The biggest issue with the SEC this year is every team had some flaws. These flaws were either a position group not up to snuff, bad coaching (see all the firings) , or overall team softness (Alabama had most complete roster but played soft).
With this in mind, if teams get a bad matchup, they are going to lose.

Teslag said:

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BraxtonW said:

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Teslag said:

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ABATTBQ11 said:

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SEC had a winning bowl record = Conference dominance

SEC has a losing bowl record = Bowls are useless

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Except that with opt outs and an expanded CFP the landscape has changed.

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Which would affect every conference.

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If a game has no meaning and the players don't care it's an exhibition at that point. You can't draw **** from it. A lot of yall simply refuse to recognize the realities of the game now.

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I understand that the games lost a lot of their meaning, but I also understand it's not a great look either. It can be both

BraxtonW said:

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Teslag said:

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BraxtonW said:

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Teslag said:

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ABATTBQ11 said:

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SEC had a winning bowl record = Conference dominance

SEC has a losing bowl record = Bowls are useless

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Except that with opt outs and an expanded CFP the landscape has changed.

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Which would affect every conference.

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If a game has no meaning and the players don't care it's an exhibition at that point. You can't draw **** from it. A lot of yall simply refuse to recognize the realities of the game now.

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I understand that the games lost a lot of their meaning, but I also understand it's not a great look either. It can be both

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It's nothing. The only people that matter are the committee and they use their own SOS metric that doesn't take conference strength into account.

What are you basing this on OP?

Meaningless bowl games? That would be stupid of you. Yes, let's use glorified scrimmages with multiple players opting out as a means to make judgements.

Bama getting blown out by Indiana. You mean the same Bama that was blown out by Georgia just a few weeks earlier? That's logical.

SEC is still the strongest conference. It's tough to play good teams all year. The bottom half of the SEC would compete for conference champ in ACC big 12 and pac 12.

Sq 17 said:

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Angry Jonathan Zaludek said:

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King Aggie aTm said:

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A&M would be better off the the big ten, being the sole Texas school there and getting the most athletic revenue as possible

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I'd love to see A&M in the Big-10. They already have 18 teams,

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There are lots of teams in the B1G that look like a Rutgers, Maryland, UCLA Iowa,Minnesota, Nebraska, not sure the money would be worth it for every game against a Michigan you get a game vs Rutgers and Nebraska

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I think some of those teams you've listed are a lot harder to beat than you think. How easily we forget games like the 10-7 win a few years ago a terrible Colorado team. And are plenty of other non-con struggles I don't care to remember.

It's really good that Texas was able to win their bowl, in helping the strength of the SEC. Right?

Texas A&M said:

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The SEC is 2-5 in bowls so far and possibly 2-6 if Vanderbilt loses (down 28-3).

The conference may still finish strong with the remaining games, but it is looking like five teams in the playoffs was probably excessive.

Edit: Didn't see the other thread. Feel free to delete thread..... or to discuss.

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We are counting losses from 5-7 Mississippi State. 4 of our best teams ending up beating each other. Take OU and Bama and put them against Virginia or Houston and swap 2 losses for wins.

These bowl arguments are stupid

This about wraps it up. I would just replace 'bad' with 'average'.

The SEC finishes the season at 13-14 vs. P4 opponents, 6-8 vs. the ACC. It is okay to say they are bad now. 😢 https://t.co/5lv4bfpFBf

— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) January 9, 2026

Texas A&M said:

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This about wraps it up. I would just replace 'bad' with 'average'.

The SEC finishes the season at 13-14 vs. P4 opponents, 6-8 vs. the ACC. It is okay to say they are bad now. 😢 https://t.co/5lv4bfpFBf

— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) January 9, 2026

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lol still using non-CFP bowls as data points

Teslag said:

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Texas A&M said:

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This about wraps it up. I would just replace 'bad' with 'average'.

The SEC finishes the season at 13-14 vs. P4 opponents, 6-8 vs. the ACC. It is okay to say they are bad now. 😢 https://t.co/5lv4bfpFBf

— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) January 9, 2026

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lol still using non-CFP bowls as data points

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Still being delusional by not realizing that all teams play under the same conditions... regular season and bowl games of any flavor.

Bowl games mean exactly dick.

Non-con in September is a valid metric. The Liberty Bowl isn't.

Texas A&M said:

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Teslag said:

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Texas A&M said:

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This about wraps it up. I would just replace 'bad' with 'average'.

The SEC finishes the season at 13-14 vs. P4 opponents, 6-8 vs. the ACC. It is okay to say they are bad now. 😢 https://t.co/5lv4bfpFBf

— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) January 9, 2026

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lol still using non-CFP bowls as data points

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Still being delusional by not realizing that all teams play under the same conditions... regular season and bowl games of any flavor.

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You don't count exhibitions in any sport. Jesus

Teslag said:

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Texas A&M said:

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This about wraps it up. I would just replace 'bad' with 'average'.

The SEC finishes the season at 13-14 vs. P4 opponents, 6-8 vs. the ACC. It is okay to say they are bad now. 😢 https://t.co/5lv4bfpFBf

— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) January 9, 2026

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lol still using non-CFP bowls as data points

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That's almost as bad as using SECvSEC datapoints.

Hey! Did you know the SEC was exactly .500 in conference games this year?!

End of 2026 report: "This year the SEC had 16 more in-conference losses than they had in 2025."

tk for tu juan said:

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End of 2026 report: "This year the SEC had 16 more in-conference losses than they had in 2025."

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Give that poster time and he'll do just that

Bowls don't matter and shouldn't exist.

But we had the only real win for the conference in games that matter. The Notre Dame win was pretty much it. OU beat Michigan. And the only other p5 win over a team above .500 was Mississippi State beating Arizona State.

The SEC had the best 2-10, 5-7, and 7-5 team in the country. Outside of that, not too much else.

The practical reality for us is that while we've been accused of playing an easy schedule by avoiding the conference's "good teams", there's no evidence that they would've beaten us. So maybe Bama, OU, and Georgia were lucky to not have US on their schedule. No one in this conference was all that good.

They used to be a pretty good metric b4 opt outs, transfer portals, and NIL

Winning % only .500. Consistently. So weird .

3rd place ACC team kicking SEC ass twice.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2026/01/09/sec-football-cfp-bowl-failure-brought-about-by-greed-for-more-ole-miss-alabama-big-ten-nil-portal/88104969007/

Bowl games are irrelevant anymore, relative to conference strength. Too many factors, including opt-outs, etc.
NIL and portal are changing the landscape for sure, creating more parody across major programs, but even now the SEC is still the strongest conference on the whole.

Every conference has a good top 2 or 3 teams.
Where you start to see the differentiation is from the 4 seed thru the rest.

Where you also still see differentiation is in total NFL Draft picks taken, year to year.
SEC and B1G are still producing significantly more than ACC and Big12.
NIL and portal are starting to change that, but even as recent as last years draft, it was still pretty lopsided.

GoAgs92 said:

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3rd place ACC team kicking SEC ass twice.

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How you think the #1 and #2 ACC would fare?
Context matters. ACC structure and how all that played out is ridiculous.

QB play as a whole was meh.

Chambliss was about the only true game changer. Everyone else was inconsistent, to bad, to hurt.

halfastros81 said:

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They used to be a pretty good metric b4 opt outs, transfer portals, and NIL

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NIL needs a vesting schedule that includes bowl games.

Black8810 said:

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SEC is still the strongest conference. It's tough to play good teams all year. The bottom half of the SEC would compete for conference champ in ACC big 12 and pac 12.

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this. SEC was basically .667 against P4 opponents in regular season. And the top to bottom parity puts a huge strain on wear tear that just doesn't happen in the B1G. The B1G conference also is forced to dilute the top teams having to matchup with 20 teams total( I also think they schedule to protect their top few teams records) The SEC will likely never recover with Sankey getting baited into 9 game SEC schedule.

The other thing you don't see in the B1G is OSU/MIch/ PSU players transferring to other B1G schools. The new NIL world / cash in SEC has multiple in conference transfers that have gutted the blue bloods depth that used to cover the injury grind. Bama and Ga stocked 4/5 stars are no longer sitting in the 2/3 deep.

What gets lost is all the preferential treatment from the refs.

Sure, the conference can protect their darlings, but why?

Let the best team East of Dime Box represent the conference.