SEC Football is the best! Or is it?

Unless you are still sleeping off the ramifications of some New Year's revelry, you are well aware the Southeastern Conference will be represented on both sides of the ball during the College Football Playoff title game Jan. 8 where we will see #3 Georgia versus #4 Alabama.

Georgia beat Oklahoma 54-48 in a double-overtime Rose Bowl classic which ended a little after 9 p.m. EST Sunday. A little bit later, Alabama defeated Clemson 24-6 in the Sugar Bowl that ended sometime after midnight. I have no idea when actually, because I was sleeping during that one.

[NOTE: ESPN Staff Writer David Purdum says Alabama opened as a four-point favorite, and has been favored in 110 of their last 111 games. The last time Georgia was favored over the Crimson Tide was Oct. 3, 2015. Alabama won that game 38-10.] 

That means two SEC teams advanced from the semifinal round to the national championship game, and they jettisoned the current Heisman Trophy winner (OU's Baker Mayfield) and last year's national champion (Clemson) in doing so. Those should be sufficient bullets for the "best college football conference" resume, right? Some don't agree.

FoxSports Radio host Colin Cowherd thinks the SEC is "no longer the deepest, most balanced, most talented conference." He thinks Alabama is the best team in the country, but the conference, as a whole, lacks contenders or significant depth to challenge the Crimson Tide. Cowherd has always been a contrarian though, so let's look to see what others are saying.

Ryan Connors of Landof10 references the Big Ten 7-1 bowl record this year, but also emphasizes you can't judge an entire conference on bowl performance alone. He does believe, however, there were legitimately five contenders for the conference title this year (Ohio State, Wisconsin, Penn State, Michigan State, and Michigan) with Nebraska and Purdue potentially surging into that category next year. Bowl performance, depth, and teams trending up certainly boosts the Big 10 resume.

While Connors doesn't say the Big Ten is better than the SEC, Bill Bender of the Sporting News says the Big Ten is "still the best conference in football." He acknowledges you can't deny the 2007-14 run of dominance by the SEC that included four conference teams winning the national title. Bender, however, points out that until Georgia showed up this year, only Alabama has been in the playoff conversation over the last four years.

Here is the shocker. The Big Ten has had six teams either just missing out (first two out of final four), or making it into the playoffs during that same four-year period, according to Bender. And look again at that 7-1 Big Ten bowl record. That includes going 3-1 against the SEC and the Atlantic Coast Conference, while the SEC went 4-5 in bowl games.

So we have the Big Ten supposedly being deeper, and compiling a better overall bowl game record. If you look at the Football Power Index (for whatever it is worth), it pretty much tells the same story. The SEC has a slight edge through the top 20 teams, and then the advantage swings to the Big Ten.

I have lived substantial portions of my life in the Land of 10 and SEC Country. Big Ten football is compelling, but the most exciting match-ups for me throughout the fall are the top-level SEC games. Conversely, I find SEC basketball unwatchable, and Big Ten hoops must-see TV.

What did I tell you? (Above) Following a mid-'90s basketball session at my neighbor's house in the Hoosierland. Basketball on the other side of the barn was a little restricted with obstacles, but we had lights and you could play at night. (Below) Living in SEC Country in the late '00s and keeping it real with the sport of the region by catching some darts from a four year old. My wife just said yesterday some of my flannels were 10 years old or more -- this picture proves that point.

It is time to start devoting more time in this space to basketball as football dies down anyway. I know we can all agree that Big Ten hoops reigns supreme. Oops, that may not be the case according to some.

Roman Stubbs of the Washington Post wonders in an article from today if Big Ten basketball is no better than a mid-major conference this year. Mark Titus of TheRinger was saying Big Ten basketball was "absolute trash" 11 months ago. Stubbs does point out the conference was supposedly historically awful last year, but ended up getting seven NCAA tournament invites with three teams advancing to the second weekend.

I am just not going to throw any stones at SEC football from my glass-walled Big Ten basketball house.

This College Football Playoff championship game should be awesome. I will be cheering for the Dawgs. I just hope I can manage to stay awake for the Monday night game that will easily go to midnight or later.

[NOTE: If you want to get a better idea on how people like me feel about basketball, check out this older Titus piece. We should probably start reading it aloud to our children when we put them to bed following the Super Bowl like some families might read Twas the Night Before Christmas in December. It is a seriously good read about a place and a time in which I lived. It is like a 75 year old widower writing the obit for his wife of 50 years. It is about a place, time, and community that has vanished.]