Don't Mistake the Preseason Amway Coaches Top 25 Poll as SEC Dominance

You can check off another landmark on the offseason road to college football.

The preseason Amway Coaches Poll was released Thursday, and it contained a distinctly Southern flavor.

Rank	Team
1.	Ohio State
2.	TCU
3.	Alabama
4.	Baylor
5.	Oregon
6.	Michigan State
7.	Auburn
8.	Florida State
9.	Georgia
10.	USC
11.	Notre Dame
12.	Clemson
13.	LSU
14.	UCLA
15.	Ole Miss
16.	Arizona State
17.	Georgia Tech
18.	Wisconsin
19.	Oklahoma
20.	Arkansas
21.	Stanford
22.	Arizona
23.	Missouri
24.	Boise State
25.	Tennessee

No, an SEC team didn't appear in the top two spots. Based on what Ohio State and TCU did last year and what each program has returning, they were essentially locks in the Nos. 1 and 2 spots, respectively.

Behind them, though, the SEC dominated the field.

Despite massive roster turnover on the offensive side of the ball and a secondary that gave up far too many big plays, Alabama chimed in at No. 3. Intrastate rival Auburn, fresh off an 8-5 season, appeared at No. 7, with No. 9 Georgia, No. 13 LSU, No. 15 Ole Miss, No. 20 Arkansas, No. 23 Missouri and No. 25 Tennessee rounding out the SEC teams in the field.

If you count Mississippi State and Texas A&M, the top two teams in the "others receiving votes" category, all seven SEC West teams are in the preseason top 27.

"I think the SEC as a league is still one of the—top to bottom—one of the best leagues there are, and that includes the East and the West," Alabama head coach Nick Saban said at SEC media days.

Is the coaches poll a sign that SEC dominance—once thought to be a thing of the past after Ohio State topped Alabama in last year's national semifinal and the SEC went a rather mediocre (by SEC standards) 7-5 in bowl season—is alive and well?

Nope.

Greg Bartram-USA TODAY Sports

All the coaches poll suggests is that great teams like Ohio State, TCU, Baylor, Oregon and Michigan State are getting the credit they deserve at the top of the poll, while the SEC is as balanced as it ever has been.

Sure, having 10 of the top 27 teams is impressive and certainly exemplifies the extraordinary depth that exists in the SEC. But having an extraordinary number of teams in the poll with only one in the top five suggests that the coaches (or sports information directors, perhaps) really have no idea how the SEC—and specifically, the SEC West—will play out.

As Aubrey Bloom of the Bryan-College Station Eagle pointed out, it's a crapshoot trying to rank these teams:

Balance is great for the conference, and it's safe to say that from a talent standpoint, the conference is on a different level from other conferences top to bottom. 

But good football is also played elsewhere. 

It's played in Columbus, Ohio; Fort Worth and Waco, Texas; Eugene, Oregon; East Lansing, Michigan; and, yes, even South Bend, Indiana.

SEC dominance at the top of college football is a thing of the past and has been replaced by a much more appropriate term—SEC balance.

That balance should create one of the wildest seasons of SEC football we've seen in a long time.

Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Recruiting information courtesy of 247Sports. Barrett Sallee is the lead SEC college football writer and national college football video analyst for Bleacher Report as well as a host on Bleacher Report Radio on Sirius 93 XM 208.

Follow Barrett on Twitter @BarrettSallee.