The argument has been made ad nauseam since the end of last season.

The SEC is no longer the best conference in America.

You can debate that until you’re blue in the face. After seeing at least one representative from each Power 5 conference pound its chest and claim its league was the nation’s best, it’s fair to say the discussion is at least up for debate. You know that’s only going to ramp up this weekend with the first full slate of games.

The SEC went 6-6 against other conferences last year in Week 1, including 3-4 against Power 5 schools.

Including LSU-BYU, the SEC will have six matchups against Power 5 teams this weekend, five of which will be played at neutral sites. The SEC has matchups against the ACC, the Big Ten and the Pac-12. It’s essentially bowl season in September.

What do we like to do after bowl season? Declare which conference is college football’s best, of course.

This weekend will be no different. And for the SEC’s downward trending reputation, this will be the biggest weekend to turn the tide until December.

Credit: Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports

If you’re in denial that the SEC’s reputation is trending down, perhaps you missed the fact that the conference failed to put multiple teams in the preseason Associated Press top 10 for the first time since 2003.

The fact that the SEC had one team finish in the final AP top 10 last year is another sign. The “S-E-C! S-E-C!” chants fade when Alabama doesn’t win it all.

But hey, college football is a week-by-week game. Nothing is set in stone, though in an era in which conference supremacy is of the utmost importance, Week 1 has some major implications for the SEC.

When you dig a little deeper into those opening weekend matchups vs. Power 5 teams, it’s easy to see why this weekend is so important. These aren’t a bunch of Missouri vs. Purdue matchups.

All but one game features two bowl teams from last year, and four of them are against teams that won nine games. The one that isn’t (UCLA) is in the country’s second biggest market against an outspoken top quarterback prospect:

  • South Carolina (6-7) vs. NC State (7-6)
  • BYU (9-4) vs. LSU (8-4)
  • Michigan (10-3) vs. Florida (9-4)
  • Texas A&M (8-5) vs. UCLA (4-8)
  • Tennessee (9-4) vs. Georgia Tech (9-4)
  • Florida State (10-3) vs. Alabama (14-1)

The SEC vs. ACC argument seems to have the most juice these days. The fact that they’ll get three matchups on opening weekend will be key come College Football Playoff Poll time. If the SEC sweeps — especially since all of them will be played at a neutral site — the pendulum swings back in the SEC’s favor.

All three of those ACC matchups have spreads that are a touchdown or less, too. In other words, these aren’t a bunch of one-sided matchups that will be dismissed when the College Football Playoff selection committee sits down and evaluates résumés. The committee has said year in and year out that non-conference showings are huge.

It won’t be easy to evaluate the SEC’s strength once conference play starts up. This weekend has something that no other regular season weekend has. That is, the six games against other Power 5 teams. The SEC won’t have another week in which it faces more than three Power 5 foes.

And make no mistake, the Alabama-Florida State game isn’t the only thing that matters when it comes to the conference supremacy argument. Actually, one could argue that it’s even less important than the other games when it comes to that. The narrative is still that it’s Alabama and the rest of the SEC.

We all remember when that narrative started to take shape in Week 1 last year. Against the other Power 5 conferences in the opening week, the SEC was 3-4. On top of that, No. 9 Tennessee nearly lost to Appalachian State at home, Kentucky fell at home to Southern Mississippi and South Alabama knocked off Mississippi State.

Nobody was chanting “S-E-C! S-E-C!” just because Alabama thumped USC. Outside of Alabama, Florida was the only team in the big, bad SEC to win by double digits (a 24-7 grinder at home against UMass). Sure, the opening slate was more difficult than usual, but that was the first time we saw the SEC really show a chink in its armor.

Will that happen again? That remains to be seen. Either way, you’ll likely hear every SEC coach say something to the effect of “it’s just one of 12 games” in their postgame press conference.

On a micro level, that’s true. But on a macro level, a certain phrase should be fresh on the SEC’s mind this weekend.

It just means more.