Wednesday, November 14, 2007
SEC: Overrated or Underappreciated?
There is a conference in college football so good that the 12 teams in it have combined for only five losses out of the 47 out-of-conference games they've played. That's a 42-5 record when facing teams not in their division. No other division even comes close:
The ACC is 31-12.
The Big 12 is 36-11.
The Big Ten is 33-9.
The Pac-10 is 21-9.
The WAC is ... eh, who cares?
In fact, seven teams in this conference have not even lost an out-of-conference game. Only the Big 12 comes close with five teams perfect out of the division.
There is a conference in college football that has outscored opponents nearly 11 points a game in the 102 combined games they've played so far this season. Every team included, from first to 12th.
There is a conference in college football where only one team (Mississippi) has a losing record. All other conferences (aside from the Big 10) have at least two. Most have three, four, or even five.
There is a conference in college football in which the team in ninth place (Arkansas) has posted a 6-4 record overall, a 5-2 record at home, a Heisman trophy candidate and has put up more points than half of the schools in the top 10 of the BCS Standings.
There is a conference in college football where the second-to-worst team (Vanderbilt) doesn't have a losing record, has beaten the only top -10 team they've faced and allowed only 215 points, less than No. 5 Missouri, No. 9 Georgia, No. 12 Florida, No. 13 Texas, No. 20 Tennessee, No. 21 Michigan, No. 23 Kentucky, and No. 25 Wisconsin, nearly a third of all ranked teams in the nation.
And finally, there is conference in college football with the best team in the nation (LSU), another top-10 school (No. 9 Georgia), an additional three ranked teams, (No. 12 Florida, No. 20 Tennessee, and No. 23 Kentucky) and 7-4 Auburn and 6-4 Alabama that have legitimate claims to be ranked.
Before the season, syndicated columnist Dennis Dodd called the SEC "the best league in the country." He went so far as to say the "excellence of the SEC has reached critical mass" and that the "competition is cannibalistic." In any other division, many of these programs would be dominating and making significant noise in the postseason, but because they are all corralled together and have a 12-week season to beat each other up gladiator arena-style, only one or two teams are physically and emotionally able to carry the torch into December and January.
The Southeastern Conference is playing like a man among boys on Saturdays and don't be surprised if it's the SEC that takes home another national championship.