The Avarice of Sports

Avarice:  a strong desire to have or get money; greediness

 

 

In todays era of sports there is no doubt that money, more then ever drives most Major League Sports and this money also flows into the Football and Basketball Collegic arena.  Fans of today era understands this and most fans, like myself, accepts it, we may not like it but we accept it.  But where does the "enough is enough" threshold of money in sports end?

With the increasing avenues to watch sports, through television, Mobile Devices, etc.. the networks offer big money to Major League Sports and Collegic Sports to have exclusive rights to air specific sports and outside of network money the next biggest money grabber is suites aimed toward corporations.  I don't fault any company or sport to capitalize gains and make a profit, but with all this big money from the network and suites, the owners and leagues greed comes in at the big games.

 

In 2015 the average ticket for a standard seat at a NFL Game is $85.83, but the average ticket for the 2016 Super Bowl is exceeding $4,000 for one ticket.  I understand that the individual doesn't need to purchase these tickets and it is up to the market to accept or reject the pricing, but the greed of the NFL and other sports will start to deter the average fans.  You hear from the NFL PA along with the other Major Sports that they market to the average fan and without the average fan we would not have a sport.  If that is the case then, what average fan can afford a $4,000 Super Bowl ticket or a $600 World Series ticket?  This is the case of, "thank you for paying for the band, but you can't dance."

 

The Avarice or greed of sports will be its own demise and the only way that we as fans, in the perfect world, can save this from happening is to have half empty stadiums at the biggest events of the year, Super Bowl, World Series, NBA Finals, BCS College Football Championship game.  Once the world sees empty stadiums the ego driven owners and presidents of the major universities will change there ways to save face, but they will say "the change is for the average fan".  Well, here is one average fan saying I can see right through your Avarice!

Detroit Lions - Why am I so Lucky!

Reading articles and hearing all of the rumors that Calvin Johnson may walk away from his contract at the age of 30 saddens me as a Detroit Lions fan.  The reasoning behind my state is not what you may think.  It is not because Calvin has so many more years ahead of him or the years that he is missing with Stafford.  What saddens me is the Detroit Lions will have yet another superstar (potential Hall of Famer) within their franchise and nothing to show for it.

When I or any Detroit Lions fan tell a fellow football fan that we are a Detroit Lions fan,  more times then not the first response is, "I am Sorry" or the national media say "Purless Lions" or "Roarless Lions".  Which at first glance they are correct, because the Lions have never won a Super Bowl nor have played in one. With that being said there is no question the franchise has as many superstars and Hall of Famers then any other franchise.  Just compiling some of the greats you come across Barry Sanders, Billy Simms, Calvin Johnson, Charlie Sanders, Bennie Blades, Chris Spielman, Mel Farr, Doug English, Harley Sewell, Ed Flanagan and these are just a start.

So back to the question why am I saddened, because the Detroit Lions management and ownership has not clue on how to put a finish product on the field.  There are so many great players, Hall of Fame players, that worn the Lion on the helmet and all of these great players deserve so much more then what they received from management.  Ownership never did that big trade or that off the board signing that wasn't the most glamours just to fill a need.  They are able to put main ingredients in to the pot, but they are unable to put the seasoning to make it perfect.  Is it that they didn't know how?  Was there to many cooks in the kitchen and not a head chef?  These question will never be answered and it saddens me that a truly great franchise with a great history of great players can not get out of their own way.


I remember speaking to my mother, which she is now passed, every season I think this maybe the year for the Lions.  Her response, " I am (this old) and I have never seen them win a Super Bowl, what makes you so lucky".  Well mom your words are so true what makes me so lucky.

It's Only Sports!

As a sports fan, you probably heard the term, ”it’s only sports” or “why get upset over sports when there is so much more important things to worry about”.   Yes, they are correct it is only sports and there are more important things out there, but sitting here typing this and thinking back throughout my 41 years on this earth and reflecting all the joys and sorrows throughout those years, sports has always been my crutch when needed and a release when called for.  

 

There were so many important events throughout these years more important than sports,  Marriage, births, birthdays, war, conflict, crime so many things.  As a child through my teenage years and going through all the ups and downs, there was always the Detroit Tigers, Atlanta Braves, Detroit Redwings, Detroit Pistons, and Detroit Lions there to help me through the small crisis that seem so big at the time.  Like every other child and teen that loved sports we lived and died with every swing of the bat and the crushing blow a linebacker made.  Thinking

back I still feel the excitement I felt as a 10 year old when Gibby (Kirk Gibson) hit the homerun off of Gossage in the 1984 World Series or when the 1984 Tigers went on an amazing start of the season, thinking will they ever lose?

As an adult I don’t get quite feel as passionate for my sport teams like I did as a youth, I don’t go to bed mad or stay mad at a bad call for a week like a child.  The small crisis as a teenager turned into mortgages, kids stomach aches, dentist, deadlines, etc.   Even though all of the juvenile worries are now real world worries, the one constant is sports, I can put on a game on the Television or Radio and forget my worries for that 3-4 hour period, during this time I transport back to being that stupid little kid that got mad because I got another Lance Parrish baseball card in the pack and I really needed Tom Brookens to complete set, I forget the mortgage and bills and during this time show my kids the child that lives inside of me. 

I treasure these events as a child and now as an adult, why?  Because it is only sports and there is more important things then sports and knowing that, makes these 3-4 hour periods of time treasures that I can look back on and say yes I forgot my worries and I became that child inside again.  If you start worrying about your everyday worries, look inside and ask yourself, Do you want to go out and play catch?

Peyton Manning Post Season Bust?

With a new NFL season upon us and the fast start that Peyton Manning has begun the season with, the talk on the air waves is: Is Peyton Manning the best regular season quarterback off all-time?  Usually during this discussion there is a big BUT.  The but is, he can't be considered the greatest of all-time (regular and post) because he doesn't show up in the post season and he has only won one Super Bowl ring.

I would agree to a point that early in Peyton's career he didn't show very much promise in the post season, but I disagree completely in the notion that Peyton doesn't show up in the post season.  Lets do a quick comparison between Peyton and Tom Brady's post season stats.  Tom Brady has played in four additional post season games, so the stats will be a little scud, but I think the comparison is still relevant

Peyton Manning:  (Games played: 20)

Passing:  761 Attempts / 481 Completed
Completion Percentage:  63.2%
Passing Yards:  5,679
Touchdowns:  32
Interception:  21
Passer Rating:  88
Super Bowl Wins:  1



Tom Brady:  (Games played: 24)

Passing:  887 Attempts / 553 Completed
Completion Percentage:  62.3%
Passing Yards:  5,949
Touchdowns:  42
Interception:  22
Passer Rating:  87
Super Bowl Wins: 3
*Photos and stats supplied by foxsports.com

Both quarterbacks have comparable numbers and again Tom Brady has four games on Peyton and Tom has two additional Super Bowl ring.  There is also the matter of the team that surrounds the player.  I would agree that Peyton had better offensive players in the early 2000's, but New England had a much superior defensive team. 

Defensive minded teams will always win out against offensive minded teams in the playoffs.  Why?  With an offensive minded team, especially one that is pass first and run second the defense can isolate their efforts to the passing and not feel fearful of the other components of the opponents offense.  In the later years that is what happened to the Colts, the running game was non-existent and the defense was able to focus on the wide receivers and shut them down.  The team's philosophy is neither players fault, they can't choose what the team's philosophy will be, but it should also not be what determines their greatness. 

As a Michigan fan, I am a Tom Brady fan because he carries the Michigan torch high and proud, but as a Peyton Manning fan the time has come to put to rest the notion that Peyton is not a great post season quarterback.

The (Baseball) Book Needs to Go!

One of the questions that many new baseball fans ask and what causes frustration to many passionate baseball fans in todays game is: Why is there a parade of relief pitchers in the late innings of a game.

It’s not a question about stamina, most relief pitchers only throw to one or two batters. It’s because the manager is going by the book.  What book?  Well, the rule is if you have a left-handed batter you would want a left-handed pitcher on the mound because it’s harder for a left-handed hitter to hit against a left-handed pitcher, and visa versa.  The main reason is the breaking ball.  If a left-handed pitcher throws a breaking ball (Slider, Curveball) the pitch will break down and away from a left-handed hitter, and the same effect would apply from a right-handed pitcher throwing to a right- handed batter. The batter will usually swing at this pitch, if thrown properly, because the pitch will appear to be in the strike zone but will break out of the zone at the last moment.

Personally, I am past the book and writing a new book and it will be an easy read.  If a left-handed pitcher can't get a right-handed batter out, then its time to replace the pitcher permanently.  I understand there are other variables such as (1) past history between the hitter and pitcher, (2) Outcome of previous hitters (hits, walks).  These variables are universal for any type of pitcher, reliever or starting and should not be only tied to only relievers.

Many times I see a manager put in a left-handed pitcher to face a left-hand batter then the next batter is right-handed so the manager pulls the pitcher.  Why am I against this, especially in close games.  Most close games are not determined because of this move.  However, most losses in extra inning games are because of this move.

Think about this scenario:  Game is tied 2-2 and it's in the 8th inning, the manager pulls the starter and brings in a relief pitcher.  The relief pitcher strikes out the batter then the manager pulls the relief pitcher and brings in another relief pitcher (solely because the books says) to face a left-handed batter.  The team gets out of the 8th inning without being scored on.  The 9th inning comes and usually the manager will bring in another relief pitcher to handle the 9th maybe two if the books says too.  The game is still tied.  The team gets out of the 9th inning without being scored on.  So through two innings the team goes through three to four pitchers and maybe those three to four pitchers will see a total of six batters.  Fast forward to the 13th inning, you will start hearing the announcers comments such as, well the manager has one more relief pitcher in the bullpen, after that they may need to bring in a starter. 


Mariano Rivera

When that statement is made every fan starts to think why did you use so many relievers in the 8th and 9th inning.  Simple answer: THE BOOK SAYS SO.  Again, if a relief pitcher can't get a right and/or a left handed batter out then there is a problem.  Still a believer of the book?  Here are two current relief pitchers stats for this year.

1.  Joaquin Beniot (Detroit Tigers) has a 3.75 ERA against right-handed hitters and a .87 ERA against left-handed  hitters.

2.  Mariano Rivera (New York Yankees), arguably the best closer in the history of baseball, has a 3.38 ERA against right-handed batter and a 1.00 ERA against left-handed batter.

Both pitchers are right handed pitchers so they should have a better earn run average (ERA) against right-handed hitters, but as you can see they do better against left-handed hitters.  I guess they have not read the book.  There are many other stats similar to the stats listed above, but I think two helps me prove my point.   I am not blaming the players for this issue, this issue lays with the manager.  If the manager does not have faith in their pitcher to get an opposite hitting batter out then the pitcher should not be brought into a critical part of the game.

In closing, if the book is correct, then why can a starting pitcher produce outs from left and right handed hitters for 6-8 innings? 

Announcers of Yester Years!

I grew up listening to Ernie Harwell during the 1980’s through his retirement and during this time he was still mainly radio, but he did some television and I just loved his voice and his off- the-wall comments. “He stood there like the house by the side of the road and watched it go by” or my favorite “Foul ball: Caught by a man from…”.  When I was much younger, I always wondered how he knew where the person was from; finding out later that he didn’t which, was like finding out Santa Claus didn’t exist. 

During this time I would argue with anyone on this topic that Ernie was the best, till 2011. In 2011, I signed up for the MLB package and that year I finally heard Vin Scully announce a game.  I finally knew why he is considered arguably the number one announcer of all time.  With his voice and storytelling, I felt like I was back when radio was king and every boy had a transistor radio listening to the game.  Even though the game was televised and on the television, I didn’t have the need to watch the game, just listen to it.  When I heard Vin was coming back for a 65^th year, I was pleased, but also sadden.  Who will be considered the voice of baseball or any sports in my generation?  Does my generation have a Vin Scully, Jack Buck, Harry Kalas, Harry Carey, Mel Allen, Red Barber or Ernie Harwell?

Unfortunately, my answer is no.  The current generation of announcers are good, but they don’t have that “Welcome, put your feet up and stay awhile” voice.  Why?  Just the changing of time, all of the greats that I listed above broke into announcing through radio.  Radio announcers had to use words to create a picture for their listeners.  When Norm Cash hits a home run and when one hears Ernie yell its “Loooong gone”, the person on the other side of the radio could feel the excitement and also could see it through the announcer’s eyes.

 Announcers of today don’t show that same passion that the announcers had in yester years.  Why?  The culture of sports and the world has changed.  Sports are big business, with high dollar contracts and high maintenance players and in today’s world, everything needs to be politically correct and every word that is said gets analyzed.  If one wrong word is said on the air or internally, even with no bad intentions meant, more time than not the person uttering those words will be fired.  This is why there won’t be another great announcer, so Mr. Scully thank you for a 65^th year and there won’t be another one like you.  You are the last voice of yesterday and you carried it on so well for Jack, Harry, Mel, Red and Ernie.

MLB - NL Contenders Home Grown

Now that we have reviewed the American League home grown teams lets take a look at the National League contenders.

Again, like I said within the article for the American League breakdown there is not a right or wrong way to build a team, each team has its own philosophy and some are successful and some are not.  This article is not to argue which philosophy is correct it’s intended for those curious minds that just wonder, like mine, which playoff contenders is the most “home” grown. 

The following will show the National League teams in contention and the players that were drafted by that particular team and that is on the active roster.  Again, I am only doing the teams that I believe still has a chance to make the playoffs via Division Winner or Wild Card.  I am also including foreign born players that were not drafted, because MLB teams need to go through many steps to obtain one of these particular players and most countries will not allow their players to be eligible for the draft.

National League East:  (% drafter players of Current Roster)

Atlanta Braves: (56%)                        
Luis Avilan                                                
Craig Kimbrel
Kris Medlen
Mike Minor
Julio Teheran
Alex Wood
Evan Gattis
Brian McCann
Freddie Freeman
Andrelton Simmons
Todd Cunningham
Jordan Schafer
Joey Terdoslavich
Jason Heyward                                

National League Central: (% drafter players of Current Roster)
Pittsburg Pirates: (40%)                  St. Louis Cardinals: (68%)             Cincinnati Reds: (40%)
Gerrit Coles                                       Joe Kelly                                           Homer Bailey
Jared Hughes                                    Lance Lynn                                       Aroldis Chapman
Tony Watson                                    Tyler Lyons                                       Tony Cingrani
Justin Wilson                                    Seth Maness                                    Ryan Hanigan
Tony Sanchez                                   Shelby Miller                                    Devin Mesoraco
Pedro Alvarez                                   Trevor Rosenthal                            Zack Cozart
Jorely Mercer                                   Kevin Siegrist                                   Todd Frazier
Neil Walker                                       Micheal Wacha                               Joey Votto
Starling Marte                                  Yadier Molina                                  Jay Bruce
Andrew McCutchen                        Matt Adams                                     Chris Heisey
                                                            Matt Carpenter
                                                            Allen Craig
                                                            Daniel Oescalso
                                                            Pete Kozma
                                                            Kolten Wong
                                                            Jon Jay
                                                            Shane Robinson

National League West: (% drafter players of Current Roster)

Los Angeles Dodgers: (32%)
Kenley Jansen
Clayton Kershaw
Paco Rodriguez
Hyun-Jin Ryu
Chris Withrow
A.J. Ellis
Yasiel Puig
Matt Kemp

Wild Card: (% drafter players of Current Roster)

Arizona Diamondbacks: (32%)
Josh Collmentor
Eury De La Rosa
Wade Miley
Matt Davidson
Paul Goldschmidt
Adam Eaton
Geranda Porra
A.J. Pollock

*All Research for the Players was through www.baseball-reference.com

As you can see the Cardinals with sixty-eight percent of their current roster being filled with draft picks, they are far ahead from any other MLB team on building from within.  The closest in the National League is the Atlanta Braves at fifty-six percent.

The biggest surprise while doing the National League side is that Brandon Philips was not drafted by the Cincinnati Reds.  For your homework you drafted him?  I can't give all of the answers.

MLB - AL Contenders Home Grown

When the MLB regular season starts to wrap up and the playoff contenders start to show their colors I always have one constant thought every year.  Which of these teams have a team that truly was built from within (draft) and which team was built through free-agency and trades?

There is not a right or wrong way to build a team, each team has its own philosophy and some are successful and some are not.  This article is not to argue which philosophy is correct it’s intended for those curious minds that just wonder, like mine, which playoff contenders is the most “home” grown. 

The following will show the American League teams in contention and the players that were drafted by that particular team.  Again, I am only doing the teams that I believe still has a chance to make the playoffs via Division Winner or Wild Card.  I am also including foreign born players that were not drafted, because MLB teams need to go through many steps to obtain one of these particular players and most countries will not allow their players to be eligible for the draft.

American League East:  (% drafter players of Current Roster)

Tampa Bay Rays: (24%)                        Boston Red Sox (40%)                    Baltimore Orioles (28%)
Alex Cobb                                                Drake Britton                                   Wei-Yin Chin
Jeremy Hellickson                                  Felix Doubroni                                 Jim Johnson      
Jake McGee                                            Jon Lester                                         Brian Matusz
David Price                                             Junichi Tazawa                                 Matt Weters
Evan Longoria                                        Brandon Workman                         Manny Machado
Desmond Jennings                                Xander Bogaerts                             Brian Roberts
                                                                 Will Middlebrooks                          Nick Markakis
                                                                 Dustin Pedroia
                                                                 Jacoby Ellisbury
                                                                 Daniel Nava

American League Central: (% drafter players of Current Roster)
Detroit Tigers: (40%)                       Cleveland Indians:(16%)
Rick Porcello                                     Cody Allen
Bruce Rondon                                   Danny Salazar                  
Drew Smyly                                       Lonnie Chisenhall         
Justin Verlander                               Jason Kipnis 
Bryan Holaday                                  
Alex Avila
Omar Infante
Ramon Santiago
Andy Dirks
Don Kelly    

American League West: (% drafter players of Current Roster)

Texas Ranger:  (40%)                      Oakland A’s :(20%)
Yu Darvish                                         Sean Doolittle
Derek Holland                                  Sonny Gray
Martin Perez                                     A.J. Griffin
Robbie Ross                                      Dan Straily
Tanner Scheppers                            Yoenis Cespedes
Ian Kinsler
Mitch Moreland
Jurickson Profar
Craig Gentry
Leonys Martin  

Wild Card: (% drafter players of Current Roster)

New York Yankees : (48%)            Kansas City Royals: (48%)

Joba Chamberlain                          Louis Coleman
Phil Hughes                                     Aaron Crow
Ivan Nova                                        Kelvin Herrera
Andy Pettitte                                  Luke Hochevar
Mariano Rivera                              Greg Holland
David Robinson                              Salvador Perez
Adam Warren                                 Eric Hosmer
Austin Romaine                              Mike Moustakas
Robinson Cano                               Jarrod Dyson
Eduardo Nunez                              Alex Gordon
Brett Gardner                                 David Lough
Alfonso Soriano                              Billy Butler

*All Research for the Players was through www.baseball-reference.com

Prior to the research I had a pre-notion of which teams would be towards the top and I was correct on some of them.  There were some surprises, such as the New York Yankees having forty-eight percent of their major league squad being from their farm system.  I was equally surprised that the Oakland A’s had only twenty percent on theirs

This should be a lesson learned:  beware of assumptions.  So many years’ baseball fans have heard comments that applied that the Yankees are big spenders and will buy what is needed and that the A’s are built through the draft.  As you can see here facts prove different.

Baseball vs. Cheating

Do Performance Enhancing Drugs tarnish the records in baseball?  I am truly to the point I don’t care about that conversation.  The records are second on my list of importance; in my opinion using PED’s is just wrong.  Most of the players that use these types of drugs had the skill to be drafted by a Major League baseball team, but either didn’t have the overall skill to have a long Major League career or not enough skill to make the Parent club.  Most of the attention of this issue goes towards the superstars, but would the accused player be a superstar without using?  Mark McGwire always was a home run hitter, but his combined batting average in his first 6 seasons was .244. Would he be a superstar today if he was just a home run hitter?  No, he would have been an earlier version of Adam Dunn: homerun or strikeout.
 

During all of the conversations I have heard regarding this topic there is always one small fact forgotten, PEDs are illegal to use unless prescribed by “legit” doctor.  If a general citizen gets caught dealing with illegal PEDs, he or she would be incarcerated.  Yet, Major League players get a slap on the wrist and the conversation goes back to, are the records tarnished.  The punishment needs to be changed and the time is now, because the Players Union seems to be on board to clean up the game.  The 50 game suspension for first offense is a laughable punishment. Melky Cabrera received a 50 game suspension last year and then signed a 2 yr/$16 million contract from Toronto in 2013. Does this help stop the use?  No, the player still gets a high dollar contract, so why not keep using.  Also, does the suspended player get tested during the suspension?  If not, who can say that the suspended player won’t continue to use to get ready for his return? You tell me, is that punishment?  I believe the first offense should be one year suspension without pay, the rest of the current contract is voided and monthly testing will occur during the suspension.  Second offense is a lifetime ban. Too harsh? In my book cheating is cheating. What is worse, Pete Rose gambling on baseball or a player juicing against players that are doing it the right way?  Both Rose and the PED user are or were denying that the action ever happened.  If a lifetime ban occurs, you won’t see much more PED use.  Don’t think so? I haven’t heard of any gambling scandals within Major League baseball.  Why? Because all participants in Major League baseball from the Commissioner to the Manager know if you do, you are out of baseball for life, end of point. 

While I am on my soap box, I also want these discussions to stop on this topic, “You can’t tell me that the players back in the 1950s and 1960s didn’t use” and “Who cares baseball was better when the offense was scoring, who is it really hurting”.  Regarding the 1950s and 1960s, I am 39 years old so I can’t answer that question, and honestly I really don’t care.  I put that comment under the "well my big brother/sister did, so I did" category even though there was no proof of it. Why did we use that excuse? Because we got caught and we want someone else to go down with us.  Plus, we are not in the 1950s or 1960s.  The issue is coming up now, and we need to deal with the issue of today. The individual that brings up that argument wants to try to make PED use okay. 

For the “who cares” comment, these individuals don’t want to deal with this issue.  If we just stop talking about it, then it will be swept under the rug again and everything will be back to normal.  I call this the Wayne’s World effect, when Wayne and Garth go back in time and what just happened no longer exists.  Well I am sorry, my friends, the issue is alive and well and we need to keep this conversation alive to keep Major League baseball and all other sports honest (I use honest loosely).

Again, the records are second in this conversation on my list. With that being said, I do value the records just like all baseball fans, but records were broken during this time and we can’t do anything about it.  As fans of this great sport, let’s do everything we can do to make sure that all records in this new era of baseball are as legit as we hope they were in the glory years.

Baseball Singled Out?

First, let me state my favorite sport is baseball, with football being a close second, so this may come across as bias thinking, but baseball is not the only sport using PEDS, HGH, and IGF-1 (Deer Antler Spray).  I have no facts backing my previous statement, just common sense thinking.  Baseball is portrayed in sport media as the only sport that has athletes try to cheat the system and cheat to get an advantage against their opponents. 

It is understandable that baseball will get most of the scrutiny on this topic, because baseball started this monster .  This is why football, should thank baseball for being the villain on this topic, now they can fly under the radar and not get scrutinized for ban substance use.   I can feel the wheels turning in your head, just another baseball fan hating the popularity of football or how dare I lump football in such a topic, well, lets look at a couple examples.

Example #1: When an article came out from Sports Illustrated that Ray Lewis used deer spray [IGF-1 (Insulin-like Growth Factor-1], which is on the ban substances list in the NFL, to speed up his torn tricep injury, it was pretty much a none story.  Yes, a a couple days some reporters questioned Ray Lewis about the topic, but Ray denied the story and that was that.


Replace Ray Lewis's name with Baseball Player X, do you think it would be swept under the rug?

Example #2 (this is just a ponder thought there is no fact behind this example):  Eight months removed from a surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee, Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson embarked on an unlikely historical season, falling 9 yards shy of Eric Dickerson's NFL single-season rushing record. After some research, a standard ACL rehab/recovery takes from 7-9 months, so in 8 months Adrian Peterson went from surgery to MVP.

Replace Adrian Peterson name with Baseball Player X, do you think the miraculous recovery would be swept under the rug?

I am not excusing baseball for putting a blind eye on the usage of ban substances, I am asking that sport media and sport fans keep your eyes on all sports.  One thing we all have found in the past few weeks is that the ungoing usage of ban substances is still alive and well and players of all sports will always be one step ahead of testing. 

One last thought for all of the football fans, such as myself:  For the safety of the game, please learn a lesson from baseball keep both eyes open.

Is the SEC the best conference in the land?

Is the SEC the best conference in the land?  If you listen to the national media the answer is yes, but I wanted to do some research and look at some real numbers   I accumulated the following regular season numbers since 2003, this is the year LSU won the National Championship and when the SEC started their current run of appearances in the Championship game.  I also decided to go with records versus AP ranked teams, yes I understand some of the AP ranked teams are within the SEC, but I think this would give us the best overall strength of the SEC.

Year	Win - Losses vs. AP Ranked	Team with most wins vs AP ranked	# of Teams in Conference with no wins vs. AP	No Win Teams Total losses vs AP Ranked
2003	14-41	4 (LSU)	5	22
2004	9-33	5 (Auburn)	8	25
2005	13-38	4 (LSU)	5	20
2006	18-43	5 (Florida)	4	20
2007	18-34	5 (LSU)	2	9
2008	12-33	4 (Florida)	5	17
2009	14-31	5 (Alabama)	5	19
2010	19-40	7 (Auburn)	6	26
2011	14-41	5 (LSU)	6	26
2012	20-52	4 (Alabama)	8	40
Total	133-386	48	54	224

As you can see the winning percentage versus AP ranked teams since 2003 is .256.  During this time there have been (4) occurrences that 6+ teams finished without a win against an AP ranked team, that is halve or more of the conference.  In addition, (4) times during this same period, 5 teams had no wins verses AP ranked teams. Only (4) teams since the 2003 season I would consider dominate against AP ranked teams: LSU, Auburn, Florida and Alabama.

I understand there is no conference with an above .500 winning percentage versus AP ranked teams, but with the previous numbers given, the SEC is not a dominate conference overall.  It may have dominate teams on top of the conference , but the conference as a whole I would say is middle of the pack.

Which is the best overall conference that is up to debate and that is why college football is a great sport, because the debate changes every year.  One thing for sure the SEC is not hands down the best conference in the land.