Absolutely best column ever on how SEC rose to power

[jcollins28]

Long, but worth the read. And it seems like Larry Scott is likening his model for the Pac-12 to what the SEC has been doing....similarities.
If you're wondering how and why...this column from an Omaha sportswriter was well written and researched.

Seat of power: How the SEC came to rule college football

http://www.omaha.com/article/20111231/SPORTS/712319797

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

Good Article. I think that once the limiting of scholarships comes into play, this will impact a lot of SEC schools. They passed the Nutt rule in like 2011 so it really hasn't come into effect yet but I do think this will have an impact on SEC teams.

Right now, today, Bama has 27 Ships and there are several more prospects that they have offered. At some point, that's going to stop.

 

[Nova]

Pretty good article, indeed.

To add to that, there just haven't been many really strong teams in all of NCAA since the Texas-USC showdown.

Either you have a strong spread offense and no defense, all defense and barely any offense, or none of the above. Last year may have been an exception, but that's generally how it's been.

And in amateur ball, a good defense is usually going to trump a good offense. All the good defenses are in the SEC.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

Pretty good article, indeed.

To add to that, there just haven't been many really strong teams in all of NCAA since the Texas-USC showdown.

Either you have a strong spread offense and no defense, all defense and barely any offense, or none of the above. Last year may have been an exception, but that's generally how it's been.

And in amateur ball, a good defense is usually going to trump a good offense. All the good defenses are in the SEC.

The SEC is interesting because depending on who, they win differently. For example, Florida won with speed on offense and defense. However, Bama, Auburn and LSU win with Strong DTs and huge OLs. The article is a bit misleading in this way but I do agree, it is a very good article overall.

 

[StylisticS]

All of the past 6 SEC champions had one thing in common. They had a great dline. They physically manhandled the opposing offensive lines and it wasn't close. They were bigger, stronger, faster, and smarter.

All you have to do is look at what the Florida dline in 2006 and 2008, Alabama in 2009 (knocking out Colt), Auburn in 2010, and Alabama again in 2011. Until the rest of college football catches onto that, they will be dominant for the immediate future. Don't need a great QB at all. In fact, only Auburn IMO only had a great QB and even in that game against Oregon, he was pretty pedestrian. You also need a strong running game. Texas is slowly but surely building towards that. But the rest of the Big 12 still plays that pass happy spread offense formation.

Now the oversigning thing is an issue. I don't think any conference is going to allow that outside the SEC.

 

[MC KAos]

i dont remember the alabama Dline overwhelming the UT oline in that game. sure, they knocked colt out of the game, but it wasnt a very vicious hit, they just him him on the right spot, colt has a history of shoulder injuries to begin with. Alabama won that game because garrett gilbert is terrible

 

[JonJon]

I don't know if it will change much. Of course, there probably won't be as many dominant teams stacked with top recruits in the SEC as there have been previously, but I think the players will be more evenly spread out through out the SEC, with some players seeking scholarships possibly with the ACC. The reason I say that is because most players from the South East region tend to be more family and home-oriented, and don't stray far from their familiar surroundings and environment. I don't have anything to back that up, but its just been my general observation from following college recruiting trends.

 

[MC KAos]

i still think the best talent is in the state of texas! But there is little doubt in my mind that bob stoops and mack brown are highly overrated as coaches compared to someone like saban. i think it will take a change at coach in one of those two universities to bring the dominance back to Texas/Oklahoma schools. maybe it will be TCU, i really like patterson.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

All of the past 6 SEC champions had one thing in common. They had a great dline. They physically manhandled the opposing offensive lines and it wasn't close. They were bigger, stronger, faster, and smarter.

All you have to do is look at what the Florida dline in 2006 and 2008, Alabama in 2009 (knocking out Colt), Auburn in 2010, and Alabama again in 2011. Until the rest of college football catches onto that, they will be dominant for the immediate future. Don't need a great QB at all. In fact, only Auburn IMO only had a great QB and even in that game against Oregon, he was pretty pedestrian. You also need a strong running game. Texas is slowly but surely building towards that. But the rest of the Big 12 still plays that pass happy spread offense formation.

Now the oversigning thing is an issue. I don't think any conference is going to allow that outside the SEC.

I don't know about this. Both Nick Fairely and Zach Clayton were drafted in the 2011 draft. They were pretty stout.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

i dont remember the alabama Dline overwhelming the UT oline in that game. sure, they knocked colt out of the game, but it wasnt a very vicious hit, they just him him on the right spot, colt has a history of shoulder injuries to begin with. Alabama won that game because garrett gilbert is terrible

Texas and Bama were well matched in that game. It would have been very interesting to see what would have happened had McCoy not gone out so early.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

I don't know if it will change much. Of course, there probably won't be as many dominant teams stacked with top recruits in the SEC as there have been previously, but I think the players will be more evenly spread out through out the SEC, with some players seeking scholarships possibly with the ACC. The reason I say that is because most players from the South East region tend to be more family and home-oriented, and don't stray far from their familiar surroundings and environment. I don't have anything to back that up, but its just been my general observation from following college recruiting trends.

I think it will change a lot. SEC has had a history of signing many, many players and then pulling the rug out from under guys who may have been misses who are at a given program under scholorship. This rule will no longer allow them to do that. They won't be able to tie up players like they have in the past.

 

[StylisticS]

I don't know about this. Both Nick Fairely and Zach Clayton were drafted in the 2011 draft. They were pretty stout.

No I was saying that out of all of the last six SEC champions, only Auburn had a great qb in addition to having a great Dline. You can make an argument for Tebow. But I think most would take Cam.

MC KAos, I remember Bama Dline dictating the game especially in the first half. We couldn't run the ball at all which wasn't a surprise. Greg Davis amazingly made adjustments and Texas found ways to move the ball. But our oline was physically manhandled. I do agree that if Colt stayed in the game, it would have gone down as one of the greatest BCS games ever because I think our defense performed just as good if not better than Alabama's D.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

No I was saying that out of all of the last six SEC champions, only Auburn had a great qb in addition to having a great Dline. You can make an argument for Tebow. But I think most would take Cam.

MC KAos, I remember Bama Dline dictating the game especially in the first half. We couldn't run the ball at all which wasn't a surprise. Greg Davis amazingly made adjustments and Texas found ways to move the ball. But our oline was physically manhandled. I do agree that if Colt stayed in the game, it would have gone down as one of the greatest BCS games ever because I think our defense performed just as good if not better than Alabama's D.

Oh, OK. My bad, I clearly was in left field on your post. Sorry bout that.

 

[RS12]

Hard to argue that they dont have the best athletes year after year. Also they throw the resources at it year after year.

 

[The30YardSlant]

It's pretty simple: SEC programs spend more money annually on their football programs than any other conference, more SEC games are on TV every year due to their contract requiring every game to be televised and the majority of the programs do whatever it takes to land recruits. More exposure + more money + questionable recruiting tactics results in what we've seen over the past 6 years.

 

[MC KAos]

Texas and Bama were well matched in that game. It would have been very interesting to see what would have happened had McCoy not gone out so early.

ya, that might have been one of the best college football gams ever, oh well.

hopefully we can find a QB, its unbelievable that everyone used to say we only won because of our qbs (vince and colt) now, we win despite the QB play

 

[MC KAos]

No I was saying that out of all of the last six SEC champions, only Auburn had a great qb in addition to having a great Dline. You can make an argument for Tebow. But I think most would take Cam.

MC KAos, I remember Bama Dline dictating the game especially in the first half. We couldn't run the ball at all which wasn't a surprise. Greg Davis amazingly made adjustments and Texas found ways to move the ball. But our oline was physically manhandled. I do agree that if Colt stayed in the game, it would have gone down as one of the greatest BCS games ever because I think our defense performed just as good if not better than Alabama's D.

i think you are right in terms of the running game, we couldnt get it going, but if i remember correctly, that was the year that our running game was so atrocious that colt was actually the leading rusher. it was weird that davis actually adjusted some in that game. The most disappointing thing was how badly gilbert regressed after that game