Is the SEC conference beginning to decline?
Josh Pate is joined by college football analyst Cole Cubelic to examine if the SEC's run of dominance is fading. Subscribe to “Josh Pate’s College Football Show” on YouTube .
Video Transcript
The overrated part of it, Josh, would be: Where do you rate it?
If you still have it at, I don't know, what, 2012, '13-ish, Whatever it is, even maybe 2019-ish, then yeah, it's going to be overrated compared to that.
Because it's not as dominant as it was then.
Specifically, the teams at the top are not as Consistently dominant as that was then.
I don't know if we'll ever see that again from any program in any conference where Alabama was for a long time, Then, Georgia came in to be really next to them.
Florida with their run, LSU with their run, and then a couple of teams that sort of skyrocketed Up: Auburn, Mississippi State, a few others.
I don't think you're ever gonna get that.
Consistently again.
I do think the depth, though, If you're just rating it on best conference in America, it probably proves that it is that.
You could look at the draft every year.
I think you look at the venues, The crowds, the capacity, those kinds of things all make it one of the most difficult conferences to play in, regardless of what your record is or who you have on your team.
And the coaching prowess too, I think, elevates it, but does it have that... Has it lapped the Big Ten and some of the other conferences like maybe it once did?
Like we talked about for a while?
No, it's just not there anymore.
I think if you just wanted to say that, just say it in week three.
I'm not talking to you.
I'm talking to anyone who...
They make what could be a good argument, but there are so many bad-faith counterarguments.
It's not bad faith counterarguments.
They're like bad-faith ammunition to the argument.
One of them's always been a bold record.
Now, to be very, Very clear, like when I was doing radio down in Columbus, there was a year where the SEC just Dominated bowl season.
I can't remember what it was.
It was like 9-1 or something like that.
It would've been in like the mid-2010s.
So some dude calls us up, says, "Told y'all the SEC was the best in the country."
Look at their bowl record."
And I said, "No, man."
The SEC is either the best in the country or it's not.
But the bowl record is not the end-all, be- all."
And this was before opt-outs.
This was when bowl records Right.
Probably had more meaning than they do right now.
But even back then, my stance on using bowl records to provide a definitive answer as to Relative conference strength has always been that it's stupid.
It's completely stupid, whether it supports or negates my argument as to who I think is best.
The only time bowl season would've ever told me anything about conference versus conference is If we were to have the bowls take SEC one versus ACC one.
Big 12's six versus Big 10's six, and nobody opts out.
And so you really have equal seeding, and you have head-to-head bowls.
Bowl games featuring teams from different conferences.
Only then would I really know.
Not only do we not have that, Not only have we never had that, then we got the water that's further muddied by all the Opt-outs and coaching staffs moving all over the place and the portal stuff.
So I've never cared about that.
If you want to tell me you think the SEC is on The decline?
If you think the SEC was overrated, tell me that before bowl season starts.
The bowl season tells me nothing.
