Georgia Tech and TCU in their Big 6 Bowl games. The ACC dominated the SEC in rivalry games to the tune of 14-6 from 2014-2018.
The rest of college football had caught up with the SEC, and we looked like we were headed towards years of balance in the sport.
Unless you are fan of a SEC school though, here it comes – the SEC is back on top and is separating from the rest of college football. You know it’s coming too. South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky fanbases jumping on the success of LSU and Alabama. Y
You think it was bad before?
Be prepared for it non-stop during the off-season of 2020. Guess what, the rest of college football has nothing to argue either, because when the opportunity for sustained balance in college football was right there for the taking, the rest of college football missed their chance.
The Pac 12 hasn’t won playoff game in 6 years. The Big 10 hasn’t either, and went 4 years without scoring a point. The Big 12 doesn’t have a playoff win in their history. During this time when the SEC backed up, the Pac 12, Big 10, and Big 12 have exactly ZERO playoff wins in the last 5 years.
In fact, the only team to do anything during this time span has been the Clemson Tigers. Clemson has won 2 national titles, and has 4 national title game appearances giving them a 6-3 mark in the playoff era.
Going into 2020, Clemson again appears to be one of the only teams that can challenge the SEC’s best. They couldn’t handle LSU in 2020, but they have plenty of past success against the SEC teams. We need not worry about them. Ohio State looks capable of making national title run in 2020, and for the rest of college football that looks like it. I believe it when I see it that another team besides those two is nationally elite.
SEC football finished with 4 of the top 8 teams in 2019, and went 8-2 in bowl games.
When Alabama slipped in 2019, LSU was right there to take their place. Next year LSU will slip due to so many roster losses, but Alabama and Florida look like playoff potential teams.
That’s the frustrating part. We’re going to hear it by 14 fanbases all off-season – SEC, SEC, SEC.
For most of the middle 2010s SEC football had largely backed up, but they gained depth, recruited better than anyone and sprinted ahead of everyone other than really Clemson yet again. The rest of college football floundered around, and has no one to blame, but themselves for letting the SEC get ahead of everyone else.
Remember the 7 year title run by teams SEC teams from 2006-2012? I don’t see that happening again, but something like 5 of the next 7?
It’s not out of the question. That’s not good for everybody else, but it’s up to the other 4 conference member teams to start getting better or it is coming.
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