Chaotic 2014 Season Could Be Killing SEC's Reputation
The SEC has some explaining to do.
If it's such a good conference, why the disjointed play this month? Where is the great team? Where is Goliath?
Auburn was just taken down at home by a Texas A&M team that previously lost a game 59-0. Alabama had a fitful night on offense in an overtime victory over LSU. Georgia lost by 18 to Florida two weeks ago. SEC East-leading Missouri was shut out at home and has a loss to Indiana, which is winless in the Big Ten.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
| Missouri | 4-1 | 7-2 |
| Georgia | 5-2 | 7-2 |
| Florida | 4-3 | 5-3 |
| Kentucky | 2-5 | 5-5 |
| South Carolina | 2-5 | 4-5 |
| Tennessee | 1-4 | 4-5 |
| Vanderbilt | 0-6 | 3-7 |
| Mississippi State | 5-0 | 9-0 |
| Alabama | 5-1 | 8-1 |
| Ole Miss | 4-2 | 8-2 |
| Auburn | 4-2 | 7-2 |
| Texas A&M | 3-3 | 7-3 |
| LSU | 3-3 | 7-3 |
| Arkansas | 0-5 | 4-5 |
Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops is licking his wounds from yet another loss, but he might just be waiting for someone to ask him about the "myth" of the SEC so he can make himself feel better.
This should make Stoops feel better. TCU, a one-loss Big 12 team with weaker nonconference wins than one-loss Alabama's victory over West Virginia, slid past the Crimson Tide in the College Football Playoff Selection Committee Rankings.
The SEC might have a great team if Mississippi State has developed a champion's DNA to go with its superb quarterback and chemistry. We'll see Saturday in Tuscaloosa.
For now, the SEC looks like a bunch of good teams.
There were signs
You could see this 2014 letdown coming when the SEC lost its veteran quarterbacks all at once, not to mention a bundle of junior talent to the NFL draft. AJ McCarron, Johnny Manziel, Zach Mettenberger, Aaron Murray, Connor Shaw and James Franklin exited after 2013, and you can look bad in the SEC being a one-dimensional run team.
The SEC also lost 29 juniors to NFL draft declarations in January 2014. The Big 12, with four fewer teams, lost three juniors. The Pac-12 lost 26, but six were from Cal, which had just finished a 1-11 season. The ACC lost 13.
"Junior defections have brought the elite, national championship programs back to the field (FSU, Alabama, Auburn, LSU) and allowed other parts of the country to catch up with veteran, more experienced talent," Senior Bowl CEO Phil Savage wrote in an e-mail. "We have 'one-and-done' in basketball, this is 'three-and-done' in football, same concept. Butler, Wichita State, George Mason, etc., every March."
Savage has just 20 SEC seniors committed so far to his game January 25, compared to 32 in 2012.
The fallout
Oregon was No. 5, one spot behind Alabama, in the Associated Press Top 25 in Week 11, but it was No. 4 and ahead of Alabama in the CFP rankings. The Ducks are now No. 2 in the CFP rankings after a win in Utah in Week 12. It got worse for the SEC's cred Tuesday night when the CFP Selection Committee chose TCU as No. 4 ahead of Alabama, which was left at No. 5.
College football has become a quarterback-centric, points-driven game, and Alabama has to live in it. Blake Sims, its senior quarterback, was too stubborn against LSU, taking shot after shot downfield in the passing game against bump-and-run coverage. He was poised in the last 50 seconds against a defense that has become one of the best in the country in front of the throng of LSU fans in Tiger Stadium, and he got his team down the field for the tying field goal at the end of regulation.
But the CFP is style-driven and resume-driven, and the Sims/Alabama resume now has some smudges after his 20-of-45 passing line.
I asked Nick Saban in the postgame press conference if the rest of the country can appreciate maulers like Alabama and LSU. He said, "I love it, I love it. Nothing spread about that." Can others appreciate it, though? It doesn't appear so with offense-first Oregon jumping the Tide in the AP and offense-first TCU jumping the Tide in the CFP.
Charles Davis, the Fox college football analyst, is not worried about the SEC's reputation.
"The last time we had a game that looked like Alabama-LSU on Saturday night was that 9-6 game between LSU-Alabama (2011), and who ended up playing for the national championship? The same two teams," said Davis who, incidentally, played at Tennessee. "People may not appreciate that style, but I don't think it should hurt Alabama in the polls."
Added Davis, "I think a lot of people don’t like that style of football because we’re playing racehorse everywhere else."
Davis doesn't believe the SEC's honor is in peril at all.
"If Alabama does beat Mississippi State Saturday, and then Bama and State win out and Bama wins the SEC championship, the SEC has a heck of a case for getting two in the playoff," Davis said.
I have my doubts about two in after the SEC was put down Monday in the AP and Tuesday by the CFP. Who is to say the same putdown can't happen next week if Alabama gets in another slugfest, this time with Mississippi State, and squeaks out a 13-10 win? Might it be Mississippi State's turn to drop behind the offense schools—Florida State, Oregon, TCU and maybe even behind Ohio State and Baylor?
The national media narrative is that "TCU looked good" in its win over K-State, while Alabama "won ugly." It's not all wins, losses and resume. It's style. It's the flash on the screen.
Here is the other side of it. TCU scored 41 points against a Kansas State defense that surrendered just 20 points to Auburn. Oregon went for 51 points in the high altitude of Utah when the climate was supposed to slow down the Ducks.
Here is the really important other side of it. The old mantra of "defense wins championships" just might be dead after this season. Coaches are putting their best athletes on offense. That's what it seems like, at least. The SEC had better go find and develop some quarterbacks and score points with style.
After Auburn's dreadful loss to Texas A&M and Alabama's fitful win over LSU, the SEC might need a PR job to smooth the rough edges of its resume. There really could be a lot of explaining to do on December 7 when the Final Four is announced.
Ray Glier covers college football for Bleacher Report. He has covered college football and various other sports for 20 years. His work has appeared in USA Today, The New York Times, CNN, The Washington Post and Al Jazeera America. He is the author of How the SEC Became Goliath (Howard/Simon & Schuster, 2013). All quotations were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
