Alabama once again enters the college football season as the No. 1 team in the country, but it’s fair to say there are plenty of question marks with the other 13 teams in the conference.

On Saturday’s edition of College GameDay, analysts Desmond Howard, Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit debated whether the SEC is as good as it was when teams from the conference won seven-straight national titles from 2006 to 2012.

Herbstreit said two other major conferences — the ACC and Big Ten — have made strides to close the gap on the SEC in recent years.

“I think the ACC has made strides, not just with Clemson, and I think the Big Ten has come from a different galaxy from where they were six or seven years ago,” he said.

Meanwhile, he added, the SEC East hasn’t been holding up its end of the bargain in recent years:

“Georgia and Florida and Tennessee haven’t been where they should be for a few years now,” Herbstreit said. “I just don’t think it’s the same football it was two or three years ago.”

However, that could be turning around this year, as both Georgia and Florida expect to challenge for the East title and Alabama faces competition from Auburn and LSU in the West.

Only time will tell, though, but one thing is for sure — Alabama will once again be tough to beat.