College Football: SEC Bias and SEC Decline Are Myths

By Taylor Sturm @TSturmRS on October 29, 2014

The College Football Playoff Committee has released their first Top 25 rankings for the 2014 college football season, which included a shocking number of SEC schools. With three of the four schools listed “in” the first ever college football playoffs from the SEC, shouts of “SEC bias” have erupted across media platforms.

However, “SEC bias,” although clear in the opinions of some national media sources, has little to do with the National Rankings that came out. The SEC is a cut above the other conferences — and that’s a fact.

Don’t believe me?

The SEC boasts 20 of the top 10 recruiting classes since 2011. That’s 20 out of four top 10 classes, meaning the conference has half of the top 10 recruiting classes over the last four years. The next closest is the ACC with eight — all Florida State, Clemson or Miami — and the Big Ten with six — all for Ohio State and Michigan. Seven different SEC teams can boast top 10 recruiting classes over the last four years.

Since 2010, the SEC is 11-5 against the Big 12, 24-12 against the ACC, 14-7 against the Big Ten and 5-2 against the Pac 12. Against other “Power 5” opposition over the last four seasons, the SEC is 54-29, a 65 percent win percentage.

I recently had someone argue that the SEC couldn’t be that good if Texas A&M, a middle-of-the-pack Big 12 team, succeeded immediately after switching from the Big 12 and two bottom-of-the-pack SEC schools from Mississippi randomly jumped to the top of the conference in less than a season.

The Texas A&M argument can be rebuked with the string of top 10 recruiting classes since joining the SEC and how the Aggies defeated the Big 12 champion Oklahoma Sooners 41-13 in the Cotton Bowl in their first SEC season.

The success of Ole Miss and Mississippi State this season can be attributed to their recent recruiting classes and the number of returning players including, talented veteran quarterbacks in Bo Wallace and Dak Prescott.

Other key points to remember in all this “SEC bias” craze is that the College Football Playoff Selection Committee only has two of its 13 members with any connection to an SEC school. Tthe Vegas oddsmakers, who would never bet on bias, have three SEC schools in the top five and no team in the country has a good non-conference win that hasn’t been upset by poor league play.

Okay, so now we get to the “decline of SEC football” argument.

Let me debunk this myth. The SEC is not declining and to even insinuate that is somewhat ridiculous. Arguably with the rise of teams like Ole Miss and Mississippi State and the massive increase in the talent level on teams such as the Tennessee Volunteers and Kentucky Wildcats, the SEC is actually increasing in power.

The term “SEC decline” is a falsehood, because the SEC is not getting worse — the other conferences are getting better.

For example, look at the Pac 12. If not for Stanford‘s defense, Oregon would have dominated the conference. Now, other Pac 12 teams are trying to match Oregon’s rise, increasing the conference’s overall talent.

This can be said of the Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC as well; every conference is increasing in power so they can compete with the top teams in their conference and subsequently match the depth of the SEC.

To say the SEC is in decline isn’t only indicative of a lack of understanding of the numbers in college football, but it’s a disservice to the rising strength of the other conferences. It may be a few seasons, but eventually the Power 5 conferences will all be as deep as the SEC.

No one, not even the SEC, benefits from SEC dominance. If the National Championship comes down to two teams from the same conference, viewers for the National Championship plummet. If you’re a casual fan not from the state of Mississippi, would you really be interested in an Ole Miss-Mississippi State national championship?

There will not be more than two teams from the same conference in the final college football playoffs ever. After all, college football is a business, and marketing to one specific audience in a sport that expands across the country is bad for business.

Taylor Sturm is a Columnist for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @TSturmRS, like him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.