Eight days ago, there were seven SEC teams still alive for the College Football Playoff. It didn’t matter that they all had two or three losses, it seemed like a rational discussion because the SEC is always the best conference in college football. You know the talking points.
How good would an ACC team be against the SEC schedule?
How can you punish SEC teams for beating up on each other?
Having two losses in the SEC is basically being undefeated in the other conferences.
Who has dominated college football for the past 20 years?
We don’t reward weak schedules.
Enough. It’s time to stop.
Friday night was the last straw. Watching the Georgia team that has already clinched a spot in the SEC Championship Game go eight overtimes in a thrilling win over Georgia Tech at home is enough to finally accept the reality. It’s time to say the quiet part out loud: The SEC just isn’t great this year.
As we head into Rivalry Saturday and wait for more context on how the College Football Playoff field is going to shake out, we have to reevaluate how we view the SEC and how many teams should be invited into the 12-team field.
Georgia beat Tennessee. Tennessee beat Alabama. Ole Miss beat Georgia. Georgia beat Texas. Alabama beat Georgia. Texas A&M beat LSU. South Carolina beat Texas A&M. Georgia beat Texas. Texas beat, well, nobody. And around and around we go. Based on the logos on the helmets, the history books, and the size of the stadiums in which those teams play, it’s easy to be impressed by those results. That’s how we got to the end of November seriously considering this conference deserves five teams.
I’m as guilty as anyone of it. I watched this sport for the last 20 years like all of you and those preconceived notions about the SEC still invade my thoughts. Eight days ago I thought Ole Miss was legitimately a national title contender.
Then seven days ago Ole Miss lost to a five-loss Florida team.
The SEC is propped up by “quality wins,” and, more annoyingly, “quality losses.” But how do we know that the conference isn’t just a bunch of average or above-average teams beating each other because nobody is actually elite? How impressive is Alabama’s win over Georgia? How impressive is Tennessee’s win over Alabama? What’s the most impressive win the SEC has, in conference play or out? Where is the “quality” in these wins or losses?
It just means more in the SEC.
Those wins, though? They shouldn’t mean more. They’re a mirage.
Here is what Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin said in regards to the notion the ACC or Big 12 get more consideration from the CFP Committee earlier this week.
“It’s ridiculous, the difference of playing in the SEC and the ACC and Big 12,” he said. “To think that you’re looking at schools and you’re about about, like, Clemson’s schedule and who they played over Alabama. It’s stupid. I’m not going to name them. Take some of those teams that are up there that haven’t played anybody and put them down in the SEC, they’re .500 teams.”
In 2019, I agree.
In 2024? Get out of here. You can’t say this days after losing to Florida. You just can’t.
You know who is a middle-of-the-road ACC team this year? Georgia Tech. They played Georgia toe-to-toe on the road and lost a game in eight overtimes that utilized European soccer overtime rules.
The SEC champion may very well be this Georgia team. When Georgia plays its best football, it’s hard to imagine the Bulldogs couldn’t beat everyone else in the country by 10 or more points. But when has this Georgia team played its best? For five total quarters this year? Are we all still brainwashed by the past?
Listen, I’m Mr. Stars Matter. I’d never in a million years be engaging in this discussion three years ago. I’ve always been a firm believer that the best teams in the country are the ones who recruit the best. The SEC, without question, has been the deepest, most talented conference in the country for the past 20 years because it always recruited the best. The SEC was never overrated during that era of college football because they simply had the most good players. For two decades, this sport was really easy to break down.
But in 2024, in the year of NIL and the transfer portal, these rosters aren’t as deep anymore. The SEC still recruits the best, but it’s not as dominant anymore. The talent is more spread out. The days of super teams or Alabama and Georgia having second-stringers who would start at every other team in college football are done. The talent advantage possessed by the monsters who propped up the conference for so many years isn’t as stark, which is why you’re seeing more varied results.
We are creatures of habit. We’re going to have to get five years into this new era before we start accepting beating Alabama and Georgia may just not be the same feat it was in 2019. These teams are still very good, but they aren’t bulletproof anymore. Beating Alabama and Georgia should no longer be the trump card that gets you into the College Football Playoff regardless of how many losses a team has.
The data points we’ve accumulated that support the SEC’s dominance for the past 20 years aren’t being called into question. Those are all very real. But how relevant are they now if the sport is different?
There are no truly elite quarterbacks in the SEC this year. The SEC won’t have a Heisman Trophy finalist for the first time since 2017 when it was Baker Mayfield, Bryce Love, Lamar Jackson, Saquon Barkley and Rashaad Penny (though the school Mayfield played for is now in the SEC).
The best nonconference win the SEC owns is Georgia’s blowout of Clemson in the season-opener. There is no on-the-field data of this conference’s superiority. We’re letting the past and roster talent disparity from a different era of college football prop up our opinions of an entire conference.
So why shouldn’t the ACC get three teams in? Why is Indiana in everyone’s crosshairs? Why are we so quick to excuse three losses from these SEC teams? Why is Arizona State ranked behind a cluster of average SEC teams?
Is it because we think Arizona State would lose to Ole Miss? Is it because we have to make sure an Alabama team who failed to score a touchdown at Oklahoma las weekend gets in?
In the past, you could deal with hypothetical. To say the SEC was the best conference in college football in November three years ago is a fact. Now it’s an opinion.
The beauty of this new 12-team Playoff system is we’re going to get answers. The SEC is going to get more teams into the field than it deserves because the CFP Committee is going to give these teams the benefit of the doubt. They’re people and they want to just assume that ASU isn’t as good as Ole Miss. I’ll be honest: I still have a hard time accepting it because the talent angle is still hard-wired into my DNA.
It’s a new era. I’ll challenge everyone: What evidence can you present — from this year’s results — that shows the SEC deserves any benefit of the doubt from the College Football Playoff committee?
Save yourself some time.
There is none.