The Power 2 are at odds on several College Football (CFB) issues, the biggest disagreement centering on expanding the CFB field. The SEC wants a 16-team field, the B1G (and the ACC, B12, and Notre Dame) want a 24-team field.

But when it comes to the bottom line, the ability to manage their business as they so desire, the Power 2 want nothing to do with the "Save College Sports By Reining in the Big Ten and the SEC Bill" that is now on the floor of the Senate for revision as may be negotiated, before an up or down vote.

Tony Petitti and the Big Ten, and Greg Sankey and the SEC, are the two CFB conferences that oppose the Bill; the other ten conferences, and Notre Dame, support the Bill, and why not?

Notre Dame would have the deciding vote on whether the Power 2 would have to collectively negotiate media agreements with the rest of CFB. (This makes cents, right? 🤬)

On the football field, the diamond, the basketball court, the track and field, and wherever games are played, the Power 2 are the North versus South in a not-so Civil War; no quarter asked and none given.

ESPN's Bill Connelly recently released his 2026 preseason SP+ rankings for the SEC -

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/49143990/2026-sec-college-football-preview-predictions-top-transfers-more

Here are a few of the highlights (lowlights if you are a Big Ten fan).

11 SEC teams are in the SP+ Top 25: 4. Georgia, 6. Texas, 9. Texas A&M, 10. LSU, 11. Alabama, 12. Oklahoma, 15. Ole Miss, 16. Tennessee, 19. Missouri, 20. Florida, and 25. South Carolina.

Except when Auburn, ranked No. 26, 31. Vanderbilt, 46. Arkansas, 52. Mississippi State and No. 54 Kentucky play one another; every SEC game in 2026 will feature at least one SP+ preseason Top 25 team.

With these rankings, it comes as no surprise that all 16 SEC teams have a Top 25 nationwide strength-of-schedule (SOS) ranking, from No. 1 Texas to No. 25 Georgia.

No. 1 Texas is joined in the SOS Top 10 by No. 2 Arkansas, No. 3 Oklahoma, No. 7 Ole Miss, No. 8 Kentucky, No. 9 Mississippi State, and No. 10 Florida.

In 2025, the CFB Playoff Committee valued SEC wins and losses so highly that 3-loss Alabama made the playoff field, which looked good when The Tide rolled over 2-loss Oklahoma in Norman.

Then, Bama suffered a historic loss to Indiana in the Rose Bowl. (OBD fans felt the pain when matching up with Indiana in a not-so-peachy Peach Bowl.) Were Alabama and Oklahoma two of CFB's top twelve teams in 2025?

SP+ predicts No. 4 Georgia to match up with No. 6 Texas in the SEC 2026 conference champ game. I agree when it comes to the Dawgs, not so much Texas, which, like last season, has a nice sum of parts, but what will the whole look like? And will Archie be golden?

Of course, there is no need to wait for the season to see how things down in Dixie will play out. CBS Sports Brad Edwards has the entire season figured out (🤪).

https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/sec-predictions-2026-game-picks-win-loss-record/

According to Brad, the SEC will send four teams to the 2026-27 CFB Playoff - No. 2, 12-1 Texas, No. 5, 11-2 Georgia, No. 9, 10-2 LSU, and No. 11, 9-3, 6-3 in the SEC, Ole Miss.

Ole Miss plays Louisville, Charlotte, and Wofford (Woof!), out-of-conference.

The Rebels better hope that Louisville matches up with Miami in the ACC conference champ game with a playoff spot on the line. Louisville plays at Notre Dame in the regular season but does not play Miami.

Ole Miss coach Pete Golding is 2-0 vs. Kirby Smart and will be looking for the hat trick when Georgia comes for a visit on November 7th. Will home wins over LSU and Georgia be enough to negate three in-conference losses, with at least one of the losses coming in an SEC game where the Rebels are the favorite?

I don't see it, especially if 3-loss Ole Miss is being compared to a 2-loss Big Ten team.

To further whet the appetite for the coming season, Georgia at Ole Miss on 11/7 is only one of CFB's impactful games on a packed CFB Saturday.

November 7th, 2026, features Oregon at Ohio State, of course, almost certainly with a Noon Eastern kick off on Fox, Miami at Notre Dame at 7:30 Eastern on NBC, BYU at Utah, Penn State at Washington, Alabama at LSU, Oklahoma at Florida, and Texas at Missouri. Whew!

When it comes to Congress, here's to the Power 2! Otherwise, Let's Get It On!

38 minutes ago, Jon Joseph said:

the Power 2 want nothing to do with the "Save College Sports By Reining in the Big Ten and the SEC Bill"

So, let's hire the Big 12's attorneys who backed down Sorsby and TT.

I'd like to apologize on behalf of CBS Sports, Brad Edwards.

10-2 for LSU is a reasonable prediction, but I don't believe even Lane Kiffin can both win and lose the game at Tennessee, at least not in this version of the Multiverse. Brad intended, I'm sure, to show LSU losing at Texas.

Brad notes that 10-2 should likely earn LSU a PO 6 to 8 seed, and then predicts 10-2 LSU as the 🤪9th seed.

Also, Brad, will you stop with the SEC is a gauntlet like no other BS, please. With eight conference games in 2025, the SEC, like the ACC, B12, and the B1G, had six teams that finished with fewer than six wins.

The SEC, with nine conference games in 2026, will have fewer teams with fewer than six wins? Hmmmm.

Brad, your Mother Ship is no longer the SEC's broadcast partner. Have a really nice day. 😁

5 minutes ago, Jon Joseph said:

Brad, your Mother Ship is no longer the SEC's broadcast partner. Have a really nice day. 😁

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha,

Thanks Jon for providing ample evidence the SEC loves to toot their own horn. I knew the SEC was full of it way back in 2003 when Les Miles called out USC, but didn't challenge them to an instant classic opening game in 2004. That's because USC had pulled back the curtain on the narrative the SEC had at least 4 top ten teams every year (by obliterating 3 of them in successive years).

We all know the SEC has the NCAA in the hip pocket because they went after USC, then completely ignored Auburn. Then made sure OBD would lose the Natty with egregious calls that kept them in the game frankly (the fumble-six would have sealed it, the called back interception gave them a highly undeserved TD). Then they had the nerve to pull for a LSU/Bama Natty. When everyone knew Bama was the better team. Thanks to NIL, they can't stack a team full of Cam Newtons like before. Now Kirby has to learn not to panic because his lustful DEs break pocket contain, and a mobile QB makes them pay.

Yeah, when we take out the SEC in the playoffs again this year, they will come up with some excuse like the regular season beat them up. So prove it SEC. Schedule us in September. Like former Big12 powers OU and Texas do regularly. Like LSU and Bama do regularly. I bet you won't see Florida leaving the South in September for a loooooong while (Sorry GatFlorida-I really like your Gators, and want them to come back, but scheduling FSU and Miami isn't the same as going to Ann Arbor, Seattle or Eugene, not to mention Iowa City).

BTW, Brad has the SEC going 15-1 out of conference vs. P4 opponents, including a 3-0 B1G sweep of Ohio State at Texas, Oklahoma at Michigan, and Mississippi State at Minnesota.

Arkansas suffers the only SEC OOC loss when it plays Utah in Salt Lake City.

FYI - I know you'll be shocked to learn that Brad played college football for the South Carolina Gamecocks. No wonder Brad's a bird in the SEC's hands.

1 hour ago, Mike West said:

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha,

Thanks Jon for providing ample evidence the SEC loves to toot their own horn. I knew the SEC was full of it way back in 2003 when Les Miles called out USC, but didn't challenge them to an instant classic opening game in 2004. That's because USC had pulled back the curtain on the narrative the SEC had at least 4 top ten teams every year (by obliterating 3 of them in successive years).

We all know the SEC has the NCAA in the hip pocket because they went after USC, then completely ignored Auburn. Then made sure OBD would lose the Natty with egregious calls that kept them in the game frankly (the fumble-six would have sealed it, the called back interception gave them a highly undeserved TD). Then they had the nerve to pull for a LSU/Bama Natty. When everyone knew Bama was the better team. Thanks to NIL, they can't stack a team full of Cam Newtons like before. Now Kirby has to learn not to panic because his lustful DEs break pocket contain, and a mobile QB makes them pay.

Yeah, when we take out the SEC in the playoffs again this year, they will come up with some excuse like the regular season beat them up. So prove it SEC. Schedule us in September. Like former Big12 powers OU and Texas do regularly. Like LSU and Bama do regularly. I bet you won't see Florida leaving the South in September for a loooooong while (Sorry GatFlorida-I really like your Gators, and want them to come back, but scheduling FSU and Miami isn't the same as going to Ann Arbor, Seattle or Eugene, not to mention Iowa City).

Thanks, Mike, good take, as always.

When it comes to the Big Ten and the SEC on the football field, I've been consistent in warning against recency bias. The SEC still leads in recruiting and draft choices. And the SEC at the top is not shy about spending NIL money in sports across the board.

Nevertheless, since the 2023 playoff to date, the Big Ten is 11-4 against the SEC in playoff games. This does not include UW's win over Texas in 2023 before the four Pac-12 schools joined the Big Ten.

In the 2025-26 postseason, the ACC went 9-5, the B12 4-4, the Big Ten 11-5, and the SEC 4-10.

Greg Sankey is not wrong in noting that the SEC has lost many close playoff games. But as you noted, Mike, in today's world of CFB, Bama, LSU, and Georgia's second and third team players are not starting for every program in the middle of the Big Ten.

SEC teams 'screwed out of the PO in 2024 and 2025,' according to Greg Sankey, Alabama and South Carolina in 2024, Vanderbilt and Texas in 2025, went 1-3 against B1G opponents in the postseason, with Texas defeating a dysfunctional Michigan team.

Last season, 3-loss Illinois defeated Tennessee in Nashville, and 8-4 Iowa defeated 10-2 Vanderbilt, and Heisman runner-up Diego Pavia.

There are many quality football teams in the SEC, no doubt, but not every SEC team plays a brutal gauntlet. Like the ACC, B12, and the Big Ten, in 2025, six SEC teams failed to win more than five games.

I think Brad Crawford, in predicting the SEC to go 15-1 OOC against P4 opponents, is looking back to a yesterday that no longer exists. And perhaps, the SEC does go 3-0 vs. the Big Ten in the 2026 preseason, but unlike back in the day, it won't be a shock to the CFB system if Ohio State, Michigan, and Minnesota go 3-0.

Always good to 'hear from you,' my friend.

When it comes to Blades of Glory, the SEC has no shot against the B1G -

Big Ten Conference

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