Perhaps....according to Mandel of CNNSI>>> http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/stewart_mandel/05/16/mailbag/index.html
There is a comment in the article about the caliber of coaches in the SEC and that's a big factor in the overall strength of the conference. Saban and Spurrier are coaching mid-pack teams and these two guys are elite coaches. Throw in Meyer, Richt, Fulmer, Tubberville and even Miles and you hope to catch a break vs. Brooks and Nutt. Whew.....tough sledding in the SEC.
SEC is back to being the overall strongest (depthwise) conference no doubt, but these things are cyclical of course. Question is with all the coaching talent and the recruiting prowess of those guys, will the talent in SEC country be split up so much that none of your teams will be as strong as when the conference was dominated by UF and Tenn? Terry
The SEC will have to do it w/o the help of UGA. I expect the worst UGA team of the Mark Richt era to take the field this year. It being the start of his 7th season I expect a little more.
I also expect Ga to be a little off this year but it remains to be seen because Stafford could be a leader. I think SC will be the toughest they have ever been since joining the SEC and I base that on having seen their grit and determined defense last season in Gainesville and the fact so many are returning on D for Spurrier and Mitchell is in year 3 under the OBC. Tenn is never an easy out and UF has to play at Ky which should be interesting this year with Andre Woodson generally considered to be the best SEC Qb. Throw in a trip to Baton Rouge, a trip to Ole Miss in a state that UF has real trouble winning and a home game with Auburn and suddenly a non-conference home game with half-ass U looks like a breather on the schedule. :lol:
With so many great coaches and splitting up the talent like they are going to do it will mean NFL like parity and that means the likelyhood of anybody going undefeated is slim (which it already is since usually only 1 or 2 teams in the whole country go undefeated), and even more likely that the SEC champion will have 2 losses which in most years eliminates them from BCS Championship consideration. This will play to the advantage of the PAC10 (USC), the Big 12 (Tex/OU), the B10 (Ohio State/Mich) where there isn't nearly as much parity.
....and to think Florida was almost out of the BCS title mix last season because of a strange SEC loss on the road on a Sat. night to Auburn... Of course the Gators vindicated their one-loss record quite nicely.
There is always a pretty good chance that at least one of the teams in the BCS Championship game will have one loss. However in a year where that does not happen I don't like the chances for the SEC. The Big East has the possibility of an unbeaten team and while they may not be better than the SEC Champion, if there is another one loss team, say USC, then that's the Championship game. I look forward to the time we may have a true playoff for football.
As always it depends on when USC were to lose. If it was UCLA again then again SC would be left out as a one loss team. I think it's safe to say that if the SEC Champion is a one loss team and a one loss team is in the title game that an SEC team is in there.....unless of course that one loss is in the last regualr season game for instance.
Nice to see one of the SEC "elite" coaches is getting acclimated to Tide football http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2881961 "It ya ain't cheatin' ya ain't tryin' hard enough."
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha <t>who said Arkansas was good? They had a nice run thru the SEC but showed they didn't belong on the field with USC<br/> <br/> Auburn? Someone better remind Cox before each snap what color jersey they are wearing on that play.<br/> <br/> Miss State? snore.<br/> <br/> Ole Miss?? Unless you can suit that crazy SOB Coach O up and get him to play all eleven positions (and then not commit a personal foul on each play) there is no indication they are any less than bad.<br/> <br/> Georgia is normally great, but they are set to have an average year at best.<br/> <br/> Vandy?<br/> <br/> Kentucky?<br/> <br/> South Carolina? 7-5 is considered a success there.<br/> <br/> LSU?? Excuse me but unless the Oakland Raiders have a work release program, the Tigers have a LOT of questions to answer.<br/> <br/> Alabama? Great coach, will most likely have a great defense. Will they score? Tide fans wanna know.<br/> <br/> In fact, I'd say the entire SEC West is one gigantic question mark that we won't know much about until week 4 or 5 of the season.<br/> <br/> In the SEC East, you have doormats, average teams and one down traditional power looking up to two 'should be' runaways in Tennessee and Florida. Hell, how does that differ from the Big 10 in any given year?<br/> <br/> If this sh*t keeps up, I'm going to start following golf...the football off season has become laughable.</t>
Both Ky and SC won BOWL games last year and will probably do so again. LSU is preseason top 3 in almost all polls. No need to further explain the rest of the contenders and as I said UF has not won in Miss in a long time no matter the type of team UF has and then Vandy goes and wins at Ga last year which is not bad for a doormat...still a doormat to be sure but not bad.