...and fortunately, now that the expanded playoffs has arrived, the whole argument is a lot less relevant.
I'm not an "SEC fan" in the sense that I don't cheer for any team other than UGA and I don't care if the SEC teams go 0-13 in other nonconference matchups. I really just don't care one way or the other. HOWEVER, I do at least recognize the effect of Georgia winning the SEC conference and being able to claim it won the toughest conference in the county vs winning the conference and being saddled with the caveat that it was a terrible conference. I get it. To whatever extent that conference strength may impact seeding in the new playoff, I suppose it may matter a little. But I digress.
With the way the SEC has started the season (1-3) in the biggest games, I'm seeing a lot of "SEC is overrated" rhetoric floating around. It got me curious to see if it was just typical SEC Hate that we always hear or if there was actual merit to it. So I figured I'd look at the preseason expectations of each team involved to see if the rhetoric is warranted. Here's the 5 SEC vs P4 games from this weekend. I'm including the preseason predictions of how each team would finish since we don't yet know where they will actually finish.
Dawgs 34 - Clemson 3 (SEC 1 vs ACC 1 / Also National 1 vs National 14)
- SEC's best vs ACC's best seems fairly relevant
- Result: SEC Team dominant - as expected based on national rankings
ND 23 - Texas AM 13 (SEC 9 vs Independent / National 20 vs National 7)
- SEC's 9th best team and 20th ranked in the country vs 7th ranked in country
- Result: Despite being a home game, the SEC team lost to the predicted better team by 10 points; game was close mostly but ND proved to be better team
Miami 41 - fUF 17 (SEC 12 vs ACC 2 / National 19 vs Unranked)
- One of worst teams in the SEC gets embarrassed by a title favorite in the ACC
- Result: Despite being a home game, the SEC team gets treated like a red-headed stepchild for 3 hours / ACC team doing the Lord's work and making reasonable people proud
USC 27 - LSU 20 (SEC 5 vs BIG 10 5 / National 13 vs National 23)
- Two evenly matched teams play a tight game that goes down to the wire
- Result: Evenly matched teams on neutral site, predicted to finish in similar positions in respective conferences, played an even game that Big 10 won at the end
Vandy 43 - VT 27 (SEC 14 vs ACC 6)
- Didn't see this game
- Result: Predicted worst SEC team beats mid-tier ACC team
Overall: SEC went 2-3 with one surprise win where the worst team punched way above their weight class and one expected win team that just dominated the top team from another conference. Among the losers, we had one embarrassment when a bad SEC team faced a top 2 team from another conference. We had one solid loss when a middle of the pack team faced a Top 10 team. And we had one close loss in an evenly matched game.
Conclusion: TBD - I don't think anything that happened this weekend can tell us anything definitively about the conference as a whole.
Still to Come (next 2 weeks):
Texas at Michigan (SEC 2 vs Big 10 4)
Arky at OKST (SEC 12 vs Big 12 6)
Cal at Auburn (SEC 10 vs ACC 12)
Tenn vs NCST (SEC 7 vs ACC 4)
Bama at Wisc (SEC 3 vs Big 10 9)
BC at Mizzou (SEC 6 vs ACC 11)
Miss at WF (SEC 4 vs ACC 13)
I'm not an "SEC fan" in the sense that I don't cheer for any team other than UGA and I don't care if the SEC teams go 0-13 in other nonconference matchups. I really just don't care one way or the other. HOWEVER, I do at least recognize the effect of Georgia winning the SEC conference and being able to claim it won the toughest conference in the county vs winning the conference and being saddled with the caveat that it was a terrible conference. I get it. To whatever extent that conference strength may impact seeding in the new playoff, I suppose it may matter a little. But I digress.
With the way the SEC has started the season (1-3) in the biggest games, I'm seeing a lot of "SEC is overrated" rhetoric floating around. It got me curious to see if it was just typical SEC Hate that we always hear or if there was actual merit to it. So I figured I'd look at the preseason expectations of each team involved to see if the rhetoric is warranted. Here's the 5 SEC vs P4 games from this weekend. I'm including the preseason predictions of how each team would finish since we don't yet know where they will actually finish.
Dawgs 34 - Clemson 3 (SEC 1 vs ACC 1 / Also National 1 vs National 14)
- SEC's best vs ACC's best seems fairly relevant
- Result: SEC Team dominant - as expected based on national rankings
ND 23 - Texas AM 13 (SEC 9 vs Independent / National 20 vs National 7)
- SEC's 9th best team and 20th ranked in the country vs 7th ranked in country
- Result: Despite being a home game, the SEC team lost to the predicted better team by 10 points; game was close mostly but ND proved to be better team
Miami 41 - fUF 17 (SEC 12 vs ACC 2 / National 19 vs Unranked)
- One of worst teams in the SEC gets embarrassed by a title favorite in the ACC
- Result: Despite being a home game, the SEC team gets treated like a red-headed stepchild for 3 hours / ACC team doing the Lord's work and making reasonable people proud
USC 27 - LSU 20 (SEC 5 vs BIG 10 5 / National 13 vs National 23)
- Two evenly matched teams play a tight game that goes down to the wire
- Result: Evenly matched teams on neutral site, predicted to finish in similar positions in respective conferences, played an even game that Big 10 won at the end
Vandy 43 - VT 27 (SEC 14 vs ACC 6)
- Didn't see this game
- Result: Predicted worst SEC team beats mid-tier ACC team
Overall: SEC went 2-3 with one surprise win where the worst team punched way above their weight class and one expected win team that just dominated the top team from another conference. Among the losers, we had one embarrassment when a bad SEC team faced a top 2 team from another conference. We had one solid loss when a middle of the pack team faced a Top 10 team. And we had one close loss in an evenly matched game.
Conclusion: TBD - I don't think anything that happened this weekend can tell us anything definitively about the conference as a whole.
Still to Come (next 2 weeks):
Texas at Michigan (SEC 2 vs Big 10 4)
Arky at OKST (SEC 12 vs Big 12 6)
Cal at Auburn (SEC 10 vs ACC 12)
Tenn vs NCST (SEC 7 vs ACC 4)
Bama at Wisc (SEC 3 vs Big 10 9)
BC at Mizzou (SEC 6 vs ACC 11)
Miss at WF (SEC 4 vs ACC 13)
