The time has come for SEC fans, its media machine and especially its commissioner to admit the reality that has been brewing beneath the surface throughout the college football season.
The world has changed considerably. And the old reliable narrative that the quality of football in the SEC is different than in other leagues is now more myth than reality.
Isn’t admitting a problem the first step towards salvation? Let’s put it like it is: the SEC is now a basketball league.
Okay, okay. It could have been a low blow. But Notre Dame 23, Georgia 10 is a quarterfinal result that should resonate for a long time – especially against the backdrop of the miserable SEC playoffs.
A few weeks ago, some of the biggest names in the ESPN apparatus devoted themselves to the idea that its largest business partner in college sports, the SEC, was left out of the game by the Football Playoff selection committee university because only three teams were on the field.
Today, the league is down to just one team – Texas, which wasn’t even a member of the SEC 12 months ago – and it was a desperate conversation between fourth and thirteenth after being completely excluded semi-finals. And when you combine it with the SEC’s 1-4 record in playoff games against the Big Ten, something has changed. It’s different.
A cynic might say that once it became legal to pay players, the SEC no longer had an advantage in talent acquisition. But a more generous interpretation of the current climate doesn’t even need to invoke nefarious stories. It’s simply a fact that stockpiling talent is more difficult now, and recruits who might have qualified for the SEC in years past naturally land in a broader group of programs.
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By the way, this isn’t just an SEC vs. Big Ten or SEC vs. Big 12 phenomenon. It’s an SEC vs. SEC phenomenon.
When Ole Miss grabs a few guys who could have gone to Alabama, and South Carolina grabs a few guys who could have gone to Georgia, and Texas A&M grabs a few guys who could have gone to LSU, everyone moves more toward the middle.
This is not Urban Meyer’s SEC. This isn’t Nick Saban’s SEC. It’s not even Kirby Smart’s SEC anymore.
In December 2023, when it looked like the SEC might be left out of the final four-team CFP, Commissioner Greg Sankey appeared on ESPN’s “College GameDay” and said, “It’s not the real world of college football. Back to Sesame Street, so we’re really basic. One of these things is not like the other.
Well, what Sesame Street theme would describe the current state of things?
Count von Count could demonstrate the following simple calculation: In three CFP games, the SEC was dominated 96-66 and exceeded 1,227-927. Imagine if Texas hadn’t found a way to get by Wednesday against an Arizona State team that too many SEC coaches thought was inferior and unworthy of the playoffs because it didn’t have to survive the SEC challenge.
Uh-huh. Of course.
You see, schadenfreude isn’t really about supporting Cinderella or taking down the big, bad bully. It’s arrogance to believe that you can continue to get the benefit of the doubt, year after year, in a sport that has changed as radically and as quickly as this one.
No one can dispute that the best teams in the SEC have been pretty dominant from 2006 to 2022, with a few notable but rare exceptions.
But back to Sesame Street. Remember the song that says, “These are the people from your neighborhood?”
Well, the SEC is a bad neighbor. He destroys other conferences through expansion, he bullies his peers into submission by threatening to do something dramatically vague to move away from college sports as we knew them, and he demands competitive structures. ‘post-season not only in football but in all major sports to stack the game in its favor.
Perhaps a little humility – and perspective – is in order for dear leader Sankey.
Before Thursday, Notre Dame had been subjected to three BCS/CFP scenarios over the past 12 years. The scores of these games:
Alabama 42, Notre Dame 14
Clemson 30, Notre Dame 3
Alabama 31, Notre Dame 14
While the SEC can’t claim credit for Clemson, the fact is that Notre Dame — a truly formidable, historic program — couldn’t compete at this level. Each time it was a physical mismatch.
This is no longer true.
The SEC hasn’t physically crushed anyone of note in the postseason, and the 2024 calendar year began and ended with Alabama losing outright to Michigan. Although the stakes this week weren’t as high as last season’s semifinals, the data is adding up. You can no longer honestly say that even the best teams in the SEC have an overwhelming physical advantage. Even in its victory, Texas was pretty well shaken up.
Can the pendulum swing back? Of course. Coaches adapt and programs that don’t like their results make changes. At some point the SEC will return to the top because that’s what happens in a normal, healthy sport. Ebb and flow, real competition.
This is how it should be – not the headline-grabbing “we won all these championships under a completely different set of rules, so you have to kneel to us now” bullshit that comes far too naturally to people in this league.
It’s time to move on to a new act. It’s time to be honest. It’s time to face the facts: you’re just like everyone else now.