SerpApi.Org
TAMPA, Florida – Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz said one reason the Big Ten has won the last three national titles is because it’s the only Power 4 conference not required to play a non-conference Power 4 opponent.
“There’s been a couple of reasons (for the Big Ten’s success),” Drinkwitz said Monday at SEC Football Kickoff Media Days. “I think there was some great decisions by their leadership. There’s some things we look back on in the SEC and maybe we shouldn’t have done it that way.
“There’s also cycles to college football. And once you get into expanded playoffs, it’s all about matchups and draws and our matchups and draws haven’t been as good as we obviously wanted them to be in order to be successful.
“Obviously, when you don’t play an A4 (Power 4) game as one of your non-conference games and that was the quote you were looking for. It’s pretty obvious.”
The Big Ten is the only Power 4 league that doesn’t require its members to play a non-conference Power 4 opponent. Last year, national champion Indiana’s non-conference schedule consisted of Old Dominion, Kennesaw State and Indiana State.
This year’s Indiana non-conference schedule: North Texas, Howard and Western Kentucky.
While Indiana has benefitted from one of the nation’s weakest non-conference schedules, the SEC has had minimal success in the playoffs since the Big Ten’s three-year championship run began in 2023.
In the past three seasons the SEC, excluding two SEC vs. SEC matchups, is only 3-8 in playoff games, including 2-8 vs. Power 4 opponents.
And it could get tougher this season as the SEC moves to a nine-game league schedule.
Drinkwitz and several SEC coaches have said they were led to believe the playoff would expand beyond 12 if the SEC added a ninth conference game. The playoff remains at 12 teams.
“I distinctly remember last year being in SEC meetings when we were discussing the 8 to 9 game scenario and we were being told that if we didn’t vote to go to a nine-game then the playoffs wouldn’t expand,” Drinkwitz said. “And so we made that decision (to play a ninth league game). But in hindsight, we did not recognize that (the Big Ten) didn’t play a (Power 4 non-conference) game.”
Drinkwitz said league coaches, specifically LSU’s Lane Kiffin, had cautioned the other coaches about moving to a nine-game league schedule.
“We’re all saying it (we regret it) when we look at our schedules,” Drinkwitz said. “Coach Kiffin has been somebody who’s been, whether publicly or privately, been able to kind of, he’s been the one on the forefront, even last year in these meetings saying, ‘Guys, I don’t think that this is the right play for us.’ ”
Drinkwitz said another factor that makes playing in the SEC tougher is the road environments the schools face. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said the league averaged more than 80,000 fans per game last season.
“That was the stat of my summer,” Sankey said. “That is the highest average attendance for any sports league in the world.”
Drinkwitz said the SEC stadiums are better environments than the recent World Cup.
“I think the one thing that we don’t get enough credit for in the SEC is the challenge of the stadiums that we play in,” Drinkwitz said. “Obviously FIFA World Cup has done a tremendous job of putting our stadiums (in the United States) on display and the stadiums they’re playing in, they’re great stadiums, but they’re not comparable to the SEC stadiums that you’re talking about.”
The World Cup final between Spain and Argentina drew 80,663 fans at MetLife Stadium.
“That’s 25,000 short of some of these other stadiums that we play in (LSU’s) Death Valley and Athens (Georgia),” Drinkwitz said. “And (Florida’s) Ben Hill Griffin (capacity) is 88,000 and Knoxville, that’s a whole different deal. That’s a tremendous challenge for anybody to walk into.”
