re: The SEC and the so called GAP

As stated before, it's less an issue of the SEC defenses collapsing, and more a change in offensive identity within the league mixed a continued determination by analysts and fans to put way too much emphasis on total yardage.

Go back to the times before Petrino arrived at Arkansas and you essentially have an entire league running nothing but power running offenses -- offenses that slow down the game, reduce plays and reduce drives. Back then it gave the SEC too much credit defensively and not enough offensively, now it's the opposite.

Stat lines don't ever take numbers into account on a per drive or per play basis, and since now you have most games with more possessions and more plays stat lines look a lot worse.

For example, 350 yards and ~24 points allowed on 12 drives now turns into 420 yards and ~28 points on 14 drives. Same performance, 20% increase in yardage given up.

Conference power is always fluid as programs have good and bad years. The difference though is the gulf in resources, exposure, and support that the SEC has. That general trend isn't going to change any time soon even if it doesn't lead to SEC dominance every single year.