Let’s face it, college football fans–it’s an SEC world
and we’re just living in it.

For the sixth straight season, the BCS National Champion
will come from the Southeastern Conference thanks to the
LSU-Alabama rematch that will take place on January 9th
for all the marbles.

Just sixty-five days after they met in Tuscaloosa in what
was being billed as “The Game of the Century”, the Tigers
and Crimson Tide will meet again for all the marbles,
which begs the question, what do you call the rematch of
“The Game of the Century?”

The rest of college football now bows to the SEC, which
not only produces the national champion every year, but
has also produced the Heisman Trophy winner in three of
the last four seasons.

This year, Paul Finebaum, a radio host based in the heart
of SEC Country, has once again thumbed his nose at the
rest of college football in 140 characters or less.

Wednesday on Twitter, Finebaum put out the following:

Much heat leaving RG3 off my Heisman ballot.
Nice player- but SEC defenses would have eaten him alive.
Haters get a clue.

That last sentence punctuates the entire superiority
complex that SEC supporters have. Shame on us for
thinking Robert Griffin III could even survive one week in
the rugged Southeastern Conference.

All Griffin did was throw for 4,000 yards and 36
touchdowns while completing 72.4% of his passes and
leading the nation in passing efficiency against Big 12
competition. How anyone who watched a second of college
football in 2011 and didn’t recognize Griffin’s
accomplishments for a team that had been a perennial
doormat is unfathomable.

Why do I get the feeling that Finebaum’s Heisman ballot
looked like this when it was submitted:

1. Trent Richardson, RB, Alabama

2. Tyrann Mathieu, CB, LSU

3. Irrelevant Yankee

I don’t want to sound like I’m diminishing the
accomplishments of Richardson and Mathieu, who both had
outstanding seasons for great football teams, but to
diminish anyone else’s because of a hypothetical
projection against SEC defenses is well, dumb.

Yeah, SEC defenses are good. In fact Alabama, LSU,
Georgia and South Carolina rank first through fourth in
NCAA total defense this season.

Did you ever think maybe that’s also a product of less-
than-stellar
offenses in the SEC as well. Florida, Tennessee, Auburn
and Kentucky all rank in the bottom 20 in college football
in total offense.

The SEC had one quarterback throw for 3,000 yards in 2011
(Arkansas’ Tyler Wilson); the Big 12 had four throw for
4,000 (Griffin had 3,998). What would the SEC defense
rankings look like if they had to face offenses like
Oklahoma, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Baylor, Texas A&M
and Missouri
week in and week out. All six of those offenses ranked in
the top 14 in the nation.

The SEC is a very good football conference for a lot of
reasons. There are programs with rich histories,
fanatical fan bases and most of all, great football teams.

But let’s stop pretending that the good ol’ boys in the
SEC play a completely different sport than the other 108
FBS teams around the country.

Follow @Vincemarotta