Doing a little back-of-the-napkin calculus to confirm the way I remember things going down, the SEC was so brutal this year that it makes the last 25 years - when we was far and away the most dominant conference in the country - look like the Mountain West. And I don't expect it's going to change any time soon. I've always been a fan of trying to maintain realistic expectations, and it seems like I'm going to have to double down on that philosophy from here on out, otherwise I might beat my head senseless against my keyboard and end up destroying yet another TV.
The top 12 SEC teams went 103-41 this season, but out of conference they went a combined 44-4 with those four losses being to #7 Notre Dame, #16 Okie State, #19 Miami and #23 USC. Not a single team in the league had fewer than 2 losses (unprecedented as far as I can tell). Even the bottom dwellers of the conference did their part tearing the conference down... consider this:
I'm assuming that Texas negotiated both their and OU's schedule to kick off their inaugural season in the SEC - pre-season we had 7 teams in the top 15 (including Texas) and Texas only had to play one of them - at home, no less. They actually got to play them twice, and lost both times. Meanwhile Oklahoma was forced to play the OTHER SIX, which accounted for 5 of their 6 losses, trading a win against Alabama for a loss to surprising USCe. How long Texas' 'good fortune' will last I can't guess, but I'm looking forward to the Longhorn's introduction to the REAL SEC.
I can tell you that, with the ridiculously named 'NIL' and the transfer portal in its current state, I wouldn't want to be a CFB head coach for any amount of money. I suspect that, until things get settled, we'll see more and more promising coaches heading to the NFL to make their bones, where some semblance of sanity still reigns. All of this is ultimately bad for LSU with it's relatively low position on the booster cash totem pole, recruiting in competition with the rest of the SEC and the nation as a whole. It's more than enough to counteract our natural advantage of being such a fertile breeding ground for NFL talent - to be honest, I'm impressed that CBK has been able to do as good a job as he has, considering the devastation that he walked into, and I think he's shown excellent restraint when it comes to avoiding counterproductive bidding wars... but as rival programs get their collective feet under them (pun intended), it's going to be tougher and tougher to consistently turn in top 5 or even top 10 classes year after year. My only hope is that we're able to hold serve long enough for things to normalize and some sort of regulation to come down and level the playing field once more. The 2026 in-state class is looking damn strong and hopefully we'll be able to lock up enough of those guys to tide us over til then.
It's not all doom and gloom - truth be told, it was an incredibly entertaining season, one of the best I can remember... but if you live and die solely based on whether LSU makes the CFB every season, it could be very rough going for a while. I've managed to preserve my sanity AND my enjoyment of LSU football up til now by tempering my expectations with realism, and it might be time that we all consider doing so. Every coaching change is a disruption, and programs that hope to compete can afford disruptions now less than at any other time in history.
Bring on basketball and baseball season - and hell, even women's gymnastics - I'm pretty sure we still have some room in that trophy case.
GEAUX Tigers!
The top 12 SEC teams went 103-41 this season, but out of conference they went a combined 44-4 with those four losses being to #7 Notre Dame, #16 Okie State, #19 Miami and #23 USC. Not a single team in the league had fewer than 2 losses (unprecedented as far as I can tell). Even the bottom dwellers of the conference did their part tearing the conference down... consider this:
- UK's lone SEC win was @ then #6 Ole Miss and they only lost to Georgia by 1 point.
- Vandy not only knocked off then #1 Alabama, but they scared the hell out of #7 Mizzou and #5 Texas, losing both of those games by just 3 points.
- South Carolina is 5 points away from being 11-1 right now, despite how tough the conference was this year.
I'm assuming that Texas negotiated both their and OU's schedule to kick off their inaugural season in the SEC - pre-season we had 7 teams in the top 15 (including Texas) and Texas only had to play one of them - at home, no less. They actually got to play them twice, and lost both times. Meanwhile Oklahoma was forced to play the OTHER SIX, which accounted for 5 of their 6 losses, trading a win against Alabama for a loss to surprising USCe. How long Texas' 'good fortune' will last I can't guess, but I'm looking forward to the Longhorn's introduction to the REAL SEC.
I can tell you that, with the ridiculously named 'NIL' and the transfer portal in its current state, I wouldn't want to be a CFB head coach for any amount of money. I suspect that, until things get settled, we'll see more and more promising coaches heading to the NFL to make their bones, where some semblance of sanity still reigns. All of this is ultimately bad for LSU with it's relatively low position on the booster cash totem pole, recruiting in competition with the rest of the SEC and the nation as a whole. It's more than enough to counteract our natural advantage of being such a fertile breeding ground for NFL talent - to be honest, I'm impressed that CBK has been able to do as good a job as he has, considering the devastation that he walked into, and I think he's shown excellent restraint when it comes to avoiding counterproductive bidding wars... but as rival programs get their collective feet under them (pun intended), it's going to be tougher and tougher to consistently turn in top 5 or even top 10 classes year after year. My only hope is that we're able to hold serve long enough for things to normalize and some sort of regulation to come down and level the playing field once more. The 2026 in-state class is looking damn strong and hopefully we'll be able to lock up enough of those guys to tide us over til then.
It's not all doom and gloom - truth be told, it was an incredibly entertaining season, one of the best I can remember... but if you live and die solely based on whether LSU makes the CFB every season, it could be very rough going for a while. I've managed to preserve my sanity AND my enjoyment of LSU football up til now by tempering my expectations with realism, and it might be time that we all consider doing so. Every coaching change is a disruption, and programs that hope to compete can afford disruptions now less than at any other time in history.
Bring on basketball and baseball season - and hell, even women's gymnastics - I'm pretty sure we still have some room in that trophy case.
GEAUX Tigers!
