None of the Talking Heads give the other SEC teams credit.
Problem is that other SEC teams have to play Alabama, Auburn, LSU, TAMU, and Georgia.
That could easily give a lot of SEC teams 5 losses right off
the bat. Then other SEC teams can slip up on them too.
You don't get credit for the schedule someone else imposes upon you.
Conference strength is a zero sum game.
Every win by Team A is a loss by team B.
And the SEC of recent years has not been the monster of 2006-2012, no matter how many folks here continue to pretend it is.
The SEC was 14-9 against the other big conferences last year. Take our 2-0 against Louisville and OU out, and the conference as a whole was 12-9.
That's not very impressive if the conference is "really" a monster.
2017 - SEC was 10-12 against the other P5s.
2016 - SEC was 11-14 against the other P5.
2014 - SEC was 11-10.
Since 2013 (when the SEC was 14-8), the only awesome year has been 2015 (14-7).
It wasn't very good in 2012, either, but go back in the years before that.
From 2009-2011, the conference was 44-23 against the other P5.
The current conference (at present) isn't that, and we need to be honest about that.
Unless we just don't show up to play, the only teams on our schedule this year that even enter the game with a minimally reasonable chance of beating us are ATM, LSU, and POSSIBLY Auburn (and I don't give them any real chance either - save for the game is there and Gus has his back against the wall).
Just one more point, though - it's TRUE that even the "not including Alabama SEC" of 12-9 record was equal with the Big Ten for the best overall. But this is NOT a decade ago.