John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports
The past seven college football national champions have all come from the SEC and that won’t change in 2013. After the Alabama Crimson Tide beat the Notre Dame Fighting Irish to win this year’s title, the streak of national champs from the SEC extended to seven, which include three by Nick Saban‘s crew in the past four years. The scariest part is Alabama is ranked No. 1 in the early 2013 top 25 polls, along with other SEC teams near the top.
Alabama, Texas A&M and Georgia are all in the top five of most early 2013 rankings and South Carolina is in the top 10. That means almost half of the top 10 teams in the country are once again from the SEC and one of the top three is almost guaranteed to get into the title game.
Consider Alabama’s 2012 season: the Crimson Tide lost to Texas A&M late and needed two of the top three undefeated teams to lose to even get into the title game, yet that’s exactly what happened. Consider two-loss LSU in 2007 climbing back into the No. 2 spot twice in the same season and then knocking off Ohio State in the title game. Do you see the point here? The SEC simply has a way of willing itself to the top of the college football totem pole and that trend won’t change in 2013 because of a simple question: who’s going to stop them?
Ohio State and Oregon are the only two teams with a shot to change things in 2013. They are both in the top five as well, but that doesn’t mean they’ll be there by season’s end. Although Ohio State was undefeated in 2012, they were banned from the postseason, so it will be interesting to see whether they can repeat that performance in 2013 while the Ducks are reloading after the departure of Kenjon Barner. You can say you heard it here first: neither of these teams will be able to knock off the SEC in 203.
Jeric Griffin is the Director of Content for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @JericGriffin, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google
