At one point, you couldn’t play a national championship without having at least one team from the Southeastern Conference present. They were the kings of college football and everyone else was just trying to catch up.
From 2006 to 2012 the SEC won seven straight titles and at one point the league won 13 out of 17 from 2006 to 2022. Even when the playoffs started, the SEC had eight straight years where at least one team made it to the national championship game from 2015 to 2022.
But now for the third straight season, the SEC has not had a team make it to the national championship game. Since Georgia won it all a few years ago, we have had Michigan and Ohio State win titles and now we have either Miami or Indiana up next.
The last time the SEC failed to win a national championship in a three-year period? You’d have to go all the way back from 1999-2002. While the SEC is faltering, the Big Ten has stepped up a taken their place at the top.
The conference has already won the last two national championships thanks to Michigan and Ohio State and now they will get a chance for a third straight with Indiana on January 19th when they face Miami at Hard Rock Stadium.
Remember when Greg Sankey whined all offseason long about the committee leaving out a three-loss Alabama team last year? The man even did a power point presentation about it. To me, he came off like a big crybaby, but it worked in his favor.
This year we saw five teams from the SEC get in. Alabama snuck their way in despite getting crushed by Georgia in the SEC title game and manage to beat Oklahoma before losing to Indiana by 35 points.
Texas A&M failed to score a touchdown in its first-round home loss to Miami and then you had Ole Miss as the lone member of the SEC make it to the semifinals after beating Georgia. Meanwhile, the Big Ten had two teams and even the ACC had one team make it to the final four.
We’ve had eight SEC teams among the 24 to make the field through two seasons of the 12-team playoff and those teams have gone 5-8. Those five wins have come against Arizona State, Clemson, Tulane, Georgia, and Oklahoma which means nearly half of their wins have come against themselves.
It seems like every year we hear the national talking heads talking about how great the SEC is yet here we are, third year in a row and they are nowhere to be found during championship week. Maybe the SEC isn’t head and shoulders above everyone else anymore.
Now that the schools can pay the players, it seems like the playing field has been leveled. Other schools have now caught up or passed the schools from the SEC who were once considered the gold standard of college football.
So next year, when everyone is arguing about the playoff maybe everyone including the committee should consider that the SEC is not what it once was. Are there good teams? Sure, but has there been a great team? Absolutely not.
You can beat your chest and scream S-E-C all you want but at the end of the day the last time an SEC team played for a national championship so did the Big 12, which goes to show how long it’s been.
Paul Finebaum said before this season started that if the SEC failed to win a national championship this year, then he would leave the country. Well Paul, pack your bags because it’s time to leave and we could all use a break from you anyways.
