Reasons Behind SEC Dominance…
With the SEC (Southeastern Conference) boasting a modest 3 teams ranked in the top 5 and another team sitting at #7, you have to wonder how they accumulate all of this talent. Recruiting, recruiting, recruiting! Here is a list of the average recruiting budgets over the last 3 seasons.
Tennessee: $1,154,802 Auburn: $705,125 LSU: $662,772
Florida: $599,818 Georgia: $521,174 Arkansas: $499,578
Ole Miss: $410,608 Kentucky: $307,571 Miss. State: $286,467
Alabama: $285,649 S. Carolina: $273,909 Vanderbilt: N/A
Vanderbilt did not disclose expenses
You can see by Rivals rankings over those 3 years it was money well spent. You may say recruiting rankings are subjective and overrated. Well, in National Championship games over those 3 seasons the SEC is 3-0. Look for this trend to continue after the conference signed a lucrative 15-year TV deal with ESPN.
2009 2008 2007
#1 Bama #1 Bama #1 Florida
#2 LSU #3 Florida #3 Tennessee
#6 Georgia #7 Georgia #7 Auburn
#10 Tennessee #11 LSU #9 Georgia
#11 Florida #10 Alabama
What helps the SEC the most aside from recruiting is having 2-3 strong teams on each side of the conference unlike the Big 12. It is a huge factor for their strength of schedule. Now that many of the perennial top teams like Ohio State, USC, and Oklahoma already have a loss I definitely see the SEC champion in the National Championship game for a fourth straight year.
Good article Mr. Watson. I agree that the SEC is the strongest overall conference at the top but I think there are other conferences top to bottom that might be better. When it comes to bowl games the SEC bottom tier teams struggle. The big ten top tier teams struggle in top bowl games due to there lack of speed. The SEC season schedule is harder than any conference and they beat up on each other year after year. I would like to see the recruiting budget on teams like Utah, Boise State, Cincinatti and some of the other mid major teams. Very interesting facts on the budgets.