ATHENS, Ga. — People who are disappointed that Georgia isn't winning by larger margins might be watching the wrong league.
In the Pac-10, just seven of 20 intra-conference games have been decided by 10 points or less. In the Big 10, six of 20. In the Big 12, five of 18.
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But while routs rule in some leagues, close games dominate in the SEC.
Eighteen of the 25 intra-conference games played in the SEC this season — 72 percent — have been decided by 10 points or fewer.
That's the largest number of games in any Division I-A league to be decided by so few points.
And it causes SEC players to gawk at the gaudy scores from elsewhere.
"There might be two or three games a year in the SEC where somebody can [dominate] like that," Georgia quarterback Matthew Stafford said. "But it seems almost every week in the Pac-10 and Big 12 there are games where [somebody] is scoring a bunch of points."
Like, you know, USC 69, Washington State 0.
Meanwhile, in the SEC:
Undefeated Alabama, the league's highest-ranked team at No. 2 in the BCS, has won its past two games by three and four points over Kentucky and Ole Miss.
Forty percent of league games — 10 of 25 — have been decided by five points or less.
South Carolina has played five conference games this season, with each of the five — two wins and three losses — decided by exactly seven points.
Georgia, BCS No. 7, has won three league games by an average of 9.67 points, beating South Carolina by seven, Tennessee by 12 and Vanderbilt by 10.
Defending national champion LSU, No. 13 in the BCS and Georgia's opponent Saturday in Baton Rouge, has won three conference games by 10 or less.
"Every week is a struggle in the SEC," said Georgia linebacker Rennie Curran, who explains the close games the same way most people in the league do: "There's so much talent and fan support from top to bottom that it's hard to have a game where you just completely pound a team."
In other words: The SEC's best team might or might not be better than, say, the Pac-10's or Big 12's. But the SEC's lesser teams are better.
That's about the only viable explanation for a league that has produced the past two national champions also producing so many close games.
The average margin in the 25 SEC games this season is 10.36 points.
The only conference with a lower average margin is the Big East, which has played eight intra-league games. The average margin in those games is 9.38 points.
Rivaling the SEC in competitiveness is the ACC, where 13 of 19 intra-conference games — 68 percent — have been decided by 10 points or less. The average margin in ACC games is 10.95 points.
At the other extreme, the average margin in Pac-10 games is a whopping 25 points.
Of the seven SEC games decided by more than 10 points this season, three have been Florida victories by 24 over Tennessee, 31 over Arkansas and 30 over LSU. Yet, the Gators lost by one point to Ole Miss, which has dropped its other three SEC games by 6, 7 and 4 points.
"It's a totally different atmosphere in the SEC," Curran said.
Tim Tucker writes for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. E-mail: ttucker AT ajc.com
