2. Oh yeah, those non-conference games
It was as if 2020 was just last year.
No one left the house, there was this election thing, and everything sort of sucked. However, there was this one interesting twist in the college football world, with conferences mostly blowing off other conferences and wanting to get their own games in.
They didn’t want to deal with the COVID protocols and concerns of other conferences and teams, but mostly, they didn’t want to pay anyone to come play when there wasn’t going to be any revenue with few fans in the stands.
And that sort of made things weird for the SEC.
The idea of an SEC-only schedule sounded nice in theory, but it 1) probably cost the conference a second team in the College Football Playoff, since 2) a whole lot of SEC teams looked mediocre because 3) they all played each other and didn’t have a fat load of 55-3 wins over Central Tech State to make anyone think otherwise.
In the end, the SEC had a strong bowl season, yet another dominant national champion, and everyone moved on. However, with nine SEC games instead of the normal eight, there was a whole lot of ugly.
Those non-conference dates are warm-ups, chances to get everything right, and most importantly, wins.
Quick, how many SEC teams finished with a winning record? Five. Alabama, Texas A&M, Florida, Georgia, and Auburn.
Does 4-5 Ole Miss have a winning record if it played its 2021 non-conference slate of Louisville, Austin Peay, Tulane and Liberty? Of course.
Could 2020 LSU have used September dates against McNeese State and Central Michigan like it has this year? Ya think?
Would Gus Malzahn still be the Auburn head coach if he started out the season at least 3-1 after playing Akron, Alabama State, at Penn State – which, the Tigers might have won last year – and Georgia State?
Yeah, only five SEC teams finished 2020 with a winning record. Only six finished with a winning conference record in 2019, however, eight finished with a winning record overall, Missouri went 6-6 and didn’t go bowling, and Mississippi State would’ve had a winning run if it didn’t lose its bowl game.
Welcome back, SEC non-conference games. You just mean more.