God’s gift to college football, the big bully on the block, is limping back to campus with heads down as a discredited overlay. The Alabama Crimson Tide and the rest of the Southeastern Conference are no longer considered invincible after a 5-5 record in bowl games through January 1. The ultimate statement about the SEC’s loss of national dominance was highlighted by Alabama’s 42-35 loss to Ohio State and their third string QB, Cardale Jones, in the Sugar Bowl.
A B1G Win by the Better Team
The Tide entered the game as a 7.5 point favorite. They left in defeat as the lesser team having been outgained 537-407. Ohio State’s Ezekiel Elliott mauled the Tide for 230 rushing yards on 20 carries with two TDs and applied the dagger with an 85-yard TD gallop to put the game out of reach at 42-28 OSU with 3:24 to play. Alabama’s defense was rendered helpless while Crimson Tide QB Blake Sims was unable to solve the Buckeyes’ defense and threw three interceptions.
For the much maligned Big Ten Conference it was a night to savor and capped off a fantastic week of success and headlines that began with the hiring of Jim Harbaugh as head coach of the Michigan Wolverines. Earlier on New Year’s Day, the Michigan State Spartans rallied from a 41-21 fourth quarter deficit to defeat the Baylor Bears 42-41 in the Cotton Bowl. Wisconsin, the team that Ohio State beat 59-0 in the Big Ten Championship Game, stunned Auburn in overtime 34-31.
Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer said that he and his team drew inspiration from the wins by Wisconsin and Michigan State as it demonstrated that the Big Ten could play with “the big boys” of college football. All in all it was a happy day for Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany as his league finished New Year’s Day with a 3-1 record.
SEC Soul Searching
For SEC Commissioner Mike Slive, on the other hand, it was not a joyous New Year’s Day. The SEC’s problems began on Tuesday with LSU losing 31-28 to a Notre Dame team that limped into the Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl on a four game losing streak. New Year’s Eve was a debacle as Ole Miss was obliterated by TCU 42-3 in the Peach Bowl followed by Mississippi State getting shredded by Georgia Tech in a 49-34 loss in the Orange Bowl.
Auburn’s loss to Wisconsin should particularly grate at SEC fans as the Badgers were a one dimensional team that had the nation’s 118th ranked passing offense and yet the Tigers defense was torn apart by Wisconsin as Melvin Gordon powered to 251 yards rushing and three TD’s while Corey Clement added 105 additional rushing yards. Auburn knew what Wisconsin would do and yet was rendered helpless.
The SEC West Division, which was touted all season as the best in college football, fell to a miserable 2-5 bowl record this year. The resurgence of the Big Ten and humbling of the SEC leads to the exciting possibility of a future of parity in college football.
Anyone’s Title?
For the second consecutive season the SEC will not win college football’s national championship after a run of seven national titles in a row from 2006 through 2012. The Big Ten is obviously coming on and Harbaugh to Michigan means that the Big Ten East Division may soon be touted as the best in the land with established powers Ohio State and Michigan State to go along with traditional power Penn State.
The Pac 12 has such impressive programs as Oregon, Stanford, Arizona State, Arizona, and UCLA to go with a USC team that is a traditional power that is still suffering from NCAA imposed scholarship reductions.
Florida State of the Atlantic Coast Conference lost its first game in two years against Oregon in the Rose Bowl and should remain a national power for years to come, while TCU proved that they could play with anyone in the country.
It all adds up to a promising and exciting future for college football in which fans can look beyond the SEC to see top flight football and high stakes matchups.
For the SEC it will be a tough but vital offseason as the battle has now been joined by the rest of the Power Five Conferences. The upcoming 2015 recruiting wars will be the most intense in history.
