Like It or Not, SEC West Is as Good as Advertised
Love it or hate it, the SEC West never disappoints.
All the division did this past weekend was produce a matchup between No. 3 Auburn and No. 4 Ole Miss that saw both offenses punch and counterpunch for a full four quarters, culminating with a failed hook and ladder from the Rebels that gave the visiting Tigers a 35-31 win.
It was just the latest in a series of games that have come down to the wire, including LSU's win over Ole Miss the previous week, Ole Miss' fourth-quarter comeback over Alabama and Mississippi State's home win over defending SEC champ Auburn.
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Five of the seven teams from the West are currently in the AP Top 25, and it's likely that two—Mississippi State and Auburn—will be in the top four when the fresh College Football Playoff rankings are released on Tuesday night.
While the rest of the country is busy complaining over perceived SEC bias, the West is busy taking part in what seems more like the college football version of Fight Club.
"The challenge in the SEC, and especially the West right now which is so challenging, you have to bring your 'A game' every single week if you want an opportunity to win," Mississippi State head coach Dan Mullen said on last week's coaches teleconference.
What makes the SEC West so great?
Diverse, Powerful Styles
There are different ways to skin a cat, but what's great about the SEC West is that the top-tier teams go about their business in different ways to create the same result.
Football is a line-of-scrimmage game, plain and simple.
The offenses in the SEC don't all look the same, but the concepts are. Whether it's the pro-style, power attacks that exist at Alabama and LSU or the power-rushing attack out of the spread that Auburn and Mississippi State make work, you have to win at the point of attack to win in the SEC West.
Now, even the pro-style teams have quarterbacks—Blake Sims and Anthony Jennings, respectively—who present a threat with their legs in addition to playing within the offense.
"Anytime you have an athletic quarterback who's a threat to run, scramble, pull the ball on the zone read, that always is a little bit of an issue for the defense," Alabama head coach Nick Saban said on last week's coaches teleconference. "Sometimes you have to be careful with how you play, because the guy can take off and make plays with his feet."
The common theme is an offensive line that's not only big, but athletic.
LSU thrived against Ole Miss on the ground when its offensive linemen fired off the ball, particularly when guards pulled and got to the second level. That's a staple of Malzahn's offense at Auburn as well, despite the fact that both offenses take different approaches to getting there.
The same rule applies on the defensive side of the ball. It's the key to winning big in the nation's toughest division, and it's no accident that three of the top four teams in B/R's latest SEC power rankings—Alabama, Mississippi State and Auburn—are in the top 26 nationally in rushing defense.
It's a similar formula for each team. All have experience and talent in their respective front sevens, and all rotate fresh bodies through games to make sure they can hold up for a full 60 minutes.
If you win the line of scrimmage, you win games in the SEC West.
Battle-Tested
SEC critics will argue that the path to success isn't much tougher in the SEC than it is in other conferences, but that's just false.
The SEC West is 33-1 against teams not in the SEC West, which includes Auburn's road win over No. 9 Kansas State, LSU's neutral-site win over No. 25 Wisconsin and Alabama's neutral-site win over No. 24 West Virginia.
Just how difficult is it within the division?
Chris Low of ESPN.com put the power of the Worldwide Leader to work to spit out this stat:
Nothing any SEC West team in the College Football Playoff will see will come as a shock.
The speed, power and creativity that each sees within its own division provides plenty of opportunities for players—even young players—to properly prepare themselves for the game's biggest stage long before they ever step foot on it.
Recruiting Success
It's not just the "X's and the O's," it's the "Jimmy's and the Joe's."
The SEC West has been opening the door for Jimmy, Joe, Frank and just about any other blue-chip prospect over the last few years.
SEC West teams routinely land in the top 10 in the recruiting rankings, and even the traditionally lower-tier programs within the division still get athletes on par with middle-to-upper-tier programs from around the country.
| Alabama | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Arkansas | 42 | 21 | 28 | 23 | 29 |
| Auburn | 6 | 5 | 11 | 13 | 6 |
| LSU | 9 | 8 | 14 | 6 | 2 |
| Mississippi State | 34 | 34 | 22 | 25 | 35 |
| Ole Miss | 22 | 20 | 47 | 8 | 15 |
| Texas A&M | 19 | 35 | 16 | 9 | 5 |
Is recruiting the be-all, end-all in college football?
No, of course not. But it's a key ingredient, and the SEC West powerhouses have proved over time that the recipe for success within the division is to make sure the best players in the country get in house out of high school.
Willingness to Pour Resources into Coaching
Three of the seven highest-paid coaches in America last season came from the SEC West, according to USA Today's database of head coaching salaries—Alabama's Nick Saban, Arkansas' Bret Bielema and LSU's Les Miles.
After last season, SEC West teams backed up the Brinks truck. Saban got a raise and extension that pays him $6.9 million, Texas A&M's Kevin Sumlin joined the $5 million per year club and Auburn's Gus Malzahn got his salary bumped to $3.85 million after leading his Tigers to the SEC title in Year 1.
That's not where the biggest impact is made, though.
To be the best, you have to hire the best. Seven of the highest-paid 23 assistants in the country last season hailed from the SEC West, according to USA Today.
Think about that for a second—30 percent of the richest assistants in the country in 2013 came from a group of seven teams in the southeast, where cost of living isn't the same as it is for other coaches in other parts of the country.
The willingness to pour resources into coaching staffs is a big reason why the best assistants in the country come to the SEC West, stay in the SEC and teams can replace them once they move on.
Coaches want to come to the SEC West to be the best and coach the best, and the athletic directors in the division pour resources into their football programs to make sure that happens.
The West is best, and from the way things look right now, there's a reasonable chance that the seven-team division could produce two College Football Playoff teams in 2014.
Scary.
Barrett Sallee is the lead SEC college football writer and video analyst for Bleacher Report as well as a co-host of the CFB Hangover on Bleacher Report Radio (Sundays, 9-11 a.m. ET) on Sirius 93, XM 208.
Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. All stats are courtesy of cfbstats.com, and all recruiting information is courtesy of 247Sports. Follow Barrett on Twitter @BarrettSallee.
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