Several ways to look at it. It's possible the SEC wasnt that good but it's also possible, especially with the SEC West, that in a game of attrition they destroyed themselves in conference play. The key is to be the lone good team in a bad conference again and each conference has one or two very good teams.

The cure will be when you only have 4 conferences and getting to the big game is not determined subjectively but by conference wins. That's probably coming but about that time I think you'll also see football falling from favor. It is just a life altering brutal sport.