Ohio State players celebrate after defeating the Oregon Ducks 42-20 in the College Football Playoff National Championship at AT&T Stadium Monday, Jan. 12, 2015, in Arlington, Texas. (Cal Sport Media via AP Images)
I’m not trying to bring back painful memories, but we all know what happened on New Year’s Eve.
Then 9th-ranked, Ole Miss traveled to Atlanta to take on 6th-ranked TCU in what was arguably the most highly anticipated of the New Year’s Six bowl games. The Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl was supposed to be a matchup of the touted “landshark” defense against a high-powered TCU offense.
Instead, the Rebels ran into a buzzsaw against the Horned Frogs and were demolished 42-3. The Rebels could not put together a coherent offensive drive and stalled against a TCU team proving to be worthy of a spot in the inaugural College Football playoff.
Was the Ole Miss loss to TCU the sign of a fallen empire that was the SEC?
The SEC West, which is considered the best division in all of college football, went 2-5 in bowl games. The bottom two teams in the standings were the only teams that won. Texas A&M won an offensive shootout against West Virginia 45-27, and Arkansas ran over their historic rival Texas 31-7.
The top five teams in the conference would not win a game the rest of the way, going 0-5.
Yes, I hear all the people about to chirp at me saying, “You do know the SEC East went 5-0 in their bowl games right?”
Yes, I do know that, but any college football fan would agree with me that the better teams and the national championship contending teams come from the SEC West.
Further evidence shows that since 2000, only five SEC conference champions came from the East division, with Florida and Georgia being the only two teams to win it from that division.
The reign of dominance for the conference all started in 2006 with Florida. Head coach Urban Meyer started the impressive streak for the conference, winning the national title in 2006 and then another one in 2008 with legendary Heisman-winning quarterback Tim Tebow. The SEC would win seven consecutive titles stretching from 2006-2012.
It could’ve been eight in a row, but Florida State ended the miracle season conference champion Auburn had in 2012, thus ending the conference’s streak.
Even with the Auburn loss, most people thought the dominance from the conference would not end there.
However, after the conclusion of the 2014 college football season, it became clear to me.
It’s over folks.
We’ll never see a stretch of dominance that the conference has shown during that seven-year span ever again.
The Ole Miss loss to TCU seemed to have triggered an eventual downfall for the once overpowering SEC West. Mississippi State would lose to Georgia Tech. Auburn lost to Wisconsin, and Alabama lost to Ohio State in the College Football Playoff semifinal.
It all looked certain that Alabama would reach the pinnacle of college football and once again win another national championship. The last hope for the conference to win another title was dashed as Ohio State and head coach Urban Meyer pulled off the 42-35 upset with a spectacular performance from third-string quarterback Cardale Jones.
That game wasn’t just an upset. It was a changing of the guard in college football. Urban Meyer once again had the upper hand against Alabama head coach Nick Saban and out-coached him in every facet of the game.
The Big Ten is becoming the new SEC.
Urban Meyer brings a national title to Ohio State in only his third year as head coach. Michigan State wins another BCS Bowl game. Penn State is building a new regime under former Vanderbilt head coach James Franklin and so on.
The exclamation point was Jim Harbaugh taking the Michigan job. Known as one of the best head coaches in the NFL, Harbaugh went back to his alma mater and looks to build a powerhouse like Saban did when he went to Alabama. If he can turn Stanford and the 49ers around, Harbaugh will have no problem doing that at Michigan.
It’s not only the Big 10. It’s happening in the PAC 12 and Big 12.
After thrashing Ole Miss, TCU returns 10 starters on offense, all of whom are seniors, and six on defense. TCU should be the favorite heading into next season. Oregon, USC and UCLA will be the front-runners in the PAC 12, and Baylor will compete pound-for-pound with TCU in the Big 12.
The SEC in 2013 was the most balanced the conference has been in a long time. As a result, all the teams beat up on each other. During the seven-year title streak for the conference, the SEC was very top-heavy. The best teams in the conference beat up on all the other teams.
That isn’t happening anymore. Schools in the conference are recruiting better and making the playing field more balanced. It makes the conference more competitive and entertaining, but it may knock the SEC out of the playoff for years to come.
Other conferences such as the Big 10, Big 12 and PAC 12, are becoming more top-heavy, and the favorites in those conferences will flex their muscle on the other teams they play.
With conference champion Alabama losing nine starters on offense and four on defense, they may take a step back. How many other teams can you definitively say can make the playoff next season?
There aren’t a lot.
Auburn could make a run with the hiring of former Florida head coach Will Muschamp as defensive coordinator. Ole Miss can put up a fight, but it all depends on how they replace Bo Wallace and the senior leaders on defense. Georgia remains the favorite in the SEC East.
How many other teams can you name?
It may be hard to admit, but a change of power is happening.
