College football running backs have rushed for 2,000 yards in a season 24 different times.

Wisconsin’s Melvin Gordon (2014), Indiana’s Tevin Coleman (2014) and Boston College’s Andre Williams (2013) all have breached the mark recently.

Not a single SEC player ever has come within 100 yards. Not Herschel Walker. Not Bo Jackson. Not Darren McFadden. Here’s the SEC’s all-time Top 5 list for single-season rushers:

  1. Herschel Walker, Georgia: 1,891 yards in 1981
  2. Darren McFadden, Arkansas: 1,830 yards in 2007
  3. Tre Mason, Auburn: 1,816 yards in 2013
  4. Bo Jackson, Auburn: 1,786 yards in 1985
  5. Herschel Walker, Georgia: 1,752 yards in 1982

There are two major factors that could help the SEC produce a 2,000-yard rusher at some point in the near future, though: spread offenses and the existence of the College Football Playoff.

In fact, Mason, who exploded at the end of the ’13 season against Alabama, Missouri and Florida State, very well could have challenged the mark with just one more big game. Auburn played in the final BCS national championship. One year later, Mason would’ve had an opportunity at that extra game, needing 184 rushing yards.

Great SEC teams now can play in 15 games if they reach the SEC championship and then win in the College Football Playoff semifinals.

Look at Walker’s performance in ’81. Georgia played 12 games that season, including a Sugar Bowl loss to Pitt. If Walker sustained his per-game average of 157.6 rushing yards, with a 15-game schedule he would’ve reached 2,364.

Pace of play, a hot-button item within the SEC and college football at-large the last several seasons, also should benefit running backs aiming for 2,000 yards. Several programs regularly snap the ball in less than 20 seconds. That’s more than three plays per minute for the fastest offenses.

Be serious enough about tempo on offense and your team could run 5 or 10 extra snaps per game. Compounded throughout the course of an entire season, that’s significant.

In addition to more games and more plays, the proliferation of the power spread running game has given a statistical boost to running backs.

After Mason led the SEC in rushing in ’13, Auburn’s Cameron Artis-Payne followed suit last season, topping Georgia’s Nick Chubb. Artis-Payne, good and not great, earned a third-day pick during last week’s NFL draft. He managed to carry the ball 303 times, and at 5.3 yards per carry, that put him above 1,600 yards.

Bump those figures up to 335 carries at 6.0 yards per — say, substitute a first-round talent and give Auburn an additional game — and that player has topped 2,000 yards.

It’s true that from a rules standpoint, passing has become more attractive, not to mention the glorification of quarterback and receiver. Running backs are pretty disposable now, especially on teams loaded with four- and five-star talent.

Georgia can afford to lose a Todd Gurley, the No. 10 overall pick to the St. Louis Rams, without a care when a player like Nick Chubb remains on campus.

Speaking of Chubb, he could’ve seriously challenged 2,000 yards as a true freshman in ’14 if he’d started every game. Chubb averaged 23.5 carries in the final eight contests. If he’d maintained that figure for all 13 games, and still averaged 7.1 yards per carry, he would’ve run for more than 2,150 yards.

It’s difficult to project Chubb, Leonard Fournette or Derrick Henry as 2,000-yard rushers for the ’15 season. So many things have to go right in order for a 2,000-yard rushing season to matriculate, starting with season-long health.

A player also must get a superhero’s share of the backfield carries, play for a run-heavy team that builds a lot of leads, play within an up-tempo offense or all of the above.

But the formula to reach 2,000 rushing yards, both in terms of carries and yards per carry, is getting easier every year. Whether it’s this season or five seasons from now, the SEC will produce a 2,000-yard rusher at some point soon.