The Royal Heffernans


Quite possibly the best family ever

Monday, December 03, 2012

SEC Overrated - Redux


As a follow-up to Ian's post, I wanted to throw another shovel of dirt onto SEC superiority. I had quite an original thought that I wanted to share.

The SEC almost universally refuse to travel, and only rarely takes on a top out-of-conference opponent. As a result, their teams' schedules almost always include 8 conference games, 2 FCS games, 1 mid-major FBS game and sometimes a rivalry. So how are we to judge the might of such a conference?

Bowl games would be a good start. Since 1992, the SEC's record in Bowl games is 89-57. That's a .640 winning percentage. Not the picture of dominance when you look past the current BCS title streak. What this tells me is that the conference is woefully top-heavy.

Another way to judge? How about looking at the bottom half. When people talk about the weekly gauntlet, that should include ALL the SEC teams on the schedule. This year, the bottom 7 would be Miss State (4-4/8-4), Ole Miss (3-5/6-6), Missouri (2-6/5-7), Arkansas (2-6/4-8), Tennessee (1-7/5-7), Auburn (0-8/3-9) and Kentucky (0-8/2-10). So 5 teams are NOT Bowl eligible. Take a closer look. Kentucky's only wins were Kent State and Samford. Auburn beat LA-Monroe, NM State and Alabama A&M. Look at some of the other victories in this group. Bottom line, these 7 teams would STRUGGLE to win games in the MAC, or MWC.

Now here's my original thought. A constant critique of Notre Dame by idiotic SEC fans is that we would be the 7th best team in the SEC. Oh really? So let's do a mental exercise and see what happens when you take a Notre Dame team fresh off back to back 8-5 seasons, with a 3rd year coach and a redshirt freshman starting at QB and put them smack in the middle of the SEC in 2012. Wait a minute, WE DON'T HAVE TO IMAGINE THIS SCENARIO! This is almost EXACTLY the Texas A&M Aggies in 2012!!!

The Aggies are coming off of 9-4 and 7-6 records. Almost identical to ND. They have a 1st year coach, a disadvantage to ND. They also have a redshirt freshman QB. And how did they do? They went 10-2, lost 2 games to mighty Florida and LSU by a combined 8 points, upset the unbeatable Alabama in Tuscaloosa, got player of the year for the redshirt freshman QB and coach of the year for the 1st year coach.

If this doesn't expose the myth of SEC dominance, then I just can't argue with you anymore.

So the next time you hear some redneck hillbilly from SEC-country tell you ND would be the 7th best team in the SEC, bring up A&M and how they ROLLED through the mightly SEC in only their 1st season in the conference.

12 comments:

ian said...

One person that can make a huge difference in the BCS NCG is Everett Golson. Alabama did not face, nor deal well with, mobile quarterbacks. Manziel gashed them and they didn't have to face Driscoll. I think if Golson can find his legs and keep Alabama's front seven off balance he can make the difference.

Teddy said...

Totally agree.

I would also say the key matchup will be the ND front 7 (best in the nation) against the Alabama running attack (not too shabby). If we can stop the run, I don't see how Alabama scores over 20.

Colin and Liz said...

Since 2008 Alabama is 49-0 when they rush for over 150 yards. Limiting their rushing yardage will be the key to victory.

Anonymous said...

I just found y'all's "blog". Impressive, lol. 'Bama is going to roll all over you guys, 35-3. Book it. SEC SEC SEC

Kevin said...

I love it when others find our blog! It's even better when they make comments! Thank you anonymous for giving our blog credibility by both reading and posting! Next time please log in with your actual name or handle so we can put a name with the comments.

Anonymous said...

lol. No problem. i like to help out the little guys. Just like the football the big boy blogs are down south, yankee. 35-3.

Colin and Liz said...

i question the reliability of anyone who types "lol". did they really laugh out loud when they typed "lol"? i highly doubt it.

Rebel Dan said...

And I question any man who shares an account with his wife. she let you out of the house once in a while? or you gotta ask her permission to watch your joke team. does she let you take your balls with you. lol.

Kevin said...

Obviously, Rebel Dan is not a southern gentleman. My guess is he is still seething from a Big-12 team beating his beloved Crimson Tide. Oh wait, A&M is an SEC team this year, so they are instantly awesome. Just like Missouri. SEC SEC SEC

ian said...

Oh man! Did I miss a troll? So sad. He seemed to bring so much intellectual diversity to our little corner of the internet.

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Buckeyes Fan said...

Thank you for this post! I couldn't agree more with you. Let's get a B1G team in the college football playoff!