SEC West Missed a Chance to Establish a Dominant Team, But Bama is Back Now!

In 1996, Gene Stallings stepped down as the head coach at Alabama, and the problems followed. 

A cavalcade of coaches came and went since then with much noted fanfare and years of probation and recovery also.

That was the time for the SEC West to establish a new dominant team. 

From the beginning of the SEC Championship series, Florida has dominated the East.  In most years the were not just the team to beat for the SEC, but one of the top programs in the nation.

From the inception of the Western Division until Gene Stallings' departure, Alabama had won or shared the Western title four out of those five years.  Since Stallings' departure, they won the division only once out the ten years prior to Saban's arrival.

This was a time for someone to step up as Florida did in their conference and simply dominate.  But in the ten years from Stalling's exit to Saban's arrival, only LSU came close to being dominate with three Western title appearances in the SEC Championship game, Auburn also having three, Arkansas two, and Mississippi State and Alabama each having one.

In that same ten-year period the Tide was Sabanless, the Western Division won four of the ten SEC titles, with LSU winning 2, Auburn winning one and Alabama winning one.

So the SEC Western Division did not exactly take the advantage of a down period of Alabama dominance.  Auburn did reel off a streak of five straight wins against Alabama during that period, but no one ever really dominated that ten year period.

With Nick Saban packing the sidelines with one number-one recruiting class following another, the SEC west may have no reached the point where no one can compete with Alabama.  Alabama's dominance in the Western Division my just be a thing the other teams have to come to accept.

Clearly Auburn is down and rebuilding, Mississippi State is in shambles, and Arkansas is still rebuilding. Ole Miss has some great players and a coach that upsets teams from time to time—but they will always be Ole Miss.

That just leaves LSU as the only real contender to battle Alabama.  Given last year's game as an example, it will be highly fought and closely contested.  Both have done fine jobs in recruiting—and LSU picked a jewel in John Chavis to head the defense, which was LSU's Achilles' heel.

But most still continue to see Alabama emerging from the years of despair to come back and dominate a playing ground that it once enjoyed stomping regularly.  Have the other teams fumbled the chance to be dominate?

With Nick Saban at the helm, it's hard not to see Alabama making the other teams pay for not building up more while they could.