Whether it’s Alabama, the SEC West or the ACC, the SEC East has been a doormat.
From 2008-13, there was no argument about which league had the best college football. The SEC Championship game was practically a playoff game for the BCS National Championship. In the past eight seasons, it’s become more of a tune-up game for the Western champion.
When Tim Tebow led Florida to a comeback win over Alabama in the 2008 SEC Championship game, it cemented the SEC East’s dominance in the most important conference title game in the nation. At that moment, the division was 11-6 in the game, but it was the last time a team from the East got its hands on the trophy.
The next year, a more mature Alabama squad met the Gators again. This time the Tide would not lose their fourth quarter lead as Tebow was left to weep on the sideline. On that day, not only did Alabama take the final step to begin a run of dominance, but it also ended the East’s stranglehold on the championship trophy.
From that game on, Alabama, Auburn and LSU have combined to go 8-0 in the SEC title game. The worst part is the near lack of resistance from Eastern opposition. The average score during this run was 43-19. Aside from the 2012 Alabama-Georgia epic and 2013 Auburn-Missouri shootout, the game has been over by the end of the third quarter.
Florida, Georgia, Missouri and South Carolina have all lost at least one title game by four touchdowns during the West’s streak. Along with owning the title game, the West has also owned the Heisman Trophy. Mark Ingram, Cam Newton, Johnny Manziel and Derrick Henry have all won the award in the last eight years. In that span, an additional five players from the West were finalists for the award. Meanwhile, not a single player from the East was invited to New York.
National media has largely concluded that the entire conference has been in Alabama’s shadow the past few seasons. On the road to their success, they have faced little competition against teams from the East. Alabama is the only program in the nation to qualify for the College Football Playoff each season of its existence and has lost to only one SEC East program during that run.
Losses to Ole Miss in 2014 and 2015 have been the only speed bump in Alabama’s playoff runs. LSU always provides the Tide with a tough test, and even Arkansas, Auburn and Mississippi State have managed to keep it close with the Tide at least once since 2014.
It’s a completely different story against the East, though. The Crimson Tide are 9-0 against the division from 2014 to 2016, winning by an average score of 37-14. That includes three easy victories in the SEC title game. Only Tennessee lost by less than two touchdowns in 2015. Alabama has not lost to an eastern team since 2010 (South Carolina), winning 18 straight since then. In that same time frame, the Tide have lost seven times against western opponents.
While the West fails to provide multiple threats to Alabama, it has brushed the East aside. In that same three year window, the West is 34-11 against the East. Only Georgia can boast a winning record (4-2), while South Carolina and Tennessee are a combined 0-12.
The East has also failed to beat its ACC rivals. Florida, Georgia, Kentucky and South Carolina have all struggled in their season finales recently. The Gators and Gamecocks have dropped three straight to their foes, while Georgia and Kentucky are both 1-2 against their rivals.
So, why?
The most plausible reason is the turnover in coaches the past few years. The longest tenured head coaches in the East are Mark Stoops at Kentucky and Butch Jones of Tennessee, who were hired in 2013. Every other program hired its current head coach in the last three years.
One of those coaches will lead his program out on the field at the SEC title game in Atlanta this December. Is it too much to ask that they at least make the game watchable in the fourth quarter?