Florida Winning East Division Shows Just How Flawed SEC Is
For the second straight season, Florida has claimed the SEC East crown.
The Gators wrapped that up Saturday afternoon in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in a 16-10 win over LSU thanks to a goal-line stand for the ages. The game—originally scheduled for Oct. 8—was postponed and moved from Gainesville, Florida, due to Hurricane Matthew.
For the second straight season, Florida has earned a chance to take on Alabama in the SEC Championship Game.
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The Gators are better-suited to take on the Crimson Tide this year thanks to more stable quarterback play from Austin Appleby—rather than Treon Harris—and an offensive identity that seemed to find a spark on the ground at LSU with running backs Jordan Scarlett and Lamical Perine.
But the fact this Florida team made it to Atlanta again shows just how flawed the SEC is.
The conference is dominated by the Tide, but it's bogged down by mediocrity everywhere else.
That's not a knock against Florida. It earned this SEC East title fair and square in the face of injuries to safety Marcus Maye, linebackers Alex Anzalone and Jarrad Davis, defensive lineman Bryan Cox, quarterback Luke Del Rio and a host of other major contributors during the stretch run.
After beating LSU in Baton Rouge while totally banged up, the Gators have a strong case to be viewed as the second-best team in the SEC. After all, this was the same LSU team that, according to RJ Bell of Pregame.com, was the third-best team in the country:
Not the conference. The country.
If the debate is between LSU and Florida as the second-best team in the conference, it's a depressing one. They are one-dimensional by necessity, not choice. Both entered the day outside the top 70 nationally in passing. On Saturday, Appleby completed just seven of his 17 passes, and LSU's Danny Etling never seemed to settle in despite the running game's success.
According to David Purdum of ESPN.com's Chalk, Alabama is opening as a three-touchdown favorite over Florida:
That wide of a gap between the top two teams in the conference should never happen—even if one of them is a behemoth like Alabama.
The SEC had five teams in the preseason coaches poll Top 20. After LSU's loss, it'll likely only have three after this week—Alabama, Florida and Auburn. Is anybody mistaking Auburn for a juggernaut? Not now.
Florida is sitting at 8-2 with games against Florida State and Alabama left. There's a reasonable chance that the second-best team in the SEC finishes 8-4.
That shouldn't happen.
Yes, there have been quarterback injuries that have hurt the SEC. Trevor Knight's shoulder injury contributed mightily to the regression of Texas A&M, Sean White's shoulder injury hampered him in Auburn's loss to Georgia and Del Rio has been knocked out of action twice this year.
What happened to the depth that once made the SEC the best conference in the country? It doesn't exist. At least, not this year. Instead of "next man up," the conference has essentially turned into a pillow fight behind Alabama with teams who have major, gaping holes.
Florida's offense has struggled all year. Auburn and LSU are one-dimensional by necessity, with the ground games serving as essentially the only offense for the two Tigers. Nine of the 14 schools in the conference entered Saturday with a run defense outside of the top 50 nationally, according to CFBStats.
The Big Ten is better this year. Way better.
It boasts three legitimate College Football Playoff contenders in Michigan, Ohio State and Wisconsin, along with one dark horse in Nebraska. Spare me the "they haven't played anybody" argument with those teams, too. Michigan beat a ranked Colorado team in addition to Wisconsin and Penn State, Ohio State topped Wisconsin in Madison, throttled Nebraska and steamrolled playoff contender and reigning Big 12 champion Oklahoma in Norman.
Wisconsin even topped LSU in the season opener in Green Bay and then made a quarterback change in the middle of the season from Bart Houston to Alex Hornibrook due to Houston's early struggles. Despite that, the Badgers are hanging.
Nobody in the SEC is.
To Florida's credit, it found its way to Atlanta for the second straight season. Hopefully for the Gators' sake, they'll hang for a little longer than last year, when Alabama turned it into a second-half victory lap.
But the fact they're even going to be there is an indictment that the SEC as a whole, not just the East division, is as flawed as every other conference in the country.
Its gold standard, though—Alabama—just happens to be of the 24-karat variety.
Quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Statistics courtesy of CFBStats.com unless otherwise noted.
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 SiriusXM 83. Follow Barrett on Twitter @BarrettSallee.
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