I know it is nothing more than life in the SEC, another season of upsets, blowouts, and hard-fought games in the trenches.  But this season seems to have a different tone to it.  Take a quick look:

The West:

            -We beat Miss St 3-2, lose to LSU 26-21, beat UT 14-12, lose to Vandy and Arkansas in close games.

            -Ole Miss plays close all year, loses to Vandy, beats UF, loses to S Car, and loses a close one to Bama.

            -Miss St loses to us 3-2, is able to score 24 on LSU in its loss at Tiger Stadium, beats Vandy then gets routed by UT 34-3.

            -Bama blows out Arkansas and UGA but narrowly beats UK and Ole Miss.

            -LSU beats us, handles Miss St, gets blown out by Florida and narrowly beats S Car.

            -Arkansas gets man handled by Bama and plays UF close until the 4th quarter, beats us then loses to UK after UK comes back by scoring 14 unanswered in the 4th.

The East:

            -Florida routs UT, loses a close game to Ole Miss, and was in a close game with Arkansas until the 4th quarter then blows out LSU.

            -UGA narrowly beats S Car, gets blown out by Bama, man handles UT and beats Vandy.

            -S Car narrowly loses to Vandy and Georgia, beats Ole Miss and UK then narrowly loses to LSU.

            -Vandy wins in close games to S Car, Ole Miss & us and leads the SEC east then loses to Miss St and Georgia.

            -UK nearly upsets Bama, loses to S Car, then has to come from behind to beat Arkansas.

            -UT is blown out by Florida, narrowly loses to us, loses to UGA, then routs Miss St.

And those are only conference games, those don't include (to name a few) UT getting beat by lowly UCLA, La Tech and GA Tech beating Miss St, Arkansas' near losses to Western Illinois and La Monroe or Bama's quarrels with Tulane before beating them a week after man handling Clemson.

After seeing who has beat who and in what fashion it made me start thinking this weekend, is the SEC down this year or that good?  And the conclusion I came to is neither and both; huh?.  But rather the SEC is now that deep where no one is safe week to week.  I know that is college football and reason 12546895632458 (to add to a commentor's list earlier this year) that this sport is arguably the best. 

But the fact remains that when the power houses of the last decade are narrowly beating and losing to second tier SEC teams while blowing out fellow powerhouses all while the second tier programs are easily beating each other but are also silent giant killers and easily capable of pulling the upset, that your conference is deep in talent and thus with out argument the toughest in the nation.  Regardless of who your team is (for our visitors) we should all be proud to be apart of this great conference because this is the only conference that gives you a full slate of good games every week, where every team had better bring their A game every week.  You don't get USC - Wazzu, Illinois - Indiana, or an Iowa St - Baylor (no offense, Mr Chizik) game.

So while in the end it is the SEC and some of the results are year to year always close (LSU-AU, UGA-USC, UF-Ole Miss) there have been others.  But again it is the SEC and therefore nothing should come as a surprse.  But this year just has a different tone to it.....at least to me.

Damn I love College Football

War Damn Eagle