The Daily Gamecock

Column: SEC down, not out, after Week One

Ole Miss quarterback Chad Kelly (10) is crunched by Florida State defensive back Derwin James (3) and others during the Florida State vs. University of Mississippi college football game on Monday, Sept. 5, 2016 at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Fla. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel/TNS)
Ole Miss quarterback Chad Kelly (10) is crunched by Florida State defensive back Derwin James (3) and others during the Florida State vs. University of Mississippi college football game on Monday, Sept. 5, 2016 at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Fla. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel/TNS)

Just two weeks ago, I was published saying what most rational football fans were thinking coming into this season. I wrote about how the SEC was still the best conference and left very little room for any other argument to be made. I went as far as to end my article by concluding, “No conference is as good from top to bottom, or able to consistently compete head to head with the best the SEC has to offer. The reason? Well blatantly put, the SEC has been, and still is, the best conference in college football.”

And now I’m left kneeling before the college football gods with one single question ringing through my head — “Why?” Just as Chad Kelly will do as he questions his three throws that fell into the hands of Florida State defenders, and LSU fans will do as they begin to process the horrid loss to Wisconsin. All that will exist in the heads of almost anyone associated with the SEC is questions — What happened in week one? How did things go so wrong?

Week One was supposed to be when the SEC flexed its muscles to all who cared. Ole Miss was supposed to push aside the pesky Seminoles as Kelly established himself as a Heisman candidate. Leonard Fournette was supposed to do the same by running his team to victory. Auburn was expected by many to beat Clemson, in turn completely knocking the ACC to the lowly position they believed it deserved. Missouri and Mississippi State were supposed to easily take care of their “inferior” opponents, while it was assumed that Tennessee would blow out Appalachian State. Instead, all that’s left are questions, although the one I was wrestling with weeks ago has seemingly been answered.

I can no longer crown the SEC as the indisputable strongest conference. After just Week One, too many holes exist in that argument to rationally do so. No longer can you point to an overwhelming depth to the conference, with seemingly good teams lining its divisions from top to bottom. No longer can you say that any other team outside of Alabama is overwhelmingly better than the two top teams of the ACC.

Yet, it was just one week. For those teams mentioned above, it was just one loss. Playoff chances were not erased, Heisman candidates were not pushed into complete obscurity and I was not completely proven wrong. There is still time for the conference as a whole to recover and to regain its crown as the strongest conference in the country. And there’s still time for my prediction made two weeks ago to be proven true. The SEC still has time to prove itself as the best conference in college football.


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