The SEC had 5 top 25 Defense's last year in a 14 team league vs the Pac 12 who had 3 of their 12 in the top 25 defense's. That's with much better passing offense's in the Pac 12. Last year as a group the SEC gave up 26.4 pts a game vs 29.5 in the Pac 12. Not a big gap..In the past 3 yrs the SEC as a group has given u 29.2 pts a game vs Pac 12 32.0..Not a big gap, especially considering the much better offense's being in the Pac 12. In the 3 yrs average I took out the Pac 12's worst Defense ( Oregon St 52.7 pts game and the SEC's worst Tex A'M 41.3) and the gap went to 30.2 for the SEC vs 28.2 for the Pac 12. So the Pac 12 not playing Defense vs the SEC isn't true. Especially when you consider how much better the QB's and offense's are out there.
I'm not saying Chryst will ever start or play well, but these stats disprove the huge gap in conference Defense's.