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TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Like so many college football fans, University of Alabama junior safety Landon Collins was riveted to a TV last Saturday afternoon, unable to take his eyes off the action.
Arkansas was facing Texas A&M, on paper arguably the most lopsided game in the Southeastern Conference’s Western Division this season and featuring teams that were about as different as can be. When the Aggies finally pulled out a 35-28 victory in overtime at A&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, Collins finally had an appreciation for just how tough the West is this season.
“I just said, ‘This is crazy. This is going to be a crazy season,’” he said. “There are a lot of things going different ways you didn’t expect. You just never know. It’s like they say, any given Saturday you don’t know what can get you beat or what kind of game you’ll get.”
We’ve all heard the descriptions, from the toughest division in all of sports to college football’s version of the group of death, but this like pitting Death Stars against Death Stars.
In the latest Associated Press poll there are three West teams in the top six, obviously matching the number from all other conferences combined. There are also six in the top 15, and had the Razorbacks held on against the Aggies they’d be ranked as well.
That’s so good it’s ridiculous. If the teams in the states of Alabama and Mississippi alone took on the top four teams from any other conference this weekend they’d probably all be favored to win.
Again using the AP poll it would be the Pac-12 with No. 3 Alabama vs. No. 2 Oregon (which lost at home to Arizona on Thursday night); No 5 Auburn vs. No. 8 UCLA, No. 11 Ole Miss vs. No. 14 Stanford, and No. 12 Mississippi State vs. No. 16 Southern California. Vegas would have a tough time with that first game because the Crimson Tide is also No. 1 in the Amway Coaches’ Poll (which has the Ducks fourth).
“I think that it’s always been that way to some degree,” Coach Nick Saban said. “Certainly this year is even more so in terms of the quality of the teams.”
About the only thing he could compare it to is the National Football League, which plays a 17-game regular season instead of 12 and only one team in the modern era has ever finished undefeated.
“Tampa Bay gets beat 56-whatever by the (Atlanta) Falcons and then they come back the next week and beat somebody else,” he said. “What is that? It’s mind-set. It’s preparation. It’s getting ready to play. It’s the other team having the right respect for the importance of playing with consistency. I mean, it happens in college football. USC wins, Boston College beats them, Boston College loses to Colorado State …
“There’s a consistency in performance that has to come from a lot of maturity from the players on your team in terms of what the importance of preparation is and how that enables you to play your best and play your game when the time comes on Saturday.”
Overall, the SEC as a whole has played 37 non-conference games and is 34-3, for an eye-opening winning percentage of .919. The three losses were Vanderbilt to Temple, Tennessee at Oklahoma, and Missouri vs. Indiana.
The West has a perfect record, 22-0, and almost certainly still will when the bowls start up in December. The remaining non-conference opponents are Western Carolina, UAB, Samford, Presbyterian, Tennessee-Martin and Louisiana-Monroe.
Meanwhile, it’s disposed of Boise State, Kansas State, Texas Tech, West Virginia and Wisconsin without a blemish. The West is also undefeated against the SEC East so far, at 3-0.
With three top-25 matchups this week — Alabama at Ole Miss, LSU at Auburn, and Texas A&M at MSU — every team in the West will face at least four more ranked teams this season. Arkansas and Texas A&M will play six in seven games, as neither has had a bye yet, and Auburn gets six in eight games. Alabama and Ole Miss both play five, while LSU and Mississippi State are “lucky” teams that only play four.
In comparison, No. 1 Florida State has one remaining ranked opponent, Oregon two, UCLA three, and No. 4 Oklahoma and No. 7 Baylor four (but with no conference championship game).
Trying to pick a team that will survive this shootout and eventually represent the Wild, Wild West in the SEC Championship Game is difficult enough, but perhaps an even tougher question is which teams will finish below .500 in conference play?
Arkansas is already 0-2 so its chances of being in the top half of the standings are pretty slim, but who else? No. 15 LSU?
That’s how tough the division is this year.
“Yes, but that’s the way it is,” senior linebacker Trey DePriest said. “The SEC every year is a power conference, and us having to play all those teams is going to be a long road. We’ve got six or seven straight SEC games, so it’s going to be tough. But the coaches will have us prepared for it. We’ll be all right.”
Christopher Walsh has covered Alabama football since 2004 and is the author of 19 books. In his free time, he writes about college football.