It's Only SEC (but I like it....)
GEORGE SOMERVILLE – THE TOUCHDOWN SEC CORRESPONDENT
week 10
While I say this every week, I find it incredible that we have arrived at Week 10 of SEC football already. As much as there has been some awesome SEC football so far, please slow down a bit! PLEASE!
But the SEC slows for no one, and again, we have some of the biggest matchups in College Football this weekend. Week 10 brings us the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party, which is one of the highlights of the SEC football schedule.
Outside of eyes on Jacksonville, everyone is watching how those Aggies cope with the woefully underestimated South Carolina. The hottest ticket in town isn’t this week but in a few weeks, when Texas travels into Kyle Field to face an A&M team on fire in the last game of the regular season. But more on all this later!
So, welcome y’all to our weekly round-up of life in the Southeastern Conference.
Here are this week’s headlines….let’s get started!
this weeks sec headlines
New venue for the Cocktail party
Jacksonville, FL
We have known for some time that the Jacksonville Jaguars will renovate EverBank stadium during the 2026 and 2027 seasons. As the Jags continue to explore options as to where they will play their games (including London), we, in the college football fraternity, are much more focused on where the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party will be played during those years.
Played on a neutral site in Jacksonville since 1933, Florida’s matchup against Georgia (or Georgia v Florida depending on your persuasion) is one of the highlights of the college football calendar.
It is also one of very few neutral-site games played in college football, which means there have been calls for the game to flip back to a typical home and road fixture. Georgia’s head coach, Kirby Smart, has been vocal for some time now about getting the game back to Athens, especially from a recruiting perspective.
However, this week’s news confirming the venues for the game was not to Kirby’s wishes. The game will move to the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta in 2026 and Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium in 2027.
Speaking on this week’s SEC head coaches teleconference, Smart said.
“I think the parties involved did a great job stepping up and making it worthwhile for both universities,” Smart said on Wednesday.
“Excited about the opportunity to play it, you know, two different locations, so that’ll be unique and maybe we learn from those experiences.”
Financially, it is well worth both teams playing offsite, with an estimated $3.5m payable to each team to play the game in Jacksonville annually.
Kiffin is still unhappy
Oxford, MS
Speaking of big games. Ole Miss is a hot ticket now. The school wasn’t always, and Lane Kiffin and his staff have worked hard to get the program to a point where anything short of an SEC title or National Championship is a failed season.
Over the last few weeks, Kiffin has understood why Ole Miss fans are unhappy. In fact, he is glad they are unhappy at being beaten. He says it shows that expectations and standards are rising in Oxford.
But this week, head coach Kiffin isn’t happy, which goes to show that you can’t have it all, Lane.
This week, Kiffin criticised the allocation of night games in the SEC. In next week’s slate of games, the later kickoff has gone to Alabama travelling to LSU rather than Ole Miss matching up against Georgia in Oxford.
At his Monday press conference, Kiffin talked about the advantage of playing at home at night.
“Playing at night in electric atmospheres is a home field advantage,” Kiffin said. “It’s tough when you’ve got to do that as an opposing team. That’s been proven over time.”
Kiffin then made the point about other teams getting an unfair share of the late kickoff time.
He asked, “So who went at night?” before answering his own question.
“LSU gets to play at night again, I guess?,” he said. “Shocker. So that’s 2-for-2 for them. It is an advantage. I feel bad for our fans, to not have at least one game at night for a conference game. It’s really unfortunate for them”.
Of course, the phrase “It’s Saturday night in Death Valley” appears on T-shirts and the like, emphasising the magical atmosphere in Baton Rouge at night, which proves Kiffin’s point. And with a higher share of early kicks – Ole Miss faces Arkansas at 11am CT, Kiffin has a point.
“… So, whatever. It’s just really disappointing. It is what it is.” ended Kiffin somewhat resigned to the situation.
Everything bigger & more expensive in Texas
College Station, Tx
Few outside of Mike Elko’s office in Kyle Field thought that the Aggies would sit atop the SEC after week 9. If you did, I don’t believe you but perhaps you need to go buy a lottery ticket.
Most, if not all, thought this would ultimately be a rebuilding project for Elko after Jimbo Fisher’s time in College Station came to an end.
But Elko’s first season with the Aggies has been nothing short of transformational for A&M. Aside from an opening-day defeat to Notre Dame, the Aggies remain undefeated this season and sit above neighbours Texas and assumed SEC finalists Georgia and Alabama in the SEC title race.
Depending on how results play out over the next three weeks, this sets up a mouthwatering end-of-season “winner takes all” clash against those pesky Longhorns.
This is reflected in the secondary sales price of a ticket for this clash—a game which has resumed following the Longhorns’ entry into the SEC.
This would always be an eagerly anticipated clash, given that the two teams have not met since 2011. The added spice to this game could be that the winner goes to the SEC Championship game.
So, how much will a ticket cost to get into this game? Well, assuming both teams win out, the ticket price is only going to get more expensive. So today, the minimum you pay to grab a ticket is an eyewatering $932 (on Ticketmaster resale).
Time to raid the piggy bank (or an actual bank….! Kidding!).
Tough times for Sooners
Norman, OK
I wrote last week about the Oklahoma Sooners’ rough start to the season—so rough that offensive coordinator Seth Littrell was relieved of his duties before October ended.
In last weekend’s game against Ole Miss, the Sooners lost 26-14. According to ESPN College Football, the Sooners haven’t lost three straight games by double digits since 1998. For a storied program like Oklahoma, it is not a good place to be.
In the last three games (Texas, South Carolina, and Ole Miss), the Sooners have conceded 95 points and scored only 26, which is frankly lamentable.
With his offensive co-ordinator gone, there is no hiding place for Brent Venables, who is now feeling the heat.
The last four games of the season are against Maine (home), Missouri (road), Alabama (home), and LSU (road). I fear that a 3-6 conference record (assuming they win 2 and lose 2 of the last four games) is not enough to keep Venables employed by Oklahoma. This would be quite the fall from grace for a team that came into the SEC with fanfare and a Heisman-favorite quarterback.
However, it’s not all cut and dried yet. Per the USA Today Sports database, which records college football coaches’ salaries, Venables’s contract has a buyout clause of ¢44.8m. This is the 10th largest buyout amongst FBS coaches. It’s by no means certain that the Sooners would want to pay this inordinate amount of money to get rid of a head coach and to pay an even larger amount (probably) for a new one.
Ouch.
Footnote: This weekend, the Sooners face off against Maine in Norman. It’s a cupcake game—or is it? This game has been moved forward to 11 a.m. CT to avoid severe weather forecasted in the Norman area. Normally, a matchup against the likes of Maine should not present an issue for the Sooners. And I don’t think it will. However, an early kick with the potential for weather disruption is the last thing Venables and his team need.
Commish says STOP this nonsense
Birmingham, AL
Hot off the press is news broken by Yahoo Sports Ross Dellenger that SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey has moved to end the instances of players feigning injuries to artificially stop the clock during games.
This situation has been prevalent already this season, but certainly in recent weeks, as highlighted by TV coverage.
Specifically, Ole Miss has been accused of numerous examples; however, the accusations have been spreading, with Alabama also guilty during recent games.
Today, all SEC athletic Directors and Head Coaches received a memo from Sankey that clearly stated, “Enough is enough.”
“As plainly as it can be stated : Stop any and all activity related to faking injuries to create timeouts” was the headline of the memo in circulation.
The memo details how the rules are being bent to suit teams’ needs to stop the game.
The memo continues to reiterate the rules allowing for the stoppage: “When a game stoppage is needed, use a time out in accordance with NCAA football rule 3-3-4. This is not a complicated or confusing principle” in bold.
The memo is sternly worded, and the Commissioner ends it with the words, “Play football & stop the feigned injury nonsense.”
I think it’s fair to say that they have been warned.
Making history
Irving, TX
History will be made on Tuesday, November 5th. And yes, for those living in the UK, I know this is Guy Fawkes, so expect some fireworks!
Why, I hear you ask?
Well, this is the first College Football Playoff Selection Committee rankings of the 2024 season.
Now, the announcement of the rankings during the first week of November is not unusual. No. But what is new and historical is that this is the first year of the 12-team playoff. So, typically, for those with playoff ambitions, the focus would normally be on, say, the top 6 rankings. But this year, the top 20, maybe even the top 25, will come into sharp focus. Especially with so few unbeaten teams remaining. This will also be the first time we can understand what the Playoff Committee thinks is important – strength of schedule, unbeaten status, good loss over bad loss….. it’s going to be fascinating. Who will make it into the Top 12?
The rankings will be announced live on ESPN on Tuesday, November 5 at 7 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. CT.
Week 10 SEC Football Schedule
GEORGE SOMERVILLE
COLLEGE FOOTBALL WRITER
GEORGE IS A LONG STANDING FANATIC OF LIFE AND FOOTBALL IN THE DEEP SOUTH AND WRITES HIS WEEKLY COLUMN CALLED “IT’S ONLY SEC” FOR THE TOUCHDOWN. HE IS ALSO CO-HOST AND ONE THIRD OF THE COLLEGE CHAPS PODCAST, THE UK’S FIRST PODCAST DEDICATED TO THE COLLEGE GAME.