The more that college football changes, the more some things remain the same. In this case, SEC coaches complaining about schedules.
As we rapidly approach the start of the 2026 season, the landscape of the sport has changed significantly. In the pre-NIL era, the SEC, led by Nick Saban’s Alabama dynasty, dominated college football. In 10 years, from 2013-2022, SEC teams won six National Championships, three for the Crimson Tide, two for Georgia, and the Joe Burrow-led 2019 LSU Tigers.
But NIL almost immediately upended roster construction, creating more parity within the sport as former, say, Alabama backups, took bigger paydays to start elsewhere. As a result, there’s a much more level playing field across college football, other teams in other conferences have improved their rosters, and the top of the SEC is no longer heads and shoulders above the competition.
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Unsurprisingly then, the SEC has failed to even reach the National Championship game in three straight seasons. And even worse, teams from the Big Ten Conference have not only reached the final, but won it in each of those years. Based on some preseason analytics-driven rankings, the Big Ten might be favored to win its fourth straight title with Ohio State and Oregon topping the sport.
There are reasonable, logical explanations for this abrupt change in power structures. And then there’s what Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz says. At SEC media days, when describing why the Big Ten has surpassed his conference, Drinkwitz said it comes down to “When you don’t play a (non-conference) A4 game,” per Brett McMurphy.
Brandon Marcello from CBS Sports added that Drinkwitz believes the SEC coaches already “regret moving to a nine-game conference schedule,” and that “Lane Kiffin has long been in front saying a move from eight games would be an issue.”
Ah. So that’s the problem. The Big Ten hasn’t had enough tough non-conference games. Well, let’s take a look at Missouri’s non-conference schedule in 2025 under Drinkwitz, shall we?
- Central Arkansas 61-6
- Kansas 42-31
- Louisiana 52-10
- Massachusetts 42-6
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Real murderers’ row of tough teams, isn’t it? Even better, Drinkwitz and Missouri’s schedule was so hard they played, and this is not a misprint, six straight home games to start the season. They opened the season on Aug. 28, and their first road game of the year, and again, this is not a misprint, was Oct. 18.
They played four road games, at Auburn, Vanderbilt, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. They went 2-2. Their total distance traveled from Columbia all season, was 1,805 miles. Big Ten Conference team USC played a road non-conference game against Notre Dame, which is nearly 2,100 miles from Los Angeles. One Big Ten team traveled more for a single game than Missouri did all season. “And that stuff matters,” as Kiffin said when making farcical, inaccurate excuses for the SEC’s recent underperformance.
It is remarkable, dishonest deflection. Yes, Missouri still played a tough schedule because of their conference games, but to act as though the Big Ten only won a National Championship because of non-conference schedules is ludicrous. Indiana finished its undefeated season by beating Ohio State, Alabama, Oregon and Miami. Missouri lost to Virginia, 13-7, in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl. Apparently that’s due to the much tougher non-conference slate Missouri faced and their grueling travel schedule of four road games where they quite literally never left the central time zone. It’s almost impossible to give yourself more small advantages than Missouri did.
All of these excuses and explanations and justifications are wrong, and missing the point. The Big Ten has caught up to the SEC because of NIL and the transfer portal. The SEC’s depth has improved because they distribute tons of money to each program, they have large fanbases that support the football teams, and there are fewer incentives to sit at Alabama now than there were before. Games between elite teams are mostly 55%/45% or 60%/40% toss-ups, and contending programs like Texas or Georgia could rebound and win a title this year.
The SEC has long had non-conference scheduling advantages, with teams like Missouri giving themselves four free wins, eight home games, FCS bye weeks in November and little travel. Then pointing to win-loss records, propped up by four free wins, as “proof” of how tough the SEC is. Now that other conferences are emulating them, they’re crying foul. Yes, moving to nine conference games is going to hurt their records. That’s what happens when advantages are removed.
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It’s impossible to take these scheduling complaints seriously when the SEC is 2-7 against other Power 4 conference teams in the College Football Playoff the past three seasons. Even including games against themselves, the SEC is just 5-9 the past three tournaments. The Big Ten is 13-5. Maybe worry about that first.
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