The SEC spoke an unofficial college football mantra into existence. It’ll put strain on the playoff committee.
The SEC spoke its unofficial mantra into existence.
What started as an SEC propaganda campaign turned into reality.
Behold, the conference where, Our worst teams are better than your worst teams!
Based on the first few weeks of this season, who could argue that?
OK, so the SEC’s cellar dweller, Arkansas, looks awful. Other than the Hideous Hogs, though, the handful of teams you’d expect to find in the SEC’s bottom tier are packing a punch.
Kentucky just upset Texas A&M on the road, after which Wildcats coach Will Stein declared, “This is what Kentucky football is supposed to look like.”
No, Kentucky is supposed to be an SEC doormat. When the Wildcats play like this, beads of sweat form in places like LSU, Florida and Tennessee.
It’s not just the ‘Cats. Vanderbilt is 3-0, after an assist from NC State’s coach and quarterback. Mississippi State trounced Minnesota on the road, sits at 3-0, and looks like a freight train behind quarterback Kamario Taylor.
Florida and Auburn, after underachieving for several years, are finding their footing.
In Week 2, SEC teams went 5-2 in nonconference matchups against Power Four opponents, including a 2-1 record against the Big Ten. That same week, the Big Ten went 0-3 against the ACC. Heavy is the head that wears the crown, apparently.
SEC’s battle cry gains steam behind Kentucky, Mississippi State
These results support what SEC coaches and commissioner Greg Sankey proclaimed in the offseason. While doing the rubber chicken circuit and trying to lobby more support from the playoff selection committee, SEC Inc. persistently argued no easy outs exist in this league. When asked directly by USA TODAY Sports about the SEC’s drought of playoff success, Sankey bristled and spoke of the conference’s “metrics” superiority.
That messaging rang hollow at the time. I jabbed the conference that used to tout its national championships had redirected to pinning its flag to the strength of its worst teams — and those teams weren’t even good.
The SEC was coming off a couple of down seasons. Arkansas became a whipping post. Auburn lost its way. Kentucky stunk badly enough to finally fire Mark Stoops. South Carolina fell out of the cockpit last season. Florida lost at home to a Group of Five opponent. Mississippi State stalled.
The Birmingham Propaganda Firm tried to brainwash everyone into believing the SEC’s mightiness could be found in its absence of a weak link, but an examination of the evidence revealed feebleness existed from the Loveliest Village on the Plains to StarkVegas to Bourbon Country to The Swamp.
Not this year.
The SEC is at its toughest when programs like Mississippi State are good enough to be 8-4.
How will playoff committee react to SEC’s ruggedness?
The question remains, will down-ballot strength be a feature or a bug come playoff selection time? How would the committee react to a logjam of 9-3 SEC teams?
The committee has never selected a 9-3 team. On the other hand, the SEC never played nine conference games before this season, so a 9-3 record from a team like LSU, for instance, might impress committee members more this year.
A bevy of 9-3 records would be a boon for the SEC if the playoff housed 16 teams. In a 12-team bracket, with bids guaranteed to the Big Ten, Big 12, ACC and Group of Five, alongside a high-performing Notre Dame, the chairs start to swiftly fill up at the exclusive dinner party.
Even if the SEC proves itself as the best top-to-bottom conference and loads up on playoff bids, national championships are won by the conference that produces the crème de la crème. The past few years, that’s the Big Ten, but its vanguard shows signs of vulnerability.
Mississippi State beating Minnesota is a feather in the SEC’s cap, but Texas toppling Ohio State feels more significant. More results like that, and the SEC will be able to declare, Our best teams can beat your best teams!
Within the Big Ten, Oregon is fortunate to have just one loss and not two. Ohio State is not invincible, although the Buckeyes cannot be discredited by a one-point road loss to a premier opponent. Michigan would have a loss if not for a favorable replay ruling and a successful mulligan on a Hail Mary. Southern Cal is undefeated, but how much do you trust a team that beat woebegone Rutgers by just a single touchdown?
Maybe, Indiana remains the Big Ten’s top fighter, but it’s difficult to anoint it yet. The Hoosiers played a glorified exhibition schedule against the Washington Generals — excuse me, I mean Howard Bison — throughout the season’s first few weeks.
Officially, the SEC still embraces “It Just Means More” as its motto. That’s never been propaganda. It’s straight truth. The scenes from LSU-Mississippi last weekend provided fresh evidence.
Unofficially, the “Our worst teams can beat your worst teams!” tagline gains momentum.
Up in the Big Ten, they’ve been singing “We are the champions” for a few years. The SEC still needs someone like Texas or Georgia or Ole Miss to steal that tune.
A Mississippi State and Kentucky uprising makes for a more rugged conference than the SEC produced the past few years, and it’ll take an elite team to endure that gauntlet and then bring a national championship trophy home to the South.
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s senior national college football columnist. Listen to his podcast, “College Football Unfiltered.” Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.