Kevin D. Liles-USA TODAY Sports
The SEC was once unquestionably the best conference in college football. For seven years straight beginning with 2006 an SEC team won the national title. The trend seems to be changing though, as coach after coach falls in the cannibalization of the conference. Part of this may be due to Alabama’s conclusive dominance — no other team has managed to rack up the success of Nick Saban. Indeed, most SEC teams seem to be chasing his numbers to no avail. Firing Mark Richt and the two-week rumor mill that surrounded Les Miles was just the beginning of the slow decline of the conference. There is only one elite team left in the SEC, and that is Alabama.
Alabama is not unstoppable; they have lost games just about every season. Unlike their counterparts in the SEC, though, Alabama seems to thrive after a defeat. One would think that Saban’s three national titles would force the rest of the conference to step up, but that hasn’t been the case. Instead, the ADs have seen fit to release winning coaches because they have not managed to capture that elusive national title. Of course, in Georgia’s case they haven’t managed to win a title in over 30 years, but somehow that became Richt’s fault.
Saban’s supremacy in the SEC is a ridiculous standard to try to emulate, but it seems that is the way that the SEC is going. Unfortunately, the coaching situation will remain a revolving door until one of these schools finally manages to land someone capable of beating Alabama consistently.
As the smoke cleared from this year’s coaching carousel, it became clear that most of these teams traded down, not up. I mean, putting Will Muschamp at the head of the Gamecocks? Bad move, South Carolina. The ACC hired this year’s best coaching recruits. That supposedly soft conference has two teams in the top 10 this year, three teams in the top 25, and one in this year’s playoff. The Big 10 has the most teams in the top 25 this season. After Alabama at No. 2, the best SEC teams all have three losses and no teams in the top 10. Meanwhile, Saban is preparing his team for another trip to the College Football Playoff.
We are about to see a seismic shift in college football; and the center of it all is Saban. Alabama will still be dominant as long as Saban is coaching them, but it seems that the SEC has had its day in the sun.
