In recent years, the Southeastern Conference has been a top-heavy class system of national championship contenders at the top, and a collection of decent-to-terrible teams below. But a string of upsets Saturday brought the established order to its knees. The king survived as Alabama rolled in a 52-0 laugher, but nearly every other contender for the throne had their conference hopes — and in some cases, national championship hopes — dashed.
LSU, Texas A&M, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida all went down. The five teams picked to finish behind Alabama now each have at least two conference losses and are effectively out of the running for the conference championship.
LSU lost to an Ole Miss team playing without half of its starting defense. Georgia and South Carolina were both knocked off by teams that hadn’t won an SEC game this season. Johnny Manziel, hurt shoulder and all, tried to bring the Aggies back against Auburn but came up a score short.
Perhaps the hardest thing to fathom is that Missouri beat Florida to take a two-game lead in the SEC East.
The victory itself isn’t a surprise because the Gators’ offense is a tire fire, but no one in their right mind could have predicted Gary Pinkel’s team would have the inside track to Atlanta heading into the last weekend of October.
In fact, the only team within a game of either division leader is Auburn. If the Tigers win out, this season’s Iron Bowl will be a play-in game for the SEC Championship Game.
Let that sink in for a minute. Two of the three teams with realistic hopes of making it to Atlanta are Tigers, but neither one wears purple and gold.
The problem is neither group of Tigers is a legitimate national contender. Auburn lost by double digits to LSU, and Missouri’s two quality wins came against teams ravaged by injuries and incompetence.
This widespread carnage leads me to my point: the SEC is not the best conference in the country this season. I don’t think this is the beginning of a long-term shift in the balance of power, but it’s indisputably a down year across the conference.
The SEC’s dominance went beyond the championships. In recent years, cases could be made that the second-, third- and even fourth-best teams in the SEC were better than the top team in the other power conferences.
Alabama may still keep the streak alive with another championship, but it’s nearly impossible to make such a case for the other teams this season.
Based on the eye test and the utter lack of defense in the SEC, Oregon would score at will against anyone besides the Tide. There are some offenses that could shoot it out with the Ducks, but there is no evidence to support that any of those teams are better.
Same goes for Florida State, considering the Seminoles went on the road and stomped a Clemson team that beat a healthy Georgia in the season opener.
It’s borderline sacrilegious to say in these parts, but most top SEC schools this season would struggle with the likes of Stanford, UCLA and even — gasp — Ohio State.
The bottom line is if Alabama loses, there is no longer a safety net. Strength of schedule, which has always been the saving grace for SEC teams come bowl selection day, will no longer be enough to propel a one-loss SEC Champion over an undefeated team from another BCS conference.
So if Nick Saban and company are defeated between now and Pasadena, the SEC’s string of consecutive national championships will most likely go out with the Tide.
James Moran is a 21-year-old mass communication senior from Beacon, N.Y.