My esteemed members of this board, you have all been privy to a multitude of discussions regarding the SEC West this season. I have taken the position that they have some good teams but have been sorely over-rated all season. Others have taken positions as grand as to proclaim them the best division in the history of college football. Now that their bowl season is complete and their final resumes established, I will take a closer look at their season as a whole and reveal the hoax that has been played on the entire college football loving nation by the conference homers themselves and those who promote them. Can anybody deny the repeated nature of the narrative that has been pumped through the media streams and, in turn, repeated at the water cooler at work stations across the south? Such catch phrases as "SEC speed" have indeed just become implanted in our collective subconscious by the broken record-like mantra of the media types with an apparent agenda. The house of cards was built so high, without foundation, that the inevitable crash was all the more embarrassing for everyone involved. Unlike most posters, I will back up my positions with data, and build a case, not only firmly establishing bias, but bordering on much worse. The system by which FBS college football champions are determined is frought with deep problems and permanently fractured. Despite the step in the right direction of a 4 team playoff, further changes are needed. Bias, money and politics still play far too great a role in determining our champions.
In 2014, the SEC West followed their typical model of lining up cupcake OOC schedules to avoid losses and waiting on the fawning press to fan the flames of their dominance mantra. In fact, the SEC West scheduled a total of just 4 games this season against teams from other power 5 conferences. This pales in comparison to the ACC Atlantic, for example, who scheduled a more normal 11. They did, in fact, win those 4 games, setting the stage quite nicely.
Next, I am going to share with you some weekly rankings data that unfolded as the season progressed that strongly suggest favorable treatment, whether intended or not, to this single conference and division. We all know preseason and early season polls are not worth the paper they are printed on. CFB is afterall a hard sport to predict. There were a handful of teams across the country who finished the season with 4 or more losses that also graced the top 10 in the AP rankings at any time. Two of them were there for a single week early on, Stanford at #10 (week 2) and USC #10 (week 3). The voting media swung and missed badly with Oklahoma and Notre Dame, each spending 5 weeks in the top 10 to start the season before dropping like a rock out of the rankings all together. Besides the SEC West, those are the only teams across the entire nation to grace the top 10 in error. Now we get to the vaunted SEC West schools. T A&M(8-5 record) spent 4 weeks in the top 10 reaching as high as #6 in week 6. LSU (8-5) spent 2 weeks in the top 10 reaching as high as #8. This is where it gets good. Ole Miss (9-4) spent a total of 9 weeks in the top 10, peaking at #3 in week 13. Auburn (8-5) spent an astounding 11 weeks in the top ten, peaking at #2. There was only a single team, nation wide, to finish with 3 losses who graced the top spot in the polls at any time. What conference and division did that team come from? You guessed it. The SEC West. MSU lost three games on the season and spent weeks 8 through 12 at #1. To compound matters, the SEC had the highest ranked 1 loss team for 9 of the last 10 weeks, the highest ranked 2 loss team for 6 of the 10 weeks that a 2 loss team was ranked, the highest ranked 3 loss team for all 6 weeks that happened, and the highest ranked 4 loss team every week there was one.
So, what did the exalted SEC west do to back up this treatment in the polls? You know what they did. They finished with 2 wins and 5 losses in their bowl games when they were matched up with decent teams from other conferences. Consider this, the only games they managed to win were against a Texas team with a losing record and a West Virginia team who was forced to break in a back up QB because Tricket was out with a concussion. Auburn lost to a Wisconsin team that just got drubbed by OSU (who was playing a thrird string QB starting his first game) 59-0. Ole Miss (the former #3 in the land) got totally outclassed by TCU 42-3 in a game where the score could have easily been worse. LSU lost to Notre Dame who had just lost 5 out of its last 6 themselves. Mississippi State (former #1) lost to an ACC team with an identical conference record, in Georgia Tech, by a score of 49-34. Then finally, Alabama, supposedly the best team in the land, lost to Ohio State who was playing its third string QB again, now with one game of experience under his belt.
For the good of the sport, we need to change things and we need to change them now. The spin machine and the homers should not be deciding, or even influencing, championships. Throughout history we have seen humans get whipped into all sorts of frenzies over things that had no basis in fact. College football is no different. The forces of money, emotions, and overdeveloped sense of association are simply too powerful to ignore any longer. I love CFB, but in its present state, it is unhealthy. Unlike some sports, college football has the ability to decide champions on the field as the result of a series of head to head competitions. It is time we made the commitment to do so.
The funny thing is, even after writing this opinion, I actually feel that the SEC has some good teams. Just getting every team bowl eligible is an achievement in itself. Their performance this bowl season is indeed unfortunate. The problem is that NO CONFERENCE could possibly live up to the hype that has been generated on their behalf, whether by design or not. I give credit to the SEC for putting a lot of butts in the seats and generating a lot of excitement. They have proven to be elite in that category. It is my considered opinion that there is a lot of parity these days. I don't see any league as dramatically better than any others, despite what I read and hear. To be truthful, I don't like the idea of rooting against a certain conference when they play simply because I despise the unfair treatment they receive. But I do it. Call it a weakness. I see one thing with my own eyes and all I hear from all media outlets and fans is another.
Integrity has to count for something. Let's re-establish it; the best sport in the world is counting on us.
