SEC Coaches Just Can't Stop Complaining Instead Of Taking Responsibility

The months-long toddler temper tantrum from the SEC has apparently spilled over into 2025 media days. 

The tantrum started at the end of the 2024 college football season, when prominent figures in the SEC like Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Kalen DeBoer, Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin, complained that their teams were left out of the College Football Playoff. After their teams lost three games. Some of which were embarrassing.

The tantrum has not subsided.

At SEC media days on Tuesday, DeBoer was at it again. In response to a question about the SEC potentially adding a ninth conference game to align with the Big Ten, DeBoer took the opportunity to once again whine about his team under-performing. 

"Yeah, you kind of wonder what would have happened to other people if they had the chance to play our schedule last year, and it would only get tougher," DeBoer said.

You can almost hear Ryan Day and the Ohio State Buckeyes trembling in their cleats at the thought of playing Vanderbilt or a 6-6 Oklahoma team. This absurd reality denial has become part and parcel of the modern SEC; an endless stream of complaining and blaming others after their teams lose games they should win. It's embarrassing, and it needs to end.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - Head coach Kalen DeBoer of the Alabama Crimson Tide looks on during warmups prior to facing the Georgia Bulldogs at Bryant-Denny Stadium on September 28, 2024. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

SEC Absurdity Apparently Has No Bottom

As a reminder, Alabama missed the most recent playoff because it lost to Vanderbilt, Tennessee and Oklahoma. Vanderbilt went 3-5 in the SEC in 2024 and 6-6 in the regular season, before winning its bowl game. Vanderbilt lost to Georgia State in 2024. Alabama lost to that team. 

Alabama also lost to Oklahoma, a team which finished the season 6-6, then lost its bowl game to Navy, cementing a 6-7 record. Oklahoma's other wins in 2024 were over Temple, Houston, Tulane, Auburn and Maine. That's it. Alabama scored 3 points against that Sooners team. And Kalen DeBoer is complaining about missing the playoff and acting as if his schedule was just too much to bear.

Alabama, after its month of whining, then lost its bowl game to a mediocre Michigan team, scoring all of 13 points against the seventh-place team in the Big Ten. It beggars belief that DeBoer and other SEC coaches are still acting as if this team belonged in the playoff. Or Ole Miss. Or South Carolina. So much so that you have to wonder if they actually believe the horse manure they're peddling, or if it's part of some elaborate routine to pander to their fans and make excuses for embarrassing losses.

What makes DeBoer's tantrum even more disingenuous is that he inherited arguably the best situation in college football. He took over an Alabama roster with as much talent, if not more, as any team in decades. With program infrastructure put in place and developed by Nick Saban, arguably the best coach in the sport's history. And he enjoys the benefits of playing in a conference that actually still has some geographical consistency.

As just one example, USC, based in Los Angeles, played games in Las Vegas, Michigan, Minnesota, Maryland and Seattle. That's nearly 8,100 miles of traveling. 

Alabama? The Tide traveled all of 2,473 miles. And as they always do, they played just five games away from Bryant-Denny Stadium. Oh, and another scheduling quirk they use to their advantage? Adding what amounts to a bye week by playing Mercer in November. 

It's ridiculous. There's no end to the excuses, to the unjustified "woe is me" victim complex over the supposed impossibility of playing Alabama's schedule. You want to make the playoff? Don't lose games to bad teams. Although of course, in SEC world, every game is decided hypothetically long before it's played, and SEC teams always win. Even when the games are between two SEC teams.