By David KalanThe Daily Northwestern
I learned a few interesting things over winter break. For one, I found the Giants are the most frustrating team to watch in the NFL. If you’re looking for positive revelations, I discovered the Knicks are, in fact, not a terrible basketball team, just a mediocre one.
But since the knock I always receive is being too New York-centric I decided to branch out.
What I found was that from ‘Bama to the Bayou, there’s an awful lot of hot air in the southeast, and it’s not just the weather. I’m talking about the SEC, which fancies itself the toughest conference in all of college football.
Before anyone in Gainesville or Baton Rouge tries to wrastle and hog tie me, hear me out. I enjoy Chick-fil-a and Waffle House as much as the next man, and I am not calling the SEC sub-par. No doubt, it features some of the top teams in the land.
But is a conference without a unanimous national champion in eight years the unequivocally top conference in the country?
Hardly.
The SEC’s only other recent claim to a championship came when LSU beat Oklahoma in the 2004 Sugar Bowl. But the Tigers shared their title with USC, which should have replaced the Sooners, but instead spent New Years waxing Michigan in the Rose Bowl.
The one you should be hearing about is the Big Ten. I may be biased, but in head-to-head Bowl matchups this year the Big Ten boasts a 2-0 record against the SEC.
No. 17 Tennessee was beaten up in a 20-10 loss to unranked Penn State in the Outback Bowl. Arkansas, which nearly won the SEC title, fell to Wisconsin in the Capital One Bowl as the Badgers put on a defensive clinic.
Other bowls saw South Carolina give up 36 points to lowly Houston, while Big Ten also ran Iowa nearly toppled defending national champion Texas.
Sure, LSU won the Sugar Bowl on Wednesday, but they played BCS patsy Notre Dame. The Irish only reached the BCS the last two years because they have their own clause in the formula, and lost by about 512 points both times.
But fear not, SEC boosters. You have one trump card left in Monday night’s BCS National Championship, though Florida might not be playing in Glendale, had Urban Meyer not shamelessly whined like a baby missing its pacifier.
Still, if the Gators can upset the Buckeyes on Monday night they will have won the ultimate prize and justified the loud jawing coming out of the southeast.
But if they don’t, and the SEC loses three bowl games and a national title to the Big Ten, perhaps we should be rethinking which conference can call itself the best.
Sports Editor David Kalan is a Weinberg senior. He can be reached at [email protected].
