There may be nothing more predictable than the SEC complaining about something.
Last season was a microcosm of the shifting landscape in college football, which has undermined the SEC’s arguments and proclamations of superiority. For the third straight season, the SEC was shut out of the National Championship game. They went 1-8 in bowl games against other Power 4 conference teams and 0-3 in the College Football Playoff.
That wasn’t an outlier, given recent history, it was more of the same. Over the last three tournaments, including games against non-Power 4 teams and in-conference opponents, the SEC is just 5-9. Their closest competitor, the Big Ten, is 13-5.
For years, the conference has enjoyed preferential treatment based on the assumption that they were heads and shoulders above the rest of the field. Once the SEC’s signature program, the Alabama Crimson Tide in 2025 exemplified those advantages. After a season in which they lost to an atrocious Florida State team and despite getting obliterated by the Georgia Bulldogs in the SEC Championship Game, they were still voted in to the playoff by the selection committee. The first time in the history of the selection committee poll that a team lost in a conference championship and did not drop in the rankings. All because voters assumed that simply reaching the SEC Championship Game and beating Georgia was an unimaginable accomplishment.
For most outsider observers, this was a sign that the SEC might be getting too much credit from the committee. For commissioner Greg Sankey? It was an opportunity to complain to the selection committee that they aren’t given enough special advantages.
Per On3’s Brett McMurphy, Sankey said he had “unsatisfactory” talks with staff about their lack of appreciation for the SEC.
“I’m actually one who believes competitors want a great challenge. We have heard about strength of schedule, strength of record,” he said. “We had what I would call an unsatisfactory conversation with College Football Playoff staff (at spring meetings). We have questions about them understanding the strength (of the SEC).”
Sure. Five of the 12 teams in last year’s field were from the SEC. Sankey, of course, at the time, complained that it should have been more. As did Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian, who said excluding the 9-3 and undeserving Longhorns would be a “disservice to the sport.”
If you look up “entitlement” in the dictionary, you’ll see an image of the SEC logo.
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This is what drives fans of teams from other conferences crazy about the SEC’s endless complaining: they simply refuse to engage rationally with reality. Everything is the infamous hypothetical. “Ohio State would lose 10 games in the SEC.” “Florida would go undefeated in the Big Ten.” “Nothing compares with playing on the road in Mississippi State.”
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Or the classics, “our non-conference schedules are harder, even when we play four bad teams at home.” “Never leaving our time zone is actually harder than traveling across the country like other teams do, because of the names of the teams we play in conference.” “Playing FCS games in November just shows how deep our schedules are.”
Every single negative data point is dismissed. Name value is prioritized over results. Recruiting rankings and NFL players from 2021 is a substitute for current measurements of team strength. As Bud Elliot pointed out on X, “Tennessee and Missouri didn’t beat a team with a winning record. LSU was literally 7-6.”
The good news? That the College Football Playoff staff apparently didn’t listen to Sankey’s complaining. They shouldn’t. His job is to advocate for his teams, reality be damned. A near-perfect representation of the conference’s fanbase, as a matter of fact. But the selection committee isn’t supposed to make the SEC happy, it’s supposed to pick the 12 teams to play in the tournament. And given the SEC’s recent performance, it’s easy to make the case that they should get fewer spots, not more.
