The SEC’s big boys took a late November slumber last weekend.

Some did it by way of a true bye week, like LSU, which plays Texas A&M Thursday.

With a short week the bye made all the sense in the world.

Then there were others who used their bye week to beat up some little guys of the college football world.

Alabama, Auburn and Georgia to name three.

Many would argue that those three teams were the league’s elite heading into the season.

Could be the case, since all three entered the month with hopes of making it to the playoffs. That number is likely down to two with only the Bulldog faithful believing Georgia is still alive.

Right now Georgia isn’t even the best team in its own division, as Missouri is a win away from locking up a second straight trip to the SEC title game.

That’s the same Missouri which lost at home to Big Ten doormat Indiana, a team that isn’t even eligible for a bowl game this year.

No bowl game, that’s unheard of. All you have to do is pick on four non-power conference teams and win two of your own league games. In the Big Ten we are told that should not be a problem.

Anyway, getting back on track, college football’s premier conference, the one that claims no other compares, went out last Saturday and showed the world just how good it is by playing the likes of Charleston Southern, Eastern Kentucky and Samford.

That’s Samford, not Stanford.

I have nothing against playing such games early in the season. It gives the little schools a nice paycheck and the big schools a nice tune-up. Even maybe an upset or two happens because the bigger school players don’t really want to play the game.

So a few David’s knock off a Goliath here and there. OK, fine.

But not in November. Not when the rest of college football is fighting to prove where it stands in the pecking order for this newly minted college football playoff committee. And certainly not when a national championship or the final playoff spots are on the line.

Alabama beat Western Carolina. That proves nothing.

Meanwhile UCLA was playing USC. Baylor, Ohio State and TCU all had conference games that meant something. Even Florida State was playing a league game.

I give you all conferences are not created equal, but neither are they looked at equally.

If Mississippi State beats Ole Miss this week the Bulldogs are hoping for, and probably expecting, a playoff spot no matter what happens elsewhere. But they would finish the year not have beaten a team with less than four losses.

In any other conference that would be considered a playoff death sentence. Not the SEC.

I don’t think the likes of Charleston Southern or South Alabama are going to raise any league’s power rankings.

If this playoff thing is going to work then all parties must be playing on a level field. They should be powering up down the stretch, not taking time off to regroup.

The SEC is a hard conference to get through, but so are some others. What we are looking for is to have the four teams standing at season’s end, not the four freshest.

This weekend the conference gets back into full swing highlighted by some tough rivalry games. No doubt we will find out which teams are the best at weekend’s end.

Then again, they all have had plenty of time to get ready for the final challenge.

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Jim Gazzolo is managing sports editor. Email him at jgazzolo@americanpress.com(MGNonline)