Let's analyze that fact, shall we?

Here are the records for those divisional champions you refer to:

(rankings as of SECCG they played in not final ranking for season)
1995: #23 Arkansas
Finished the season 8-5 with a loss in the Carquest Bowl
Blown out 34-3 in the SECCG
Obviously the West was horrible that year... not a single West team finished in the top 20.

1998: #23 Miss State
Finished 8-5 with a beatdown by Texas in the Cotton Bowl. Only lost to #1 Tennessee by a 24-14 count (not too shabby -- moral victory!). Rest of West was horrible that year. #16 Arkansas was the only ranked team in the West at the end of the year.

2002: #22 Arkansas
Finished the season at 9-5 with an embarassing loss to Minnesota in the Music City Bowl. Got torched by UGA in the SECCG. Bama (who Arkansas got torched by) would have been divisional champ but they were on probation.

2006: #8 Arkansas
Finally a divisional champ who didn't completely blow. They entered the SECCG with only one conference loss. Finished year with a 3 game losing streak but they kept each game within 10 points (moral victory!). Finished season 9-4.

But as you said... each of those teams "made" the championship game. Never mind the 4 losses (minimum) each team finished the season with. Clearly superior to the Ole Miss 2003 divisional co-champ team at 10-3 and 7-1 in conference.

:tldr:

This post was edited on 12/20/12 at 6:53 pm