For the better part of this century, the SEC as a football conference has been renowned for its quality depth. The league was hailed as the nation’s strongest not because it always produced the single greatest team [though it often did] but because of the sheer number of championship-caliber teams it produced on a yearly basis.
From 1999 through 2014, no team managed to repeat as SEC champion. Only five different schools won the conference title during that span, but nine schools made it to Atlanta and twelve schools (all but Vanderbilt and Kentucky) had at least one 10-win season.
The SEC has taken great pride in being a no-holds-barred, survival-of-the-fittest, dog-eat-dog world during an era when other, more top-heavy [i.e. weaker] conferences were being ruled year in and year out by powerhouse programs like USC, Ohio State and Oklahoma. No such dynasties were possible, fans claimed, in the SEC. There were simply too many worthy challengers to the crown, too many talented athletes, too many tough teams—too much depth.
Not anymore.
Nick Saban and Alabama have conquered the SEC, transforming a once-vibrant democracy into a rigid autocracy—an oppressive form of rule in which one entity wields virtually all of the power.
Consider the facts:
•Alabama finished the 2016 season with a record of 14-1. No other SEC team won 10 games, and only two (Florida and Tennessee) managed to win nine. It marked the first year since 2000 that only one team in the conference reached double-figures in wins.
•Including conference championship games, Alabama has won 17 consecutive games against SEC opponents, with an average margin of victory of nearly 21 points. All but two of those 17 wins have come by double-digits, and six of them have come by at least 20 points.
•Alabama hasn’t lost a game against an SEC East team in nearly seven years. Since falling 35-21 at South Carolina in October of 2010, Alabama has won 17 straight games against the East (again, conference championship games included).
•Alabama has won the last three SEC championship games by an aggregate score of 125-44, joining Florida (1993-96) as the only programs to win at least three conference titles in a row since the league went to divisional play in 1992.
•Alabama has won a total of 64 games over the past five seasons, 16 more than any other SEC team. Georgia is second over the past five years with 48 wins.
•Alabama has turned its chief rivalries into distinctly one-sided affairs, winning ten straight meetings with Tennessee (last loss in 2006), six straight with LSU (last loss in 2011), six straight with Florida (last loss in 2008), and three straight and seven of nine with Auburn. The Tide also has streaks of 21 straight wins versus Vanderbilt (last loss in 1984), ten straight versus Arkansas (last loss 2006), nine straight versus Mississippi State (last loss 2007), six straight versus Kentucky (last loss 1997), four straight versus Texas A&M (last loss 2012) and three straight versus Georgia (last loss 2007).
Granted, Alabama has twice met its match on the national stage (Ohio State in the 2014 semifinals, Clemson in last year’s epic title game), but the Tide are thus far the only SEC team to make the College Football Playoff, which is now three years old. Other flagship programs like Georgia and LSU have parted ways with highly successful, long-time coaches, while Saban [who is now a mind-boggling 119-19 in ten seasons in Tuscaloosa, with five SEC titles and four national titles] just keeps signing top-rated recruiting classes and multi-year contract extensions.
Seemingly, there’s no end in sight. Take a look at Alabama’s 2017 conference schedule, and try to find a legitimate challenge prior to November.
Ole Miss at home on September 30? Please. The Rebels may have beaten Bama in 2014 and 2015 and then squandered a big early lead last season in Oxford, but the other shoe has officially dropped on Hugh Freeze and company.
At Texas A&M on October 7? Not likely. The Aggies have no quarterback, no defense and a coach planted firmly on the hot seat.
Tennessee at home on October 21? Seriously? The Vols had Josh Dobbs, Derek Barnett and home-field advantage last year, and Alabama beat them by 39 points.
The Tide’s SEC streak should be sitting comfortably at 22 straight wins when LSU comes calling on November 4. The Tigers have a new offensive coordinator but the same old problems at quarterback. Alabama, meanwhile, has the reigning SEC Offensive Player of the Year at quarterback in Jalen Hurts, plus a passel of new recruits that includes three blue-chip players from LSU’s own backyard. Ed Orgeron and company are going to have a tough time beating the Tide in November if they can’t start winning a few more battles in early February.
Finally, there’s the Iron Bowl at Auburn on November 25, which could potentially decide the SEC West. If a new offensive coordinator (northwest Alabama native Chip Lindsey) and a new quarterback (Baylor transfer Jarrett Stidham) can revive a dormant passing attack, the Tigers should pose the most serious threat to Alabama’s bid for a fourth consecutive conference crown.
But make no mistake about it—with the top safety tandem in the country, an experienced offensive line, an embarrassment of riches at running back and a more seasoned Hurts running the show, Alabama looks like a good bet to be the first team to go 8-0 in SEC play in back-to-back years since…well, Alabama, in 2008 and 2009.
Not surprisingly, the greatest threat to the Tide’s dynasty down the road could be Georgia, where former Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart is already crushing it in recruiting as the Bulldogs’ second-year head coach.
Whether it’s Georgia or Tennessee or Florida or Auburn or LSU, one of the league’s perennial contenders is bound to regain its footing at some point and topple the Tide. For now, though, the SEC is Alabama’s world.
Everybody else is just living in it.
