Destin, Fla. — The SEC has won college football's last two national championships. The league put nine teams into bowls last season and seven of them won. The SEC had two teams in the BCS (LSU, Georgia) and both of them won. In 2007 the SEC had the Heisman Trophy winner (Florida quarterback Tim Tebow), the Heisman Trophy runner-up (Arkansas running back Darren McFadden), and the nation's best defensive player (LSU tackle Glenn Dorsey).

But as the annual SEC Spring Meetings drew to a close here Thursday, the league's coaches, who don't agree on much, were unanimous on this: As good as the SEC was in 2007, the league will be even better in 2008. In fact, many of them said they were returning home to recharge their batteries for what is looking like one of the most competitive SEC races ever.

"Oh, I don't think there is any doubt that the conference is going to be better," Florida's Urban Meyer said. "Just look at who everybody has coming back. Look at the coaches. Look at the fans. When you put great players with great coaches and you play in great venues, then you have the SEC."

Nine teams in the SEC won seven games or more in 2007 and this season eight teams in the league return 14 starters or more. Six teams in the SEC return their starting quarterback and one of those is Tebow, who will try to become only the second player in history (after Ohio State's Archie Griffin in 1974-75) to win two Heisman Trophies.

"I know people get tired of me saying this but when you look down the list of these teams it's obvious that the SEC is going to be better," Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer said. "There will be no weeks off. There are no easy wins. It's pretty incredible when you look at it."

The preseason polls put together after spring practice certainly indicate that the SEC will be very good again. Four teams (Georgia, Florida, Auburn, and LSU) were in the Top 10 of at least one of five polls examined by the AJC. Georgia, the preseason favorite to win the championship, was No. 1 or No. 2 in all five polls. A total of six teams were ranked somewhere in at least two of the polls.

The coaching in this league, which was already top shelf, has gotten an upgrade during the offseason.

When LSU beat Ohio State 38-24 in last January's BCS championship game, Les Miles became the fifth SEC coach with a national title on his resume. No other conference in Division I-A football has more than two coaches who have won national championships.

Two other coaches (Georgia's Mark Richt and Auburn's Tommy Tuberville) have won SEC championships. Houston Nutt of Ole Miss took Arkansas to the SEC championship game twice (2002, 2006).

The roster of good coaches in this league got even deeper with a couple of moves at the end of last season. Nutt left Arkansas after 10 seasons to become the head coach at Ole Miss. Nutt's arrival in Oxford has energized the fan base after three disastrous years under Ed Orgeron. A record crowd of 28,311 turned out for the spring game.

Arkansas filled its opening with Bobby Petrino, who bolted from the Atlanta Falcons with three games left in his first season as head coach. Petrino did not leave any admirers in the NFL, but he did turn Louisville (2003-06) into a Top 10 program. Now the Arkansas fan base, which was divided in Nutt's last season, is excited again.

"Every where we went we had record crowds," said Petrino, who was offensive coordinator for one season at Auburn [2002] before he went to Louisville. "The support has been incredible."

Auburn's Tuberville says this all-star lineup of coaches in the SEC is not a coincidence.

"The SEC has become the place that coaches want to be," Tuberville said. "Coaches are competitive people and they want to test themselves against the best. The SEC has the best coaches, the best players and the best fans.

"And the pay ain't too bad either."

When LSU won the national championship, Miles' contract called for him to be one of the three highest-paid coaches in college football. Since that was not easily determined, Miles' agent settled for making him the highest paid coach in the SEC. At $3.751 million, Miles becomes the third coach in the SEC to top the $3 million mark per season. Both Tuberville and Petrino are close at $2.8 million. Two other coaches (Georgia's Mark Richt and Tennessee's Phillip Fulmer) earn just over $2 million.

"A while back it became pretty obvious that if you wanted to compete in this league, you were going to have to step up the plate," Tuberville said. "It's obvious the schools in the SEC have done this."

So what does all of this mean for this fall? It means that the odds are significantly against any team in the SEC going undefeated. Florida won the national championship in 2006 with one loss. In 2007 LSU became the first team to win a championship with two losses.

Now Georgia, 11-2 a year ago, looks like the team best equipped to continue the SEC's dominance in 2008. That is, if the Bulldogs can survive a gauntlet that includes eight brutal games in the toughest conference in college football.

"That's life in the SEC," said Georgia coach Mark Richt.

Yes it is. And it's not getting any easier.