There is little denying SEC dominance when it comes to National Championships over the past 20 years, thanks most recently to Alabama and Georgia (LSU and Florida ~20 years ago). But the middle of the SEC is where the conference hangs its hat, and I love to use Texas A&M as the measuring stick for that argument.
ATM was 69-56 (0.552) in the Big 12 (conference record only) and is 59-47 (0.5566) in the SEC. That doesn't tell me the SEC, on average, is a far better conference. Nor does it tell me that aggy is that much better - they are still where they always are...in the middle.
Go back 15-20 years, the SEC has been spinning a narrative they were the best, and it worked! Multiple rounds of realignment later, teams panicked or were greedy or whatever, and it only fed that narrative. B1G jumped on recently, and the Big 12 was, frankly, in reaction mode from the 1st round of realignment on. I think Yormark has brought balance and confidence to the Big 12 brand and that is a great start.
No one knows what this will look like in 20 more years, but let's hope there are more Big 12 National Champions than anyone expects!
ATM was 69-56 (0.552) in the Big 12 (conference record only) and is 59-47 (0.5566) in the SEC. That doesn't tell me the SEC, on average, is a far better conference. Nor does it tell me that aggy is that much better - they are still where they always are...in the middle.
Go back 15-20 years, the SEC has been spinning a narrative they were the best, and it worked! Multiple rounds of realignment later, teams panicked or were greedy or whatever, and it only fed that narrative. B1G jumped on recently, and the Big 12 was, frankly, in reaction mode from the 1st round of realignment on. I think Yormark has brought balance and confidence to the Big 12 brand and that is a great start.
No one knows what this will look like in 20 more years, but let's hope there are more Big 12 National Champions than anyone expects!