If you want to see something with potential long-term ramifications, compare the 247Sports composite team rankings for the conference for 2017 and 2016. What you’ll see is a widening gap between the top and bottom of the SEC. Some of that is due, obviously, to Alabama’s obscene class this year, but, still, in one year the spread between number one and number eight has gone from a little over sixty points to almost 100. That’s pretty significant in my book.
And it’s not as if the conference as a whole has done a shitty job on the recruiting front. Quite the contrary, as this year every SEC program except for Vanderbilt finished in the top fifty nationally. That’s small consolation if you’re trying to find a way to make it to Atlanta, though.
If you want to get a real feel for how the rich are getting richer, here’s what combining the two years’ total points gets you:
- Alabama — 623.94
- LSU — 579.27
- Georgia — 578.59
- Auburn — 531.24
- Florida — 510.54
- Tennessee — 490.09
- Ole Miss — 488.25
- Texas A&M — 487.13
- South Carolina — 444.60
- Mississippi State — 435.22
- Arkansas — 429.90
- Kentucky — 412.60
- Missouri — 369.43
- Vanderbilt — 335.83
That is one brutal arms race that much of the conference is losing there.
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UPDATE: