Hypothetically Speaking

If you don’t care to read about my petty grievances that matter little in the real world, read “War and Peace,” It will also not change anything but it’s a classic. I think.

On a hypothetical field, the SEC wins every game against every out of conference opponent. Just ask any die-hard SEC fan, they’ll tell you about the superiority of the SEC.

The reality is that the SEC is constantly overrated, and it starts with Alabama. Post-Saban Alabama is a lackadaisical, aging elephant living on glory days. Unable to finish off teams it should beat on the hypothetical field, Bama instead exposes the fallacy of the superiority of the SEC.

First game of the year, Bama was trashed by Florida State. “But Kelly, it was raining during that game!” Apparently it only rained on the Tide’s side of the field. For those who don’t know, FSU won two games in the ACC, the third worst record in that conference.

Yet Bama rebounded by beating a killer’s row of Georgia, Vandy, Missouri, Tennessee, South Carolina and LSU before succumbing at home to Oklahoma. Wow! Curiously, every team that Bama beat lost virtually no ranking spot because, I mean, it was Alabama. Mighty Bama. The standard bearer of the SEC. They couldn’t beat FSU, but they beat the rest of the SEC and everyone is so impressed. Oh yeah, every Bama SEC opponent lost its bowl game to a non-SEC team.

Oklahoma got a big bounce they didn’t deserve by beating the Tide. The Sooners cruised into the College Football Playoff (CFP) as a result of their record against the rest of the mightly overranked SEC, thanks to the reputation built by Bama. And then got bounced out of the CFP by Alabama.

Bama gets in the CFP with three losses. The embarrassing FSU loss, the Oklahoma loss at home, and the thrashing they took in the SEC title game loss to UGA. How did UGA get into the CFP? By beating Bama and the rest of the mighty SEC—“mighty” only because it all starts with Bama. Which lost to FSU.

So how did the SEC do in bowl games? Not counting where they played each other, the SEC was 1-8 against P4 teams. They lost those bowl games by almost 100 combined points. The miserable ACC (according to SEC pundits) was 4-0 against the SEC in bowls. Every SEC team in the CFP was vanquished by either another overrated SEC team or by a different conference team. That’s right. The mighty SEC did not win a single CFP game where they played a team from another P4 conference.

Let me sum it up. FSU stomped Bama. Bama then beat UGA in Athens. Bama then got massacred by UGA in the title game rematch. Bama then got whacked by Indiana bad. But to be fair, the Hoosiers have steamrolled everybody so far.

Next year Alabama will start the season ranked in the Top Five because, c’mon Kelly, they are Bama. And again the SEC will be massively overrepresented in preseason rankings, from which the later rankings will derive such mighty warrior teams.

Hypothetically speaking.

Kelly Burke was born in Knoxville where he spent his younger years, followed by high school years in Atlanta where he graduated from Georgia Tech, and Mercer Law School. He has been in private practice, a magistrate judge, and an elected district attorney. He writes about the law, politics, music, and Ireland. He and his wife enjoy gardening, playing with their Lagotto Ramanolo named George Harrison, and spending time with their grandchildren. To see this column or Kelly’s archives, visit www.kellyrburke.com. You can email Kelly at dakellyburke@gmail.com.