Note: This is the fourth of a five-part series breaking down each Power Five conference’s efforts this past season while looking forward to 2019.

Alabama lorded over the SEC again, but the league showed to be stronger than ever.

Five SEC programs finished in the top 12 of the year-end Associated Press poll. Only one other Power Five conference, the Big Ten, had five Top 25 teams ranked. The SEC had the highest non-conference win percentage against the FBS and the Power Five. The league, with Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M and Dan Mullen at Florida, seems only to be getting stronger.

The Crimson Tide and Georgia Bulldogs still sit atop the SEC heading into 2019. But programs like LSU, Texas A&M and Florida are rising rapidly.