ESPN (and College GameDay)'s Chris Fowler took heat earlier in the week for a pair of tweets attempting to debunk the lazy Internet groupthink that somehow the SEC West's rapid ascension in the sport is the result of some kind of Machiavellian maneuvering or social engineering on the part of the network.

During Saturday's show, Fowler took his treatise to the next level.

Though many ignore that before extremely recently*, the Big Ten of all leagues received the single largest per team primary rights payout from ESPN, Fowler hammered home that in terms of the editorial and business preferences of the powers that be alike, the simplest explanation is often the best one.

The SEC is certainly college football's premier conference right now, and the SEC West is the crème de la crème du jour, but that doesn't necessarily mean that reality is in the best interests of everyone involved.

* = The Big Ten could top this list once again as they prepare to enter into new negotiations on the open market in the coming year