They were giving credit to the 4 new teams as the cream of the G5 crop.
So I don't think they're all about the SEC, because that would mean less credit to GaTech and the ACC.
I do think you're right that they view G5 (which to them includes BYU) as inherently worse, which is a good way of propping GaTech up (when they've been worse than some G5 teams)