***Warning, I’m about to rant all because of the Alabama Crimson Tide***
It pains me to say this … I’ve known this as fact for the last 7 years. I’ve known it since the BCS era began with Tennessee beating Florida State. Although top-heavy, the SEC is head over heels the best conference in college football. And if I am very honest, it’s not even close. I’ve been watching college football for a while now but what we are seeing right now is something else. The top of the SEC is stupid good!
Typically conferences and teams trade off their domination of college football. The 1970s were dominated by the Big Ten and the Big Eight. The 1980s were dominated by the Miami Hurricanes and the early 1990s were dominated by the Florida State Seminoles. Oklahoma, USC, Nebraska, Michigan, Ohio State, Notre Dame, and Texas have all had dominate runs, but what we are witnessing right now as college football fans is something different. In particular the Alabama Crimson Tide and the LSU Tigers ….
The very top of the SEC is sustaining their dominance year over year as evidenced by this year’s top 10 AP pre-season poll. The SEC has five teams ranked in the top 10 (#2 Alabama, #3 LSU, #6 Georgia, #9 South Carolina, and #10 Arkansas). As a conference, they have won 8 of 14 BCS national championships and have won the last 6 in a row. When you peel back the SEC’s performance over the last 14 years you start to realize that their success is a function of some very “simple” factors…. NFL-type talent, NFL-type coaches, NFL-type strategies
First off, SEC football is played in a region of the United States that has some of the best high school football talent. Currently, 15 of the top 25 high school programs in this year’s MaxPreps top 25 poll are from Southern states (I’ve included Texas in this primarily because the SEC recruits heavily in Texas). I’m not knocking the brand of high school football played elsewhere. California, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan have all produced their fair share of Division 1 and NFL talent. But the old adage that speed kills is alive and well in Southern football talent. Those defensive ends and tackles that run as fast as wide receivers , those safeties that hit like defensive tackles but run like the wind, and those line backers that run as fast as safeties are all found in the South. Simply put, it’s the defensive talent in the SEC that sets their teams apart from the rest of America!
Secondly, SEC coaches and staff are paid more on average than the rest of the coaches and staff in the nation. The 12 SEC coaches and staff made an average of $5.98 million in 2011 with Alabama, LSU, and Florida, and Auburn paying well above $6.3 million in total compensation[1]. More specifically, of the 10 highest paid head coaches in the country (at public institutions) six were from the SEC[2]. Les Miles, Nick Saban, Urban Meyer, Steve Spurrier, and Gene Chizik are all NFL caliber coaches with NFL caliber coaching staffs. Money talks plain and simple. If you pay more you will get better coaches. Better coaches plus high quality players equals better qualify programs.
And lastly, the brand of football played in the SEC is fundamentally the best way to win football games. Oregon, Oklahoma, Michigan, Texas, and a plethora of other teams have gotten away from the brand of football that wins the big game. Don’t get me wrong, I love the spread. As a former wide receiver, the spread otherwise known as fun ball is my type of style. But when you really think about it, football in general is a run first type of game. Strong running games and great defenses have always been the back bone of most championship teams. The old adage that defense wins championships is clearly alive and well in the SEC. Haters will say that the SEC defenses don’t face real offenses in conference. To that I say, ask the 2010 Oregon Ducks (lost to Auburn), 2009 Texas Longhorns (lost to Alabama), and 2008 Oklahoma Sooners (lost to Florida) to name a few what it felt like to run up against an SEC defense. Each of these teams had top 5 ranked offenses heading into the national championship games and each of these teams were held to their lowest outputs all season.
I am far from an SEC homer in fact I’ve been one of the biggest SEC hater for some time. Primarily because their fans chant the following at their games: “S-E-C, S-E-C, S-E-C.” I am also certain that this eventual dominance will ebb (especially once Nick Saban and Les Miles retire). But after what I just witnessed in this Michigan-Alabama game I have to pay proper respect to college football’s pre-eminent conference (at the moment). I guess I have finally “accepted” it and the rest of the haters should too.
