No shortage of contenders could mean end for SEC title reign

For every fan who wants to throw a tomahawk at the TV every time an analyst goes on a 20 minute diatribe on SEC dominance or at the mere mention of the phrase "SEC speed" this season is for you. The SEC's title reign will finally come to an end this year. Not for a lack of elite teams; I believe that the best team in the nation resides in Baton Rouge, but the list of title contenders is simply too long for the streak to continue. 

Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Alabama, LSU, Boise, Stanford and Clemson. One of those teams will win the National Championship. Not a mind-shattering prediction I know, but generally the national championship race is not a 7 team race this far along in the season. Of this list, Alabama and LSU and Oklahoma and Oklahoma State play each other leaving the very miniscule chance that we could end the season with six undefeated teams (7 if you count Kansas State but I couldn’t do it. It was hard enough writing Clemson could run the table with a straight face.) If, in fact, all six teams do go undefeated the winner of LSU/Alabama would undoubtedly get in and it would be hard to pick against them winning the SEC’s 6^th consecutive BCS National Championship, however that’s just not going to happen.

Aside from the rigors of playing week in and week out SEC football, Alabama and LSU have the challenge of completing an undefeated season with AJ McCarron and Jarrett Lee/Jordan Jefferson at quarterback respectively. At some point you’re going to fall behind at home or find yourself down by 5 with two minutes left and you are depending on one of these guys to win the game? Doesn’t bode too well.

On the flip side the other contenders I mentioned have Russell Wilson, Landry Jones, Brandon Weeden, Kellen Moore, Andrew Luck and Tajh Boyd. If you are picking a QB in crunch time out of this bunch don’t you take any of those guys over McCarron, Jefferson or Lee?

The biggest players in all of this are Wisconsin and Stanford. Neither team has truly been tested and has dominated everyone they have played thus far. They should be favored in every game they play the rest of the way and each has only one or two challenges in the way. Wisconsin has a tough road trip to Michigan State and the Big Ten championship game while Stanford takes on an Oregon team that may be the best one-loss team in the nation, plays a sneaky-good Washington team and the inaugural Pac-12 Championship game. With exception of Oregon-Stanford, I think these are games that Wisconsin and Stanford win handily.

Adding to the intrigue of this season are Boise and Clemson. Of all the undefeated teams, Boise and Clemson are the biggest wildcards. Boise is virtually a lock to go undefeated. They should beat all of their remaining opponents by double digits (as a TCU fan that was painful to write). However unless TCU or Georgia make impressive strides they will not have any opponents who finish in the top 25 at the end of the season. Will voters take into account their prior achievements? I don’t think they will but this is college football. What we expect to happen rarely does.

Then there’s Clemson. Every year Clemson has great talent and appear to be a favorite to win the ACC and play in the BCS. Every year they epically fail. This year though they appear to be different. When they went on a tear and beat three top 25 teams in a row (Auburn, Virginia Tech, Florida State) it could have possibly broke whatever cosmic spell or curse that ailed them. A road trip to Georgia Tech and the ACC championship game lurk, but what do voters do with an undefeated Clemson team?

With so many teams having legitimate shots at going into their bowl games undefeated the chances of a one-loss team, even from the SEC, appearing in the National Championship game should be none. For LSU and Alabama that's bad news. The SEC has finally caught up with itself, they are in danger of not even having a representative to defend their title.

The beauty of a college football season comes from the constant debates and storylines that emerge. This season has no shortage. I believe we are in for one thrilling conclusion and as cliché as it is every week matters. One thing I can say is that the SEC won’t be continuing their impressive streak of National Championships. Then again, this is college football. What we expect to happen rarely does.