Have you noticed how the SEC won’t shut up about the Big 12 lately?

Steve Sarkisian took his College Football Playoff grievances out on Texas Tech and the Big 12 last week when he told the Houston Touchdown Club that he could win the league with his backups. 

"There's a team in our state in another conference with a schedule that I would argue, if I played with our twos and threes, we could go undefeated," Sarkisian said. "And they'll probably make the CFP this year."

It seems a little weird that the head coach of a soon-to-be preseason top-five SEC team is worried about a former rival in another conference that isn’t even on his schedule this year. Especially when Sark’s real beef with the committee should be about them taking Miami as the final at-large team in the field.

And speaking of the committee, did you see what Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde reported about the SEC’s closed-door meeting with the CFP selection committee at SEC spring meetings last week?

Guess who the SEC was complaining about?

Texas Tech and BYU. Yes, the same BYU Cougars who didn’t even make the playoff. 

Forde reports:

At particular issue for some in the room was the explanations for the rankings of Big 12 teams Texas Tech and BYU in relation to several SEC squads. Penalties for losses were a particular frustration.

Per sources in the room, one league coach whose team was in the playoff mix but did not make the field said he felt worse after hearing the presentation than he did when his team was excluded on Selection Sunday.

BYU (12–2), which was the second team out of the 12-team bracket after Notre Dame, was penalized less for two blowout losses to Texas Tech than some SEC teams were for closer losses—both within the league, and in nonconference play. SEC coaches pushed back against that.

Let me remind you that the SEC had more playoff teams in the field than any other conference, with five. Those five teams combined for exactly one playoff win over a non-SEC opponent. The league also failed to advance beyond the semifinals for a second straight season and didn’t win the national title for a third straight year.

Yet here they are spending another offseason whining and complaining…this time about the Big 12? And BYU??

Not only did BYU miss the field, but the Cougars didn’t even make ESPN’s playoff contenders graphic heading into the selection show.

BYU was also punished by the committee for getting blown out in its conference championship game. You know who wasn’t punished for the exact same thing? You guessed it: SEC runner-up Alabama.

The Cougars finished the regular season as the only 11-1 Power Four team in the playoff era to be ranked outside the top ten of the playoff rankings. They were quite literally historically disrespected by the CFP committee.

Yet the SEC thinks the Big 12 got too much love. Did they want CFP Executive Director Rich Clark to retroactively strip BYU’s Pop-Tarts Bowl championship trophy away?

It makes absolutely no sense. It’s the tantrum of a child that clearly goes deeper than the incident that sparked it.

So, why is this actually happening? Why is the SEC acting like it’s a felony to take away its binky?

Because it’s been a generation since the SEC was this down on its luck, and nobody involved knows how to handle it. 

The SEC was the rightful ruler of college football for two decades. Even the biggest SEC haters couldn’t deny the superiority of a conference that won four times as many national championships as any other league from 2007 to 2023. 

There are Alabama and Georgia graduates who don’t consciously remember the last time the SEC didn’t rule the college football world. 

But in the NIL and transfer portal era, the SEC has clearly lost its grip on the top spot to the Big Ten. Everybody can see it. Despite SEC commissioner Greg Sankey’s dismissively vague platitudes about the league still being number one, nobody in SEC country can legitimately make a case against the Big Ten anymore. 

The bully has been shoved into a corner on the playground, so naturally, he starts punching down.

All that’s left to do is find a kid a grade or two lower to beat up on. The SEC already stole the Big 12’s lunch money (Texas and Oklahoma) and has every possible financial and power advantage over the league, but it’s going to take shots anyway.

It’s all SEC country has anymore. 

The SEC’s problems have exactly nothing to do with Texas Tech getting a first-round bye or BYU finishing 12th instead of 14th. But that sure seems to be where the league is focused these days.

You know what? Maybe I’m being too harsh on the Big 12 here. The SEC’s title game drought is the same length as the Big 12’s. It’s been three long seasons since TCU and Georgia met for the championship.

Could that be the real root cause here? The SEC is so threatened by BYU and Texas Tech that it felt the need to fire a warning shot to the Big 12 that the mighty Southeastern Conference will make it back to the national championship game first. 

I guess the race is on. 

What You Need to Know

• Utah’s private equity partnership is already causing layoffs in the Utes’ athletic department. USA Today’s Matt Hayes had some harsh words about this development. 

• A Big 12 football player will be a part of the Protect College Sports Act congressional hearing on Wednesday. 

• Texas Tech QB Brendan Sorsby’s hearing in front of a judge came and went on Monday without a ruling, but Yahoo reports a ruling is expected this week. Sorsby is requesting an injunction that would allow him to play in 2026.

• New Oklahoma AD Roger Denny says he’s open to bringing back the Sooners’ Bedlam rivalry game with Oklahoma State in football. 

• West Virginia pulled off one of the absolute best moments of the Big 12 sports season on Sunday night. You have to check out this video. 

• Kansas baseball advanced to a Super Regional after sweeping through the Lawrence regional.

• Want your Big 12 news and analysis in podcast form? Listen to Open For Business at the gym, in your car, or first thing in the morning on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube.

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