SEC still king of college football despite national title drought

Two years without a national title has some in SEC country acting as if the sky is falling, but reality suggests that the conference is actually on the rise.

It’s a story as old as time-eventually those on top get brought down. Eventually every good run ends, and now it seems to be happening to the SEC.

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For the first time since 2005 last year’s national championship game did not include a team from the SEC. The conference had a dominant run that almost spanned a decade, but two consecutive years without the title has hurt the conference’s perception.

ESPN’s Alex Scarborough went so far to suggest that the SEC has “lost the benefit of the doubt” it once had and without it the conference might not even make the playoff. The SEC might have dropped a few pegs in the national consciousness, but it hasn’t missed a step on the football field.

The SEC sent 12 teams bowling last year. The year before the conference only sent 10, and in 2012 only nine SEC teams enjoyed a postseason game. Even after the SEC’s bowl collapse last season it still tied the Pac-12 with six teams ranked in the final AP poll.

The rest of the country underestimates the SEC at its own peril. The SEC might not be fielding any teams that resemble 2011’s Alabama or LSU squads, but the conference is a far cry from dead.

No other Power 5 conference has stepped up to take the SEC’s place on top of the mountain yet. In fact, in the last two years there have been zero Power 5 conferences with a winning record against the SEC, and only one, the Pac-12, has broken even with the SEC (1-1).

The next few seasons will be telling, but the last two years could have simply been the calm before the storm. Over that same stretch it’s easy to point to Alabama’s losses to Oklahoma and Ohio State in the postseason and conclude the SEC has finally come back down to the pack. But no team (including Alabama) can carry a conference’s title hopes every year and others need to step up.

Teams like Georgia, Auburn and LSU still figure to field top-10 teams on an annual basis, but what should scare the country is the programs that seem to be on the rise. Tennessee is starting to look like a real contender for the east again, and no one in the country wants to play Arkansas with how well Bret Bielema has rebuilt the program.

Further, Mississippi State was No. 1 in the nation last year, Ole Miss is recruiting at an elite level and Texas A&M had a Heisman Trophy winner and have the makings of fielding the league’s best offense. Not too mention, Missouri won the east the last two years and Florida should be on the way up after parting ways with Will Muschamp.

Simply put, it’s still the SEC’s world and everybody else just lives in it.

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SEC Football: Despite title drought, SEC still runs college football

By Tyler Waldrep | Jul 30, 2015

Two years without a national title has some in SEC country acting as if the sky is falling, but reality suggests that the conference is actually on the rise.

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