Is SEC really down

The problem is that there is no real decent team in the East, except maybe Georgia.

3-4yrs ago we had several very, very good teams in each division.

EAST:

-South Carolina was almost a perineal 10-win team that would inexplicably lose to Missouri and therefore miss the SEC championship

-Georgia was consistently solid

-Florida was competitive

-Missouri kept somehow winning the East despite being probably the 3rd-4th best team in the division, but they were a solid team

Now everyone but Georgia is a basket case

WEST:

-Bama- duh
-LSU- just couldn't get around Bama
-Ole Miss- a few dumb losses to balance out their improbable wins barely kept them out of the championship
-A&M- scared everyone for about 3yrs
-Auburn- was magically phenomenal when not expected and average when under expectations
-Miss State kept winning 8-9 games

Now everyone has been Saban'd except Bama and Miss State (how?)

But all of these teams were potential national players, all at the same time, for about a 3-4yr period.

Now the attrition has set in and some teams have simply returned to the mean. The East is just bad.



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LSUgrad2BamaDad said:

I do think the level of play has diminished in the SEC overall compared to where it was 5-10 years ago. Questions I have for y'all is do you think Bama is better now than in 2011? Are all of the other teams dropping off while Bama is maintaining, or is Bama just getting that much better?

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The important thing is Coach Saban keeps making adjustments.

We are "just maintaining" -- our status as the leading contender to win the championship every single year.

Given how far a lot of SEC teams have slipped, we may not really know how good we are till the SECCG, or even the playoff.

This far into the season (against Power Five) we have:

Pac 12 ..... 6-2, .750
B1G ......... 7-6, .538
SEC.......... 7-6, .538
Big 12 ...... 4-6, .400
ACC ......... 5-8, .380

How good was Pinkel to have kept Mizzou competitive?

The SEC is truly Alabama and then everyone else. I saw this stat being passed around: Alabama has won 18 consecutive SEC games by an average margin of 23.1 points. Considering we play 8 conference games per year we're going on almost 2 1/2 years without losing a conference game. That's incredible..

I think 2 things have happened to make the SEC look like it is "down." 1. Other conferences caught up specifically with HC talent. Urban left the SEC for the Big 10 and then Harbaugh joined them as well. Dabo started to really find his groove and Jimbo had Jamies for a while. Meanwhile, the SEC lost Urban (as mentioned) and Les Miles (not great but certainty better than the cartoon character that replaced him). The 2nd best coach in the conference is at a school that simply doesn't have the resources to be a consistent powerhouse (Mullen at Mississippi State). Heck Stoops is probably a top 5 coach in the SEC and he is at Kentucky. Maybe Kriby can change this? But right now there is a dearth of high level coaching talent in the SEC 2. The coaching losses and Alabama dominance has lead to fewer truly elite teams in the conference. Alabama has no real consistent competition in the SEC while other conferences have a few teams on top. The competition at the top of a conference gives the appearance of a strong conference even if there are teams like say...Rutgers in the conference.

So, top to bottom I think the SEC is on par with basically every conference if not better but the lack of a real rival to Alabama gives the appearance of a down conference.

CrimsonForce said:

The SEC is truly Alabama and then everyone else. I saw this stat being passed around: Alabama has won 18 consecutive SEC games by an average margin of 23.1 points. Considering we play 8 conference games per year we're going on almost 2 1/2 years without losing a conference game. That's incredible..

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Yup. I really don't know if there is a team that can beat us in the SEC this year. MAYBE Georgia but that's it.

And that's all that matters!

WMack4Bama said:

Yeah. It is. Nick sucked the life out of it. But I don't care. We're winning. Roll Tide.

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Bamabuzzard said:

I actually think Pinkel got out for more than just because of his health.

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You may be right, but he has said several times that he would still be coaching if not for the wake-up call that he got from his cancer diagnosis. Cancer changes priorities.

Back to the original question - I was talking to my son about this yesterday and he asked me a simple question - what would the SEC look like, compared to the other conferences, without Alabama. So I took it a step further and imagined a playoff without the best team in each P5 conference and I found that every other conference has multiple teams capable of winning it all, while the SEC only has Alabama. A few years ago the SEC could throw 3-4 teams into the playoff pool and any one of them might be able to win it all. That is just not true right now.

Georgia may change that. We will see. But for now the SEC really is Alabama, then a huge drop-off to the next team.

Bamabuzzard said:

No doubt. I've got a good friend dying of pancreatic cancer right now at the age of 50. It has turned their world upside down. I just think any thoughts he had of trying to "tough it out" with the cancer was squashed with what he possible saw at Mizzoo. That's pure speculation and we'll never know. But I have a hard time believing that a guy who coached under Pinkel is as bad of a coach as what their team is on the field. Those guys are truly AWFUL.

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I think back to how Pinkel handled the situation and have to think his cancer was the reason for mishandling the whole thing. He had a radio interview the week after the boycott was announced with a KC radio station. He sounded extremely distracted and as if he had no clue what his players had done.

He learned about his cancer over the summer before the season began, so it probably caused him to be more distant from things than he otherwise would have.

It depends on what you mean by “down”, but from a recent and historical perspective, I would say yes.

B1GTide said:

Back to the original question - I was talking to my son about this yesterday and he asked me a simple question - what would the SEC look like, compared to the other conferences, without Alabama. So I took it a step further and imagined a playoff without the best team in each P5 conference and I found that every other conference has multiple teams capable of winning it all, while the SEC only has Alabama. A few years ago the SEC could throw 3-4 teams into the playoff pool and any one of them might be able to win it all. That is just not true right now.

Georgia may change that. We will see. But for now the SEC really is Alabama, then a huge drop-off to the next team.

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If you take Alabama out of the mix, you also have to consider our recruits would most likely end up at other programs. If Miles doesn't lose out on the Monroe kids in 2014, he's still at LSU probably. We've taken numerous players from Georgian and Florida. Doubtful Richt is run out of town if Bama doesn't do it.

Excluding Alabama from the equation requires more than just simply looking at the other 13 teams in the conference.

RTR91 said:

If you take Alabama out of the mix, you also have to consider our recruits would most likely end up at other programs. If Miles doesn't lose out on the Monroe kids in 2014, he's still at LSU probably. We've taken numerous players from Georgian and Florida. Doubtful Richt is run out of town if Bama doesn't do it.

Excluding Alabama from the equation requires more than just simply looking at the other 13 teams in the conference.

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The result is the same - Alabama is the SEC. The other conferences have several teams capable of winning it all.

To carry the thought that Alabama is the SEC right now a bit further, consider these facts.

Alabama's dominance on the field has resulted is a huge coaching staff turnover throughout the SEC
Alabama's dominance in recruiting has resulted in diminished recruiting throughout the SEC
As SEC teams deal with the 2 points above, their on the field results have continued to diminish
As point #3 plays out, Alabama's dominance in recruiting increases as other SEC schools look less and less attractive
As Alabama's dominance in recruiting continues to hurt the rest of the SEC, Alabama continues to get stronger and the other schools weaker.

It is a cycle that feeds itself. Until another SEC team beats Alabama in the SECCG and wins a championship (or Saban retires), this will only get worse. You are bleeding the talent from SEC states while driving away quality coaches from the other schools.

B1GTide said:

The result is the same - Alabama is the SEC. The other conferences have several teams capable of winning it all.

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Because the other conferences haven't had a dominant program like Alabama. If you take Alabama out of the SEC in the last decade, do you think the SEC is the same as it is today?

RTR91 said:

Because the other conferences haven't had a dominant program like Alabama. If you take Alabama out of the SEC in the last decade, do you think the SEC is the same as it is today?

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See above - no - but the result is the same. The SEC is weaker.

B1GTide said:

The result is the same - Alabama is the SEC. The other conferences have several teams capable of winning it all.

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Do they though? I guess this is where I get hung up. What are the multiple teams this year from each conference and how good are they really? This is the problem with rating college football teams across conferences. There are so few match ups its hard to get a real feel. Who are the multiple teams in the Pac 12 or ACC? Heck even the Big 10 seems down this year at the top.