NCAA Football: Can Anybody Stop the SEC From Winning Another Championship?
The SEC has dominated college football in recent years. Some might say it is mostly the Alabama Crimson Tide and coach Nick Saban that has dominated, and that would not be far from the truth. But the Tide is far from the only powerhouse in the conference. Last season bordered on the ridiculous as the SEC had six teams that were good enough to win a a national championship. The season before last, the SEC put both teams into the BCS National Championship Game. Three times since 2008, the SEC Championship Game for all intents and purposes, was the National Championship Game.
Since the Florida Gators shocked the Ohio State Buckeyes in January of 2007 in the home of the Arizona Cardinals with an easy 41-14 win over the Big Ten Champions, the SEC has been on a roll unlike any college football has ever seen. The conference has won ever national championship since then. Two teams have won more than one (Alabama has three, Florida has two). The conference has won four Heisman Trophies since then (Tim Tebow, Mark Ingram, Cam Newton, Johnny Manziel), and probably should have more.
The SEC has dominated the other conferences in out-of-conference play. We’ve seen the LSU Tigers whip the PAC 12 power Oregon Ducks. We’ve seen the Tide roll over the Big Ten powerhouse Michigan Wolverines. We’ve seen the Gators go on the road and pound the eventual ACC Champion and Orange Bowl winner Florida State Seminoles. We’ve seen the South Carolina Gamecocks take down the ACC power Clemson Tigers several years in a row. Yes, there is an occasional hiccup, such as Florida losing the Sugar Bowl to the Louisville Cardinals or Clemson slipping past LSU in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl. But for every Northwestern Wildcats over the Mississippi State Bulldogs there seems to be two more games where the Georgia Bulldogs whip the Nebraska Cornhuskers and the Gamecocks beat Michigan.
Even the Texas A&M Aggies in their first year in the conference, go to the Cotton Bowl and kick the Oklahoma Sooners teeth in. That is something they were usually on the other end of when they played them in the Big 12. One year in the SEC and the Aggies have already doubled their number of Heisman Trophies.
So the question is, are there any signs of this stopping? The bad news is, no there isn’t. Alabama is…well…Alabama. They will again be loaded with talent. Aaron Murray returns to lead the Georgia Bulldogs, who were about five yards away from beating Alabama and moving on to the BCS National Championship Game where the Notre Dame Fighting Irish would have given them little resistance. South Carolina has the sure-fire number one draft pick in Jadaveon Clowney anchoring their defense and Conner Shaw returning at quarterback. Florida has a ton of talent including quarterback Jeff Driskel, who led them to 11 wins a year ago. And A&M has Johnny Football again this year.
The Ole Miss Rebels are bringing in talent by the boatload. The Vanderbilt Commodores are getting more dangerous all the time. LSU is once again an NFL breeding ground. The Mississippi State Bulldogs have a ton of talent. The Kentucky Wildcats are now being coached by one of the Stoops brothers (Mark, who comes to them via Florida State). The Tennessee Vols have a new coach in Butch Jones, who was winning as coach of the Cincinnati Bearcats. What will he do with SEC resources and talent? And the Arkansas Razorbacks have the very successful former coach of the Wisconsin Badgers coming in, Bret Bielema. So who does that leave? The Missouri Tigers? Oh right, the Auburn Tigers.
Look for the SEC to win yet another championship this season.
