The hot button topic of late has been the SEC’s daunting conference scheduling, and it has people between the hot takes of “it’s too grueling for teams to survive” to “the SEC is weak but will still have multiple playoff teams, anyway”.
Your X post text here
— Brad Powers (@BradPowers7) July 29, 2026
As a reminder of whatever side of the debate you’re on, it’s a self-inflicted wound. While Sankey will stand tall on the idea that “we did something the B1G was unwilling to do themselves”, it still makes for a ridiculous decision that one can only wonder if it really was for guaranteeing playoff spots or if it was for money.
Well, of course it was for money. No one wants to watch Georgia versus Tennessee State in a crowded TV market, but more people will tune in for Georgia-Vandy and Georgia-Oklahoma, for sure.
What is hurting worse than anything else is that a move made to make the league’s scheduling look tougher is actually having the inverse effect – people are landing on the idea that the SEC is actually a weak conference, and keeping more games in house prevents debacles like Alabama-Florida State last year from exposing a media bias (bwah-ha-ha on that one) and the SEC for what it really is.
In truth, it’s hard to see where the turn on SEC football will abate. Winning it all would help, but short of Texas and Georgia, who are the SEC teams who could make a legitimate run? And, yes, you could say the same of two other conferences (BigXII, seriously, you don’t stand a chance), but when it comes down to Notre Dame, Georgia, Texas, Miami, Ohio State, Oregon, and Indiana (depending on who is playing for them this year), the talk is all talk and we really have no relevant reason to have the CFP given it’s the same teams in the mix each year.
Win it all, and all the talk is just that. Keep bowing out in the early rounds, and Sankey’s decision seems more questionable by the day.
To Danny Kanell, multiple things can be true at one time. The Big 10 can win the national championship, but it still doesn’t make the league the best conference. The SEC is clearly the deepest conference and has the strongest strength of schedule. I read we have the weakest schedule in the conference, but it’s still the 20th strongest schedule in the nation.
He is not the sharpest knife in the drawer.
Don’t for the only reason the SEC has such tough strength of schedule numbers is because ESPN is in bed with the SEC and inflates the FPI numbers to benefit the teams from the conference they have a media deal with…😉
I don’t think there’s any correlation at all between schedule strength and getting through the playoffs.
To me we’re just trading a quality ooc game vs a quality in conference game. Why not? You want to play a big ooc game? Get in the playoffs.
Plus it keeps some teams from scheduling 3/4 high school teams consisting of blind girls.
So the big boys cancel their big ooc regular season games knowing they will see those teams in Dec/Jan and everyone has to play 9 sec games. Many have some ooc rival as well. Some don’t, but many do.
Wouldn’t be against requiring those who don’t from scheduling one decent ooc game.
With NIL, there’s been a leveling that’s undeniable. With a tournament, its a crap shoot.
The depth of the sec is undeniable. The 4th through 10th teams in the sec vs any other is laughable. Anyone wanting to argue that point need not be argued with. Further, we shouldn’t bother ourselves with what they type or what leaks out of their sewers.
Big10/SEC Preseason top 10’s
Dawgs v OhioSt
Texas v Oregon
Indiana v Ole Miss
TAMU v USC
LSU v Michigan
Bama v PennSt
Oklahoma v Washington
Tennessee v Iowa
Florida v Illinois
Mizzou v Minnesota
Based on recent historic data (last 3 years), 4 through 10 would yield a 3-4 or 4-3 predicted record (at best) for SEC IMHO.
TAMU – win
LSU – loss
Bama – loss
Okla – win
Tenn – loss
Florida – ??
Mizzou – loss
I think your predictions are shit.
What would the lines be at neutral sites?
The big10 wouldn’t be favored in any of those match ups.
I dont think Vegas is preparing lines based on who is going to win games; we all know this.
LSU is 47-29 since 2020.
Bama has eight losses under DeBoer — Vandy, FSU, Mich, Indiana included.
Tennessee – be for real!
Mizzou is 46-29 since 2020. And lost to “VIRGINIA” last year.
The BIG aint shaking in their boots bro.
Lets look at the premier Big10 programs:
Since 2010 Michigan is 4-10 vs. SEC teams.
Ohio state is a combined 3-14 all time vs:
Bama, UGA, mizzou, Tennessee, USCe, LSU, UF and Auburn.
Georgia is 12-4 all time vs the Big Ten.
Maybe they’re just too gd stupid to know they shake, and feel shame for suggesting otherwise.
Sankey got played pure and simple giving in on the 9th conference game. Bigtitti has Sankey on tilt for sure.
There was no good reason to add the 9th conference game. As a fan and season ticket holder I’m glad it happened, but overall it hurts the conference and it blows my mind Sankey didn’t realize this. It just gives half the conference a guaranteed additional loss.
The BIG gave Sankey a wedgie then kicked him in the butt on this issue.
I guess you would have been ok if the DSOR didn’t get played annually.
“There was no good reason to add the 9th conference game.”
I guess the Georgia-Auburn and other games don’t mean more. Also, I have to assume Disney is paying more to keep the games they have broadcast the last 2 years as annual games.
The public floggings will continue until the SEC starts winning B2B championships again. One natty will slow the talk for a short while then it’s 3 out of 4 rinse and repeat. Championships in anything other than CFB mean nothing to the media.
If the SEC does not get 4+ teams in the CFB playoff over the next 2 years then Sankey rolled the dice and lost on the scheduling. IMO, instead of talking about the 9 game schedule making it tough for a playoff run, change the narrative and start putting emphasis on how the 9 game schedule will revive the importance of wining the conference championship and just declare the SEC champ as the Nat’l Champ.
If only we could somehow open up the CFP to all teams, each with a shot to survive and advance, and maybe, just maybe recover from an early loss if they continue to play strong.
We could start this long playoff in late August or early September. For some random reason we’d label this first weekend of games “Week Zero.” Each week teams would face a worthy opponent, usually within their conference, but sometimes outside of it if there is a historical rivalry.
After 13-14 editions of this gauntlet, we could have a final championship game, maybe on New Year’s Day (but definitely when there is no work the next day), with the two best teams chosen by a combination of coaches, sportswriters, and some random dude named Jeff. Before this grand finale, there would be other lesser exhibition games sprinkled in as a reward for the teams who fell by the wayside.
You can call me a Nostradamus, a lunatic, a cockeyed optimist if you will… but I know that I saw this dream world in a vision or something, not so long ago…it was called “the regular season,” and it was beautiful…
Excellent work.
Maybe the 9 game SEC schedule is all we end up watching and liking. The CFBpost season is just made up and flaggelent
I support the 9 game conference schedule because it saved the “secondary” rivalries as annual games like Georgia-Auburn, LSU-Ole Miss, Texas-A&M, Alabama-Tennessee, etc.
These games are what “It Just Means More” really means.
That is THE only good thing I’ve seen regarding the 9 game schedule.
I would have been ok with 2/6 scheduling model, but that would not have achieved the questionable objective of playing in every stadium over a 4-year period.
Are you making this observation as a season ticket holder or as a defender of the sec and it’s properties, in the short term, long term vs the college football world…this maybe short sided, it feels as though the sec isn’t the leader it once was….GO DAWGS!!
DIW, I didn’t care what they did with the schedule as long as the “secondary” (I hated that term when it was coined) rivalries like the DSOR continue to be played every year. I don’t need Georgia to play Texas or Oklahoma in Athens every 4 years or go to Starkville once every 4 years if it meant doing the same with Auburn. Why bring Texas into the league if they and the Aggies weren’t going to play annually?
We (SEC) had a good run but all good things come to an end. With the exception of OSU, Michigan, Indiana, and their west coast brethren, the B1G has it easy. Cream puffs make for good records and now good records make for getting into the playoffs.
Yet, the SEC got 5 teams in last year.
Not sure if this happens to anyone else, but the Tweets imbedded in posts won’t play within this website. It pops out to Twitter, and to play videos or click on a pciture you need a Twitter account. I could solve that by getting a Twitter account, but I’m never going to do that.
I looked up how to remedy that on ChatGPT, and all the advice I received lead to a dead end. I wish I could say I could solve it.
Regarding not downloading or having an X app, keep that energy and don’t do it. I’ll try to sort through the muck and present anything here worth noting. It’s not worth your sanity to see everything else that’s there.