Yes, the SEC is That Good This Year From Top to (Almost) Bottom: All Things CW

The Southeastern Conference's impressive non-conference showing will only help for the postseason, and helps put Alabama's success so far into context.

Author:
Christopher Walsh
Publish date:
Oct 6, 2022 2:00 PM EDT

In this story:

Alabama Crimson Tide

The All Things CW notes column by Christopher Walsh will appear in five parts this week, one each day leading up to Saturday's game against Texas A&M.

This is ...

Take 4

We're still a month away from the first College Football Playoff rankings, but all anyone has to do to see the SEC's continued prominence is check out the latest polls.

With LSU having cracked the AP Top 25, 10 SEC teams have been ranked at some point this season. The four that haven't are Auburn, Missouri, South Carolina and Vanderbilt, and two of those have received votes in multiple weeks.

Seven teams are in this week's Top 25, and Arkansas isn't among them, with four in the top nine including Alabama at No. 1 followed by Georgia, and they've flip-flopped twice already.

The latest was caused by the Bulldogs struggling at Missouri last week, not considered one of the better teams in the league this season.

Overall, SEC teams are 38-5 in non-conference games so far. The winning percentage of .878 is on pace to be the league's third best since 1992, trailing just the 50-6 mark (.893) in 2018, and the 32-4 (.889) season in 1997.

What really stood out about that 2018 season was that all six conference losses came in bowl games, so it didn't have a stinging loss like Appalachian State over Texas A&M that season.

So far that seems to be an aberration.

The other four non-conference losses this season have been two to ACC teams (LSU to Florida State; Vanderbilt to Wake Forest), one to the Big Ten (Auburn to Penn State) and the other to the Big 12 (Missouri to Kansas State).

Regardless, the overall conference record will obviously help the league with bowl assignments and possibly land two playoff spots, again.

It also helps put some of Alabama's impressive defensive numbers into perspective even though the Crimson Tide is just getting into the heart of its league schedule (see video).