In case you haven’t already noticed, Week 1 this season is absolutely stacked. Across the country, and across the weekend, there will be much-hyped games of national importance taking place nonstop. And no conference will be involved in more of these games than the SEC.
The narrative of SEC dominance is one that many college football fans have grown tired of in recent years. We all remember the string of seven consecutive national championships won by teams in the conference. We all remember the around-the-clock conversations if anyone can beat an SEC team in a major matchups. We all remember the talk throughout the 2014 season as the SEC West went 28-0 in nonconference play. We all remember the hype.
In fact, it was probably the tremendous hype of the SEC West in 2014 that finally brought the narrative of the SEC being untouchable to rest. After that incredible regular season — which really should be appreciated just for its unlikeliness and consistency — SEC West teams went 2-5 in bowl games, including 0-3 in New Years’ Six bowls. The embarrassment of the fans and media who had placed SEC West teams on such an untouchable pedestal is what led to a toned-down appreciation of the SEC in 2015. When this season starts, though, it could all come back with a vengeance.
The SEC will start this season with seven teams ranked in the national polls. It’s not the eight that we saw a few years ago, but it’s still a very high number. That number has been relatively quiet, though. It won’t be quiet anymore if the SEC impresses in Week 1.
All 14 SEC teams are in action to open the season, with Vanderbilt and South Carolina meeting in an in-conference matchup while the other 12 schools are playing non-conference games. Tennessee opens up the season on Thursday night against Appalachian State. The Volunteers have very high expectations coming into this season, so this game is really a no-win, perception-wise, at least. Appalachian State is a good team that could win ten games this year, but if Tennessee struggles at all it will just seem as if the Volunteers once again cannot live up to their hype.
Where the SEC will really be in the spotlight, though, is throughout the day Saturday, where a whopping six SEC schools have matchups against other Power 5 teams. These matchups will all be pretty high-profile (maybe not Missouri vs West Virginia) and will be the focus of national attention. The aforementioned Missouri/West Virginia matchup will be overshadowed by Oklahoma vs Houston, but neither the Tigers nor Mountaineers are expected to do much this year. Once 3:30 Eastern hits, though, the afternoon will be dominated by UCLA/Texas A&M, LSU/Wisconsin, and Georgia/North Carolina. All three of these opponents are expected to contend for their respective division titles, with the possible exception of Wisconsin (due to the Badgers’ ridiculous cross-divisional schedule of Ohio State, Michigan, and Michigan State).
At night, the entire country will be glued to Alabama vs USC. For those few who aren’t interested in the Crimson Tide and Trojans, though, Auburn will be taking on Clemson. And, if that isn’t enough, the SEC gets to close the weekend on Monday night with Ole Miss taking on Florida State.
To sum this up, SEC teams will be facing four teams expected to possibly be potential Playoff challengers (Clemson, Florida State, USC, and UCLA), as well as two more that are expected to challenge for their respective divisions (North Carolina and Wisconsin). The SEC has a chance, right off the bat, to cement the narrative that it is the most dominant conference and that no one else can compete with it.
It would be easy to throw out a potential record in these games and say what that would mean for the SEC, but the reality is that it’s a bit more sophisticated than that. Not all wins and losses in these games would be equal. An Auburn win would say more for the narrative than an LSU win would, for example. On the other hand, an LSU loss would hurt the narrative far more than an Auburn loss would.
In the end, this narrative can move one of three ways. Either the SEC can prove that the best of other conferences can’t hang with teams of equivalent placing the SEC, which would be shown by wins by Georgia and Texas A&M (and Missouri to a lesser extent). Wins by Alabama and LSU would push the narrative that the teams at the top of the SEC is so far ahead that even good teams from other conferences can’t challenge them. Similarly, Auburn and Ole Miss can show that teams near that top of the SEC can beat Playoff contenders from other conferences.
If SEC teams go 6-0 (or even 5-1) in these games, expect to be bombarded all season with all three variations of the narrative of SEC dominance and that no one else can come close. If the SEC lays a bunch of eggs and goes 2-4 (or worse), expect the season-long narrative to be about how the SEC is overrated and that it has been overhyped too much in recent years. And, if the SEC ends up somewhere in the middle of those two extremes this week, expect the narrative to be something similar to last year–a quiet assumption that the SEC is the best conference in the country, but one that is not spoken of too openly.
