Texas A&M's Mike Elko Highlights Toughness of Competing in SEC

And now that he's got a year of head coaching in the toughest conference in sports under his belt, Texas A&M coach Mike Elko now seems to be fully aware of just how intense the competition is that he'll be tasked with facing on a yearly basis.

In a recent interview, Elko highlighted the pressure that the selection committee for the College Football Playoff undergoes, especially when including SEC teams, due to the sheer amount of title contenders the SEC brings to the table every year.

"It's hard to measure what it's like to go through an eight or nine-game SEC schedule," Elko said. "the committee has a tough job to figure out when just looking at resumes. It's hard to say this isn't the toughest conference."

And with all due respect to the Big 10 conference, who has housed the past two national championship teams in Michigan and Ohio State, the unpredictability of the Southeastern Conference is simply something that you have to see to believe.

Elko and his Aggie team went on an inspirational run the first five games of the season, defeating Arkansas in a close contest that came down to the final drive, and blowing out both Missouri and LSU in what many considered upset victories.

The second part of the season? Not so much.

The very week after that exciting LSU defeat, the Aggies would be victims of a rushing attack mauling by the South Carolina Gamecocks, who put up 286 yards on the ground in the 44-20 beating.

The Aggies would defeat New Mexico State in their final non-conference contest, but would then suffer a quadruple-overtime loss to the Auburn Tigers and then a complete beatdown by the No. 3 Texas Longhorns in the Lone Star Showdown.

Now that Elko is fully aware of the dog-eat-dog world that is the SEC, hopefully next season's conference play will be more consistent under Elko's watch.