2021-2022 CFB SEC West preview: Key players, schedule, predictions
2021-2022 SEC West preview
It's difficult to argue against the fact that the SEC West is the best division in college football.
Which team won the national championship? Alabama from the SEC West. The year before? LSU from SEC West. The team with the most championships from the last decade? You know the drill.
Alabama is the biggest powerhouse in college football right now and its dominance within the division is far from surprising. But that doesn't stop with the Crimson Tide alone: between the last 12 SEC Championships, a team from the West division has won the conference in 11 of them.
When people complain about any kind of SEC bias in rankings, it's impossible not to recognize that a positive record in the SEC is a testament to the quality of any team. It's the strongest conference in the entire FBS, and its West division is the home of a number of historic powerhouses.
Seven teams are members of the SEC West Division:
SEC West
- Alabama Crimson Tide
- Arkansas Razorbacks
- Auburn Tigers
- LSU Tigers
- Mississippi State Bulldogs
- Ole Miss Rebels
- Texas A&M Aggies
After another national championship for Alabama, the sixth since Nick Saban joined the university in 2007, Texas A&M was also a great team last year, but the Aggies couldn't enter the Playoff race as their only loss was to the Crimson Tide and, they subsequently couldn't play in the SEC Championship Game, as the committee decided Notre Dame was the better team for the fourth spot.
Other teams deserve mention as well. LSU, the 2019 champion, lost a huge amount of talent to the pro level and to opt-outs before the season, and the fact that they even finished the season .500 was impressive. Auburn and Ole Miss also had a ton of positives during the season, while Mississippi State was a huge disappointment in Mike Leach's first year.
Arkansas had a bad season, but it was totally expected, as they had a new coaching staff, not a lot of talent in place and not too much time to practice with all the COVID-19 implications.
While not as big as in the Big Ten, the gap between the West and East divisions is sizeable. But since Kirby Smart, a former Alabama defensive coordinator, was hired as head coach in Georgia, the Bulldogs have become a big threat to the West hegemony, even playing in the 2018 Playoff final... only to lose to Alabama, of course.
Now that you know which teams are members of the SEC West Division, let's take a deeper dive.