SEC superiority is dead

#126
#126
IF Georgia beats Alabama, the SEC will have six different schools win a national title in the last 20 years.

Can any other conference make that claim?
 
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#127
#127
Lawrence Wright said:
IF Georgia beats Alabama, the SEC will have six different schools win a national title in the last 20 years.

Can any other conference make that claim?
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Doubt any other conference has more than 2 right?

Edit: ACC have 3 (FSU, Miami, Clemson)
 
#129
#129
Hawkeye4588 said:
An argument can be made that the reason the SEC was so deep in the BCS era was because Bama was on probation from 1995 to 2000. That gave the rest of us a fighting chance. Now that Saban has returned Bama back to the evil empire conference depth has suffered.
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Actually, the SEC's deepest era was during the first five or six years of Saban's tenure ('07-'12). The SEC was a two horse race in the latter half of the 90s.
 
#131
#131
DaddyChad said:
How can a conference be dead when two of it's members are playing in the National Title game? Several teams other than Bama have played in the title game over the last decade as well. Maybe not as dominant, but dead?
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Not dead, just top heavy. People have a lot of trouble making nuanced, tempered arguments anymore. Alabama has been the flagship product out of the SEC during this run, but until a few years ago other SEC teams could lay claim to being among the top teams in the country. In 2014, 2015, and 2016, the SEC had Alabama and then a huge drop off to #2. Some depth was restored this year with Georgia and Auburn also having great years.

I really think that the SEC was at its best/deepest in about 2011 and 2012, and you could really argue its string of dominance extended back to 2008. The 2008, 2009, and 2012 SECCGs were de facto national championship semifinals, and the SEC had a crop of 4-5 solid teams behind those two teams. In 2011, two SEC teams played in the NCG. Florida, Georgia, Auburn, and LSU were all nationally relevant most of those years and even Arky/Vandy were having 9-11 win seasons during those years.

No conference had a run like that before, and I don't think one ever will again.

...and you know what the sad part about all of this is? Tennessee has been AWOL during the entirety of this run.
 
#132
#132
Hawkeye4588 said:
An argument can be made that the reason the SEC was so deep in the BCS era was because Bama was on probation from 1995 to 2000. That gave the rest of us a fighting chance. Now that Saban has returned Bama back to the evil empire conference depth has suffered.
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That's a fair point, but Bama wasn't so good in the 90's that they were depleting the rest of the SEC.

Saban is not returning them to anything. He's having the best run in CFB history. He's working on 5 titles in 9 years and the SEC west has been unrealistically competitive. College football overall is so competitive compared to what past dynasties faced. The money and depth of talent ensures that.
 
#133
#133
True on the competitive thing. Remember the Mike Price strip club days? Those were great times to be a Tennessee fan. And yes, Saban is on a whole different level. I would have never thought we would see that much success in the modern game with scholarship restrictions, etc. My hope is that Saban retires soon and Bama goes through a decade like we have been in since firing Fulmer.
 
#134
#134
n_huffhines said:
That's a fair point, but Bama wasn't so good in the 90's that they were depleting the rest of the SEC.

Saban is not returning them to anything. He's having the best run in CFB history. He's working on 5 titles in 9 years and the SEC west has been unrealistically competitive. College football overall is so competitive compared to what past dynasties faced. The money and depth of talent ensures that.
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Saban is the best college football coach in the history of the sport, and it isn't even close. I know ultimately it is a subjective thing, but I don't even see how you can make an argument for someone to be as good as him, much less better than him.

What he's done is the equivalent of Bear Bryant winning about 12-15 national titles at Alabama during his time there. His teams have not finished outside of the AP Top 10 since 2007 (and that was his first year, a throwaway year). The last season they weren't in the mix for a national title at the end of the regular season was 2010. With scholarship limits, the level of parity/competitiveness, and the resources put up by other schools in an attempt to compete with him, it should be absolutely impossible to do what he's doing. It should be impossible to even get close to what he is doing.
 
#135
#135
Hawkeye4588 said:
True on the competitive thing. Remember the Mike Price strip club days? Those were great times to be a Tennessee fan. And yes, Saban is on a whole different level. I would have never thought we would see that much success in the modern game with scholarship restrictions, etc. My hope is that Saban retires soon and Bama goes through a decade like we have been in since firing Fulmer.
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Even with the attempted Schiano hire and Currie firing, I still maintain that Alabama's journey through the wilderness in the late 90s/early 2000s was more embarrassing than ours. At least we never had to fire a coach before he coached a single game because he was cavorting with strippers/hookers or got put on long-term, serious probation.

It seems inconceivable that Alabama was in that place not all that long ago, but they were. I remember when Bammers wanted Saban and right when he was hired people were telling them "You aren't a big program anymore. Why would an NFL coach want to come there?"
 
#136
#136
RE: Bama's '95 - '00 Sanctions, FSU and Miami were so good in the 90's thru the early 2000's and their declines probably had a lot to do with the SEC's rise to dominance.
 
#138
#138
n_huffhines said:
I'm not arguing that it's dead, but outside of UGA and Bama, it wasn't a very good conference. There are 14 teams and a lot of them weren't very good.
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Yet... The SEC has 6 teams with 9 or more wins - more than any other conference.
 
#139
#139
99gator said:
I know you shouldn't make sweeping judgments regarding bowl games.

I know I am setting up a reverse jinx that will see Alabama and Georgia win tonight.

Now that's out of the way, this idea of the SEC being the best conference in America....at this point in time....is laughable.

Someone tell me which SEC team they've seen play good football so far this bowl season.

I'd like to know which team(s) have done so.
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Who is wrong more often: 99 or D4H?
 
#141
#141
Its been a down year or so. The SEC AD's suffered through the Bama effect and made terrible hires. I believe the ship has righted itself. We shall see
 
#142
#142
GAVol said:
Yet... The SEC has 6 teams with 9 or more wins - more than any other conference.
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Yeah, but there are only three 14-team conferences and the Big Ten teams play 9 conference games. So if we're making an honest comparison, your point should be that the SEC has more 9-win teams than the ACC.
 
#143
#143
n_huffhines said:
Yeah, but there are only three 14-team conferences and the Big Ten teams play 9 conference games. So if we're making an honest comparison, your point should be that the SEC has more 9-win teams than the ACC.
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The point is.... Conference strength arguments are useless and unwinnable.
 
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#145
#145
True that. It actually gives me a little hope realizing how bad Bama was not that long ago.
 
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