By: JJ Lanier

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

All good things must come to end…..or so I hear.

Sometimes it may end abruptly, much like the career of whomever it was that decided to give Jethro Tull the Grammy for Best Hard Rock Album over Metallica, Jane’s’ Addiction, and AC/DC. And sometimes it just happens to run its course, kind of like stuffed crust pizza. The SEC’s reign as the strongest football conference in the country seems to be dwindling with almost every passing week.

That’s not to say you don’t have a valid argument that it’s still the nation’s best conference, it’s just that margin of difference is more along the lines of a Prescott to Romo gap than it is a Rodgers to whoever the hell is Green Bay’s backup quarterback.

One of the things the SEC could always hang their hat on was the competitive balance throughout the league. It seemed that no matter who actually made the SEC Championship game I usually felt like they were probably two of the best teams in the nation. Because the conference was so strong, top to bottom, I believed no other team in the country could have played as difficult a schedule as either of those two teams would have played.

It was almost more of testament to their success when they made the SEC Championship than whatever bowl game they would play in afterwards.

The SEC still has competitive balance, just not quite in the same light as before. I mean, I could easily say my 6-year old’s baseball league has that same balance, but all I’d be admitting to is that each team has a few players that roll in the dirt, or run around in the outfield playing tag. Just because it competitive doesn’t necessarily equate to being good.

The SEC East is balanced, but I’m not sure anyone would, or should, take that as a compliment.

As weird as it is for me to say this, the SEC kinda reminds me of the ACC this year. Both the West and Atlantic divisions have strong play at the top (Alabama, Auburn, Clemson, Louisville) and teams like Ole Miss, LSU, and FSU that are underachieving, but still extremely talented.

On the other side, the East and Coastal divisions have a few teams (Florida, UNC, Virginia Tech) that have decent records, but it’s more an indication of how awful the rest of their division is as opposed to how good they already are.

Now, I know you could make this basic argument for just about any other conference out there, but that’s kind of the point I’m trying to make.

A few years ago, you could make this argument for all the other conferences, but not the SEC. They were just that dominant.

Five years ago, if you were in 2nd place in the SEC West and ranked in the Top 15, you were a team to be feared. Just this past week, on this website, I voted Auburn as the 10 best team in the country. Do they deserve it? This year, probably.

Do I feel comfortable betting any amount of money they’ll beat a 5-4 Georgia team this weekend? Absolutely not. (And I’m sorry, but I don’t mean that as a compliment to the Athens faithful).

It’s been an impressive run for the SEC the past 15 years or so. Unprecedented really. And while there aren’t any signs of their success stopping, but things are certainly slowing down. It’s ok though, it happens to the best of us. Even to fans of Jethro Tull.