The South Eastern Conference Is Down? Look At Bowl Eligibility!

I have been listening to the football Gurus for the last week and have decided the volume on my set is no longer needed. The same Gurus that maligned the Big East conference pre season and did not vote one Big East Team in the pre season top 25, are now starting to say the SEC is weak and down this year.

I read one article on CBS.com by a blow hard that said he just could not take the over hyping of the SEC any more. For weeks I listened to Ohio State cheerleaders claim that Alabama and Florida had not played any good teams. I listened to one blow hard claim the Big 10 and the Pac 10 were the only two real conferences.

I decided to take a look and see how the bowl eligibility picture was shaping up in the SEC. I do not thin what I found was surprising to most knowledgeable football fans. 

The SEC West is lead by Alabama this year at 8-0 and will go bowling.     

LSU is in second place for the moment at 7-1 and will go bowling.

Auburn is in third place at the moment  at 6-3 and will go bowling.

Ole Miss is in forth place at the moment at 5-3 and plays Northern Arizona this week.

Arkansas is in fifth place at 4-4 and needs to win half their remaining games to go bowling.

The SEC East is led by Florida and they will go bowling.

South Carolina is in second place in the East at 6-3 and they will go bowling.

Georgia, Tennessee, and Kentucky are all tied for third at 4-4 and only need to win half of their remaining games to be bowl eligible. 

This means that there are 10 probable and 11 possible bowl eligible teams from the SEC this year. Out of the 43 losses of the possible bowl eligible teams 4 were from other conferences. Florida actually had the weakest schedule of these teams followed by Ole Miss. Florida played only the number 5 ranked team in the country at the time and that team is now number 8. Ole Miss played the number 1 team in the country and still has number 8 coming. All the rest have played tougher schedules. 

There are multiple ranked teams from other conferences in the list of opponents for these schools. The SEC school won half of these and only one was played by a ranked SEC team.

Mississippi State has long been looked at as a doormat SEC team yet they played five ranked teams this year all from the top 15 including number 1. Even with nearly half their schedule being against ranked opponents they have a good chance of being bowl eligible.

The final information I have is that invitations were made for home n home series to Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan as well as other Big 10 powers and the only one willing to play an SEC school was Penn State that plays Alabama beginning next year. The SEC was 2-1 in head to head games with the Pac 10. These invitations were from a multitude of SEC schools not just Florida and Alabama. Kudos to Penn State for picking up their great historic rivalry with Penn State. Any football fan that watched the 1978 Sugar Bowl will be glad to see this one back. Ohio State plays UAB in 2012 but refuses to schedule Alabama or Auburn that reside in the same state. Michigan has many unfilled dates in the next three years. I feel that some will be games with SEC opponents as Rich Rodriguez was good about scheduling SEC teams while at West Virginia. He is a coach that does more than talk the talk.

There will be plenty of SEC teams in bowls this year. At least 8 will be in a bowl and likely more. Only three of these teams are currently ranked in any poll. Most of them will faced ranked opponents from other conferences. This would mean that the quality of team they are facing is higher if the polls actually mean anything. Does any Guru want to predict that the SEC will have a losing record against these supposedly superior conferences? I for one will be watching and waiting for the demise of the weak SEC. I will be amazed if the SEC loses more than two and these will likely be to the Big East, Mountain West, Acc or some other conference as we all know the history of the hot winded Big 10 when its time to go bowling against the SEC!