The Self-Fufilling Prophecy

By Audrey Hart

Everyone knows that the SEC, year after year, is going to have to top rated teams in the country. We all assume that they will be in the national championship, win the national championship, and then start the next season as No. 1.

This year, finally, we might have a year with out the SEC winning, so maybe this year will break the cycle.

(AP Photo)

Starting next year though, it shouldn’t surprise anyone to see it again.

It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy that the SEC dominates the college football scene, one that isn’t necessarily because of the teams.

It’s because they follow a system.

The prior year, the SEC has 7-8 teams qualify for a bowl. These bowls are usually played down south, where the weather is nice and the crowd is all SEC.

Then when preseason rankings come out, since they are returning bowl teams and powerhouses, at least 6-7 teams are ranked. This year’s included Alabama No. 2, LSU No. 3, Georgia No. 6, South Carolina, No. 9, Arkansas No.10 and Florida No. 23. Kansas State was 22; Notre Dame wasn’t even ranked.

Then the SEC teams play each other 7-8 times throughout the season, but plan all out of conference games against patsies. Each SEC team plays at least one Division 1-AA team and Texas A&M plays against two. Florida scheduled Bowling Green, Louisiana-Lafayette (who they barely beat) and Jacksonville State. Their one away game is against traditional state rival Florida State. Alabama’s schedule was classic SEC with three very easy teams of Western Kentucky, Florida Atlantic, and Western Carolina, and one traditional match-up of Michigan. This is supposedly in a neutral location, meaning its played in Arlington, Texas. That’s kind of like how LSU tried to claim last years’ Oregon game was neutral. SEC loves neutral locations that aren’t neutral at all.

Point is, let’s say a team gets a 3-4 record in the “terribly difficult SEC conference play”, with the extra padding of the out of conference schedule they’re almost guaranteed a national rank. If they go 5-2, they’re top ten!

Now repeat the whole cycle again.

This is not saying that the SEC doesn’t deserve some of the credit that they have. They send more players than any to the NFL and they have 6 BCS Championships in a row. (Never mind this is because their formula allows SEC teams to reach number one and two rankings easier.) There is a lot that is great about the SEC but if other conferences had the same record inflation that the SEC did, college football could be completely different.

Alabama lost last week making Kansas State and Oregon the favorites for the National Championship.

Bama will still get a decent bowl berth and will come into next season ranked high. LSU, South Carolina, and Georgia won’t be far behind, and after a few games against Division 1-AA teams, we’ll all be back where we started.