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SEC Epitomized Parity In College Football
Published by MoonDog on November 30, 2009
Ever since the NCAA implemented its 85 scholarship limit in 1994, college football has seen an increasing trend towards parity.
Once the adoption of scholarship limits took full effect, the smaller programs that never had a chance to appear in major bowl games or win a national championship now have an opportunity to achieve what was never possible.
After Alabama’s win over Auburn on Friday and Florida’s victory over Florida State on Saturday, the Southeastern Conference will again have one of its teams vying for a BCS national championship.
Aside from the Crimson Tide and Gators dominating the SEC this season, the majority of the conference’s remaining teams epitomized the parity that exists in college football today.
With the exception of Vanderbilt and Mississippi State, the SEC produced eight teams with winning records.
LSU and Ole Miss finished 9-3 and 8-4 respectively while six teams – Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, Kentucky, Auburn and Arkansas – finished the regular season with 7-5 records.
Much of that parity within the SEC can be attributed to the level of talent each program has. The conference consistently draws the most talented prep football players every year and the latest team recruiting rankings bear that out.
According to Scout, the SEC has five teams currently among their top 10 recruiting classes for 2010 while Rivals lists six.
Not surprisingly, the overall recruiting picture details the continued dominance of the six automatic qualifying BCS conferences. But it’s interesting to note that 29 programs have received commitments from at least one of Scout’s top 100 prep players.
Only one non-automatic qualifier among the BCS conferences has signed any of Scout’s top 100. BYU of the Mountain West has commitments from two top 100 players including Jake Heaps, the nation’s top-rated prep quarterback. 
With so much parity within the SEC, it’s entirely possible that future seasons will see a continuing trend towards many of the league’s teams being bunched together in the standings while one or two teams dominate.
Everyone complaining about the BCS and its supposed monopoly favoring the power conferences have completely missed the one reason why parity exists in college football.
The 85 scholarship limit and the ability of the six power conferences to recruit talented prep players actually helps the smaller programs gain an advantage.
Greater parity among the power conferences bodes well for the non-automatic qualifiers, like TCU, Boise State, BYU and Utah.
If more teams within the automatic qualifying conferences are beating each other up every week, just as we’ve seen this season those programs like the Horned Frogs and Broncos will have better opportunities to play in BCS bowls and even get a shot at the national championship.
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