Wed. Apr 8th, 2026

SEC Reigns Supreme for a Sixth Straight Season

 

Alabama emerges from the tunnel before their shutout victory over the LSU Tigers in the BCS Championship Game. Despite a regular season meeting, the BCS scheduled a rematch. | CharrisGOP/Photobucket.com

The SEC won the BCS championship – again. In fact, the coveted crystal trophy has spent the offseason in the Southeast for the past six years. Credit the ball-hawking defenses and the smash-mouth offenses. We’ve seen players like Tim Tebow, Cam Newton, Patrick Willis and Mark Ingram make fools out of opposing conferences over the years. It doesn’t look like the dominance will be stopping anytime soon, does it?
But apparently, there’s a bias. When Alabama was given a rematch with LSU for the BCS Championship the critics weighed in.
“This SEC bias has to stop. The world of college football doesn’t end at the Louisiana border,” wrote ESPN columnist Rick Reilly.
Sorry, Rick. History suggests that the bias won’t stop until the SEC is dethroned. The last time a team that wasn’t from the SEC won the championship was in 2005 when Texas took it home. The Pac-10 last won it – a share of it, at least – in 2003. Big Ten? 2002. Big East? 2001. ACC? 1999.
A bias is an unfounded prejudice in favor of a particular thing. How do six national championships not prove a point? Every time the polls have put an SEC team in the big game, the SEC has proven that it deserves to be there.
Back in the 2006-2007 season, teams all over the country shouted their case to play unbeaten Ohio State in the title game. Florida got in, even though commentators claimed that other teams were more deserving of a shot. But Florida proved they deserved the right to be there when Florida’s Urban Meyer hoisted the trophy with a scoreboard backdrop reading 41-14 for the Gators.
The next year, mighty Ohio State was given the championship game again. And again, the polls put an SEC team against the Buckeyes. LSU had two losses going into the game, but they ended up beating Ohio State decisively, 38-24.
The rest is history. Florida beat Oklahoma, ‘Bama took Texas and Auburn stymied Oregon. Up to that point, no conference had ever experienced that kind of dominance in college football. In fact, the last time a conference won back-to-back titles was in 1940.
But this year was a little different. Two SEC teams got into the BCS National Championship and the critics were livid. And it just so happened that these two teams – Alabama and LSU – had played one another earlier in the season. LSU went into Alabama and won a very defensive game, 9-6 in overtime.
LSU was guaranteed a spot in the title game after they beat Georgia for the SEC Championship game – a game that ‘Bama could not participate in because they lost the West division of the conference to LSU.
So, Alabama got an extra week off because they didn’t have to play in their conference championship game, they bit the dust at home against LSU earlier in the year, yet they still got to play for the BCS National Title. How does that work?
First of all, rematches of a regular season game in the big game aren’t unheard of. In ’96, No. 1 Florida lost to No. 3 FSU in the regular season, then got another shot in the Sugar Bowl. Florida won the big game after losing earlier in the season. Not many people were complaining then.
Second, if you examine all of the legitimate teams with one loss in the country, Alabama stands at the top. Their only loss came by three points in overtime to the No. 1 team in the country. Other teams made their case, but they just did not compare: Oklahoma State had a shot but they lost in embarrassing fashion to an unranked Iowa State.
Oklahoma lost to a Baylor team that didn’t even have Heisman winner Robert Griffin III playing, as well as to Texas Tech. Boise St. lost to an unranked TCU. Oregon got blown out by LSU at the beginning of the season and then lost again to USC. Stanford lost at home to the same Oregon that got blown out by LSU. Virginia Tech only had one loss but they blew their shot when they lost for the second time to a two-loss Clemson team.
But despite the satisfactory pedigree, people like columnist Reilly maintain that ‘Bama never deserved another shot. They shouted about the SEC bias.
The truth is, the SEC is that good. It’s been proven the last six years that any team that conquers its own conference never stands up to the SEC Champion. The SEC has won nine out of 15 BCS Championships. During the first 13 years of the BCS, the SEC has had 90 first round NFL draft picks, three of the last five Heisman winners and three of the last five No. 1 NFL draft picks.
Until someone takes down a top-tier SEC team in a meaningful game towards the end of the season, the whole idea of a bias should be shelved.
Alabama ended up winning the BCS National championship 21-0, holding the seemingly invincible LSU to only 92 total yards. They split the series with LSU; a testament that any team can win on any given day.  So long as they’re in the SEC.”
Greg Spracklin can be reached at gspracklin@spartans.ut.edu.

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