It's the SEC, Stupid!

“It’s the economy stupid!” – James Carville

James Carville, the political consultant and rabid LSU football fan who loves the Tigers more than he loves the politics, coined that phrase during the 1992 presidential election when Bill Clinton was running against George H.W. Bush. If Carville had been watching the first round of the National Football League Draft Thursday night, he might have said, “It’s the SEC stupid” and he would be right.

It is the SEC. It’s been that way for the past 20 years and if we judge by talent alone, it is going to be that way for years to come. Think of the draft as the equivalent of the free posing round at a sanctioned body building contest when the participants strike one pose after another, each one designed to show off bodies where fat departed long ago, replaced by muscles that seem to teeter on the verge of popping out of the outer layer of skin that contains them. Everyone at these contests has a powerful, muscle-laden body but there is only one that truly stands out from the rest. In the world of college football, the one with the most muscles that poses all the others into the corner is the Southeastern Conference.

The draft is the annual showcase for the whole world to see just how dominant the Southeastern Conference has become, particularly in football since it is cash cow for all athletics. Football national championships are the clear indicator of a wide gulf that exists between the SEC and everyone else. As if national championships aren’t a clear indicator of superiority – Alabama won the national championship back in January, its sixth since 2009, the SEC’s 12th since 2003 – then the NFL Draft removes all doubt. And it’s not a one-time deal. This is the way it is every single year.

Thursday night, a little less than four months removed from Alabama’s epic 52-24 beatdown of Ohio State for the national championship at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, the SEC went into free pose mode and once again outmuscled the competition. It was only the first round – there are six more to go – and 12 SEC players were selected. That’s not a record – 15 SEC players were taken in the first round last year – but it was more than enough to blow the competition away. Six of the SEC players selected came from Alabama, tying the record Miami had held since 2004.

Perhaps it is only fitting that the only team that actually had a chance to beat Alabama in 2020 – Florida, which lost to the Crimson Tide, 52-46, in the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta – started the SEC run on talent when tight end Kyle Pitts was taken No. 4 by the Atlanta Falcons. Not only was Pitts the first SEC player selected but he became the highest drafted tight end in history. By the time the curtain closed on the first round, the SEC dominated. The scorecard read: SEC 12; ACC 7; Big Ten 6; Pac-12 3; American Athletic Conference 2, Independents 1; Missouri Valley 1.

There are six rounds to go and by the time Mr. Irrelevant – the final player chosen in the seventh round – hears his name called Saturday evening, the SEC could be closing in on last year’s all-time record 64 selections.

So, how does the SEC dominate on the field and in the NFL Draft every year? To a large degree it begins with recruiting. It’s not unusual for the SEC to have as many as ten of the top 25 recruiting classes. In 2017, the year that provided seven of the 12 SEC first rounders of 2020, Alabama finished with the No. 1 class in the nation. Georgia (3), LSU (7), Auburn (9), Florida (11), Texas A&M (13), Tennessee (17), South Carolina (21) and Mississippi State (24) finished in the top 25. The 2018 recruiting class provided the other five first rounders. Georgia finished No. 1 nationally with Alabama (5), Auburn (12), Florida (14), LSU (15), Texas A&M (17), South Carolina (18) and Tennessee (21).

Alabama’s classes tend to land a high number of 5-star recruits but the foundation is always at the 4-star level. But Alabama develops its talent as evidenced by quarterback Mac Jones, who was a 3-star recruit out of Jacksonville Bolles in 2017. Prior to Nick Saban offering Jones after watching him throw, Jones’ best offer was Kentucky. Jones signed in the same class in which Alabama landed Tua Tagovailoa, got his first start when Tua was hurt in 2019 and in 2020 he became a first team All-American.

First rounders Jamin Davis (Kentucky), Kadarius Toney (Florida) and Eric Stokes Georgia were all 3-star recruits who were all ranked outside the top 400 players nationally. So, it’s not just about recruiting in the SEC, but player development. Great recruiting only works well when there is good coaching. Talent will take you only so far.

Here are the SEC’s 12 first rounders and their ranking as recruits:

ALABAMA

Jaylen Waddle, WR (No. 6 to Miami): Waddle was a 4-star recruit in 2018 coming out of Episcopal High School in Bellaire, Texas. He was the No. 39 player overall in 2018, the No. 5 wide receiver.

Patrick Surtain II, CB (No. 9, Denver): Surtain’s dad played in the NFL. Coming out of American Heritage in Fort Lauderdale, he was a 5-star recruit in 2018, the No. 6 player overall and the No. 1 corner.

Devonta Smith, WR (No. 10, Philadelphia): The 2020 Heisman Trophy winner was a 4-star recruit out of Amite, Louisiana in 2017. He was the No. 62 player overall and the No. 9 wide receiver.

Mac Jones, QB (No. 15, New England): Jones was a 3-star recruit out of Jacksonville Bolles in 2017 when he was the No. 398 player overall and the No. 18 quarterback.

Alex Leatherwood, OL (No. 17, Las Vegas): Leatherwood was a 5-star recruit out of Booker T. Washington in Pensacola in 2017. He was the No. 4 player overall and the No. 1 offensive tackle.

Najee Harris, RB (Pittsburgh): Harris was a 5-star recruit out of Antioch, California, the No. 2 player overall in the 2017 draft class and the No. 1 running back.

FLORIDA

Kyle Pitts, TE (No. 4, Atlanta): Coming out of high school in suburban Philadelphia in 2018, Pitts was the No. 5 tight end in the country in 2018 and the No. 162 player overall.

Kadarius Toney, WR (No. 20, New York Giants): A converted high school quarterback, Toney was a 3-star recruit in 2017, ranked No. 421 overall and the No. 25 athlete.

LSU

Ja’Marr Chase, WR (No. 5, Cincinnati): Coming out of Archbishop Rummel in Metairie, Louisiana in 2018, Chase was a 4-star recruit, the No. 84 player overall and the No. 15 wide receiver.

SOUTH CAROLINA

Jaycee Horn, CB (No. 8, Carolina): Horn was a 4-star recruit out of Alpharetta, Georgia in 2018 where he was the No. 209 player overall in 2018, the No. 22 corner.

KENTUCKY

Jamin Davis, LB (No. 19, Washington): Davis was a 3-star recruit out of Long County in Loganton, Georgia in 2017. He was the No. 918 player overall in 2017 and the No. 60 linebacker.

GEORGIA

Eric Stokes, CB (No. 29, Green Bay): Stokes was a 3-star recruit out of Covington, Georgia, the No. 668 player in the country in 2017 and the No. 63 corner.

Recruiting is a large part of the SEC dominance equation but recruiting has its roots in other contributing factors. Take coaching for instance. No league is as committed to the best coaches as the SEC and the proof is in the money. In 2020, six of the top 11 salaries belonged to SEC coaches and nine of the top 25. Nick Saban ($9.1 million) and Coach O ($8.7 million) ranked 1-2, followed by Jimbo Fisher (Texas A&M, $7.5 million, No. 5), Gus Malzahn (Auburn, since fired; $6.9 million, No. 6); Kirby Smart (Georgia, No. 7), Dan Mullen (Florida, No. 11), Mike Leach (Mississippi State) and Mark Stoops (Kentucky) tied at No. 18) and Will Muschamp (South Carolina, since fired, $4.4 million, No. 25).

The SEC pays coaches more than any other league, but more is also demanded of SEC coaches. With the big salaries comes a quick hook. It’s either win or be gone. One small caveat to the big salaries is fired coaches get big enough buyouts that they only have to coach again if their heart is truly in it. Gus Malzahn was fired at Auburn. He landed a job almost immediately at UCF where he will be paid $2.3 million that won’t offset against the $21 million Auburn had to pay him when fired. South Carolina is paying Will Muschamp $18 million not to coach there next year.

Facilities also make a difference but even facilities can be tied to recruiting. Kids are swayed by what they see in locker rooms, dorms, dining halls, practice facilities and operations centers as much as full stadiums in non-pandemic years. Alabama’s facilities are palatial and those at Texas A&M and Arkansas rank with the best nationally as well. The Manning Center at Ole Miss is classy. South Carolina just opened up a brand new football operations facility that it needed to compete with cross-state rival Clemson, whose facilities rival those at Alabama. Florida has a new football operations center under construction that should open up next year. Nearly every stadium in the league has received an upgrade in recent years. Vanderbilt, whose stadium is by far the worst in the league, has committed $300 million to upgrading the entire athletic plant with a substantial amount dedicated to stadium improvement.

There are schools outside the Southeastern Conference that have made the commitment to upgrading their facilities, but on a league-wide basis, there isn’t one out there capable of competing top to bottom with the Southeastern Conference.

Facilities are also tied to money. The SEC rakes it in thanks to the SEC Network and with a new contract with ESPN that will pay an additional $20 million a year to every SEC school starting in 2024, facilities will continue to be upgraded and there will be a greater commitment to football. Ten of the nation’s top athletic department budgets are from the Southeastern Conference led by Texas A&M, No. 2 nationally with $212.75 million in revenue. In the top 10 along with the Aggies are Georgia (No. 5 at $174.04 million); Alabama (No. 7 at $164.09 million); Florida (No. 9 at $159.70 million); and LSU (No. 10 at $157.78 million). With the exception of Vanderbilt, a private school that isn’t required to report its finances, all SEC schools are among the top 37 nationally.

Finally, there is the matter of leadership and again, the SEC dominates. The perfect example was the 2020 football season. While the Big Ten and Pac-12 were debating whether or not to play, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey came up with a bold plan in which non-conference games were scrapped and all 14 teams in the league were to play a 10-game schedule. Sankey even had a plan for the league’s 14 stadiums in which capacity was limited to 25 percent.

Because Sankey put some wiggle room in the scheduling process, the SEC was able to schedule makeup dates for games postponed by COVID-19. In all, 69 of the 70 scheduled SEC football games were played.

Sankey’s leadership had a ripple effect as the ACC and Big 12 both scheduled aggressively. Notre Dame joined the ACC even though it was only for one season. The American Athletic, Conference USA and Sun Belt followed the lead of the SEC and most of their schools got in what amounted to a nearly full schedule. The Mountain West and Mid-American followed the lead of the Big Ten and Pac-12. All four of those conferences proved to be big losers.

When you add together recruiting, facilities, financial commitment and leadership, and it’s easy to understand how one league can produce so much high level talent. There isn’t a league out there capable of matching the full level of commitment that is found in the Southeastern Conference.

So when you hear one SEC player after another announced during the final two days of the NFL Draft, just remember these words: It’s the SEC, stupid!