SEC's Disastrous Bowl Season Gets Even Worse

Get those angry emails ready, because the SEC is at it again. 

The S-E-C, S-E-C has spent years telling us that its conference is an insurmountable gauntlet. That it's so impossible to play in the SEC, even losing three or four games is impressive. Teams from other conferences would lose 7-10 games playing teams like Kentucky, Arkansas and Mississippi State. SEC teams would be undefeated in weaker conferences like the Big Ten, ACC or Big 12, the saying goes, because the level of competition is so much lower.

Lane Kiffin earlier this season wanted Texas A&M ranked No. 1 in the country because they play in the SEC. 

RELATED: No, Lane Kiffin, Even Though It's In The SEC, Texas A&M Should Not Be Number One

Press conferences with SEC coaches are an endless slog of patting themselves and the conference on the back. Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea said in early December that teams from other conferences don't deserve playoff spots if they have the same record as SEC programs. Paul Finebaum has made an entire career out of saying every other team would lose 10 games against an average SEC schedule, to the point where he claimed not long ago that Notre Dame would have lost four or five games against the Vanderbilt or Texas schedules. 

Greg Sankey, incredibly, said the conference should have had seven teams in the playoff. Unfortunately for all of them, once again, reality is getting in the way of the SEC's endless superiority complex.

Illinois tight end Jordan Anderson (23) signals the first down in the final minutes of the 4th quarter against Tennessee in the Music City Bowl NCAA college football game on Dec. 30, 2025, in Nashville, Tennessee. (© Andrew Nelles / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)

Illinois Beats Tennessee To Hand SEC Another Loss

In this year's bowl season, Kiffin's No. 1 team, Texas A&M, scored three total points at home against the Miami Hurricanes from the "lowly" ACC in the College Football Playoff. Virginia, again from the "lowly" ACC, beat Missouri in the Gator Bowl. Houston, a recent addition to the lowly Big 12, beat the LSU Tigers in the Texas Bowl. 

Then, on Tuesday night, Illinois dominated the Tennessee Volunteers in what was an effective home game in the Music City Bowl. After a series of unforced errors, including allowing a 90+ yard kick-off return even though the catch was initially fumbled, Illinois kicked a game-winning field goal to make the final 30-28. 

But that undersells just how thoroughly the Illini controlled the game. They allowed just 278 yards while rolling up 417. They had 221 rushing yards, averaging 5.7 yards per carry, even including some kneel downs at the end of the game. The Illini defense had four sacks and five tackles for loss, with just one of each for Tennessee. It wasn't nearly as close as the score indicated. 

The broader issue for Finebaum, the ESPN-SEC promotional department, and the SEC message boards is that the loss dropped the conference to 1-4 in games played against non-SEC teams thus far. That one win was Ole Miss beating Tulane, meaning that in games played against other Power 4 conferences, the SEC is 0-4 so far. 

Not going too well for the "SEC teams would be undefeated if they played a Big Ten schedule!!!" crowd is it? 

Here's the thing, does this poor performance mean the SEC is a bad conference, or that it doesn't have good teams or play tough schedules? Of course not. What it does mean is that the underlying assumption that the SEC is head and shoulders above other conferences is conclusively false. The "hypothetical" wins and losses discussion needs to end immediately. 

Alabama made the College Football Playoff because the committee treated making the SEC Championship Game like the single most impressive accomplishment in history. That mentality must stop. Riding off the coattails of Nick Saban's good teams in the mid-late 2010's doesn't work anymore. 

Georgia has a legitimate chance to win a championship. Alabama could pull the upset in the Rose Bowl and regain some pride for the conference. But that doesn't change that the "gauntlet" argument has died a rapid, comprehensive death. The SEC is 1-6 in its last seven games against the Big Ten in bowls and playoff games. Sorry ESPN.