"SEC is back": Paul Finebaum drops bold take after Eagles dominate Patrick Mahomes & Co. in the Super Bowl 

The SEC had been the standard in college football for the better part of a decade and a half but hasn't stood at the mountaintop in a few years — on the college level. On Sunday night, the Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl in New Orleans, known, too, as the conference's country.

Philly's roster was littered with players who'd starred at schools in the conference. Talk show host and SEC Network analyst Paul Finebaum pointed that fact out, letting fans of teams in the conference know they have somewhat of a consolation prize in the form of a Lombardi Trophy.

"The SEC is back, Greg," Finebaum said Monday on 'McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning.' "We may not have won the national championship, but we won the Super Bowl."

The Eagles had several SEC standouts line up on Sunday. Quarterback and Super Bowl MVP Jalen Hurts won a national title at Alabama before transferring to Oklahoma when Tua Tagovailoa unseated him as the Crimson Tide's starter.

"You can go anywhere as a Super Bowl champion, especially as the MVP, and that carries with you the rest of your life," Finebaum said via On3.com. "There are few things quite like it in a team sport. In fact, there is nothing like it in a team sport, maybe individual sports."

How did the Eagles build a roster of SEC players?

With programs that have as much success as Alabama and Georgia do there's typically a reason for it. Philadelphia's brass has seemingly figured that formula out. In total, on the game's brightest stage, the Eagles fielded 22 players who'd played in the conference. They had another eight that were on the injured list or practice squad.

Receivers A.J. Brown (Ole Miss) and DeVonta Smith (Alabama) scored touchdowns in the win over Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. Brown and Smith were also SEC-made.

Other offensive players from the vaunted conference on Philadelphia's roster included fullback Khari Blasingame (Vanderbilt), receiver Ainias Smith (Texas A&M), center Landon Dickerson and guard Tyler Steen (Alabama) and offensive tackles Fred Johnson (Florida) and Darian Kinnard (Kentucky).

On the other side of the ball, the Eagles sported defensive tackles Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis (Georgia), linebackers Oren Burks (Vanderbilt) and Nolan Smith Jr. (Georgia), cornerbacks Eli Ricks (Alabama), Kelee Ringo (Georgia), and Darius Slay Jr. (Mississippi State) and safeties Lewis Cine (Georgia) and C.J. Gardner-Johnson (Florida).

Offensive tackle Lane Johnson and defensive tackle Moro Ojomo went to Oklahoma and Texas, respectively. Both programs joined the conference this past season.

Meanwhile, Kansas City had 13 players from the conference on its active roster, including receivers Hollywood Brown (Oklahoma) and Xavier Worthy (Texas).