The Rich Get Richer

The SEC has the best coaches in college football. After Arkansas hired Bobby Petrino today, it's not even up for debate. The hiring of Petrino is something beyond the wildest expectations that the Razorback faithful could have hoped for in their new coach. The discussions around their new coach spread far and wide. Arkansas hit an absolute home run by louring in the highly sought after former Louisville coach. He was rumored for the Alabama and LSU jobs in the past, but opted to test the waters in the NFL. After the disaster that took place both on and off the field in Atlanta, Petrino decided to throw in the towel and retreat back to the college game. If Mike Vick didn't get arrested, chances are Petrino would still be in the NFL. More than likely he saw the program as a 5 year rebuilding process that he wasn't willing to wait around for and instead came back to college to coach the Razorbacks.

With the addition of Petrino, the SEC has become a who's who of head coaches. The schools in the SEC have obviously shown they are willing to pull all their resources together to go out and find a high profile head coach. In the cutthroat world of SEC recruiting and competition, the bar has been raised dramatically over the course of the last few years for teams to remain on top. In his four years at Louisville, Petrino was 41-9 including a 12-1 mark and was ranked #6 in the nation in 2006 before going to the Falcons. He returns this season to the SEC after his first stint in 2002 as offensive coordinator for Auburn. The addition of Petrino is only going to put more pressure on hot seat coaches in the SEC to succeed.