TAMPA, Fla. — SEC football coaches still aren’t quite on board with the addition of a ninth conference game.
Conference media days began with Missouri’s Eli Drinkwitz continuing a theme from spring meetings: concern that the SEC kept the requirement that teams play one power-conference opponent in nonconference play, a rule the Big Ten does not have. Three consecutive Big Ten teams have won the national title without a Power 4 nonconference game (Michigan, Ohio State and Indiana).
This year, 14 of the 18 Big Ten teams play at least 10 power conference games. The exceptions are Indiana, USC (because of the Notre Dame series falling off), Penn State and Nebraska (which canceled a series with Tennessee).
Then the week finished with LSU’s Lane Kiffin raising his main concern: Teams will drop marquee nonconference games, which offer a chance to prove the SEC’s prowess to the College Football Playoff selection committee. Texas’ Steve Sarkisian was noncommittal about the Longhorns keeping their upcoming series with Notre Dame after his team lost to Ohio State and finished 9-3 last season.
“Until we can get into a world where people can actually look at teams and say that team that is 9-3 with their schedule is a better team than that 11-1 in a different conference, which now I think we aren’t even close to doing that, I think it causes a problem because we don’t have enough nonconference in our sport,” Kiffin said.
Could this be the SEC’s year to win a national title? It starts with QBs
Seth Emerson
Kiffin cited other concerns, ranging from backups disengaging if more close games provide fewer on-field opportunities to the long-term wear and tear on players’ bodies. He also pointed to Oklahoma’s baseball team going 14-16 in the SEC but going on to win the College World Series.
“In football we would be nowhere near the playoffs, you know, 11th in the regular season, and then win the national championship, but they also have nonconference games to show how good they are,” Kiffin said. “So I just think that system wasn’t ready for that change yet until they change the selection part.”
The journey to a ninth game was a years-long process, with commissioner Greg Sankey long favoring it, but approval not coming until ESPN guaranteed more money and the CFP said it was tweaking its formula to reward schedule strength.
But even Sankey granted the test of that will now come, pointing to a contentious meeting they had with CFP officials a few months ago.
“We had what I’ll call an unsatisfactory conversation with members of the College Football Playoff staff and some of their advisers in Destin,” Sankey said. “That’s a reminder of that process needing to continually improve. My confidence is that people will act with integrity. I do think we have questions about the understanding of the strength and rigor associated with competing in the Southeastern Conference.”
Still, Sankey argued the ninth game is good for the overall SEC product.
“It’s competition that our fans will experience every week because we believe we’re the best conference in college football,” he said. “If so, we should also embrace the challenges with a difficult and challenging conference schedule.”
Lane vs. Kirby on roster building
When Kiffin left Ole Miss, he cited LSU’s rich recruiting base as one of the reasons he traded Oxford for Baton Rouge. That still doesn’t mean the self-appointed Portal King is going to allocate more of the Tigers’ roster-building resources to high school recruits in the years to come.
Until college football’s financial ecosystem resembles the NFL model (where rookies are slotted to a scale and sign multiyear contracts), Kiffin said he’s going to keep looking to the portal first for the bulk of his players.
“The kids that haven’t played at all coming out of high school should be making less,” Kiffin said. “And there should be a freshman rookie cap … max slots per position.”
In Brian Kelly’s final season at LSU, the Tigers spent big on their 2025 portal class. Yet, LSU still brought in more high school recruits (23) than transfers (18) overall. In Kiffin’s first season in charge, LSU signed 40 transfers and 18 high school recruits. LSU’s 2027 recruiting class ranks 10th in the 247Sports Composite but features only 16 commitments.
Georgia coach Kirby Smart — whose program has won the last two SEC titles — said earlier this week the Bulldogs will continue to build through high school recruiting and continue to reinvest resources into keeping their own players. Georgia has signed fewer transfers (34) over the past four years than any other SEC school.
Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Kentucky, LSU, Missouri, Ole Miss and South Carolina were the eight SEC programs who signed more transfers than high school players this past offseason. Four years ago, Kiffin’s Ole Miss team was the only SEC school who signed more transfers than high school players.
The subtle difference in Golesh’s return to Tampa
First-year Auburn coach Alex Golesh didn’t sound too much different from his days in Tampa leading South Florida. He even carried one of his Day 1 USF catchphrases to his new job — the goal of his team getting as good as it can as fast as it can.
One subtle change, however, was his emphasis on spending Year 1 and building a foundation with the Tigers. It’s coach speak, but it’s also a fair reflection of life in the SEC. At USF, Golesh had to excite a fan base and recruits about a program still looking for its first conference title and, perhaps, a spot in a bigger conference. At Auburn, his obligation is to build a program that can consistently compete for titles.
Golesh said a successful first season means establishing a “foundation of who we are, our identity, proof of concept offensively, defensively, so we can continue to recruit to that identity.” It didn’t sound like a request for patience — a virtue harder to find than ever in this sport, especially considering the fact that Golesh brought quarterback Byrum Brown and some of USF’s other best players with him to the Plains. But it did seem like an honest assessment that this season should be viewed with the long term in mind.
Mateer’s unlikely model
Oklahoma quarterback John Mateer said he cringes when he watches film from his first season with the Sooners. To help fix some of the issues that led to offense-wide inconsistencies, Mateer said he spent some time this offseason watching film of a passer you might not expect: Terry Bradshaw.
“Y’all wouldn’t believe it,” Mateer said.
Why Bradshaw? Mateer pointed out how Bradshaw was the No. 1 pick who went 4-for-4 in Super Bowls with the Steelers. Mateer also respected the “old-school football” approach of Bradshaw, a tough-nosed passer who threw deep balls with moxie.
Mateer is one of the most interesting players in the SEC. After transferring from Washington State, he amassed at least 300 total yards during each of OU’s first four games last year (all wins) before breaking his hand against Auburn. His numbers after that: 11 total touchdowns and 8 interceptions for a team that lost at home in the first round of the Playoff to Alabama.
Name dropping …
• Kiffin said LSU didn’t bring quarterback Sam Leavitt to the event in part so the Arizona State transfer could stay behind to lead a Tigers workout. Leavitt has been recovering from the season-ending foot surgery he had last year, but Kiffin said he has “great confidence where he’s at health-wise.”
• Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss — crowned this week as the No. 1 player in The Athletic’s QB tiers — said little has changed since Pete Golding replaced Kiffin as head coach; even the meetings have the same format. The speed of the offense will remain fast under new coordinator John David Baker. “JDB is cutthroat,” Chambliss said. “He hates losing more than he likes winning. I love that as a quarterback.”
• South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers started looking at Kendal Briles’ film before the Gamecocks even hired him as their offensive coordinator. Sellers called Briles — the former OC at TCU, Arkansas, Florida State and others — “the perfect fit” for his dual-threat skill set. Sellers is looking for a bounce-back year after breaking out in late 2024 but struggling last season. He’s No. 18 in our QB rankings.
• Florida receiver Dallas Wilson is a name to remember. The former top-50 national broke out with 111 yards in the Gators’ upset of Texas last year but has been nagged by foot injuries. Nike and the Jordan Brand designed custom cleats for him, and new coach Jon Sumrall called Wilson “freaking awesome.”
