Opening weekend certainly did not go the way many SEC fans expected. After losing five non-conference games over the weekend, with Ole Miss still to play Florida State on Monday night, many in the national media are reacting to the rough start.

ESPN college football analyst Danny Kanell joined Mike and Mike Monday morning to offer his thoughts on the SEC.

“If you look at it over the last four or five years you could say ‘Look at all the different championships,’ Kanell said. “With Auburn, the Cam Newton year was sort of a fluke for Auburn. They got hot and captured that lightning in a bottle. Florida, with Tim Tebow, was another one that was kind of an incredible player. But they’re not that much different than every other conference. They really aren’t.”

Kanell has been known to speak out against the SEC, but he was quick to acknowledge Alabama as the conference’s unquestioned leader. There is no doubt that the Crimson Tide have been arguably the best team in college football under Nick Saban, but saying that they’ve been carrying the conference serves to undermine the SEC’s depth.

“That’s kind of what the conference has been,” Kanell said. “It’s been Alabama. They’ve carried the torch for this conference.

Alabama was among the winners in Week 1, blowing out Southern California 52-6, and looks to be in good shape heading into the season. The rest of the SEC will need to bounce back after the rough start, or people may be questioning whether the conference’s supremacy has come to an end.

“They are the top conference in college football. They are,” Kanell said. “I think they’re extremely talented and they have a ton of guys in the NFL. But it’s not that far removed from everybody else. There’s always a conversation around here that the SEC is head and shoulders above everybody else. And the more people around here that say it, the more you all kind of go into this group think and everyone falls in line with it. All I’ve wanted to do is challenge that line of thinking and say ‘Hey, they’re not unbeatable.’ And I think we saw that this weekend.”