- The SEC is criticized for scheduling non-conference ‘breather’ games late in the season while other conferences play tougher matchups.
- This scheduling practice is seen as a way for SEC teams to gain a competitive advantage before major rivalry games and the postseason.
Samford. Eastern Illinois. Mercer. Western Kentucky.
Here we are, smack in the middle of Every Game Matters, when all of college football is focused on the intense chase for the College Football Playoff, and the big, bad SEC is rolling into the third week of November playing footsie with body bag games.
For the love of Coastal Carolina, what are we doing here?
Every other Power conference has a full slate of good-on-good games (you don’t count, ACC), but not the SEC. No, siree, buddy.
It’s time for the annual breather week.
“There’s no let up in this conference, it’s week after week,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart proudly pointed out earlier this season.
Because what would Georgia do if it had to play a conference game the week before Clean, Old Fashioned Hate against Georgia Tech? So hello, Charlotte.
Because what would South Carolina do if it had to play a conference game the week before playing Clemson? Come on down, Coastal Carolina.
Because Alabama and Auburn can’t play the Iron Bowl a week after playing a grinder against a conference rival. So the Tide gets Eastern Illinois and Auburn gets Mercer.
This has to change, everyone. Quickly.
Not a year from now, or after a few years, or after an exhaustive study of 10 prior seasons and hundreds of polls — or whatever metrics the SEC used for years while debating about moving to nine conference games — but right flipping now before they begin to impact future CFP selections and/or seeding.
The SEC will announce the weekly 2026 schedule shortly after Championship Week, after the Dec. 1 deadline imposed by television partner ESPN to expand the current CFP format.
Maybe this utter nonsense changes if the Big Ten and SEC agree on an expanded CFP format — the SEC wants 16 games, the Big Ten continues to float a 24-team model — and the concept of losing late and impacting the CFP standings isn’t as big a deal.
At least, that’s the argument you’ll get from SEC teams that continue to not only schedule down, but schedule down with intent. It’s a CFP world, and they’re just trying to find their place in it.
But what if the CFP doesn’t see it that way? What if selection committee members enthralled with the process of November games to remember, use these nonconference gimme putts against SEC teams jockeying for playoff position?
Look, I’ve participated in multiple CFP mocks, and have seen firsthand how the human condition is the driving force in many close decisions. The debate used to focus on the Big Ten and Big 12 playing nine conference games, and the SEC playing only eight.
While that ends beginning next year with the SEC’s move to nine conference games, the idea some SEC teams are opting for instant wins in November instead of the grind of conference games goes against everything the SEC has argued it wants from the CFP selection committee.
The SEC wants to committee to focus on good wins, and if need be, good losses. In other words, the totality of a schedule teams navigate throughout the season.
Not No. 3 Texas A&M playing Samford because it needs a breather before playing bitter rival Texas.
How could SEC teams playing these instant-win games in the most important time of the season not impact the way they’re ranked by the committee? You told us to ignore the idea of wins just for wins sake, the committee can say.
And now they’re staring at Mercer and Eastern Illinois and any other practice games that SEC wants to throw out in the middle of November. The Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC play these body bag games, but not typically this late in the season.
Not when there’s so much on the line, and so many eyes on the sport.
You could easily make the argument — and you better believe some on the CFP selection committee will — that SEC teams are playing these body bag games to gain a competitive advantage in the most important month of the season. And yes, the sequencing of games matters.
If you don’t think it does, let me introduce Miami and Notre Dame. Same record, and Miami beat Notre Dame in the season opener. But No. 14 Miami trails No. 9 Notre Dame in the CFP rankings.
When the selection committee meets in three weeks for the final time, let’s say they’re debating between Alabama and Oregon on the 8/9 line — which will determine a home game. You don’t think Alabama finishing with Eastern Illinois in Week 11 will be on the minds of many in that room?
Then that really will be a November game to remember.
Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.
