Let's just throw out a couple of givens:
Alabama is king of the college football world.
AND
The conference has five teams that are perennially lousy and no one expects much of (Vandy, Missouri, South Carolina, Miss State, and Kentucky).
What about the rest?
Tennessee hasn't lost fewer than four games a season since 2004. Over that span, they're 82-69. Is the needle pointing up for Butch Jones after losing Dobbs and Kamara? He's never won more than nine games in a season as the Vol's front man.
Florida is 56-34 since Urban's last season there. Despite being in one of the most talent rich states, they only have two ten win seasons over that time. And their offense has been notoriously abysmal during the last two coaching regimes. Jury is still out on McElwain.
My wife and a couple members of her family went to Georgia so I've watched them closely for years. What I saw last year under Smart was a plethora of coaching blunders. The guy can recruit (although rumored to not be on the up and up), but I don't know what kind of game day coach he's going to be. The OC he hired is absolutely a question mark.
I honestly believe LSU is going to be an also ran under Ed Orgeron. He's a great motivational speaker, but isn't special at anything else without the backing of boosters if you know what I mean. I see a bunch of 8-4 seasons in their future.
Ole Miss is going back to a bottom feeder.
Arkansas is and always has been average. I don't see any kind of shift under Bielema. He hasn't been able to recruit very well, and his best season as the razor backs head man totaled a whopping eight wins.
If you take out the paid for Cam Newton national championship season, Auburn is 54-37 under the last two head coaches, and hasn't lost fewer than five games in a season over the last three years.
Other than his initial season at A&M, Kevin Sumlin hasn't done much with the Aggies besides watch a bunch of kids transfer out of the program. One more five loss season and I think he's done in College Station. Throw in Tom Herman as a recruiting competitor, and the states power shift for talent is likely to swing back to Texas.
Excluding Ole Miss (since I think they are now going to become completely irrelevant again), the other seven teams above failed to make a bowl game six times in the last 5 years. When they did make a bowl, they went 18-11.
So I ask, is the conference very good right now?
Minus Alabama, I think they're pedestrian.
A conference that once had Saban, Spurrier, Fulmer, Richt, and Miles is now laden with question marks at the head coaching positions, and because of that, I believe they come back down to earth a bit.
Alabama is king of the college football world.
AND
The conference has five teams that are perennially lousy and no one expects much of (Vandy, Missouri, South Carolina, Miss State, and Kentucky).
What about the rest?
Tennessee hasn't lost fewer than four games a season since 2004. Over that span, they're 82-69. Is the needle pointing up for Butch Jones after losing Dobbs and Kamara? He's never won more than nine games in a season as the Vol's front man.
Florida is 56-34 since Urban's last season there. Despite being in one of the most talent rich states, they only have two ten win seasons over that time. And their offense has been notoriously abysmal during the last two coaching regimes. Jury is still out on McElwain.
My wife and a couple members of her family went to Georgia so I've watched them closely for years. What I saw last year under Smart was a plethora of coaching blunders. The guy can recruit (although rumored to not be on the up and up), but I don't know what kind of game day coach he's going to be. The OC he hired is absolutely a question mark.
I honestly believe LSU is going to be an also ran under Ed Orgeron. He's a great motivational speaker, but isn't special at anything else without the backing of boosters if you know what I mean. I see a bunch of 8-4 seasons in their future.
Ole Miss is going back to a bottom feeder.
Arkansas is and always has been average. I don't see any kind of shift under Bielema. He hasn't been able to recruit very well, and his best season as the razor backs head man totaled a whopping eight wins.
If you take out the paid for Cam Newton national championship season, Auburn is 54-37 under the last two head coaches, and hasn't lost fewer than five games in a season over the last three years.
Other than his initial season at A&M, Kevin Sumlin hasn't done much with the Aggies besides watch a bunch of kids transfer out of the program. One more five loss season and I think he's done in College Station. Throw in Tom Herman as a recruiting competitor, and the states power shift for talent is likely to swing back to Texas.
Excluding Ole Miss (since I think they are now going to become completely irrelevant again), the other seven teams above failed to make a bowl game six times in the last 5 years. When they did make a bowl, they went 18-11.
So I ask, is the conference very good right now?
Minus Alabama, I think they're pedestrian.
A conference that once had Saban, Spurrier, Fulmer, Richt, and Miles is now laden with question marks at the head coaching positions, and because of that, I believe they come back down to earth a bit.
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