Forty names, games, teams and minutiae making news in college football, where idiot trespassers on the field should be treated like tackling dummies. First Quarter: Now It’s a Crisis.
Second Quarter: The Compression of the SEC
The last undefeated team in the Southeastern Conference (10) fell on Oct. 17, the earliest date that has happened since 2007. In fact, this is the first time since that year that the SEC didn’t carry at least one unbeaten team in league play into November.
The 2007 season happened to be one of the wildest in the history of the sport. LSU won the national championship despite losing to Kentucky and Arkansas, the only two-loss champion between 1960 and 2024. (It would have been a great year for a playoff.)
After the mayhem of last Saturday, this season is giving off 2007 vibes. Both nationally and within the SEC.
This ahead-of-schedule carnage in the SEC is evidence of a league that has compressed itself—the bottom might be better than ever, and the top is not vintage. There simply isn’t much separation between the 16 programs right now.
Here is your ultimate SEC parity stat (11): Home teams are 16–16 in league play, which of course means that road teams are 16–16. After Auburn won at Georgia, Florida won at Texas, Kentucky won at Oklahoma and Arkansas won at Vanderbilt on Saturday—all as underdogs—there is no evidence of home field advantage. SEC coaches like to say their road games are harder than anyone else’s, but that’s not a supportable argument as of mid-October.
The rampant parity of the moment portends three things:
- Every Saturday has been and will continue to be tremendously unpredictable.
- The league could pack the College Football Playoff bracket.
- The league might not have a national champion for the fourth straight year.
The CFP selection committee will, again, have its hands full drawing dividing lines between SEC teams—and between SEC teams and outside competition. The strength-of-schedule drumbeats are happening. The ninth conference game will be invoked incessantly. It’s going to be a contentious 47 days until Selection Sunday.
Small sample size, but the SEC’s 10–2 record in nonconference games against Power 4 (plus Notre Dame) competition speaks for itself. Especially when every other league has a losing record in those games. That’s the baseline argument for getting a lot of teams in the playoff, but where they would be seeded is another matter.
So how did we reach this place, where the SEC is a huddled mass of good teams (and maybe no great ones)? Four factors:
Everyone is spending money (12)
According to reporting from The Athletic, every SEC program spent at least $22 million on its 2026 football roster, which is the top half of the Power 4. Six of the top 11 estimated FBS payrolls are in the SEC, but the other 10 aren’t lagging so far behind that they’re not competitive in terms of player retention and procurement. Historically indifferent football schools such as Vanderbilt and Kentucky are invested. So are lower-half programs South Carolina, Missouri and Mississippi State. And most of those programs have competent personnel structures now to help spend their money more wisely.
There is not a giant coach warping the league (13)
Nick Saban went undefeated in SEC play six times between 2008 and ’23. On three other occasions, his Alabama team was the last unbeaten (twice losing in the Iron Bowl and once to Johnny Manziel). For 16 straight seasons, Saban gave the SEC an automatic national title contender—while simultaneously beating down the rest of the league.
Kirby Smart’s Georgia teams went through the SEC without a loss in 2021, ’22 and ’23, an incredible run that included two national titles. Since then the Bulldogs are 17–4 in regular-season SEC games—still excellent, but not quite as dominant. Losing at home as a two-touchdown favorite to an unranked team Saturday was either a wake-up call or a warning sign for this team; the remaining schedule will tell that tale.
The next men up have faltered a bit. As discussed in the First Quarter, Steve Sarkisian is coming under scrutiny at Texas and Kalen DeBoer has never escaped Saban’s shadow at Alabama. Lane Kiffin hasn’t yet won a road game at LSU. After starting 7–0 in SEC play each of his first two seasons at Texas A&M, Mike Elko is currently 1–3.
The SEC raised its floor with great hires for 2026 (14)
Florida and Auburn are championship-caliber programs that were poorly led for years. They went to the American Conference for new coaches who are having an immediate impact: After grabbing Jon Sumrall (15) from Tulane, Florida has taken down Ole Miss and Texas; after grabbing Alex Golesh (16) from South Florida, Auburn became the first unranked team to win at Georgia in seven years. A third SEC school also raided the American—Arkansas grabbed Ryan Silverfield (17), who after a rocky start has shown dramatic improvement, pushing Tennessee on Oct. 10 and then winning at Vandy.
Ole Miss’s battlefield promotion of defensive coordinator Pete Golding (18) late last November looks better with each passing week. He not only got the Rebels to the CFP semifinals last year, he has them in the top 10 this year.
But the biggest splash hire to date is at Kentucky, where Will Stein (19) is doing preposterous things. He’s 6–1, something no coach has done in his debut season in Lexington since the immortal Alpha Brumage in 1913. The Wildcats are 3–0 on the road, which also defies historical precedent.
Quarterback play has leveled off (20)
According to NCAA stats, the SEC currently is fourth out of four power conferences in cumulative pass efficiency. The Big 12 is first at 149.65, the ACC second at 148.80, the Big Ten third at 147.70 and the SEC fourth at 144.29. Those numbers will change—and, realistically, drop everywhere—but for the moment this is new territory for the SEC.
The NCAA keeps those stats for every season from 2013 forward, and the SEC has never been the least-efficient power conference. In previous years that lowest-rated passing distinction has belonged to the ACC once, the old Pac-12 once, the Big 12 twice and the Big Ten nine times.
Of the top 20 QBs nationally in pass efficiency, only two are from the SEC (Gunner Stockton of Georgia and Kamario Taylor of Mississippi State.) The ACC has five in the top 20, the Big Ten and Big 12 have four.
Aside from Trinidad Chambliss at Ole Miss, the SEC’s veteran quarterbacks have plateaued or regressed: Arch Manning at Texas; Marcel Reed at Texas A&M, LaNorris Sellers at South Carolina; and John Mateer at Oklahoma. Stockton was on an ascendant trajectory until the debacle against Auburn.
(As the Arch angst simmers, it’s fair to wonder whether his Texas tenure will have sufficiently played itself out after this season—or even during the season. We discussed Manning’s future on the Others Receiving Votes podcast last week, with co-host Gene Wojciechowski suggesting a provocative landing spot: Indiana, where good quarterbacks go to become much better under Curt Cignetti. While that could work out spectacularly, it’s The Dash’s position that Manning’s next move will be to the NFL, ready or not. He may no longer be first-pick material, or even first-round pick, but someone will take him and give him a chance.)
The league’s talented young quarterbacks in their first season as starters have been inconsistent and/or injured: Keelon Russell at Alabama; Taylor at Mississippi State; Jared Curtis at Vandy; Faizon Brandon and George MacIntyre at Tennessee.
There isn’t a Joe Burrow, a Jayden Daniels, a Mac Jones or a Tua Tagovailoa in the league this season. Nor was there in the previous three seasons.
Bottom line: The compressed SEC once again can claim to be the deepest league. It likely will get the most teams in the playoff, four or more. But is there a national champion in there somewhere? If so, it hasn’t revealed itself yet.
PODCAST: Listen to Sports Illustrated’s college sports podcast, Others Receiving Votes, hosted by Pat Forde, on Apple and Spotify. Watch the show on SI’s college YouTube channel or on SI TV.
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