by Albert Pooholes
(New York)
Yes, the Southeastern conference has several good teams each year and often one great team. So I take nothing away from this fact when I say the following:
*SEC out of conference schedules are laughable, usually consisting of D2 teams where stats are padded in lopsided games
*SEC records are inflated as they don't all play each other like some other conferences
*The perception that the SEC is so great is a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy as teams get ranked higher because of the conference
*The SEC has done really well against the big 10 but is 500 or less against all others in bowl games.
So while probably the best group of 12 teams overall, the statement that a team like Oregon isn't ready for an SEC defense (and one of the lesser SEC defenses) is as arrogant is it is ignorant.
By the way, great blog - I write this on January 4th and it is amazing how accurate you have been.