ast Saturday was the most chaotic day in college football. We saw 5 top 10 teams be defeated, sending the college football world into pandemonium. The rankings and conferences have felt the effects, but one conference in particular is on fire. The SEC saw Georgia lose to Auburn as a nearly three-touchdown favorite, as well as Florida defeating Texas, making it two losses in a row for the Longhorns. The margin for error in the SEC has gone down significantly, as 6 teams now have 2 losses.
As it stands, Georgia still stands atop the SEC with 1 loss, followed behind by Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ole Miss, leaving 6 schools with 2 losses following closely behind them. And the arguments will be made later in the year for who deserves to be in a playoff spot at 9-3 because a lot of these teams play each other in the coming weeks.
Alabama still has LSU and Auburn to play. LSU has Alabama, Auburn, Texas, and Tennessee left on their schedule. Ole Miss plays Texas this weekend, and they have Auburn and Georgia as well. That is an absolute gauntlet of a remaining schedule. And I personally believe many teams aren’t coming out unscathed through the remaining weeks, just based on what we’ve seen so far through this season.
Home field has been a major advantage, as well as teams winning big games and then having a letdown game the very following week after a huge win. I.e., Ole Miss beats LSU. Ole Miss then loses to Mizzou, who proceeds to lose to Florida, who then loses to Texas A&M. So teams have been winning but haven’t stayed on top of the mountain to enjoy their win for too long, as the following week someone drags them back down into the mud.
There isn’t enough air in the room for these SEC schools to have these 10+ win seasons anymore because the talent gap between teams has gone down tremendously since the NIL and transfer portal era started. Anyone can be competitive in today’s game, not just the blue blood schools.
So the SEC’s biggest strength, the conference being tough as every team is good and competitive, could lead it to cannibalize itself in the coming weeks.
So what I’m getting at here is that we have only just seen the beginning of the car crash that is the SEC.
