Is the SEC's Reign Over College Football Over?

Since the beginning of the BCS era of college football, the Southeastern Conference has been regarded as the best conference by far.  And it makes sense.  The SEC has won 8 of the last 10 national championships, although 4 of them are from Alabama.  And that's where this post is headed.  Is the SEC still the best?  Or is it just Alabama?  Well let's take a closer look.

Alabama is the defending champ.  They are currently ranked #1 and are undefeated.  There's really no debate that Alabama is the best team in college football.  But outside of that, the SEC is much weaker than you may think.  The SEC has a 5-5 record against non-SEC "Power 5" conference opponents.  That record is the same as the Pac-12, and worse than the ACC (6-5) and the Big Ten (7-4).  So the only Power 5 conference that they are truly better than is the Big 12, not that anyone is surprised by that.  In terms of mid-tier teams, the SEC is still probably the strongest.  They have a very deep conference.  But Alabama, Texas A&M, and maybe Tennessee are the only real threats left in the conference.

So if the SEC isn't the best conference anymore, who is?  Well it would be between the Big Ten and the ACC.  This is surprising since the ACC was the laughing stock of the Power 5 world just a few years ago.  Many people attributed Florida State's success to the weakness of their conference.  That was probably fair back then, but the ACC now has 6 teams in the AP top 25, tied with the SEC for the most.  4 of the SEC's 6 ranked teams have shaky wins and/or bad losses.  The ACC's top programs have looked stronger for the most part thus far.  The Big Ten has 4 teams in the top 12, which is the most of any conference.  The Ohio State-Michigan clash at the end of the year will be the biggest matchup of the year, as they are 2 of the top 4 teams right now, and you could make a legitimate argument that they are 2 of the top 3 programs to this point.  Michigan State and Iowa's recent slides have made the Big Ten look much weaker, which is why I would currently give the edge to the ACC as college football's best conference.

The question is at this point is, "When will the AP and Coaches' Polls stop giving the SEC teams extra credit for beating each other?"  As I've shown very clearly, the SEC is no longer the dominant conference that they are made out to be.  At the very least, the ACC and Big Ten are just as good as the SEC now, so they don't deserve the special treatment that they get.  My guess, however, is that the mediocre and mid-tier teams in the SEC will continue to ride Alabama's coat tails to glory year after year.