Power Shifting in College the Football Landscape
SEC, it just means more? Right? Well now you might want to produce more, cause meaning more doesn’t really matter at the moment. Isn’t it funny now that schools can legally pay players that the SEC has lost its grip on college football?
For many years the college football world has had to sit back and listen to sports media and an oddly arrogant fan base beat the drum of the SEC to death. The best conference in college football they would proudly proclaim, also one of the most sketchy and penalized conferences in the sport when it came to recruiting. But then something happened, the NCAA declared that it is now legal to pay college athletes through NIL and soon to be revenue sharing. And just like that…………. The SEC has become a little less relevant than they were before. However ESPN and the SEC fan base has not seemed to figure it out yet, just notice the amount of social media buzz about Alabama, Ole Miss, and South Carolina not making the expanded College Football Playoff.
Most years even I would agree that perhaps Alabama should have made it into the 12 team playoffs even with 3 losses, but this year has proven to us that the “tide” is changing. Now that it is legal for every school to pay players through NIL and Revenue sharing without penalty from the NCAA the rest of the country is beginning to level the playing field. Take last year as an example, we had a Big Ten and Pac 12 (may it rest in peace for now) national title game. A title game without the all mighty SEC making an appearance? Impossible! What is happening in college football, it clearly must be all the playoff committees fault. And I think that the SEC could maybe have a valid argument about. Fast forward to 2024 and the SEC has 3 teams in the CFP with Alabama, South Carolina, and Ole Miss who were all potential contenders to make the CFP, even though South Carolina had 4 losses and was not going to get in at all, but the sports media and very loud obnoxious SEC fan base were determined that they were a top 12 team in the country. People were up in arms over a team like Indiana making it in over Alabama, and why not, Indiana is just a weak Big Ten team while Alabama plays such a tough 8 game conference schedule. Then you may start to notice something.
Yes Indiana got steam rolled by Notre Dame, who also beat Georgia, but Indiana had a win that Alabama just couldn’t top apparently. If you recall Indiana beat Michigan earlier in the season, that same Michigan team that just beat Alabama in their bowl game. Then you notice that USC who was mid level Big Ten this year is 2-0 versus SEC competition this year with wins over LSU and Texas AM. And something even crazier happened, Illinois who was expected to get absolutely demolished by South Carolina, wins in a “stunning” fashion by controlling the ball with Big Ten style play. Tennessee plays Ohio State in the first round of the CFP and the media along with the SEC fan base begin to brag about how Ohio State is finished, they are gonna turn Columbus into Neyland North, etc, etc. Turns out that was fake news because Ohio State absolutely drummed the 3rd best team in the SEC, it wasn’t even close.
So by my count thus far the Big Ten has played the SEC in 5 bowl games this year so far and is 4-1 at the moment. The Big Ten’s lone loss, an Iowa loss to Missouri. Granted Iowa was without its very best and essentially only option on offense, but I prefer not to use that as an excuse and here is why. Over the years when an SEC team loses in a bowl game to what is considered an inferior conference the standard excuse is that “they weren’t playing for the title so they didn’t care”, or “we had too many players sitting out”, the list of reasons why can be long and in my opinion do not matter. If you want to make excuses for losing to save a fragile little ego about a football conference then you may need to talk to a professional. At the end of the day if your SEC team of choice is as good as they are supposedly claimed to be then you should have no problem beating a mid tier Big Ten team.
If we used SEC logic then it can be argued that Illinois should have been a CFP team? Not a chance, Illinois had a great season but I do not feel that they are a CFP contender. But they did just beat a team the media claimed as “the best team in the country at the moment”. Alabama who was the 4th or 5th best team in the SEC just lost to a middle of the pack Big Ten Michigan. Pure craziness isn’t it?
Or…..
Perhaps now that schools can legally pay their players it should come as no shock that other schools up North who have just as much if not more money and vested interest in their respective football teams can now compete on an even playing field and secure the kind of talent that they need to succeed.
Now I am not saying the SEC is a bad football conference, because they are still very good. But the field has evened out between the Big Ten and the SEC, and I argue that the Big Ten is better at the moment than the SEC. In the past the SEC could just out athlete another team regardless of who was the better coach, now that isn’t happening. And the craziest thing is many in the sports media world are still beating the now dead drum of the SEC and refusing to admit that they are no longer the power conference in football. At least for this season and probably many more to come.
