Greg: Alabama’s 21-0 win against LSU in the BCS title game may not have been the most entertaining to watch, but it reaffirmed one thing many of us already knew: The SEC is king.
As one self-gratifying, not-totally-in-your-face-but-still-pretty-clear commercial not-so-subtly explained, the Southeastern Conference claimed its sixth straight national title Monday.
Fans of the SEC — a.k.a supporters of the school’s cellar dwellers who need excuses for why their teams are consistently thrashed — need to enjoy it while they can, because there’s no way this streak lasts.
First off, it’s difficult to believe these 12 (now 14) schools have some super system that allows them to consistently win the crapshoot that is recruiting.
And even if the SEC could somehow assemble the NCAA’s most dominant rosters every year, it’s nearly impossible to predict which teams will successfully navigate a 12-game minefield where one loss could mean an end to title contention.
Tom: You couldn’t be more wrong here. The SEC’s reign of terror isn’t coming to an end — it’s just hitting it’s stride.
The SEC had every right to troll the rest of America with that awesome, in-your-face, we’re-better-than-you commercial Monday night, because an SEC team is very likely to win it all again next season.
To paraphrase our good friend from the Bayou, Mr. Aurelious Faux Pas III, the SEC has the best, and fastest, athletes in the land. With the conference touting six consecutive BCS champions, where do you think a lot of the nation’s top high school players are going to want to go play college ball? That’s right, the SEC.
They say power in college football is cyclical, and I agree — from team to team. But the SEC is playing chess out there while the rest of these conferences are playing checkers, and as long as that’s the case, the SEC will reign supreme in college football.
Greg: The problem there is you’re assuming recruits make decisions rationally. The amount of flip-flopping that goes on in the recruiting process is absurd, and kids committed to Florida can just as easily end up at Utah, as Visesio Salt proved this week. Plus, it’s pretty clear that recruiting stars don’t guarantee anything on Saturdays.
Even if they did, recruits are attracted to coaches, not programs. The fact that only three current SEC coaches (Les Miles at LSU, Steve Spurrier at South Carolina, and Mark Richt at Georgia) have had their current job for the duration of the six-year streak shows just how volatile the coaching world is, making greatness extremely difficult to sustain.
The Southeast may have the most high school talent, but there’s no reason to believe those athletes will stay there. With Twitter and Facebook and the Internet and TV and texting and bribes, every coach has a national reach. Nothing prevents Florida’s best athletes from going to play for Urban Meyer at Ohio State, even though he won two of the “SEC’s” six championships.
Tom: Sure, but this whole debate begins and ends with one question: Will the SEC’s streak come to a close soon? The answer is no.
Of those three coaches who have been around since the start of the streak, Miles has won a title and had LSU a game away from another one, Richt has brought in top talent (a No. 5 class last year and another highly touted class set for next month) that will make Georgia a contender next season, and Spurrier has turned South Carolina around since taking over.
Oh, and the SEC still has the best coach in the world: Nick Saban — and there’s no chance he leaves Alabama any time soon, at least not before he takes home a couple more crystal footballs.
And as long as those coaches are around, that talent will keep flocking to those schools, and those coaches will flip that talent into titles.
Like the Heat’s LeBron James said when he was celebrating signing with Miami in July 2010, “Not six, not seven, not eight...”
Greg: How’d that work out for LeBron? Yeah, that’s what I thought.
Your point is right on, Nick Saban and Les Miles will always be in the national title conversation. I’m not saying the SEC is going to fall off entirely, because that’s just not true.
But there’s just no way the SEC coaches are head and shoulders above Meyer, Bob Stoops, Lane Kiffin, Chris Peterson, Chip Kelly, Frank Beamer and all the other great coaches playing the same game they are.
All you can really guarantee is that Alabama and LSU will continue to contend. Not dominate.
Tom: Alabama and LSU will continue to contend. So will Georgia. And Arkansas. And even Florida again in a few seasons.
The Kiffins and Petersons and Stoopses of the world are all great coaches, too. But even at 4-foot-9, Saban is still head and shoulders above them.
Besides, we’ve seen what happens when other conferences try the SEC in the BCS title game, as evidenced by the SEC’s 5-0 record in those games. The conference proved Monday that only one thing can stand in the way of an SEC team winning it all these days: the SEC.
Contact Greg Luca at gluca@alligator.org and Tom Green at tgreen@alligator.org.
