OPINION: SEC resume, havoc in the West and overall CFB playoff picture

First off, let's start with this little bit of information: IF Arkansas manages to beat Ole Miss this weekend, all seven SEC west teams will be bowl eligible. This further proves that the SEC west is the toughest division within the toughest conference in the nation.

But not so fast.

While it is true that teams in the SEC west --and SEC, in general-- cannibalize each other during the season, hanging their hat on out of conference play is not something that the SEC can beat their chests about.

Some SEC extremists will get defensive about this, but facts are facts.In the 2014 season to this point, the entire group of teams within the SEC have only played three ranked non-conference opponents ... combined.

Two of those three games came in the opening week of the season, when Georgia hosted Clemson and LSU took on Wisconsin in Dallas at Jerry's World. The other contest was when Auburn traveled to Manhatten, KS to clash with the Kansas State Wildcats.

Yes the SEC is 3-0 in those matchups thus far, and the SEC west hasn't lost to a team outside of their own division with the exception of Arkansas falling to Georgia a few weeks ago.

Bravo.

This looks great right now, but there is a significant chance that the SEC's record against ranked non-conference opponents could take a giant blow in the last couple of weeks of the season. More specifically, Thanksgiving weekend, or "Rivalry Week".

Florida State will host a Florida team who hasn't discovered that the forward pass can be used for a good cause this season. The Gators have struggled to find an identity and recently fired fourth-year head coach Will Muschamp, while the Seminoles just keep winning and seem to be hitting a stride.

South Carolina, who was an early favorite to win the SEC east, has not exactly lived up to that billing and sports a less-than-stellar 5-5 record, while posting a 3-5 mark inside conference play. The Gamecocks will travel to Death Valley, SC in a couple of weeks to take on their rival Clemson Tigers and could have their hands full, depending on the status of Clemson freshman quarterback Deshaun Watson.

Watson has been spectacular in his first season when not being hampered by injury, and gives the Tiger offense an explosive element. South Carolina's defense hasn't exactly been eye-popping and their offense is one-dimensional with an experienced offensive line and a very good tailback in Mike Davis. The only problem is Clemson's defense is more geared to stop the run, so it could potentially be a long evening for the Gamecocks.

Georgia has the benefit of hosting its rival Georgia Tech in a couple of weeks, but their Jekyll/Hyde personality should leave Bulldog fans jittery about this matchup.

The Dawgs are in great shape to win the SEC east, but two not-so-attractive losses to South Carolina and Florida prevented them from running away with the division.

The issue that the Yellow Jackets present, is that they are a power-running team and that seems to be the achilles' heel of Mark Richt's Georgia squad.

Florida and South Carolina are both run-first teams, and they boast the only two victories over Georgia. In fact, Florida only ATTEMPTED six passes in which three were completed for a total of 27 yards.

The Gators ran for 418 total yards two backs flirted with 200-yard days (Kelvin Taylor - 197 yards; Matt Jones - 192 yards).

No doubt Georgia will be able to put points on the board, but their defense will more than likely do its best impression of a screen door trying to stop water against Paul Johnson's triple option attack.

The bigger slap in the face, if Florida, South Carolina and Georgia each drop their rivalry contests, is that it would drop all three games to ACC opponents -- a conference deemed poor, top to bottom, in the eyes of most.

The moral of the story is this: Yes, the SEC is good. It is the best conference in the country. Yes, the SEC west is VERY good. But you must take into consideration that while the SEC beats up on itself throughout the season, they don't really play much of anybody of note outside of their conference.

Want proof? Okay.

Toledo. Florida Atlantic. Sam Houston State. San Jose State. Lamar. Massechusetts. Southern Mississippi. Troy. SMU. Indiana. Northern Illinois. Charleston Southern. Furman. Old Dominion. Presbyterian. Tennessee-Martin.

This is just a handful of the teams (if you want to call them that) that the SEC has played outside of its conference schedule this season. And this list doesn't even include this week's matchups pitting Florida against Eastern Kentucky, South Alabama against South Carolina, Western Carolina against Alabama, Western Carolina against Alabama and Charleston Southern against Georgia in what could be deemed as "The SEC against the Directional Schools" weekend.

Oh... and Auburn hosts Samford, too.

Now within the conference, things are beginning to get fun.

Four of the seven SEC west teams have been mathematically eliminated from contention for the divisional title. Texas A&M, LSU, Arkansas and, perhaps most shockingly, Auburn after their voodoo magic turned around on them in an unbelievable home loss to Texas A&M.

That leaves Alabama, who is in the driver's seat after last week's win over Mississippi State, Mississippi State, who's lone loss is to that one-loss Alabama team, and Ole Miss, who has two losses on the year but just happened to deal the Crimson Tide their lone loss of the season.

For Alabama, it's simple: Beat Auburn and go to Atlanta. For the two Mississippi schools ... well, they need the Tide to get rolled in the Iron Bowl.

Mississippi State needs to beat Vanderbilt, which has pretty much already been written in as a "W" for the Bulldogs, then beat Ole Miss in Oxford in the Egg Bowl.

Ole Miss has the most outside shot of the three, as they have to hope for a Bama loss, beat a tough Arkansas team in Fayetteville, then take care of their rival Bulldogs at home.

Regardless which team makes it to Atlanta, it is almost a certainty that the west's champ will be favored over whoever represents the east (Georgia or Missouri).

Playoffs? Is it too late to just go back to the BCS system?

I cannot, for the life of me, understand what is going on with the playoff committee.

Alabama goes from fifth in the rankings to first in the rankings after a five-point home win over former No. 1 Mississippi State, came in the fourth and final spot this week.

One-loss Oregon leapfrogged Florida State, the defending national champion who is riding a 26-game winning streak for the No. 2 spot, sending the Seminoles to No. 3.

I understand the No. 1 vs No. 5 game results, but how Oregon jumped to No. 2 is beyond me.

Apparently, "style points" is still a major contributer to how this committee votes, just like it was with the computers in the BCS system.

Yes, Florida State has looked not-so-great in the first half of many of their games this season but the fact remains: They've won every game, covered Vegas spreads despite the late-game heroics and are being punished in the rankings because of it.

Oregon is No. 2, yet they have a home loss (not a fictional first half loss but an actual, final score loss) to Arizona and needed a miracle on a no-call pass interference at the end of the game to squeak by a terrible Washington State team.

They have pretty uniforms, though. And for that, we award you the No. 2 spot in this playoff poll.

Or something like that.

Experts have said that there's no clear-cut "best" team in the country this season. While this is true, they have also stated at various times throughout the season that Mississippi State, Auburn, Alabama and Oregon would beat anyone on a neutral field, all while discrediting Florida State because of their apparent struggles.

All of this is valid, and very possible. But I'd guess it's pretty safe to say that no one in the country wants to see the Seminoles in the second half, regardless of what the score is.

Follow Scotty Nichols on Twitter @ScotNic24, or email at scotty.nichols@journalinc.com