SEC's Season Gets Even Worse With Ohio State Win Over Texas

Coaches, officials, ESPN media members and SEC Conference fans spend a significant portion of their time telling college football fans that it's "just different" playing in the SEC. It "just means more," as the advertising campaign says.

The past month of discourse around the College Football Playoff has exemplified that attitude of superiority, where SEC fans and coaches acted as if three loss SEC teams were better and more deserving than one loss teams in other major conferences. Not based on their actual record, or the quality of their losses, but because it's just harder to play in the SEC. 

This bowl season, and really the season at large, could not have disproved that argument more thoroughly. 

The SEC's last hope for a National Championship this season was the Texas Longhorns, a team that was a member of the Big 12 Conference a year ago. Texas though, was thoroughly outplayed by the Ohio State Buckeyes on Friday night in a 28-14 loss, averaging just 5.0 yards per play to Ohio State's 6.5.

That came on the heels of Notre Dame dominating Georgia 23-10, USC beating Texas A&M, Michigan handling Alabama 19-13, Ohio State obliterating Tennessee 42-17, and Illinois beating South Carolina 21-17.

All these results meant that the SEC went 1-8 this season against Notre Dame, USC, Michigan, Ohio State and Illinois. USC had more SEC conference wins than Kentucky or Mississippi State and the same number as Auburn and Oklahoma. And USC was a 6-6 team that does not play in the SEC. It's "just different," right? 

ARLINGTON, TEXAS - JANUARY 10: Quinn Ewers #3 of the Texas Longhorns walks off the field after losing to the Ohio State Buckeyes 28-14 in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl at AT&T Stadium on January 10, 2025 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Sam Hodde/Getty Images)

SEC Fan Woes Don't End There

Perhaps the best examples of SEC attitudes this past month came from Kirk Herbstreit and Lane Kiffin. Herbstreit said, on air, that Indiana did not belong on the same field as Notre Dame. He went on rant after rant in interviews that going 11-1 shouldn't matter to the committee relative to teams that won nine games in other, more difficult conferences.

Kiffin went on a rampage on X as well, saying that the three-loss teams deserved inclusion in the playoff, before going silent as SEC teams took loss after loss.

"It's just different," Kiffin said at a press conference while wearing an SEC hoodie earlier this year. "Like it always is with the SEC. It's just totally different."

Jeremy Pruitt from Tennessee at a different press conference said the SEC has the "Best coaches, best rosters, talent level." 

Kiffin: "And these comparisons to other conferences, any of these coaches ever been down here in the deep South? How do they even know? How do they even know what it's like to have to go into these stadiums, it's just totally different."

Paul Finebaum: You can go "11 deep in the SEC, and you're going, ‘oh you think it’s easy to play at South Carolina?'"

That sums up the SEC-superiority mindset. It's just harder to win in the SEC, harder to win on the road than it is in other conferences. 

Except, sure enough, like most of the narratives, it's false. SEC road teams in conference games, not including neutral sites, during the 2024 regular season went 28-34. That's a .451 winning percentage. In the much easier Big Ten, where it's not "just different" going into these stadiums, road teams won just 40% of the time. 

So it was significantly easier to win on the road in the SEC this year than in the Big Ten. Whoops!

As Danny Kanell said on Saturday morning, the SEC pretends like it's the "minor league NFL," and that it's the "only team that plays tackle football." And that the conference's fans acted for years like Big 12 teams wouldn't be able to handle the physicality of the SEC. Only to have a Big 12 team, Texas, put up the best record in the conference and represent their one chance at a title.

The reality is, as Kanell says, the SEC is a great conference. It's filled with historic programs that have track records of success and enjoy outstanding fan support. It's also huge now, meaning that there will be even more opportunities for it to win down the road. But fan support and coach speak doesn't actually mean a whole heck of a lot. 

Yes, Alabama dominated the sport for most of the last decade. Georgia has been an elite, championship-winning team under Kirby Smart. But the "Ohio State or USC wouldn't win a single game in the SEC" posturing from fans, coaches and the Finebaums of the world needs to stop. It was never accurate before, and as this season showed, it's a laughable absurdity now.

At least Lane Kiffin made his statement with a three-loss Ole Miss team that gave Kentucky its only SEC win, beating Duke as a 17.5 point favorite in the Gator Bowl.

 Just different.