Nick Saban is now a legend and Alabama is back to being its dynastic self.  Both are piling up BCS crystal footballs like they’re auditioning for “Hoarders.”  Yet there’s one thing Saban hasn’t done.  There’s one thing Alabama hasn’t done.

That’s win back-to-back Southeastern Conference titles.

Think about it.  Saban has won a BCS crown in four of his last eight seasons as a college coach.  He and Alabama have now won back-to-back national titles.  But they haven’t repeated as SEC champs during that run.  No one has since Tennessee won the league in consecutive years in 1997 and 1998.

Again, think about that.  It’s literally easier to win the BCS championship than it is the SEC championship. 

If you need further proof of the SEC’s overall strength, here are exhibits A through H:

*  In the last 25 drafts, NFL teams have selected more players from the SEC than any other league.

*  The SEC has now won seven BCS titles in a row.

*  The SEC has won nine of the 15 BCS titles handed out all-time.  That’s 60% of all national crowns since 1998.  (What if undefeated Auburn had gotten a BCS invite in 2004 rather than Southern Cal, a team that has since been stripped of its title?)

*  The SEC is 9-1 in the BCS Championship Game and the only defeat came at the hands of another SEC foe (Alabama’s win over LSU last year).  To beat an SEC team in the BCS title bout you have to invite another SEC team.

*  The average margin of victory when an SEC team faces a team from another conference in the BCS title game is a whopping 14 points.  And during the league’s 2006-2012 run, the average margin of victory when the SEC faces another league in the title game has been 17 points.

*  In BCS title games the SEC has beaten the ACC, the Pac-12, the Big Ten twice, the Big XII three times, and an independent.

*  In the BCS era the SEC has dominated not only the title game, but all bowl games.  The SEC’s overall postseason winning percentage during that span is 59%.  No other major conference — ACC, Big Ten, Big XII, or Pac-12 — has a winning record for that period.

*  On a hyper-local level, this website launched in 2008 and there has never been a day in this site’s history that an SEC program was not the defending national champion in football.

But what about the doubters?

On November 21st, CBSSports.com’s Gregg Doyel wrote that the SEC “is overrated” in 2012.  “It’s a Ponzi scheme, this 2012 SEC fraud, built upon layers of air.  Georgia is great because it has beaten Florida.  Florida is great because it has beaten Texas A&M.  Texas A&M is great because it has beaten Alabama.  And Alabama is great because it has beaten… um, who has Alabama beaten, anyway?”

Apparently that 42-14 win by Alabama over Notre Dame last night served as smelling salts for Doyel:

“… the rest of us should be quiet, if we’re inclined to question the SEC’s dominance.  It’s not smoke and mirrors.  It’s not scheduling or officiating.  It’s not a conspiracy by the TV networks.

The gap between the SEC and everyone else isn’t getting ridiculous; it is ridiculous.  The SEC is so clearly superior to the rest of college football that the SEC’s conference title game in Atlanta deserves to be one of the two national semifinals in 2014 when college football does away with the SEC BCS national championship brought to you by Nick Saban — and ushers in the four-team playoff.”

Doyel goes on to torch his November 21st column which really takes the ammo out of our gun as that’s what we’d planned to do today.

So let’s take aim at Yahoo! Sports’ Pat Forde instead.  Just five days ago he wrote a piece headlined: “SEC’s vulnerability should give Notre Dame added confidence against Alabama.”  After stating that everyone had heard the theory that the Fighting Irish couldn’t stand up to the battle-tested SEC team from Tuscaloosa, Forde took aim at the theory.  “There’s just one problem with that theory: The SEC hasn’t been so superior this bowl season.  After Florida’s flop in the Sugar Bowl on Wednesday night, the League of Extraordinary Football — and Extraordinary Arrogance — is a measly 3-3, with three bowl games left… This has not been the customary Southern muscle flex at bowl time.”

Forde was not alone in barking about the SEC’s 3-3 bowl record at that point, which is why we went back and showed everyone that the league had won about 60% of its postseason games over the last 15 years.  That number doesn’t seem too dominant until you compare that mark to the records of other conferences in bowl games during that same span (as we have in the piece linked to above).

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Alabama defeated Notre Dame 42-14 to secure the SEC’s seventh BCS championship in a row
Alabama coach Nick Saban has now won four BCS titles since the 2003 season
Alabama has now won back-to-back BCS titles and three of the last four
Three Alabama juniors are debating early exits for the NFL
Nine LSU juniors are leaving school early for the NFL
Florida DE Dominique Easley will return to Gainesville for his senior season
Texas A&M tight ends and special teams coach Brian Polian will leave to become the head coach at Nevada
Ole Miss QB Bo Wallace will be out four to six months after having shoulder surgery
Tuesday night SEC Basketball: Missouri 84, Alabama 68
Follow the Southeastern Conference at MrSEC.com and twitter.com/mrsec

Come on.  What did you think we’d roll out after Alabama wrapped up the SEC’s seventh BCS crown in a row last night?

First, a little something for the Crimson Tide and Bama fans:

“Sweet home, Alabama.  Where the skies are so blue.  Sweet home, Alabama.  Lord, I’m coming home to you.”

And now a salute to Ol’ #7 for the Southeastern Conference:

Yesterday, we went back through every bowl game played in this century and broke down the wins and losses by conference.  That story pointed out that while the national expectation is for the SEC to go undefeated each postseason, the reality is entirely different.  As noted, the SEC has been much closer to the .600 mark over that span (in part because the SEC’s teams often face squads from other conferences who finished higher up in their own league’s standings).

Unfortunately, by stopping at 2000, we left the door open for a few Big Ten’ers to comment and email claiming bias — BIAS!  Nevermind the fact that we didn’t even mention the Big Ten other than to show their record in table-form along with every other league’s.  Again, the story was about the SEC, not the Big Ten.

But since we’ve been called out as blatant SEC homers who were working to sully the reputation of the great Big Ten, we’ve gone back and added in all the bowl games played in 1998 and 1999, too.  Those were the first two years of the BCS system, you see.  And the Big Ten had a great run at that time.  We congratulate them.

That still has nothing at all to do with our initial post, mind you, but if we need to go back 15 years to validate the Big Ten and prevent a few Midwesterners from soiling their undergarments, so be it.

Below are the updated numbers for all the bowls played from 1998 until now (including Oregon’s win over Kansas State in the Fiesta Bowl last night).  We look forward to the emails from some other league’s conspiracy theorists claiming that we left off 1997 because their league was really, really good back then.

And there you have it.

As you can see, we’ve had to add in the old Big West Conference — which hasn’t been a football conference since 2000 — thanks to Idaho and Boise State reaching the Humanitarian Bowl in 1998 and 1999, respectively.

You’ll also note that, if anything, adding in two more years of bowl results only makes it more obvious that the SEC has owned the past 15 years of major college football.  Of the leagues whose teams play mostly teams from other major conferences in bowls, the SEC has been by far the best overall.

We’ve also corrected the BCS record for the WAC.  Surprisingly, we didn’t get a single email from WAC fans claiming that we’d intentionally butchered their record as part of our obvious “take down the WAC” campaign.

We’ll leave you with a rundown of the BCS champions and their home conferences since the system was introduced in ’98:

With the SEC off to a 3-3 start this postseason, we thought it might be time for a little refresher course on the league’s past bowl success.  It seems the SEC’s reputation has been so enhanced in recent years that any bowl loss by a league member is seen as proof that Mike Slive’s conference really isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.  And if you have to go undefeated each and every bowl season just to get props, well, that’s a pretty tough standard to meet.

In reality, the SEC since 2000 has won right at 60% of its bowl games.  Considering the fact that league teams usually face bowl foes who finished higher in their own conference’s standings, that’s a pretty darn good record.  (Examples: When the SEC sends its eighth or ninth pick to the Liberty Bowl, it faces the champion from Conference USA.  The Chick-fil-A Bowl matches the second pick from the ACC with the fifth pick from the SEC.  And so on.)

Last season the Southeastern Conference finished the postseason 6-3.  Pretty strong.  But in 2010-11 the SEC went 5-5.  So a 3-3 start isn’t anything to cry about.

The league has made its name by winning six consecutive BCS Championship Games and Alabama will have a shot to win #7 on Monday against Notre Dame.  In addition, the SEC has gone 14-6 in BCS games since the 2000 season (including last night’s loss by Florida).  Only the Pac-12 has bested the SEC’s BCS winning percentage (70.5% to 70.0%) over that span.  And remember, one of the SEC’s losses in that period came in last year’s Alabama/LSU BCS title game.  In other words, the Southeastern Conference is responsible for one of its own defeats.

But for those who want an idea of how well the conferences stack up against one another, below is a breakdown of each league’s bowl success and BCS success from 2000 through today.  To the right, we’ve also listed this season’s bowl results to date:

There are five bowl games remaining this season:

Tostitos Fiesta:  Kansas State (Big XII) vs Oregon (Pac-12)

AT&T Cotton:  Oklahoma (Big XII) vs Texas A&M (SEC)

BBVA Compass:  Pittsburgh (Big East) vs Ole Miss (SEC)

GoDaddy.com:  Arkansas State (Sun Belt) vs Kent State (MAC)

Discover BCS Championship Game:  Alabama (SEC) vs Notre Dame (Independent)

It might be time to hang a new nickname on Louisiana State University’s athletic teams.  Oh, sure, you know them as the Tigers, Fighting Tigers, and Bayou Bengals.  Fans of another generation will also remember LSU’s great 1958 team and a legendary defense nicknamed the Chinese Bandits.  (If you’ve ever wondered why the school’s band plays this during games, now you know.)

But it might be time to apply a fresh moniker to LSU’s teams.  If Scott Rabalais’ Christmas column from The Baton Rouge Advocate captures the mood in the Tiger fanbase these days, “Chickens” might be a more fitting handle.

In case you missed it, the long-time Louisiana scribe claimed yesterday that “the time has come” for LSU to consider leaving the Southeastern Conference:

“LSU is a charter member of the SEC dating to 1933, but that doesn’t mean it has to stay there forever.  Not if there are other, appealing options out there.”

Rabalais claims the SEC is “imbalanced” with unfair football scheduling and bad bowl politics.  He also claims that the conference office “frequently indicates it is ignoring LSU’s concerns and needs.”  His answer?  The Big XII.

There’s nothing more annoying — for someone who has no rooting interest in an SEC team — than hearing fans of all 14 schools claim that their school is the one most-hated by Mike Slive, screwed over most often by the league office, and repeatedly treated like Cinderella, yada, yada, yada.

Unless it’s someone in the media giving such paranoid beliefs a boost.   That’s more annoying.  Now, Rabalais also posted a companion piece suggesting that LSU should stay in the SEC, but by posting the “go” piece he opens the topic for debate.  And several readers agreed with his “go” take rather than his “stay” take under his story and on LSU messageboards.

Rabalais has a right to his opinion — he’s a darned good writer — and he’s sure to get the backing of a few Tiger fans on his “go” piece.  But the idea of LSU leaving the SEC is absurd.  Or at least it should be.

1.  It’s claimed that the SEC’s makeshift 2013 schedule does “a disservice” to LSU in forcing the Tigers to play Georgia and Florida from the East while Alabama gets Tennessee and Kentucky from that division.  Now, there have been times when LSU’s East Division schedule was easier than Alabama’s, but 2013 is the year at hand and therefore it will get 100% of the attention.

In 2012, complaints came out of Columbia (South Carolina would face LSU and Arkansas while Georgia would face Ole Miss and Auburn), Starkville (MSU would have to make a return trip to Lexington), and Columbia (Missouri would have to return to Texas A&M for a third-straight year).  Until the SEC arrives at a new permanent plan, complaining will continue.  And once the new permanent plan is unveiled… there will be more complaining.

For the 2012 and 2013 football seasons, the SEC has cobbled together schedules with the help of administrators from each school who agreed to give and take in certain areas.  They’ve been called “bridge” schedules as the SEC has continued to work to try and finalize its long-term solution.  (The likely holdups on that plan are SEC’s new television network and the possibility of further expansion.)  But LSU isn’t the only team getting a bad break in next season’s “bridge” schedule.  Georgia will have to return Auburn, Texas A&M to Ole Miss, and Ole Miss to Alabama for the second season in a row.  The Tigers’ schedule is simply impacted by the ups and downs of the SEC.

Playing Florida is considered by some LSU fans as a real handicap for the Tigers, an insult, a challenge that’s just too tough.  But in 2011 the Gators went 6-6 in the regular season.  In fact, UF has lost four or more games in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2010 and 2011.  Will Muschamp led the Gators to an 11-1 record this past season, but Florida has still had six mediocre years in its last 12.  So that’s the great cross the Bayou Bengals must bear?

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What a difference four years and one 2-10 season can make.

Last night, a number of Auburn supporters showed up at the local airport to greet new head coach and former offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn.  Needless to say, they were happy with his return.

Here was the response at the airport when AD Jay Jacobs touched down in Auburn after hiring Gene Chizik, Malzahn’s old boss, back in 2008.

Now, what’s funny is that Chizik went on to win a BCS title and he and Jacobs were hailed as heroes and geniuses.  After the nosedive this past season things changed just a tad.

And now Malzahn gets to enter the Auburn kingdom like a long lost son returning home.

The Bowl Games

1. If Brian Kelly’s Notre Dame squad looks like an SEC team, it’s no accident.  ”For us to move Notre Dame back into a national prominence, we had to begin with our defense.”

2. Nick Saban on Notre Dame: “Defensively, they probably have the best front seven in the country.”

3. Statistical breakdown of Alabama and Notre Dame - Crimson Tide offense averages almost 12 points more per game.

4. Bruce Feldman: “Bama’s biggest edge over Notre Dame won’t be size or strength, it’ll be experience.”

5. Georgia’s headed to the Capital One Bowl against Nebraska, but the bitterness lingers: Georgia A.D. Greg McGarity: “There’s absolutely no question that we are deserving of a BCS bid, and Florida finished third, and by way of them finishing third in the BCS, that locked out us, without any further discussion.”

6. Only two teams per conference in BCS bowls.  Kirk Herbstreit: “Who came up with this rule?” (BCS cap on conferences will come off when college football goes to the playoff system following the 2014 season.)

7. The Coaches’ Poll factors into the BCS calculations.  Steve Spurrier says he votes differently when his name is on the ballot.  ”If it was anonymous, I would have changed it a little bit, to be honest with you.” James Franklin’s ballot.

8. Texas A&M and Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl – best bowl outside of the BCS games?

9. Seven Heisman winners have played in the Cotton Bowl the year they won the award.  Johnny Manziel could be the eighth. A Heisman straw poll that’s been incredibly accurate says it’s Manziel’s to lose.

10. Florida will face their old defensive coordinator in Louisville coach Charlie Strong.  Will Muschamp: “He’s one of the good guys in this profession.”

11. LSU is back in the Chik-fil-A Bowl, where it played  in 2000, 2005, and 2008. They won all three.

12. Mississippi State will face Northwestern in the Gator Bowl and head coaches Dan Mullen and Pat Fitzgerald have known each other for years.  “Dan’s one of those guys that I’m going to reach out to and do some research and just bounce some ideas off of.”

13. With Ole Miss headed to the Compass Bowl against Pittsburgh, Rebels coach Hugh Freeze conducted his Sunday night teleconference from a recruit’s home.

14. Vanderbilt meets North Carolina State in the Music City Bowl – the two teams haven’t met since 1946.

15. Pat Forde says championship game and Fiesta Bowl are great.  ”But after that?  It’s a joke.”

SEC/College News

16. Expect Hugh Freeze’s contract at Ole Miss to get re-worked.  A.D. Ross Bjork already working on it.

17. Former Kentucky quarterback Tim Couch had a big role in getting Mark Stoops to Kentucky. “I really liked Mark from the get-go, I really did,”

18. AD Mitch Barnhart on Stoops: “He has a plan and his recruiting ties were very, very important.”

19. They’re rearranging the furniture at Auburn.  Photos of Gene Chizik are being removed.

20. Steve Spurrier reportedly getting a contract extension.

21. Alabama center Barrett Jones injured his foot against Georgia – but should be ready for bowl game practice in two weeks. Jones will be in four states in four days for awards banquets.

22. Junior linebacker C.J. Mosley named Alabama’s most valuable player.

23. One writer’s All-SEC ballot.

24. USA Today ranks every FBS team – from 1 to 124, Notre Dame to Southern Mississippi.

25.  Hurry-up offenses and their impact – on the school band.

SEC Basketball

26. Clemson 64 – South Carolina 55.  First home game this year for Bruce Ellington. Three days after being taken off court in stretcher, Brenton Williams led Gamecocks with 16 points.

27. CBS Sports rankings have Florida, Missouri, and Alabama in its top 25 – no Kentucky.

28.  LSU’s Shavon Coleman and Florida’s Michael Frazier II – SEC Players of the Week.

Extras

29. RIP Rick Majerus.  Memorable quotes from one of college basketball’s memorable coaches.  ”Some guys smoke. Some guys drink. Some guys chase women. I’m a big barbecue-sauce guy.”..

30. $50 8-team parlay would have paid $18,500 until a last-minute touchdown by the Philadelphia Eagles Sunday night wrecked the bet.

31. The New Yorker on Paul Finebaum – King Of The South.

The winner of the SEC title game between Alabama and Georgia will most likely face Notre Dame for the BCS title
The SEC is warning that counterfeit tickets could pop up for this week’s SEC Championship Game
Due to an injury to WR Kenny Bell, Alabama may have to remove the redshirt from WR Chris Black
Georgia S Bacarri Rambo on Alabama: “We have better players at each position, across the board, especially on defense.”
Auburn fired Gene Chizik yesterday, just two years after he won the BCS championship
Arkansas, Auburn, Kentucky and Tennessee are all now searching for new coaches
Ole Miss DB Charles Sawyer on Mississippi State in Egg Bowl: “I felt them giving up, kind of.”
Florida LB Jelani Jenkins will undergo foot surgery and might miss the Gators’ bowl game
Follow the Southeastern Conference every day at MrSEC.com or via one of our mobile apps

When Texas A&M upset Alabama a weekend ago, the SEC needed some breaks if it was going to capture another national championship banner.

First, the league needed for Alabama to stay within the top four and not drop deeper down into the BCS standings well.  That happened as Bama fell only to #4.  Second, the SEC needed at least two of the three teams ahead of Alabama to lose over the course of the regular season’s final two weeks.  And darned if two of those three didn’t lose on Saturday night!

The current BCS standings now shape up as follows:

1.  Notre Dame — The Irish play at Southern Cal on Saturday, but the Trojans will be without starting quarterback Matt Barkley.

2.  Alabama – The Tide finish the season at home against 3-8 Auburn and will then face…

3.  Georgia – In the SEC Championship game.  The Dawgs close out the season with a visit from Georgia Tech this weekend.

4.  Florida -- The Gators face #10 Florida State in Tallahassee on Saturday.  Whether starting quarterback Jeff Driskel will be back from an ankle injury remains a mystery this morning.

5.  Oregon – The Ducks might be this year’s Alabama as there’s a chance they could lose their own Pac-12 North Division and still get voted into the national title game through a series of upsets and outside help.

6.  Kansas State – The Wildcats are probably done, barring a long series of miracles.

LSU is ranked #7, Texas A&M #9, and South Carolina #12 in the latest standings.

As for the BCS Championship Game picture, it appears as though Notre Dame is in with a win over disappointing Southern Cal in LA.  Then, barring a massive upset by either Auburn or Georgia Tech, the SEC Championship Game winner — either Alabama or Georgia — will most likely face the Irish in Miami with a chance to collect a seventh straight BCS crown for the SEC.

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