I have no idea why so many people are dismissing Texas. They lost one game last year and came into the season with a major chip on their shoulder due to their belief they should have been there playing Florida over OU last year. They are winning by an average score of 45-15. Their QB is on a mission and Earl Thomas is a seriously underrated force in their secondary. Sure they feature small scatbacks, but it's not like this is new for them -- this is the school of Eric Metcalf, Priest Holmes, Jamaal Charles, and Selvin Young. If Colt can force the opponent to hesitate and respect his own scrambling ability, the Horns will be very tough to shut down.
I have a feeling it's going to be UT and Florida. It's not like Alabama under Saban has been iron in big games. Apart from nearly choking yesterday, they managed to lay two massive eggs last year in the SEC Championship and the Sugar Bowl against Utah -- two double digit losses to cap off their undefeated regular season. Winning all of your midseason games against the likes of MSU and Vanderbilt doesn't mean jack unless you win the games that count. Despite the rhetoric Alabama hasn't shown they can.
And this Horns team is eerily similar to the one that knocked off the presumed unbeatable best team of all time in 2004. That team quietly beat the crap out of every opponent they faced too, and was seething with resentment as USC got all the blather, hype, and silly uninformed speculation the entire season.
I would agree that the SEC is the best overall conference, but the gap isn't nearly as large as some like to pretend it is. People act like no one outside the conference could possibly even have a winning record in the SEC. Give me a break -- LSU is lucky they aren't .500. Jevon Snead, the same QB that UT said sayonara to (he sucked and couldn't cut it in our program) managed to beat them, and they very nearly laid an egg against a run of the mill Arkansas team. Ole Miss is an ok team, but nothing legendary. They'd be just another run of the mill team in the Big 12 or Pac 10 too, the exact same way they are in the SEC. They are Missouri or Nebraska -- formidable opponents but certainly not unbeatable.
From what I saw the Big 12 and SEC faced off against each other twice this year (Oklahoma State vs Georgia and A&M vs Arkansas). They finished 1-1. The Big 12 South alone had 3 top 10 teams last year, and had 3 top 10 teams to open the season this year. Oklahoma had a star crossed season, but it's not like they've fallen off the map forever. They will be right back there. So will OSU, UT, and Tech. A&M is rapidly improving, as is Nebraska. Missouri is never a pushover. Let's take a breath and realize that the SEC is not playing a different level of football than everyone else. There are some elite teams in the conference, some good ones with flaws, and some mediocre teams. There are even one or two teams that play SEC football who are just not very good, believe it or not.
