OPINION

By Matt Hayes

updated 2:10 a.m. ET Aug. 21, 2008

Matt Hayes

HOOVER, Ala. - Urban Meyer was walking around the Wynfrey Hotel earlier this week, waiting for his moment in front of the annual cattle call known as SEC media days.

It's a long way from his first year in this circus, when the Florida coach knew nothing of the league and his head coaching experience consisted of four years in the MAC and Mountain West conferences.

"I was thinking as I walked in here," Meyer said. "There are nine teams that can win this conference championship. Nine. How do you even comprehend something like that?"

You pray for the other three teams, that's how.

Never in the long and storied history of the SEC has the league been this deep, this dangerous. In fact, the reality is this collection of teams is the best conference in the history of the sport.

There are five coaches who have won national championships, another who should have had the opportunity to play for one, and eight coaches whose salaries meet or exceed $2 million a year.

And then, there are the players. In 2007, the SEC had seven teams in the top 10 of the rivals100.com recruiting rankings. The last two years, an SEC team has finished first in those rankings.

And on and on and on.

"I've given up trying to find superlatives for this conference," said Vanderbilt coach Bobby Johnson, whose team is one of the unfortunate three. "It's a long grind every fall — and not just for us."

Other conferences talk about NFL first-round picks (the ACC) or a particular team that has elevated the rest of the conference (Pac-10) or the league's history (Big Ten) or its potential (Big 12).

Meanwhile, in the SEC, they know they're better than you.

I sat in Rick Neuheisel's office earlier this spring, watching highlights of elite high school players on national signing day. UCLA had just landed a top-10 class, and hope was on the horizon. Then a highlight of heralded defensive tackle Omar Hunter, who signed with Florida, rolled across the screen.

"You want to know why the SEC is so good?" Neuheisel said. "Guys like that. They're all over that league."

Argue all you want about the strength of conferences. Compare teams and coaches and players from the Pac-10 to the Sun Belt and all points between.

Meanwhile, the SEC stays in its own little corner of the college football world, with its conference championship game that sells out before the first play of the season, its multi-million-dollar coaches and a reputation that never has been bigger, badder or better.

"I'm sure folks would want me to say the conference I'm in now is just as strong as any other," said new Duke coach David Cutcliffe, a longtime SEC head and assistant coach. "But we're all chasing the SEC."

Could be worse. Could be among those other three.

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