Saturday Blitz
Fansided

Is the SEC still the best conference in college football?

By Jonathan Adams

facebooktwitterreddit

Mirror, mirror on the wall. Who is the best conference of them all? We take a look at whether the SEC is losing its prestige that it once possessed atop the conference rankings.

The SEC’s performance in last season’s bowl games along with the seven-year championship streak being broken have people wondering if the SEC still sits on its throne at the top of the conference rankings.

The conference actually went 7-5 in the bowl games, but most people remember the more visible bowls which included losses by teams like Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Auburn to teams in other conferences. The SEC West, a division many believed to be the best division in football, went 2-5.

More from SEC

I have heard the arguments that the SEC teams did not care about these games which led to their poor performances. There is also the argument about the SEC schedule wearing out its teams. However, when the conference was at its peak fans used the bowl wins to bolster their argument about how much better the conference is than all the others. The schedule, it was argued, allowed SEC teams to be “battle tested” when it came to bowl season. The truth is the SEC West teams just lost the games.

The performance proved that the playing field between the SEC and other conferences is more level than folks in the South may want to recognize. Part of the challenge in comparing conferences is the way we broadly analyze them.

The truth is the top teams in each conference are on relatively the same level. Clemson, Florida State, Baylor, TCU, Oregon, USC, Arizona State, Michigan State and Ohio State are all capable of competing with any team in the country. The same is true for a few teams in the SEC.

The strength of the SEC lies in its “middle-class”. Let me explain, teams like Ole Miss and Mississippi State used to dwell at the bottom of the conference. Now, those programs have been rebuilt and are able to compete for the West division. In 2015, most if not all the SEC teams look to be competitive. There are questions about Vanderbilt, but they should be slightly improved from a year ago.

While the SEC has a middle tier, it may no longer have a lower tier if Kentucky and Vanderbilt can improve. The Pac-12 is on its way to becoming like this as well but needs improvement from Washington State and Colorado for that to happen. When you look across the country teams like Kansas, Iowa State, Illinois, Rutgers, Purdue, Wake Forest, Syracuse and Boston College seem to consistently dwell towards the bottom of college football.

This is not set in stone as we have seen teams like Baylor and Ole Miss rise from the ashes to become national programs. However, until these teams are able to do that, they will continue to bring down the rest of the conference. However, as long as the SEC continues to allow teams to schedule Division II opponents toward the end of their schedule the conference will continue to lose perception points.

From top to bottom, the SEC is the best conference. The Pac-12 is right there with them and could claim the title in 2015 if their teams rise to the challenge. The ACC, Big Ten and Big XII need teams at the bottom of their conference to improve for overall good of each conference.

SEC fans need not look at the top of the conference to make their argument but square in the middle.

However, the sizable gap it used to have between itself and the other conferences? It no longer exists.

Next: Heisman Watch 2015: Top 15 Candidates

More from Saturday Blitz

Home/SEC