Will the Real SEC Please Stand Up?

When asked what the strongest conference in College Football is, the common answer is the SEC.  However, this may not be the case.  The SEC doesn't play the strongest Out Of Conference Schedule in the world.  How can a conference declare itself the strongest if they will not play top teams from other conferences during the season?

Southern California, a team that plays in an obviously weaker conference, does not get the credit it deserves recently.  The media is biased and plays into the SEC, and this creates problems for a team like USC.

A team like USC needs a strong out of conference schedule to prove itself, because it does not have the luxury of playing in a media-hyped conference like a team such as Florida does.  But when you look at Florida's schedule this year, the hardest team they played was Alabama.

Georgia and LSU were both extremely weak teams this year when compared to what they were last year.  Alabama didn't have an impressive schedule either.

Speaking of that media hype, Florida lost to Ole Miss this year and was not harmed anywhere near the effect that USC was when it lost to Oregon St.  USC lost by a touchdown on the road and got outplayed.  Florida lost at home by one point.  That is an obvious difference.

However, there is more to it.  Oregon St. was going to the Rose Bowl and was going to win the Pac-10 before a surprise loss to Oregon without star running back Jacquizz Rodgers.  Ole Miss was nowhere near the level of Oregon St., and Florida should have been hurt more by their loss to Ole Miss.

The problem?  The media plays into the fact that Oregon St. plays in a "weaker" conference, while Ole Miss plays in a "stronger" conference.  This makes one upset game more damaging than the other, even though the truth is a lot farther from what the voters showed this season.

The solution to this problem is for the SEC to play USC.  However, the SEC Athletic Directors will not play USC.  Back in 2003, USC traveled to Auburn to play a higher-ranked Auburn team.  The result?  A huge win for USC.

After that, the high-ranking SEC teams would not schedule to play USC, even if they were at home.  By doing this, they make themselves look vulnerable to people whom are not blinded by the media hype. 

There is no denying that the SEC has won the last two National Championship games.  They were underdogs in both and flat-out destroyed Ohio State in both games.  That right there gives the SEC the name of being the strongest, right?  Wrong.

USC has destroyed three Big Ten teams in the last three years: Michigan in the Rose Bowl, Illinois in the Rose Bowl, and Ohio State this season in L.A.  USC will also be playing Big Ten champion Penn St. on New Year's Day as well.  A win in that game should solidify USC's position as being dominant over the Big Ten—something the SEC brags about as well.

The ultimate solution is that an SEC athletic director will schedule to play USC, or USC will eventually meet an SEC team in the National Championship game.  A win for either side will solidify the case for both sides.