Friday evening I was beaming with pride as our Missouri Tigers captured their second SEC EAST TITLE in two years. (and a little drunk on some celebratory bourbon to boot!)

To say that the team fought back with grit and determination to secure the division is a testament to their never-stop attitude!

As just about every Mizzou fan would admit, it wasn't pretty, and it was down-right unexpected, but in the end, this team hung tough and beat out the rest of their division foes.

Within hours of their win, however, a 'statistic' started worming its way through the internet -- A 'damning, disparaging, and 'only-posted-to-minimize-the-team's-accomplishment' kind of stat that, honestly, I have never heard mentioned in conversation before this moment.

Missouri has 2 straight SEC East titles while beating 1 SEC team with a winning conference record (Georgia 2013).

— Jon Solomon (@JonSolomonCBS) November 28, 2014

"Missouri has 2 straight SEC East titles while beating 1 SEC team with a winning conference record (Georgia 2013). JON SOLOMON"

First of all: WHO comes up with that stat?

This tweet was retweeted more than 800 times across the web and started being used as gospel to why Mizzou was somehow undeserving to carry the SEC crown.

Since I was baffled by the stat, and more than a little irritated by Solomon's pronouncement, I decided to do some digging. Here's what I found (covering 2007 to 2014).

1) EVERY SEASON, LESS THAN 50%* OF SEC TEAMS HAVE A WINNING CONF. RECORD (*exception 2012)

The average number of teams hangs around 5 each year. Considering the East winner is one of those five, that gives on average 4 chances to play 'winning' teams. Matter of fact, except for the 2012 season, when the East had four teams with positive records, there has been an average of TWO teams in the East above .500!!

2) THIS STAT ONLY GOES TO EXPOSE THAT THE SEC HAS FEW 'WINNING' TEAMS IN CONF. PLAY!

I was always told how overpowering the SEC was, but just look at 2009. Only THREE teams had winning records: Florida, Alabama, and LSU! 2008 wasn't much better with only four teams.

If your cross-over teams don't happen to be one of those few, then 'what can you do?' (and the odds are against most teams being above .500 anyway)

3) EVEN WHEN FLORIDA WAS DOMINANT, THE EAST WAS 'WEAK' COMPARATIVELY SPEAKING.

Florida's titles have come against 'inferior' teams. "Proof?"

2006 - Florida and Tennessee

2008 - Florida and Georgia

2009 - ONLY Florida!

4) WHEN GEORGIA WON BACK-TO-BACK EAST TITLES IN 2011 & 2012, THEY WON A TOTAL OF 2 GAMES, USING THIS GUIDE.

Not much of a difference between one win and two, wouldn't you say?!

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So, perhaps Jon Solomon should have just ignored this stat! Sure, according to it, Mizzou can be painted as a 'lucky' team that avoided all those 'great' SEC teams, but historically, no other East winner ran a gauntlet to get there either! - I didn't see him ever point out the inability of the other East winners to defeat many more opponents.

Think we might want to stick with the wins against 'bowl eligible teams' if we have to play this game. (What's that?! Why yes, we DID beat both our WEST 'bowl eligible' foes!! And even our OOC games weren't all bad - UCF & Toledo will go bowling as well.)

GO MIZZOU!

BELOW IS THE BREAKDOWN OF TEAMS WITH 'WINNING RECORDS' IN CONFERENCE FROM 2007-2014, AND THEIR 'WINS' AGAINST THOSE TEAMS...

2014 -- FIVE TEAMS

East:

MIZZOU (0 wins)

GEORGIA

West:

ALABAMA

MISS ST

OLE MISS

2013: -- SIX TEAMS

East:

MIZZOU (1 win = Georgia)

S. CAROLINA

GEORGIA

West:

AUBURN

ALABAMA

LSU

2012 -- SEVEN TEAMS (*record)

East:

GEORGIA (2 wins = Florida & Vandy(!))

FLORIDA

S. CAROLINA

VANDY (!! - only because MIZZOU lost to them!)

West:

ALABAMA

LSU

TEXAS A&M

2011 -- FIVE TEAMS

East:

GEORGIA (0 wins.... ZERO!)

S. CAROLINA

West:

LSU

ALABAMA

ARKANSAS

2010 -- FIVE TEAMS

East:

S. CAROLINA (1 win = beat Alabama)

West:

AUBURN

ARKANSAS

LSU

ALABAMA

2009 -- THREE TEAMS

East:

FLORIDA (1 win = beat LSU)

West:

ALABAMA

LSU

2008 -- FOUR TEAMS

East:

FLORIDA (1 win = beat UGA)

GEORGIA

West:

ALABAMA

OLE MISS

2007 - FIVE TEAMS

East:

TENN (1 win = beat UGA)

GEORGIA

FLORIDA

West:

LSU

AUBURN

I rest my case.....