The truth about the SEC is that it's not a great conference this year

The conference coaches, the fans and the media continuously beat the drum declaring the SEC as the dominant league in college football.

The facts are the facts, though. This season, there's just one great team among the 14 schools and a bunch of not-so-great ones. It's not in the league of the Big Ten and it more closely resembles the ACC.

Once you take out Alabama, which team would be as good as Ohio State or Michigan or Wisconsin? Penn State, the fourth-best Big Ten team, is on the same level as the second-best one in the SEC, Auburn. The Tigers struggled Saturday to overcome Vanderbilt at home.

Texas A&M was supposedly better than Washington in the eyes of the committee, then the Aggies flopped at Mississippi State.

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And there''s no division of a major conference worse than the SEC East.

Florida rose to No. 9 in the country of the back of six wins in its first seven games against middling opposition. Then the Gators got pummeled 31-10 at Arkansas. That left them tied with Kentucky — yes, Kentucky — for the lead in the division before the Wildcats fell to Georgia later in the day.

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In games against the SEC West, the division has one win in 10 games — a victory by Kentucky against Mississippi State.

Overall, the seven teams in the East are 33-29.

One might blame the lack of elite teams on parity. But what differentiates conferences is the combination of depth throughout the league and the existence of elite teams at the top.

So while you might hear the patented "SEC" chant in Tampa if Alabama secures the league's ninth national title in the past 11 years, that doesn't mean the conference really No. 1. It just means it's fortunate to have one great team better than everyone else.

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