There are a couple of pretty big flaws in your argument.

First, you conveniently don’t name teams a few times (e.g., “Arkansas lost to the last place big 12 team”). You’re intentionally misleading, because the last place Big 12 team is Oklahoma State, who we all know is way better than their current conference ranking, considering they came second in the Big 12 last year with essentially the same team and it took an all-time drive to win the game three days ago. They’re way better than your post implies.

Second, “Last year the SEC champ was the worst P5 champ.” I’m not sure this is the slam you think it is. How good the best team in a conference is does not show how good the rest of the conference is. See Gonzaga in the WCC as an example.

Third, your argument that the “SEC lost almost every tough non-conference game” isn’t true at all.

Here are the wins:

LSU beat UCLA

Alabama beat Wisconsin

Texas beat Michigan

Florida beat UCF

Oklahoma beat Houston

Missouri beat Boston College

Ole Miss beat Wake Forest

Tennessee beat NC State

Georgia beat Clemson

Vanderbilt beat Virginia Tech



Here are the losses:

USC beat LSU

Oklahoma State beat Arkansas (see below)

Arizona State beat Mississippi State

Cal beat Auburn (see below)

Miami beat Florida (see below)

So, the only SEC teams to have lost to other P5 teams are LSU (2nd), Arkansas (9th), Florida (10th), Auburn (15th), and Mississippi State (16th). So, aside from LSU’s loss to USC, the only teams from the SEC to lose are in the bottom half of the conference. The top half is doing pretty well against everyone else.

Fourth, bad teams get up and play well against better teams when it’s the biggest game of their season. Especially when the better team sleepwalks. BYU fans should know this better than most, as we usually have a rough first game against a bad opponent. That’s what happened in almost every one of your examples below.

Last minor thing before we actually look at the SEC head to head against other conferences: Transitive wins don’t work in college football, so using them as evidence for something doesn’t actually mean anything.

A couple of quick points.

The SEC has three teams with a losing record.

The ACC has five.

The Big 12 has seven.

The Big 10 has four.


The SEC has gone 10-5 against other P5 schools.

The ACC is 8-9.

The Big 12 is 5-9.

The Big 10 is 7-9.


Here are the teams you use as examples that the SEC is overrated:

LSU – LSU has lost one game. “Lost to one of the worst Big 10 teams.” You mean USC? Losing to USC isn’t a bad loss in my book. It’s true, they’ve lost four games this year. But their losses are by a combined 13 points. You have to consider close losses because you dock SEC teams for close wins for some reason.

Texas A&M – They lost one game to Notre Dame, who has also only lost one game. Notre Dame’s loss was bad, but remember, bad teams can get up for a huge game on their schedule. Not sure how one loss to a Top 15 team is supposed to show that Texas A&M is bad.

Vanderbilt – historic bottom dweller having maybe its best season ever. They are the perfect example that a bad team can get up for a big game (Georgia State vs. and SEC team and Vanderbilt vs. Alabama). This is a bad loss for Alabama, just as Georgia State was a bad loss for Vanderbilt.

South Carolina – 11th in the SEC. They have only lost to SEC teams. They almost lost to Old Dominion in the first game of the season. Bad teams get up for big games.

Auburn – 15th in the SEC. Auburn has been the worst team in the SEC not named Vanderbilt for a long time. This point doesn’t show that the rest of the SEC is somehow not good.

Arkansas – 9th in the SEC. Interesting how you say “Arkansas lost to the last place Big 12 team” without pointing out that team is Oklahoma State, the team that nearly knocked off BYU in Provo. We all know how much talent Oklahoma State has and losing to them on the road by a score isn’t a bad loss.

Oklahoma – 13th in the SEC. Oklahoma is getting boat raced by SEC teams not named Auburn (who sucks). If the SEC wasn’t as good as everyone says, wouldn’t the third place Big 12 team have no trouble competing in the overrated SEC?

Florida – 10th in the SEC. Florida is in shambles and their coach is a dead man walking. Still, they have only lost to top SEC teams (Texas A&M & LSU) and undefeated Miami. Funny how BYU fans says “a win is a win” unless we aren’t talking about BYU, then it becomes “X team isn’t that good because they barely won.”

Alabama – A little insane to use Alabama as an example of why the SEC isn’t that good when they have lost three non-SEC games since 2015 (2018 to Clemson in the National Championship, and 2023 to Texas and Michigan). But yes, they lost to Vanderbilt this year and almost lost to USF and South Carolina, which is bad I guess.

So, aside from Texas A&M and LSU (who have lost one game each to traditional powers), all of your examples are either: in the bottom half of the conference, Vanderbilt (who’s best finish in the SEC since 2015 is 11th), or Alabama (who just lost its head coach). Your point doesn’t really hold up at all if you actually look at the data.