Bo Wallace and the Rebels open up the SEC's bowl slate against Georgia Tech. (Don McPeak-USA TODAY Sports)
Most of the attention among Southeastern Conference football fans for the next month will be focused on Auburn’s quest to continue the SEC’s streak of winning national championships — and rightly so.
But before we get to the national championship game there are nine other SEC teams that will play in bowl games. The SEC likes to think of itself as the toughest conference in the nation. It’s easy to see where it would come up with that notion given the fact that the league teams have won seven consecutive national championships.
But almost as big a measuring stick is how the conference does in the bowl games when the best of the SEC goes up against the best of the rest of the country. Last season, the SEC’s bowl season was a success with six wins against just three losses. The previous year the conference also posted a 6-3 record, but one of the losses was an in-conference rematch after Alabama beat LSU in the BCS National Championship Game.
In 2010, the league went 5-5, but Auburn won the national championship. The 2009 season produced a 6-4 record and saw Alabama win the national title. The 2008 football season saw the conference go 6-2, with Florida winning the national championship and Vanderbilt winning its first bowl game since 1955.
In 2009, LSU won the national title and the SEC went 7-2 in the bowl season. The previous season, the Florida Gators won the national championship and the SEC went 6-3.
During the SEC’s unprecedented run of seven straight national championships, the conference has been pretty darned good against the best of the rest of college football. It has a 42-22 bowl record, a .656 winning percentage.
This bowl season the conference will put itself up against a cross section from other conferences.
The Southeastern Conference will face three ACC teams — Ole Miss will meet Georgia Tech, Texas A&M will play Duke and, of course, Auburn will face Florida State in the national title game.
Three SEC vs. Big Ten matchups are also on the bowl docket: Georgia vs. Nebraska, LSU vs. Iowa and South Carolina vs. Wisconsin.
Two SEC teams will play Big 12 opponents — Alabama will play Oklahoma and Missouri will face Oklahoma State. Vanderbilt will play Houston of the American Athletic Conference and Mississippi State will face Rice from Conference USA.
The postseason is also the time for individual honors, and the SEC has taken three of the biggest awards.
Auburn’s Gus Malzahn was honored as the Home Depot Coach of the Year at the ESPN College Football Awards show after leading Auburn from a 3-9 mark in 2012 to a 12-1 record and a berth in the National Championship Game this year.
“It’s really been something,” Malzahn said. “Our assistant coaches deserve a lot of the credit.”
With winning comes attention and Malzahn has attracted a lot of it. His name was even mentioned in relationship to the Texas job but he was having none of it.
“This is where I want to be. I love Auburn,” Malzahn told Phillip Marshall of AuburnTigers.com. “You start hearing rumors about this stuff. I didn’t want our players or coaches or fans to wonder how I felt. I want to be here, and I’m one blessed guy to be the head coach of the Auburn Tigers.”
The league won two big individual awards at the ESPN show when Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron won the Maxwell Award and the Crimson Tide’s C. J. Mosley took home the Butkus Award as the nation’s top linebacker.
“Super surprised,” McCarron said. “I don’t think I’m the best player out of the other two guys that were mentioned (Johnny Manziel, Jameis Winston), but I can’t thank them enough. It’s an honor to be here. It’s awesome, but I can’t thank my teammates enough. All my teammates back home, I love you guys. You all made this possible.”
Individual awards are nice, but they are not really bragging points for a league. That will come after we see how the 10 SEC teams faired following the bowl season.
