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Over the past five bowl seasons, the SEC West has had six more bowl appearances, three more national championships and three more bowl wins than the SEC East.
But after looking back at those bowl seasons, some interesting facts that stand out when comparing East to West.
SEC West has played for national titles. An SEC West team has had the opportunity to win a national championship in each of the past five years. The West is 3-2 in national championship games (one of those losses occurred in the 2011 national championship game when two West schools — Alabama and LSU — were pitted against each other), but 0-1 in the College Football Playoff (Alabama lost 42-35 to Ohio State in the semifinals). On the other hand, not one team from the East has played for a national championship over the past five seasons.
SEC West has played in bigger bowl games: Teams from the West played in two BCS bowl games and two New Year’s Six games over the past five bowl seasons. During that same span, only one team from the East went to a BCS bowl game, and no teams from the East made it to New Year’s Six bowls last season.
Both divisions have struggled in BCS bowls: Neither the West nor the East have been successful in BCS bowl games. The West was 0-2 in BCS bowl games over the past five years (Arkansas lost to Ohio State in 2011 Sugar Bowl, and Alabama lost to Oklahoma in 2014 Sugar Bowl). Florida was the only team from the East to appear in a BCS bowl game since the 2010-11 season, and it lost to Louisville 33-23 in the 2013 Sugar Bowl.
Both divisions have winning records: The West has had a winning record in four of the past five bowl seasons. The East has had a winning record in three of the past five bowl seasons.
East beat West last season. The East actually has a better winning percentage in bowl games than the West over the past five years. The East has won 64 percent of its bowl games during that span. The West has won 61 percent.
East went undefeated last season: In last year’s bowl season, the SEC East went 5-0 while the West was 2-5, including 0-2 in New Year’s Six bowls and 0-1 in the College Football Playoff.
West dominates over last five years: Before last year’s bowl season, the West was more successful than the East. In the four previous bowl seasons, the West was 15-4 (79-percent winning percentage) in its bowl games. During those same four seasons, the East went 9-8 (53 winning percentage).
Gamecocks lead the way. Over the past five years, South Carolina (4-1) from the SEC East Division has won more bowl games than any other team in the SEC.
New members are unbeaten: Texas A&M and Missouri — SEC newcomers in 2012 — have won all of their bowl games since they joined the conference. Texas A&M is 3-0 in bowl games and Missouri is 2-0.
LSU has only losing record. The only team from the SEC West with a losing record in bowl games over the past five seasons years is LSU with a 2-3 record. In a strange coincidence, one of those bowl wins came against Texas A&M in the 2011 Cotton Bowl.
Kentucky is the only team without a victory. The two SEC teams with the fewest bowl appearances over the past five seasons — excluding Missouri since it didn’t join the conference until the 2012 season — are Kentucky and Tennessee — two teams from the SEC East. Kentucky is the only team in the SEC that hasn’t won a bowl game in the past five seasons.
Here are the bowl records of the SEC East and the SEC West over the past five bowl seasons:
Overall: SEC East 14-8, SEC West 17-11
2010-11: SEC East 1-4, SEC West 4-1
2011-12: SEC East 2-2, SEC West 4-1
2012-13: SEC East 3-1, SEC West 3-2
2013-14: SEC East 3-1, SEC West 4-2
2014-15: SEC East 5-0, SEC West 2-5
Chase Erickson is a contributing writer for SDS. He covers Tennessee. Follow him on Twitter @ChaseDownField.
