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The SEC is the premier conference in all of Division I FBS college football.
At least, that’s what we’ve been told by anybody and everybody over the last two decades. However, it appears as if the winds might be changing, and in drastic fashion.
With Ole Miss losing to Miami in an all-timer of a Fiesta Bowl on Thursday night, not only will the SEC go three straight years without a national championship, it will also mark the third straight year that the SEC didn’t even have a team reach the national championship game.
But wait, it gets worse…
The SEC Had An Absolute Nightmare Of A Bowl Season
In total, the SEC went just 4-10 in its 14 bowl game appearances, a .286 win percentage that is, by far, the worst among any Power 4 conference. But that record somehow gets even worse when you take just a small peak below the surface.
With Miami beating Ole Miss, the SEC finished bowl season just 1-8 against Power 4 teams in bowls. It also went 0-3 in College Football Playoff games against other Power 4 teams.
Now, yes, bowls are not the end-all, be-all. And there were certainly plenty of opt-outs to account for. But SEC schools weren’t the only programs to deal with opt-outs. And none of those opt-outs meaningfully affected the three CFP games against non-SEC opponents.
For years, the SEC used its success in the postseason to justify its strength. It then used that perceived strength to argue for favorable spots in the polls based on the perceived strength of schedule of its teams.
But if these programs that are supposed to be so strong can’t win out of conference, how strong is the SEC, really?