Question: How Good Was the SEC in 2024???

[TideEngineer08]

If Bama has Will Howard or Riley Leonard playing QB this year Alabama....???

Maybe?

There were other sore spots besides QB.

 

[CB4]

The league is down. Its depth is being hollowed out by the portal and NIL.

There isn’t a team in the SEC that would do any better than Texas did last night against Ohio State.

Is this a long term development? We will find out.

This. NIL and portal allowed some like Vandy to become more competitive. Conversely, the overall depth of the perennial top teams in the league is down.

 

[OconeeTide]

Felt like a rebuilding year for alot of teams in the SEC.

 

[selmaborntidefan]

The league is down. Its depth is being hollowed out by the portal and NIL.

There isn’t a team in the SEC that would do any better than Texas did last night against Ohio State.

Is this a long term development? We will find out.

I think the portal is the bigger issue than NIL.
Sort of

Let me put it like this:
In a world where, say, Michigan can look at your team and decide they want your quarterback and then offer that person money and he can just walk away from where he is - something that not even the professional leagues allow when you are under contract - it has the effect of both destroying the team the player is leaving and boosting the team which he is going. I only use Michigan because it was so fragrant and out there, but I’m sure we could fill in the names of other schools.

What if in 2021, Ohio State offered Bryce Young 10 times what he was making on his NIL deal with us? What does everyone think would’ve happened? He would have gone there, and they would have won the 2022 national championship while we would have been stuck with Mediocre taking snaps and finished 8-4 at best even with Saban.

 

[selmaborntidefan]

As far as the SEC, every so often you have a year where it looks like the pendulum swings, but so far it has never been longer than for a year or so. The SEC of 2014 that looks so powerful the entire regular season, virtually all of the powers lost their ball games, and Ohio State won the national championship in a year where the SEC slumped to 7-5 in bowls, the top guns in the polls all season losing.

The very next year, Alabama was champs again, the SEC went 9-2, and the Big 10 champ got killed by 38 points in the playoff.

It is not true that the SEC is the Best conference every year, but it is the best conference probably eight out of every 10 years. This happens to be one year when it was not.

Remember, even in the years when the Big 10 champ wins the national title, they don’t put together 9-2 conference records in bowls.

2002: 5-2 (indisputably better than 3-4 SEC)
2014: 6-5 (2 wins were Ohio St)
2023: 6-4 (2 wins were Michigan)

Again, these are the two best conferences in college football year in and year out, and every so often, and the pendulum is going to move in a different direction. But remember also that success brings its own burdens, which sometimes is going to push the pendulum back the other way.

Anyone writing off the SEC and using the line of bull about how now everyone can pay players and not just the SEC and that stupid cliché about games up north and November is a world class moron, whose opinions can be dismissed. The cyclo will play through as it always does, it’s just the gap inside the conferences will narrow when everyone can pay players above the board.

If paying players and having the most money was enough to guarantee success, I would think all those kids with the Lamborghinis in Austin would have easily won the other night. Texas has the most money, ergo , they’re going to win every championship.

No, you still have to create team chemistry and execute.

 

[GrayTide]

Yes, Bill I am also awake at this hour and thoroughly enjoyed your post.

 

[selmaborntidefan]

Yes, Bill I am also awake at this hour and thoroughly enjoyed your post.

well, I am in Paris, where it is almost noon ha ha!

 

[selmaborntidefan]

There’s another thing I need to point out: a really good team can win the national championship and the conference itself can still be a pile of garbage.

Remember that 2016 Alabama team that looked like it might be the greatest team that ever played? They may have been among the best, but that doesn’t change the fact the conference as a whole hole, back in a time before we had nearly as many people sitting as we have now, was 6-7 in the bowls. And the ACC, the year Clemson won the championship, was 9-3 in bowls. Folks don’t want to admit it, but the ACC was pretty good in 2016. Fast-forward two years, and the conference wasn’t really all that great but Clemson still blew out Alabama.


however, we are now rewriting college football history, and seeing the proof of something I always knew: if Ohio State can be the best team of the season this year with two losses or if Notre Dame can be the best team with a lost to Northern Illinois, if a team can be the best team in one particular season, despite not being undefeated, we cannot any longer keep pretending that the greatest team of all time is one that never lost a game. I’ve been making a point for years that the 1985 bears would blow the 1972 dolphins right off the field as would any of those teams from Pittsburgh in the late 70s, but every single member of the Dolphins takes Umbridge when you point out that fact.

Only undefeated team ever? Yes
greatest team of all time, 1972 Dolphins?
Get right out of town.

 

[teamplayer]

Did we just cannibalize each other (every team was pretty good, even Vandy)?

Did the league suddenly fall into mediocrity, and there were no great teams, so Vandy won 6 games and competed against top teams Texas and Georgia?

I thought it was #1 all year, but I'm leaning toward nobody was really elite this year.

I think we beat each other up and had nothing left at the end. Teams that only played two or three physical battles all year were still pretty fresh at the end. I can see a similar thing happening again next year.

 

[Bamaro]

I think the portal is the bigger issue than NIL.
Sort of

The portal and NIL are the mirror of peanut butter and jelly

 

[TideEngineer08]

As far as the SEC, every so often you have a year where it looks like the pendulum swings, but so far it has never been longer than for a year or so. The SEC of 2014 that looks so powerful the entire regular season, virtually all of the powers lost their ball games, and Ohio State won the national championship in a year where the SEC slumped to 7-5 in bowls, the top guns in the polls all season losing.

The very next year, Alabama was champs again, the SEC went 9-2, and the Big 10 champ got killed by 38 points in the playoff.

It is not true that the SEC is the Best conference every year, but it is the best conference probably eight out of every 10 years. This happens to be one year when it was not.

Remember, even in the years when the Big 10 champ wins the national title, they don’t put together 9-2 conference records in bowls.

2002: 5-2 (indisputably better than 3-4 SEC)
2014: 6-5 (2 wins were Ohio St)
2023: 6-4 (2 wins were Michigan)

Again, these are the two best conferences in college football year in and year out, and every so often, and the pendulum is going to move in a different direction. But remember also that success brings its own burdens, which sometimes is going to push the pendulum back the other way.

Anyone writing off the SEC and using the line of bull about how now everyone can pay players and not just the SEC and that stupid cliché about games up north and November is a world class moron, whose opinions can be dismissed. The cyclo will play through as it always does, it’s just the gap inside the conferences will narrow when everyone can pay players above the board.

If paying players and having the most money was enough to guarantee success, I would think all those kids with the Lamborghinis in Austin would have easily won the other night. Texas has the most money, ergo , they’re going to win every championship.

No, you still have to create team chemistry and execute.

It’s amazing how the line “what’s wrong with the SEC now that everybody can pay players” is really telling off on those who are spouting it.

I’ll tell you what’s wrong with the SEC… it’s that everyone can pay players…

You basically had to legalize cheating in order to level the playing field. Cheating from outright buying talent to also allowing tampering with other teams rosters.

They ignore the obvious truth that the SEC’s dominance occurred due to geography, passionate fan bases, and funds poured into facilities. Those factors attracted the best talent in coaching and players.

That has all been neutralized now. I find the notion that only the SEC had “bag men” and the like to be utterly absurd.

 

[denver]

Add that the MeatCheating National championship last year should never have happened since they violated so many ethical and actual NCAA rules ....this so called SEC demise if a one year abnormality so far

 

[REBELZED]

I only use Michigan because it was so fragrant

The state of college football in general has definitely become fragrant...

 

[BamaMoon]

I do think we just didn't have an elite team....like a LSU (2019) Bama (2020) or Georgia team we've seen in recent years.

Elite teams find a way to win the close games.

 

[crimsonaudio]

Obviously pretty 'meh' by recent standards.

 

[spidermayin]

Inconsistency at the QB position. Next year should be a strong year at QB for the SEC.

 

[teamplayer]

Inconsistency at the QB position. Next year should be a strong year at QB for the SEC.

This year was supposed to be strong for SEC QB's. Texas, UGA, Ole Miss, Bama, Missouri, Auburn () were all supposed to have potential first or second round draft picks at QB. Honestly, I think it is just too much to ask when you have to play seven or eight or nine bowl eligible teams, especially when the depth you needed to get you through those games is now playing for other teams.

 

[Bamabuzzard]

Seems like there's a "reset" going on in the SEC and Nick Saban retiring was the trigger to that massive reset. The first year of the SEC without Saban there weren't any "great" anything, no great QBs, RB's, defenses, or individual player performances. For whatever the recruiting rankings still matter, the SEC still dominated the recruiting rankings signifying there's still top talent coming into the conference. Now it's just a matter of who's going to take the bull by the proverbial horns, step up and be the top team or teams on a national level.

 

[crimsonaudio]

Seems like there's a "reset" going on in the SEC and Nick Saban retiring was the trigger to that massive reset. The first year of the SEC without Saban there weren't any "great" anything, no great QBs, RB's, defenses, or individual player performances. For whatever the recruiting rankings still matter, the SEC still dominated the recruiting rankings signifying there's still top talent coming into the conference. Now it's just a matter of who's going to take the bull by the proverbial horns, step and be the top team or teams on a national level.

While Saban retiring caused ripples, I believe we're seeing exactly what TPTB wanted via the combination of the xfer portal and the faux NIL - a gutting of the elites to even out the overall landscape. Yes, the bluebloods will remain bluebloods, but when your second-string recruits leave for a payout rather than staying to learn the system and develop relationships (both on and off the field) with the team, you end up with what we saw this year.

Reminder: the NCAA is empowered and decisions are made by the ~1,100 schools that are participants. The bluebloods make up a tiny fraction of the membership. The have-nots want a piece of the pie and that's one of the main reasons that:
1- nothing has been done to address the xfer portal and rampant cheating via NIL, and
2- the premier athletic programs need to create their own league. I've been banging this drum for about two decades as it's obvious that the leadership of the NCAA doesn't make decisions based on what's good for the sport, but rather what's good for the average school (~80% of which are not DI (FBS/FCS) but rather DII or DIII).

We're seeing the beginning of the 'NFL-ification' of FBS football because, whether planned or 'happy accident', TPTB are seeing the elite teams knocked down a few notches while the mediocre teams are rising up.

I don't think we'll see an elite team by the standards of say, 2022 (and before) in the near future, or maybe ever again. Every year one or two teams will rise up and do well - that will perhaps last a few seasons, then they will slink back into the upper-echelon.

 

[BamaMoon]

Seems like there's a "reset" going on in the SEC and Nick Saban retiring was the trigger to that massive reset. The first year of the SEC without Saban there weren't any "great" anything, no great QBs, RB's, defenses, or individual player performances. For whatever the recruiting rankings still matter, the SEC still dominated the recruiting rankings signifying there's still top talent coming into the conference. Now it's just a matter of who's going to take the bull by the proverbial horns, step and be the top team or teams on a national level.

And maybe that's just it.

OR, there's the suspicion that even if CNS was back in '24 things might not have been that much different. Some believe we don't beat Georgia because of the way he coached in those kind of games (and this team would have been tight and got behind fast), but that we might not have lost to Vandy (debatable) or OU (probable) the way we did.

I lean a little that way because of how '23 unfolded. So maybe 2024 was just a very "average" year for SEC teams just because no team was elite enough to break out at the top. I guess UT did it the best, but they got exposed against TOSU.