SEC Football: A Midseason Recap
October 06, 2014 | Sports,
By: Greg Dailey, KCOU Sports
There is little doubt the Southeastern Conference is the best in college football. There is even less doubt the SEC West is the best division. What took place in college football this weekend further verifies how stacked that division is.
Look at the other side of the SEC and it leaves you scratching your head. South Carolina losing to Kentucky. Kentucky losing to Florida. Now Tennessee losing to Florida. The East will be won by the team that doesn’t lose a game it should win. As obvious and John Madden-esque as that sounds, just ask Steve Spurrier and the Gamecocks.
There was nothing quite like the scene in Mississippi this past weekend. The Magnolia State hosted two top-six teams and sent them home with losses. One weekend Oxford hosts College Gameday; the next weekend it’s Starkville. The Egg Bowl should be a war this year, but there is still so much more football to be played.
No one would have ever thought at the beginning of the season LSU could finish next-to-last in the SEC West, but now it seems extremely possible. Les Miles and his Bayou Bengals have now been blown out by Auburn and suffered a home loss to Mississippi State. LSU finishes the season against Ole Miss and Alabama and then traveling to Arkansas and Texas A&M.
Alabama still has dates with Missippi State and Auburn at the end of its schedule. Auburn faces Ole Miss, Texas A&M and Georgia consecutively in November before closing out the season in the Iron Bowl. By season’s end, Auburn will have faced seven of the top 20 teams in college football. Talk about a gauntlet.
While its unfortunate the college playoff consists of just four teams, watching SEC West play over the next two months should provide enough entertainment.
Switch over to the East. Now cover your eyes. This one is basically a two team race, unless Kentucky or Florida makes a run. The Gators pulled off an impressive victory on the road over the Volunteers and an overtime home win against the Wildcats. South Carolina has three conference losses, two at home. Georgia lost to the Gamecocks and could lose control of their own destiny with a defeat Saturday in Columbia. The Tigers suddenly look like the team to beat. With a favorable schedule until a mid-November game at Texas A&M, Missouri would have a two game lead over the Bulldogs plus a tiebreaker with a win. Needless to say, the division could very well be won and lost this Saturday.
While the East race doesn’t include a large volume of teams, it should still provide drama throughout the season. However, the West is a different story. After what transpired over the weekend, the nation saw this division crown won’t just involve the traditional Alabama-Auburn-LSU race. Ole Miss and Mississippi State are as much a part of it as any. Texas A&M has surprised many and stayed competitive. We are halfway through the regular season, and the fun is just getting started.