It wasn’t pretty and by now, you’ve heard all about it.

The SEC West stunk it up this bowl season despite setting an FBS record with all seven of its teams appearing in postseason games. The two unlikeliest of winners — Arkansas and Texas A&M — kept college football’s most impressive division during the regular season from the dreaded goose egg during bowl week.

What happened to the other five ranked teams? We have an idea:

5. Strength of competition: Four of the West’s five losses came against ranked teams, the creme of the crop in their respective conference. Alabama fell by seven to Big Ten champion Ohio State while Ole Miss dropped the Peach Bowl to Big XII co-champ TCU, the nation’s sixth-ranked team and Playoff snub. Wisconsin and Georgia Tech, ranked 18th and 12th respectively, each played in league title games. Though most games seemed favorable when pairings were announced, by no means were these easy matchups compared to the Eastern Division’s bowl opponents — Miami, Iowa, East Carolina, No. 16 Louisville and No. 25 Minnesota. The West’s lone inexcusable defeat came in Nashville, LSU’s fifth loss of the season and most since 2008. Notre Dame came into the Music City Bowl on four-game losing skid and still managed to rally form a third-quarter deficit to win with a field goal in the final seconds, the first of several black eyes for the West.

4. Quarterback play: Bo Wallace and Blake Sims picked an inopportune time to play their worst games of their senior seasons, combining for six interceptions against TCU and Ohio State. One of Wallace’s turnovers was returned for a touchdown while Sims’ season-high giveaway total cost the Crimson Tide a shot at playing for the national championship. Sims never found a rhythm from the pocket and Wallace was careless with the football.

3. Personnel losses: Coaching changes are a distraction during bowl season, as are unforeseen injuries to players at key positions. Alabama struggled to contain Ohio State’s Ezekiel Elliott in the second half due in large part to linebacker Reggie Ragland’s absence. Auburn and Mississippi State’s defenses were both toasted without their coordinators after Ellis Johnson was fired and Geoff Collins skipped town for Gainesville. This is an understated storyline most chose to ignore in favor of the SEC’s lack of preparation narrative. Untrue.

2. Schematic issues: Ole Miss’ strength on defense was its secondary, but the Rebels ran into an Air Raid buzzsaw on a seven-game winning streak averaging 46.8 points per contest. Accustomed to shootouts in the Big XII, the Horned Frogs were prepared for a high-scoring affair that turned into a one-sided blowout quickly. Despite forcing four turnovers, Ole Miss was on its heels from the start after TCU’s double-pass for a touchdown on its first possession. You can imagine Wisconsin’s Melvin Gordon, a Heisman finalist, liked his chances against Auburn’s oft-criticized front seven. The holes were gaping at the point of attack in the Outback Bowl and Gordon went to work. Mississippi State had no answer for Georgia Tech’s triple option, a frustrating mess for the Bulldogs defensively leading to an embarrassing 452 yards rushing.

1. Lack of defense: Prolonged lay-off. Susceptibility to big plays (looking at you Alabama cornerbacks). Whatever excuse the West wants to use for its lack of defense this bowl season won’t change the fact that tackling was horrific and continued to poke holes in the SEC’s supposed dominance on that side of the football nationally. In seven games, the West gave up on average 432.1 yards and 34.6 points per game, the most in several seasons. Those numbers are slightly skewed thanks to Arkansas’ impressive performance against Texas after limiting the Longhorns to 59 total yards. The end of the season was particularly bad defensively for the Crimson Tide after Kirby Smart’s unit gave up an Iron Bowl record 63o yards to Auburn and 537 to Ohio State in the semifinal.