January 1, SEC Sends STUNNING Message After Perfect Week — Big Ten on Notice

Wyatt’s Take

• The SEC went 16-0 in Week 1, reminding everyone that southern football still means business while Big Ten darlings stumbled out of the gate
• LSU’s absolute demolition of Clemson sent shockwaves through college football — the Tigers made it look like a varsity team beating up on JV
• While the Big Ten won three straight titles, Week 1 showed cracks everywhere from Rutgers getting embarrassed by UMass to Oregon struggling with Boise State

After three straight national championship wins, the Big Ten has been riding high as college football’s top conference. 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 of the so-called experts 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.

The SEC through week one went 16-0, an impressive feat for any conference, and a powerful indication that their 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 really learn about where the SEC sits? Or at least, where these individual teams sit in the season-long picture?

Missouri kicked off the weekend with a 56-14 drubbing of Arkansas Pine-Bluff. Oklahoma shut out UTEP 51-0.

The Miners were 127th out of 138 FBS teams 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.

All better than Rutgers’ embarrassing 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 considerably 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. 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 was No. 54 in preseason rankings, 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, 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? LSU set the Clemson program back years.

There’s no question going 16-0 is 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.

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. What is clear, though, is that the SEC came out swinging while the Big Ten stumbled.

And in college football, momentum matters.

Wyatt Matters

For too long, the coastal elites and Big Ten blowhards have acted like southern football was yesterday’s news. Week 1 was a reminder that the heartland of college football — where football is religion and Saturday is sacred — isn’t going anywhere. The SEC showed up ready to work while the supposed “best conference” looked soft. That’s what happens when you stop respecting tradition and toughness. Football belongs to the people who never forgot what made it great in the first place.