Could The Oregon Ducks Compete In The SEC?

Whenever a team looks poised to make a BCS title run, as the Oregon Ducks now do after their dismantling of the Arizona State Sun Devils on Thursday night, one question always comes up: How would this team fare in the SEC?

In the BCS era, the SEC has been the king of the conferences. It has boasted the last six crystal football recipients and looks poised to send another representative to the big game this year. They’ve established themselves as the premier conference in college football. You want a national championship? The road travels down south.

So fair or not, any team that has success in another conference has to face the scrutiny of a hypothetical season in the vaunted SEC. In Oregon’s case, the overwhelming opinion, especially from down south, is an overwhelming “NO!”

Critics of the Ducks’ success say that the Pac 12 schedule is too soft to be a real barometer of how good the team is. Beating up on “nobodies” in their own conference doesn’t give them any national credibility.

But let’s be honest, it’s the Pac 12, not the WAC (no offense). It’s a major conference with major talent across every school and is considered one of the top three college football conferences in the country this season. The arguments dismissing Oregon’s performances this season are reminiscent of the reasons people wanted to keep the Boise State Broncos out of the BCS bowls when they ran roughshod over inferior WAC opponents.

This is a conference that one point this season had six teams, half of the conference, ranked in the AP Top 25 before the conference started to pick each other off. The Arizona Wildcats, Washington Huskies, and Arizona State Sun Devils are all good teams (not great) who will hover around the fringe of the Top 25 all season. They are good teams who were absolutely destroyed by the Ducks.

Other critics of the Ducks’ success this season say they already know how Oregon would fare in the SEC because they’ve seen it the last two seasons. In 2010, Oregon came up short against the Auburn Tigers in the BCS National Championship game on a last-second field goal and last season the Ducks were man-handled by the LSU Tigers in Cowboys Stadium. These might be the most ridiculous arguments out there.

To say that this Ducks team couldn’t compete because of a game two years ago (and not just any game but the National Championship) that was decided by a field goal is crazy. Look at Auburn this year, just two years removed from their title run. Their offense is anemic, their defense is a shell, and Gene Chizik is wondering why his chair is getting so warm. In college football, the dynamic of a team changes drastically every season, as seen by the huge dropoff at Auburn. Oregon, on the other hand, has continued to trend up.

Last season’s game against the LSU Tigers is only slightly less of a terrible argument. Once again, teams change from year to year. The Ducks traditionally struggle early in the season as they hammer out the finer points of their timing offense (which is why they typically play a soft non-conference schedule) and the Tigers defense in 2011 was All-World.

Most importantly, however, is that this Ducks team is just plain better than any that they’ve had in recent memory. Marcus Mariota is a phenom at quarterback who is a true dual threat under center and might just be the most talented passer that Chip Kelly has had in his system. Add in the dynamic running game led by Kenjon Barner with the always dangerous De’Anthony Thomas, and the offense is as explosive as anyone in the country.

And the defense is wildly underrated. The final boxscores may not always be impressive, but that’s because they’ve been able to empty the benches during some major blowouts. Against two high-powered offenses in Arizona and Arizona State, the Ducks allowed just 21 points, combined, 14 of which came in garbage time on the road. They’ve given up 21 points or more in five of their seven games, but that’s because they’ve been up by 30 points and called off the dogs in four of them.

So Oregon may not get the respect of the SEC teams as evidenced by the latest BCS polls, but don’t underestimate the talent in Eugene. They can play with anybody, which they’ll be happy to prove this January.

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