Left out of the national championship 3 straight years, SEC still gets a pass

Every year, the SEC starts the college football season with a reputation dividend.

For instance, last year's preseason AP Poll featured 10 SEC teams.

Starting with 10 squads ranked gives the Fighting Paul Finebaums a hype and history bonus. Early in the year everyone gets propped up by their "wins over ranked teams" even if a handful of those rankings turn out to be an illusion.

Tennessee, Florida, LSU and South Carolina amassed a lot of losses. It could get worse this year since the league eliminated their November cupcake, moving to nine conference games to match the Big Ten.

Kirby Smart gets real about the shift in the balance of power

While it's true the SEC sends the most players to the NFL, the last three national champions have come from the Big Ten, where there's better coaching and quarterback play. NIL and the Transfer Portal seem to have eliminated the SEC's recruiting advantage. Now everybody is paying players.

In an interview on "The Next Round" podcast, Georgia coach and two-time national champion Kirby Smart said the quiet part out loud. The Big Ten has closed the gap.

"I just think they have a more competitive conference," Smart said. "Like the top of their conference, there's more good teams. It used to be, eh, Ohio State's good. Michigan's good. Indiana's really good. Now they got Oregon. They have the ability to attract good players."

"I have so much respect for them. I'm like, 'Do they have better coaches than us?' That's what all of our coaches say. They're taking less talent, in theory, and doing more with it."

Yet here in the post-spring Top 25 from CBS, ten from the SEC make the cut, including LSU and Florida with new coaches, Texas back at No. 1 despite missing the playoff last year.

ESPN, the league's network home, reduces the total to eight, giving more leeway to the Big 12, slotting the Longhorns at No. 5 and putting Ohio State and Oregon in the top two spots. Both polls peg defending champion Indiana at No. 6.

In truth, the lower half of the Big Ten is decidedly weaker. The SEC has more depth. Yet at playoff time since the full-blown NIL/portal era, the B1G has dominated.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow