Southeastern Conference Prevails
LSU's National Championship Caps League's strong Postseason Showing
Seven of nine teams won 2007 postseason bowl games to back the SEC's claim that it is the strongest conference in the nation. Tigers, Georgia top country in final poll.
Shortly after LSU won the 2007 Bowl Championship Series national title, the Tigers chanted, “SEC, SEC, SEC.”
Indeed, the Southeastern Conference was dominant in the 2007 postseason, from LSU’s overpowering 38-24 victory against Ohio State to the league’s six other victories in eight bowl games.
In all, Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi State, Auburn, Alabama and Kentucky joined LSU in the winner’s circle. LSU gave the SEC its second straight national champion, with Florida having won in 2006.
Florida wasn’t as fortunate in the 2007 postseason, losing to Michigan in the Capital One Bowll, while Arkansas succumbed to Missouri in the Cotton Bowl.
Other than that, though, the 12-team conference flexed its muscle in stating its case as the best league in the country. LSU capped it all in thrashing Ohio State in the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, where Georgia already had made short work of previously unbeaten Hawaii in the Sugar Bowl, 41-10.
LSU gave the SEC its fourth national champion in the 10-year history of the BCS and its sixth national title since expanding to 12 teams in 1992. The SEC is the only league to have five coaches with national championships to their credit:
- Steve Spurrier, South Carolina (won title in 1996 while at Florida)
- Phillip Fulmer, Tennessee (won title in 1998)
- Nick Saban, Alabama (won title in 2003 while at LSU)
- Urban Meyer, Florida (won title in 2006)
- Les Miles, LSU (won title in 2007)
LSU and Georgia finished first and second, respectively, in the final sportswriters and sportscasters poll, marking the first time the SEC has accomplished that feat and the first time any conference has done so since the Big Eight Conference in 1971.
The seven bowl victories were the most ever by any conference in NCAA history. The SEC had won six bowls after the 2006 season and five bowl games six times prior to that.
The SEC led all FBS teams during the 2007 season with an 82.4 winning percentage (47-10) against non-conference teams. Its 47 non-conference victories tied the league record set in 2006.
The SEC drew an NCAA-record 6.6 million fans to its games in 2007, averaging a record-tying 75,139 fans per game.
Florida quarterback Tim Tebow and Arkansas running back/quarterback Darren McFadden finished first and second, respectively, in the final 2007 Heisman Trophy voting. Tebow also won the Maxwell Trophy and McFadden the Walter Camp Trophy.
It was the first time the SEC had two student-athletes named National Player of the Year in the same season.
Tebow and McFadden were among seven SEC players who earned All-America first-team honors in 2007, further solidifying the SEC’s claim that it is the strongest league in the country.
