As strange as it sounds, most SEC coaches don’t preach about winning a national championship. For every SEC coach, any talk of a championship has to start with a trip to Atlanta for the SEC Championship.

Only two teams in the last 10 years, Tennessee in 1998 and Auburn in 2004, have gone undefeated in SEC play in one season.

With quality teams beating up on each other every week, one has to rise to the top, and almost every team has a chance to play for the SEC Championship.

In the last 10 years, six different schools have won the league title. That’s why every new season brings new optimism.

South Carolina head coach Steve Spurrier thinks his third year in Columbia will be the year his Gamecocks become a contender in the SEC East.

“We’ve raised our goals this year. We’re going to try to win the conference. We felt like we’ve really increased our talent level at South Carolina. We’ve added a lot of players that we think are at a pretty close level with Florida, Georgia and Tennessee,” Spurrier said.

Teams such as Florida, Auburn, LSU, Georgia and Tennessee will always be in the running.

But the teams on the outside looking in before the season begins also are able to make a push for the title.

Kentucky came out of the SEC East cellar to win eight games, including a Music City Bowl win over the Clemson Tigers.

Arkansas came out of nowhere last season to win the SEC West.

“It’s really hard to get to Atlanta. You never pick us. That’s okay,” Arkansas head coach Houston Nutt said.

“We probably won’t be picked again this year to get there, and that’s OK. Because that’s why it’s the greatest game in the world – you got to play it in between the white lines.”

Then again, as evidenced by last year’s LSU team, you can have all the stats and talent in the world and still not get to Atlanta.

“(Last season,) LSU led the conference in almost every category: Offense, defense, everything just about, but they didn’t play their best at Florida or at Auburn, and they didn’t win their division, didn’t win the conference.

“You know, some breaks, some good play at the right time certainly determined the champion,” Spurrier said.

The best SEC teams have proven to be just as good, if not better, than the best teams in the country.

Since the BCS was instituted in 1997, SEC teams are 3-0 in the National Championship game, with Tennessee, LSU and Florida all winning in their respective appearances.

That’s why the goal is to get to Atlanta – if you can get there and win, chances are you might be able to hold up more than a SEC Championship trophy at season’s end.