{"id":679479,"date":"2026-06-02T08:33:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T08:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/679479\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T08:33:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T08:33:08","slug":"matt-barrie-supports-secs-ability-to-break-away-from-college-football-takes-shot-at-big-ten-depth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/679479\/","title":{"rendered":"Matt Barrie supports SEC’s ability to break away from college football, takes shot at Big Ten depth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Georgia<\/a> president Jere Morehead and head football coach Kirby Smart<\/a> drove headlines last week in Destin at the SEC spring meetings when they suggested the conference could potentially pull away from the rest of college football and form its own postseason playoff. It was a controversial suggestion, to be sure.<\/p>\n

ESPN analyst Greg McElroy<\/a>, a former Alabama<\/a> quarterback with some national championship experience, wondered whether the proposal might grow legs over time. He posited a question to SEC Nation\u2019s Matt Barrie on the Always College Football<\/a> podcast.<\/p>\n

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\u201cNow there\u2019s the coach, Kirby Smart, saying, \u2018Well we\u2019ll just go do our own thing,’\u201d McElroy explained. \u201cWhat\u2019s your response to the SEC\u2019s threat, or are they posturing, where are they at right now if the SEC were to pull away and do their own thing?\u201d<\/p>\n

Barrie didn\u2019t hesitate. He thinks the SEC is in a unique position to do it if it so chooses.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere\u2019s the difference between the Big Ten and the SEC,\u201d Barrie said. \u201cThe SEC\u2019s automatic wins used to be Vanderbilt<\/a> and, when Dan Mullen<\/a> was there it wasn\u2019t Mississippi State<\/a>, but Mississippi State. Those used to be the two games where you\u2019d go in and feel like, \u2018I feel pretty good about our chances to get a win.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cWell now Jeff Lebby<\/a>\u2018s got Mississippi State as a thorn in everybody\u2019s side. And now you\u2019ve got Vanderbilt coming off a playoff (push), they just flipped a five-star quarterback from Georgia to come play at Vanderbilt. Those are your two outs? Those are your two easy teams? South Carolina<\/a>, what were they, 4-8 a year ago? They\u2019ve got as much talent as anyone on their roster.\u201d<\/p>\n

That some of the teams that can often appear at the bottom of the SEC standings still give you pause as a coach when they appear on your schedule is sort of the thing Barrie was getting at. He drove home the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo the point being you don\u2019t really get an off week,\u201d he said. \u201cYou just don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

How is that different from other leagues? Well, Barrie just doesn\u2019t see as much competitive depth anywhere else in the country.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s unique to the SEC, he claims. He offered up the next best contender as a conference, then took a bit of a shot.<\/p>\n

\u201cBig Ten, I don\u2019t know,\u201d Barrie said. \u201cBut I know Oregon<\/a>\u2018s a mainstay and I know Ohio State<\/a> is a mainstay and I know Penn State<\/a> and Michigan<\/a> every other year, and USC<\/a> with Lincoln Riley<\/a>. That\u2019s all I know about that league, right?<\/p>\n

\u201cSo for the SEC to say they can break off and do their own thing, well that would be pretty entertaining, because every team is pretty damn good. Whereas the Big Ten, you\u2019re kind of a top-heavy league with nothing in the middle or the bottom.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Georgia president Jere Morehead and head football coach Kirby Smart drove headlines last week in Destin at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":679480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,398,396,397,99],"class_list":["post-679479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-football","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=679479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/679480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}