Is the SEC's dominance in football coming to an end?

It really hasn't been that great to begin with. This is what we know:

That the SEC has won 7 BCS title straight and 8 of the 14 total. But of those 8, it has been won by only 5 schools in what is now a 14 team conference, of which currently 1 of those schools (Tennessee) is irrelevant now, 1 is currently trying to figure out how everything has gone wrong since getting blown out by Louisville last year (Florida), Auburn was just the a bottom feeder last season, and well Alabama and LSU speak for themselves. So bragging about what 5 schools do, which is not half the conference, doesn't say the conference is great.

The SEC also has the most draft picks, which is no big deal. Please, continue to brag about JaMarcus Russell, Rolando McClain, etc. The SEC also has more underclassmen in every draft than any other conference. Last year they doubled the amount of draft eligible players than any other conference, so of course you will have the most players selected.

The SEC also plays more games against FCS opponents than any other conference, less road games in non-conference play than any other conference, and plays the least amount of AQ schools in non-conference play of any other conference. Has a losing record to the Big East since the creation of the BCS, and is only 14-13 against the Pac-12 during the same timeframe.

The SEC is a good conference, and no matter what happens, it still will be after this season. But the idea that it's better top to bottom than the rest is a joke. Auburn, who is playing for the title, needed a last minute INT at home to beat the 9th place team in the Pac-12.

LOL I love all the "football" experts voicing that the ENTIRE conference is overrated based off semantics and terrible use of logic.

The SEC is 5 and 2 right now in bowl games.

An SEC team is playing in the national championship

They have won the past 7 national championships in a row

Of the 14 national championships under the BSC title the SEC has claimed 9

SEC is 9 and 1 (with the 1 loss to another SEC team)

The SEC has had 5 teams win national championships since 1998 (Tennessee, Alabama, LSU, Florida, and Auburn) -- NOBODY else has done that.

Big 12 is 2 and 5

ACC is 1 and 2

Big East is 1 and 2

Big Ten is 1 and 2

Pac 12) is 1 and 2

Recruiting; SEC all 14 teams in top 35, 8 in top 12

NFL Draft; SEC number of picks speak for themselves

SEC also has the top recruits from high schools

I don't know how you call an entire conference "overrated" when they are clearly not. Even there worst teams are winning bowl games, no other conference has had the level of domination that the SEC has. So again how are they overrated?

The bottom half of the SEC can lose to the top half teams of the other conferences, but for the most part the top half of the SEC seems to be above the vast majority of other teams.

OU was a top team at the top of its conference and they beat Alabama. It's a football game and anything can happen, it was a big upset but again OU beating Alabama (there first time ever I believe) does not mean that the entire SEC is overrated.

Next year with the playoff system I hope that it stops a lot of this nonsense talk.

SEC fans remind me of Laker fans. No matter what is happening in the present they are going to continue to point to the past. Alabama's loss equals - we have won 7 championships in a row. Florida losses to a division II team; we have 7 championships in a row. No question SEC was dominanat in the past, but what people are talking about is the present. In college football; the score does matter and teams like LSU and Georgia struggled against teams that were not even ranked. But you can't tell delusional SEC fans that cause they will continue to tell you the past BCS records and 7 championships for the next 50 years regardless of how good or bad the conference has been.

And both former big 12 teams have transitioned just fine which is another sign that the SEC is not what it use to be.

Yes they are 5-2 currently, but Ohio State was 12-0 and all SEC fans said was how soft their schedule was, even though they were undefeated.

I expect FSU will win the championship, but none of this means a thing. Georgia came up a little short on their final drive, and the media were hyping their running back, but their offense was built around their QB, who was out with an injury. Bama was flat, but they've done that before. LSU has looked like that all year, even with their QB, who was also out with an injury. And South Carolina, Texas A&M, Ole Miss, and Mississippi State have won. Even if Mizzou, Vandy, and Auburn all lose, that's still a pretty darned impressive body of work for the conference overall. Especially when you consider that everybody knew in preseason that this year wasn't quite going to be like some of the best for the SEC.

Georgia has been patched up all year so that's not a fair assesment. LSU didn't even have their star qb so give them a little credit. Alabama gave the ball away 4 times (all resulting in scores) and missed a field goal (not a surprise). If they held onto the ball OK doesn't get that much needed momentum. And so far no one has shown they can stop Auburn's rushing attack. Not saying that FSU is nothing to be feared (because they are) but who was the toughest defense they faced so far? A battered and tattered Florida? Let's just say Auburn will without a doubt be the toughest defense and trickiest offense they've faced all year (and it pains me to say so because I'm a Tide fan).

P.S. - Don't forget that both Mizzou and A&M were able to attract recruits by virtue of being in the SEC. And neither rose any hell until the following year.

Top to bottom the SEC is likely to be the strongest conference for some time to come. The PAC12 is a very close second this year with the BIG10 and BIG12 following. The SEC has so many good high school players in its own geographic area plus gets many players from rest of the country because of its reputation and the high level of attention teams and players receive in the regional and national news media.

The bowl season isn't over yet, and their record hasn't changed. Since winning these 7 straight BC$ titles, they have only had the best bowl record for an individual bowl season twice, so it's not like they have been as truly dominate as ESPN and SEC fan boys like people to believe. The last time Auburn was playing for the title, Auburn needed the win just to give the SEC a 5-5 record for that bowl year.

They have been a 1 team conference for 5 years now, just alabama. With alabama failing this year, they aren't very good, and you will find that out when auburn gets rolled by FSU.

the sec hasnt been that good for a couple of years. and ive said it for at least 2. but i'll go through how i came up with what i said:

1- the set up. the sec, instead of 9 conference games, has only 8. this means that they can play 4 out of season play. if you look at the construction of it, rarely do they play any good teams. in fact, theyre known for padding their schedule with cupcakes. to compound that, they have their cupcakes spread throughout the season. before the auburn game or their idle game, i think alabama played arkansas bumf*ck nowhere university. the big 10 has band teams from playing cupcakes altogether.

2- bcs and media bias. when you have florida as a top 20 team and they fail to finish with a winning record and lose to georgia state who had 0 yards passing, you might want to reconsider how you evaluate each conference. and look at georgia. i dont care who you are, they shouldnt of been ranked after the tennessee game. they were something like 6-3 and were still ranked top 20. and they get so much credit because the bcs loads them up in pre season. even if theyre average, they get 5-10 teams ranked. a 9-4 team can be ranked top 10, when duke is 24th with 10 wins and an impressive team

3- most of the teams just flat out suck. vandy is average (historically bad though), but my team (tennessee) is garbage and so are about 6 other teams at least. but people will still say beating up on kentucky is a "quality win".

4- most of the teams cant play both sides of the ball. ive been saying this for a while. you look at most sec teams and either they can play offense or defense, but not both. case and point are lsu, mizzou and tamu. i can name more if you like. if you look at mettenberger, mccarron and a few others, they only throw it on pre snap mismatches. and they are straight up obvious. its not like johnny football who actually reads the defense and adjusts. ive said it before and i'll keep saying it. if you have a team like oklahoma (now that they did find a qb, which is ironic), if you have a semi decent defense and a semi decent offense, you can beat any team in the sec.

@cal grad- they won 5. 2 were by default. they were cheap enough to put 2 sec teams in the national championship and notre dame got into the national championship by default. they cheated in the stanford game, uconn game and pitt game and everyone knew it.

I certainly hope so . I wouldn't want to see the lame Alabama LSU play twice in the same year one for regular and one in national championship game . That's really boring . Forget about the crapy bowls , the bowls that really matter and nation pay attention to are sugar bowl, orange bowl, rose bowl and national championship game . That will affect the next year college recruits . If they stop getting most of 4 star and 5 star recruits and it start to get distributed, it won't be long before nick saban will become next Mack brown :)