Demise of the SEC? Yeah, right: Just A Minute

Even if the conference doesn't win the national championship doesn't mean that the league had a bad year, or even a major setback.

Southeastern Conference / Southeastern Conference

We haven't even gotten through the semifinals on the College Football Playoff, with Texas still alive for the national championship, and fans around the rest of the country have been celebrating not only the end of Alabama's reign over the sport, but what's being called the demise of the Southeastern Conference.

Don't buy into it.

Maybe the rest of college football has significantly closed the gap, especially after Nick Saban stepped down. And yes, the Crimson Tide wasn't what many had hoped this season, either, although the expectations for Alabama were pretty much out of whack from the start like usual.

But anyone claiming that SEC has fallen off its pedestal is is doing a lot of overreacting and wishful thinking at this point. Check out a mock draft, any mock draft, and you'll see that half of the projected first-round picks are from the SEC. Yes, there are good coaches elsewhere, but not like in this league. Recruiting rankings? Still dominated. Even this year's final rankings by the College Football Playoff were loaded with SEC teams.

College Football Playoff Rankings

Rank, Team Conference
1 Oregon * Big Ten 13-0
2 Georgia* SEC 11-2
3 Texas SEC 11-2
4 Penn State Big Ten 11-2
5 Notre Dame Indep. 11-1
6 Ohio State Big Ten 10-2
7 Tennessee SEC 10-2
8 Indiana Big Ten 11-1
9 Boise State* Mountain West 12-1
10 SMU ACC 11-2
11 Alabama SEC 9-3
12 Arizona State * Big 12 11-2
13 Miami ACC 10-2
14 Ole Miss SEC 9-3
15 South Carolina SEC 9-3
16 Clemson ACC 10-3
17 BYU Big 12 10-2
18 Iowa State Big 12 10-3
19 Missouri SEC 9-3
20 Illinois Big Ten 9-3
21 Syracuse ACC 9-3
22 Army American 11-1
23 Colorado Big 12 9-3
24 UNLV Mountain West 10-3
25 Memphis American 10-2

* First-round playoff bye

So why the excessive celebrating? The rest of the league is getting a taste of what Alabama has experienced for more than a decade, the backlash of success. Opponents' fans are still rushing the field whenever they can regardless of ranking and record, or the coach. The expectation level is still that high.

But let's face it, this was a weird year in college football, with a lot of not-great football. A significant part of that due to the lack of continuity stemming from to the transfer portal, which is going to be an ongoing problem moving forward. Another was the vast difference in strength of schedule as not all conferences, programs or venues are alike.

Even the major award winners were unusual: The Heisman Trophy recipient played on a team that wasn't in the national title picture (Colorado went 9-3 not including the bowl loss), the best running back was in the Mountain West , and the coach of the year was at Indiana. When we finally got to the 12-team college playoff, the conference championships were basically made meaningless with all the winners subsequently one-and-done and all four bye teams lost.

For those who are getting worked up about Alabama looking uninspired in its bowl game, the offense at least (the defense played well), especially at the end of the first season without Saban, let them. Fine, South Carolina looked deflated as well after being left out of the playoff. Georgia lost without its starting quarterback. Tennessee didn't match up against a talented Ohio State team might win the whole thing. Only Ole Miss looked ticked off at the CFP snub and blew out an overmatched Duke team, which was a lousy bowl pairing anyway.

All of these teams are being portrayed as failures. In reality, they all had good seasons.

Nevertheless, if there's one thing we've learned through the evolution of the bowl system to the BCS, to the playoff, it's that the SEC adjusts and adapts, and when the pendulum starts to go the other direction it doesn't take like to swing back. In a couple of weeks the final way-to-early preseason rankings will be loaded with SEC teams. National Signing Day will be largely dominated by SEC programs. Players will transfer both away from SEC programs and to them as well.

A perfect example of what the SEC can do in building up a sport and adapting can be found in men's basketball. Six of the top 10 teams in the latest Associated Press poll are from the league, with three more ranked and another four receiving votes. It could break the record for most teams in the NCAA Tournament (11, Big East in 2011).

Put it this way, especially considering the league's fan base, if you were to make a wager on which conference will be the best in football next season, where would you put your money? Until that changes the demise talk can only be called excessive, premature and mostly wishful thinking by critics.

SEE ALSO: Do We Care More About College Sports, or the Money? Just A Minute