Breaking down the AP college football poll after Week 11 of the regular season.
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MAKING A STATEMENT
That Alabama lost really wasn’t shocking. Surprising, sure, but not shocking. The Crimson Tide is tremendously talented, exceedingly well coached, but as LSU showed last week, vulnerable.
The Tide’s run of 10 weeks at No. 1 in The Associated Press college football poll ended Sunday with Oregon moving into the top spot and Alabama falling to fourth.
No, what was shocking about Johnny Manziel and Texas A&M beating Alabama 29-24 in Tuscaloosa on Saturday was that for the first time in years the Southeastern Conference was no longer in control of college football.
It’s been a while since that was the case. The SEC’s streak of BCS titles started in 2006, when Florida made a late and controversial run to get into the championship game against Ohio State. The Gators validated that choice by pounding the Buckeyes 41-14.
The next season, a wild race full of upsets along the way ultimately put LSU in the title game, and the Tigers took their turn beating the Buckeyes.
Since then, though, the SEC has never had to worry about what was going on in other conferences. The SEC championship game in some years was a de facto national semifinal. In others, it was the last hurdle to clear before the BCS title game.
Now the SEC has been relegated to watching and hoping.
Continue Reading: SEC gives up control of national title race
