After three straight national championship wins, few would argue that the Big Ten has become the top conference in college football. Three years, three different teams, including a 16-0 season from the Indiana Hoosiers that coaches like Texas’ Steve Sarkisian believed were essentially impossible in the modern era.
Entering the 2026 season, most believed that the Big Ten would once again be the cream of the college football crop, thanks to Ohio State and Oregon topping the country in most human, and computer, ranking systems.
But fast forward through week one’s results, and there’s one, very familiar, conference tooting its own horn about where it ranks in the college football hierarchy: the SEC.
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The SEC through week one went 16-0, an impressive feat for any conference, and an indication that their impressive depth will once again be relevant in 2026. Some fans have been quick to suggest that this means the SEC is back on top, that the Playoff and national championship will once again run through the previously dominant conference. But how much can we learn about where the SEC sits? Or at least, where these individual teams sit in the season-long picture?
Well, a little, and also, not very much. Let’s take a quick look at how the SEC got to 16-0 and what it all means.
Missouri was the first win of the weekend, with a 56-14 drubbing of Arkansas Pine-Bluff. Nothing to glean from that. On Friday, Oklahoma shut out UTEP 51-0. The Miners were 127th out of 138 FBS teams in SP+ heading into the season, but still, the Sooners did what they needed to do against a bad team.
Alabama handled East Carolina, South Carolina throttled Kent State, Kentucky beat up on Youngstown State, Georgia predictably beat down Tennessee State, Tennessee won 56-9 over Furman, Texas took care of Texas State, Texas A&M shut out Missouri State, and Mississippi State won 62-13 over UL Monroe. Despite giving up 14 first half points to Florida Atlantic, the Gators cruised 66-21. Arkansas was unimpressive in a 31-14 win over FCS North Alabama, and Vanderbilt stretched a 15-9 halftime lead over Austin Peay into a 28-9 win.
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All better than Rutgers’ performance, without question. But these were all games that the SEC team should win easily, and they did.
The three other games, LSU-Clemson, Ole Miss-Louisville, and Auburn-Baylor, said a bit more about where the conference sits. LSU, of course, dismantled and humiliated Clemson, and immediately made a strong case as a conference challenger alongside Texas, Georgia, and Alabama. Auburn was favored by 6.5 points, but the game turned out to be evenly matched.
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After a back-and-forth battle, Baylor went for the aggressive play to win in regulation instead of sending the game to overtime, only to come up inches short of a two-point conversion to take an 18-17 lead. An evenly matched game between two evenly matched teams that doesn’t tell us much about which team is “better,” necessarily, particularly given Auburn’s unimpressive performance against the spread. Baylor after all, was No. 54 in preseason SP+, while Auburn was No. 26. They should have won, and they did, but without answering questions about their prognosis for the rest of the season.
Similarly, Ole Miss should have handled Louisville. They were favored by 6.5 points, came into the season 11 places ahead of Louisville in SP+, and won on a walk-off field goal. Louisville, if anything, slightly outplayed the Rebels, racking up 6.9 yards per play to 6.3 for Ole Miss. They were better at protecting the ball and had a higher average yards per carry, while adding 10.6 yards per attempt passing.
Ole Miss gets credit for the win, as they should, but again, they were favored, should have won, and were fortunate to do so.
Which is where this all shakes out. In the three games against other Power 4 schools, the SEC team was favored by 6.5, 6.5, and 10 points. In two of those games, they failed to cover and won what amounts to a toss-up. In the other? Well, let’s just say LSU set the Clemson program back years.
There’s no question going 16-0 is great, impressive, and signals that the SEC is far from in decline. They also were “supposed” to go 16-0. That’s easier said than done, sure, but it’s hardly a shock that three games in which they were favored went in their direction. Especially two toss-ups, which could have gone either way.
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The Big Ten, by contrast, was generally far less impressive. Rutgers, obviously, lost in humiliating fashion to UMass. Oregon struggled to put away Boise State, Michigan “escaped” against Western Michigan, and Wisconsin couldn’t keep up with Notre Dame in the second half.
But we’ve seen, time and time again, that week one can be deceiving. USC in 2024 beat LSU in the season opener and moved up into the top 15, only to finish 6-6 in the regular season. Indiana beat Old Dominion 27-14 in week one, then beat Ohio State, Penn State, Oregon, Alabama, Oregon again, and Miami on their way to winning a title.
Week 1 matters, but it’s not definitive.
