Where The Parity Of The SEC Could Go Wrong
The SEC is widely considered the best conference in college football. With only 4 spots available for the CFB playoff, could the SEC be too stacked for their own good?
The SEC has won 8 of the last 10 National Championships and displayed dominance once again last season. The catch is that the depth of the SEC still provides teams with constant scares of dropping the dreaded second game of the season. For example, Alabama dropped an early game to Ole Miss the last two seasons and had to be perfect the rest of the year to even get into the playoffs.
The main struggle of the SEC is that no team can be overlooked. If a team plays LSU one week and Alabama two weeks later, its very easy to look ahead. But you can’t overlook a team like Arkansas or Mississippi State in the middle and lose. Ever year we see close games from ‘lesser’ SEC matchups against the powerhouses and wonder how could this be. Well in the great Southeastern Conference, every team on your schedule — except one or two — can beat you. That my friends, is what we call parity. Take notes ACC.
On top of the brutal schedule most of these teams play, they also play a championship game come season’s end. Now yes, most other conferences do — but some don’t. Many other conferences have their schedule loaded with cupcakes. Every SEC title game is a fight — with the opponent across from you also having a chance at a National title birth.
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In conclusion, the fact is that no matter who you play in the SEC, they have the talent and chance of beating you. That can be said with any conference, but more so here. The reason I’m bringing this up is because the narrative seems to be that if a SEC contender has a close game with one of the conference ‘bottom feeders’, they are overrated. Instead of taking a logical approach, people instead overreact. They forget about thinking the team threw something at them they didn’t see on film because they looked ahead to the 1-2 title contenders on their schedule, people just scream overrated.
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Florida, Tennessee(gulps), LSU, Alabama and even Ole Miss all have realistic title aspirations this season. Most noteworthy is that most of these teams face each other. So with the possibility of all these teams clashing, they could all have 1-2 loses come seasons end. With that said, the chance of the SEC not having a representative in the playoff is very real. If a team plays one or two of these aforementioned teams above, they could walk away with multiple loses.
Hence, we have to face the reality that the best conference may not have a representative in the playoff. And, as we all know, that would be quite a shame. The winner of an SEC-less playoff would have to have an asterisk by their name.