A Jersey Guy: SEC reign will continue

The Southeastern Conference's grip on CFB will continue

After watching another Southeastern Conference talent show in the CFP semifinals over the weekend, here's a portent of the future.

Get used to it. 

When Alabama meets Georgia in Indianapolis on Monday night, it will mark the seventh straight year the SEC has had a participant in the national championship game.

And after it is over, the SEC will have won its 12th national title in the last 20 years.

Alabama, coached by Nick Saban, is largely responsible for that success, as Saban goes after a record 8th national championship (7 at Alabama and one at LSU.

No one does it better than the SEC.

No one wants to do it better than the SEC.

No one cares about college football more than the SEC.

If you want statistical evidence, look beyond national championships.

Look at television ratings.

Look at NFL players drafted by SEC schools.

Loo, at recruiting classes, which are topped by the SEC year after year.

Look at budgets and facilities.

The SEC's motto is that it just means more.

True that.

More in the fall, but also more in the winter and spring.

More in the summer when another SEC season is about to begin.

If there was a time-line chart when this change started it was in 2004 when Auburn finished with a 13-0 record and because of computer rankings involving the BCS (then used to determine national champions), Auburn didn't make it to the national championship game.

The late, great Mike Slive, just starting his reign as commissioner of the SEC, made a sermon from the mount speech, stating that "This will never ever happen again,'' meaning the SEC being left out.

Slive couldn't overcome a Texas-USC championship game for the ages in 2005--arguably the greatest game in collegiate football history--but since then, the SEC has reigned, including 7 consecutive national championships from 2006 until 2013.

But it is much more than performance on the field.

It is a state of mind, which doesn't exist anywhere else in the country or in any other conference.

Sure there have been pockets over the years.

Nebraska had a couple of runs under Bob Devaney and Tom Osborne. Miami had five national championships over a 20 year stretch. USC, as late as the scandal-ridden mini dynasty of Pete Carroll had some statement teams.

And of course, there was the remarkable Top 5 run of  Bobby Bowden's Florida State teams.

And Notre Dame has always maintained a national presence.

Clemson, which has a pair of national championships in the past five years, could qualify.

Ironically, the best description for Clemson's success in the ACC, is that the Tigers are really more like an "SEC'' school.

Texas has the resources and the interest, but inept leadership has made the Longhorns and after thought.

Oklahoma and Texas A&M are other places where passion and interest matches resources.

Texas A&M has been part of the SEC for almost a decade and Texas and OU are incoming members.

But those were schools not conferences.

There will again lots of chatter over the next few weeks about expanding the playoffs from 4 to as many as 12 teams.

It doesn't matter.

Make it 16 or 32 teams.

In the end, you will find an SEC team carrying the championship flag or at least playing for it.

Change rules like Name, Imaging and Licensing to give the players a chance to be compensated.

Evens up the playing field, right?

Nope

The SEC will make NIL work better for their schools.

How many examples do you need?

The Big Ten has flexed its muscles with Ohio State and this year Michigan made a revival run.

In the past two years, Georgia and Alabama rolled over both the Wolverines and Buckeyes.Brian Kelly did a marvelous job in rebuilding Notre  Dame into a perennial To 20 team, with a string of double digit win seasons which moved him past Knute Rockne as the winningest coach (total victories) in ND history.

Despite that success, Notre Dame came up empty in championship type games.

Kelly recognized a ceiling he could not break and now is the coach at LSU--in the SEC

So as the 2021 college football season concludes on Monday night enjoy the Alabama-Georgia rematch, ignore it, make fun of it.

But the bottom line is that if you are a college football fan, the SEC is going to play the starring role.

Live with it.