I got an email a few days ago with an idea for a post. Because coming up with one entire idea every day can get to be a grind after awhile, sending me such an email is Step Two to getting on my good side (Step One, of course, is submitting a guest post). I can use all the help I can get. Here was the email in full.

Vanderbilt lost to freakin’ Temple this year. While it would be great if Vanderbilt went undefeated in SEC play, that’s not going to happen. So what else can an SEC-hater root for this year that would make the SEC look bad?

If you’re rooting against the SEC as a whole — and getting involved in conference wars is a surefire way to get lost down the rabbit hole — what teams do you want to keep an eye on this year?

• As our emailer suggested, having Vanderbilt fare well in SEC play would be one way the conference as a whole would look worse. As it stands, that’s exceedingly unlikely to happen. Vanderbilt’s best game of the year was a 10-point loss to Kentucky; the Commodores look to be the worst team in the conference, which will minimize the impact of the Temple loss.

• SEC teams have not lost any other games against non-Power 5 conferences. So what’s next? In fact, the conference has lost just two other out-of-conference games.

• Tennessee lost to Oklahoma 34-10, but the Sooners are the top team in the early edition of the SRS rankings. The Vols may be pretty good this year — they nearly beat Georgia last weekend — but it’s going to be hard for this loss to wind up reflecting badly on the SEC as a whole. Absent an unexpected SEC East division title, the biggest hope here would be for the Vols to be competitive with Alabama. In that case, if the Sooners and Crimson Tide are both battling for one playoff spot, that data point could be used against ‘Bama.

• But by far the biggest blemish came when Indiana — Indiana(!) — won in Missouri, 31-27. The Hoosiers are one of the worst teams in a not very good Big Ten. In the team’s other three games, Indiana beat an FCS school, lost badly at home to Maryland, and lost to a MAC school (Bowling Green). Every game Mizzou wins could theoretically devalue the conference (or at least the SEC East) as a whole. After the Tigers beat South Carolina last weekend, Missouri is off to a good start in the team’s bid to repeat as SEC East champs. Assuming Indiana tanks, this is the one data point SEC haters can cling to so far.

Given the unbalanced nature of college football schedules, there are not too many relevant nonconference games. So while the SEC has suffered just three losses, the conference has only 5 wins against teams from Power 5 conferences. While I suspect our reader will find this less relevant, an SEC hater would still want to see the teams that lost to SEC schools wind up having down years. ^[1]You might think that an SEC hater would also root for the SEC teams that won nonconference games against Power 5 schools to be the top teams in the SEC; after all, that would make for … Continue reading

• Arkansas beat Texas Tech; as it turns out, the Red Raiders are terrible, although SEC haters would hope for a winless record in conference play this year for Texas Tech. Of note: Arkansas beat the Red Raiders by 21 points, while Oklahoma State defeated Tech by just 10 points. So if Oklahoma State turns out to be the eventual Big 12 champions, that would not be in the best interest of the SEC hater.

• Georgia blew out Clemson, 45-21. Had the Tigers actually upset Florida State instead of blowing that game in overtime, this would look even better for UGA, particularly in computer ratings systems that wouldn’t know that Jameis Winston didn’t play in that game. Still, SEC haters should continue to root against Clemson this year, to minimize the importance of this “head” on the wall.

• LSU beat Wisconsin 28-24 in Houston. This may be the game SEC haters look back on with the most regret. The Tigers nearly lost this game — Wisconsin led 24-7 before inexplicably going away from Melvin Gordon — but managed to escape Texas with a victory. As a result, every Wisconsin win will make the Tigers look better. And given the nature of the SEC West, LSU could finish with four or five losses in conference; that would make the Tigers look like a middling SEC team, which would look really bad for SEC haters, particularly if Wisconsin winds up beating Nebraska and/or making it to the Big 10 title game.

• Alabama defeated West Virginia in Georgia, 33-23, the same night that Georgia and LSU were earning their nonconference wins. Oklahoma already beat the Mountaineers by 12 points on the road, but SEC haters are going to want to root for West Virginia to have a bad year in Big 12 play.

• The only other Big 12-SEC matchup was Auburn against Kansas State. The Tigers may wind up being the SEC champ, of course, so a 6-point loss to Auburn is hardly a bad look for the Big 12. The key here is hoping that KSU does not fare well in Big 12 play. To recap, SEC haters need to root against Kansas State, West Virginia, and Oklahoma State in the Big 12. In other words, if you hate the SEC, hope for Oklahoma and Baylor and TCU to run away with the conference. So far, those three schools are 11-0 with 10 wins of 21+ points. ^[2]The OU victory over West Virginia being the one outlier.

Still to come:

Florida @ Florida State
Georgia vs. Georgia Tech
Kentucky @ Louisville
South Carolina @ Clemson

The only question for the Florida/FSU game is whether Will Muschamp will still be coaching then. Kentucky/Louisville is a no-win proposition for SEC haters, as the Wildcats are not a top SEC school while Louisville could wind up being a top-three ACC school this year. The in-state battles in Athens and Clemson do provide some opportunities for SEC haters, but those games are still two months away. In other words, until then, keep rooting for Missouri and everyone playing Indiana.

As for the SEC West, that division does not have a single loss to a non-SEC West team this year. All seven teams look to be pretty good, but hoping that no school escapes without two losses would be the other rooting interest for our emailer. In other words, he should watch the SEC West they way folks used to watch all of college football under the BCS. Rooting interest: Chaos. Always chaos.