Our columnist Mark Bradley gives his take on the game.

1. The West still rules the SEC roost. Auburn's 59-42 defeat of Missouri made it five consecutive conference titles for the SEC West, although Auburn, Ala., is geographically east of Columbia, Mo. Only one of the past five title games — last year's Alabama-Georgia epic — has been even close. Alabama beat Florida 32-19 in 2009. Auburn beat South Carolina 56-17 in 2010. LSU beat Georgia in 2011. By recent standards, this was a pretty fair showing by the Eastern representative, if you can call a good showing one in which a team yields 677 total yards and 545 yards rushing, 304 of those to tailback Tre Mason.

2. Do those 304 yards make Mason a viable Heisman Trophy candidate? Probably not — it must be noted that Auburn quarterback Nick Marshall gained 101 yards against a Missouri defense that mustered no resistance whatsoever — but they were mighty impressive this night. Mason carried 46 times and didn't get winded despite flashing into the Missouri secondary on at least two dozen of those. Indeed, he came close to matching the existing SEC Championship game record of 201 — set by LSU's Justin Vincent against Georgia in 2005 – by halftime.

3. How much is a head coach worth? Auburn went 3-9 overall and 0-8 against SEC competition in 2012. One year and three days after hiring Gus Malzahn to replace the fired Gene Chizik, the Tigers are SEC champions. This isn't a very good defensive team — Auburn yielded 534 yards to Missouri and actually trailed late in the third quarter — but Malzahn's offense is indescribably good. Auburn gained its 677 yards while throwing but 11 passes (completing nine). The longest of its nine scoring drives lasted four minutes. The average time of those nine drives was 1:14. To be honest, it didn't seem much like football at all. It was more akin to pinball.