Connelly’s SEC West preview: Bama, LSU and the best division

• Bill Connelly, ESPN Staff WriterJul 19, 2023, 07:00 AM ET

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  Bill Connelly is a staff writer for ESPN.com.

Over the past 20 years, three of its teams have combined to win 10 national titles. It has boasted one of the best dynasties the sport has ever seen (Bama) and almost no actual bad teams — in the past 10 years, only four of its teams have finished outside of the SP+ top 60. All seven are projected in the top 30 to start 2023.

The SEC West has been the standard-bearer for all divisions for much of the 2000s. Its champions lost 11 of the first 17 SEC championship games, but have since won 12 of 14.

The final iteration of the West division brings us plenty of questions. Is there such a thing as too much change for Nick Saban at Alabama? Can an even deeper LSU team defend its title? How many quarterbacks does Lane Kiffin need? Will coaching and/or coordinator changes cause setbacks or surges for Mississippi State, Arkansas and Auburn? How the heck is this Bobby Petrino experiment going to work out in College Station?

With the end of divisional play on the horizon, let’s take a stroll through college football’s best division one last time. Let’s preview the SEC West!

Every week through the offseason, Bill Connelly will preview another division from the Group of 5 and Power 5 exclusively for ESPN+, ultimately including all 133 FBS teams. The previews will include 2022 breakdowns, 2023 previews and burning questions for each team.