ATLANTA — This used to be the only game that mattered on the first Saturday in December, a must-watch spectacle that rivaled the Super Bowl for fanfare and anticipation and atmosphere. That's not hyperbole, either.
The Southeastern Conference championship game was unlike anything in college football because of what it meant, where it was staged and, almost without fail, who played in it. The other leagues tried and failed to replicate it, but for two decades the SEC's title game stood alone.
It does not anymore.
On Saturday, the SEC championship game was more or less an afterthought devolving into a national punchline.