Nick Saban has heard the complaints about SEC favoritism for years. He won six national championships at Alabama, spent nearly two decades coaching in the conference, and now analyzes the sport for ESPN.
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But when Steve Sarkisian raised concerns about the SEC hurting its own playoff chances, Saban wasn’t interested in pretending the problem didn’t exist. Speaking on The Pat McAfee Show, he showed a tough reality to the SEC teams.
“I know everybody thinks I’m an SEC homer, but the 1- and 2-loss teams — they have 10 more losses coming up between them because they’re all gonna play each other,” Nick Saban said on October 30.
“You talk about cannibalizing some teams — that’s gonna happen in the SEC, for sure.”
SEC teams are playing nine conference games in 2026, one more than in previous seasons. Speaking to reporters on October 29, Sarkisian echoed concerns raised by other coaches across the conference about the change.
His first objection involved the physical demands. Playing another SEC opponent means another week of injuries, recovery, and preparation against a team with comparable talent.
Texas has already dealt with injuries, and Sarkisian knows those problems can become more expensive as November approaches. But the playoff implications bothered him just as much.
“I think the other reservation about the ninth game was that’s eight more losses for our conference,” Sarkisian said. “How much is the committee going to value one more conference game in the SEC, right? And what does that look like?”
Sarkisian also suggested the conference should have waited until playoff expansion to 24 teams before adding the ninth game. The 2026 postseason still features a 12-team field, leaving limited room for contenders with multiple losses.
For Texas, this is more than a debate about playoff rules. The Longhorns improved to 5-2 overall and 2-2 in the SEC with last weekend’s win over Ole Miss, but their 27-24 losses to Oklahoma and Florida have already left them with little room for another slip.
Even if Texas finishes November playing its best football, a third conference defeat could put its playoff hopes in the hands of results elsewhere. Sarkisian isn’t asking the committee to put the Longhorns in the field right now.
His concern is how voters will judge teams that have to face ranked SEC opponents week after week, especially when those games inevitably produce more losses. So, Nick Saban’s warning becomes easier to understand when looking at the next two Saturdays.
Florida has a chance to shake up the SEC race when it meets Georgia on October 31. The Bulldogs enter the matchup ranked third in the AP poll with a 4-1 conference record, while the No. 17 Gators sit at 3-2.
A victory would give Florida a way back into the conference title race. A loss, however, would put the Gators at three SEC defeats and make their path to the championship game much tougher.
The SEC schedule gets no easier on November 7. No. 10 Alabama heads to No. 15 LSU with both teams at 6-2 overall. The Crimson Tide are 4-2 against SEC opponents, while the Tigers have gone 3-2 in conference games.
No. 9 Kentucky also faces a difficult road trip to No. 16 Tennessee that day. The Wildcats have been one of the biggest surprises in the SEC, leading the standings at 5-1 with a 7-1 overall record.
Tennessee, meanwhile, enters at 6-2 overall and 3-2 in league play. Between those two matchups and Georgia’s meeting with Florida, three ranked SEC teams are guaranteed to lose.
In total, there are still 10 more guaranteed losses to be distributed amongst 9 SEC teams with one or two losses so far. Each defeat will also count against a team’s conference record, making an already crowded race even tighter.
Sarkisian is not alone in pushing back against the SEC’s nine-game schedule. LSU head coach Lane Kiffin has also questioned the change, arguing that the new rotation has created some awkward scheduling decisions for his team.
LSU traveled to Oxford to face Ole Miss in 2025 and again in 2026. The Tigers also hosted Texas A&M in back-to-back seasons. Kiffin brought up those arrangements when talking about the challenges of preparing for consecutive opponents who use mobile quarterbacks.
He has also raised concerns about the physical toll of adding another conference game, with more demanding matchups forcing teams to manage injuries across already stretched rosters.
“Be careful what you wish for, SEC,” Kiffin warned earlier this season.
Ultimately, though, within the SEC, the playoff committee will have to make the difficult call. So, it won’t be far-fetched to hear arguments about some 9-3 SEC teams better than, say, a 10-2 Notre Dame, if they lose to Miami.
Or maybe Big 12’s BYU might enter the same conversations like last year if it loses the Big 12 title game. Or even if it finishes with an 11-1 regular-season record, the comparisons with a 10-win SEC team won’t cease. We are surely in for a controversial December ahead.