An apology is in order.
Props to the Southeastern Conference for coming to play in this year’s bowl season. So far, the SEC has a commanding 8-2 record, with an opportunity to go 9-2 and rack up another National Championship with an Alabama win over Clemson on Monday night. And the SEC fans are feeling pretty chesty about it.
Social media is ripe with Monday morning, or I guess in this case Sunday morning “I told you so” quarterbacks. In fairness, we’ve all been guilty of the “I told you so” tweet. I’ve personally trashed the SEC all season, especially Alabama, whose résumé wasn’t nearly as impressive you might think heading into the College Football Playoff. But to this point, the SEC and Bama (specifically Jake Coker) have disproved my claims, at least a little bit.
I’m sorry. I was wrong. So surely calling the SEC overrated at this point would be crazy, right?
That’s why you read HHSR!
Here’s three reasons why the SEC is still not what many believe it is:
1) The Teams At The Top Can Only Carry So Much Weight
The single biggest feather in the cap of SEC nation (who as far as I can tell invented this conference pride thing— like, if I were a Washington State fan, I wouldn’t give a crap if USC wins a national championship; it would actually make me angry) is the success of the teams at the top within the national landscape. Seven consecutive championships for the conference was incredibly impressive, but for fans of the conference as a whole to take credit for the work of a few (Alabama, LSU, Florida and Auburn) is specious reasoning at the very least.
The SEC is comprised of 14 teams. So while the conference has been wildly successful in the biggest of games over the last decade, one cannot use this alone as evidence to anoint the entire conference, just as you wouldn’t call the Eastern Conference better than the West in the years the Miami Heat won the NBA Championship. And if the top ranked undefeated Clemson Tigers can knock off the Crimson Tide next week, the conference will go into next year’s playoff having not hoisted the National Championship trophy since January 7, 2013.
2) Florida Was In The SEC Title Game
To that end, Florida just played for the conference championship a few weeks ago.
Florida.
The same Florida that needed OT to sneak past a 2-9 Florida Atlantic team at home. The same Florida that was smacked 27-2 at home by rival Florida State, and was bodied by Michigan 41-7 in the Citrus Bowl (basically another home game). This was the best the SEC East had to offer, which suggests half the conference is garbage (Tennessee was actually pretty decent this year, but they narrowly lost to Florida).
When people scream the SEC is the best, they’re basically talking about the SEC West, which sounds good except…
3) The Bowl Season Record Can’t Go Both Ways
The SEC West is a sparkling 6-1 in bowl games this season, a fact that Southeastern supporters have been quick to point out. Last season the West was a putrid 2-5 in bowls, yet it feels like many of those same individuals touting the SEC’s dominance in bowl season 2015 were quick to overlook 2014’s performance.
You can’t have it both ways. If the SEC is in fact superior this year as evidenced by their bowl record, they must have been overrated last year for the same reason. Or, if they weren’t ever overrated last season, the conference cannot be considered the best beyond reproach this season. What’s troublesome is when fans, media, and more importantly pollsters and the playoff committee gives this entire conference the benefit of the doubt regardless of the circumstances.
Working on the premise that the SEC (West) was overrated last year due to the terrible bowl showing, the conference shouldn’t have received all of the preseason hype and midseason adulation in 2015. An obviously flawed LSU team made it all the way to #2 in the nation. Georgia rose as high as #8. Texas A&M was ranked ninth at one point. These things cannot happen because the entire conference from top to bottom has not earned the benefit of the doubt. Ole Miss made it to #3, but at least they dominated Alabama in Tuscaloosa. What did these other schools ever accomplish?
Nothing. But they benefited by simply being located in the same region of the country as Alabama. If the SEC were a publicly traded company, the real SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) would be investigating them for misleading the shareholders. An appropriate term that transcends both arenas: fraud.
The majority of the SEC’s teams are frauds. The sad part is regardless of what happens Monday night, all 14 teams in the conference will once again be judged on a friendlier scale throughout the 2016 season. Given the fact that I’ve hammered Bama all year, it would be hypocritical for me to pick them over Clemson. But if Nick Saban and Co. prove me wrong once more, I will concede that Alabama was not overrated this season.
But only Alabama.