SEC West rivals Alabama and Auburn have both won national championships in the past several years. (AP photo)
One division can boast five national championships in the past eight years, including four straight from 2009-12.
One can claim three 10-win and two nine-win teams in 2014.
Fans of both divisions claim supremacy, so the debate between the SEC West and Pac-12 South will continue in 2015.
As far as national championships go, no division can compete with the SEC West.
Alabama, Auburn and LSU have taken home the big trophy in the past 10 years, but with FSU and Ohio State winning the past two titles, the Pac-12 South is staking a claim as the nation’s elite.
That tweet was from last November, but expect the arguments and opinions to continue this fall with Arizona, Arizona State and UCLA coming off 10-win seasons. USC won nine games last year and is picked the division this year, and Utah also is coming off a nine-win season.
And then there’s Colorado, which was 2-10.
By comparison, all seven teams from the SEC West went to a bowl in 2014.
Alabama won 12 games and played in a national semifinal and Mississippi State (10-3) was No. 1 for a while before finishing poorly. Auburn, Ole Miss, LSU, Texas A&M and Arkansas all won at least seven games.
“In my opinion, the (SEC) West is the toughest conference in football, and I don’t think it’s close,” Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said at SEC Media Days. “It’s a man’s league. … If you’re not in it, you don’t understand it.”
FSU coach Jimbo Fisher disagrees with that statement.
Both divisions landed four teams apiece in the top 25 for USA Today and Sports Illustrated. In ESPN.com, the SEC West had five teams to the Pac-12 South's four and in CBSSports.com's the SEC West landed six teams to the Pac-12 South's four. Based off that fact alone, one might say that the SEC West is in fact tougher, but saying that it's not even close seems like a bit (read: a major) stretch.
The SEC West is a weekly bloodletting, an intense three-month grind between programs that don’t like each other.
Utah vs. Colorado?
Sounds more like vacation choices.
