Morning Report: How Problematic is SEC's Winless Start to Bowl Season?

Welcome to the Wednesday, Dec. 29 edition of the Morning Report. Here's what's happening in the world of Ole Miss athletics.

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Lane Kiffin Addresses Media to Begin Sugar Bowl Week

Ole Miss Defensive Improvement an Integral Part of Sugar Bowl Run

Ole Miss Women's Basketball SEC Opener Postponed Due to COVID-19

Ole Miss Men's Basketball SEC Opener Postponed Due to COVID-19

What Baylor QB Will Ole Miss Face in the Sugar Bowl?

Morning Column: How Problematic is SEC's Winless Start to Bowl Season?

The Southeastern Conference has competed in four bowl games this postseason.

Its teams have lost all four.

There are many on social media, media members included, who will make jokes about the conference where "It Just Means More," and, on one hand, it's likely warranted. Even though the SEC's best teams of the 2021 season have yet to play this bowl season, it's almost expected that the conference that has been a college football power (at least in its top half) in recent decades would dominate these teams from other conferences.

Well, it hasn't. Here are the results from the SEC's bowl matchups thus far.

UCF 29, Florida 17

Army 24, Missouri 22

No. 20 Houston 17, Auburn 13

Texas Tech 34, Mississippi State 7

It's evident that the SEC is pretty top-heavy, although the teams considered in the "top half" seem to change each year outside of Alabama and Georgia. Still, it's probably not time to push the panic button on the conference as a whole. Bowl games in this day and age of opt-outs and transfer portals are not necessarily a good gauge of where programs currently stand.

This isn't an excuse for the SEC's start, and this season's top teams in the conference may very well lose their bowl matchups as well. If they do, we'll be having a different conversation entirely. As of now, however, those teams have yet to play.

With that in mind, it's not like the SEC teams who have played to this point are complete pushovers. Do they have their fair share of problems? Absolutely, but they're not total dumpster fires. They're in a bowl game for a reason, after all.

This is the premier conference in college football, right? Shouldn't these teams, warts and all, be able to beat teams from other conferences that also have plenty of warts?

Is it a problem that the SEC has started the bowl season 0-4? Probably. Is it as big a deal as some would make it out to be? Probably not.

UCF lost its starting quarterback this season. Army lost to a Navy team with a losing record. Texas Tech fired its head coach halfway through the season. Shouldn't that give the SEC some form of advantage?

I'm playing devil's advocate here, of course. While the SEC has an immense amount of resources at its disposal, lumping teams into a group because they belong to a certain conference has never been a perfect science. Just because a team plays in a Power Five conference doesn't mean it's in a good place as a program (hello, Vanderbilt). It's important to analyze these teams on a case-by-case basis and not just focus on the conference name on the chest.

My point is this: Is it a problem that the SEC has started the bowl season 0-4? Probably. Is it as big a deal as some would make it out to be? Probably not. Bowl season is always complicated, especially in today's time, and perhaps the middle of the SEC's pack just isn't as strong in 2021 as it has been in previous years.

If the conference's teams continue to lose, though, expect to continue to hear a lot of "S-E-C" chants in jest. The conference has a target on its back, one that isn't going away soon.

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