Is The SEC More Powerful Than We Thought?

The all and powerful SEC has always consisted of Alabama, LSU, Georgia, Auburn and Florida leading the pack over the last decade. 

Other schools like South Carolina, Texas A&M and Missouri have displayed their talents as well over the past few seasons. 

For the greatest football conference in all the land, there have been times when it was viewed as being too "top heavy."

The schools on the bottom half like Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Kentucky and Arkansas showed that there was a large gap between the dominate schools and the average ones in the Southeastern Conference. 

Week 6 of the college football season had some viewed as basement dwellers knocking off the current big names in their conference.

Ole Miss defeated Alabama. Mississippi State beat Texas A&M, and for an honorable mention, Kentucky beat South Carolina at home.

When names like Alabama and LSU lose, everyone takes notice.

That's common, especially when you look at college football over the last decade. Those schools, along with Auburn and Florida, have been the four who have brought bragging rights to the conference by combining to win seven straight national championships from 2006-2013. The streak ended with Florida State beating Auburn at the Rose Bowl last season, but those were your top four schools in the SEC (Georgia gets an honorable mention despite having no championships to show for their effort).

Lately, Alabama has shown they are beatable, Auburn rebounded nicely after a bad 2012 season and are the best team in the conference right now, LSU is struggling, and Florida has fallen off since Urban Meyer left.

The addition of Texas A&M and Missouri from the Big 12 has provided more competition. The Tigers won the SEC East and played for the conference title in their second season. The Aggies had Johnny Manziel leading the offense and posing a threat in the SEC as they played in the Cotton Bowl in their inaugural year and upset Alabama in Tuscaloosa. 

And then there's the story of the teams in Dixie: Ole Miss and Mississippi State.

The schools combined for one of the best college football days in Mississippi history. Whether you were in Starkville or at the Grove in Oxford, it didn't really matter. It was a great day to be a Mississippian: a state that some in the SEC might have forgotten about. After all, the Rebels haven't won a conference title since 1963. 

Both teams are tied for #3 in the new AP rankings, and Mississippi State looks to have the more realistic chance of staying in the College Football Playoff picture. They got Auburn coming to Starkville this Saturday. Also, the Rebels go to College Station to play the Aggies. Stay tuned.

Bad weekend for the SEC? Not really. Think of it as a weekend when it was discovered that there are more talented programs in the conference than we originally thought. Despite the shakeup in the conference and all of college football this past Saturday, the SEC is still wipe open. There's just some new competition this season for the regulars to deal with.

Either way, the conference will be well-represented when the 13 member committee pick the four teams for the Playoff.