Worst SEC champions of the last 18 years is...

Easily 1999 Alabama. The SEC West has never been as weak as it was in 1999. Alabama's competition in the West was a 5-6 Auburn team, a 3-8 LSU team, an 8-4 Arkansas, an 8-4 Ole Miss team, and a 10-2 Mississippi State team who played one of the absolute worst schedules in college football history. Going into the Alabama game with an 8-0 record the only team they had played with a winning record was Kentucky (they finished 6-6).

Florida was having the worst season that they would ever have under Spurrier. Their two best quarterbacks suffered season-ending injuries and finished 9-4 because of it. Tennessee was the best team in the SEC that year and were kept out of the title game due to a controversial touchdown call at the end of the Florida game that should have been ruled incomplete.

As an Alabama fan, 1999 Alabama survived on pure luck and the play of Shaun Alexander and Chris Samuels. We lost to Louisiana Tech 30-24 (after trailing them at halftime 15-3!). If not for a muffed punt with just over two minutes to go we would not have taken Florida into overtime in the Swamp. We struggled against Vanderbilt, Houston, Arkansas, and Ole Miss - all four teams ranging from mediocre to piss poor. Alabama was physically dominated by a mediocre LSU team and had to rely on a miraculous goal line stand to win as time expired. They were also dominated physically by Auburn in the Iron Bowl before Shaun Alexander took over late in the fourth quarter.

Bottom line, 1999 Alabama was a mediocre team that won the SEC in one of the weakest years in modern conference history.