SEC Football: Outside Alabama, conference not what we thought it was

Marvin Gentry-USA TODAY Sports

The SEC we are used to seeing is gone. College football is now full of parity and that may not be such a bad thing.

There is famous clip of a Dennis Green press conference when he was coaching the Arizona Cardinals. “They are who we thought they were,” Green yells into the microphone.

In the months leading up to the season, we all went back and forth on who would win the SEC West. We talked about the potential of the SEC East.

The SEC is not what we thought it was. It is hard to know who the best team is behind Alabama in the West. Aside from Florida, the East has been a big disappointment.

This is not to say that the conference is not a good conference, but it is no longer the king of college football.

Right now, there is Alabama and everyone else. Florida comes in at a distant second and will likely have the opportunity to prove the gap is not as big as we think it is in the SEC Championship game. The “middle class” of teams has evaporated.

This season, the SEC is no different from the Big Ten or Big 12. In fact, a good argument could be made for either of those conferences being the best conference.

The days of SEC dominance are over. The seven-year string of titles was impressive but that era has passed. This is not an insult, but for the first time in recent memory there is parity among the conferences.

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Enjoy Saturday’s slate of rivalry games and the last day of the college football regular season. Take a look around the country and appreciate the great football that is being played regardless of the conference.