Still the best recruits. Still the best coaches. Still the best atmospheres. Still the best of everything top to bottom. Games are played. Matchups, fortune, momentum, chaos all play a factor. Perfection is impossible, but SEC dominance has not been diminished. If your argument for a dominant conference has a referendum against it every week, then you need a new argument.

Bama being overrated with mediocre QB play is not a big deal. They still have a billion 5 stars and having them in your league makes you a stronger league. With Kiffin they'll be fine. LSU choking is just a part of the decline, and they were way past due. Ole Miss and Mississippi State were in New Years Day Bowls for crying out loud. Just think about that for a second. The division also rans were good programs. Arkansas demolished a tu team that had a winning conference record. A&M is rebuilding and still won their bowl. The East is in a state of flux. The conference still has gone what? 5-5 in bowls?

Let's look at the other conferences. Pac 12? The conference with Oregon? Stanford was the second best team in their division. Stanford went 8-5. Washington State went 3-9. Oregon State went 5-7 with an OOC of Portland State, Hawaii, and San Diego State. Cal? 5-7. Washington went 8-5(would be 7-5 if they didn't play Hawaii). So you are looking at Washington playing Okie State today with a chance for 9 wins, but let's assume they don't. You have a garbage division with ONE team capable of winning more than 8 games.

Then we look at the Pac 12 South. I think the Colorado head coach, in the midst of his dominant 2-10 campaign claimed the Pac 12 South was better than the SEC West. Lol. A great division for sure. 9-10 win seasons for almost all the other teams. Aside from their rent-wins against Colorado and Pac 12 North teams, they did play good football. USC and UCLA have had some great recruiting classes recently, and the Arizona schools as well. Good coaches as well. Arkansas would beat every one of them and Arkansas was last in the division. So you have a pretty decent division that that the worst team in the SEC West would win, and an absolute garbage division.

The ACC is meh. Some teams in the south capable of getting talent in the same regions as the SEC programs, and capable of paying for great coaches. This is a winning formula, but look at the number of teams truly in that realm. It falls off really quickly. Clemson blowing out South Carolina and Oklahoma doesn't change my opinion of them. Boston College, Syracuse, NC State, Wake Forest, UNC, UVA... I don't even care to look up how these teams did this year because it'll never change what they are. Duke is a special case. I think because of the money and the region they could be the Stanford of the East, and Miami may have finished last in their division for all I know, but they have money and a recruiting base and could always be back. The rest? Whose left? Pitt, Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech? I mean you've seen them be sporadically successful over the years, and for all the reasons discussed... but even if those teams right now are better than Georgia/Florida/Tennessee... is a conference over a decade stronger or weaker with which group? I'll count the national championships from each group over the last 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years and I'll never take a trio of Pitt, Georgia Tech, and Virginia Tech.

The Big 12 has TCU. A really really good team. They had some close calls and did have a WTF loss to Baylor. Would they beat Alabama? Maybe. Ole Miss did. With a month to prepare and get healthy, they always do well. But their depth is shitty. They went 4-8 last year and would be a few key injuries away from that happening again, but playing in such a weak conference it doesn't ever matter. An extra bye week. Kansas, ISU, SMU, Samford, an extra bye week, Minnesota, Texas Tech, OU, Oklahoma State, West Virgina, and tu. These were 11 weeks of TCU's year. Think about how healthy the Georgia's of the world would be with that.

I will give the B1G all the credit in the world however. That conference is playing up closer to our level. The gap hasn't lessened because the SEC is getting worse, but because they are getting better. Dantonio is a great coach. So is Meyer, especially with the talent Ohio State can garner. Michigan will be good again. Nebraska can never be overlooked. Penn State either. When you start in to the realm of 5 or 6 teams that have a lot of keys to success you are looking at something that has potential. But no team is perfect... let's not forget that Wisconsin lost to LSU. All games are important in creating your narrative. Why was LSU able to beat them but Auburn not able to? Consider all of the things involved in a college football program, and how the SEC does them better than everyone and you'll realize that wins are hard to come by, and a bowl win is not an indictment on how that team would perform if they had to go through a whole season in our league. Minnesota, Purdue, Indiana, Rutgers, Maryland, Northwestern, and Illinois on your schedule is meh. And those are teams that won't amount to anything.

The SEC currently has five teams in the top ten of the 2015 recruiting rankings. Ten in the top 25. In 2014, it was seven in the top ten and ten in the top 25. 2013? Five in the top ten and 11 in the top 25. 2012? Three in the top five and nine in the top 25. 2011? Four in the top ten and nine in the top 25. 2010? Four in the top ten and eight in the top 25. Will the average of that closely mirror the final rankings? Sure as shite. Because in all those years Ohio State and FSU were in the top ten and usually top five. Oregon not as high, but recruiting services are probably biased towards the south.

What about revenue? According this USA Today thing I just googled, four in the top ten and ten in the top 25. Coaching salaries? Four in the top ten and nine in the top 25. Stadium size? Five in the top ten and ten in the top 25.

TL;DR. The SEC is as strong as ever.