Here is a better way to look at it. If we are talking regular season, there are only 10 Power 5 teams and only 1 SEC team that won 10 games this year. This year, of those 10 teams, 9 finished the regular season ranked in the Top 10. If we are saying we are a 10 win team, you're basically saying we are a top 10 team next year. I would LOVE 8-4 next year, head to another good bowl and finish 9-4. I mean, Rich Brooks was a decent coach here, with some decent talent and never won more than 7 regular season games. You're talking a 3 game improvement over Brooks best season.
SEC east was prob the best league in the country back then. Not so much now