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Think back to last year. Alabama (12-2, 7-1) was the top team in the SEC West and went on to win the conference championship. Arkansas (7-6, 2-6) finished last in the SEC West. Yet when the two teams met on the playing field last October at Fayetteville, they were separated by a missed extra point – one point –in a 14-13 victory for the division’s top team over its bottom team.
Fast-forward to last Saturday. The Missouri Tigers, two-time defending SEC East Division champions, are taking on a Vanderbilt team that finished last in the SEC East a year ago. Easy pickin’s for the Tigers, right? Nope, Vandy won it 10-3 in Nashville.
Parity is alive and well in the SEC. And so far, it’s proven to be a good thing. It certainly makes for some exciting Saturdays in the fall. Nothing can be taken for granted and that old cliché, ‘anybody can beat anybody on a given day’ isn’t just a slogan when SEC teams meet on the gridiron.
Five different teams have won the SEC title over the past 10 years. No team has won it back-to-back since Peyton Manning, in his senior year, helped Tennessee capture the crown in 1997 and he went to the NFL as the Vols won it again in 1998.
But it’s the 21st century where consecutive conference championships are as rare as a sober co-ed in Tiger Stadium on a Saturday night. Someone will have to come up with the negatives to that. The championships, not the co-eds.
How can it be anything but positive? It brings hope to every SEC fan every Saturday. It draws attention to the brand with unwavering drama. And let’s face it; drama is what drives sports – the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, and all of that.
Some still spout the same lame argument that parity has stripped the SEC of its status as king of college football. Really, seven consecutive national championships aren’t good enough for you?
No, the SEC hasn’t won it the past two seasons. Spoiler Alert: No conference is going to win the national championship every single year. So calm down, reports of the death of the SEC have been greatly exaggerated.
You can’t talk national championship today without including, at the very least, two teams from the SEC. Who doesn’t have either LSU or Alabama (or both) in their top four right now?
No, parity is a good thing. Some of us are old enough to remember the glory(?) days of the SEC when Alabama bludgeoned opponents throughout the 1960s and 70s. Then Florida picked up the gauntlet and put down the hammer on SEC competition in the 1990s.
I can tell you, it was no fun talking yourself up all week, convincing yourself you had a chance (you say there’s a chance?). Working yourself into a lather come Saturday and finally believing just before kickoff, only to have that bubble burst before halftime.
Not a lot of fun my friends, I can assure you.
No, give me parity. Give me a fighting chance to compete. Let me know that when I walk into that stadium I have a reasonable expectation of consuming drama for the next 60 minutes.
Glenn Sattell is an award-winning freelance writer for Saturday Down South.
