Now that the SEC coaching carousel has stopped spinning, after a dizzying and record pace, one question has to be asked:

Who won? The outside-the-box answer: Auburn.

It's easy to conclude the Tigers were the victors in an employment extravaganza unlike any the SEC had seen before. They didn't lose Gus Malzahn to home-state Arkansas, Kevin Steele to alma mater Tennessee or Chip Lindsey to South Alabama. Auburn's head coach and both coordinators were candidates for those head coaching positions, but for various reasons, none of them made that move.

Arkansas had to settle for Malzahn Lite after he re-upped with Auburn and SMU head coach Chad Morris became Boss Hog. Tennessee took one of Alabama's most valuable assets by hiring Crimson Tide defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt to revive the Vols. South Alabama hired Steve Campbell away from FCS power Central Arkansas.

That means Auburn will return the top three men in the chain of command from a 10-3 team that ended three-year losing streaks to Georgia and Alabama and won the SEC West.

All things considered, despite the ongoing search for an athletics director, Auburn looks as stable as any football program in the Western Division outside of Alabama. If there are no more major changes, Auburn and LSU will be the only teams in the division to return their full-time head coaches and both coordinators next season.

When's the last time Auburn didn't change the head coach, offensive coordinator or defensive coordinator? It was 2014.

Consider all the things that have and haven't changed since five SEC programs picked new head coaches and Ole Miss removed the interim tag from Matt Luke but watched the NCAA Infractions Committee add a postseason ban for next year.

When Texas A&M hired Jimbo Fisher, he became just the second SEC head coach with a national title on his resume as a head coach. Alabama's Nick Saban has five overall, four with the Crimson Tide, and he has a shot at a sixth as his team prepares to play Clemson in the Jan. 1 Sugar Bowl semifinal.

Saban, Fisher and Malzahn are the only SEC head coaches who've led a team to the national championship game. Fisher's 2013 Florida State team beat Malzahn's first Auburn team to win the last BCS Championship Game.

Fisher's jump to Texas A&M, Dan Mullen's move to Florida and the additions of Morris at Arkansas, Pruitt at Tennessee and Joe Moorhead at Mississippi State give Malzahn another distinction. He'll enter 2018 as the only SEC head coach who's beaten Saban - and he's done it twice in 2013 and 2017.

Fisher is 0-1 against his old boss from LSU. Mullen at Mississippi State went 0-9 against Saban. Morris, Moorhead and Pruitt have never coached against Saban. Making it more difficult for Fisher and Pruitt is that no former Saban assistant has beaten him as a head coach.

It's debatable whether the rest of the SEC West has gotten tougher - with the exception of A&M's upgrade from Kevin Sumlin - but there's no question that Auburn didn't get any weaker by retaining Malzahn, Steele and Lindsey.

Given what they accomplished in their first season as a trio, the Tigers should be expected to win at least 10 games again next year, especially if Jarrett Stidham and/or Kerryon Johnson return.

Remember, Auburn has put together back-to-back 10-win seasons just once in school history in 1988 and 1989. Malzahn's new seven-year $49 million contract demands he maintain that level of excellence.

Despite the pain of losing the Georgia rematch in the SEC Championship Game and watching the Bulldogs and Alabama make the College Football Playoff - even though Auburn swept them in the regular season - it's hard to imagine the last week being more productive for the Tigers.

After their best season in four years, they didn't lose their head coach or either coordinator. That's how you win the all-important silly season.