The Best Conference in College Football

By on January 13, 2012

We all know the best is the Southeastern Conference. That is a fact. The SEC was so good it made up the entire Bowl Championship Series National Championship game this year.

The SEC won every BCS Series title game since the 2007 game (Florida) and has won 8 of the 14 BCS championship games, including the first in 1999 (Tennessee). They have the record for the most BCS wins (16) and have three schools with two BCS championships (Florida, Alabama, LSU). No other conference has one school with multiple BCS championships. The Big-12 is the only other conference that has multiple BCS championships (Oklahoma in 2001 and Texas in 2006). The only SEC team to ever lose in the BCS National Championship game: LSU to Alabama this year.

If you know me, you know I’m an Ohio State fanatic and not the biggest fan of the SEC, but I do enjoy watching the SEC in conference play. The most exciting non-Ohio State game I’ve ever watched was just an average game in the SEC.

So the supremacy of the SEC is not in question. However, I do have a few criticisms of the SEC.

Play a better out of conference schedule. Alabama and LSU have done a great job recently with their scheduling, but the rest of the conference needs to step up.

Since 2007, Florida faced two teams from the automatic qualifying conferences (Big10, Big-12, ACC, SEC, Big East, Pac-12) other than their rivalry game with Florida State: unranked University of South Florida and unranked University of Miami.

Auburn has played three teams from the other AQ conferences since 2007: West Virginia in a home and home, Clemson and Kansas State. They also played and lost to USF in 2007, when the Bulls were new to the Big East from Conference USA.

My second criticism, play on the road.

SEC teams rarely schedule a home and home series with big out of conference opponents. Georgia played Boise State in the Georgiadome and LSU played Oregon in Dallas this season and neither Georgia or LSU will play Boise State or Oregon again next year. Home and home series are usually how we get these huge early season out of conference games like Ohio State has had recently (their out of conference games since 2007 include Washington, Miami and USC).

My final point is that the SEC never has to play in the elements. Every SEC team (except for new admit, Missouri) plays south of the Mason-Dixon line (the “official” division between the North and South in the Civil War). This means that many of these teams have never played in snow.

Imagine how the SEC speed would be neutralized in a Minnesota blizzard, in the middle of -10 degrees in Wisconsin or a freezing rain storm in Michigan. It’s not like we don’t see things the other way around. Every year Big10, Big East, northern Big-12 and northern Pac-12 teams travel south to play in the bowl games where 70 degrees and humidity is normally the stage set for each game.

Nothing I’ve stated takes away from the fact that the SEC is the best, but it should remind you that even the mighty SEC isn’t perfect.

Categories: College Football, Football, Sports

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