I must have misunderstood what you are saying.
I'm absolutely certain you did. Go back and look at the SECOND line....
Let's change it up a bit
(for Coach Bryant, 1973-80)
I wasn't talking about right now at all......
But 26 (28 ranked but 26 in top 20 to be equivalent), not 12, of Bama's last 50 SEC opponents were ranked.
That might be true, I don't know because I haven't looked. I wasn't talking about the last 50 SEC opponents.
And it seems that the fact that 3, actually it's 4, of the opponents were in the SEC title game is irrelevant - they were ranked teams.
Forde was only talking about the last 22 or whatever games. Actually, I WAS wrong about one thing because the 2014 SECCG was irrelevant to post-2015 Ole Miss.
Point being that yes there's more ranked opponents in that small snippet, but it's a function of the time.
Am I wrong, have I misunderstood what you were saying ?
Yes, because I wasn't talking about Saban's teams, I was talking about Bryant's.
The SEC has been much stronger from 2011-2017 than it was from 73-80.
2011-2014.....absolutely.
But when you remember there's two more SEC schools nowadays and they can pad the record with cupcakes and are living off recent glory......there were 3 teams ranked at the end of the year including us in both 1980 and 2016.......but there were two more teams in the league in the latter.
1973 - Vols, LSU 2011 - LSU, Ark, UGA
1974 - Auburn, UF, MSU, Vols 2012 - UGA, ATM, SC, UF, LSU
1975 - UGA 2013 - Aub, SC, Mizz, LSU, ATM
1976 - UGA, UK, MSU 2014 - UGA, MSU, Ole Miss, Mizz
1977 - UK 2015 - Ole Miss, LSU
1978 - UGA 2016 - LSU, UF
1979 - Auburn
1980 - UGA, MSU
Saban's teams vs Bryant's: 26-11 vs top 20, 11-5 vs top 10, at time game was played. Bryant's record vs Saban's: 48-2, 45-5. Both periods were/have been phenomenal.
Your last line kinda gets my point in a nutshell.
Bryant's SEC record from 1973-1981 (actually) saw us only lose THREE SEC games.
But I'm a little wary of all the dominance talk about this team just yet. We have some glaring vulnerabilities that a talented offense might be able to make some hay about. We've been fortunate, however, that every other team has them, too.