College Bowl Games – SEC WHO? ‘Most Powerful’ Conference Tanking Badly

If you're a fan of college football, over the last 6-7 years, you've probably grown tired of hearing about how good the Southeastern Conference is.    Yes, you can argue they are really good because Alabama, Auburn, LSU and others seem to always play for the National Title.   But this year, a refreshing change has occurred.

SEC teams are always ranked highly because there are supposedly so many quality schools in the it's two divisions, and since they have to play Alabama, LSU and Auburn every year,  that supposedly makes the whole league better.

Besides that,  West Coast teams suffer from that 'East Coast bias' and the Pac-12 is often viewed as soft.  That argument has been made about Oregon because of their spread offense.   They don't line up and smash you in the mouth like the SEC supposedly does - although Stanford is that way.

But this year, the SEC has cracked open a yolk bigger  than the one Mississippi and Mississippi State compete for in their Egg Bowl rivalry game.

So far, the vaunted SEC has thudded big time in their high-visibility bowl games:

• Music City Bowl:  Notre Dame 31, LSU 28.
• Peach Bowl:  Texas Christian University (TCU) 42, Mississippi (Ole Miss) 3.
• Orange Bowl: Georgia Tech 49,  Mississippi State 34.
• Outback Bowl:  Wisconsin 34, Auburn 31 (Overtime)
• And...the biggest one the SEC was featured in,  the Sugar Bowl: Ohio State 42, Alabama 34.

Yes, Georgia did beat Louisville 37-14 in the Bell Bowl, and Missouri beat Minnesota 34-17 in the Citrus Bowl.   But you almost can't count Missouri because they only joined the SEC in the last season or two, coming over from the Big-12.  Texas A&M won the Liberty Bowl 45-37 over West Virginia, but they are like Missouri - just joined the league.

Even if Tennessee beats Iowa in the Taxslayer Bowl, and Florida beats East Carolina in the Birmingham Bowl, the SEC will finish with a .500 bowl record.  The best they can finish is 5-5.   Iowa is strongly favored,  and if Florida plays like they did when they nearly upset Florida State, the SEC will probably end up 4-6.   And take into account the supposedly "power" teams of the SEC are the ones being beaten this season.

By comparison,  the PAC-12 has done pretty well:

• New Mexico Bowl:  Utah 45, Colorado State 10
• Sun Bowl:  Arizona State 36, Duke 31
• Holiday Bowl:  USC 45, Nebraska 42
• Foster Farms Bowl:  Stanford 45, Maryland 21
• Rose Bowl:  Oregon 59, Florida State 20 - the BIG one that puts the Ducks into the national title game.

Arizona did get upset by Boise State 38-30 in the Fiesta Bowl, but  the Broncos had to survive a furious rally by the Wildcats - and we all know BSU pulls off at least one big upset every year.   They really belong in the PAC-12.     EVEN if the Washington Huskies lose to Oklahoma State in the Cactus Bowl and UCLA loses to Kansas State in the Alamo Bowl, the PAC-12 will still finish with a winning bowl record, 5-3.  Both of those games could go either way.  OSU and K-State are better than their records indicate.

Throw in respectable performances by the Big-10, 4 wins so far;  the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), also four wins to date,  the SEC doesn't look so strong this year.

One coach who scored a big upset win in their game this week quipped, "at least we won't have to hear about the SEC for about a week."