Where were you January 7, 2007?

Chances are you weren’t using an iPhone -- a concept known only to Apple insiders at the time. You likely weren’t complaining about or declaring support for our current President. Barack Obama, an Illinois senator, had yet to announce his intentions to run for the nation’s lead position.

South Beach? That was a place where people took their families – not talents. And what about King James? He was busy guiding his Cleveland Cavaliers to their first-ever NBA Finals appearance.

And that lovable character Tim Tebow? The humble 19-year-old was busy grooming his famous touchdown celebration as the backup quarterback for the Florida Gators.

A mere 1,974 days have passed since then. Things were normal until that date. Teams shared. College football conferences ebbed, flowed, gave, and took.

The following night, however, Tebow’s Gators grabbed the BCS national championship. And with it the SEC took as well.

But there has been a little problem. They have refused to give back.

A running count of six seasons now the SEC has claimed the crystal ball and paraded around as home to the best in the land. Four teams in total have shared in the wealth – Alabama and Florida twice; with Auburn and LSU each nabbing the crown once.

But college football has been around forever and the Big Ten and Big 12 schools of yesteryear have dominated in this way as well – right?

Not even close.

Dating back fifty years the SEC has won the most AP national championships (14) while the Big 12 (I refer to them as such for the sake of modern comparisons) has amassed twelve.

While the numbers look nice, the traditional Big 12 schools built up their total during the pre-BCS years of 1962 to 1997 with ten AP national championships. During that same time the SEC earned seven of their own.

The arguments for the success had from 1960 – ‘70’s are difficult to compare to modern times due to the growth of the college game. Players train harder and are more skilled; therefore creating a larger pool of talented players. This argument alone lends to the concept of parity which would have us believe that teams and conferences would trade off at being the best on a yearly basis.

But this hasn’t happened.

Since the BCS began in 1998, SEC teams have won the national championship seven times. The next highest conference tally – two – is shared by three conferences (ACC, Big 12, PAC 12).

So is the SEC’s streak the best in major-sports conference history?

In an attempt to come up with comparisons it’s fairly clear to see a lack of examples may serve as a default affirmative answer.

Iowa’s wrestling squad (Big 10) has pulled off championship runs of eleven in twelve years. North Carolina women’s soccer (ACC) has accomplished a fifteen-in-twenty run. And more recently, the UConn women’s basketball program (Big East) completed a stretch of six championships in a span of eleven years.

While impressive, each serves as a single-team streak in a sport outside of the parity-filled genres like that of football, baseball, and men’s basketball.

If a comparative streak exists, I’ve yet to see it.

I’ll keep looking, though. After all, we have 218 days to find it until the next BCS national championship game kicks off on January 7, 2013.

That’s 2,192 days since January 7, 2007.

This time I know where I’ll be.


Where does the SEC’s national championship streak rank historically for you?



Justin is a staff writer for Operation Sports. You can find him on the forums under the username jmik58. Follow him on Twitter @long_snapper.