College Football 2011: Can the SEC Win Its Sixth Straight National Championship?

The SEC has won the last five National Championships and has deservedly earned the reputation as being the top conference in the country, but I’m here to tell you that there will be a changing of the guard next season.

Obviously Alabama and LSU are both stacked and receiving tremendous amounts of preseason buzz. Both of these teams have to replace numerous primetime performers though and will be playing unproven newcomers at key positions going into 2011.

Quarterback A.J. McCarron steps under center for Nick Saban to replace the highly successful Greg McElroy. McCarron had the skills to earn the confidence of the coaches, but he only threw 48 passes as a freshman backup and is relatively unproven in the grand scheme of things. Replacements also need to be found for the production left behind by Julio Jones, Mark Ingram and Marcel Darius.

LSU meanwhile also has quarterback questions to answer as embattled starter Jordan Jefferson will try to hold off junior college transfer Zach Mettenberger. LSU like Alabama also lost a bevy of talented starters to the NFL such as Patrick Peterson, Drake Nevis, Terrence Toliver and Stevan Ridley.

Now of course I should mention that the SEC’s powerhouse programs have shown the ability to replace their superstars with elite talent fairly seamlessly. The intense competition at these programs is one of the reasons that these programs are able to maintain their position at the top of the college football hierarchy year in and year out.

Auburn, Florida, Arkansas and South Carolina will also feature strong squads next season, but each of these teams has several question marks that need to be addressed before any national championship speculation can begin.

Couple these question marks with the fact that Oklahoma, Oregon and Stanford feature loaded rosters and you can understand how the SEC National Championship streak is in jeopardy.

The SEC’s dominance has been called into question before and each time the conference has shown why its prestigious reputation is deserved. It’s probably foolish of me to bet against guys such as Saban, Miles and Meyer, but there are more strong programs from outside the conference jockeying for position this year more than ever.

Speed has been the greatest asset of teams such as Alabama, Florida and LSU in their national championship victories and this year teams such as Oregon, Oklahoma and Ohio State will feature skill players that can rival the SEC’s speedy athletes. The key to another Southeastern Conference National Championship will be whether the newcomers and reserves can fill the massive shoes left by the conference’s aforementioned primetime performers.

There are plenty of contenders out there that have the potential to finally take the crown off the Southeastern Conference’s head in 2011 and bring some much needed respect back to their own conference. Either way it will take an impressive national title performance to knock off the eventual SEC representative in the big game, but there are definitely teams that have the chops to get the job down.

Betting against history and dominance is never smart, but there is reason to be skeptical as to whether this five year run can continue.