Question: Will anyone be able to keep up with the SEC?
A week after Alabama won the title, I was able to give myself a bit of a rest and reflect on what has been another successful National Championship Year for our conference. Or more’s the case, for Alabama.
The conference put the critics to bed for another straight year as Alabama destroyed Notre Dame to lift the Crystal Football, cementing Alabama’s dynasty with their third win in four years. Barratt Jones can’t possibly achieve what he did in college in the NFL, can he (unless he’s drafted by the Patriots!)?
But if we’re honest, it wasn’t a wonderful bowl season for the SEC, by any stretch of the imagination.
- Florida (on paper) should have pounded Louisville. Instead, they were pounded back. Use the excuse of “We didn’t make any effort” as much as you like, Gators, but you were an embarrassment. The number of fans that showed up to the Sugar Dome didn’t do them any favors, either.
- LSU should have beaten Clemson. If it wasn’t for some awful playcalling by Les Miles & Co (three straight Zach Mettenberger throws instead of using a criminally underused running back in Jeremy Hill), they would have done.
- Mississippi State embarrassed the conference by getting blown away by Northwestern.
- South Carolina was lucky to survive against Michigan. What would have happened if Jadeveon Clowney hadn’t played, folks?
- Georgia‘s first half performance against Nebraska – a team that gave up 70 points in its last outing – was defensively dreadful.
Only Alabama, Ole Miss and Vanderbilt came out with any great credit from bowl season, folks. And they were favored in all of those games.
And although people would like to say that the SEC’s easily going to run the table in the 2013-4 season, here’s my argument: That’s not exactly going to happen. With all the money that’s getting poured into each conference, the gap is tightening between teams as they can suddenly afford better facilities and better recruitment.
Oh, and there’s also going to be a problem with the NCAA. The SEC’s been getting some bad press for oversigning lately, and yes, we know it goes on at almost all of our schools. If they decide to limit ‘grayshirting’ and really harshly limit scholarships and who can go where and for what reason, the SEC is going to have to cut down on the players they recruit. That can only mean more talent for other schools.